Fierce Enchantment (2 page)

Out of place and on the path to death.

The image shifted, and she found herself fighting alongside Balin, one of Jamie’s mates. Her friend Jamie had
two
mates, just like Nadie, yet Faith had none. An odd kernel of jealousy bloomed, and she pushed it away. It wasn’t as though she
ever
wanted a mate. In fact, she knew she was perfectly fine being on her own for the rest of her life. She couldn’t trust a man with her heart, her life, or her soul. While it would be nice to be able to fight alongside her friends and actually feel equal, it wouldn’t be worth tying her life to a man she could never trust. She sighed, knowing all that angst was for nothing. She was dead anyway.

Balin, unlike the others, seemed to think she could be of use. She gave him a feral smile over her shoulder as the two of them cut through the enemy. He was stronger by far and more skilled with a sword and small blade than she was. Of course, he’d had many more years of practice than she since he
was
a demon, but she held her own.

It felt…good.

She threw her head back and laughed, her brain going a little crazy as she fought. Balin rolled on the ground, cutting the ankles of the creature in front of her. She sliced through the enemy warrior and watched him fall, holding her hand out to Balin.

He smiled at her, a glint in his eye that spoke of war and battle.

Then she screamed.

Torrent, a bear shifter on their side, brother to Jace, one of Nadie’s mates, went up in flames as a battle dragon scorched the earth.

Balin wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her back. She didn’t realize she’d been trying to run to the flames, as if she could save the bear shifter with the big smile and innocent face who had been a friend.

Tears spilled down her cheeks, mixing with the grime and whatever else she didn’t want to think about that covered her face. She quickly wiped them away and pushed at Balin.

“I need to get to Nadie!” she shouted. “She’s alone…and I…” Her voice broke. “I need to get to Nadie. Don’t fuck with me, Balin. I’m not your mate. Don’t baby me.”

“Balin!” Ambrose, his mate, called to him, and Balin looked over his shoulder then back at Faith.

“Go. Be safe,” the demon growled.

He released her then ran toward his mate who fought four soldiers at once. Ambrose might be a warrior angel, but everyone needed help once in awhile. Not that she’d ever admit that about herself.

She ran toward Nadie, who was sobbing but still fighting. Faith’s other friends were slowly coming closer, grieving over their lost brother, son, friend, but
still fighting
. Her throat grew tight, but she swallowed hard and ignored any pain. She didn’t even
know
Torrent. She shouldn’t be reacting like this.

She was stronger than this.

With a growl, she turned around and started fighting a creature that had been trying to sneak up on her. The others kept fighting, knowing they needed to pick it up if they wanted to win.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a man fighting for their side. His chestnut hair was cut short in the back and on the sides but had length on top. His face was covered in soot—probably from a dragon who got too close—and his vivid blue eyes turned to flames of fire as he held his hands out in front of him, a ball of light or magic, or whatever it was flowing out of him as he fought. A blue aura surrounded him as he worked, intent on whoever was in front of him. She had no idea who he was, but for some reason, even in the heat of battle, she wanted to know him.

For fuck’s sake, had she hit her head and not realized it?

He met her gaze for a moment, and a shock went through her.

No. Just fuck no. She didn’t know what was going on with her, but this wasn’t the time to moon over a man. In fact, there was
never
a time to moon over a man.

She pulled her attention away and continued to fight by Nadie’s side. She pushed all thoughts of men and sexy blue eyes out of her mind.

They fought harder, her strength depleting, even as the others around her looked as though they could continue to do this for hours. They weren’t human, and she was the only one here who was. She
knew
she should have stayed away like Dante had told her to, but she couldn’t. These were her friends, and this was her battle. She was a part of this, even if she didn’t feel like it. Only right then, all she could feel was pain and exhaustion.

Everything went into slow motion after that.

She turned toward Nadie and screamed at the vision in front of her. Her friend’s eyes widened and Nadie’s mates yelled her name. Dante’s mother, a bitch of a dragon, came at them, her claw outstretched, ready to kill the symbol of Dante’s love and future.

Faith did the first thing that came to mind…the
only
thing she could have done in this situation.

She threw herself in front of Nadie, taking the blow herself.

The claw sliced into her chest, the fiery burn taking its sweet time to engulf her in agony. Something snapped inside her, and her heart beat loudly in her ear once.

Then one more time.

Then stopped.

A trickle of something warm slid down her chest and her chin, and she figured that had to be blood.

Her blood.

Oh. So this was how she was going to die.

Her body felt as though it was on fire, and she gasped for breath, only she wasn’t breathing, she wasn’t moving. Hands were on her body, doing something with her chest, but she couldn’t truly feel it.

After all, she was dying.

She tried to close her eyes but found them already closed.

Maybe if she just slipped away, it wouldn’t hurt anymore. It wasn’t like her to give up, but having her heart clawed out by a dragon pretty much gave her leeway not to have to fight anymore.

“You said her name is Faith?”

That voice. She liked that voice. Who was that, and why could she hear only him?

Yes, her name was Faith. Odd because she’d never had faith in anyone, let alone herself.

Something warm slid into her chest again, and she tried to frown. What
was
that?

It didn’t matter.

She was dead.

And she hadn’t even had a chance to say goodbye.

Or ask who that man with the blue eyes was.

Funny how he would be her last thought.

Whatever it was that controlled Faith pulled her out of reliving that nightmare, and she found herself once again floating in the abyss that was her mind. Or was it the afterlife? She didn’t know anymore. She didn’t know how much time had passed or even if time passed where she was. When she was alive, she hadn’t truly thought about the afterlife and what would happen when she died. It was always something that was far off in the distance that she’d told herself to worry about later. She had way too much to deal with in her own life to fret about what would happen when it all ended.

