Faetal: A New Adult Fantasy Dark Prince Romance

by Deiri Di

  "I should have brought you a book instead of roses," he said. He flipped the book around, showing Mari the cover. "Though I'm not sure I've read any like this..."

  On the cover was a woman, wild burgundy hair flying in the wind. Her plump lips were parted as she leaned against the dark skin of a man who towered over her. His hair was black and responded to gravity instead of the breeze that stirred her. He was shirtless and wore deerskin trousers that were an artist's misrepresentation of a native American outfit. His muscles bulged while his hand was in the process of sliding down the woman's shoulder, pushing her blouse down to expose the top of a pert white breast.

  It just kept getting worse and worse.

  Mari gasped and snatched the book out of his hands. Out of all of her books, he had to pick the only one that was a bodice ripper. She hadn't even read the book yet! Mari just bought it a few days ago, curious to find out exactly what made a book like that different from her normal ones.

  "I... oh... how did this get in here?" Mari said, her attempt at deception feeble even to her.

  Vladmir pulled the book away from her, tossing it on the bed and moving closer to her. Mari took a step back and ran into the closet door.

  "I apologize," he said. "I didn't come here to tease you."

  "Then, why are you here?" Mari asked, wishing as the words left her mouth that she could take them back. She had planned on hanging out with him, getting to know him, and enjoy the excitement of his ever more attractive presence.

  "I'm here," he replied, pausing, uncertainty in his voice. His eyebrows creased together, and his eyes broke contact - as if he was taking the time to think through the exact words he wanted to say. "I'm here for you."

  Mari didn't reply - she just stared at him. As cute and mysterious as he was, the words that made her excited also made her uneasy. Ordinary people didn't talk like that.

  Vladmir reached out with a single finger and put it to her temple. He traced down her face, running his fingertip over her cheekbone, over her chin, down her neck, and stopping to rest on her collarbone.

  Mari blurted out the first thing that came into her mind: "Why?"

  "I don't know where to start," he replied.

  Mari grabbed his hand, pulling his fingers away from her neck. When she tried to drop his hand, he curled his fingers around hers.

  "Start... why don't you start with me staying inside," she said.

  Vladmir took her hand and gripped it to his chest like a little child holding onto a teddy bear. Mari let him. Out on the public street, all she could think about was taking advantage of the situation and experience what it was like to walk arm and arm with someone. Here, in the privacy of her bedroom, his intensity was more than she knew what to do with. Casual conversations were more than she could handle; she had no idea how to deal with the cheek stroking or hand clutching.

  "You are in danger because of me," Vladmir said, twining his fingers with hers against his chest. "If I hadn't found you... if I hadn't come here, you would have been left alone."

  It was rather thrilling to have a man say that he was so concerned about her that he was worried his presence put her in danger - it was a lot like her more novels, so dramatic it didn’t really seem to fit into real life. However, Mari couldn't help but ask the obvious question.

  "Well, then, why did you?" Mari asked. If he was crazy with love for her like the characters in her books, then he wouldn't have come near her no matter what, not if his presence would cause her danger. To Mari, this meant that he either was not that into her or was exaggerating the threat.

  Vladmir loosened his grip on her hand, surprise rattling his face. Within moments he regained his composure, the surprise hiding behind a look of concern.

  "You are right - I made such a mistake coming here," he said. "It is a mistake I cannot undo."

  He leaned forward and pressed his lips against her forehead, a gentle kiss that burned in Mari's awareness like a hot poker delivering a brand on her skin.

  A sharp tingle, unnatural like an electric shock, buzzed down her spine. Mari bit back a gasp, wondering if she would have to get a CAT scan. It couldn't be healthy to keep experiencing sharp shocks in her spine.

  As soon as the shock faded away, Mari realized that she could smell Vladmir and that his skin carried the scent of roses she'd caught a scent of before. Unlike the flowers he'd brought her, this smell was strong but empty; it lacked something essential like it wasn't even there.

