by Lisa Kumar
Fey Marked
By Lisa Kumar
Copyright 2011 Lisa Kumar
This is a work of fiction, so any resemblance to persons, locales, or events is purely coincidental. The characters, locales, and events are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.
Dedication
My thanks to Kary, a great critique partner, for her invaluable advice; and to my mom for rereading the story many times over to help catch errors.
Fey Marking
Nora Barron shivered in the crisp fall Michigan air, the flashlight wavering in her hand. She halted as the crunch of fallen leaves surrounded her from all directions. Animals in the nearby forest or something else? “Gu…guys?” Her cracking voice was carried off by a gust of howling wind.
Peering through the darkness that existed beyond the scope of the flashlight, she saw nothing in the grassy field. Only velvet blackness. Clouds hid much of the moon, concealing whatever could await her. Stirrings of panic swept a cold chill down her spine.
She wrapped her arms around her middle. Where were Amanda and Jenny? A few minutes into the trek through field and wood, they’d disappeared. If her friends had left her here, she would kill them at school tomorrow. A humorless smile played over her lips. They all had a chemistry lab tomorrow, so that would be a good time to do it and make it look like an accident. Hopefully, she didn’t blow herself up in the process.
She shoved away her fanciful thoughts. Should she continue to look for her friends or leave? But that would mean a long walk home. Jenny had driven, and even if she did find the car by the road, she didn’t have the keys. Horror threatened to overwhelm her mind. If the car was there but her friends weren’t, she didn’t know what she would do.
“Take a deep breath,” she mumbled to herself. “Just think.” She closed her eyes but quickly flicked them back open. The flashlight didn’t provide much light, but what little it did, illuminated the ground immediately ahead of her. Some part of her, though, wanted to act like a scared child hiding under the blankets and keep her eyes firmly shut to ward away the bogeyman.
But she wouldn’t find Amanda and Jenny that way--or be able to come to the decision to kill them if they’d pranked her. And she was almost there. She just knew it, never mind she’d only been there once and in the daytime at that.
She shook her head and started to walk again. Why had she let herself be talked into going near the Hollow Hills? Being out this late at night so close to Halloween was giving her the creeps. Nora had never considered herself a superstitious person, but something was off. The promise of it lay thick in her gut.
The Hollow Hills. She trembled, but this time it had nothing to do with the wind. So many people in town whispered of this strange place. During the day, it was easy to pretend nothing mysterious lay under those hills. Now, though….
Even though she attempted to slow her breathing by inhaling deeply, the sting of cold air burned a trail down to her lungs and made her eyes water. The acrid taste in her mouth caused her to gag before she swallowed past the lump in her throat. Blinking rapidly to clear away the tears, she swung her light toward the three hills she and her friends had come to explore.
Before her, the outline of ghostly figures shimmered in the darkness, seeming to rise from the hills. Her blood turned to ice in her veins. For a while, the shock that flooded her body held her immobile. Finally, a coherent thought settled into her mind. The flashlight. It shone like beacon. But even as she fumbled for the off switch, it was too late.
Nora stumbled back. But with each step they took toward her, those whispy figures grew more solid. No longer floating above the ground, they walked through the leaves, and the same rustling sound she’d heard before drifted over the suddenly still air. Their faces and clothes all took on the hue of the living. It was an otherworldly vitality, though, one that shouldn’t exist on this plane.
She spun around, but out of the forest, out of the very air, seeped more shimmering figures. All unearthly with their beauty and clad in flowing robes and cloaks. Their mouths did not move, but a chanting song filled the air, cresting as they neared.
The flashlight fell from her fingers, and her hands fisted in her hair. Oh, God. Trapped. Nowhere to turn. Nowhere to go. A chill thrummed up and down her spine. Just when a feeling of light-headedness threatened to overtake her, two of the tall beings--a man and a woman--stopped before her. Even though their figures continued to solidify, their skin, hair, and eyes gleamed as if lit from within. In fact, they seemed to light the area around them.
The woman’s blue gown floated around her ethereal form as she stepped nearer and spoke in a gentle, lilting voice. “Do not be afraid, child. We mean you no harm.”
Nora could barely talk over the wild thud of her heart. “Ar…are you ghosts?”
Soft laughter rose up from the circle around her. The lady smiled, revealing somewhat pointed teeth. Her dark hair lay in a silken fall down to her waist. “No, child, we are not dead. Your Christian heaven and hell holds no sway over us.”
The man lifted silver brows and crossed his arms over his chest. “Indeed, I believe we are considered too wicked for heaven but too pure for hell.”
Those answers didn’t exactly comfort Nora, because they seemed at different ends of the spectrum. So what were these…beings, and what did they want with her? “Why are you here?” The question slipped out before she could corral it. She held her breath. Would her question upset them?
The female gazed down at Nora with an inscrutable expression. “You are too old to steal away as a changeling and too young for one of our warriors.” She reached out a pale hand and laid it over Nora’s head.
A tidal wave of peace and benediction swept through Nora, almost bringing her to tears. She didn’t want this moment to end, even though an alarm sounded in the back of her mind. Nora ignored it. This feeling was too amazing to lose.
