Faes enlightenment, p.2
Fae's Enlightenment, page 2
part #4 of Call of the Elements Series
The elementals exchanged glances. I frowned again. I hated when they did that.
“Never mind,” I mumbled. “I’ll probably be too tired anyway.”
“We’re already walking a thin line, child,” Göksu said. “Niyol and I will be there to protect you, but a larger show of force will not be taken well.”
I understood. I didn’t like it, though.
“He means to say it’s no fun without the vampire,” Niyol interceded. “We can’t read his mind, which provides a challenge.”
I shook my head and smiled. I couldn’t be mad at them, because I’d asked to go to the fae. I needed to go, and Braden found a way to make it happen just like Göksu said he would. After all, what better way to learn about my fae heritage and magic?
I just hoped they didn’t kill me.
Chapter 2
A warm breeze pulled at the hair curling around my face. I would’ve accused Niyol of the action, but it lacked the salty ocean spray he’d thrown at me the day before. He had way too much fun at the beach, all of it at my expense. Who knew an air elemental would love the ocean so much? I should have. It was my new love, too.
Braden stood next to me at the water’s edge, our fingers intertwined while the incoming tide played with our bare feet. An easy silence lingered between us as the sun kissed the ocean in an explosion of orange and red. Watching the sunset had become a daily ritual for us the last couple weeks, which was sort of weird. Not for me, but the vampire standing next to me. The sun wouldn’t kill him, but it weakened him severely. He ignored that discomfort to make me happy, something vampires shouldn’t do.
It wasn’t the first time he’d acted out of character for a vampire. Braden had spent the last month showing me all of Europe’s historical sites just like I asked. He’d even promised to take me to South America after he sorted the issues still lingering with the remnants of Jack’s clan. For some reason, they hadn’t managed to pick a new leader yet. I suspected they’d have a miniature council when they finally stopped trying to kill each other.
Regardless of the vampires’ political constipation, I’d had a beautiful month. September in Europe was amazing, and the isolated stretch of Portugal’s beach I now stood on was the perfect ending. Not as perfect as my vampire, though. He’d been everything I needed after the guilt and sorrow I suffered due to our battle against Jack and his idiocy. I’d felt like a monster for destroying so many lives. Logic told me I’d saved my allies, but that didn’t change the fact that I’d become a murderer. As a vampire—one of the world’s best killers—Braden tried to help me compartmentalize the guilt. Most of the time it worked.
I was scared to death to be without him, though. Afraid the guilt would come out of its box once it realized he wasn’t there to beat it down.
I glanced up at Braden to find him staring down at me. His blue eyes held mine, and the wind swept his blond hair away from his too-perfect face. We were getting ready to say goodbye, and I didn’t want to. I wasn’t sure I could let go of the only stability in my chaotic life.
“Are you going to stay out of trouble?” he asked, his lower lip fighting against his grin.
“What do you think?” I countered, giving in to a smile I didn’t really feel.
“You should at least try,” he said. “You cannot trust them. King Nardan has only agreed to train you, not accept you as one of them. I imagine you’ll be pushed from all sides to reveal your secrets.”
I tugged at the end of his plain white t-shirt, something I never thought he’d wear in public, then wrapped my arms around his waist. “We’ve already discussed this,” I said, repeating the words he loved to say to me.
He finally smiled, and I stretched up on my toes to kiss him. Logic and lore told me vampires couldn’t love, but mine could. I felt it as clear as the sun’s heat on my skin. Our bond helped. It actually made the sensation possible. Without his returned soul, the one bonded to mine, Braden would be just another vampire.
“Quit distracting me,” he growled, pulling me closer to him.
“Never,” I mumbled, trailing kisses down his neck.
“Alisandra.” His breath ruffled my hair.
“What?”
“They will be here at any moment, and I have things to say.”
I lowered my head and leaned it against his chest. A moment of sadness washed over me. How many times had I told Logan to quit distracting me so I could ask my own questions? Dozens. But I’d lost him. Jack had killed him to get to me.
“What have you thought of to make you so sad?” Braden asked, rubbing my back.
“Nothing I want to talk about,” I replied. “Go ahead and spill your guts before you leave me.”
He gently gripped my shoulders, putting space between us. “Don’t blame this on me, little goddess. I distinctly remember you asking for it. I would’ve been perfectly content to keep you all to myself.”
I had agreed to go with the fae, but only because my elemental said I needed to learn about my fae magic. I wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Is it too late to change my mind?” I asked. Would I ever be able to just make up my mind for once? Probably not.
“Yes,” he responded. “As much as I want to have you at my side, your fae abilities have been awakened. Leaving you untrained is a bad idea. It’s one of the few things I’m actually in agreement about with the fae. Their magic is too powerful to be left… unattended.”
I eyed him suspiciously. He refused to tell me how he knew the fae warriors who agreed to train me, a decision that had come from them just last week. He would only say they were the Oceanic Fae, one of the three fae kingdoms. For obvious reasons, I couldn’t go to the Woodland Fae or Elise would kill me. Braden didn’t trust the Highland Fae, which left us here on the beach waiting for the only group willing to take me in.
