Finding Faerie (9 page)

I
froze, trying to process what was happening.

“What’s the matter?” Maria gave me a wicked smile. “Surprised to see me?”

Surprised, scared shitless…tomato, tomah-to.
I was face to face with a wanted murderer. A woman who admittedly killed a man twice her size. And not just any man, mind you. One who had incredibly powerful magic at his disposal. On top of that, she came damn close to killing Chad, who was no slouch in the strength department either, thanks to his demonic genes. The gorgeous woman in front of me appeared to be a delicate walking, talking Barbie doll, but I knew she was anything but. She was a force to be reckoned with, with or without her vampire abilities, and crazy to boot. Not a good combination in any situation.

Jagged bricks were digging into my back as I stood against the wall facing her. I knew that my only hope of survival was to catch her off guard. With a mound of fairy dust waiting in my hand, I decided to play it cool. “What are you doing here, Maria? A little far from home, don’t you think?”

“I could say the same about you.” She grinned maliciously. “Perhaps you needed some distance from my husband?”

“Ex-husband,” I corrected.

Maria waved her hand in dismissal. “A technicality. He certainly didn’t act like an ex when we were fucking.” She put her index finger on her chin in contemplation. “Oh, but wait…you already know that.”

I was not going to let her goad me. “I know you’re not here for Vance since he’s five thousand miles away. Are you following
me
?” The wind picked up, blowing my hair forward.

Maria inhaled deeply. “Now, why would I do that?” Her fangs extended. “More importantly, why do you smell so
delicious
?”

I tensed. “Must be the new perfume.” Shit! I needed to find a way out of this.

She stepped forward, shaking her head. “Oh, I don’t think so. I think this is something much more.” She cocked her head to the side, studying me. “You smell different. I wonder if you taste different too.” Maria had sampled my blood when she kidnapped me during the whole
put a spell on Vance and
seduce
him
incident. That was not something that I would like to repeat.

“Sorry, I’m not in a donor mood at the moment,” I deadpanned.

She smiled. “Oh, my stupid, stupid fairy. I don’t think you have a choice.”

“Aaahh!” I screamed. Before I had the chance to form a defense ball, Maria had charged me, pinning my wrists to the brick wall behind me. She squeezed until I felt my bones crack, causing me to release the dust I had clenched in my fist.

“You think I don’t know where your power comes from?” Her fangs shot out. “You think you can beat me? You have no idea what we’re capable of!”

We?
The pain in my wrist was excruciating, numbing my other senses, but I could swear she’d said ‘we’. Did she mean vampires in general? I fell to my knees choking back bile, as nausea and dizziness kicked in simultaneously. Maria never released her hold, so my arms were now wrenched behind my back. Broken bones hurt like a bitch, but this seemed extreme. My vision was now blurring and my skin felt like it was on fire. What was happening to me? She must’ve had someone nearby using magic against me.

I screamed as pain lanced through my chest. “What are you doing to me?”

Maria released me and jumped away when she heard me speak. The throaty voice was back and this time it
boomed
out of me, echoing across the alley. I took advantage of the reprieve and lifted my aching body from the ground. She was slowly backing away as I reached my full height, eyes widened in…fear?

“What…how…how are you doing
that
?” She looked down at her palms, which were now an angry shade of red.

“Doing what?” I stalked towards her on a mission. My debilitating symptoms had suddenly disappeared, leaving me with renewed energy and a single-minded focus: Kill or be killed. I knew that one of us wasn’t walking away from this.

Trash ripped through the air as the wind picked up again. My long locks were lashing me in the face as I advanced upon her. She screamed like a Banshee as blisters licked up her arm, charring the once milky, white flesh. She waved her arms wildly in my direction. “That! How are you doing
that
?!”

A shadow on the left caught my eye. I darted to the side just as a dumpster flew from one end of the alley to the other. Maria took advantage of the distraction and flung herself at me. I cried out as her fangs scraped down my neck, tearing my flesh. They didn’t sink in, but she was certainly trying to get them to. Something primal was awakened inside of me in that moment. I knew that she would overpower me if I didn’t take action immediately. Every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to use my light.
What the hell did that mean?