  Mari experienced a moment of panic as she wondered again if he might be gay, perfuming himself like that. Once wasn't memorable - but always wearing a weird rose perfume?

  "I cannot take back what I've done, but will you let me make up for it? Let me protect you now," he said, pulling back to search her eyes.

  Mari nodded. There was another option - other than him being stunned by love at first sight or over-exaggerating the danger. He could be a little bonkers. Mari wasn't willing to even acknowledge that perspective; her sanity had been called into question every time she reacted to a sprite. She couldn't bear to bring that same doubt on the only person she knew could see them too.

  Of course, she could always be in more danger than she could ever imagine.

  Vladmir flashed another smile at her.

  "I will be close by," he said, pulling away from her with such speed that she could feel a breeze. He turned and began making his way across her bedroom.

  Mari trailed after him, shocked by the sudden change.

  "But what about..."

  "Do not worry," he said, pushing her bedroom door the rest of the way open. "There are things I need to do to keep you safe."

  Mari hadn't gotten a chance to get to know him, to sit, and ask about his childhood experiences. She wanted to know if he went through the same things that she did. She wanted to know if he knew better ways to deal with the mischievous natures of the sprites and monsters that she saw on a regular basis. She wanted to know if he was teased in school, called a freak for the times he could not keep himself from reacting. She wanted to know if his parents thought he was a liar.

  "I don't want you to go!" Mari said.

  Vladmir hesitated in the doorway, indecision on his face.

  "Please?" Mari asked.

  Vladmir's face relaxed as he came to a decision.

  He reached out, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her to him. His arm snaked around her waist as he moved in to press his lips against hers.

  As soon as the kiss started, it ended, Vladmir moving away before Mari could begin to register what had happened.

  "I will check on you tonight," he said, a pleased smile on his face.

  With that, he was gone.

  Mari stood in the same spot until she heard him close the front door. The sound broke her out of her paralysis. She flung herself face-first onto her bed, knocking more books off in the process. She pressed her face into a pillow, wrapping it around her head with both arms.

  Mari proceeded to squeal, kicking her feet and rolling around on the duvet.

  When she finished working her excitement out, she lay on her bed, replaying the moments in her head over and over. It was her first kiss. To Mari, this meant that her little daydreams of bringing a hot boyfriend to school to show off to her friends and the meaner girls who teased her was going to come true. The look on their faces - she would have to bring a camera!

  "Mari?" Cathy shouted from downstairs. "Your father and I need to speak to you. Can you come down here please?"

  Mari took a deep breath to calm her raging ecstasy.

  Her parents were waiting for her, their faces solemn. Mari worried she was about to get a boy talk. Did they spy on her and see the kiss?

  "Your mother called," her father David said.

  Mari crossed her arms, the warm and fuzzy feeling she was holding onto dissipating without a word of goodbye.

  "You didn't convince her to cancel her trip, did you?" Mari demanded, anger welling up inside her as she glared at Cathy. "If you got her to cance
l, I will never forgive you!"

  "Mari, it's not Cathy's fault," her father said, spreading his palms upwards in a pleading gesture.

  "She bought me a plane ticket!" Mari clenched her fists. "She wouldn't cancel now!"

  She would, she could, and Mari knew that for the fourth time in a row, her mother promised to let her visit and canceled. The woman from her memories, the woman who smelled like flour and coaxed fairies into braiding her hair, that woman was no more than a wisp in the wind. Mari couldn't be sure if that woman even saw the sprites or just played along with what she saw as her daughter's imagination.

  David's neck was a deep red, responding emotionally to Mari's anger and accusations.

  "This madness is not from my side of the family!" he said through clenched teeth. "You have no right to speak to your stepmother like that. You are out of line. Next, you'll be saying fairies caused the scratches on your arms!"

