Beauty's Beasts: An Urban Fantasy Fairy Tale (Poison Courts Book 1)

by L. C. Hibbett

  “Sorry to ruin the moment, guys, but what the hell are you talking about?” I asked.

  Deep furrows formed across my father’s forehead. “Fealty, Isabelle. Supernatural communities are complex and archaic in many ways. Clans, nests, packs, covens—the Guild tries to police them all, but on a local level supernatural beings are vulnerable. Traditionally, they band together and their leader represents them within the Guild. That group is their family and they are expected to be loyal to the family, above all else. Whatever the family expects of them, whatever way the family sees fit to use them—they have no choice but fulfill that role.”

  “Blackwoods have lived in this part of the country for hundreds of years since my ancestors escaped from Russia during the last supernatural great war. At first, only werewolves sought haven here, but over time all manner of supernatural creature was drawn to the forest and the protection my family offered. When it came time for my grandfather to lead the clan he decided to follow the example of the free witches in Europe. Blackwood Forest and its people would continue to offer sanctuary and protection, but the people they gave sanctuary to would no longer owe fealty to my family. He gave them the deeds to the properties and businesses to the people and declared the county as a free magic zone—independent of the restrictions the Guild placed on other supernatural communities.” Blackwood’s expression was grim.

  I sat down beside my father on the stone ledge. “A supernatural utopia—did it work?”

  “For a time, wonderfully.” My father squeezed my knee gently. “When my father was taken by a rival clan, my mother had nowhere else to run. Alexander’s grandfather gave her a place to live and a means to provide for herself and me. Every time a new family came seeking refuge, the community embraced them. I had a wonderful childhood here. When your mother passed away, it was the only place I could think of where I believed you girls would be safe. But I’d lost touch with the supernatural world, and in my haste to protect you from it, I stumbled blindly back into its epicenter. I had no idea what was going on with Gastone until the Guild contacted me about the curse.”

  “How did he curse you in the first place?” I turned to Blackwood. “And why can you kill some of his men—everybody knows about the headless corpses—but you can’t take a drop of his blood?”

  Blackwood ran a hand over his forehead. “He cursed us when we tried to take back one of his properties by force. It was stupid and foolish, and I regret it every day—I had no idea he had somebody casting spells for him. It had to be a witch or a fae, but all our surveillance showed only a handful of Guild vampires and a whole bunch of unaligned vamps who’d do pretty much anything for a quick buck and a cheap thrill. Not the kind of people you want around your neighborhood.” He looked at me pointedly. “Or your kids.”

  “Oh.” I pressed my fingers against my lips and swallowed the taste of bile. “And the vampires that were messing with the kids—they hadn’t sworn to follow the Guild’s code? So you can dish out whatever punishment you chose?”

  “I’m not a vigilante, Miss O’ Neill. Those vampires were a blight on the town, a cancer. I have mercy, just not for that. Never for that.” Blackwood’s eyes flashed.

  My head was still spinning with a thousand questions when Teddy heaved the front door open and burst down the steps. He stared into my eyes as he sprinted past and howled at me to get my father into the den. I stood up to ask what was going but he was already out of my reach, shedding clothing as he went. My jaw was slack as his perfect buttocks streaked toward the forest. “What the hell?”

  Suddenly, Mac was in front of me, pushing me over the threshold with painfully gentle hands. “Izzy, you have to get inside, please.”

  “Mac?” He pulled away from me and flew down the steps after Teddy, ripping his clothes off and shifting into a coal black wolf as he ran. Jonathan was next to thunder past and I watched in awe as he transformed into the slender albino wolf I had seen the night before. Jonathan might have seemed beige in human form, but as a wolf, he was beautiful.

  Blackwood yanked his shirt over his head and I forced myself to stare at his face instead of his chiseled abdominal muscles. “Dr. O’Neill, please take your daughter with you to the den and secure the room. Commander Murphy must be—”

  “Right here, Alexander. Put your clothes on and come with us to the den, immediately.” The small, dark-haired woman turned on her heel and headed for the door that led to the basement and the den.