It was only a matter of seconds, but I must have asked myself that question at least a dozen times before it came to me. What was the brightest source of light that I could think of? What would be the most effective weapon against a vampire? I grinned as I felt my power revving its engines, waiting for the green light. I was salivating at the possibilities as I glanced up at the night sky. My vision clouded over briefly before the entire world came into focus all at once. My eyes were no longer impeded by darkness, everything was bright as day. Maria’s bloodcurdling scream was like gasoline to my fire. I was awestruck as boils marred her perfect face until she literally went up in flames. She flailed violently, fanning the blaze. I could no longer make out her features; only shades of orange and red with flickers of blue existed. Something brushed past me, right before her morbid dance suddenly ended. A hulking force had tackled her to the ground and was rolling her body back and forth to extinguish the fire.

I blinked a few times as the light faded, allowing my eyes to adjust. Familiar brown eyes met mine as he checked her body for a pulse. Curious, I stood there watching as he scooped Maria’s limp form into his arms. My inquisitiveness morphed into surprise in the next moment, when they both disappeared into thin air. Just like that…one minute they were five feet away from me, and the next, they were floating through the ether. 

“Where did they go?” I asked no one in particular. Labored sputtering behind me caused me to spin around on high alert. A large man’s body lay on the ground, patches of blackened skin exposed by melted clothing. His hair was matted with blood and his lips were crusted with blisters. I cringed as I looked over his charred face.
Oh shit, did I do this?
Did this poor man get caught in the crossfire? Or was he working with Maria? My gut told me he was an innocent bystander, so I conjured some dust in my hand and imagined a healing balm. I tried focusing harder but nothing was happening; I couldn’t seem to block everything else out. Dammit! His cracked lips were moving as if he was trying to say something, but no sound was coming out. I dropped to my knees and leaned over to see if I could hear him.

“Kar-li,” he wheezed.

My head snapped up.
No, it couldn’t be.
I examined the man more closely, looking for any clues to his identity. His closed eyelids fluttered open and icy blues stared back at me in horror. I gasped as my suspicions were confirmed. “Leo.”

“O
migod, Leo!” I cried. “What do I do? I’m so sorry; I didn’t see you!
What do I do?
” The smell of burnt flesh assaulted my nostrils.
Leo’s
burnt flesh.

He tried lifting his arm towards me but it fell limply to his side instead. “Blood…I need—” he croaked.

“Blood?” I repeated. “You need blood?” I threw off my coat and shoved my naked wrist towards his mouth. “Here, take it.”

He tried lifting his head to latch on, but he fell backwards, smacking it on the filthy concrete and losing consciousness. Oh fuck, that wasn’t good! I tried shaking him but couldn’t get him to wake. I almost puked when I pulled back and realized that I had taken some of his skin with me.

“Shit!” I frantically looked around for something to open my vein. I found a broken bottle to my left and grabbed it. Without any hesitation, I slashed it across the inside of my forearm. I screamed as my skin split open. I shoved my arm against his mouth, but his lips were sealed. Using my other hand, I pried his jaw open until I was satisfied that it was wide enough. I pressed my arm against him more forcefully but he made no move to drink on his own.

“Leo, please drink,” I begged. “C’mon, you can’t leave me.
You can’t leave me!
Drink, dammit!” It felt like an eternity had passed before I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed for the first time. A moment later, he wrapped his hand around my wrist and began drinking with renewed vigor. “Oh, thank God!”

I watched his skin repair itself as he drank from me. He didn’t need much before his eyes opened on a face that was once again beautiful. He licked my forearm, making the crude slice disappear. His awareness seemed to return as he stood with vampiric swiftness. “We need to get out of here.”

My eyes traveled over his body looking for injuries. “Are you sure you’re okay to move? You only had a few gulps.”

He patted his body down. “I’m fine.” He offered his hand to help me stand. Once I was vertical, he said, “Hold on.”

