A Toiling Darkness (20 page)

Frey didn’t want to be here and neither did
I. He has only ever been aggressive since I met him and I didn’t
need that kind of attitude around me, especially right now. While
as a child I would probably goad him or ignore him, in my true form
I wanted to kill him, put an end to his miserable attitude and do
everyone else a favor.

I curled my lip, barely holding onto myself.
He saw the look and openly glared at me. I tried my best to ignore
the open aggression, but Kalen opened a door to all my emotions I
normally kept clamped down since forever ago and now I found his
hostility to hurt a little. So I responded the only way I knew how
to, with the same kind of hostility he showed me.

“Why is he here?” I snarled.

Kay stiffened, picking up on both of our
moods. “You should be happy he’s here. He’s keeping the humans from
finding you. We’ve been searching for you all night.”

“I’m fine, so you don’t need to keep
worrying. It isn’t like you.”

“Why did you do it?” Kay asked with steel in
his voice. “I could have helped you.”

I had to tear my eyes away from Frey to look
at him. He looked exhausted, dark circles around his eyes. His
usually immaculate appearance was marred with his ruffled clothes
and disheveled hair. He was still wearing the clothes he did last
night and now just looked like a porn star with a really bad
hangover.

“No, you would have only gotten in my
way.”

“I didn’t give you permission to move me to
some small crappy apartment.”

“That crappy apartment is my home,” I
mumbled, knowing he heard me. With a louder voice I said, “At least
you didn’t end up outside in the storm.”

“Oh, how considerate of you.” He rolled his
eyes. “You didn’t even have my permission to move me.”

I smirked at him. “Yes I did, or it wouldn’t
have worked. When I asked if you trusted me, you said yes.”

“That shouldn’t have worked,” he
growled.

“Then admit you wanted out. You can be brave
all you want but the expression on your face was enough. You wanted
out, you wanted to protect yourself.”

“Sir—”

“Shut it, Frey,” Kay snapped before turning
back to face me. Some of the anger had leaked from his expression
and the waves of heat lessened. “I told you, I don’t want you to
die. That I wasn’t going to leave you hanging like last time.”

“I know.”

“Then why did you do that to me?”

I had to look away from those intense eyes.
I looked down at my hands and the dry flakes of blood on them. I
will have to scrub them raw later on just to get all the blood and
dirt out from beneath my nails. Most of it was probably my blood
too.

I cringed, slowly understanding how close to
death I was. Even us immortals have a weakness and apparently mine
was Kalen’s weapon.

“I was cocky. I believed nothing could kill
me. I thought I could handle it and keep you out of harm’s
way.”

He stayed silent for a moment, thinking
about something. “And now?” His voice was soft and understanding.
There was nothing worse than to believe you were invincible and
letting that conceited attitude lead you to your death.

“There is a big possibility that I can
die.”

He stared at me, his face careful, but not
before I saw the fear in his eyes. He was surprised and it wasn’t a
good surprise. “How? I’ve seen some pretty fucked up shit happen to
you throughout the years and none of it killed you. It may take you
a while to heal, even years, but it never killed you. Fuck, you
were pretty much all bones at one point and still you managed to
come back from it.”

I shrugged. “I’m not too sure. There’s
something familiar about the method though.”

“Familiar how?”

I shrugged again, feeling useless. “Like a
memory, but it was so long ago that it’s more like an impression
now. Something that happened. Something that I should remember, but
I just can’t.” I shook my head, hoping to dislodge the memory. No
such luck. “It was too long ago.”

Kay’s jaw tensed, not happy with my
response. He glared down at the floor for a moment before his eyes
narrowed. He reached down and touched some kind of white dust on
the floor. The only signs that the beads of light existed were the
dust particles. He rubbed it between his fingers and sniffed at
it.

“Is this from what was killing you?”

I nodded. “Do you know what it is?” I asked,
hopeful.

“No,” he shook his head, unhappy with his
lack of knowledge in something magic related.