The lady trailed a finger down her cheek. “You are fey marked, and none shall claim you except for one.”
As the woman moved away, some of the sensation that had flooded Nora remained, but now it was muted. Her mind slammed back to reality with full force. She clasped her shaking hands together. What the heck had the lady done to her? She forced herself not to flinch when the regal-looking male clothed in ivory and gold moved to stand directly in front of her.
He lifted a hand and touched her hair. “Come back when you are older, young one. To go with us is to forever turn your back on your own kind. You will know when it is time.”
As he repeated the woman’s blessing, a tingling sensation once again played over her skin. Then he stepped back to his wife’s side. Somehow her assumption of their relationship made sense, the certainty kindling in her chest.
Out from behind the man and woman stepped a younger male. Nora started. Though a hood covered his head, it did nothing to conceal the glowing features that looked like a perfect mixture of the couples’. He had the glowing gray eyes of the father. Her gaze riveted to him as he swept back the cowl in a graceful movement and revealed the same flowing black hair as the mother. The silver and gray cloth of his robe flowed over a lean body that seemed to be muscled in all the right places.
Her breath caught in the stranglehold of her throat. She’d never wanted to run so badly in her sixteen years of life. Nora couldn’t explain it, but he terrified her. The renewed pounding of her heart proved that. But he also drew her. Every muscle in her body revved up to flee, but her feet remained rooted to the ground.
Just like his parents had, he stood before her. But he was much closer than they had been. As if pulled by a string, her head craned back so she could gaze into his face. Nora gulped. He towered above her, his six-foot plus height looming over her scant five-foot-four frame. She pled fo
r her feet to move. The stupid things stayed planted to the spot. The son slowly lifted his hands toward her.
Oh God, he was going to touch her. He slid them over her arms, sending shivers all the way from her chattering teeth to the tips of her toes. Every hair on her skin stood at attention, and the thick barn jacket did nothing to impede the burn of his touch along her arms. Fire and ice fought for dominance in every cell, so that she feared being ripped apart.
Leaning down, he placed his lips near her ear, and his long hair brushed against her cheek. “We will see each other again. And when we do, you will be ready.”
Nora shuddered, stuck somewhere in between horror and pleasure. His accented words were a foreshadowing of the future, the vow and anger in them clear. She wanted to deny this possibility that seemed set in stone, but no words formed upon her lips.
He looked up at the sky, his presence withdrawing from her slightly. “Now we must leave you.” When he glanced back down, his eyes flashed with fury and some other emotion. Desire? But how would she know that? Other than being on the receiving end of a few fumbling make-out sessions with boyfriends, she’d only seen want and need on the screen.
The mysterious people turned as one toward the hill. Her feet finally released her, and she took an involuntary step forward. “Who are you?” Though she hadn’t addressed this question to anyone in particular, she meant it for the young male. The falter in his step showed he realized this, too.
The rising sun spilled over the landscape, and his answer floated back to her as their fading forms melted back into the hills. “My name will have to wait, but we are the Tuatha de Danann, the People of the Hollow Hills.”
Nora placed a trembling hand over her mouth. “The Sidhe.” Her whisper received no response.
She was alone now. The feeling nothing would ever be the same swam in her head. With trembling arms, she pulled her coat around her more securely and began the long trek to where the car had last been.
The Claiming
Seven Years Later
In that twilight between waking and dreaming, Nora felt sensuous lips trail over her neck. She moaned at the sensation. Her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, but the lids were weighted. Summoning the effort to lift them was too much.
Even though she couldn’t see anything, she found she didn’t care. All her attention was better focused on the desire humming through her veins. That wicked mouth worked its way down her chest, and the rasp of his tongue over bare breasts caused her body to arch. But something tapped into her consciousness. Wait, hadn’t she gone to bed with a sleep shirt on? Her fuddled mind soon dropped this question, focusing on the pleasure coursing through her.
Hands took the place of the lips on her breasts before they skimmed over her stomach down to her most private spot. Her legs fell open, letting those hands slip between them. As they worked their sorcery, her hands fisted in the blankets. Would this exquisite torture never end?
As though he heard her unspoken question, her mystery man shifted over her. He parted her nether lips, the head of his erection poised at her entrance. A groan slipped out of his mouth as he entered her. The sense of fullness in her core caused her to echo the same sound. Her fingers twined though silky hair that covered strong shoulders, seeking the heat of his skin. Their bodies moved in unison, like the waves breaking upon the shore. Once completion neared, her eyelids flickered open. A curtain of black hair surrounded a face of masculine beauty. Gray eyes stared down at her.
Why did he seem so familiar? Her mind struggled to pull back the haze. But sensation washed away her question, and she was lost in him. A groan escaped sculpted lips above hers, and he shuddered in her arms.
Following him over the edge, she clenched around him, her body thrumming with sated energy. His arms folded, and just as she expected him to collapse against her, he faded like a worn out image.
