chapter 11
They walked toward the bed, Frenzy leading her. Today had been long and strange and he wasn’t ready to call it a night, doubted she was either, but they needed to rest, to at least try and sort out what to do tomorrow.
“I’m not tired,” she said, echoing his thoughts. “My teeth are hurting.” She grimaced and rubbed at her gums with her fingertips.
Sitting her down, he walked back to the kitchen sink and grabbed a bowl from one of the pantry shelves. Filling it quickly with water, he poured some salt in it and stirred it with a wooden spoon. “It’s normal. Vampires like to bite.”
She licked her canines. “But I don’t even have fangs.”
Moving her hands, he dipped his finger in the water and then lifted it to her mouth. She wrinkled her nose, jerking her head away.
“Please tell me you’re not trying to stick your finger in my mouth.”
Realizing that was what he’d just been about to do, he sat the bowl down on her lap and shook his head. “A moment of insanity. Dip your finger in the water and rub it along the gums that hurt. It’ll help ease some of the throbbing.”
Sniffing the water, her brows screwed into a question mark. “It’s only salt water.”
Sitting down on the other end of the bed, he rubbed his brow. “Salt has many curative properties, especially for an immortal. Just try it.”
Looking unsure, she did as he instructed and dipped her finger in then rubbed, sighing a moment later as the tension drained from her shoulder blades.
“My gods, that’s amazing.”
Frenzy got up to walk toward the kitchen table, pulling out one of the chairs.
“What are you doing?” she asked, staring at him with those haunting amber eyes he’d come to love and hate. Hate because they did not belong to Adrianna, love…because they did not belong to Adrianna.
He was such a walking contradiction.
“I’m going to take a nap, and you should too.”
Her brows dipped as she set the bowl on the floor. “I thought vampires slept during the day, grim reapers not at all.”
Growling under his breath, he rolled his eyes. “True enough, but I’ve developed a fondness for it. And you’re not just a vampire, you’re a shifter too, so you can and should try to rest.”
Scooting back on the bed until her back pressed against the wall, she crossed her arms, appearing almost delicate in the candlelight. “Do you dream?” she asked, clearly intending to ignore his last statement.
He shrugged, taking a seat as he rubbed his hand back and forth along the wood grain. “Not really, no. I just quiet my mind.”
“Sounds sort of like dreaming.”
“I guess.” He brushed some imaginary crumbs off the table.
Silence stretched between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Finally she broke it by saying, “Frenzy?”
Turning his gaze aside from the window, he nodded. “Hmm?”
“You don’t have to sleep at the table.” She patted the empty side of the bed.
Things were suddenly so different between them. Before today he would have sworn she hated him, and he definitely hadn’t felt much favor toward her.
“Are you sure?”
Biting her lower lip, she nodded. The moment he sat next to her, things got awkward again. She covered her bottom foot with her top one and scooted a little off to the side.
“You know we’ve already slept together.” He lifted a brow at her.
Blowing out a raspberry, she chuckled. “Yeah, we have.” Immediately the tension in her body fled. Turning to look at him, she nodded. “Look, I’m sorry for acting an arse with you from the get-go. It’s hard for me to let others in, to let my guard down. It doesn’t come easily. I’m trying, though.”
Feeling an odd need to reassure her, he draped his arm across her shoulder, dragging her into him. Again a spark, like a bolt of electricity, traveled through him at the point of contact. He’d felt it earlier, in the glen, when they’d torn at each other to get closer.
Being with her, it felt electric, dangerous. Her breathing inched up a notch as she turned to stare at him.
“Your eyes are such a perfect shade of liquid amber.” His voice was rough and unsure. He wasn’t sure why he’d said it, but looking at her, staring into eyes that’d haunted his dreams for years…it felt right.
And maybe it was because of those eyes that he was letting his own guard down. Letting this woman wiggle her way in where none had before.
Breasts rising and falling with her heavy breaths, she swallowed.
“I dreamt about you for years,” she whispered, then grabbed his hand and brought it up to cup her cheek. “I can’t see my future. Never have, and yet I’ve always seen the mysterious man in red. Who are you, Frenzy? What are you going to do to me?”
The point where his body touched hers flared to life. “I’m going to save you.”
Her look was incredulous, but she didn’t speak on it. What more was there to say? He knew the odds were slim, so did she, but for one night at least, they could pretend.
Words were pointless and sleep elusive. Gripping the back of her neck, he watched her, waiting for a flicker of disapproval as he dragged her lips to within inches of his own. Their shared breaths mingled and he inhaled greedily, taking her unique scent of fresh earth and frosty winds deep into his lungs.
