They knew little to nothing about this man. The most disturbing rumor was that that he’d been sent to hell and had fought off enough of hell’s Demons to become the right-hand man of Lucifer himself. There were plenty of other rumors about him, but Ristan knew to never trust rumors. He and his brothers had created and fueled a veritable propaganda machine about Ryder to get him into the Human world and take Adam’s place as the Dark Fae Prince, so he was well aware of how to manipulate rumors.
“I’ll be taking her back to the catacombs soon enough,” Ristan said after a moment of silence had passed, his eyes taking in the impeccable suit Lucian wore. “We’ll bring what you’re looking for to the Metaline Falls club once she’s found it.”
Ristan didn’t want Lucian entering his dreams, or taking him to visit this place again, period. Lucian nodded and cocked a smile that looked more evil than anything. “See that you do it soon, I have a Witch of my own to torture.”
“I have a prior engagement that requires my presence tonight, but after that I should be able to go digging through the Guild’s catacombs.”
Lucian smirked and closed his eyes for a brief moment. “Your sister in law is going to need my help soon,” he announced when he opened his eyes again. “Find everything I am requesting in time and I’ll help her, if not, well, who knows, right?” he asked and disappeared before Ristan could answer him. The only thing that remained in the room was his cocky laughter and a cloud of smoke.
Ristan stared at the smoke that remained in the room, and he shook his head. Lucian was a mystery he didn’t care to figure out, but he knew the guy was bad news. Not to say his curiosity wasn’t piqued at Lucian’s parting comment.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Olivia awoke to silence. The room was still the exactly the same as it was before she fell asleep, although there was a hint of smoke that seemed a little out of place. Had someone lit a candle or was something on fire? Had she slept through Ristan returning and then leaving again?
She sat up in bed and had just swung her legs over the side when he entered the room, in only a towel. It was slung low on his sexy-as-sin hips, so his firm abs were visible, and her eyes seemed to get stuck on the trail of dark hair that started below his navel, and disappeared under the towel.
Her eyes moved of their own will, up to those perfectly pierced nipples and again, sexy as all get-out. She’d never thought she’d like a male having them pierced, but she’d surprised herself as her tongue had teased those metal rings. The way he’d moaned as she’d licked and pulled against them…shit.
He walked to the large dresser and pulled open the top drawer, his hair sending tendrils of droplets down his well-defined back as she latched onto one and followed its progress, right up until he dropped his towel. She sucked in air as the droplet traced a loving pattern down his firm backside, but where it continued to, she had no freaking clue. Her eyes had made it as far as his ass and seemed to have gotten stuck there.
“I’ll be gone for a while,” he said as he turned around, giving her a full frontal view. “I have a party to attend.”
“And I’m just supposed to wait around for you?” she asked tartly, realizing she really wasn’t in a position to negotiate, but being stuck in a bedroom with nothing to do sounded kind of stupid. She’d needed to be busy, and the last few days she’d been stuck in either a cell or a luxurious set of rooms.
“You don’t have a choice in the matter,” he said as he slipped on crisp, dark blue jeans. They hung low on his hips, and her fingers itched to pull them back off of him. She somehow managed to pull her eyes from him and looked to the wall, as if it held all the answers she needed. He had to be teasing her; messing with her head. That dresser had been empty when she had searched it earlier.
“When can I see the children?” she whispered, her heart heavy with the question.
“Soon,” he said offhandedly. “I promised to be there tonight, and I’m going to be late.”
“Good for you,” she bit out before she could think better of it. He turned as he buttoned the long, dark shirt he’d chosen and as he walked across the room to the door, he smiled.
“Sassy has always been a major fucking turn-on for me, so keep lipping off and I’m sure I have something to keep those pretty lips busy,” he said with a lopsided grin. “I also have a surprise for you, but only if you promise to be good.”
“I don’t,” she growled, taking in his appearance. He was probably going to meet with some female because she sucked at sex. Her seduction had been lame, and she was the first to admit it, but leaving her locked in a room while he went to some other woman? Screw that!
“Don’t what?” Ristan asked with a wicked twinkle in his beautiful eyes.
“I am not going to be good while you are out at some stupid party!” she snapped angrily.
“It’s not really a party,” he stated, turning to look at her with the door halfway open.
She bolted, catching him off guard gaining her the element of surprise. He landed with a thud on thick carpet while she ran past him, through a small hallway, and down a large staircase. She didn’t turn to see if he gave chase, and ran until she reached the large double doors that had to lead outside.
She threw them open and gasped. Mountains! The top of a freaking mountain range? Was he serious?! She took off into the woods, uncaring that she was only dressed in panties and his T-shirt, or that her feet were bare. The air was crisp, bitingly cold, and the ground was frosted with patches of snow.
She barely heard or sensed the disturbance in the air behind her and swung around, wholly planning to attack him, but was instead tackled to the ground. His body pressed punishingly against hers, and before she could scream at him, his mouth crushed against hers in a kiss that curled her toes. She moaned against it, against him. Her body responded, and that fire he normally created inside of her ignited, and she lost the will to fight against it.
