The Protectors Christmas Box Set (sexy paranormal romances) (42 page)

“What isn’t?”

Sapa drew his thin lips into a long line. “First, we must hear what Muk has to say.”

“Thank you,” Muk said, his voice soft. “Faith Summers has told me that a man tried to kill them.”

“What man?” Sapa demanded.

“We took care of him,” Horace said.

The women Sapa had sent away returned with two bowls of stew. Horace refused the one offered to him. Faith didn’t have his willpower. Though worry ate at her, she knew she couldn’t help figure out what was going on if half-starved from hunger.

“What man?” Sapa asked Faith, his accent heavy.

She had to swallow the food she’d stuffed into her mouth before she could answer. Horace wasn’t any help. He watched her with what appeared to be a mixture of amusement and dread.

Once she could talk, she described Ballou and explained how he’d taken several shots at both her and Horace. She also added that he nearly killed her parents with a power that wasn’t of this world. The frightening memory of how she’d nearly lost two of the most important people in her life triggered a cold sweat.

“Ah, a powerful creature. We fear him as well,” Sapa said with a nod.

“You know of him? What was he?” Faith asked.

“I do not exactly know,” Sapa admitted. “There are others like him. They come here sometimes. They come because of what is in our cave. I believe they are foot soldiers of a more powerful force. They are the ones who brought Horace to us six years ago.”

“But why?”

“Because of what is in the cave,” Sapa answered as if it were as simple as that.

With Sapa’s veiled answers and Horace’s lack of interest in his mysterious missing years, Faith found herself quickly losing her patience. With an angry huff, she slammed her bowl of stew on the ground.

“What the hell is in the cave? Gold? Treasure?”

“A window to another world,” Horace answered.

“You remember the cave now?” she asked.

He nodded slowly. “It’s fuzzy, but ever since we saw Muk, my past has been returning.”

“The protective walls are dissolving,” Sapa said approvingly. “You have found your mate. It is time you return. That was the promise you had said you’d made with them.”

“With who?” Faith asked.

“But they are not joined properly,” Muk said.

“Why did you tell him that?” Horace grumbled in her ear.

“Because he might be able to help us put the leash back on your powers.”

Sapa paced the small hut, his movements stiff and his skin hung like thin sheets over his bones. “This makes your need to remember all the more important. I should have never let you talk me into blocking your memories or hiding your mark in the first place.”

“No,” Horace said with less heat this time.

“Let’s go back to talking about how to fix the bond that links us,” Faith said. “There seems to be a problem with his powers.”

But Sapa only shook his head again. “It is not our place to interfere in the relationship of the king.”

“I’m not a king.”

* * * * *

“My sentiments exactly.” A disembodied voice shimmered in the hut as if the sound alone could take shape and become a tangible thing. Horace rubbed his temples, trying to remember why that voice made his stomach turn.

He remembered one thing clearly enough. The voice meant danger.

Horace pulled Faith tight against his chest just as the air inside the hut shuddered.

But that thing—whatever it was—didn’t attack him or Faith.

It attacked Sapa. The old man cried out in pain as his features stretched and pulled and snapped until he changed from a small, wrinkled man into a tall, dark-skinned youth with glowing green eyes.

“Manelin,” Horace said with a start of surprise. He should have remembered sooner. How could he have ever forgotten such a monster? “Although you smiled and fawned pleasure at being second best, it never did sit well with you, did it?” Horace said, choosing his words with care. He released Faith and crossed his arms over his chest.

If the power-hungry prince knew how many holes Horace had in his mind, Manelin would use it against him.

“This is Manelin?” Faith asked as she scrambled to her feet.

“That’s
Prince
Manelin to you,
human bitch
,” the faerie lord spat.

“That’s
queen
human bitch to you,” Faith quickly shot back, which made Manelin’s shimmering complexion turn an unpleasant shade of reddish pink.

“You’re no queen. He hasn’t mated with you, he’s fucked your brains out and turned you into a weapon by unleashing his power in you,
slut
.”

“Stop,” Horace said and raised his hands.

Muk and several other healthy young
Protectors
froze where they stood.