  Blackwood didn’t move. “Commander, there’s been a breach, I’m needed—”

  “Your pack are more than capable of running a few prowling vamps in daylight hours. Your presence is required in here.” She flashed her cell at him and gave my father a look that made my heart sink. “We may have a bigger problem.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The atmosphere in the den was as thick as mud on a warm day. Blackwood paced the floor, one eye on the security cameras and the other on the dark-haired woman, who I’d come to assume must be his superior officer. She sat down on one of the chairs in the dining area and placed her feet firmly on the ground before addressing us again.

  "Alexander, stop prowling. You're unsettling everyone." She pointed at a chair beside her and Blackwood reluctantly settled himself on it. My father and I sat down across from them. The lady gave us a brisk nod.

  I planted my elbows on the tabletop. "You said there was bad news, Commander Murphy?"

  "Maeve. My friends call me Maeve, child. Commander is the title reserved for pups like this one." Maeve reached out and ruffled Blackwood's hair. I grinned at the look of mortification on his face and he shot me a long-suffering grimace. Messy hair suited him.

  The cell phone on the table beeped and Maeve's mouth compressed into a thin line as she flicked through whatever message she'd received. She returned the phone to the table and clasped her hands together under her chin with her stare fixed on my father. "I'm just going to come out and say this, Peter—your daughters have gone to meet with Julian Gastone."

  Dad stared across the table, unblinking, but his fingers worried at the seam of his jacket with increasing speed. I grabbed hold of his hand and squeezed it tight as if squeezing his hand could compress the panic winding its way around my chest. He nodded at the phone. "What do they know? Did Gastone summon them? Could he know about my work here?” He swallowed. “About what the girls are?"

  "We don't think he could know about your work here, the Guild took every precaution when we were arranging your meetings." Maeve paused and flashed me an apologetic glance. "Unless Isabelle was followed yesterday?"

  I gaped from Maeve's face to Blackwood. “Did they see me coming here? Is that why they attacked last night? It’s my fault?”

  Blackwood shoved his seat away from the table and strode to my side. His jaw was set into a hard line. "We have no proof of that, Miss O' Neil. The intrusions onto the grounds of Blackwood Forest have been becoming more frequent over the past few weeks, long before you came to the manor—we think Gastone is sending his men to scout how far the curse has progressed. That's nothing to do with you, okay?"

  I didn't trust myself to speak so I nodded my head. Maeve's cell beeped again and she swiped the screen with her fingertip. Her frown deepened. "No. I don't think it was anything to do with Gastone's men seeing you enter Blackwood Forest. Gastone didn't contact your sisters—they made the call."

  I narrowed my eyes on the woman's phone. "The Guild is monitoring our calls? Since when?"

  Maeve looked at my father and he gripped the edge of the table. His face was ashen. I crushed my eyelids together. "I'm really not going to like this, am I?"

  "No. I don't think so, Belle," my father said. He took a deep breath. "I'm a member of the Guild. I made the decision at twenty-one to join the Guild instead of joining the free witches. I agreed to practice magic, or not, by their rules. Your mother made the same agreement. When we decided not to bring our children up in the supernatural community, there were certain…conditions attached. The Guild
helped us seal your supernatural gifts, you see."

  "And?" I prompted.

  "And we gave them the right to monitor you for as long as you remained outside of the Guild." He ran the words together in one long stream.

  My mouth dropped open a fraction. "Monitor us? Until we joined the Guild? Which would have been an impossibility if you were never going to tell us what we were." I curled my fingers against my palms. "You gave the Guild the right to spy on us for our entire lives?"

  My teeth ground together as I glared at Maeve. "What do you know about us, my sisters and me? What's in your files? Do you know all about our school records? Boys? Have you a log of every man I've slept with on your phone? College, did you follow me around the Academy too?" A thought struck me like a blow to the head and I pressed my hand against my cheek. "That's why I was chosen to be an operant, isn't it? It was nothing to do with me. You orchestrated everything."

