Downs, Jana - Ravyn's Destiny [Ravyn Warriors 3] (Siren Publishing Allure ManLove) (19 page)

* * * *

The vampires gave them their space that night and during the day, but when the sun set the following evening, they came knocking on the door. Druas had tried without success to repair it earlier that day. Salvatore was still exhausted and snuggled between the warm, reassuring bodies of his bodyguards.

“Evening, Prince Salvatore,” Alex, the Master vampire of the city, greeted. He stood just off to the left of the bed as if he didn’t want to interrupt their moment of rest. Salvatore’s eyes rested on his face.

“Hi.”

“You look like death warmed over, friend.”

“Thanks.”

“Leave him alone, Alex,” Dageus grumbled, hugging Salvatore close. “He had a rough night.”

“Yeah back off, bitey,” Tony added.

“I’m not attacking him.” Alex raised his hands in surrender. “I just wanted to check on Salvatore. He’s been gone two months.”

“Two months?” Salvatore wondered, frowning. He pushed his Ravyns off of his naked body. “I’ve been gone over a year.”

“Time must be different in the faery world,” Alex said sagely. “Demontia and Earth run on different timetables. It makes sense that the fae world would run on yet another.”

“You were gone a whole year over there?” Dageus echoed. “Were you a prisoner?”

They hadn’t spoken of his time away in the hours they’d been together. Salvatore had been too raw about the whole thing. He twisted the ring on his finger. An imperfection in the metal caught the light. There, etched in the metal, was the beginning of his pledge.
Wherever you go. So go I. Call my name. Saoi
. Huh. That was strange. He didn’t remember his wedding ring saying that before.

“Earth to Salvatore. You okay, my Prince?” Ally’s voice broke his examination of his ring.

“Fine. I’m fine.”

“Gods, is that a wedding band?” Dageus was the one to notice and grabbed his hand, dragging it toward the lamp that Alex had turned on. Salvatore blushed.

“Holy
shit
. You got
married
?” Tony sounded like he was about to give birth to kittens. “Who?”

“I married my Destiny.” Salvatore stroked the shining band. “The Fae King of Underhill.” They all sucked in a collective breath at his admission. No one had seen that coming.

“So you’re, uh…”

“That is irrelevant.” Dageus interrupted Tony’s inquiry. “Married. Salvatore, where is your husband?”

Salvatore sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “He dropped me off here sometime during our wedding night and left.” He really didn’t want to cry. He really didn’t. “I don’t know why he left.” Immediately his Ravyns reached for him, murmuring soothing words and running their hands over him in comfort.

“Fae are strange creatures. Ever since we learned you were taken by them, we’ve been doing research in my library,” Alex offered. “You’re welcome to look over the research we’ve accumulated. If you want your lover back—” He paused. “You do want him back?” Salvatore nodded. “Maybe your answers can be found there.”

“Maybe it’s some sort of test,” Druas offered. They all turned to look at him. “What? Haven’t you ever read any fairy tales? They always involve some sort of quest.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. I went on a quest. I left my own realm. I took up his challenges. I won his bed. I grew in my powers. I married his ass. Isn’t that where we’re supposed to get happily ever after?”

Alex nodded. “I have to agree with Salvatore in this instance, Dru. Happily ever after comes after the wedding. Of course, if we’re going by Grimms’ fairy tales, then they might not ever get a happy ending.”

“Thanks for that vote of confidence, vampire,” Salvatore grumbled. “I need to get up.” He picked up a flower petal off his chest. “Look, I’m wilting.”

“I like the haircut by the way,” Ally complimented. “It makes you look a lot different.” His hand came up to tug on Salvatore’s nipple piercing. “These do, too.” The Demon Prince hissed and smacked his hand.

“Knock that off. They’re sensitive. Up. All of you. I want a shower.” He looked at Alex. “Then I’ll meet you in your library. This has to be some sort of puzzle.” The Ravyns gave him matching grins. They liked seeing their Prince with that much determination on his face. Salvatore took a deep breath and extricated himself from the pile of Ravyns. He would get closure from his lover in one way or another.

* * * *

“The damn ring won’t come off,” Salvatore griped as he wrestled with the metallic ring on his finger. He tugged. He pulled. He twisted. Nothing.
Damn
.

“What do you mean it won’t come off?” Ally wondered from his place on the floor of Alex’s study. He’d long since stopped flipping through the piles of papers that were stacked in not-so-neat manila folders that Ally’s fiancé, Damian, had arranged for them to use to stick their research in.

“It’s stuck or something. Just won’t come off my finger. It moves fine when I turn it, but when I try to pull it off, it sticks to my skin like it’s glued.”

“Magick, my Prince,” Tony provided. “A binding.”

Of course it was. Why hadn’t Salvatore thought of that? He was tired. He knew that. They’d been holed up here for almost a week now, pouring over the mountains of fairy tales, eyewitness accounts, and all other manner of hoopla, trying to find a grain of truth that would be helpful in tracking down or summoning a Fairy King. So far they’d turned up nada.

“How’s Theron?” he asked suddenly. He realized that he hadn’t even seen his cousin since he’d been back. He worried about Theron. When he’d sent his Ravyns back to Demontia to fetch him, Theron had arrived with a soft voice and a nervous disposition.

“He’s spent a lot of time in his room since you’ve been gone. I don’t think he even knows that you’re back to be honest,” Tony offered from his place by the fireplace. Poor thing was probably worried about his own fate because of Salvatore’s “death.” Tony had told him that they hadn’t wanted to get Theron’s hopes up by telling him that Salvatore had been writing them in case it was an elaborate sham.

