A Lady of the Realm (14 page)

I slapped him once, hard, across the face. His head moved, a drop of blood on his lips from the blow. He licked the blood softly as his violet eyes met mine. He wasn’t angry or surprised.

“I deserved that,” he said softly.

I sat back dumbfounded. That was it? He went berserk, tied me up in the middle of nowhere, slept with someone else, and that was all he had to say. Sorry. I reached into my pockets for the set of keys. My damp hair hid the angry tears in my eyes.

“I’m going out for some girl time. Wait until I call you,” I finally said as I swept my hair back. I had to calm down. I had to get away from him.

“What now?” he asked becoming perfectly still.

I bit into my bottom lip as I surveyed the room. It was in shambles. Glass fragments were strewn about, holes of various shapes and sizes littered the moss green walls. The stereo had been ripped off its shelf, the remains a tangled mess of wires and plastic. All his beloved guitars were in pieces on the floor. I returned my gaze to Sasha.

“I want to pretend to be normal for a while.” I needed time to think, and I couldn’t think around him.

His eyes slowly darkened. “Define normal,” he said as he moved in closer.

I placed a hand on his chest. “Give me some freaking space? I want a break from
you
.”

Normal, as in no elves with ulterior motives. No wives, dead or otherwise. No vampire butlers. No underdressed half-breeds roaming around.

He sucked his bottom lip in, leaning back into his chair. He nibbled it softly, his eyes glowing. “We do have time,” he said. “You deserve a holiday before Court commences.”

“Thank you,” I said in relief.

His index finger touched my nose. “I’ll be busy anyway. I need to take stock of my assets. My father let this Region go to shambles in the last two centuries.”

His face was perfectly blank. I shrugged placing the keys between us before heading for the door. I was keeping the bankcards. Peaches promptly rolled her pudgy self over and got to her feet, following. Sasha looked down on the dog speaking softly.

“Take care of your mistress.”

Peaches looked up, the folds of her face coming down grotesquely, that one obstinate tooth peeking out from them.

“Of course, m’lord.”

She waddled out the door. Sasha placed one hand on my shoulder, and I looked back, peering into his eyes.

“Pet, we are friends?” he asked.

I laughed. I felt his true emotions. Friends. He wanted to know if he was going to get a bit of action on the side. Nice.

“Get a grip.”

His hand dropped, and I shut the door, ignoring the angry wave of energy that blasted from behind the door. I walked out into the sunshine of an otherwise ordinary Sunday morning. It was time for me to go home.

Chapter Thirteen
:
New Rules

Ms. Bunny, my landlord at the boarding house, was surprised to see me come back with Peaches. She knew all about my phobia due to an overreaction of a Super Bowl halftime commercial the first year I was in residence. Luckily, Ms. Bunny was more than happy to take in the ugly dog. Money makes everyone more disposed to work with you.

I stepped into the bedroom I shared with Nola, closing the door behind me. Dropping on to the pallet on the floor, I grabbed a pillow and punched it several times. It was too soft, and my actions didn’t curb my anger.

“What happened?” Nola asked, sitting crossed—legged on the floor as I continued hitting the shapeless white mass.

“I hate men.”

“No, you don’t,” she snorted and quickly composed herself as she registered my murderous look. “Is it the elf again?”

“Fucking prick,” I said.

“Beth, you didn’t do anything stupid did you?”

“Don’t worry. I haven’t ruined my chances. I’m just taking a break,” I said, leaning my head back and closing my eyes.

“I heard the elf has filed a contract with your name on it. A
mate
contract,” she whispered.

I struggled not to laugh. “Damn he’s good,” I said.

He never did tell me about the contract, but it made sense. A spousal contract was serious. It wasn’t exactly hard to get out of, but to eliminate your spouse, you had to have a trump card. And that’s what Sasha had used. He had filed a contract claiming I was his soul mate.

It was all rubbish. Freaks didn’t have souls. The participants simply exchanged a lot of money, power and titles. There were many benefits and drawbacks, when one signed one of those contracts. I heard the usual contract took up a ream of paper. I didn’t fault him for using me. I would’ve done the same thing.