They were on the ground. He was already tugging at his jeans with one hand as he used his other hand to rip the silk panties from her body. The T-shirt seemed to disintegrate. Within seconds, he was inside of her, the only sound was the mingled breathing, and moans from her lips as he fucked her on the top of his mountain, uncaring of anything but the need to be consumed by each other.
They exploded in sync, and she screamed her release, which echoed through the mountain range, telling her exactly how helpless she was here. He’d brought her home, but he’d made damn sure she couldn’t escape. Dazedly, she wondered if she was somewhere in the Olympic Mountains, or if she was smack-dab in the middle of the Cascades. She was more of an indoor girl, so she only had a general idea based on what she had read in magazines.
“Fucking hell,” he growled as he rocked his hips a few more times, ignoring the biting wind that rustled the yellow and orange leaves as well as his beautifully dark hair. “When I get back, this will continue, Olivia.”
She moaned and closed her eyes. She swallowed the sensation of his cock buried to the hilt in her pussy to take her away from the hopelessness she felt. “Do you ever plan to let me go?” she asked, ashamed at her own wanton behavior with someone she should be fighting off.
“If you keep fucking me like this, probably not,” he answered quietly before he trailed soft, unexpected soft kisses over her face. “You fit me perfectly,” he confessed as she felt him growing hard inside of her again. He repositioned their bodies, picking her up gently, and smiled at her wide-eyed surprise as his cock stretched her.
He was on his knees now, his body easily supporting hers as he slipped his arms between her thighs and spread them far enough that he had full control of her. He started lifting, and then pushed her pussy down onto his engorged cock.
She exploded unexpectedly, without warning, and felt him as he began to feed from her orgasm. Her bones felt like they’d been liquefied and his arms were th
e only thing that held her in place as her head rolled and landed on his shoulder. The man was sensational, and better than any damn hero had ever been described in her romance books. He continued to feed, the glow from his silver gaze visible through her hair, which had covered her face.
“Come for me again,” he growled, the noise louder as the echo filled the empty mountain range.
“I can’t,” she pleaded, but only received a rumble of masculine laughter as he proved her wrong. This one began as a dull ache that travelled through her body until she began helping him hit the perfect spot that created an explosion that made a dull buzzing noise in her head. She felt him lifting, maneuvering them upwards and moving them both; he refused to release her.
Every step sent him deeper and deeper into her body, with the occasional exit as they hit a wall, which he used to his advantage; he pounded her flesh eagerly. She hadn’t even noticed entering the house until he had found that damn wall. When he finally set her down, it was only to push her head down and order her to hold on to her ankles as he gripped her hips from behind her, holding her firmly, keeping her steady. She’d thought him a tight fit inside of her before, but him taking her from behind while she was bent over? He touched places he’d never explored before. He was buried to her womb; it felt raw and erotic as he pounded her like this. Her hands gripped her ankles, as he’d commanded, and with each thrust, she cried out with the impending orgasm.
He stretched and pushed boundaries she’d never imagined pushing until she exploded again, this time collapsing in exhaustion. After some time had passed, she opened her tired eyes to find him redressing, and she had been tucked back into bed. He was devastating in his fresh clothing, or maybe it was sex-induced coma she was about to indulge in that made her think so.
“Now, for that surprise,” he said as he moved to the door and closed it behind him, only to open it again a moment later, holding her cat.
“It can’t be,” she whispered breathlessly as she tried to sit up, only to wince as her lady bits complained at the movement. “How?”
“I told my brothers that she was probably hiding close to the Guild,” he admitted. “It was only a matter of figuring out where a lost cat might be hiding. You can have your cat, but there are rules,” he stated as he set the cat down to run to her owner. “When we fuck, she’s not allowed in the same room.”
Olivia lifted her eyes to his as her cat jumped into her waiting arms. A tear slid down her face as she kissed the little scrounge who glared back at him. He smiled at it; he’d marked his territory…a few times…and that cat could smell it on her. Yup, he’d fucked her enough that he’d be sated and not feel hunger or the need to feed at the party. A party he really didn’t want to attend, as he hated the idea of leaving her here, alone.
He moved to the door and whispered a warding spell that would seal her in the room again, and looked back to find her cradling the cat as if she was the most delicate babe in the world. His stomach coiled, and he had the strangest urge to walk back and kiss her, but he forced himself out the door.
He needed to stop that shit; this unhealthy attachment to the little poppet was growing with each touch they shared. It wasn’t something he allowed to happen because…
“Demon,” Danu said softly, her eyes leveling him with an angry stare. “She dies,” she finished as coldly as the air around the mansion.
“No, she doesn’t. She’s my prisoner, and nothing more,” he warned, but it sounded hollow even to his own ears. “I need her alive and so do you. She is the key to finding the relics, the ones that can save you and our world. If you so much as touch her, I’ll take my fucking time looking for the relics; maybe wait until the last minute, even. It’s time you let it go, Danu. You had your fun with me. Let me go.”