“I’ve never smelled anything quite like you,” he murmured.
Her lips twitched. “Good or bad?”
“Different.” Not giving either one of them a chance to think about anything else, he took her lips.
She still tasted of wine, sweet and spicy, delicious. Running his tongue along her lower lip, teasing her to open up for him, he smirked when she trembled, latching her daggerlike nails into his shoulders.
It’d never been so raw or wild with Adrianna. She’d been human, unable to handle anything other than soft, tender strokes. Mila crawled onto his lap, still devouring his mouth with her own as her hands frantically tore at his T-shirt. It took some skillful maneuvering on his part to lift his arms and still remain kissing her. She laughed, a deep and throaty burr of sound that brushed his skin with pinpricks of excitement.
They pulled apart only long enough to lift their shirts over their heads. Pushing hair out of her eyes, she grabbed on to his zipper next and quickly pulled it down. The sound vibrated like thunder through the room, made his pulse stir and quicken.
Her hands were on his face, dragging him back to her as she pressed her full, naked breasts into his chest. He hissed when her nipples rubbed against his, making him bow with the pleasure. Bending her over, he held on to her back as he tenderly laid her down on the bed.
They were both panting for breath as they stared deep into each other’s eyes.
“I can’t get enough,” she moaned in reluctant admission. “I tasted you out there; it should be enough. It should.”
“And yet it’s not,” he finished her sentence, shushing her with a growl as he once again reclaimed her lips, taking her tongue into his mouth, sucking gently on it over and over.
The frantic beat of her pulse mixed with the way her nails kept gouging into him, it made him mad with desire. Made his vision almost hazy, because all he could see, all he wanted, was her.
“Take the shorts off,” he ordered, undoing her zipper.
Grabbing on to the tops of her jean shorts, she shimmied her way out of them, pulling them down her long, lean legs. The satiny feel of naked thigh rubbing against his waist pulled a groan from his lips.
“You’re so bonny,” he breathed, using her Irish word for “beauty.”
Her eyes widened at that term of endearment and then she snorted. “I’m already gonna sleep with you, death; no need to flatter me.”
Shaking his head, fighting his own smile, he paused, enjoying the feel of her legs wrapped around his middle, the scent of her desire tickling his nose. “It’s not flattery, O’Fallen, it’s a simple fact.”
Blinking, as if not sure how to take the compliment, she jerked her chin in the direction of his legs. “Not fair that you’re still wearing your clothes and I’m pretty much naked.”
“Did you know I could do this?” Arching a brow, he pulled on his own inherent magic, willing his clothes, and the scant remains of her own, off their bodies. They were now completely nude and what he hadn’t been able to do back at the tree, he did now. Tracing the contours of her body, not only with his eyes, but his hand. Trailing his finger across the tight rosebud of her nipple, moving to the other one, before gently drawing a line down the center of her flat stomach.
Her thighs clenched, hard. If he’d not been immortal himself, the strength of it would have likely bruised muscle. She sighed, arching into him like a cat in heat.
“Bloody hell,” she moaned.
Replacing his finger with his mouth, he sucked on her nipple, pulling and rolling it between his teeth. “Good?” he asked as she tugged on the ends of his long hair.
“Different,” she said, tossing his words of earlier back at him. He snorted. “So very, very different.”
In this case he took “different” to be code for “amazing.” Or at least that’s what he’d tell himself. With one final flick of his tongue over her breast, he moved down her body.
“Oh my gods,” she breathed, “where are you going?”
Planting a wet kiss on her navel, he peered at her from between her thighs. The way her skin was flushed so rosy, darkened at her cheeks, it was a sight he’d thought never to see again.
Mila had awakened a hunger in him, one he hadn’t felt in far too long. It could be a side effect of her vampiric hormones run rampant, the way her body signaled to his constantly that she was on a painful stage of arousal, bringing forth his own desire to meet her needs, but it was more too. Her eyes, so beautiful, so perfect. Not because they looked identical to Adrianna’s either, not entirely. Talking with her today, sharing her body, he hadn’t been this close to another soul in so long, hadn’t allowed anyone too deep into his life. He hadn’t realized how lonely he’d been until she showed up, until Lise had given him no choice but to keep her, to guard her life with his own.
“What?” She smiled a lazy, graceful smile.
His mouth watered as her scent, the essence of woman, filled his head with a longing so profound it twisted his insides into knots. “I want to taste you. I want all of you, tonight.”
