She's No Faerie Princess (24 page)

"And where is he now?"

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. I know he resigned hiscommission a short while ago, but it was during one ofmy obligatory visits to the Unseelie Court. By the time Igot back and heard about it, he was already gone." Sheshook her head. "What in the world does that have to dowith us?"

"Well, it was big news in the Council of Others when the Fae warrior Mab sent to New York to find her nephew and return him to Faerie ended up falling in love with one of the closest friends of the luna of the Silverback Clan."

"I don't know what you're—"

"The
 
human
 
friend."

Her jaw clicked shut.

"It turned out that Luc wasn't thinking about mortality or

immortality when he looked at Corinne D' Alessandro. He only thought about having her. So he found a way to make it happen."

Fiona steeled herself against temptation. "That's lovelyfor them, Walker, but I'm not Lucifer MacAnu of the Queen's Guard and you're not a naive young humanwoman."

"Glad you noticed."

He grinned and leaned forward to nuzzle her ear. Shehad to grit her teeth to keep from melting. It still didn'tseem possible that he could affect her so deeply so fast. It shouldn't have been possible.

She tried one last time to squirm out of his arms, and hesighed. Half a second later, she found herself sprawledback against the pillows with a stubborn and stubbledwerewolf draped half over her to keep her in place.

"Sweetheart, I can see where this might all seem a little surreal to you." She snorted with laughter, but he ignored it and watched her steadily, his expression both resolved and tender. "It's happened pretty quickly, and you haven't been expecting it for most of your life like I have. But that doesn't make it any less real."

"It can't be."

"It is." He leaned down to brush a soft, lingering kiss against her lips. "I can understand if you're not ready to deal with it right this second. There's a lot of other stuff going on right now, so I'll drop it. But Princess, this isn't going to go away. Eventually, you're going to have to deal with the fact that you belong to me. And I belong to

you."

She stared up at him, feeling her heart clench inside herchest and remembering what it had felt like when he'dburied himself inside her with his mouth on the mark oftheir bond. Her entire world had changed in that moment,and no matter how desperately she wanted to deny thetruth, she knew she couldn't go back to the way thingshad been. They would never be the same.

She
 
would never be the same.

But that didn't mean he could get away with acting like ajackass.

She took a deep breath and told herself to be firm, butwhen she spoke, she could hear in her voice the echoesof the soft, unfamiliar emotion currently stirring in herchest. "I'm not certain I understand all of this, but if it'strue—" She held up a hand to stop his interruption. "If it'strue, it's going to take adjustment on
 
both
 
our parts. Imeant it when I said I can understand your protectiveinstincts, Walker, but you have to understand that I meanit when I say I won't be dictated to. When you'reconcerned for my safety, tell me. But don't order mearound. It won't work, and I won't appreciate it."

He met her gaze for a long moment before he gave abrief nod. "I'll try, Princess, but I can't promise anything. These are instincts we're talking about. I can't make themgo away."

She looked up into those warm golden eyes and letherself drown in them, feeling the exhaustion of physicalexertion and emotional stress beginning to take their toll. Her muscles relaxed, sinking deeper into the mattress,

softening beneath his in inevitable welcome.

Her hands slid off his shoulders, down his arms to twineher fingers with hers. "Nothing has ever been ascomplicated as this,
 
mo fáell
," she whispered, reachingup for another kiss, "but nothing simple has ever touchedmy heart."

And as their lips touched, her heart melted.

CHAPTER 18

It wasn't so much the low buzzing sound that woke Fionaas the tiny footsteps dancing up and down her spine. Was that a fox-trot?

Burrowing her head deeper into the pillows, sheshrugged her shoulders and tried to slip back into sleep.

Given how little of it she'd gotten last night, it should havebeen easy. But the fox-trot turned into a merengue, andshe groaned into the pillowcase.

A warm wall of muscle stirred beside her, shaking thebed and rumbling low and sleepy in the dimly lit room. "D'you have a cat? I think it wants to go out."

Burrowed deep in the hollow she'd made in the pillow, Fiona waited for his sleepy murmur to register as actuallanguage. Then she frowned. "A cat? We're at yourapartment."

She heard a groan and a creak and felt the bed shift tothe right as Walker rolled over. Turning her head to theside, she forced her eyelids open and met his blurrygaze.

"I don't have a cat."

"Then what exactly is doing a cha-cha between my

shoulder blades?"

"If I tell you, will you tell me what's tangoing between

mine?"

"Your Highness!"

Startled by the high, familiar voice, Fiona flipped onto herback and glared in the direction of the interruption. Thesmall figure that had been standing astride her spinehovered just above her, gossamer wings flapping.

"Babbage? What in the Lady's name are you doing

here?"

The pixie fluttered and flitted and wrung his tiny handstogether in worry. "Your Highness, I knew it was a badidea for you to visit this place. Oh, what is your auntgoing to say?"

Eyes wide, Walker pushed himself into a sitting positionand dislodged his own fleet-footed visitor.

Squick tumbled head over feet down the Lupine's torso,landing somewhere near the left knee and jumping to hisfeet instantly. He shook his head as if to clear it andswept Fiona a quick bow. "I telled him we shouldn't come, Miss Fiona, but the pixie insisting. I couldn't stop him."

Walker looked at Fiona and scowled. "What the hell arethese?"

"Pests."

Still fluttering, Babbage lowered himself to the edge ofthe mattress and cast disapproving glances at Fiona and Walker. "Your Highness, would you like us to removethis… this… mongrel from your presence?"

Walker snarled at the pixie. Reaching down, Walkergrabbed the sheet from where it had bunched at the footof the bed and yanked it up to Fiona's chin. "The onlything being removed around here is going to be thosewings of yours, buddy, so watch yourself."