“The best I can describe it is as little
beads of white light. I had to push them out of my body and any
flesh that came into contact with it burned. It was like I was
burning from the inside out.”

“I’ll have to look into some stuff, see what
I can find.” He took out a handkerchief, put some of the particles
into it and then rolled up carefully before tucking it back into
his pocket.

I leaned back against the wall, barely
staying on my feet. My body relaxed a little. Kay was finally going
to help me, even if it was just a little bit. I’ll take what I can
at this point.

“We should get out of here before your
lackey pops a vein.”

Yeah, Frey was that angry and impatient.

The Fae glared at me but held his tongue. It
was for the best because all I wanted to do was show him how much
of a lesser being he was. I was more powerful than him in this
form.

His two forms no longer overlapped and I saw
him as the Fae he really was. His skin wasn’t just alabaster white
as I originally thought. It was nearly transparent too. He was
still really tall, a good foot taller than me. Some of his skin has
a dark blue hue to it to match the not just big, but huge blue
eyes. His eyes took up half his face. The thin dark blue curls
looked stiff and sharp, and made me wonder how he was able to run
his hand through them without cutting them up.

“Don’t worry. It isn’t just you. He’s like
that with everyone.”

“Aw and I was starting to think I was
special,” I teased a little. “I’m a little surprised though. If his
attitude is like this, then why do you keep him around? Your
tolerance is worse than mine.”

“He’s a powerful Fae, especially with
barriers and the likes.” He shrugged. “He’s been very useful,
though I do wonder about last night.”

“How did the slauve get through his barriers
if he’s so powerful?” I finished for him.

“Exactly.” He nodded. We both looked over at
him and shook our heads.

“Maybe not so useful anymore?” I asked. “I
don’t know. That slauve was pretty kickass, gave me a run for my
money.”

“Maybe,” he said thoughtfully. “Anyways,
lets get you back to my place.”

He pulled me with him towards Frey. Frey was
smart enough to ignore anything we said about him. If I was him, I
would have started a fight. It was probably why more people hated
me than they did him.

“Your place? Why?” I asked. The last place I
wanted to be was in Kay’s home.

“Because I can protect you better there than
at that dingy place you call home. You can rest up, recharge, and
I’ll make sure no one bothers you.”

“I think your place bothers me enough. No
way I can rest there. There’s too much going on with your
place.”

He smiled, knowing exactly what I meant. His
place was one massive death trap for strangers, and his taste in
decorations…dark. It made me feel homesick sometimes, not that I
had any particular home. His place just made me miss some things
from the past. Not all of it was bad.

Kay’s home was in a concrete building with
ten floors. From a distant it looked like an enormous rock that
fell into the middle of the city. Whenever I saw it, I always
thought the architecture lacked creativity. Kay loved it, which
wasn’t surprising. It has way too much security. We were on the
outskirts of East Rheems, with the harbor and South Rheems only a
couple blocks away. This area was built by the paranoid. Most
buildings were well built, sturdy and meant to survive any natural
disaster. There were even underground bunks underneath most of them
in case of radiation or bombings. Ever since terrorist attacks went
on the rise, the bunks were well stocked with plenty of water and
canned goods to last months, if not a year.

Entering, it became even clearer to why he
chose this particular building. The security was top of the line,
the elevator needed a key-card just to open the door and a passcode
to go to the floor you wanted. We went to the top floor without
ever feeling the elevator move. No inertia took effect and within
seconds we were stepping out into the Renaissance period.

The spacious flat was filled with expensive
Renaissance art and sculptures. I recognized some of the paintings
as being Masolino’s and another by Fra Angelico. He had one of my
favorite oil paintings hanging on the wall, the familiar strokes of
the landscape done by Giovanni Bellini. There was a small wooden
sculpture by Brunelleschi sitting on a small table. Every piece of
art was the original and if money ever became an issue, all he had
to do was sell one of them and then he was set for the rest of his
eternity. All the artwork brought me through a portal and right
into the Renaissance. I always knew he loved that time period. I
just never knew how much. Maybe obsessed wasn’t enough to describe
his passion.