He left it unsaid that tonight could be it for them; they both knew it. Heading into faerie tomorrow, it could very well be the suicide mission she feared.
Nibbling on her bottom lip, blond hair splayed out around her head like a golden halo, she nodded. “I’ve never had anyone do that before,” she admitted shyly.
Kissing along the soft flesh of her inner thigh, he worked his way down to her hot center.
“Frenzy?” His name was a question, but he didn’t think she was really looking for a response, more excitement and the fear of the unknown trembling on her tongue.
“It’s okay,” he murmured, trailing just along the juncture of where her thigh and her center met.
She hissed, curling her fingers into his scalp, digging in hard enough to make him groan in response. Unable to resist the temptation anymore, he flicked his tongue over her bright peach nub.
Her head moved violently back and forth as he took her sensitive clit into his mouth, sucking and rolling it around his tongue.
“Oh my god,” she moaned, panting harder. Her knees pressed into the sides of his head.
Chuckling, he gently patted her kneecap. “You’re stronger than you know.”
Biting onto her knuckle, she laughed. “That feels…oh my god,” she said it again, this time pushing off her feet, lifting her lower half, and giving him a better angle. “I’m close.”
He lapped at her like a cat with cream, sucking and licking, then using his thumb right on the hood to help her come in an earth-shattering spasm in his mouth.
It took a minute for her to regain herself. He leaned back on his knees, watching her with pride, knowing he’d been the one to bring her to this level of ecstasy. Her fingers played along her stomach as she threw her other arm over her eyes and laughed.
“Wow,” she breathed.
And in that moment he saw her, a sexy, beautiful, passionate woman, and the empty place in his heart felt suddenly not so empty. Blinking from between her fingers at him, she smirked, looking down at his raging hard-on.
“Somehow I don’t think you’re nearly as satisfied as I am.”
He didn’t want to talk. Didn’t want to make chitchat, because something was happening in his chest. Something he’d never thought could happen again. She was coming to mean something to him.
Her shrewish tongue and temper, the way she felt fearless in trading barbs with him. Her bravery in life, being willing to expose her secret to save the life of a little girl. He wasn’t sure he liked what he was feeling; it was too overwhelming. He’d lost a lover before, and it’d nearly wrecked him.
She must have noticed something was off with him because, frowning, she sat up and grabbed on to his shoulders. “Frenzy? What’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?”
Big, luminous amber eyes stared back at him and he had to swallow to push the stupid lump back down his throat, where it belonged. What in the hell was going on with him?
But he didn’t want her thinking his sudden epiphany had anything to do with her lacking in the sexual department. He shook his head.
And he didn’t know how she did it, but suddenly light dawned in her eyes and her rosebud lips parted into a tiny O. She nodded. “You’re remembering her, aren’t you?”
Physically they didn’t look that much alike. Adrianna had been an English beauty, pale and freckle-faced. He brushed Mila’s cheek. “Sometimes your eyes…” he admitted in a scratchy voice.
Hanging on to his hand, she laid a tender kiss on his knuckles. Again the fire was back. That simmering heat he felt any time she touched him. It was a slow burn that would rage out of control the longer he was with her. He knew that, felt it happening all over again.
“Don’t worry, Frenzy,” she whispered, “I will never try to take her place. You must understand that. Don’t panic.” She pressed a heated kiss to the side of his neck, right over the throbbing vein, causing his pulse to leap and his cock to grow even more painfully hard. “This is just two grown adults scratching an itch. That’s all.”
The panic laying siege to his soul slowly began to fade the more she touched and petted and cosseted him. Her clean, beautiful scent filled his head like a drug, making him dizzy with want and need.
Pulling his head against her breast, she patted his hair over and over until finally all that remained was a razor’s edge of desperate wanting.
This time she was the aggressor. Crawling onto his lap, she spread her legs, allowing just the tip of his swollen cock to rub against the warm wetness of her. He hissed, digging his fingers into her hips, trying to pull her even closer, while also dragging out the moment as long as possible because he wasn’t ready to end it yet and he knew if he entered her, it would be over in a matter of minutes.
“Look at me,” she said, framing his hands with her delicate fingers. She bit her bottom lip before running her bright pink tongue along the seam of it. “Do you see me?” she asked.
Shadow and moonlight kissed the planes of her face, revealed the faint freckles scattered along the bridge of her nose. Her wild mane of blond hair framed her delicate heart-shaped face, and he wondered how he could have been so blind in the beginning.
He nodded, hypnotized as her finger grazed his jawline over and over. “I see you.”