“You love me,” she said, but her eyes sparkled with unease. “Don’t you?”
He paused; his eyes jerked to the mansion he’d just left and back to Danu. He felt that strange coil in his belly and knew this time it had little to do with sex. “Once,” he admitted. “Once I thought you my moon. If asked who was more beautiful than the stars I love so much, I’d have said you. You don’t love anything, Goddess. You hunger for control, to be worshipped, and it’s not the same as love. Could you love someone? No, because you’re incapable of that kind of love. So no, Danu, I don’t love you.”
“You will find them quickly, because if you do not, she’ll die a slow painful death, Ristan!” she screamed, her eyes blazing with a mixture of pain and her own fucked-up version of betrayal.
Ristan shook his head and rubbed his temples. “I’ll play my part, Danu, but you will back off, and leave me and whoever I am with, alone. That’s not up for discussion. Take it or leave it,” he stated, and watched as she jerked her chin up and then down as she did a nod, then expelled an angry growl.
She vanished before he could say anything more, and he rubbed his temples again as one hell of a headache started to set in. She’d been conniving and calculating in her schemes, uncaring of the collateral damage, and he’d been too naïve at the time as she began promising him the world. Nothing more than a small boy who’d thought himself blessed in the presence of a beautiful woman.
But the games began, and over time he’d started seeing through it, only to find her to be one jealous ass bitch that was lethal. Sure, he’d given her what she needed, and he’d taken what he needed as well. It wasn’t enough, though. Eventually it became almost tedious to serve her needs, knowing she’d take anyone he got close to.
He dismissed the Goddess from his mind and opened a portal into the Horde Kingdom, and sifted to the pavilion which had once housed the Horde King’s concubines. It was used now as more of a refuge for those who had wanted to stay within the safety it offered.
It had been the perfect place for the celebration, and earlier he’d created an illusion of the mansion Ryder had built outside of Spokane when he’d been assumed to be the Dark Prince. It was an exact replica, although the new one had been redone with more features to withstand Mages. No longer was it just a charming mansion that had been built to impress the Humans, but an impenetrable place for his brothers to resume their duties to protect their people and search for the relics.
He tilted his head as he listened on the mental path he shared with his brothers as they announced that the princess and princes were in route to the celebration. He smiled as the earthy scent of mistletoe and the rich aroma of hot chocolate teased his nose.
She’d love this. Knowing the Blood Princess—or, actually, the new Goddess of Faery—as he did, he knew she’d be able to forget what was coming, if even for a little bit. He flicked his fingers gently and raised his eyes to watch as the snow began to fall on the floor of the pavilion. What was the Winter Solstice—or—Christmas without snow?
Chapter Twenty-Six
As he reflected back on the events that unfolded over the past day and a half in Faery, he had to admit that the party hadn’t been the strangest he had ever been to, but the vision he’d been unwillingly sucked into had definitely been a first for him. He didn’t know what to think about the future he’d seen with Synthia, or the fact that it wasn’t in the distant future, but something that would come to pass right away. There had been clues in the vision, small things that he’d seen that added up to what they were supposed to do. Synthia had seemed excited, and he’d listened to her explain what she’d interpreted from it, but he knew it was never that simple. It turned out that he had at least been right about that.
The vision supplied hope that there was a way to unfreeze the tree, and they would need his help working through the logistics on getting all of the people of Faery to that tree, and quickly. He’d been busy since then trying to fulfil his role, and throughout that time, he’d been unable to stay away from the little redhead, sifting back periodically throughout the long day to leave her a few of his favorite T-shirts, fo
od and to make sure she was safe and that Danu hadn’t paid Olivia a visit while he’d been busy.
His little run-in with the Goddess while he’d been in Faery had been less than pleasant on his end. Having Synthia call them out on their discord was a new low for him. As if he would allow his feelings for that she-bitch to interfere with the task. Not when so much rode on it, including the lives of his brother’s children. No, only the Goddess herself would manipulate events and interfere with that kind of play if it suited her.
It was a relief that clues in the vision had been right about what needed to be done to set events in motion and the Tree had been unfrozen. For now, his niece and nephews were safe; however, until the remaining relics were found, this was just a temporary state and he wondered what else the Mages would think of to throw at them that would destroy the Fae—or Faery itself.
He paced another length of the living room before he stopped as he heard the soft music playing from upstairs. So his little poppet was awake and she’d found the Ipod and docking station he’d left for her. He smiled, but it was small as his mind grappled with what would need to happen next to save his family and Faery from the evil minds of the Mages. He was going to need the librarian’s help, and he was going to have to woo her to their side somehow.
Before he left Faery, he had formulated a plan with Vlad and Adam that he hoped would convince her to help, and now there was nothing to do but wait for their arrival. He slumped down on the couch to wait as The Fray’s Run played from above.
She had decent taste in music, considering how sheltered she’d been inside the Guild. His fingers tapped to the beat as he waited for his cousin, and when the knock sounded at the door, he smiled.
He stood and moved to the door, then opened it, knowing who would be there, but getting a little more than he’d expected.