  Mari tightened her arms around her stomach, wishing she had hidden them in a long sleeve shirt. The earlier attack had left marks. The last time a fairy attacked her, leaving little scratches on her arms like cuts from a bramble bush, she was still young enough that she ran crying to her father. Instead of comforting her, he took her to a therapist. It was the first time she realized that her father wouldn't protect her because he didn't believe her.

  "I hate you!" she yelled. With that, she made a dramatic exit, ran up to her room, and slammed the door.

  Mari spent the rest of the day holed up in her room with her pile of books. When her father knocked on her door, she ignored him, just as she ignored Cathy's later pleas, trying to convince her to apologize. Mari didn't want anything to do with them.

  Mari didn't even leave her room for supper, and when night fell, she cried herself to sleep, clutching books to her chest.

  [ 4 ]

  Mari woke to a sharp tingle running down her spine, pinching her awake. She was going to have to make a doctor's appointment.

  The sensation faded soon after it started, and Mari found herself staring at the side of her bookcase, the cheap wood gray in the moonlight. She closed her eyes, ready to drift off and forget the entire interruption.

  There was a sound.

  Mari opened her eyes, tensing every muscle in her body as she listened.

  Scales covering flesh dragged across the floor, a sound that made every hair on her neck stand up. The smell of rotting meat filled the room.

  Mari knew without a shadow of a doubt that whatever was in the room with her was not there to rip up her books or pull her hair. She also knew not to scream. There had been monsters in her bedroom before, and she knew how to deal with them. Screaming wouldn't even bring her parents running - they were used to her having "night terrors," as they called it. Her best bet was to stay quiet, not let it know that she knew it was there, blind it with light, and then run to the closet. She had gotten pretty good at huddling on top of her dresser inside her closet and holding the thin door shut.

  Mari sat up, yanking her covers back. She could make out the shape of the creature; it was a dark mass that loomed over her, the top of it brushing the ceiling. Something was moving in the air around the mass, sinuous and snake-like.

  Mari swallowed, her mouth dry. The monsters were never larger than her window or her doorway - they had to get in somehow. This creature wouldn't fit through either. How did it get in there?

  She switched on the light.

  The flesh of the monster rippled with scales and glistened in the light as if it was covered in an iridescent ooze. The creature was vast and tall, a dark blob standing on four trunk-like legs. The things Mari had seen moving in the air were tentacles, smooth and thick with muscle. A single eyeball rolled in the center of the mass, and a mouth split open underneath it to reveal sharp, pointed teeth.

  Fear latched its thorns into Mari, clutching her with a painful embrace. She forgot about hiding in the closet; she just wanted to scream, but she couldn't force her mouth to open.

  The creature took a small, shuffling step towards her bed.

  The movement spurred Mari into action. She rolled out of bed and bolted for her bedroom door. Her hands wrapped around the handle, and she yanked.

  It didn't open.

  She'd locked it to keep her parents out. A few months ago, Mari had gotten a hold of her Dad's power tools and installed a deadbolt in her door, a hatchet job but good enough to keep them out and now also keep her in.

  Mari fumbled with the lock, her hands sweaty, slipping off the metal. After several heart-pounding seconds, she managed to get her trembling hands under control and undo the lock.

  Mari twisted the knob again and pulled.

  It didn't open.

  She could hear the creature behind her take another step forward. It made a sound deep within the mass - a chuckle.

  Mari threw her weight back, yanking the door in desperation.

  The bottom of the door would move the smallest amount in response to her efforts, but the top was stuck.

  Mari looked up.

  At least a foot wide, one of the tentacles was stretched across the door and the adjacent walls.

  Mari felt a warm breeze on the back of her neck. The stench made her gag.

  A tentacle wrapped around Mari's waist.

  It yanked her backward and up into the air. It coiled around her, rolling her around to face it.

  Mari kicked wildly, her feet sinking into the creature. Its flesh gripped her feet like tar. She pressed her hands against the tentacle, desperate to pull them free. Her legs burned. One came free with a pop. She struggled, unable to brace herself on anything but the tentacle that held her. Her ankle throbbed with pain, and with a second pop, her other foot came free.

