"Come, we will go inside," he said crisply.
I started forward but it hurt, I'd done too much today already and I had yet to fully heal. I flinched as I stepped forward and felt my knees try to give away under the weight. Ryder was instantly there, catching me by the waist to steady me on my feet. "Let go of me, I can manage on my own," I growled at him.
"I think thank you are the words you're looking for Syn. If you're not healing, we need to figure out why," he said letting me go and heading back inside, awarding me with a view of his firm ass in his low hung jeans.
"Did you go broke and couldn’t afford shirts in the budget this month?" I grumbled having to look at his exposed skin.
"You liked my brands inside Faery. You interrupted a training regimen Syn," he said smiling over his shoulder. "If I remember correctly, inside Faery you tried to taste every one of my brands—"
"With my tongue," I snapped back as his men fought the urge to smile.
"Don’t tempt me Syn. I've decided to only keep one source of food inside my house."
"Claire?" I asked glaring at him.
"You."
I tripped over my feet and ran into his back, it made the wound scream in pain and before I knew it I was falling. Once again he was faster the gravity was. He caught me with a worried look in golden depths. "You need to rest. You're not healing fast enough."
"Sucks to be me then. Contract."
He smiled coldly, "You drive me crazy and I think you do it on purpose. I had to watch you almost die Syn, do you have idea how fucking hard that was for me? I had to watch them cut you open to stop the bleeding and I watched you bleed out three fucking times before Eliran could stop it. And then I had to watch as your fucking coven came in and took you away from me while citing breach of contract bullshit and I couldn’t fucking kill them because if by some fucking miracle you woke up and I had, you would never forgive me. I saved you Syn, not them. You'd be dead if I hadn't of been Fae. You'd have died in the arms of your coven."
I swallowed slowly and reached up against my will to caress his face gently, "Thank you for saving me, next time—try not letting me get stabbed first."
He smiled and searched my face before setting me back on my feet. His hands steadying me before he released me, "I meant what I said Syn, I plan on punishing you. Soon."
"Yeah, you like to say that, but you're going to have to get in line. I'm waiting for a visit from the puppet master at the moment so we need to hurry this along."
Thirty Six
It took three hours to finish signing the contract. Once again I was his property. At least for a while, but I'd stood my ground and refused to back down on some things. I was back in the Guild car and heading to my shared apartment when Larissa called to check up.
"Local morgue, you stab them, we slab them," I said smiling impishly knowing she'd hear it in my voice.
"Syn, how'd it go?" Larissa replied with nervousness inside her tone.
"It went okay," I said turning onto the highway and frowning, "Everything okay?" I asked noting she lacked her normal pizzazz tonight.
"It's fine, are you on your way home?" I didn’t miss the hopeful note in her voice as she asked.
"Yup, need something from the store?" I asked wondering if that was the hope I'd heard since I was already out.
"No, I was just checking," she replied.
"You and Adam need me to stay gone for a while?" I crinkled my forehead and made a mental note to set them a schedule, or have them go to his place from here on out.
"Just come home please Syn, I need you here." She said and hung up on me.
I held the phone out, looking at it before shoving it back into the purse between the seats. What the hell had that been about? She'd sounded upset and I really hoped it had nothing to do with Adam. No way in hell was I playing a go between with their relationship. I shook my head and headed home.
I hit the button for the second time glaring at the doors of the elevator. I'd tried to call her again but she'd either hit ignore call or had turned off her phone completely which had made me ignore most of the speed limit signs from the highway all the way home.
The elevator doors beeped as they slid open. I rolled my eyes and stepped in, pressing the third floor and waiting. When the doors opened on our floor, I felt a twinge of fear, but it wasn’t my own fear that I felt. I groaned, hoping it had nothing to do with Larissa's fear that Adam was now Fae.
It wasn’t as if we had chosen it. We couldn’t change it either, the best we could do was ignore it until it became more dominant and then Ryder would help us as had been agreed upon earlier tonight. I exhaled and shook my head as I twisted the knob and found it locked.