“What did you give them?” I asked, knowing they wouldn’t willingly take me into their kingdom. I was the enemy. At least, that’s what everyone told me. I was the mage-fae child who grew up among humans and shouldn’t have. It seemed like a stupid reason to want to kill me, but Elise had made her intentions clear. She wanted me dead.
“Just information,” Braden replied, releasing one of my shoulders and sweeping an errant curl away from my face.
“No blood oaths that haven’t been fulfilled?” I pressed.
“No.” He chuckled and traced my pointed ear, sending a shiver down my spine. “There’ll be no more of those.”
“Good. I don’t want them holding your life over my head, just in case I piss off the wrong person.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that you should play nice,” he said, turning away and pulling me along the empty beach. “And don’t let them provoke your little monster. They cannot survive your darkness.”
My insides did a little dance. Braden handled my darkness—the one that literally turned me into a tiny fae monster—with the perfect amount of aggression and passion. I held nothing back with him. Okay, maybe a little, but I knew how much he could take. And he reveled in the violence that always ended in the most passionate sex possible.
Shit. He might be right. I wasn’t doing that with anyone but him.
“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked reluctantly.
“You are capable of self-control,” he replied.
I snorted and kicked water at him from an incoming wave. “Yeah, right.” But he was right. He’d helped me gain a whole lot of control over my darkness over the last month. “I thought the fae were ‘all-powerful’ beings. If they’re stupid enough to tempt my beast, they should be ready to face her.”
He pulled me to stop, ignoring the sandy water running down his calf from my assault.
“They don’t heal like I do,” he said. “They might last a few minutes, but they’re not stupid. They’ll do what they have to protect themselves, which could be unhealthy for you.”
I hated when he was right, but I refused to admit it.
“Whatever. Maybe I just won’t go.”
“You need to go,” he argued. “This may be your best chance to learn your fae magic.” He looked out over the ocean and frowned. “If I could teach you, I would.”
He didn’t have to explain it to me. He’d been part of the Highland Fae once, but the elementals had made him the first vampire eons ago. When they did, they stole his soul and his knowledge of fae magic. His resentment surfaced frequently, and I worried it would only get worse as my own skills increased. Maybe I could hide it from him. Possibly.
“You’re an amazing teacher,” I said, placing my palm against his chest. “Our little anger management sessions have done wonders for me.”
He pulled his gaze from the ocean and faced me. “Yes, you don’t hesitate to experiment on me.”
“I thought you liked it?” I asked. Had I read him wrong?
He smiled. “You really have to ask?”
He’d repeatedly told me not to hold back and encouraged me to try as many new things as I wanted. So, I did. I could become just about any animal I could imagine thanks to my fae magic. Well, I didn’t really become the animal. It was more like illusionary magic, only more. With all our practice, swapping from a snake to a mountain lion was almost second nature.
The only thing I really sucked at were birds. I never could get them right. It always ended up looking like a lizard with feathers. Calling it a dragon would be an insult to those glorious creatures I assumed existed somewhere. Learning of trolls, ogres, goblins, and elves had me convinced that dragons were definitely real.
“Is your mind done running its marathon?” Braden asked.
I realized I’d wrapped the end of his t-shirt around my fingers. My face flushed as I untangled myself and smoothed his shirt. He took all my oddities like a pro.
“Yeah, sorry.” I looked up and found him smiling at me.
“I’m going to miss you,” he said.
“I’ll be home every week,” I stated. “And Göksu will keep me posted on any emergencies.”
“We’ve already had this discussion,” he said.
“Yeah, I know.” I bit my lip, trying to swallow my anxiety. “I worry about us being separated. It’s no secret that we’re bonded.”
“You of all people know how hard it is to kill me.”
A ripple of magic washed over me, making my skin crawl and stopping any argument I could pursue. Time was up. The fae were here to take me to their realm.
Braden stiffened and took a step back. We’d agreed to appear as business partners to the fae and nothing more, but I suspected they already knew the truth. I’d want to know everything about the crazy half-breed I was inviting into my kingdom if I were them.
I turned around and stood next to Braden, watching the air shimmer a few yards away. Did it do that every time I realm jumped? I’d have to ask. After several seconds, a man and woman appeared on the empty beach looking like two people from another world, maybe the future.
I couldn’t stop my mouth from dropping open. They must have planned their arrival ahead of time, with the sun setting at the exact moment of their glorious entrance, just to see the stupid expression on my face. Beam me up, Scotty!
A dark, shimmering material, possibly leather, covered their bodies from neck to ankle. With the sun setting behind the pair, it was impossible to tell if their shiny outfits were black, gray, or some shade of blue. Their ridiculous beauty nearly stopped my heart. I thought Braden was too pretty for his own good, but these two made him look dull. Not that I’d ever tell him that.
Brown hair so dark it was nearly black clung to their perfectly shaped skulls, and their sun-kissed skin seemed to glow around their smooth features. The man kept a close-cropped mustache and beard the same dark color as his hair. And they had pointed ears, just like mine. I guess I expected them to hide their ears like Braden, but they didn’t.