Her smile was radiant and then there were no more words as she lowered herself, slowly, inch by torturous inch, down the length of his cock.
Death. A stigma. A blight on the world. That’s what his kind was, even within faerie. They did the job no one else wanted to do, but once the job was done, once the kill was over and they were no longer needed, none wanted to be around them.
Adrianna hadn’t known what he really was. She’d loved the titled man she’d thought him to be. She’d loved him, he had no doubt, but she’d loved the position in society a marriage with him would have brought too.
Mila stood to gain nothing with him. There was no guarantee he would save her. She’d been a fighter and loner most of her life.
He flexed into her body, seeking and receiving absolution. She was so clean. So pure. Burying his face in her neck, he pumped in and out, hissing at how tight she was, how her inner muscles clenched him like a wet fist. The sensation was incredible and he hissed again, gritting his teeth as his stomach tightened with the first stirrings of climax.
Lifting his face to her lips, she breathed against his mouth. “Give me all of you, death. I can take it.”
It was more than he could bear. A rushing tidal wave of energy filled his cock and he squeezed his eyes shut as the very soul of him seemed to drain from his body into hers. She howled, giving in to her animal nature, tossing her head back and looking like some wild Valkyrie of legend as she came, before finally passing out on top of him and breathing heavily.
Breathing easier than he had in decades, he held on to her, still joined to her body, reluctant to release her just yet. Pushing the hair out of her sparkling eyes, she laughed. “I think I just woke the neighbors.”
His lips twitched. “Nearest neighbor is more than twenty miles down the road.”
“Did I really just howl? My god, that was”—she snorted adorably and shook her head—“insane. I don’t think I’ve ever howled before.”
“You haven’t been shifter long. In fact”—he circled the base of her breast with the pad of his thumb—“I think you’ve definitely got more shifter than vampire in you.”
“Oh yeah?” She arched a delicate brow. “What makes you think so?” She kissed his nose before finally standing up from him.
Arms feeling strangely bereft without her in them, he leaned back against the headboard and tucked his hand behind his neck. “You kept sniffing me.”
“Sniffing you!” She twirled at the kitchen sink, a look of delight mixed with mortification scrawled tiny laugh lines around her eyes. “I didn’t even.”
Ready to continue their playful banter, he was silenced when the familiar fire rushed down his left arm, turning his hand to bone. Scowling, he shot up from the bed.
Mila pushed off the counter, looking around. “What’s the matter?”
Realizing something had just died, but not sensing the presence of a mortal, Frenzy shook his head.
“What’s going on, Frenzy?” she asked in a hushed tone as she walked to him and moved onto a corner of the bed, sitting on her knees as a visible shiver rippled down her spine.
Holding up a finger to his lips, he strode to the front door. This cabin was so isolated it may as well have been on another planet. “Something has died. Stay where you are, I’m going to investigate.”
Opening the door, he psyched himself up for whatever might greet him. A full moon cast its luminous light around the front porch, giving everything a hazy lavender appearance. The death was so recent there wasn’t an odor of decomposition; the only thing he smelled was rodent.
Frowning, he glanced down on the porch itself and finally chuckled as he stooped over to retrieve the furry body of a squirrel. Lifting it by its tail, he turned to show it to Mila. “Just a squirrel.”
Nodding, she smiled back at him, relief evident in her gaze. It took him only a moment to walk the squirrel far enough from his cabin that his hand could then return to flesh.
Coming back inside, he washed up.
“I didn’t know your hand turned when there was no human soul to harvest,” she said casually.
“Our hands turn whenever we’re around death. But it’s gone now. I saved the day.” He grinned and she laughed.
A second later, eyes twinkling merrily, she said, “Now, about that sniffing thing…I think you’re lying.”
He snorted, crawling back onto the bed with her. “You did. I think you like my scent, little shifter.”
“I think you stink, faerie; you smell like squirrel.”
“Stink!” He feigned indignation, then, taking her shoulder, he maneuvered them until she was once again tucked beneath his body, and he was already hard for her again.
He enjoyed this side of her, this laughing, smiling side. It was as if they’d mutually decided to get along. It was refreshing and made him see her in a whole new light.
“Umm. Is that normal?” She peeked down between them, where his cock brushed against her center. Biting her lip (he was recognizing it as a habit of hers when sexually aroused), she wiggled deeper, eliciting a moan from him. “Didn’t we just?”
“We did.” A wicked grin stole across his lips. “But I’m not human, O’Fallen. Faerie sex is the best sex out there, or hadn’t you heard?”