“Careful not to touch anything. Wouldn’t
want to set off a trap,” he smirked as I reached out to caress a
sculpture. I curled my fingers into a fist and brought it back to
my side. It was just the beauty that was drawing me in but all the
magic. These were more than artwork. Their creators had etched into
ever part of the work their lively hood. Anyone with a drop of
magic in them could feel the pieces screaming for attention. And
underneath that was a little taste of Kay’s personal magic. His
little traps for the foolhardy.

“You would,” I mumbled and worked hard to
keep my hands to myself. It was so tempting to reach out and caress
the sculptures or to feel the brushstrokes on the paintings. The
entire flat was done up in all kinds of shades of red and brown,
giving it a dark, homey feeling. It was a huge contrast to how the
outside of the building looked.

There wasn’t much lighting, just soft lamps
here and there. They softened even more in my presence, but at
least I didn’t shatter them like the ones in his office. I was
starting to get a handle on my powers again.

Frey disappeared into one of the rooms we
passed and I followed Kay into a living room filled with large
old-fashioned furniture. The room smelled of cigars and lemons.
Cabinets lined one of the walls, filled with antiques I recognized
from the Middle Ages. There were bronze knives and jewelry, stained
with age and yet still well preserved. I recognized an original
patina made out of pewter from one of the churches we ransacked in
Italy as a challenge to all things holy. The patina was a shallow
pan, with an intricate carving at the bottom and the handle was an
elaborate design.

“You like?” Kay asked, standing next to me.
I could feel his eyes as he watched my face. My fingers were
touching the glass lightly. I made a noncommittal sound and sat
down on one of the couches.

He sat down across from me and leaned back.
Devon came into the room, his eyes subservient as he stared
downwards and whispered something into Kay’s ear. I couldn’t make
out the words. After a moment, Kay nodded and Devon left the room.
Not once did the shy little gazelle look at me.

“Please stay here and rest.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have that kind of
time. I can only think that the slauve now knows who I am and he’ll
be able to find me here. He’s a honing missile locked onto me.”

Kay gave me a smug smile. “I set up my place
so he won’t be able to locate you. Are you planning to stay in this
form?”

I glanced down at my body. I wasn’t used to
having the long limbs, long slender fingers or even the breasts.
They were large, round and firm…and in my way. I was wearing
clothes Lord Kay was smart enough to bring with him when he went
searching for me. It was a simple man’s t-shirt and sweatpants with
the strings pulled tight against me to hold them up. “No. It’s too
dangerous right now. But you’re going to have to help me go back to
the other one. My power tank is really low.”

“I can help. Just a warning though, you
probably won’t like it. If you did it on your own, it would be less
painful.”

“I’m used to pain,” I smiled weakly.

“No one, not even you, should be used to
pain.” His words came out resigned.

Devon and Frey came into the room and
started setting up candles. They moved about the room in sync to
each other, placing the candles the correct distance from each
other. The whole process was well rehearsed. Kay must have been
making them help him with his magic and now they had a routine down
perfectly.

It took a lot of trust to let someone else
help you with your own magic circles. If they fucked it up, a whole
lot of nasty shit could go down.

“We can only hope the slauve doesn’t
recognize you as a child,” Kay mumbled as he lit the candles. “Your
power is barely the same between the two forms. They fascinatingly
have a different feel from each other.”

“So if I run into him as a child, he won’t
recognize me. Even though we nearly killed each other last
night?”

“That’s my guess.”

“Want to place my life on that guess?” I
asked.

I relaxed a little with that tidbit of
knowledge. If he still didn’t recognize me as Akhlys then I still
had a chance. That wasn’t the whole reason it felt good to know he
wouldn’t try to kill me when he saw me again. It hurt just thinking
that Kalen wanted me dead and would try to do it. The slauve had
really grown on me. His stubbornness, naïve beliefs, and
unconditional kindness, all of it was cute, and different, and
refreshing.