Kyn 3: Feral (6 page)

“It's all going to be fine, I'll be gentle with you, I promise,” she assured him, a promise which didn't seem to have much of a reassuring effect on the young Pixie. Faced with one of his worst nightmare's wrapped up in a breathtakingly beautiful package his breathing was panicked, his eyes wild, as he tried desperately not to look at her.

Growing tired of this game she reached out and pulled his jaw around. He struggled but she was far stronger than her delicate appearance should allow, even for a Fae. She caught his forest green eyes with her own dark gaze. “We'll have ourselves a good night you and I,”

she whispered.

His terrified moan, more animalistic than anything, echoed around the chamber at the same time a hot acrid smell assaulted her sensitive nostrils. She leapt away, pushing off from his broad chest, her nose wrinkling in distaste as a dark stain spread over the front of his trousers.

“Oh for heavens sake! Get them out of my sight!” she hissed in annoyance. What was it with men these days? She longed to find a real man, not one that lost control of his bodily functions when she so much as looked at him. One who would stand up to her...

“Right, the rest of you,” She turned on her heel and glared at the huddled group in the corner as the three who failed were dragged away. “Get out there and get that damn baby, I don't care how you do it. Just
do
it!” she ordered, a warning in her voice about their fate should they fail her again. The atmosphere in the room grew cold, as though the very building were affected by her mood.

“Now
go!” S
he snapped, turning in a flurry of skirt to stalk up the length of the hall.

Movement broke out behind her as the Pixies made their escape, followed by the measured tread of her guard. A small sigh escaped her as she approached the dais at the end of the large hall. She paused at the bottom of the steps and looked at the throne sat atop it.

Made of stone it was one of seven, each sat in a hall of its own around the Court. Or, when required, pulled by the Court itself into the Queen's hall to sit flanked around Mab. One throne for each of the Seven Sisters. The seven Fae Princesses. Beloved by the land, all powerful amongst the Fae and all that crap... but she wanted to be
more
powerful. She wanted, needed...

“What are you, some sort of one man army?” Tessa asked as she leaned in the doorway of the main bedroom and watched Feral pull a multitude of weapons from a case.

Ten minutes had seen a rapid exit from her sister's now trashed apartment, Feral only allowed enough of a delay for her to grab her weekend bag and one for the baby. She knew her sister was going to
kill
her for the state of the place but right at the moment Tessa couldn't bring herself to worry about it.

She shrugged the skinny fit t-shirt she pulled on into place, smoothing it automatically over her now denim-clad hips as she watched him with interest. She had known he was dangerous from the moment she'd seen him on her doorstep. She knew enough about Kyn to know the heavy tattoo-like marks across one side of his body and down his arm marked him as a Kyn Warrior. Baddest of the bad type dude. But it was one thing to know that intellectually and quite another to see him kitting up.

Gone were the well washed jeans hanging low on his hips, the slight vee of hair on his washboard stomach that disappeared into his waistband teasing her beyond belief. They were replaced by near identical pair in black denim over heavy black boots, teamed with a polo that clung lovingly to the heavy muscles of his chest and shoulders. The clothing, combined with the 'bad ass' attitude that surrounded him, were enough to make old ladies cross the street to avoid him. And that was before you considered the weaponry.

His lips quirked as he carried on arming up.

“Yup, pretty much so. Have to be fighting the Rogue. We patrol in pairs but there's always the chance your partner could fall, then you're on your own,” he said shortly, his face tight.

A brief flash of anger, a rage so complete it took Tessa's breath away, crossed his face.

She didn't need him to spell it out to tell something bad had happened sometime in the past, that a partner had gone down. Curiosity filled her but the forbidding look on his face warned her off asking.

His movements were deft, moving with the ease of long experience as he strapped knives and blades over what seemed like every available body surface. Sheaths on the inside of his wrists, more in the heavy boots.

“You need
all
that for what you do?” she asked, her curiosity about him increasing.

He moved with a grace she found fascinating, retrieving a heavy belt from across the back of a chair in the corner and buckling it around his lean hips. This was a different man from the one she'd been laughing and joking with back in her sister’s apartment.