Groaning, she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Good, because I’m still so freaking horny. I thought it was just me.”
With a growl, he latched on to the side of her neck with his teeth in a gentle (by immortal standards) bite. “Then let me scratch that itch, shall I?” He swirled his tongue around her fluttering vein.
“Oh gods, yes,” she sighed and he slipped inside her, feeling as if the world had finally righted itself.
She was perfection. Her scent, her body, her smiles, her moods, even her sass…He found he liked it all.
They made love into the wee hours of the dawn.
* * *
The Morrigan stared at the shadow as it danced and swayed before her throne. “You killed the butcher. Why?”
The creature hadn’t taken on form yet; she was still just an inkblot of shadow. “Because he was useless. The seer is no longer in San Francisco. I did not need him for cover,” she hissed. “Where is my morsel, Queen?”
The seething mass of darkness expanded and The Morrigan lifted her head, realizing there was a problem: the creature was growing stronger by the day. Death’s kiss hadn’t drained her nearly enough; in no time she’d be back to hunting the seer, and The Morrigan couldn’t have that.
Knowing her options were limited, the queen knew there was only one way to regain firm control over her creation. As much as the thought rankled.
“Do you even know?” the shadow taunted, her voice like a blast of arctic spray.
Hissing, the queen gripped the rails of her throne and sat forward. “I know where she is. Be prepared.”
Standing, The Morrigan strode for the door of her chamber.
“Where are you going?” the shadow demanded.
And then a bolt of raw, sizzling power blasted The Morrigan from behind, a darkness that tried to leech its way inside her. Eyes going wide, The Morrigan wrapped her fists around the darkness trying to worm its way inside and tossed it to the ground.
Twirling, she glared haughtily at her creation. The shadow swayed, giving her a mocking, menacing glare. It’d tried to taste the queen’s soul. Had she been stronger, who knew what could have happened then.
“Do not ever think to defy me, shadow; you’ll find me to be a much more formidable foe than your puny seers.”
“Then get me the girl.”
Spine ramrod straight, the queen bit down on her cheek hard enough to draw blood. Revealing her hand too soon would ruin any chance of success for her plan to come to fruition. She gave the shadow a smile of teeth and menace. “Just be prepared for my call.”
With that, she walked out to see a woman about a box.
* * *
The woods around the cabin were the murky twilight of predawn when Mila finally emerged from their sex nest. She smirked, her body finally sated after four hours of petting, touching, and moans.
Sometimes it felt like she’d known Frenzy for an eternity. The days of constant bickering and squabbling seemed miles away.
He was lying in the bed still; he’d not wanted her to leave his side, but unlike him she wasn’t ready to lie down and close her eyes. The world was too alive, too full of noise to let her rest. There was now no denying that things were definitely changed between them. Good or bad, she wasn’t exactly sure. It was odd to her to think where her life was now.
Here she was standing in the center of a crowded redwood forest, staring up at the tree line and waiting for the sun. Vampires couldn’t greet the morning, but she wasn’t a typical vampire. There was shifter in her too, courtesy of George. At first she’d hated what she’d turned into.
But barefoot and naked, she felt free. The cool air caressed her skin, the gentle berry-laden breeze curled through her hair. Taking a running leap, she jumped into the branch nearest her, at least thirty feet up, and did it with ease. Grabbing on to the corrugated bark, she drew her hand down it over and over, touching it as if for the first time.
Noting that the bark wasn’t just rough darkened wood as she’d once viewed it when a human, but that it was also full of life. It was nourishment for the colony of ants that made the tree its home.
She played with the rough texture of the bark, watching as the ants milled in uniform from one knot to the next. A low droning rang in her ears and when she sniffed she smelled the wet mulch of a burrowing grub deep inside.
The velvety navy sky began to gradually turn a light lavender. While she would never have chosen this life for herself, it wasn’t altogether terrible either. Now that she finally let it sink in that there’d be no going back, she was determined to make the most of this life. For however long she had it.
Her thoughts drifted to the shadow. This quiet interlude couldn’t last, it wouldn’t. She knew that. Mila closed her eyes, trying in vain to think of any alternate plan to heading into faerie. But if Frenzy was right, and The Morrigan was the one who’d created the shadow, there really was no choice but to beg her help.
Instantly the feeling of hard eyes on her made her whirl around in a crouching stance, fingers curved downward with suddenly elongated claws. But what was staring back at her wasn’t at all what she’d expected to find.
It took her brain a moment to process that it wasn’t the shadow she was staring at, but a woman so breathtakingly beautiful that it was almost unbearable to gaze upon her for long.