They’d been on the verge of attacking Manelin. Horace didn’t blame them. Their leader had just been transmuted into the faerie’s form. They would naturally want to fight. However, an attack on Manelin in this form would only harm Sapa’s body.

The upstart prince licked his lips. “You do have a nice shape, slut. I can see why Horace would enjoy burying himself between your legs.”

Golden sparks danced above Faith’s head. “I defeated your henchman, so don’t be thinking that I’m afraid of you.”

“Not afraid?” Manelin chuckled. The sound chilled Horace’s blood.

He pushed himself up to his feet to stand his ground against the evil prince.

“If you’re not afraid, you are incredibly stupid, my slut,” the prince said. With a flick of his fingers, Manelin used his powers to knock Faith off her feet. Her legs flew up into the air, and she dangled as if an invisible cord had been wrapped around her ankles.

Manelin mumbled an incantation that started Faith spinning.

“Put her down,” Horace demanded too late. Faith and Manelin had already disappeared like smoke into the air.

Dammit
. Horace couldn’t let Manelin take Faith away. He couldn’t lose her…not to Manelin. Not to anyone.

But where had Manelin taken her?

Even if Horace had been in full control of his own powers, he didn’t have the ability to chase after Manelin, not by teleportation. None of
the Protectors
had powers to match a faerie prince.

Helpless and frustrated that he’d let Manelin take Faith in the first place, he pushed his way out of the hut, hoping beyond hope Manelin hadn’t gone far.

The bastard hadn’t. Horace quickly spotted Manelin standing at the edge of the high cliff. And Faith…Horace’s heart dropped into the pit of his stomach.

She dangled, unconscious and upside-down a little more than an arm’s length over the cliff’s edge and several hundred feet above the ground.

“Don’t distract me,” Manelin warned, his smooth otherworldly voice tickling Horace’s ear. “It takes quite a bit of concentration to keep her in the air like this, and I don’t think you would want me to accidentally drop her.”

“What do you want from me?” Horace demanded.

“The throne.”

“Fine. You can have it. I don’t want it. I never asked for it in the first place.”

“It’s not that easy, Horace, and you know it. You’re the king. Until you die, you will be the king.”

“And you’d like that day be today?” Horace guessed.

“By your own hands,” Manelin said. “I can’t kill you. It’s against the rules.”

“But you could send Ballou to do the deed?”

Manelin shrugged. “As long as your death isn’t by magic…”

The faerie prince looked away from Faith long enough to shoot a gesture in Horace’s direction. A bright light shot from the tips of the Manelin’s fingers. It blazed as if a hot fire turned the late afternoon sky blood red. Flames leapt from the eerie light and rained down on Horace’s skin.

While the flames scorched the ground and sent the alpacas running for cover, Horace barely felt their heat.

“The royal sages were overly cautious when they let you leave. You’re protected,” Manelin explained.

“But Faith isn’t?” Horace guessed.

“It would be a shame for her and her unborn child to drop from so great a height. I can’t imagine anyone surviving the fall.”

“
Child
?” Horace suddenly had trouble breathing. “That’s impossible. I’m sterile.”

“Not after the sages were through with you.” A sick smile spread across Manelin’s lips. “I enjoyed how your screams filled the palace while they changed your body into what they believed would befit a king’s needs, including a kingly dose of fertility.”

Horace closed his eyes, remembering. How could he have forgotten the horror and torment he’d suffered as a trio of bearded men tore at his body, making him feel like an unlucky version of Frankenstein?

Manelin had enjoyed that?

He would have, the bastard.

Horace had prayed for death more than once during that time. When he’d finally convinced them to let him return to the mortal realm to go in search of a mate, his only goal had been escape.

He’d begged Sapa to wipe his memories clean, to cleanse him of the nearly debilitating fears those monsters had instilled in him.

The royal sages had ruthlessly seared his body with fire, burning their way into his spirit, transforming him into the ruler they wanted. Some days, death had played the role of welcomed friend in his torture-induced fantasies.

“Go with that thought,” Manelin purred.

