Malakai (9 page)

"It's a faery sword. The metal changed as I
forged it. It's unlike anything on this earth. And it…sings."

"Sings?" Rissa pulled away, meeting his gaze
with a wondering stare. "And you made it thanks to my
inspiration?"

He nodded. "I've felt you've been my muse.
Ooghna explained it is the leanan sidhe's gift to her dying
marks."

"Yes, an unfortunate gift. Show it to
me."

"I—"

"Now," she insisted firmly. "Please?"

Without setting her down, Kai wandered over
the stones and moss to the shed. He nudged open the door with a
foot and carried her inside to set on the wood table where the
sword lay. Both naked, their bodies gleamed as he flicked on the
overhead light, but the sword shone the brightest.

He tossed the tee-shirt to Rissa and she
pulled it on as he gestured toward the weapon lying on the
table.

Rissa gasped and put a hand out to touch the
blade, yet retracted. "It's very powerful. I can hear it."

"Yes, of course, if you're faery you should
be able to. And Ooghna heard it too. I only heard its song when I
was forging it. It still sings?"

"It is…Glamoursiege," Rissa said.

"What does that mean?"

"That is the name of this sword. I just…I can
hear it speak its name. Oh, Kai, this sword has great power. You
can do much with it. Perhaps even…"

He met her gaze, her mouth open in
mid-speech. She shook her head, dismissing what she was about to
say. The pale faery shivered and drew up a knee to hug against her
chest.

"Even what?" he encouraged.

"No, it's not possible. You've already
promised the sword to Ooghna in exchange for your life."

He clasped her by the back of the neck, none
too gently. "My life is worth nothing without you, Rissa. I would
do anything to free you from the king's curse. Tell me how I can
save you?"

She exhaled, her body bowing forward over the
sword, and the gleam reflecting in her violet eyes as she said,
"You could defeat the Unseelie king with this sword, and break my
curse."

"That's the only way to break your curse?"
Malakai asked.

Rissa nodded. She shivered, rubbing her arms
with her palms and he hugged her against his body, their skin
melding warmly. "I can't ask you to do that. You promised the sword
to another to break your curse. It's far more important you avoid
death."

"Sugar cube, no matter how I play the cards
I'm going to die, one way or another."

"No. If you get away from me, you'll be safe.
You'll have opportunity to regain your strength."

He crushed her against his chest. "I don't
know how you can say that. I love you, Rissa. I don't want to be
away from you for one second. If I left you now, my heart would
break."

She beat his chest. "But you would
survive!"

He grabbed her, lifting her to kiss, and
silencing her protests. He didn't have to consider the options.
Well, yes he did. There was Kambriel to consider. If he could break
the curse and save her he must do so. But he'd not handed the sword
over to Ooghna yet, so he could still change his mind and fight the
Unseelie king.

Hell, what to do?

With Rissa's legs wrapped about his hips, he
leaned against the table and lifted the sword. The blade gleamed
under the light, an unnatural brightness that made it difficult to
look at it overlong. Glamoursiege. Yes, the name felt perfect. That
he had created it gave him so much wonder.

"This sword is not mine to wield," he said.
"I know that."

"Because it belongs to Faery."

"Yes. But why was I the one to forge it? I
don't understand."

"Perhaps I can be of assistance?"

They turned to find a tall, dark-haired man
filling the open doorway.

Still on the table, Rissa shivered and
shrugged out of his grasp, pulling up her legs to her chest. Kai
swore that she hissed at the man, and when he saw the wings behind
his shoulders, he realized another faery stood before them.

Not at all ashamed of his nudity, Kai thrust
back his shoulders and moved to stand before Rissa, for he sensed
her fear and wanted to protect her.

"She's a sweet treat, yes?" the faery said as
he stepped inside the shed.

Fists clenching, Kai could only assume he was
one of many Rissa had slept with to drain their life energy. But he
wouldn't allow him to shame her for her curse.

"She is a queen amongst mortals. Let no man
betray her with cruel words."

"Justly admonished." The faery bowed his head
toward Rissa, as a means to an apology. "I am Malrick," he
announced to Kai.

