Through Time-Frankie (5 page)

They were surrounded. Frankie used a moderate amount of Fae strength to clear a narrow path. Instead of getting through, a group of hair pulling females turned angry eyes on them, and one of them demanded, “Who do you think you are pushing little girl?”

It was an ‘oh-oh’ moment for Frankie.

She created an invisible shield around herself and her friends, but she knew this was it. In a moment, she was going to have to shift them out of this crowd. She would then have to use a memory spell on them that could make them sick for weeks.

Oh, but she hated to do it.

They would be miserable from the side effects. It was not a wonderful choice.

However, the crowd around her was savage with its intense ‘mob mentality’ as hordes of guys began punching anything that moved around them. The girls who had turned on her found themselves bouncing off an invisible wall so hard that for a moment they were stunned.

This was so not good, because those girls were getting up and had dangerous looks on their faces. She didn’t want to draw any attention to herself and her friends and people bouncing off a shield would do just that.

Barbara and Sally had stopped crying and were frozen in place.

She turned them to see if she could lead them out another way and get them as far from the brawl as she could.

Frankie had what she called a ‘girlie moment’ and wanted to cry.

And then, glowing, superior, moving athletically, easily, unconcerned about the people who he sent flying out of his way on either side of him, was
Graely.

Everything around him went into fade out.

All noise seized to exist. Fighting and shoving were nothing anymore.

She knew Graely would make it all work out.

He was everywhere at once.

He parted the crowd between them like he was a bulldozer that no one could withstand.

He rarely smiled and while she couldn’t see his eyes beneath the black hooded cloak he wore, she saw his lips part and curve as though to give her reassurance, to tell her she and her friends had nothing to fear. In a moment, he would be at her side.

Beneath the open black cloak he wore, she saw his hard naked muscular tattooed chest. He wore jeans and silver tipped boots and a part of her just wanted to sink into his arms and whisper his name.

All at once he was there, scooping her under one arm and leading her away. She stopped him and cried out, “My friends—Graely, I can’t leave them.”

He gave her a look and murmured with that delicious old world accent of his, “Of course you can’t, ‘tis why you are still here, isn’t it?” He simply leaned over with one arm and took hold of her two friends as he made another clear path through the crowd and led them into the parking lot.

No one approached them. No one did more than glance his way and move out of it.

At her friends’ car, he stopped to admonish with a finger, “I don’t like that you got caught in such a situation.”

“Not my fault,” she said softly and looked into those dark brightly lit eyes.

“You drive,” he said and took Barbara’s keys out of her fingers and handed them to her. Barbara’s mouth was wide open but neither she nor Sally were speaking, they just continued to stare.

“Take them home, Frankie, and then go straight home yourself,” Graely added.

“Aye, aye,” she answered on a half smile. “Thank you, Graely.”

She got into the driver’s seat and as she pulled away she saw him in her mirror. He stood watching them drive off and then he was gone.

She dropped off Sally and then left Barbara at her house with her car keys. Both had wanted to know who Graely was and she had waved it off, saying an old friend.

Barbara lived only a block away and she shifted home from there, and went straight to her garden and called his name, “Graely? Graely, I know you are nearby.
I know
.”

He shifted in and she reached up and removed his hood and smiled at him, “Thank you, again. You are always there when I need you.”

“You didn’t really need me, Frankie. You could have shifted off anytime you wanted,” he answered on a dark frown.

“No, I couldn’t leave my friends and I didn’t want to shift them out until it was a last resort. If I had done that I would have had to use a memory spell on them and you know memory spells could have left them dazed and unwell for weeks. I couldn’t do that if there was another way.”

The amber lights in his dark eyes danced and a soft smile curved his luscious lips and she reached out and touched those lips, wishing he would put them to hers. For months and months she had been fantasizing about kissing Graely.

He frowned and shoved her hand away. “Don’t do that. Don’t think this is a romance. You are a child. I am…a Dark Prince.”

“Graely,” she said not in the least perturbed by his harsh behavior. “Ye are so much more than that.”

“But not for you,
never for you
.”

He was gone, just like that and although his words pinched, they had not really gotten her down. Frankie was wise beyond her years, way beyond her years. She remembered what she said after he had gone, “Ye are wrong, Graely.”

And now, in the quiet of her room, in the Highlands of Scotland, months later, she said it again, “Oh Graely, m’own Dark Prince. Ye are wrong to think that ye are not for me.
So wrong.”

Chapter Six

ESLYM MOVED GRACEFULLY across her bedroom, content with her lot, now that life was so different—different because of him.

He had just left her. She remembered the way he had kissed her, touched her and passionately fondled her breasts, before he laid her down, and took her over and over again, she felt heated once more.

A small part of her felt guilty.

He had come to her parent’s home and had taken her in her bedroom. They were out at a meeting, and although she was of age to have a lover, they certainly would not have approved of this and they
did not approve of him.

They were suspicious of Pestale and did not believe that he had any good in him at all. They thought she was naïve.

But, they didn’t know, they just didn’t feel what she felt—how could they?

When he entered her life, she became his and his alone.