I lifted my knee and groaned as the pain came back as I dug through my purse for the keys. I almost found them when the door opened and a man who wasn’t Adam stood in front of me. "You must be Synthia."
I blinked and narrowed my eyes, "And you would be?"
"Oh, how rude of me. I'm Joseph," he held out his hand which I didn’t take as I looked over his shoulder to see inside my own apartment. "Do come in Syn, Larissa and I have been waiting for you."
He looked harmless enough. Maybe we had a new neighbor? He knew my name so obviously Larissa trusted him enough to allow him inside our apartment, why she’d allowed him to answer the door was beyond me though. I could see no brands exposed from the white shirt and faded jeans he wore that would mark him Fae, or from the Guild. It wasn’t until I met his eyes that I found something off about him.
"Where is she?" I asked as my stomach dropped.
"She's inside," he said with a smile that didn’t fit right on his pinched features, his hair was a dull brown and looked as if he had been running his hands through it all day. He had eyes that held a keen interest in a shade of grey that was creepy.
I pushed past him and screamed as I felt the sudden white-hot pain in my back. It was too late. Something was pushed into one of my shoulder blades and I fell to the floor unable to move a single muscle. Tears burst into my eyes as I realized I couldn’t move. I could see Larissa though.
She was tied to a chair and blood was pouring from her face in several places. He'd come while I'd been out signing the contract. The puppet master had gotten to Larissa and I'd failed to feel anything from her from our connection. Worse, she must have been tortured this entire time by a killer I had provoked. I fought to pull any magic around or to me while his malicious laughter pulled my eyes to him. He stood over me looking down with a twisted smile.
"It won't help. Those rods were created to hold the Gods, the more you struggle, the more they lock down and drain you," he snickered, enjoying the pain that was now palpable inside the room.
"I challenged you, let her go," I said trying to get Larissa away from danger.
"No, she's too beautiful. She has great skin and her eyes…magical."
I felt bile push at the back of my throat, everything inside of me screaming that this wasn’t happening. Not again, I couldn’t watch this, I couldn’t breathe. "Mine are better, I'm Fae."
"You, I plan on keeping, you killed my masterpiece. You will get to keep your friend, well," he crouched down and moved a few stray pieces of hair from my face, "You will get to keep pieces of her."
"No, please," I whispered meeting Larissa's terrified eyes as she tried to speak through the gag tied over her mouth.
"Let's get you up. You need a better seat for the show!" He chirped as he easily picked me up and held me pressed against the wall. He had more small thin rods in his hands. He used one hand to press my head against the wall as the rest of my body obeyed him. His free hand slid the pins in one by one, as his eyes lit up. I fought the urge to scream as fire ignited and muscle gave way, tearing as each one was pressed through.
He was enjoying it, with a calmness that was unsettling. I fought nausea as I helplessly allowed it. He was going to kill us both and I couldn’t do a single thing but watch. I was going to have to relive my past again. There had to
be a way to stop this, I tried to pull up a shield that would protect us but nothing happened but a tightening inside my chest.
Tears of hopelessness ran down my face as he snickered and backed up with his head tipped low as madness lit inside his eyes. "You took him away from me. I could have brought down the entire Fae race. You ruined it!" He lost his composure and screamed showing just how unhinged he was, "No, you will suffer and you will take her place."
He turned and picked up a knife, his other hand trailing over Larissa's bare leg where he'd cut her pants open. I screamed, shaking everything inside the room until he was forced to turn back to me. He walked back slowly, his eyes lighting up around the edges to reveal the fact that he was half Fae, Changeling. "That's it baby, scream," he screamed with me, his piercing the room until he started laughing. "No one can hear you. No one will save you."
I stopped and shook inside, my palm itching with a slight tingle and then a burn as if it was trying to work blood magic again. I swallowed and begged him to cut me, to use me. But he refused and when he walked back over to Larissa all I could do was watch as my voice, hoarse and tired refused to work.