  "Miss O' Neill." Blackwood's voice was quiet and his fingers were gentle as they brushed my arm.

  Maeve showed no such compassion. She snapped her cell onto the table and looked me square in the face. "Isabelle O' Neill, you're being melodramatic and childish." My eyes widened. "Yes, we spied on you, as you call it, but I make no apology for that. When we seal a child's powers, it's not an exact science. Should that seal crack, or gods forbid, break—well, let's just say the Guild is eager for such situations not to occur. So, we monitor known supernaturals who are not self-aware. We don't pull punches, but we don't interfere unnecessarily. The recognition you received in the armed forces was all your own doing, as were your mistakes."

  I broke eye contact and stared at my hands.

  Blackwood drummed his fingertips on the table. “Commander, does surveillance have a transcript of the call?”

  “Unfortunately not.” Maeve pressed on the screen of her cell phone. “We’ve been unable to tap into any of Gastone’s lines. We’ve known for some time that Peter’s daughters were involved with two of Gastone’s men, but this is the first time we’ve witnessed direct contact between the sisters and Gastone.”

  “Did you know Gastone and his puppets were vampires?” I asked my father. He nodded. “Then why did you let the girls date them? Seriously, Dad, who the hell lets their daughters date vampires?”

  I pushed my chair away from the table, not waiting for my father’s response. “The girls have gone to Gastone because they suspect something is wrong. They mustn’t have bought whatever bullshit excuse Dad gave them last night. Nicole told me that if I wasn’t back in twenty-four hours, she was going to Gastone and telling him that Blackwood had taken us. She thinks she’s getting us help, and instead, she’s walking into a vampire’s nest.”

  “Commander, can a team pick them up before they get to Gastone’s?” Blackwood started to pace again.

  Maeve shook her head. “It’s too late. He had a car pick them up immediately. The drivers are all identified as Guild members—we can’t touch them, Alexander.”

  “It doesn’t matter, my sisters don’t need the fucking Guild. They have me.” I sprinted across the room and started banging on the security panels on the wall. Blackwood appeared at my side and grabbed hold of my wrists. I tried to yank my hands free, but he held on tight. I tipped my head in the direction of the security feed showing Teddy, Mac, and Jonathan making their way back to the manor. “Let go of me, Blackwood, and open the damn door. The guys are coming back, you don’t need to keep us locked up anymore.”

  Blackwood didn’t release his grip. “What’s your plan if I let you walk out that door, Miss O’Neill?”

  “You don’t need me to answer that, Blackwood.” I held his stare, refusing to be intimidated by the intensity of his green eyes.

  “You’re going to Gastone’s to get your sisters,” he said.

  My father and Maeve both began to protest. I ignored them and kept my gaze locked on Blackwood’s. “Wrong, Blackwood.” A wave of relieved silence washed over the room. I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m going to the vampires’ nest to get my sisters and Julian Gastone’s blood.”

  Chapter Twelve

  "Thank you for backing me up, arguing my case with a superior officer—I appreciate it. I know you don’t agree with me going, so thank you for not letting them block me." I opened the bedroom door fully and extended my arm to invite Blackwood in.

  “You’ll go whether we try to stop you or not. At least this way we can make some attempt to increase your chances of success.” Blackwood stepped into the room awkwardly, scanning the walls.

  I tried to disguise the smile tugging at the corner of my lips. "Faye's not here. Guessing she's probably wherever Jonathan is, right?"

  Blackwood laid a parcel on the bed. "You spotted that?"

  "I did. Kind of hard to miss once you see them in the same room." I spread my fingers. "Or kind of in the same room—you know what I mean."

  "I do." Blackwood leaned against the bedpost. "They're pretty serious about each other."

  I picked at the parcel Blackwood had brought with my fingernails. "Were they an item before the curse? Or just since you guys became pretty much trapped in the house because of the fur and claws issue?"