“Not really no, they're mostly backup,” Feral replied, wondering idly if she ever stopped talking. Not that it was bothering him as it usually would. He liked working with his patrol partner Vixen for one reason, she wasn't into idle chatter. Women had a reputation for gossiping but they had nothing on men when they got together. Some of his previous partners had chattered so much he had given serious consideration to killing them and hiding their bodies in a dumpster somewhere. But Tessa's questions didn't bother him at all.

“These are my main weapons,” He shifted the heavy belt on his hips and reached to the small of his back. Without thinking his fingers sought and found the guards of the blades in the sheaths fitted inside the back. The next second the blades were in his hands and he doubled his fists, moving easily into a guard position for her. Flexing his muscles and showing off in a way he hadn't done since he was a teenager and started to bulk up to Warrior weight.

The blades weren't knives, daggers, or anything that resembled a human weapon.

More like heavy knuckle dusters they fit across his hands, the razor sharp blades across his knuckles glinted in the light cast from the hallway light. They were ancient weapons. Kyn weapons that had come with the race when they crossed from their home dimension.

“Hmm, those little things?” Tessa's frown and the slight smile on her lips were both sceptical.

“That's it, just diss the blades! Typical woman!” he huffed, pretending to be insulted as he slid the blades away with a flourish.

“Ohh no, after earlier, believe me I'm more than happy with whatever you're packing sweetheart,” she said, the tone in her voice honest. Feral grinned as his mind made a dive for the gutter. This was just too easy.

“Whatever I'm packing huh? You sure you can handle it honey?”

The smile that curved her lips fired his blood, but not as much as the look of challenge in her eyes as she fell easily into the game. “Ohh you'd better believe it... and if we didn't need to get out of here like pronto mister boss man, I'd be proving it to you,” she threw back, reminding him they needed to move.

His chest expanded in a sigh of frustration. “Ok, I'm done. Grab the kid and let's get gone.”

“Mikal, it's Feral. Oh fuck it! I hate these damn things,” he muttered as he slid out of the seat of his truck, phone against his ear. He waited impatiently until the bleep and started again. “Mikal, Feral. Got a bit of a situation, bunch of Pixies broke in and trashed my neighbours place. I got her out and we're at the Grey Lady. Give me a call when you're free would ya mate? Catch you later,”

He flipped the phone shut and reached for the bags Tessa held out for him. “You sure we're going to be able to get a room?” he asked, eyeing the front of the building dubiously.

Didn't these places need bookings or something?

She looked up at him as she slid from the passenger seat, Spud in her arms. She hadn't been too happy about travelling without a proper baby-seat. She had still been arguing halfway there, and then subsided into glares for the rest of the way. Feral hid his smile, she was even prettier mad. He’d have to wind her up more often.

“We're lucky to be here at all! What would have happened if the cops had stopped us?” she demanded, “You'd have gotten a ticket or something and they'd have taken Spud off us... we're not his parents, they'd find that out straight away and then where would we be?”

Feral shrugged, the handles of both bags caught easily in one large hand, the other free just in case they got jumped again. “I'm Kyn remember? I'd just have pulled a Jedi mind trick on them... 'these aren't the droids you're looking for',” He grinned as he waved his hand a la Obi Wan Kenobi.

Her lips quirked a little, behind the glare she tried to reinforce. “I see my subtle charm is working as planned. So, what about it? You reckon we'll get a room here? Not that many paranormal places...” And there weren't. Feral could count the number of paranormal friendly hotels in the city on the fingers of one hand.

Tessa shrugged, setting off towards the door, winking at him over her shoulder. “Bet you dinner I can get us a room.”

He walked with her to the door, his stride shortened to match hers, where he held it open for her before stepping through himself. As he did, he felt a distinctive shiver down his back, like someone had dumped a bucket of cold water over him. The place was warded. He'd know that feeling anywhere.

“Wards, protection spells, daylight shutters. You name it, we got it,” A voice at his side announced, almost as though she read his thoughts. He turned swiftly, his hand already halfway to the small of his back, to find a woman watching him with a smile on her lips.