He filled her with
wanting.

Oddly enough, when this thought flitted through her mind, so did an image of Darmon.

She had thought she loved Darmon, but she had been wrong. It was Pestale, only Pestale…

Her life had been sweetly pleasant and now it was filled with excitement. He thrilled her with his dynamic presence. He thrilled her with his wild love-making.

Her peaceful life in Conglam had been changed.

She didn’t see much of her friends anymore.

Her days were filled with Pestale and always in secret.

Standing at the large window of her pretty green and mauve room she stared at the reflection of the woman staring back at her. She was an oddity—a product of a forbidden love between her Blue Demon father, and her lovely Shapeshifter mother.

There was no other like her, her mother was fond of pointing out. She was unique, but she hadn’t wanted to be. Now, she was pleased because Pestale was so charmed by all that she was and all that she could do.

Her pale skin was tinged with blue, her eyes were bright aqua, her hair was long and white, her lips full and Pestale always called them luscious. She was exotic and it was the first thing he had told her when they met six months ago. How had they not met before, she would muse.

He had wanted her just as she was, even though she possessed an unusual quality the other wolf shifters did not have. She could be anything she wanted, anyone she wanted, any time and without adverse affects. She preferred always to shift into a wolf, rather than any other form, but she could mimic any form she wanted.

When her father and mother had fallen in love hundreds of years ago, their relatives had shunned them. Through the years, the match had been tolerated and then widely accepted by most of the members of both colonies. Her parents were invited to all the meetings and their council was even sought in many matters.

Her parents were no longer outsiders, though they chose to live apart and private from both colonies.

She was glad of it, for she didn’t want to choose the jungle of the Blue Demons with their underground habitat, or the vast forest and valley of the Shapeshifters.

Her parents had carved out their own niche of beauty, their own land and she had grown accustomed to the privacy.

Eslym had reached her majority and blossomed in the last year. She knew that one or two male members of the Blue Demons were more than a little interested in her, especially Sventer who had made no secret of his interest.

Darmon was her only regret. In choosing Pestale, she had lost the life she had envisioned with Darmon.

Darmon was a strong and handsome alpha wolf, and she had thought…but then, she saw Pestale and now Pestale was all she wanted.

When Pestale looked at her the day they met, she felt the blush swim through her blood and burn her cheeks. His thoughts were written in his dark eyes and suddenly she found herself in his bed.

When she confessed to Darmon, he had been devastated. He had accused Pestale of putting a spell on her, but she told him it wasn’t true although…sometimes, she wondered.

She could feel her free will, her longing for him almost as a separate entity. Thus, this couldn’t be a spell. It was all too real. He wasn’t evil, simply misunderstood. She was sure of it.

She knew her own mind, and she knew Pestale. Yes, he had told her that he had done some awful things, but his goal had been pure. He wanted to save the Human Realm from the constant destruction the humans were committing against the land and the creatures that inhabited it.

He had told her to look for herself and she had. She saw the wars, the genocide, the blood, the hunting for sport. She saw the icebergs melt and fall away, the polar bears starving in their habitat.

He was correct. Humans needed guiding.

And she gave herself to him. She was immortal with eternity ahead, and she had decided to share it with the Dark Prince. Had that been only six months ago when they had met? It seemed like yesterday to her.

Why did her mind always call for Darmon when she least expected it to? His name brought a smile to her lips. His image gave her doubts. How could she be so enraptured with Pestale and still think of Darmon?

When she was with Pestale, it was like nothing she had ever imagined. She could think of no one but him. She wanted to please only him.

She blinded herself to the darkness in him and when his dark rose up and repulsed her, she ignored it. She told herself she would bring out the light in him. She was so sure there was light in him.

She told herself that the Dark Prince Pestale was so much more than he realized he was. She believed he had a depth in him as yet untapped, a depth that she was sure she could reach, yank out and weave around him so that she could pull him into her world and keep him out of his.

She adored him beyond reason, beyond hope. He made her feel so many things and his love-making had bewitched her. Lust took over whenever he bedded her and she couldn’t think.

She found she was able to satisfy and please him. She, unlike her shapeshifter mother, could take on many forms…all seductive.

She thought that she might even have some darkness in her—after all, her father was a Blue Demon. At the very least, she understood the darkness in Pestale. She knew he could dissolve it, turn it into ash, she knew this because her father had done so for her mother.

Her parents had forbidden her to see Pestale.

Suddenly she realized Darmon was at their front door. She picked up on his scent and absurdly it made her smile with genuine pleasure. She started out of her room, pleased at the prospect of greeting Darmon when a sound behind her made her turn.

Pestale had shifted back into her room, and moved to take a stand between her and the bedroom door.  
What was he doing here? He had only just left.

He stood naked as he took her hand and pulled her to him. Without realizing what he was doing, she saw that they were in the hallway, and wondered at it.

She felt his cock against her body, which he had blinked naked. He took it with his hand and rubbed it against her belly, and she shivered, as she responded.

With the flick of his hand, a hard back wooden chair was in place. He sat down and pulled her to him, before he coupled her breasts and licked her nipples.

