The Vampire's Spell_The Fae King Read online

  “Well, that she did, professor. But, she also asked to borrow Henny to assist her with, ah, limiting little Ro’s power so she doesn’t have to be on twenty-four-hour guard duty anymore.”

  “I’m happy to help, of course. But don’t you think my place should be with the pack right now?”

  “She’ll also need your herb-witchery to help her make a better shield for us from glamor, which she is all the help we’re going to get from her on anything until Rowena stops setting things on fire.”

  Eldritch leaned forward, his eyebrows arched into the wrinkles of his forehead. “Pardon me? She’s setting things on fire?” I nodded and he blew out a breath. “My knee-jerk reaction was to tell the Venatores, but I guess we’ll be handling this in house?” I nodded again. “Fine, I’ll go grab our overnight bags and we’ll get out of your hair”

  I followed the professor inside and waited until he came out of the cabin’s single bedroom. “I also need you to be my ears inside. Since Nick and Caroline won’t buy off on this venture, I think he’s stopping the wererats from helping.”

  “Isn’t that his prerogative?” Eldritch was right, of course. The wererats answered to only two beings on earth, their king, who—when he wasn’t furry—was a civil rights attorney out of Los Angeles, and Nicholas, the vampire who could call them and enter their minds even against their wills.

  “Maybe technically, historically, it’s his right, but wasn’t he trying to get away from the archaic, violent ways of vampire history?”

  Eldritch laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. “Even good men are willing to turn a blind eye to evils of their world if it serves their goals, Clay. Only the truly great ones somehow seem to hold on to their integrity.”

  I didn’t answer, not because I didn’t agree, but because I did, and I feared for myself as the leader of my people. Nick had done more to normalize vampires and bring them together with humans to a murder-free resolution than I’d imagined. Even the Venatores lamiae had finally let go of their vendetta and had returned to hunting only vampires proven to be murderers.

  But that hadn’t happened until we returned from Brazil to find a delegate from the Catholic church standing on our doorstep, demanding a full report of the rumored Fae that we’d captured. I had to give it to the Church, they certainly knew how to spin the truth into a web that bore strange resemblance to lies. By the end of the visit, we’d been pardoned of the sin of corruption on Somayo, a hunter I’d been forced to turn into a shifter to save his life.

  There had been another hunter I changed as well, a lethal zealot named Vladikk Agnarrson. The same Venatores that had planned and helped execute an attack on me to change me into a super soldier. He’d tried to kill me when I became a shifter instead, but Caroline and the professor had taken me to a werewolf camp, and I’d assimilated into a new, better life.

  Changing Vladikk was the most difficult thing I’d ever done, and I still had more moments of regret than not, when I could no longer force myself to pretend it hadn’t happened. I’d given my enemy more power than any evil should hold, and then, had watched him walk away with Onyxis, who was ever so grateful for her new plaything.

  There was no reconciling my integrity with the knowledge that by saving him, I’d endangered everyone else, my pack, Nicholas and Caroline and their people, even the wee folk, the only Fae to accept us half-breeds as kin. Twice I’d put the entirety of humanity in danger by failing to kill one human because it was against my code.

  “Perhaps it isn’t corruption that they fall prey to, Professor,” I finally replied. “Maybe they realize that the safety and future of the people they care about requires them to adapt and let go of their ideals.”

  Eldritch smiled at me and handed me a duffel bag, slinging another over his shoulder and hefting a basket of dry herbs in his arms. “It doesn’t do to keep the women-folk waiting, Clay, especially when they can harm you from a distance.” He winked as his wife called out to him that she could hear him at a distance too, calling him an old coot in a much softer voice that she knew I could hear, but he couldn’t.

  I helped load up their bags and hugged Henny, while wolves of both the two-legged and four-legged varieties gathered around to say goodbye to the couple. Caroline had known what she was asking for when she requested Henny. It wasn’t just a visit from one witch to another. Henny was our doctor, our Chaplin, and sometimes the only one strong enough to help me control the wild magic. She’d weakened us, and I’d let her because of that goddamned code of mine.

  “Professor, I don’t know if I’m a good leader, or a good man, but I think it’s time we return to our roots,” I said softly, not to hide what I was saying from a dozen sets of canine hearings but to stress the importance of what I wanted him to do. “It’s time to find a new plot of land for our Canidae friends, one removed from the city.”

  He nodded and glanced at his wife. “Of course, I’ll have Bernie and a few of the other old timers do some scouting for the foundation and we’ll move on it.” He glanced around at the campsite, barely a year old. “And this place?”

  “It stays. There will always be a need for a safe place to stay, for our friends and allies.” He nodded again, chewing his lip thoughtfully. “You have reservations?”

  “No,” he chuckled, “just ideas. One battle at a time, right?” He smiled and held his wife’s door before rounding his ancient Forrester and climbing in behind the wheel. “I’ll see you when you pick up your enhanced magic whatevers.” I nodded and Ashlynn laughed.

  “I like that, Prof. Magic whatevers. Travel safely.” We waved as they pulled away like children waving to grandma and grandpa at the end of a holiday visit.