“That’s not all …,” Nola began. I cut her off, throwing a book into the far wall. I came back to the shitty little room wanting to get away from the gossip. I didn’t want to continue speculating, wondering, or planning. I had secured his help, now I wanted to relax.

“I’ve got cash on the dresser. Go get food and a couple bottles of vodka. Please.”

Nola got up reluctantly and left me alone. I felt guilty for taking out my anger on her, and quickly apologized when she came back. Nola, who’d known me for years, never took any of my moods seriously. She came back bubbly and cheerful, five bottles of vodka, and enough rations for the day. She never broached the subject again.

Resuming my schedule at the club, the days blurred in a sea of research and work. I called Sasha, one week after leaving his house, with the lame excuse of a law question. I didn’t want to admit I’d developed nightmares to punctuate my bouts of insomnia, since leaving his home.

People noticed the cooled relationship. We weren’t all over each other; there was distance when we walked, talked, or sat together over a mountain of beignets in the Cafe. Sasha was a wanted man. He was single, about to inherit the Region, and fabulously rich. Girls, and even guys, asked me if he was back on the market. Generally, I ignored as many questions of that sort as I could.

Sasha began talking about his world without any prompting on my part. He was trying in his own way to rectify my unspoken accusations. He asked consistently how I was doing with my studies, how Peaches was getting along in the house, and if I wanted to start the paperwork. I answered honestly, never mincing words with him. I liked spending time with him. It made me feel good, in a weird sort of way.

I wanted him, his presence, when I became frustrated, irritated, or just plain bored. When Jazz Fest rolled through the city in April, I made sure to escape every weekend. By that time, Sasha and I had a tentative agreement.

It didn't matter if I told him where I was going, or what I was doing. He’d given up trying to control my every move and had settled for accepting me as an equal. If I wanted him to show up, I would text him with the phone he’d given me. He’d pop up, always at the right place with exactly the right thing in hand.

“You actually enjoy this rubbish?” he said as he handed me a beer. I was in the massive fair grounds, and I guzzled a good portion of the Shiner Bock before answering. I had to admit, it was fun having an elf around. It sure beat having to find a beer stall.

“I can't believe you don't like Kid Rock.”

“He doesn't look like much of a kid,” he said as he moved in closer to me. I grabbed him around the waist as a group of drunken girls spotted him.

I hated going out with him some days. It was as if I didn’t exist when he was around. Ladies loved elves. Most thought he was a pretty pooch open to petting sessions. Sasha ignored the women, but I couldn’t always control my aggravated reactions.

“It's a stage name, Sasha.”

“He's better when he slows it down a bit. At least the next performer has talent.”

He was glancing at the program in his hands, his finger on the next name to take the stage. I gulped some more beer and pretended not to see the size zero tarts baring their breasts our way.

“You like the Neville Brothers?” I asked incredulously when I glanced at the program.

“Och yeah ... I love Aaron’s Christmas CD.”

Businesswise, we were on the same page. I was his allodial. He gave me reasonable orders, and I followed. I asked him questions, and he generally answered them. We went out at least once a week as business associates. People were intrigued by our relationship, never quite knowing exactly what was going on.

Personally, our relationship became complicated. I tweaked the human formula of sleeping with friends and decided I simply shouldn’t sleep with my boss. This gave me liberty to enjoy myself with the half-breed with no strings attached, or so I thought. Life was once again back to a state I understood and could navigate.

What I hadn’t counted on was the unusual relationship the boys shared. This proved problematic when I moved back in. I loved sleeping with Sasha and Malachi. I needed to sleep with at least one of them if I was going to get any rest, and I didn’t mind using the elf as a pillow if Malachi was indisposed. But my new awareness of the boys, because I was now sensing both Sasha’s and Malachi’s emotions to an alarming degree, made me want to jump their bones every other day.

Mad at Sasha one night for not stopping as soon as I said so, I told him to fuck someone who needed him. It wasn’t fair of me because I could smell the lust in the room. He pulled back as if I had slapped him, hissed in pain, and popped from the room. He never laid hands on me again. After his first sexual encounter with a blond double DD trollop, I tried to even the score.