The closer they got, the taller they got. Not really, but it sure seemed that way. Braden wasn’t tall, but he wasn’t short either. I’d guess him around five foot eleven. These two towered over him, making my less than five foot feel even shorter.
The man’s full lips pulled into a deep frown, not that they weren’t already heading in that direction. His fierce expression suggested a smile wasn’t his friend.
“So, this is the half-breed causing all our troubles.” The man’s lip curled, but I couldn’t tell if it was disgust or something else.
I immediately disliked him. Another bastard who hated me before we even met. Irritation filtered through my bond with Braden, and I didn’t stop the satisfied smirk from ghosting my lips. At least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t appreciate the comment.
“Ronquil. Coral. This is Alisandra,” Braden said. “I’d advise respect and an open mind with the Woodland princess. The magical community is calling her a goddess for a reason.”
Ronquil’s dark gaze landed on me, and I craned my neck to look up at him. All kinds of smartass comments nearly fell off my tongue, but I held it in check. I’d be spending the next few months with these people. I couldn’t afford to piss them off already.
“I hope to change your opinion of me, Ron,” I said extending my hand to him. “Can I call you Ron? Ronquil doesn’t flow from my half-breed tongue as easily.”
Yeah, I couldn’t help it.
The woman next to him made a strange noise that sounded a lot like a stifled laugh.
Ronquil shook my hand. I expected the tingle that comes with someone sensing my magic, but it didn’t happen.
“Are you ready to leave?” he asked, not answering my question about his name. Good for him.
“Yep. About as ready as the vampire is to get rid of me,” I replied, trying not to glance at Braden. He would know what my words really meant.
Ronquil’s eyebrows shot towards his dark hairline as he looked back at Braden. My vampire nodded, then my world lurched. The damn arrogant fae bastard hadn’t let go of my hand and didn’t give any warning we were getting ready to jump. The familiar pull of the space between realms threatened to suck me in and keep me. I slammed into something hard, my nose crunching with the impact.
What the hell had I just run into? I blinked rapidly but could only see the deep blue swirls of magic racing by me. Ronquil’s hand was no longer gripping mine, and I panicked. Did he pull me into the jump, then leave me between realms? I had no idea what was between them, but I sure didn’t want to get left there.
So, I did the only thing that made sense.
I went home.
Chapter 3
I landed on my back in the middle of my living room, the weight of something heavy crushing my lungs. A dark, shimmering fabric covered my face, and I immediately realized the bastard was lying on top of me. No wonder I couldn’t breathe.
Before I had a chance to throw him into the air with a gust of wind, he rolled off and sprang to his feet.
“Where are we?” he demanded.
“The first place that came to mind when I thought I’d be stuck between realms.” My nasally voice shocked me. My nose throbbed, and blood dripped into my mouth. “You bastard. You broke my nose!”
I looked up at him from my spot on the floor. He actually had the courtesy to blush. His large hand reached towards me, and I batted him away.
“Screw you,” I mumbled, then focused on the damage to my poor little nose. Healing it was going hurt.
I leaned to the side, trying desperately to keep the blood off my clothes. I reached for the magic that would fix it, but my elemental showed up instead. Göksu’s fluid yet humanoid form knelt over me. His eyes glowed as he reached out and touched my nose.
“Already getting hurt, child?” he whispered.
His warm healing washed over my face, and a soft pop preceded the dull pressure of the cartilage in my nose fixing itself. I tried to smile, but it hurt, so I pointed up at the one who caused it. Ronquil’s wide eyes surprised me but were also really satisfying. I guessed the fae didn’t get visits from the elementals often.
“Yes, I know,” Göksu said. “It’s better this way. He needs to understand the balance of power.”
Göksu rose to his feet and towered over the giant fae, probably on purpose. He could take whatever form or size he wanted, so I suspected he went for intimidating. It was a little out of character for him, but balance of power and all that jazz.
I tentatively touched my nose. The pain was already subsiding, which always happened when my water elemental healed me.
I stood and crossed the short space to the kitchen, looking down at my shirt and sighing in relief when I found it clean. I didn’t want to go anywhere covered in blood, but changing my clothes would be really inconvenient right now. I snatched several paper towels from the roll and soaked them with water, then turned back to the conversation going on behind me while I scrubbed my face and hands.
“She is in our care,” my elemental said to the fae. “You will train her, but you will also keep her safe from those who wish her harm.”
Ronquil stared up at Göksu’s wavering form with awe. “Of course,” he croaked, then cleared his throat. “Have you spoken to my king about your involvement?”
“No.”
Ronquil glanced at me and his stony façade returned. “I cannot keep secrets from my king.”
“You’re not. Our dedication to her is widely known by anyone who participated in the recent battle with the vampires.”
I didn’t miss the jab. Neither did Ronquil if his narrowing eyes were any indication. Shame on them for not helping us save both the supernatural families and humanity.
“Her second elemental will be with her at all times,” Göksu continued, “regardless of her location. She can call on me whenever she needs.” His body collapsed into a puddle on the floor and disappeared.
I loved that elemental. He said so much in so few words. The fae would face the elementals’ wrath if anything happened to me. His declaration filled me with a warmth I wouldn’t get anywhere else.