  “Is this what it feels like for the others when we leave?” I asked my mate. I didn’t have to describe it to her, she was in my head and my heart with the slightest touch of my power to her mind.

  “Yes, Clay. They long for us whenever we leave, and are just as excited to see us come home,” she chuckled. “Afraid you aren’t the favorite?”

  “No, just thinking about family. I never had one, outside the Venatores.”

  She took my arm and guided me toward the longhouse, the power of her beast brushing against mine seductively. “OK, I’ll bite. What’s making you think about family?” I could see in the space of my mind where our metaphysical powers manifest themselves, the bright auburn of her cinnamon wolf toying with my cinder beast, trying to draw it out. It was a distraction, but a welcome one from the thought of how I seemed to be a pawn in a master plan no one would explain to me.

  “Caroline is trying to weaken us. Maybe it’s subconscious, but it’s still what she wants.”

  “Why would she want us weak?”

  “So she can protect us.” I opened the door to the longhouse, empty as it always was in the afternoons, when hunting and fishing for food had already long since been finished and the pack was lounging around, waiting for the sun to dip lower in the sky before starting the fire or charcoal grills for dinner. Ashlynn led the way up the stairs to the large bedroom we shared, removing clothing as she went. By the time she reached the top step, her bare, sun-kissed body made thinking of anything but her impossible, and I swept her up in my arms and strode into the bedroom, kicking the door shut behind me with a growl.

  “I like it when you think about family, Alpha,” she murmured in my ear as I shoved my khakis down around my ankles. I shed my T-shirt and lifted her at her waist, tossing her higher up on the bed and lunging after her. My hands clamped around her wrists and I forced her arms over her head, trapping her hands in one of mine and raking my fingers down her side to her hip, pulling her tight against me.

  “And why do you want me to think about family, my mate?” She slithered and lifted her hips to meet mine at a better angle and the heat of our bodies, in my mind, should’ve scorched the bed. Too hungry for her to continue the game, I released her hands and held her, lifting her off the bed and onto me as I knelt back, my arms wrapped around her, pressing my mouth to her neck until the wolf rose in me and my teeth sank into the tender skin above her collarbone.

  The world, humans, Fae, vampires, fell away as our feral halves took over the familiar mating ritual. I sank into the smell of her skin and the power that buoyed us up, until the glow of our power was visible behind my eyelids and I opened them to see Ashlynn’s golden glow hover over the dark glow of my own power, until the two blended together and overpowered me. With my release, I shared that power, sending it to the members of the pack in the ring and resting under the trees.

  Those who were not strong enough to resist changed, and below us, a chorus of howls began as our people sang with the natural wolves who would join them. Among the strongest who fought me, I threw more into, finding each signature of power and drawing the wild hunt from them, until wild magic was a windstorm in the clearing and no man stood, only wolves, singing to their king and queen.

  The howling died away and I felt the wolves slip into the trees. We would rest, and they would hunt, and when they returned, we would take our wild magic to the Fae mound and pray it was enough to open the doors to Fairy.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Normally I would’ve joined Ashlynn in the shower, but with my body still humming with magic, I needed to focus on channeling the excess back into myself before we went back to the city. The Fae who had been exiled or abandoned had found themselves a space in the midst of modern metals, wires, and technology and made their home there, removed from the worst of the steel and concrete that would make them fade, with just enough protection to let them live among humans.

  Seattle had built up around them over hundreds of years, starting with the first nations, then explorers, trappers, settlers until there was a big little city that had pushed them back to the water and hemmed them in on every side with streets, telephone wires, and warehouses.

  So they created a warehouse of their own from the last bit of the mound they carried with them, dirt from the throne room of the light court. The exiled light queen had given up her beauty and wound most of her own remaining magic into the magic of the mound, and had created such a complete mirage of a warehouse, it was solid to the touch.

  Although, mirage would be selling the magic short. It was a solid structure with windows and doors, but if a rack was thrown through a window, it could heal itself. There were pipes for plumbing, but underground, they simply ended, and I had never learned what happened to the waste we flushed or the water that ran into the showers after we were done sparring.

  The queen had renamed herself Maria, a nice, Christian name that gave away nothing of who she was, so no one could have power over her. She was savvy too. She opened a business to take money from humans, and in return, she was able to employ Fae and find those humans who had mixed Fae blood and if she chose to, could bring them into the fold.

  That was how we’d met. I needed to make more money with a whole pack to take care of, and as generous as my wages at the club were, I couldn’t ask Nick for more. Instead, I thought I’d try my hand at teaching martial arts. At the time, the only people I knew with magic were female, and my own psychic gift so new I didn’t realize the ad I’d answered was bespelled to draw people just like me.

  Caroline had been trying to sell me, and anyone else who would listen, on the idea that vampires came from Fae stock, not demonic. As I had yet to meet a demon, I understood her point, but it wasn’t until my new boss Maria told me that being a shifter was a blessing of the Fae, that I truly understood how wrong human myths and legends had it.

  But vampires, shifters, psychics like Caroline and even Henny’s herb-witchery was a corruption of Fae blood. Fae had bedded humans, and from time to time, those dalliances had borne children. Onyxis had taken it a step further and used her own blood to change her most favored disciples. They were the first vampires, the acolytes of the hound master, the dark queen of the hunt.