As though a bucket of cold water had been thrown over her, her mind snapped to reality. Wakefulness infiltrated every pore. Nora shot up in bed and looked frantically around the room, though she knew she wouldn’t find her ghostly intruder. She never did.
Her rasping breath broke the silence, and her heated skin prickled in the cool air of the bedroom. Crossing her arms protectively over her chest, she felt naked skin where there should be soft t-shirt material. Warmth crept over her cheeks as unease flooded her. Had she removed her shirt while in the midst of that orgasmic dream?
She buried her face in between her knees. A new awareness seeped into her. Oh God, she didn’t have any underwear on. Could she have taken those off, too? A whimper escaped her. What was happening to her? Or was something more sinister going on?
Why did he haunt her? She clutched her knees tighter. But more importantly, did she have the bravery to find out? To go back there?
***
Nora shivered in the crisp October air. As she breathed in the brisk smell of autumn, a fiery jolt burned its way through her nose, down her windpipe, and settled in her lungs.
Nuts. She was nuts. Nothing awaited her out here, certainly no Fae or whatever they called themselves. Should she turn around? But she’d parked her car a good half mile from here. It was too late to leave and admit defeat, not until she saw what she came for.
But what if they waited for her? What if he waited for her? Her flashlight wavered in her hand.
That night, exactly seven years ago to the day, had surely been a dream or a hallucination, never mind she’d never been on drugs of the illegal variety or had a history of mental illness. She huddled deeper into her coat. Halloween, however, had been a time for an overactive imagination to run loose. Just as it was now.
But her mind rationally knew she wasn’t having a nervous breakdown. Too many weird occurrences had showcased in her life since that night. Dreams of him--frightfully realistic, intimate dreams--had haunted her nights and disrupted any semblance of sleep.
Most of the time, she walked around more asleep than awake during the day. If she kept this up, she would die at an early age--either from the stresses heaped on by sleep deprivation or the accidents caused by it. So if the worst happened tonight, she probably wouldn’t be cutting her life short by that many years.
All chance of a normal life was impossible. She’d tried dating, but he managed to sabotage even that. Hell, she’d tried to have sex in the effort to wipe his touch away. That never worked. Invariably the man either threw up all over her or she on him before the act even got underway. He had her bound, marked. Somehow she knew he was the cause of it all.
She couldn’t move forward. She could only wait. That would end tonight, one way or the other.
Rounding the bend in the grass-trodden footpath, she exited a copse of trees. The landscape spread out before her, and she willed her hand steady. She inhaled, and a searing iciness burned a path down to her lungs.
The hills that jutted from the flat land served as homing beacons, drawing her feet toward them while her mind screamed for retreat. But unlike last time, there were no otherworldly beings waiting to greet her. The glow of the flashlight showed only grass awaited her on those knolls. Too bad, on this occasion she wanted to be seen.
Did they lie in wait for her? The hair prickled on the back on her neck. She stiffened her shoulders against the urge to run and continued the trek toward her destination. Walking to the tallest hill in the center of the meadow, she halted at the base and sighed. No one was here. Stars twinkled in the clear sky over head, casting the clearing in a subtle golden light.
A strange sense of elation and defeat overtook her. Had she come for nothing? Did that mean the curse destroying any possible love or sex life had lifted? She shook her head. Surely nothing could be resolved that easily. If so, than this had been nothing but a long-lasting cruel joke at her expense. But what had she done to deserve that, other than possibly trespassing on a sacred night of the Sidhe?
Some intuition told her it was more. It was the same intuition that commanded her to come here alone tonight, when not
hing could normally persuade her to come during the light of day. Jenny and Amanda had long asked her why she refused to drive on the country roads that penned in the Hollow Hills.
Though her friends had gotten lost and scared in the woods, the eeriness of the night had quickly worn off for them. Because other than the rustling wind in the trees and the hoot of an owl, nothing had been more terrifying than their imagination. Come morning, they laughed about the experience, talking about how they’d spooked themselves. During the car ride home, Nora hadn’t spoken about what she saw that night, and she kept her secret for the next seven years.
But this time, there were no friends waiting for her in the car. In fact, she felt like the only living soul around here. Not sure if that was a warm or chilling thought, she bit her lip as she pondered what to do. Shining the light on the hills revealed nothing. But what did she expect? A trap door? A hysterical giggle bubbled to her lips. Maybe she would find a pot of gold while she looked for that elusive door.
She circled around the mounds, first counter clockwise. Pausing, she frowned. What had the myths said? Clockwise or counter clockwise to seek entrance into a hill? Expelling a warm puff of air, she decided it probably didn’t matter. Either someone would come or not.
A burning touch slid up her neck, eliciting a scream from her. Adrenaline spun her around on shaky feet. Her voice froze in her throat at the sight that met her eyes.
With his hand still out, he stood before her in all his staggering, inhuman glory. Her mouth, already dry, now resembled the Sahara. The moonlight had bathed him in its golden glow and revealed every delectable inch of him to her gaze. Heavens, he was frightening. He was gorgeous. And she could only gape at him while her legs kept her firmly pinned to the spot. Escape was impossible, in so many ways.