"The Unseelie king." The one who had cursed
Rissa the leanan sidhe. The one she wished him to kill in order to
break her curse.

Kai reached back and slid a palm over the
table, but didn't connect with Glamoursiege.

"It's not going to happen that way," Malrick
said, strolling before the forge, teasing a finger along the
still-hot stones that edged the embers. Upon contact, his skin
smoked, but he showed no sign of pain. "Yes, my death would break
any and all curses I've cast. But I am immortal."

"Death finds all immortals eventually," Kai
said.

"If you wish to believe that, I'll not
challenge such nonsensical thinking." The Faery king peered over
Kai's shoulder, noting the weapon. "You've Glamoursiege."

Weird how the faeries seemed to know its name
and Kai had only just finished it. Truly, an amazing weapon if it
had called out to those in another realm.

"It's been promised to someone else," Kai
said.

"Yes, I know," the king said calmly.

Malrick's wings unfurled to their full
length, which stretched fifteen feet to either side of his
shoulders. The long, elegant appendages were as a butterfly's with
vibrant violet and emerald scales set in a chrome and black
background. Heavy metal meets the rainbow, Kai thought. Yet he
could feel the power emanate from those wings. And the tips, while
deceptively curled as if antennae, he suspected they could lash out
as razor whips.

"Let me make a piece of your history very
clear," Malrick said, pressing his fingers together in a steeple
before him, which displayed intricate white markings on the
underside of his hands and arms as if tattoos or decorative
mehndi.

Kai shifted on his feet. He was starting to
feel uncomfortable, unclothed, facing an actual king of Faery. But
he wouldn't move away from Rissa. He would protect her with every
bone in his body.

"Indeed, twenty and some mortal years ago a
bargain was made between your parents and Ooghna, my champion,"
Malrick said. "That warrior is a jealous, selfish bit of wing and
bloodthirsty zeal. Normally all bargains, deals, promises, and/or
boons are approved through me. I wasn't pleased she had gone behind
my back. And I do rather favor your father, Malakai. Credence
Eduoard Saint-Pierre is a solid vampire who has marked this realm
and endured centuries. I would never place him as my equal, but he
is formidable."

Kai lifted a brow. Sounded like a roundabout
diss against his father, but he couldn't be positive.

"To get to the point…" Malrick spread out his
hands in explanation. "When you and your sister Kambriel were born,
it was I who ensured your umbilical cords were wrapped round one
another's neck, allowing that neither would be born first or
second. Thus, negating the bargain made with my champion."

That the sidhe had been so intertwined in the
conception and births of he and his sister gave Kai a shiver now.
Truly, had they ever known a day of freedom?

"So." Malrick folded back his wings and
lifted his head regally. "In repayment for that intervention, I
will accept you, Malakai Saint-Pierre, as my champion. As well, I
will receive Glamoursiege as my champion's favor."

"You think Ooghna was selfish?" Kai blurted
out. "You ask a lot, Malrick."

"I am owed, am I not?"

"Yes, but it is the sword or my fealty. You
cannot have both."

"The sword is repayment for my intervention
granted at your birth."

Kai nodded. He could agree to that. But that
meant he wouldn't be able to hand it over to Ooghna, and the curse
still applied.

"It wasn't Ooghna who cursed you should you
love a faery," Malrick said. "It was me. I am the one who stood at
your mother's bedside after your birth and cursed you. I'll toss in
dissolving that curse as a bonus for the sword. You may keep your
heart should you find love with a sidhe."

"Deal. I give the sword to you, Malrick, king
of the Unseelie."

The sword behind Rissa suddenly spun on the
table and began to gleam an unnatural blue. Its song chimed loudly.
Malrick held out a hand and received the weapon, which flew to his
grip and landed with a solid slap.

Kai exhaled. Remarkable to see the sword held
by a faery. It spread its glow through the man's body, and filled
the white arabesques on his skin with its surreal blue energy.

"It is powerful," Malrick conceded. "Fine
work, swordsmith. My leanan sidhe inspired your greatest
achievement."