  Now, the dark queen was queen only in title, and only on the mortal plane. We were her hounds, according to legend, but her pack was sparse because I refused to hunt for her, and any wolf or pack under my care could refuse her too. Instead, she had a motley crew of vampires, a handful of wolves I suspected she had my former packmates turn into shifters for her, and Vladdik Agnarrson, the only chimera I’d ever seen, and hoped never to see again. Agnarrson was truly a creature of nightmare, so disconnected from humanity that he did not change form. He was always going to be an abomination, part lion, part reptile, and who knew what else. The worst part was that I’d created him, and when I saw his form, I’d known instantly it was his truest self.

  I would not go to Onyxis for help because she was an ancient being who had the ego of a goddess, and a warped sense of humor. If I asked for her help, she’d give it, in exchange for our obedience, or humiliation. Nick wasn’t much better because to him, she was still a goddess, and even a goddess with a little “g” was a force to be reckoned with and served diligently.

  Gaia had become my goddess. I felt her in the chorus of my wolves when we sang to the moon, and in the grass and trees when I led the hunt, and in the life force of my prey when I sank my teeth into their throats. I wasn’t wholly human anymore, and with the magic of nature flowing through me, I’d found my Catholic upbringing falling away and replaced by a force that was both more generous and less forgiving. If you failed nature, you didn’t get a stay of punishment until the next life. The storm or enemy or plague would wash over you and return you to the circle of life without hesitation, and without remorse.

  Ashlynn pulled me from my thoughts and I glanced into my hands at a perfect ball of darkness that glowed from within, like a light behind a dark shade. I was sweating again, but I’d finally done what I’d failed so many times in practice with Caroline.

  “I found the answer, Ash. It’s Gaia. She’s the center of this power, or at least the center of my control. Not focusing on being more human makes this a whole lot easier.”

  She clucked and pushed my hair back from my forehead. “I think it’s time to find a new tutor then because all Caroline knows is being as human as possible. It’s probably why her vampire loves her so much.”

  It was true that Nick was at his most human when Caroline swayed him to her desires, but there was no one else like me to go to. My hope lay with the Fae and for that, I was willing to fight the tyrant who had exiled his own wife rather than admit he was weakening. Hell, after the last time we’d met, I’d stuck him in a trap that had held him for months before his people saved him. The next time, I knew to go for the kill.

  I quenched the fire in my hands and took a deep breath. My beautiful, fierce mate watched with cool eyes, waiting. It was unnerving that she knew me so well she knew when I was waffling, and not to interfere with my decision. She’d argue all day if she was sure I was wrong, but never had she undermined me as alpha by making me doubt myself when I was uncertain.

  “We need to get to the door, and we need to get there unseen,” I finally said aloud. “So how do you propose we get into a piece of Fairy without the queen finding out we’re there?”

  “How do you expect us to navigate Fairy without her?” she asked, and I grinned and looked her over, head to toe.

  “I’m glad you’re so good at making friends, Ashlynn, and I’m sure we can count on them to help.”

  She growled at me. “That little pervert is going to want a piece of me . . . literally,” she argued.

  “Well, we’d better make sure it’s a part you won’t miss.” I slid off the bed and strode toward the shower with my mate glaring daggers into my back.

  “I hate you right now,” she called after me as I started the shower, and soon after I stepped in, the hot water disappeared as I assumed she turned on every other hot water tap in the longhouse.

  “You hate me now, just wait until I tell you what part that is,” I chuckled to myself. The goblins were of the wee folk, and as ugly as they were to us, we were almost as beautiful as the High Fae to them. On top of that, our human halves made us far more exotic and our blood far rarer and precious.

  If Drog had been a witch or High Fae, I would never have given him a drop of blood from Ashlynn or anyone else. Blood was a commodity too easily exploited in magic to harm the one it came from. But to a goblin, blood was ambrosia, a fine wine from the veins of a beautiful woman was a heady drug that would bring the squat and otherwise unimportant creature stature among his own people, and while her blood was in his system, among the other Fae as well.

  I texted Caroline and Fin, the other head of security, to let them know we’d be coming by after dark for whatever balm they’d come up with to shield us from Fae glamor, and silently called to the wolves to eat and return to human form. We lacked the magic to fight the Fae on their terms. We’d need our guns, and the hands to use them.

  By the time we were done with our mission, I seriously doubted a few drops of blood would be the greatest sacrifice we encountered.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The club was hopping by the time we wrangled all the power-high wolves back to camp and fed them, and I expended a little of my own power to force them into human form without the need to rest. Some of the wolves could’ve done it themselves, but on their own, they’d be too tired to fight at full capacity. So I took the power hit and tried to regenerate the energy with an extra serving of the venison Bernie pulled out of the smokehouse, as was the alpha’s right. Everyone limited themselves to a single beer, but I made sure I got an extra there too—not for myself but to give the wee folk as an offering so they’d use their glamor to hide my people from Maria and the captain of her guard, her daughter Portia.