  The monster opened its mouth wider.

  Mari opened her mouth to scream, fully aware that it would do no good. Her parents couldn't save her from something they couldn't see.

  Silver flashed in the space between Mari and the tooth filled maw.

  Mari hit the ground. The tentacle that had squeezed her breath away loosened and evaporated, becoming light mist and then nothing at all. She scrambled to her feet.

  A man stood in between her and the monster.

  His back was to her, but she would have known him anywhere just by his pretty golden hair. Instead of the drab LA clothing, he was dressed in an outfit of white, supple leather. He held a sword in his hand, ready to strike again.

  Mari moved backward, trying to get out of the reach of the monster.

  The creature hissed, the air gurgling in its mouth. It leaned forward, using a tentacle-like a whip, lashing out. Mari ducked, and the tentacle whistled over her.

  Vladmir jumped in the air, twisting to avoid the blow. He slashed out with his sword and severed the tentacle. It evaporated as it fell.

  Vladmir leaped over Mari's bed and dashed around the creature, getting out of the sight of its single eye. Mari could see his outline through the monster's mass and realized what she should have noticed earlier.

  It was transparent!

  Vladmir lifted his free hand, the gesture he made obscured by the opacity of the monster.

  A sharp shock ran down Mari's spine, an echo of what had woken her in the first place.

  The creature wailed, the sound bouncing inside of it to create a multi-toned noise that rattled Mari's bones. She covered her ears and screamed, her teeth aching.

  The monster began to fade, its screech dimming with it. The question of how it had gotten there was answered. If it could fade out of existence when defeated, it must have appeared in a similar manner - an assassin that could get around doors and windows. When the last mist of its body vanished, there was nothing left between Mari and Vladmir.

  His beanie was gone.

  She realized that he didn't wear it to keep his head warm in the hot California summer - he wore it to hide something.

  "You've got to be kidding me," Mari said.

  "I am so sorry, Mari," Vladmir said, sheathing his sword at his
side. "I should have gotten here sooner. Are you unharmed?"

  "You're an elf," Mari said, still in shock. All her daydreams of a happy ever after followed the monster into oblivion. There wasn't going to be a grand wedding on a cliffside or watching their children grow old together. She wasn't going to dazzle her friends with her handsome boyfriend or find the kindred spirit that could see the unseen with her.

  He was just another one of them.

  "Yes," he said, his eyebrows knitting together and spoiling his pretty face with confusion. "I am."

  Mari sighed and sat down on her bed, hands on her knees.

  "I wish you weren't," Mari said, letting her bitterness bleed through. She knew she should be excited, but she couldn't feel anything but a sense of hollow disappointment that ate away at the edges of her excitement and turned it into a sour sense of foreboding in her stomach. If he was anything like the rest of the fae creatures, then he was just messing with her, not here because he was her soul mate.

  "I wish I weren't too," Vladmir said, sadness tinting his voice. "If I were human, you wouldn't be in any danger."

  "What was that thing, anyway?" Mari asked.

  Vladmir ran a hand through his hair. "It was sent to kill you before I could get you to safety," he said. "You are vulnerable here. I can't protect you as well."

  Mari's disappointment faded a little. He sounded sincere... and he did just save her from a monster. He wouldn't have done that if he was just going to pull a practical joke on her - would he? Maybe she could still introduce him to her friends. Ordinary people like Cathy could see him, which was more than any of the other fae creatures.

  Vladmir knelt on the ground in front of her. He took her hands off her knees and gripped them, looking up into her eyes. He took a breath and opened his mouth, his face wrought with concern.

  "Can normal people see your ears?" Mari asked.

  Vladmir's mouth remained open for a second, gaping at her. "No... I don't think so..."

  Mari smiled at him.

  "That isn't important," he said, squeezing her hands. "I need to ask you to give up your life here."

  Mari looked at him, not understanding.