Dressed in a robe of midnight silk with thousands of small diamonds inset within it, winking and sparkling as she neared, the woman was hovering in air, not standing on a branch as Mila was, and looking around at the canopy of trees with curious, bright ruby-red eyes.
Her hair was thick, interspersed with threads of red and black. The red gleaming like fire, the black like rich oil. It curled around her oval face becomingly. A patrician nose and full, red lips had Mila realizing this could be none other than The Morrigan herself.
She gasped, opening her mouth and ready to cry out to Frenzy.
“I wouldn’t, dear.” The Morrigan smiled. But it wasn’t a pretty one: it was full of sharp teeth, and the way her lips curled up at the ends made Mila think of the devil incarnate.
The Morrigan could kill her with a whisper of breath. There was none in faerie as awe-inspiring or frightening as the queen of darkness and shadow.
“What…do you want with me?” Mila grabbed her chest, wishing like hell for the millionth time that she could read her future as easily as she could others’. That somehow she could have known the queen was headed her way, that she and Frenzy could have prepared themselves for this.
She blinked, a befuddled look on her face. But Mila wasn’t fooled in the slightest; The Morrigan was never confused.
“What I’ve always wanted with you. Your talents, of course.”
“How did you know where to find us?”
“Us?” She quirked a brow. “Quite a proprietary statement. You do realize”—she took another step closer, causing her robe to flare out around her knees—“that Frenzy belongs to me.” She tapped her chest with a red-painted nail. “They all belong to me.”
Again she gave her a vicious grin of sharp teeth.
There wasn’t much Mila would ever back down from; her hot Irish temper rarely allowed it. But even she wasn’t stupid enough to tangle with the goddess of strife and war.
“Frenzy is my guardian; it’s all I meant by that.”
A look of annoyance flashed so quickly across the queen’s face that Mila doubted whether she’d seen it at all. Because now the queen looked smug and self-righteous. “I allow him to stay with you out of the kindness of my heart, you see.”
Quicker than Mila could track, the queen was no longer standing in front of her, but now she was beside her, and latching on to Mila’s shoulders, dragging her nose through her hair and down her neck before setting her quickly aside with a powerful shudder.
“You stink of dog,” she hissed. “That stupid cow Lise.”
The queen didn’t seem to be talking to Mila anymore. Feeling all sorts of violated, even though the woman had only sniffed her, she hugged her arms to her chest and scooted a little bit away, just to put some space between them.
Obviously noticing, she laughed. “Do I scare you, little neophyte?”
She shook her head, tongue glued to the roof of her mouth as she tried to figure out what the queen was doing here.
Frenzy had told her the queen rarely traveled to the human realm. Even she knew if the queen had a message to send she did it through her crows Badb and Nemain. Whatever The Morrigan wanted, she wanted it badly enough to come herself.
She waved her hand as if it was no matter to her one way or another. “Time for truths,” the queen said in a sonorous voice that at once boomed and whispered.
The trees, the very world around them, grew heavy and silent. Almost still. Like the world was frozen, except for them. Mila kept casting glances at the cabin, expecting Frenzy to realize his queen stood mere yards from him.
Shouldn’t he have some sort of internal beacon when it came to his monarch? Not that she needed him to rescue her; as much as The Morrigan unnerved Mila, she didn’t actually feel she was in any sort of danger.
Taking a deep, cleansing breath, she forced herself to think through the panic of having the one immortal she would have rather died a ghastly, brutal death by poisoning than to ever see in person standing before her in all her regal glory.
“What truth?”
Doing that snobbish, prim sniff, The Morrigan turned jeweled eyes on Mila. “The Candyman. The vampires that attacked you. Which would you prefer I touch on first?”
“How in the hell do you know all that?” she snapped, not stopping to censor her thoughts.
Waving her fingers with a bored expression, The Morrigan simply rolled her eyes. “Because, my dear, I set the whole damn thing into motion, of course. How could you have not figured that out by now?”
It took a second for the shock to wear off. Well, more like a minute. Because she was pretty sure she’d just heard the queen of faerie admit to siccing the vampires on her, ruining her life with the HPA, and, if she was to be believed, doing something with the Candyman?
Brain a complete muddle, she shook her head. “I don’t understand—”
“Of that I am perfectly sure.”
It was annoying how beautiful the woman was. How the wind teased through her hair, making it billow behind her like a soft cloud of deepest shadow. How the robe fitted around her amazing body like a glove, showcasing a long, elegant thigh and supple calf. Mila, on the other hand, was very conscious of her disheveled appearance, the scars running along her cheeks, making her look like she wore a permanent and macabre jack-o’-lantern grin.