A woman that looked so much like Tessa, he had to check that she was still on the other side of him. Short and slender, she was nearly identical, the same height, build, and facial features. She only differed in her dress sense. Whereas Tessa was casually dressed in jeans and a tee, this woman could have stepped right out of an Audrey Hepburn film.

He shot Tessa a look, “No bet missy,
you
get to buy dinner,” he muttered in a low voice before turning to the other woman. She held out her hand.

“Jane Grey, owner of the Grey Lady and Tessa's aunt,” she said with a bright smile.

A few minutes later Feral nudged open the door to their room with his shoulder, since opening it required a fairly complex procedure that involved both hands, twisting the key one way and the doorknob the other.

“Should have had these fitted at your sister's place. Pixie's would have been there for months working it out,” he winked over his shoulder as he walked into the room.

“Oi, watch it you! Pixie in the room, remember?” She threw him a ‘look’ as she followed him in. It was a decent sized room, a family room, with a double bed in the middle and a single set to the side. Not luxurious by any stretch of the imagination, it was nevertheless clean and functional.

“Yeah, but you're not just a Pixie are you?” he said quickly, digging himself out of the hole he could see looming over him with the ease of long practise. Such skills were necessary when your patrol partner was the psychotic vamp bitch from hell at certain times of the month.

On automatic he did a sweep of the room. As promised the curtains concealed full daylight shutters, a necessity for your vampire traveller, and a quick swipe of his hand over the windowsill had the wards there flaring to life for a second. His eyebrow flitted up for a second. Daylight shutters and heavy duty wards? Someone had sunk some money into this place.

“What do you mean, not just a Pixie?” Tessa settled Spud in the middle of the double bed, her voice light. Too light, the slight pause before she answered like a neon sign lighting up. Feral opened the door to the bathroom, paused to look inside before he answered. Like the bedroom it was plain, simple. A fresh lemon scent assaulted his sensitive nostrils. And so clean he could probably have eaten a meal off the floor.

“Well, your Aunt there... Jane,” Satisfied the shutter in there was the same high quality as the one in the bedroom he shut the door and turned to her. “If she's a day under a hundred I'll eat Spud's hat,” He flicked a finger towards the blue fleecy cap covering the baby's day-glo locks. He leaned back, shoulder against the wall, arms folded as he considered her.

She didn't look at him, tickling Spud and making him giggle. A delaying tactic if ever he saw one. Finally she looked his way, not directly at him, but towards him. “Don't be silly, Pixie's don't live that long.”

“I'm Kyn Tessa, not an idiot. I can sense an expanded lifespan when it's looking me in the face,” He told her firmly. What was it with women and not giving straight answers? Vixen was
just
like this when she didn't want to talk. It was like getting blood out of a damn stone!

She chucked Spud under the chin and sat back on the bed, deep in thought. The tension stretched between them, an air of expectancy as Feral waited for her to say something. That was the trick. Not filling the silence with something and giving them an out.

That way they
had
to say something, and more often than not the pressure of the silence prompted them into revealing things they might not otherwise.

She sighed, “Ok, Jane's a little... special,” she admitted and bowed her head for a moment. Swivelling on the bed she looked at him, her dark eyes earnest. “You have to keep this to yourself, ok? My family has been keeping this secret for generations,” She searched his eyes, looking for confirmation in his face.

Slowly Feral nodded, intrigued. What secret were they keeping? What secret could be so important that a family of Pixies, not the most reliable beings in the world, would keep it for generations? “Ok, I promise... cross my heart and hope to die,” he replied, drawing his forefinger across his chest.

Tessa frowned, a little line forming between her brows that he thought was cute, and shook her head. “But you're a vampire anyway...”

“And?”

“Well, aren't you like, the living dead and all that?”

Feral laughed. Again, she caught him off guard.

“Now, now. You're a Pixie, you know better than that!” he chided her. Kyn were demonic, not cursed. Well not exactly. Some would say their demonic blood cursed them but Feral and most other Kyn begged to differ. They were just different, that was all.