  Blackwood’s lips twitched at the corners. "They were an item before the uncontrollable fur and claws situation. Jonathan has been besotted with Faye since he came to visit me during school vacation when we were sixteen. She didn't even acknowledge his existence until the summer before we went on our first tour of duty, but when she did notice him. . ." Blackwood's gaze flicked toward the ensuite bedroom. "They're intense."

  "I'll bet," I muttered, trying to scrub the thought of Faye and Jonathan in the shower from my brain. I was really glad I'd already cleaned myself. Another thought crossed my mind. "Hey, is that allowed? Couples from different supernatural races getting jiggy?"

  "Does the Guild approve, you mean?" Blackwood asked. I nodded. "There's no official ruling against it, although certain bloodlines have troubling ideas about preserving the purity of their genes, but supernatural relationships are complex by definition."

  "I think that's relationships in general, Blackwood. You don't get to own that," I said.

  One side of his mouth lifted into a smile and he dragged his hand roughly through his hair. I noticed his fingers had begun to twist back into claws—the medication was wearing off. He smoothed the pillowcase with the back of his hand. "Supernaturals often have polygamous relationships. That makes them a little more complicated than most human relationships."

  "More than one partner? Is it fluid, like, does everyone share?" I shuffled a little further down the bed.

  Blackwood shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes. Not so much with shifter packs. There are far more male shifters than female, so very often the pack will have a single shared mate."

  "So, the woman has to put up with all the males? Lucky her." My words were dripping with sarcasm, but an electric current was running through my body as it recalled the morning's shower. I crossed my legs tightly but that only made things worse. I searched for a distraction. "Children! What about kids?"

  My cheeks ignited into a roaring blush. Awesome diversion skills. Man, I seriously had no freaking game.

  Blackwood gave me a confused stare. "Well, children with genetic code from a mix of races will typically favor one god's magic more than another, but some of the most powerful supernaturals have genetic code from two or more races and access to the qualities inherited from both gods. You'd be better off talking to Mac about anything scientific though, he's our genius."

  "Yeah, I'd believe that." A smile floated across my face at the thought of Mac, quickly chased by the memory of Teddy’s kiss. My head shot up. “That’s what Teddy meant about his dads and his mom’s mates, right? They’re one of those poly relationships, yeah?”

  Blackwood nodded and an easy grin slid across his face. I watched the transformation with interest, it was the first time since I’d met him that Alexander Blackwood looked at ease. “Yeah, Teddy’s family
are very special. We normally do the holidays with Teddy’s family. I thought his mother and his sister were going to kill me the first time we stayed there—they’re big on physical contact.”

  “And you’re family weren’t?” The question was out of my mouth before I could take it back. I gave myself a mental pinch, preparing for Blackwood’s barriers to fly back into place, but he surprised me by sitting down on the bed and resting his back against the headboard.

  “No.” His voice was quiet. “My family was nothing like Teddy’s. Maybe it would have been . . .” Blackwood glanced into my eyes and I held my breath, not wanting to do anything that might break the spell. “My mother had another mate before I was born, and two older sons—but they died in an attack by a rogue nest of unaligned vampires. My father hunted them down and slaughtered them in retaliation but it didn’t change anything for my mother. She always said she was meant to have two more mates and a baby girl, she said she could feel it in her heart, but I think she lost the courage to find them after my brothers and her first mate was taken from her. I don’t know what she was like before grief became part of her soul. I wish I did.”

  For a moment, I was paralyzed by the ache in my chest. I longed to pull him into my arms and erase the haunted look from his eyes, but the distance between us felt too wide. I took a deep breath. “I’m so sorry, Alexander. That must have been very hard, for all of you. I can’t imagine.”

  My words were so insufficient that I cringed, unsure of what I could say that would heal the moment. Blackwood nodded and started to head for the door. I was struck by a sudden impulse to keep him with me. The room felt safer with him in it. An hour before, I would have said it was probably because there was no room for any creepy ass vampires in it when his ego was taking up so much space, but at that moment my heart just craved his presence. And maybe not just my heart.