“No, Horace! Don’t you dare do anything he says!” Faith shouted as her eyes fluttered open.

“Faith? Are you okay?” Horace darted to the edge of the cliff. Pebbles skittered off the edge and tumbled down the long distance to the ground, only emphasizing how great the peril Faith faced.

Sparks danced around her head.

“Be careful!” she called.

He should be careful? Did she have no sense of self-preservation? He wasn’t the one dangling more than five hundred feet above the ground.

The sages had made sure to protect him from danger, but they hadn’t given him a damned thing he could use to save the woman he loved. And mating with her had effectively drained his powers.

Unless…

He raised his hands over his head, extended them up into the sky, in a desperate attempt to call his powers back to him. He needed to tap into the universe again. Without his powers, he had no hope of pulling Faith to safety.

“There is only one way to save her,” Manelin said. The bastard pressed a curved knife into Horace’s outstretched hand. Horace recognized the knife, it was the same ceremonial knife Horace had brought with him into the apartment above the café when he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to save Faith or not. “There is only one way to end this.”

No
. He would not, could not, end his life this way. He had never easily accepted defeat. He had always been a fighter. On the streets. At his club. And especially in defense of Faith.

“I would hate for her to fall.” As the words left Manelin’s lips, Faith started to plunge toward the ground. Horace gave a shout and put the knife to his own throat to show that he’d cooperate. For Faith’s life, he would do anything Manelin demanded of him.

“Nooo!” she screamed. But as soon as he’d touched the blade to his skin her freefall had come to a sudden stop.

Manelin smiled broadly. “Do it! Do it now, or I’ll drop her again.” He pressed on Horace’s hand, making sure the blade bit deeply into the soft skin at his neck.

The power glowing all around Faith turned so bright that it hurt to look at her. Shielding his eyes Horace called out to her, “Are you still okay, sweetie?”

She wiggled her toes and floated up just a little. She didn’t look the least bit worried about her own safety. But her brows wrinkled with concern. For him.

As backward as the idea seemed, she appeared to think she had the situation under control. She floated up toward the edge of the cliff a little more and made Horace wonder if, with just a little more effort, she could float to safety.

Apparently, whether he controlled it or not, his powers protected her. But if he didn’t act soon, with Faith glowing so brightly, that same power would spin out of control and explode in their faces. He wished he had taken the time to teach her how to perform a banishment spell. Even a fledging
Protector
could manage such a simple spell, so why not a human? Faith could use it to get rid of Manelin—at least for a while—and give them a chance to regroup.

Horace lowered the knife from his neck and turned it over in his hand.

“You can’t harm me,” Manelin said, his confidence beginning to slip. “If you strike me down, you will only be killing your Incan friend and letting your whore drop to her death.”

“She’s not a whore. She means much more to me than what her body alone can give me,” Horace said his voice low and steady. “And she’ll be furious if I did anything stupid, like kill myself. Are you willing to risk the entire universe with her fury?”

Manelin refused to back down. So did Horace.

He realized then that he and Faith often found themselves at a similar stalemate. Their pride and his fear of commitment, and fear of love, had created a wall between them.

Of course, that’s what had caused their mating to be incomplete. Horace had kept a wall between them, a sturdy wall that blocked their path even now.

His powers had flowed freely into the Faith, because she’d opened herself up to him. She’d given him her heart. But his powers couldn’t return, they couldn’t complete the circle, because he had erected a wall between himself and the rest of the world.

If he could destroy that wall, his powers might even grow in the same way the free flow of power strengthened Dallas and Brendan’s relationship.

Though he’d joined his soul with Faith’s, he still hadn’t been brave enough to let her into his life or his heart.

“I will not lose her.” He tossed the knife over the edge of the cliff. “I will not give you my life.”

“Then she will die,” Manelin said with a shrug, and she started to plunge toward the ground again.

“No!” Horace shouted.

A bright beam of light spiraled up from Faith’s body as she fell. It pierced Manelin in hundreds of laser-sharp points. He spun in helpless circles and screamed. With a sharp yelp, the faerie that had taken over Sapa’s body released it.