Then, of course, the world had gone to shit, and she found out the things that went bump in the night were real, and she
truly
had no idea what would happen when she died.

A few years before the battle that took her life, she and six of her best friends had been sitting at their favorite bar when lightning struck
inside
the building. Each of them had been struck but believed themselves relatively unharmed. Some big bad Conclave of supernaturals had done it, or at least some of them. And they’d wanted to use her and her friends as an experiment or something, but that was out of her control. Each of them would eventually turn into whatever paranormal had the most hold on their DNA. Only they had to have sex with their mate—or mates in some cases—to transform.

Yeah, Faith had decided that she’d have to find another way to unlock her DNA because there was no way she’d want to mate with a man who thought he would have control over her.

Men lied.

Men left.

Men hurt.

Maybe if she’d been something other than human, she wouldn’t have died, but as it was, she was dead and lost.

She
really
hoped this wasn’t the end because it hurt to be dead. It shouldn’t hurt, but at least she could feel that. At least that’s what she told herself.

Her thoughts went on a loop again, over and over, where she’d either be contemplating what was going on in her brain, or she’d relive how she’d gotten there in the first place.

Maybe this
was
her hell.

But Balin had lived in the demon realm for most of his life, and that was called hell too. Wherever she was, it didn’t look or feel like what Balin and his mates had described.

Maybe everything was wrong, and Faith had no idea where she was.

That, sadly, felt like the right answer.

Something tugged on her chest, or at least where she thought her chest was since she was this floating mass of…something.

What
was
that?

She strained, trying to figure out what was going on and why she felt something tugging on her. Why couldn’t everything just leave her alone so she could be dead in peace?

It tugged on her again, and she gasped at the pain.

Holy hell, she
felt
that. Oh, she might have thought she’d been feeling some things before, but now she truly felt it.

And it
hurt
.

It tugged at her again, and her mind felt as though someone had slammed her body into a wall. In fact, it was as if something was pulling at her chest and she was hitting the ceiling and unable to move any farther than that. Her mind twitched, the pain excruciating.

She clawed at the ceiling or whatever barrier held her in place. Maybe this was it. Maybe she was on her way to heaven or hell or whatever was next in her afterlife.

Liquid fire swept over her body, and she screamed, trying to dampen the pain, only she couldn’t.

She closed her eyes, scratching at her skin and the barrier that kept her encased.

“Faith!”

She
knew
that voice. She’d heard it once before.

The moment she’d died.

“Faith, you need to wake up. Open your eyes, darling.”

Darling? Who the hell would be calling her
darling
?”

She pried her eyes open and winced at the light. “I’m not your darling,” she rasped out, her voice sounding like she’d swallowed rocks.

Someone was holding her against their chest and had a hand on her face. She blinked again, trying to focus on anything but the blinding light.

Vivid blue eyes stared down at her, and she sucked in a breath.

“You,” she gasped. “Why are you here? Why am I here?” She spoke quickly and ended up coughing.

The man frowned then lowered her. She sank onto the bed she could now see and glared.

“You need water.”

“No shit,” she tried to say, but her throat hurt too much to speak. She knew she shouldn’t be such a bitch, but she didn’t know this man, and for all she knew, she was his prisoner.

Perhaps
he
was her hell.

He held a glass to her mouth, and she tried to gulp the water down, but choked.

“Slowly, dar—Faith.” He winced and shook his head. “Sorry. You need to drink slowly, and then I’ll explain.”

She ignored him, her attention on the glorious water soothing her throat. It felt as if she’d been stranded in a desert for years, and this was her first chance to quench her thirst.

When she finished the last drop, her stomach ached a bit, but that pain told her she might be alive. At least that’s what she hoped.

“I don’t know if I should give you more water until you’re fully healed.”

“Who are you?” she asked, her voice a little smoother. “Where am I? What happened?”

The man with the gorgeous eyes sighed. “I’m Levi. You died on the battlefield, Faith, and I brought you back the only way I knew how.”

She blinked. Well, that was blunt, but still it didn’t tell her anything. “Why did you do that? And
how
did you do that?”

He reached for her hand and seemed to think better of it. Good, because she wasn’t the touchy-feely type.

“I’m a wizard and…well, I’m your mate.”

She tried to sit up but couldn’t. “Excuse me?” She couldn’t have heard right. And that
still
, didn’t answer her question. The image of the thread filled her mind, and an aching feeling slid through her. What was that thread? She’d felt it earlier when something had pulled her up through her haze, but she wasn’t sure what it was. One end connected deep inside her…but where was the other end? “How did you save my life, Levi?”

Levi met her gaze, a mixture of sadness and hope in his eyes. “I created a mating bond between us. That’s how I saved your life. You’re my mate, Faith. In truth and in bonds.”

Oh, hell no.

Hell. No.

There was no way what he was saying was right. This man, this
wizard
, was not her mate, and she did
not
have a mating bond.

Something inside her pulsed, and she pushed it away.

She’d refuse it. She’d do something. Because she was Faith Sanders. Human, photographer, independent, and
not
mated.

She would never rely on a man. Especially a man who had forced a mating bond on her.

She’d rather be dead.

Again.

Levi Hughes knew shit was going to hit the fan once Faith woke up, but he didn’t think it would be this bad. He hadn’t expected the screaming or throwing of pillows, but he shouldn’t have been surprised. He
had
done the unthinkable. Thankfully, he hadn’t left anything sharp around her and he’d taken the water glass away. That would have hurt if she threw it at him.

It wasn’t as though he truly knew who his mate was in the first place. His
mate.
Hell, he’d had a year to get over that word, and he wasn’t used to saying it—wasn’t used to thinking it. He hadn’t even spoken to her before he bound her to his soul forever. It had been the only way to save her life, and so far, he didn’t regret it.