A crisp knock sounded on the door, interrupting whatever reply Salvatore had been forming. His Ravyns tensed, and Salvatore’s heart pounded. Hope clawed its way up into his chest.

“Master,” Cord’s voice sounded through the wood, addressing Alex. The vampire used his inhuman speed to open up the door and admit the shifter. “There are two men waiting in the foyer who claim to be sent from the Faery King with a message for Prince Salvatore.”

“Show them to the tearoom,” Alex commanded immediately. He glanced at his Timex watch. “It’s just after sunset, so all of my people are up and about the house. What do you want to do, Salvatore? Should I call for extra reinforcements or let you handle this?”

“It’s a personal matter, Alexander.” Salvatore stood, smoothing his hand down his shirt. He’d felt oddly confined in his clothing since he’d been back. Everything felt too tight and constrictive. “I’d prefer to deal with it by myself.” The Ravyns growled, and Salvatore sighed. He’d so gotten used to not having people demand to protect him every second of every bloody day. “With my Ravyns of course,” he added, not wanting to be confrontational.

* * * *

The tearoom was a stately, formal room that Alex usually used to greet business associates. It was exactly like a Victorian tearoom, complete with pastel colors, repeating wallpaper, and high-end, ornate furniture. The room somehow managed to pull off formality with a dose of well-calculated sunshine that was much more relaxing than most modern office rooms. Salvatore had only been here once or twice.

Two of his Ravyns went into the room ahead of him, and the other three filed in behind. The two shifters which were assigned to them as well took up their posts on either side of the door. Salvatore rolled his eyes. If these really were fae from Underhill, they were more likely to kiss as to kill him.

Salvatore pushed his way through the mountain of men in his path and couldn’t keep the grin off his face at the two familiar visages in his line of sight.

“Mar, Quis!” he greeted. The two men bolted out of their chairs and raced toward him. Tony and Druas tried to step in their way, but they simply disappeared and reappeared in front of Salvatore anyway. They threw their arms around him.

“Salvatore!” Mar returned, scattering kisses over his face like an eager child. “We’re so glad we found you. Our King gave us the address, but we weren’t sure if it was correct.”

“Our King has been so very busy since you’ve been away. Neither of us had talked to him since your marriage until he summoned us a few nights ago,” Quis added. They spoke like he’d been gone a lot longer than six nights. The time must be moving faster in Underhill as Alex had predicted.

“The war preparations have all been made. Your soldiers stand ready to command.” Mar beamed at him. “Isn’t that wonderful?”

“War? Whose war? My war?” Salvatore asked stupidly. He was a bit overwhelmed. He had been expecting them to be delivering some sort of an apology from Destin.

“Yes. Your war, my Prince. The soldiers your husband pledged to your cause as well as some additional ones from his mother’s Court. He told us to tell you that they would be ready in two weeks’ time. He’s having difficulties bringing his mother’s people and his own together without consequence, so it has taken longer than he expected. He also asked us to check on your health, and it seems he was correct. You haven’t needed to feed in his time away?” Salvatore shook his head. He hadn’t even thought of feeding. He’d been too distracted and grief stricken. “Good. Then you have his ability to feed on others without lying with them. A rare trait indeed for a fae so young.”

“Practically unheard of, my lord,” Quis piped in.

“Your Ravyns must be sustaining you quite well. They care deeply for you.” Mar looked at the two Ravyns standing closest and laughed. “Though they do not care for us this close to you at all.”

“Bugger them,” Salvatore said unexpectedly. He felt the stunned gazes of his Ravyns. Salvatore was never so unrefined in front of company. “Come. Sit on the couch with me. I want to know everything my lover has been up to in my absence.” He drew them to the couch they’d been sitting across from before. One snuggled on each side of him, much closer than human or demon propriety allowed. The Ravyns stared at him like he’d grown another head.

He glared at them. “Would you all relax? These are Destin’s advisors, Mar and Quis. They’re perfectly harmless.”

“Do you always snuggle your advisors like that? Because if so, we’re missing out.” Allasandro couldn’t resist cracking the joke, but Salvatore smiled.

“They’re fae. It’s what we do. You think this is bad, you should’ve been with us when I was—” His thoughts stalled out. Had he really almost admitted to fucking these two men to his Ravyns? How grossly inappropriate! He shook his head. He’d picked up some strange traits from the courtiers of Underhill.

Allasandro’s grin stretched from one ear to the other. “If the rest of Underhill is so friendly, then I can see why you stayed so long.
Damn
, my Prince.” Salvatore blushed as Tony cuffed Ally’s head.

Mar and Quis tried to smother their laughter but didn’t quite manage it. He cleared his throat. “Can we please get back to the conversation I was having?” The two fae nodded.

“In your absence, His Majesty has been raising an army the likes of which the fae world hasn’t seen since the last of the Court wars several hundred years ago. He has already installed one of his top generals on Earth to act as council to you. He sent us ahead before Sardinia because he thought your Ravyns would be more comfortable meeting harmless courtiers rather than a general,” Quis finished, and Salvatore nodded. That made sense. His Ravyns probably would’ve flipped if a fellow warrior showed up and tried to gain a private audience with Salvatore.

“His Lordship also asked if it would be possible to gain some warriors from other vampire clans. He feels that it would be best to stage a rebellion with as much variation of force as possible.”