The vellum which the contract had been written on was grey and it sent chills up my spine just looking at it. Legend had it, that the Fae made contracts on the skin of those who committed treason against their race. They skinned them alive and kept them in a suspended state until they grew more…only to take the next skin the traitor grew. Put a whole new spin on recycling.
I wasn’t going to touch it, didn't matter what it said and if I didn’t sign it. I would be signing death warrants—for those of my friends. I looked around for a pen, but the only thing on the small wooden desk beside the parchment was a bone handled knife.
A sinking feeling took residence inside my stomach. I turned and glared at Ryder. His smile was still all teeth.
"Read it," he growled huskily.
I raised a single brow. "Does it really matter if I read it? I either sign this or I go to war with the Guild and that's not something I want to do," I had friends inside the Guild, more than just those of my coven.
He picked up the knife and as I watched him, he sliced the palm of his hand wide open. Thick blood turned crimson as it hit the air. My eyes were riveted to his hand, my own balled into a fist and I stepped back. His voice was rich and husky as he asked for mine.
"Uh—"
"Give me your hand," he interrupted my moment of panic.
It took all of my willpower to raise my hand for him while he held that knife in his other hand. My inner-self was screaming. Something more was going on here than just signing his damn contract and my mind knew it. I winced as he cut shallowly into my hand. A hiss left my lips as an audible caress. I had scanned over the contract, but it wasn’t as if it was a choice. Larissa and Adam's lives were on the line if I didn’t.
"I ask of you to honor this contract by blood, do you agree to honor it Synthia Raine McKenna?" His voice was low, hypnotic like a caress inside my mind.
My eyes flickered up to Adams and back to Ryder's. "Yes," I said quietly. The moment I said it, he placed my hand in his, palms together and violent waves of pain and pleasure mixed together shocked my senses until I was holding onto him to stay upright, I cried out feeling something tear through me. He must have been feeling the same thing. His eyes turned hard, as a tick started in his jaw.
When the violent reaction had slowed and our pulses were once again at a semi-normal rate he slammed both our hands on the graying parchment. The walls lit up, with a glowing fluorescent blue color. And then it was gone just as fast as it had started.
"What the hell did you just make me do?" I shouted.
His eyes narrowed considerably as they snaked from my head down my body slowly, his tone low and dangerous as his words filtered out penetrating me sharper than the knife had ever come close to doing. "I took your blood. Now there is nowhere you can hide that I won't be able find you pet. You took from me, I took from you. Tit for tat so to speak, I suggest next time you read fine lines inside a contract before blindly signing it. I own you."
Nine
I was freaking out, yet I managed to keep it hidden—just barely. I hadn't been able to see a way out of signing it, now the deed was done. Now reading it in a booth across from Ryder, I was considering a long jump off a tall bridge.
"I am not feeding you! Ever," I snarled reading the page again.
He snorted and slammed his own copy down onto the table. "It says only in the event that it is an emergency situation, for which my needs take higher demand than your prudish pride."
"I'm not a prude," I wasn’t. Was I? Some at the Guild said I was, but then I wasn’t a virgin either so I didn’t consider myself to be one.
"I bet you have never been naked with a man, not completely. I'm not speaking about clothes either."
Uh…wasn’t that what being naked meant? I groaned, rubbing my fingers over my temples. Adam sat one booth away from where I'd sunk into a booth in the back of the club to lick my wounds alone. Ryder had followed me like a proud peacock that was ruffling his feathers with his damn contract.
"That is so none of your business," I sneered not knowing what the hell he meant, only that I didn't want to go down that road of discussion right now. I needed coffee, or tea. Anything with an insane amount of caffeine would be welcomed right about now.
I scanned through another section finding yet another thing I wasn’t about to let happen. "You want to pick my clothes? What the hell is wrong with my clothes?"