“I want you, Mila O’Fallen. Is that clear enough for you?”
She shook her head.
“Pay attention,” the queen snapped. “Since your dim-witted brain has a difficult time keeping up, listen and don’t ask questions.”
It took everything she possessed not to snap and at least try to rip the woman’s smug head off her milky white shoulders. Breathing deeply, she indicated that the queen should proceed.
“Seventeen years ago I met your gran—”
Mila’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. Her gran had never spoken to either her or her mum about a meeting with the great fae queen.
The queen smiled. This one was pure joy; it made her eyes sparkle with verve. “She had such power. It simply radiated out of her pores. I knew then I must possess her. Possess all of you. I would have cosseted and pampered you; I simply wished to use your powers, not kill you to own them myself.”
Mila snorted. “Aye. I’m sure, that’s all it was. You’d be the first. You’d have enslaved us.”
“Enslavement,” she scoffed. “I would have treated you as the queens that you were. All would have groveled and bowed down to you. With the exception of myself, of course. But your gran refused to hear me.”
“Bowed and groveled. Forgive me, Queen, but that sounds like a fate worse than death.”
“Funny.” Her smile said she thought it was anything but. “Those are the exact words your gran used. I couldn’t convince her. I tried to go the friendly route, but she refused to hear me.”
A cold shiver washed down Mila’s spine, and her lips tingled and felt numb as she said, “What do you mean, you tried?”
“Well, dear, when she refused to hear me out, I simply had no choice. I always get what I want. And what I want is a seer in my retinue.”
It was hard to swallow—Mila’s throat felt suddenly swollen and her tongue too thick for her mouth. Adrenaline flooded her nerves, made her hands jittery. “You created the shadow because of her?”
“No. Because I wanted a seer. It didn’t matter who, so long as I got one.”
A seer had been born to help humanity, to be the voice of reason and hope within a community. Eons ago, that’s the way it’d been. A seer had been as vaunted and respected as any chieftain in any clan. But greed could make even the kindest corrupt. Eventually the monsters that’d sought out their help had suddenly decided that they no longer wanted to pay tithe for the privilege: instead they wanted to enslave and dominate a seer. A seer became a prized possession and commodity, and many a war had been fought over them.
So much so that the women had decided the only way to stop the bloodshed, to stop the fighting, was to slowly allow their bloodlines to die out. At least three of the five lines were already extinct.
“She would not listen to reason. I simply wished to scare her.” The Morrigan shrugged as if it was just a minor oops.
But it wasn’t. Because if the queen controlled the shadow, then it meant she’d sent that vile creature to kill them.
Mila had been haunted by her family’s death, haunted by their screams as first their buttery, golden souls had slipped from their bodies into the demon before it consumed their eyes. The only reason the shadow hadn’t found Mila was because gran and mum had used themselves as decoys.
They’d been trapped by the beast in a darkened alley. They’d all been running toward the cathedral, hoping perhaps the sacred soil of the church would prevent the nightmare from stepping foot inside.
Then the screams had come and when she’d turned, she realized they’d turned around and surrendered. Gran’s eyes had been huge in her softly lined face. Pleading with her not to come back for them, to keep going, to survive. And she had, at a price.
“You lost control of the beast, didn’t you?” She hurled the accusation like a stone.
Hissing, exposing sharp fangs, The Morrigan shoved her face into Mila’s. “I lose control of nothing!”
However, the way she said it, Mila didn’t really believe it. She shook her head. “You did, Queen. You’ve lost control.”
The queen vibrated, the stench of her anger a palpable offense to Mila’s nostrils. Then she was calm and closing her eyes, she shook her head. “I did not lose control. But if the beast sees me coming, she’ll know what I’m doing. So it cannot be me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I still wish to retain a seer and because, whether you believe me or not, I developed a strange sort of respect for your idiotic gran.”
Gnashing her teeth seemed the wisest course of action. Because what she really wanted to do right now was wipe that haughty visage off the queen’s face and tell her to go straight to hell. The only thing stopping her was the thought that if gran were still alive, she would have beaten Mila to within an inch of her life for even thinking it.
“What about the Candyman? HPA?”
She sighed. “I used them to draw you out.”
Rubbing the bridge of her nose, because none of this was adding up, Mila tried to think through this. “But you said you know everything. You should have known where I was?”