It was a normal night out with Sasha, and we were to meet Malachi in a few hours. I was talking to a good-looking guy as Sasha played host to various women. I leaned forward, touching the human softly on his arm, and sent a wave of sensual tension towards him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sasha quirk his brows as an angry energy storm gathered around him.

His eyes turned black, and I stared defiantly in his direction, challenging him. Waves of red energy made the lights flicker in the bar. He took one-step forward, and the sulfurous odor of his wrath hit me like a battering ram. Malachi popped into the bar in a battle stance. He took one look at Sasha, who was visibly shaking with anger, and turned towards me.

“Bethany? I thought we were going to behave ourselves tonight, luv,” Malachi said as he strode towards me.

“Just having fun,” I said sweetly letting go of the human.

“You best get that witch home,
prater
,” Sasha said darkly.

“I want to stay,” I said hooking a stool with my foot and sitting down. “I like watching you in action,” I said tilting my glass up for a drink.

Sasha popped beside me, his hand around my neck, his lips to my ear. “If that’s the case, you must join me tonight,” he whispered.

Malachi placed his hand on Sasha’s shoulder and spoke to him in a foreign language. Sasha nodded and let me go, walking back to his groupies. Malachi pulled up a stool and sat next to me.

“You shouldn’t tease him so, Beth. Sasha takes things literally,” Malachi said as he reached for his billfold.

“Half-breed, even the elf couldn’t possibly be that stupid,” I said sipping my drink.

Malachi sighed. “Stupid? No, luv, but sometimes we hear what we wish,” he said.

I glanced up to look at Sasha; he was under a sea of women, all pawing and groping him inappropriately for a public barroom. I grabbed Malachi’s hand.

“I changed my mind. May we go home?” I asked squeezing his hand.

Malachi’s eyes swirled silver, and he turned towards Sasha for a fraction of a second before hauling me up into his arms for the shift home. When we popped back in the mansion, we were in Malachi’s rooms.

“What do you want to do tonight?” he asked.

“Something productive,” I said heading towards the bathroom. Malachi followed discarding his clothes as I did the same. We often took showers together.

“We could go over the House names and roles,” he said reaching for the scrunchy and squirting soap on it.

“That sounds too productive,” I said as I turned around and gathered my hair so he could scrub my back.

“Would you like to talk about enforcers?” he asked rotating me around.

“I was thinking more along the lines of watching a movie and sleeping,” I said with a smile.

“Luv, how is that productive?” he asked.

“Malachi, do you realize how much you freaking work? You need to relax, honey. Let’s watch a movie. I’ll massage you, and then we’ll get a good night’s sleep. A night off can be just as productive as a full day’s work,” I said.

“A night with you is never a night off,” he mumbled.

He didn’t argue for long. We did watch a movie. A nice bloody, action packed movie. Malachi laid face down on the bed as I straddled his back, massaging the tension from his broad shoulders. After an hour, we switched positions, and he massaged me. Finally, we settled into bed, and we fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Chapter Fourteen
:
A Visitor

Taking Peaches out for her nightly stroll had come to be a pleasant chore. Who’d of thought? I also came to know many of the animals around the city. Unbelievable how many squirrels, coons, possums, nutrias, foxes, and skunks lived in the city. That’s not to mention the usual suspects of cats, dogs, and various birds. There was always a cacophony of conversation around me when I strayed outdoors.

Generally, I ignored all conversations swirling about from the furry retinue. I moved without purpose tonight. Sasha was on my mind. Sasha was always on my mind. It was a little over two weeks until summer solstice. It was inexcusable that someone should approach me without warning.

“Didn’t think you’d live long after Lilith found out you were playing with her property.”

I settled my feet down on the pavement and peered into the misty evening night. He seemed to be in his forties, but I instantly categorized him as an elf and knew that appearances were deceiving. This was the first time anyone, other than Malachi, had approached me. I wasn’t sure if he was friend or foe but decided that all should be treated as friendly enemies. I tilted my head slightly as I studied my unexpected visitor.