His eyes took in my sleeveless top and sank lower as if he was sneering with disdain at my jeans. They were jeans for monkey butt's sake! "I have a certain reputation Synthia. I won't have it smeared with being shadowed by a child who wears the clothes of an immature teenager."
"I'm wearing jeans, half the country wears them!" I cried pissed that he was nitpicking everything about me.
"Don’t worry. You can pick out your own panties…for now."
I grumbled and continued to read, regretting being so hot headed and not reading before he'd taken my soul…if that is what he had done. I could still feel the heat boiling in my veins, but I had to determine if that was him or my anger.
"Why can't I date while in your employment?" I squeaked. What the hell was up with his sudden interest in my personal life anyway? Did it matter who I dated, or what I wore?
"It's to protect my interest. Besides, with a mouth like yours I'm pretty sure you don’t have men lining up at your door asking for a date."
I glared while chewing on my bottom lip nervously. Okay, I really didn’t have men lining up to date me, but as if I'd tell him that!? Oh hell no. "This is bullshit, we don’t even know who we are after or if they will make an attempt for your bride anytime soon. It could be…like weeks before anything happens!"
His eyes just stared at me, like I was the most brainless woman on the West Coast. When he didn’t say anything I continued. "This is only good until I find who is after the princess right?" I babbled as my panic started to escalate.
"It's indefinite, or until I decide otherwise. I'm Fae, we like to own"—his eyes moved to my chest and back up to meet my eyes—"things."
I swallowed down the urge to scream, it wouldn’t help me now. I squirmed in my seat, my nails sinking into the expensive leather of the booth's seat. My stomach was pitching, my mind running wild with the knowledge of what I'd done. "How long before I can be released from this contract?"
His eyes scanned me carefully. His lips growing taut as he considered it, but said nothing, just sat there and watched my reaction.
I'd tried to save my friends and in the process I'd lost my soul to him. If he wanted to fuck me, all he had to do was demand it! "I can't do this. I can't." I sputtered needing to get outside to get air. I was up and moving in the direction of the door before I had the words out from between my lips.
His hands dug into my flesh as he stopped me. I did the only thing I could think of, I threw a punch blindly which connected with his nose. Before I could even think "Oops," I was pinned against the far wall of the club by two hundred pounds of solid Fae pinning me there.
"Next time you touch me, I will punish you!" he roared.
My lips shook as my body followed suit, violently. The need to get outside was greater than the need to live, or breathe. I clawed against him, my feet trying to find the floor unsuccessfully. I was having a glorified panic attack.
As If this day couldn’t get any worse, no I had to go have a panic attack in front of the Dark Fae. I knew the moment he sensed it, or guessed at what was happening, because his fingers went slack and he allowed me to slide down the wall. The moment my feet touched the ground I was gone.
The bouncers at the door both moved, opening the doors so I could get outside before I threw up all over their clubs shiny floors. Outside the air wouldn’t fill my lungs fast enough. I'd been prone to panic attacks after the death of my parents, but it had been ten years since the last one happened.
"Syn, you okay?" Adam said with concern lighting in his green eyes as he followed closely behind me.
I shook my head
forcefully. My stomach heaved as tears swam in my eyes. This wasn’t fucking happening. Alden knew I was against anything pertaining to the Fae, I'd had so many assignments that I had turned down without any hesitation because they'd included the Fae.
"Synthia, slow down. This isn't as bad as it sounds. He's trying to scare you," Larissa said speaking low and calmly as she came into view. She must have been outside, or waiting for me.
Like she knew? She wasn’t the one who'd just signed a bloody fucking contract that gave a Dark Fae the right to use her body as food! He could turn me into what my mother had become—someone willing to kill her own child! Stars burst behind my eyelids and I had the startling realization that I was going to pass out…right before someone caught me and everything turned black.
I awoke to the sound of water dripping. Hushed voices played across the room talking as if I wouldn’t hear them.
"I don’t know. She's never passed out—ever."