It was now the queen’s turn to look like she’d been asked to swallow a lemon. Reluctant words came out of her. “I cannot track a seer the way I do others. The patterns of your brain move too randomly and fluidly for me to pinpoint you down to a specific spot.”
“Then how did you know I was in San Francisco?”
Staring at her nails, she said, “I can get a feel for a certain location. But you were so clever, so quiet, that it took me forever to figure out where you worked. Once I did, I knew I’d have to create a case in which HPA would be required to use your services more frequently than normal.”
“Who is the Candyman?”
“Just some pervert I extracted from the loony bin.”
This still wasn’t adding up. “How does the shadow fit into all this?” Mila knew from working the case that the Candyman and the shadow were working together, but she could never figure out why.
“The shadow is a clever little wench,” the queen hissed. “If she’d seen me at all she would have known what my ultimate endgame really was.”
“To find me for yourself.”
“Aye,” she said without an ounce of remorse. Not that Mila had expected her to show any—the queen wasn’t exactly known for her graciousness.
“So you did what? Fed intel to the Candyman?”
“You make it sound as if that was a bad thing.” She lifted a brow. “I needed to find you.”
How in the name of all that was holy could The Morrigan not recognize that what she’d done had been an abominable thing? “Do you realize how many lives you ruined? How many women died for the perversions of that twisted freak?”
Tucking her hands behind her back before she throttled a queen, Mila mentally counted to ten. The Morrigan looked perplexed by her outburst, which only pissed her off more.
“They would have died anyway. They were mortals,” she finally said, as if it made all the sense in the world and Mila was too dense to figure it out herself.
“Oh my god!” She slapped her forehead. “Do you honestly think you’re endearing yourself to me with this load of shite? You let loose not only one, but two monsters. If you can’t see that as heinous, then—”
The queen laughed, but it wasn’t pleasant. It was an angry, scornful sound. “I’m not here to make friends with you, neophyte. Do you honestly think I care at all what you think of me?” she scoffed, tossing her hair over her shoulders. “I’m here because that damn meddlesome Lise ruined my plans and now I must rectify it.”
Gods, the woman was amazing. How could she sit here and laugh and act as if Mila were the one in the wrong? Had she lost all her humanity, all her…and then it dawned on Mila: the queen had never possessed any.
She was a faerie. An immortal, one used to viewing humanity as little more than a nuisance. The same way Frenzy had viewed her when they’d first met. Just when she’d begun to find the positives in this life, she was once again faced with the brutal, stark ugliness of it as well. Would this be her someday? Did Frenzy even care for her? If this was how he really thought, then just what had they been doing all day yesterday? Was it all just a game to him?
That the queen was able to toss away a few lives for the sake of her endgame because humans meant nothing? It made her sick.
“I will not help you.”
“Oh, but you will.” She nodded and the air rushed with the shiver of a thousand sparks. It rippled along her flesh like a low, burning fire. “I’m not asking, I’m telling you.”
“How did you find me?”
“What?” The queen’s brows gathered, as if she was confused by Mila’s sudden change of subject.
“You said you couldn’t find me; how did you this time?”
“Frenzy belongs to me, darling. How else do you think I found you? Any time a reaper’s hand turns to bone I can find them. It happened to him last night, did it not?” Her look was so knowing and damn smug it made Mila want to vomit.
“But Lise—”
The Morrigan’s face contorted into a frightening mask. “Lise, that bitch,” she spat. “The woman oversteps her bounds. Death is mine and always shall be. You have one way out of this mess, Mila. I will give you the same choice I gave your gran.”
“Work for you or have my soul ripped out of me? That it?” she snapped, at her wits’ end with the haughty beauty.
“In a word, yes.”
Mila opened her mouth, ready to rip the queen a bloody new one, when she held up a finger.
“And before you tell me to go to hell, remember that I can make Frenzy’s life a torment.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to deny that there was anything between her and Frenzy, that The Morrigan had anything on her. But after what they’d shared last night, the truths that’d passed between them, it would be a horrible lie.
“If you want your freedom from that devil, then take this.” The queen shoved a black box that’d materialized from thin air into Mila’s chest.
Grabbing it, she looked down at the heavily lacquered box. It was cool to the touch and gleamed with a strange luminescence when sunlight hit it a certain way.
“And what am I to do with this?” She held up the palm-sized box. “Toss it at its head?”
Covering the box with her hand, the queen glared at Mila. “It is simple. Get close enough with the lid open, the rest will take care of itself. There is more power inside that box than in an ounce of plutonium. Don’t make me regret helping you. Wait for the shadow; I will send her soon.”
And with that, the queen of air and darkness was gone.