Fiona hadn't bothered to cover herself because (1) the Fae really weren't fazed by nudity, considering how muchof the population of Faerie didn't even own clothing, and (2) Walker had seen her naked almost more than he'dseen her clothed and the only other folk in the room were Babbage and Squick. Hiding her body from them wouldbe like hiding her body from Walker's fictional pet cat. What would be the point?

Judging by the look on Walker's face, though, he wantedher to stay covered. Stifling a sigh, she tucked the sheetup under her arms, made sure nothing he might considervital was hanging out, and resumed glaring at theiruninvited guests. "Okay, someone explain what the hellyou two are doing here." She stopped and frowned. "Andhow you got here. I tried the gate, and it was sealed."

Both began talking at once.

"Oh, Your Highness," Babbage cried, "how my heart

stopped when I realized the gate you had used to travel to this primitive land was blocked! I nearly gave in to my despair."

"He cried like a little girlie nymphs, miss! Moaned and wailing! I thinked my ears was bursted. But then I remembers to tried the gate that don't come here, and here we is!"

"It was horrible, Princess Fiona. The imp dragged me into a barren wasteland of a plane, populated by terrible, fierce creatures who would gladly have feasted on our flesh."

"Feast? Your heart not even enough for a midnight snacks. Besides, they wasn't terrible. They was rock elementals. All they eats were dirt."

"We had to come, Your Highness! I nearly flew into the castle wall when I looked into Her Majesty's scrying bowl and saw you calling for help. I said to myself, 'Babbage, you felt all along that this foolhardy trip would come to no good,' and so it turned out—"

Fiona held up a hand to silence them. They ignored it.

"… screamed like a dryads in a forest fire, he did. It near

maked my horns curls!"

She cleared her throat. "Guys, really—"

"… saw you trapped in a small room surrounded by mortals, and I knew something had to be amiss. So I told myself, 'Babbage, old fellow, the princess needs us, and it doesn't matter how the odds fall against us—'"

"Babbage. Squick. Really, if you'd just—"

" '—or what terrible creatures lie in wait to tear us limb from limb and to rend our wings from our backs, if Her Highness requires aid, then aid she will get.' That's just want I said, and—"

"Will you
 
shut the hell up for ONE BLESSED MINUTE
?!"

Fiona's scream pierced the chatter and made her head,which had already begun to pound, threaten to split intwo like an overripe melon. They shut up, though, so thatwas saying something.

Making a sound of disgust, Walker rose from the bed andstalked toward the bathroom. Fiona scowled at his back. "Where are you going?"

"To get a bottle of aspirin," he tossed over his shoulder,

"and maybe a fifth of vodka. Want anything?"

"Yeah," she muttered, "a poke in the eye with a sharp

stick."

Ever the optimist, Babbage tried again. "Your Highness

—"

Seeing the look of aggravation on the princess's face, Squick did the intelligent thing—for once—and raised hislittle red hand.

Fiona groaned. "Yes, Squick?"

"Miss Fiona, I gots to tell you that we was only thinking

you needs us. We meant good."

"Meant
 
well
, Squick."

"Yeah. That's what I says. There we was, minding we

own business, practicing new scary faces in the queen's

scrying bowl, when we sawed our princess in the waters! We knowed you was here, and we knowed the queen's bowl can see any other magicky seeing stuff, and then

the waters in the bowl shotted up like the nereids was having a party! It gotted all over the floors and everywheres. I says the Queen's Guard coulda come

over here and sorts it all out, but noooooo. This one have to go playing hero. Babbage, the princess-saving pixie, or somethin' dopey like that."

Walker returned at that moment with an economy-sizedbottle of aspirin and two glasses of water. Fiona hadbeen looking forward to the vodka. She waved aside thetablets he offered her and snatched the bottle out of hishand. Before he could growl at her, she leaned forwardand pressed two kisses to his forehead, one above eachtemple. When she drew back, she could see the lines inhis brow ease as his headache began to dissipate. Thenshe took one of the glasses of water and downed it inthree quick gulps. Better than aspirin any day.

He took the empty glass from her hand. "Thanks."

She smiled at him. "You're welcome." When she turnedback to the Fae, she wasn't smiling. "Are you telling methat the message I tried to send through that enchantedglass actually came through? Because on this end, Ibarely got a glimpse of the palace before somethingdestroyed the spell and the glass."

"That were what we seen, too. But I telled the pixie about it being exploded and what we seen beforehands, and that's when he gots all bended out of shapes."

"And no one else saw?"

The imp grinned. "We isn't allowed in the queen's scryingrooms. She saying something about us being untrustable. So now we only goes there by sneakiness."

By this time, Babbage had caught on to the new protocoland he was jumping up and down like a hyperactive Chihuahua, waving both of his hands in the air above hishead. Fiona could see his little face turning graduallypurple as he held his breath to keep himself fromspeaking out of turn and making her yell at him again.

She sighed. "What is it, Babbage?"

"Your Highness!" The words all but exploded from his mouth. "Your Highness, my heart nearly
 
stopped
 
when I tracked the imp down to the scrying chamber and he told me what he had seen! We came immediately to rescue you!" He rounded on Walker and raised his tiny fists into

a boxing stance, fluttering back and forth in a Muhammad Ali meets Tinker Bell impersonation. "Stand back, loathsome sorcerer!" he shouted. "I will avenge your crimes against my mistress!"

Fiona seriously considered pulling the sheet up farther.

Like over her head.

Walker raised an eyebrow and looked down at thehovering pixie. Then he raised the other eyebrow andlooked at Fiona. "He's joking, right?"

"En garde!"

Babbage's war cry sounded more like a girlish scream ormaybe a hungry baby bird, but he followed through with adirect charge straight at Walker's throat.