"Why didn’t Guild disclose her previous history with the Fae before this?" Ryder's voice was angry and to the point.
"You would have to talk to Alden on that one. I only know that it took us over a year to get her to even speak after they found her. She was a mess, angry at everything. I was the only one who could get through to her—reach her wherever she'd gone inside her mind so to say. Later on she only let Larissa and Adrian in. She was a child, traumatized by your kind. The things she's seen…" Adam's voice filled with pain.
"Which neither I nor any of my people had anything to do with," Ryder pointed out angrily.
I heard Adam's snort, felt his ire raise as he defended the child I'd been. It was why he was one of my best friends, always there for me. "She was five man, five! Inside her mind you are all the same, because you're all what she fears most. She's so fucking terrified she had some jack-off tattoo a spell on her neck. There is one lesson they teach us at the Guild and that's to put the most valuable spell on your neck… and she wasted it, to protect herself against becoming what her mother—"
"Don’t," I whispered struggling to sit up.
I was not letting him give the Fae more weapons to use against me. Ryder stood with his back to the wall, his arms crossed against his massive chest. Those golden eyes of his taking in my anger without so much as a single flinch. Adam however scratched his dark head and scuffed his feet at the floor like a child being berated for misbehaving.
"Where am I?" I asked softly realizing I was in a bed, a very big soft bed.
"We are in the clubs sub-levels. You passed out," Ryder said never taking those dangerous eyes from mine.
"I don’t pass out," I said obtusely.
"You did," he replied with his lips jerking up into a wolfish grin.
"Whatever, are we done here? I need a shower," I grumbled feeling dirty for being in any bed around him.
"You need to finish reading the contract. You stay with me until this is finished. Inside my estate," Ryder growled his eyes daring me to challenge him.
I did the only thing I could—I challenged him.
"Fuck that, I'm not staying alone with you—ever." I folded my arms over my chest aiming for the most stubborn look I could make while sitting in an oversized bed of black silk.
His eyes took me in, raking heat up my body as he did so. I was up and out of the bed before he could comment. Only then did I notice I wasn’t in my jeans and the black flimsy panties were not enough protection from Ryder, I doubted full armor would be enough to protect me against his eyes.
"Who the hell stole my pants?" I barked jumping back into bed much to the amusement of the two men in the room.
Adam coughed and tilted his head in Ryder's direction. Ryder turned his head giving Adam a look that would make most men run and then growled low in his chest. Adam turned to leave me alone with him.
"Adam don’t you dare!" I yelped but Adam was already at the door and only threw me a sheepish grin before he was gone.
"You think that boy could protect you from me?" Ryder inquired letting his arms drop to his side, he'd changed. His jeans rode low on his hips and the long sleeve white shirt was open far enough to expose his well-muscled chest and a peek of the tattoos he was covered in. As he stepped closer I realized he also was barefooted.
"Maybe," I whispered trying to backpedal, this wasn’t happening.
I watched as he stopped at the end of the opulent bed, it was big enough to fit seven bodies on, what the hell was up with him and his orgy sized beds? He didn’t get on the bed, instead his eyes raked over me slowly, intensely, hungrily. Chills crept down my spine, my mouth dried and the scream in my throat sat paralyzed on the verge of coming out.
"Get over it. You said you are not a victim. You came highly recommended for this job, if you're not useful for it…I will find something you are useful for," his eyes lowered to my lips.
I stuck out my tongue and then almost bit it off when he smiled. Guy needed to get knocked around a little, break his nose or something. He had a masculine beauty that left me boneless. Those wicked lips kept taunting me. His eyes had the eerie glow to them once more. It was a look I didn't want to see on any Fae. I swallowed and refused to lower my gaze from his.
"I'm not defined by what your people did to my parents, but I'm not stupid either," I said after what felt like hours of silence but in reality had only been seconds. That damn stare of his was unnerving!
"Not my people. Make no mistake of that. Do not damn a race for the deeds of a few bad apples."