What was he doing? And Darmon…Darmon was at the door. Would the alpha just leave?

“Climb on, little one
, now
,” he said in a voice she found difficult to resist. His voice seemed to fill her head. She climbed on, but something kept telling her to run. How odd. Why would she want to run from the man she loved?

Pestale held her hips and as he slammed her down on his rod, she realized she wasn’t even ready for him, she wasn’t wet, she…

He rotated her hips and told her, “
Move
…throw your head back and move…”

She didn’t want to, Darmon was at the door. But she did as he asked.

All at once the sun streamed down the hallway as the door was flung open, and she knew, Pestale had opened the door.
He had wanted this
. He had wanted Darmon to see him like this with her!

It took everything she had to jump off Pestale, because he told her to stay but she couldn’t. How could she?

She saw Darmon’s face and it hurt her beyond reason to see him look like that, like a wounded and broken animal.

Darmon turned and shifted into his black wolf and as he loped off, his howl caught in his throat before another fully loaded and mournful cry hit the wind.

She turned on Pestale, blinking herself into her clothes and said feeling a horror clutch at her throat, “You knew he was at the door and you did that on purpose? Did you compel me Pestale? Did you compel me so that he would see us like that?”

“Yes,” Pestale answered unashamed. “It is time he stopped calling on you.”

“But, Pestale, that was cruel, and I don’t appreciate you forcing me to...”

“Was I really forcing you? You love me and want me. No, I don’t think so. I think you have been leading him on, allowing him a friendship when all he wants is to bed you and make you his. That, my dear, is cruel. You can’t give him what he wants yet you don’t let him move on.” Pestale shrugged, “Now that won’t happen any longer.” He put out his hand. “Come back here…”

“No,” she said still upset.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her close, lifted her and set her facing away from him. He pushed the chair away as he blinked her clothes off, bent her over and slammed into her again over and over and suddenly she forgot why she was angry as she responded to the magic he filled her with. Was she still compelled? She didn’t think so, yet?

She heard his voice in her head, in her ears, his voice was so beautiful, “A human would break from such wild passion as we have, but not thee, not my little wolf, my hungry little demon. You have all the passion without the frailties. You are what I want. You are mine, make no mistake!”

Some little voice told her that she was in too deep, but she shoved it away. She believed that she filled him with joy and that she would influence all the good that was buried in him to the surface.

Someone as dark as he reportedly was said to be, couldn’t feel such joy, she told herself. His behavior had been bad, but all males were often misled by jealousy. It was normal to feel jealousy. Still, he had actually allowed Darmon to see her naked and in such a position just to prove a point.
That was not normal
.

Was it? No, that was not…but then he brought her to a climax with his feral machinations of her body, and for the moment, Eslym forgot all else.

He took her then, over and over again, until they lay satiated by each other’s side, when all at once he lifted himself onto his elbow and asked, “Are you ready for your journey?”

“Hmm, I only wish you were coming with me,” she looked into his burning dark eyes. She had begun traveling through the portal he had created to the human world. His magic could send others, but the wards his father had installed to prevent him from leaving Conglam were still intact and unbreakable.

“I will be going with you Eslym, one day soon, you will be my queen, and we will rule. In the meantime, just
remember me, think of me, and feel me
, and in that way, I will always be with you,” he took her hand and placed it on his throbbing cock. “I need you more than I have ever needed anything or anyone before.”

She grabbed hold of his hard dick and groaned, “I love you, Pestale.”

“And I, you, my all, my everything,” he answered as he took his manhood and shoved it between her lips.

Afterwards, when he was gone and she was alone again, she wondered if he meant those words. Was he capable yet of real love? She wasn’t stupid enough to think so, but she did believe he was ready for it. She believed a cold knot somewhere inside of him was always ready to erupt and take over, but he had been telling her for months now that she was his ‘one’. She knew that there was some truth to it, as he had not taken any other since they had met.

She showered and went out for a walk when leaves crunching beneath footsteps caught her attention and she turned.

“Essie!” Darmon’s voice sounded broken.

She ran to him, her hands reaching for his, but he stepped away and said, “Don’t.” He shook his head, “I don’t blame you, Essie. I know that was his doing. I don’t blame you for any of it. You never stood a chance once he decided to have and keep you. He has the magic to compel you Essie and you wouldn’t even know it.”

“Oh, Darmon, I know, but he does love me and I know that in spite of what I feel for you…I love him,” she said gently but she had to tell him the truth. She had to make him forget her.

He looked away and she saw his shoulders hunch a little. He was tall, well built, with a winning smile and a handsome face. His clear blue eyes always seemed warm and twinkling. She knew one day soon another would steal him away. And that thought made her hurt inside. She should be happy to see him go off with someone and make a life. What was she doing? She shoved those thoughts away and said, “Darmon, you have to forget about me.”

He stared at her intently, “Never.” He paced, “
I’m not a fool
. I know why this happened today. He wants me out of the picture. He is afraid one day you will wake from the compulsion spell you are under and
see me, want me
. I’m willing to wait it out.”