He removed the gag from Larissa's bloody mouth and my heart dropped, everything inside of me screamed in denial. "No, oh God nooooo! Lari….oh God," he'd cut her beautiful face up in several places. He snickered as he sank his blade in and watched her come back, aware of what was happening, she sobbed and shook her head trying to move it away from his merciless abuse.
I met her eyes and I sobbed along with her as I fought the hold of the pins. He was cutting her open and once again I couldn’t help, I wasn’t strong enough to do anything with the pins holding me securely to the wall. I screamed and fought the horror of what he was doing. He whistled, while he cut my best friend open. He was fucking insane!
His body moved blocking my view for a few seconds and then silence reigned as he cut whatever it was from Larissa's insides, the noise sickening. When he turned around, I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see, didn’t want to know what he had done.
"Beautiful," he whispered and then I felt his blood coated hands on my shirt as he cut it up the middle.
I opened my eyes and met his, "I'm going to get loose and when I do I am going to cut the flesh from your bones and every organ out slowly, starting with the ones you can live without!"
He snickered again and groped my chest. I couldn’t see Larissa, I felt the rage pulsing inside of me and yet no magic came from it, the connection we shared was now completely gone. Severed.
"You will scream for me, I promise you. When I am done with you, you will do anything I want you to. I will control your body and mind. Are you ready to scream?" He smiled coldly as his blade came up to touch my skin.
I felt the knife cut through my chest and he was right. I screamed, I'd thought I couldn't anymore—I was wrong, the blade sliced through my skin like freshly melted butter. I looked down to watch his blade covered with my own blood now.
He snickered, enjoying the sound of my screams as he pulled the blade out and licked it. He opened his mouth, to say something and before he could, he was gone from where he had stood in front of me. I turned my head and watched as a hooded figure in an onyx colored cloak attacked him, cutting and slicing him with a wicked looking silver blade.
Blood spurted up with every angry slice the hooded figure took. I moved my eyes to Larissa but before I could finish making them move to her mutilated body, Ristan was there blocking the way. "Move," I cried, but he ignored me as he placed his hand on my chest and dropped his magic to seal the wound.
His skin turned bright red, his eyes matching crimson as he spoke strange words that caused his hand to glow as he pressed it against my chest as he applied more pressure. "Ryder, she needs more help than I can give her here."
"Not…me, heal…heal her, Please, I need her, fix her. You can do it, please. I’ll do anything Ryder, anything. She my family!" I sobbed uncontrollably.
His eyes met and held mine with sorrow in their ancient depths, "She's already gone Syn."
"No! You're wrong, fix her…oh God…no, no just fix her. I need you to just fix her. Please, oh God, you have to!" I sobbed sagging as Ristan started pulling each pin out of my skin and then Ryder was there.
"Syn, look at me," Ryder took in the pins still protruding from my skin and pulled them free before he caught me and pulled me close against his body, "She can't be fixed Pet and you don’t want to see her, not like this Syn." I sobbed, my body shaking with each one as what they were telling me sunk in. I couldn’t do this, I wasn’t strong enough. I buried my face against Ryder as I screamed with everything I had, my body shook hard enough that Ryder had to hold me with both hands to keep upright.
"Ristan, stay with the body and clean it up, bring her back to the mansion when you finish. I need to take Syn back to Eliran," Ryder whispered but I pushed away from him.
"Where's Adam, he was here. He was with her! Oh God," I fought nausea and lost. I bent over and threw up until nothing else would come out. I felt comforting hands pulling my hair away from my face and as I looked up I saw Larissa's lifeless eyes staring at me. Her chest had been torn open and her heart was gone.
Everything inside of me closed down. Something broke inside of me and just stopped and I stopped with it. Sightless I sat down at Ryder's feet as his eyes filled with grief. "Make me not feel it. I don’t want to feel it. Make it stop."