And Kai bowed to the faery king, accepting
the compliment, for the world was indeed a strange and wondrous
place right now, and he was merely a player in this game of two
realms.

"And now you wish to claim Rissa's
freedom?"

"Yes," Kai said on a gasp, lifting his head
to meet the Unseelie's steady gaze. "Please."

"Then you grant me your fealty."


"I uh…for what reason do you require such
devotion?"

The faery king smirked, and swished
Glamoursiege through the air, admiring the blue trail in its wake.
"You are a particular sort of wolf who asks too many questions. But
very well. I ask you to defeat my fickle champion Ooghna. She needs
to be cut down and put in her place."

"You want me to fight a woman?" Kai
snickered. Forgetting the seriousness of the moment, he shook his
head. "Sorry. Beating on women is not my thing."

"Then Rissa shall forever remain leanan
sidhe." The Unseelie king swept his wings forward, curling them
about his shoulders and the glowing sword, and with a flicker, he
was gone.

Kai's fists tightened as he stared at the
empty space where the faery king had just stood. Fine particles of
faery dust glittered in the dim morning light. He'd be damned if
anyone would force him to fight a female. No man would be so
cruel.

Yet in those moments when he'd raged at
Malrick for suggesting the malicious act, Kai had forgotten the one
thing that had become most important in his life.

He spun and found Rissa sitting on the work
table, her legs bent to her chest and her arms clasped about them.
Tear-filled violet eyes held his, no judgment or accusation in
them. Not a hint of betrayal. Yet the tears betrayed her heart.

"Hell." Kai dropped to his knees before her
and bowed his head. "What have I done?"

***

"You've done what your heart demands," Rissa
said softly.

She'd slid down from the table, the hem of
the oversized tee shirt dusting above her knees. The broken pieces
of her heart had crumbled upon the Unseelie king's statement that
Kai must fight Ooghna to break her curse. Such a noble man as Kai
would never lower himself to fight a woman. And he'd gotten what he
most desired—Malrick had released him from his curse of loving a
faery in exchange for Glamoursiege.

So he could love her now.

And her love would kill him.

"I have to leave," she said suddenly, and
skirted around the kneeling wolf to rush into his house to claim
her clothes. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she cursed her
silly heart.

She felt him fast on her heels, but she
didn't want the confrontation, the obvious argument. They could
discuss the rights and wrongs all day. All that mattered was she
was deadly to him, and if she did not leave, she would never leave.
And with that selfish choice she would bury him faster than any
battle with a faery champion might.

Pulling her dress over her head, she tugged
out her hair and glanced around for her shoes. Kai gripped her by
the arm and turned her to face him.

"No." He clasped the skirt and pulled it up,
pressing his fist softly against her thigh, claiming her. "You're
not going anywhere."

She struggled as, with one hand, he pulled
off her dress and left her bared to him. Both of them were bared,
yet she felt more naked, stripped to his delving gaze.

"It's not your soul who wants me, but the
curse of the leanan sidhe," she said as he kissed her breast and
traveled her skin up her neck and to her mouth. "Kai, stop!" She
forced herself to hit him against the shoulder but it was as if a
bug beating its wings against a steel girder.


"I know what I want," he insisted, "and it is
not because some curse has weakened me, it is because I love you."
He pushed her against the wall and pinned her wrists near her head.
"Let me love you, Rissa."


It could never be true love. He didn't
understand that the leanan sidhe, while drawing out the life energy
from her lover, infused him with a need for more. More of her. More
of the muse she had become to him.

"The sword is complete," she argued, as he
bruised hard, delicious kisses along her shoulder and down her arm.
"You don't need me anymore, Kai. I've served my purpose as your
muse."

"That's not the way of it. I don't give a
damn about the muse stuff."
"It
is
the way of it!" She
gripped hanks of his hair and held him away from giving her skin
devastatingly punishing kisses. He wanted only to touch and taste
her, to please her, but she had to make him stop. "See me," she
said. "Look at me. Look at us, Kai. It is unnatural."

"Never. Werewolves and faeries can love. They
can bond. I love you, Rissa."