Before I could ask why, he threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. A second later, we were gliding across the streets of Dublin. My head spun as I hung upside down watching the pavement whiz by. Headlights from nearby cars accosted my eyeballs as we moved faster than I could’ve ever imagined. I was able to catch a fleeting glimpse of a bridge, a streetlight, and what I think was a newsstand before I squeezed my eyes shut. I was seriously on the verge of throwing up. I wasn’t prepared when he stopped suddenly, so I lurched onto the sidewalk in front of an old brick building. For a moment, all I could do was sit there on my ass, willing my head to stop spinning.

Leo reached down and forced me up by my elbows, leading me into the building, which happened to be a hotel. I tried ignoring the stares from onlookers as I stumbled by. I was confused as he headed towards the elevators because this wasn’t
our
hotel. “What—”

Leo’s raised hand gave me the universal gesture for
shut the hell up
. He stabbed the button for the top floor and remained silent as we rode the lift up. I had to speed walk to keep up with him as he exited the elevator and walked down the hallway. He pulled a key card out of his pocket and examined the burnt edges. It apparently wasn’t too damaged, because a green light illuminated as he swiped it to unlatch the lock. Leo pushed the door open and turned the deadbolt once I joined him inside.

He nodded curtly towards the sleek grey chesterfield. “Sit down and tell me what happened.”

I looked down at my bloodied clothing. “I’m filthy. I think I’ll stand.”

He walked into the bedroom, came out with two large towels and placed them on the couch. “Sit. Talk.”

I obeyed. “Why do you have a room at another hotel?”

“What the hell happened back there, Karli?” he shouted.

I stiffened. Leo never raised his voice, especially not towards me. His fists were clenched and his nostrils flared. “I don’t know…I got lost. Before I knew what was happening, Maria was there, attacking me.” I recalled the events in my head. “I fought back. She was going to kill me, so I reacted.”

“Since when can you channel sunlight?”

I threw my hands up. “I don’t know!” I took a deep breath. “It just happened. I thought I was about to die and it just came out of nowhere!”

He sat on the couch next to me and rested his elbows on his knees. “You can produce light as a weapon.”

Grabbing his hand, I said, “Leo, I would
never
hurt you.”

He looked pointedly at our ruined clothes. “I think you’ve already proven that’s not true. Karli, your light didn’t come out of nowhere. It came out of
everywhere
.”

“I didn’t mean for you to get caught in it. It was an accident! I didn’t even know you were there and I don’t know how I did it!”

“Takk told me what happened earlier. And now this? Your powers seem to be growing exponentially and you don’t have any control over them.” He sighed. “I need to know exactly what happened before I arrived.”

I recapped the story for Leo, ending with Connor taking Maria in his arms and sifting away.  Yes, I said Connor. He was the man who came to her rescue.

“What do you mean, he
sifted
?”

“I mean, that he
disappeared into thin air
with Maria in tow.”

Leo shook his head. “That’s impossible…you said he is a vampire.”

“Yeah. And?”

“And vampires cannot manipulate space like that. He must have simply run too fast for your eyes to track.”

I shook my head this time. “Nuh-uh. I know what I saw.”

Leo scowled. “Tell me what he looks like.”

“You should know…it’s the same guy I was with at the pub. I saw Takk taking a picture of us.”

He didn’t even try denying it. “He didn’t get a good shot. I could only see the back of his head.”

I glared. “So you admit to having him
spy on me
while he’s supposedly providing security detail?”

“Quit being such a petulant child and focus on what matters.”

“Are you kidding me right now?” Okay, maybe I was being a
little
petulant.

He grabbed my shoulders. “Karli. Tell me. What. He. Looks. Like.”

I pushed his arms away and stood up. I did not like this Leo one bit. “What the hell is the matter with you? Why are you being such an asshole?”

He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Answer the question please.”

“Fine! Dark skin, brown eyes, black hair. Big guy. Built like a Greek God. He looked Middle Eastern almost but…not. His accent was pure Irish though. Very thick. Now why does it matter so much?”

He looked up at me. “Because…if you truly did see him sift, then there’s only one vampire in existence who has that ability. And if it is him, nothing good can come from his association with Maria.”

“Who?”

His face took on a grim expression. “Khonsu.”