He reached down and picked me up until I was cradled in his arms, "Find the boy and make sure you remove the body first Ristan, no one else needs to see her like this. She deserves better."
Ryder sifted us into the medical ward again. He said nothing as he placed me down on the sterile table. "Eliran, she needs you."
"Again?" Eliran said as his eyes scanned the damage, "Ristan did well sire," his eyes met mine and grew round in surprise to find them glowing.
I felt my life draining away. Everything inside of me just wanted it to stop. The pain. The death. I'd given too much, I just needed to sleep.
Thirty Seven
She sleeps, free from the pain that took her into this catatonic state. Broke her mind and ripped a hole inside her already battered soul. She had seen too much her mind broke, snapping —as the past clashed together with the horror of watching yet another person she loved be tortured to death.
"I want to know why the fuck I couldn’t feel her Ristan, only her fucking pain, how'd that sick fuck block me from her," I snap, I feel useless, something I have never felt before. Never want to again.
"No clue, I didn’t see this play out Ryder. Her future is unclear to me still, blocked. She's powerful and has a big part to play in saving Faery, beyond that I can't see anything."
"Fuck Ristan, I don’t care about the fucking future. I want to know why she won't wake up right now!" I explode. I hate the vacancy I see in her eyes. She's empty, there's no more fight inside her eyes and I hate it.
"She's catatonic, she has to heal from within," Eliran said as he walked into the room we sat watching her from. Adrian and Adam had both shown up along with their Guild elder.
The two men had wasted no time with questions. Adam had shook with denial and then climbed in the large bed we'd laid Syn in. He'd cuddled her against his chest as tears ran from his eyes. He'd lost his mate, I didn’t fucking blame him for needing to hold her, I didn’t like it either. They comfort her, even when she cannot feel them.
"I want a full research team on the metal pins. I want to know where they came from, how he got them and what effect they have had on her. And I want the information yesterday. Eliran, use the mage if you need to. I want him in pain and screaming to tell us everything he knows and why he went after Syn."
"When do you plan on telling them that Larissa's killer is still alive?" Ristan asked his eyes narrowing as he turned to look at me.
"I don't. Adam would want him dead. I need him alive to tell us who else he is working with. He wasn’t alone, he said the others would come—I want them
all dead. I'll tell her when she's strong enough Ristan. Right now I just need her to wake up."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I hear them, their hearts beating. Hands touching, connecting with me, I can sense it all. But nothing makes sense. Nothing brings my mind back from where it has gone. I'm awake but nothing computes, nothing is real. Here there is no pain, Larissa is alive and if I open my mind…if I wake it up I'd have to feel it, have to admit it.
Sleep claims me again, I allow it.
I wake; Adrian is talking to me, trying to pull me from the peace inside my mind. I close him out. I don’t want to feel anything anymore. He leaves and Adam takes his place, he says nothing. He holds me and cries, it threatens to bring me out and I go back to the darkness.
Someone cradles me, his scent calls to me. It's Ryder, his lips caressing mine gently as he demands I wake up, that I come back to him. His hands comfort me as he holds me against his chest and I sleep, held in his arms. I feel safe with him and yet I shouldn't.
I pace inside my mind, knowing I have to come out sooner or later. It would be so easy to just never wake up, to give in to the blackness that takes the pain and holds it at bay. I felt the fracture, the crack inside my mind that I slipped into. It was seductive, the emptiness was comforting.
They take turns, holding my useless form, comforting it. I wish they'd leave it alone. Every time I need it, it refuses to save the people I love, every time. The magic didn’t come, the Fae inside of me failed to help me as well. I hate them both. Everything inside of me is useless. What is the point of having powers if they don’t come when you need them the most?
Adam lays down his hand, stroking my face and staring into eyes that see but don’t register anything. He smiles through his tears, choking on them. "Syn, you gotta wake up. I need you. I can't live without you too. She's gone baby. You're stronger than this. You’re the strongest person I know. I need you. Dammit Syn, I need you."