It was words I had heard before, they didn’t help. The fear was still there and in an enforcer it was a fatal one. I was known for putting my foot in my mouth, but I needed him to know one thing. "I'm okay with the entire contract but one thing."
He raised a dark eye brow, "Which is?"
"I'm not sleeping with you. I don’t care if you're starving and writhing on the fucking floor. I'll walk over you and out that damn the door. I'll drag someone else back to you—but it won't be me you feed off of, ever."
His lips twitched, but his eyes stayed emotionless. "Writhing on the floor?"
"Writhing," I confirmed.
"I do not writhe on the floor, ever."
"Good, then we are on the same page." I said smoothly.
"The contract says you will. It's a blood oath…so if I start writhing, you will spread those creamy thighs and let me in. Do you know what going back on a blood oath means?"
I swallowed, raising both my brows as I tried to think if I knew what it meant. I exhaled, I was about to learn something new. Marie would have been happy, since she was a staunch believer that you learned something new every day. "No, but I have an inkling I'm about to."
His lips twitched again, but it was subtle, if I had blinked I would have missed it.
"Let me enlighten you, if you go back on it under any circumstances I can kill you, or worse. You belong to me, in every way that matters. If I want you in my bed, make no mistake, that palm of yours will itch and you will be helpless but to fulfill my needs. I say jump, you ask how high. You are bound to me body and soul, until I say otherwise. You took part of my soul. I just took a piece of yours. Getting it now? Or do I need to show you for you to understand?"
I wanted to scream, or rip his eyes out. "I'm not a piece of fucking property, I cannot be owned!"
"Quite the opposite, you are mine. As of right now, you belong to me Pet."
Ten
I'd taken off like my ass was on fire the moment I was released from Ryder to retrieve anything I would need for the next few weeks. I'd run into my room and thrown open my laptop, starting it up the moment we'd come inside from being dropped off by the Fae. Turned out I couldn’t weasel my way out of the damn contract. He had to end the deal. I couldn't.
The contract was indeed a blood oath, sealed by our blood. It was legally binding in the eyes of the Fae and the Witches Guild. It went above that though, if I broke it or refused to acknowledge it, I would become his in every sense of the word. If he wanted my soul—he just had t
o say the words, unless we could find another loophole, which I would need to start looking for now.
How could I have been so stupid? I glared at the laptop. This was idiotic! I shouldn’t have to move in to his house, estate or whatever he had called it. He had mind-fucked me and in doing so he'd backed me into a fucking corner. He'd made me see red and then he'd baited his freaking hook with Adam dipped in chocolate to ensure I signed those damn papers.
I had cross-checked the contract using what little information was available on the Fae in Guild online library. The Fae being the weasels they were, counted trickery and coercion as legit when forcing a contract—but I'd already known that without needing to confirm it. I jumped as a soft knock sounded at the door. I stopped pacing long enough to answer it and allow both Adam and Larissa into the room.
"What's up guys?" I asked carefully.
Adam was still regretting showing up at the Fae's club, I'd chewed him out the entire way home and felt like an ass for doing so. "Syn—"
I cut him off knowing he was setting in to another long apology. "It's okay Adam, I'm over it and I'm sorry for biting your head off. I need a few things though…spell-wise."
He nodded his dark head as his eyes took in my suitcase. "You thinking some soft spells, or hardcore?"
My lips twisted into a naughty smile. A man after my own heart. "Hardcore, I don’t want to be inside his house more than I have to be."
"Alden is going to flip out, Syn is it really so bad? You could be finished with this assignment before you know it. This guy is pretty badass if you haven't noticed."
Adam and I had both stopped to look at her. She was always the voice of reason, but she hadn't been with us inside that room, nor had she been there when he proclaimed ownership of me! "You don’t understand Lari, he owns me now. He can decide to keep me! You don’t see a problem with that?" I asked outraged.