Across The Divide (16 page)

Legs squeezed tighter around my hips, moving up and down, creating friction as she rubbed herself against me, and purging me of any thoughts. A force tugged at the buttons of my pants, popping them open.

“Fuck me. Hard. Like we used to.”

As good as it felt, things seemed wrong. I groaned, trying to pry my lids open. When they finally flickered up, I blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of the blurry outline on top of me. With every blink it morphed more into a solid figure—one with long, deep plum hair and dark eyes. Reality came flooding back.

Dread surged energy in my limbs, and I pushed at the hands tugging me free of my briefs. “Stop.” The word sounded more like a grunt.

Amara’s gaze flashed to mine, her face contorted with hunger and determination. “Don’t deny it. You want this as well. You know how good I feel.” She unzipped her pants, pushing them over her hips. Her hand continuing to stroke me.

My denial caught in my throat. I couldn’t refute the carnal response. The bliss of the way she kneaded and rubbed me. It was strange for this to feel so right and so wrong. I had been with her for a long time. Most of it seemed natural…normal. Then her horrendous betrayal came back, flooding me with rage. But in this exact moment I probably would have ignored it, letting the primal instinct take what it wanted before pushing her away. But the shame and hatred at myself for letting it happen was nothing compared to the harsh reality of realizing it wasn’t Zoey. That was the proverbial ice bucket.

It was Zoey’s head I wanted to fall back in gratification as she rode me. It was her face I imagined. The thought of the hurt across her expression at seeing me with Amara halted me. The pain and sadness she felt would be quickly shoveled behind a barricade of indifference and defensiveness. It would be in the tiny movements she made, the way her eyes darted to the side, the way her mouth flattened into a line, or how her chest pushed out like armor. The pain I would see deep behind her wall of anger and rage.

So many had hurt her before. I didn’t want to be another one who proved to be the same. The woman on top of me now only brought out hatred and violence at both her and myself.

Amara gripped me firmly, pushing her underwear down.

“No!” I seethed, grabbing for her hands. With the building rage, I shoved her off onto the ground. My limp muscles struggled to move, scrambling back to the wall away from her. My spine crashed against the stone, the chains keeping me contained to only a few feet of space.

Righting herself, her lids narrowed into slits. “You are turning me down? For what? A
human
?”

“And because you’re a conniving, deceitful bitch.”

“You don’t know what I had to do to survive.”

“Vadik’s whore. Fuck me because you are commanded to,” I sneered. “Your lover tells you to go screw another man for information, and you do it. Very obedient of you, Amara. Do you sit and stay too?”

Her hand jetted out, and a sharp sting sliced across my cheek.

“Don’t you dare judge me!” Amara rose to her feet, leering over me. “I do what I need to do.”

“Clearly.”

Red dots freckled her cheeks, anger hunching her shoulders.

“The great Vadik still not enough for you. You still need to ride me? Did he order you? Hoping I was delirious enough to talk?”

“Fuck you.” She clenched her hands. “I loved you.”

I laughed. “You don’t love anyone but yourself.”

She leaned over, clutched my chained wrists, and pushed them back into the wall. Her face an inch from mine. “And you don’t either. It’s what made us perfect together.”

“Perfect?” I tilted my head up, staring into her eyes. “It was all a lie.”

“Really? The night in Turkey or the weekend in Greece weren’t real to you?” A coy smile curled her lips. “You couldn’t stop wanting to be inside me. We broke the bed twice.”

It was true. But I never thought I was letting myself be deceived. I knew what she was. Most of the time I liked that about her. We did make a good team. She would target our next victim, get closer, learn about them, before I would jump to where their fortune or treasure was hidden, robbing them blind. I should have known it then—seen she was doing the same to me.

“What do you want from me, Amara?” I inched my face closer till our noses almost touched. “You want me to tell you I enjoyed fucking you? I won’t lie. I did. But you and I both know it was nothing more.”

“And your human was?” She sucked in her breath at my proximity, licking her bottom lip. “Please, I think we both know it was only the novelty of screwing a
human
. Fragile, sweet, ordinary Zoey.”

Those were three things Zoey was not.

My arm moved before I even realized it, my hand gripping her chin, my fingers pushing in till she flinched. My voice grew low and steady. “Don’t ever speak her name again.”

Amara watched me, deciphering my true mood.

She yanked from my grip, standing straight, buttoning her pants. “Whipped by human pussy. Never thought I’d see the day.”

My teeth ground together. Anger restored my energy.

“Enough, Amara,” a voice came from the door. “Stop playing with your food.”

The door squeaked open, and Garrett’s slight form outlined the doorway.

Amara’s eyes fluttered with annoyance, an expression I knew well, before glancing over her shoulder. “Following me?”

Garrett smirked. “I came to see you fail once again. Haven’t you learned? He doesn’t want you anymore…if he ever did.”

“Screw you.”

A glimmer of humor blazed through Garrett’s green eyes. A knowing smile hitched the side of his mouth. “Did Vadik tell you to come here?” Garrett stepped deeper in the room, his gaze drifted salaciously over her figure.

“No.” Amara crossed her arms, shifting her head to stare at the floor.

“So you came to get rejected by a man who can barely stand or form a sentence?” Garrett clicked his tongue. “Shameful, Amara, and incredibly sad.”

“Shut up,” she growled.

“Funny. I don’t remember hearing that from you before. Thought you liked it vocal.”

Amara rolled her shoulders back, stiffening her posture, her nose flaring. If looks could kill, Garrett would be dead on the ground.

Her response only formed a bigger smirk on his face as he turned to me.

“What a sight.” Garrett strolled over, gratification at seeing me at his feet sparked haughtiness in his stance. “The once great Wanderer is no more than a toothless, sad bastard.” Smugness galloped over his face, his lip hooking up in a laugh. “Look at you.” He motioned to me. “Beaten, bloody, weaponless, shoeless, and feeble as a baby.”

I finally noticed I was still dressed in the same stained, ripped clothes. And I was barefoot. The absence of my boots stirred me to sit higher. 
Did they take them? Look? Did they know?

“As fun as it is to come here and view you like this, Vadik wants to see you.” Garrett yanked me onto my feet. My legs buckled under my weight, the room spinning. One of his minions, a massive fae with dark hair and eyes, entered behind him. Cadoc was Garrett’s muscle. The fae was huge, a boulder of a man. He was a few inches shorter than me, but he was almost as wide as he was tall. The bulges protruding from each arm were like mounds of densely packed earth, rippling with every move. At one time I could have fought him. Today I was not at my best. Not even close.

Weak and magic-less. But my pride still did not relent. I puffed out my chest, glaring at Cadoc as he stepped to me, releasing me from the cuffs chained to the wall. The itch deep in my gut stirred again as I recalled he was the person who last touched her. A memory of him carrying Zoey off rushed into my head.

“Where is she?” The words snapped from my mouth before I could stop them, barely loud enough for Cadoc to hear me. It was pointless. He was an underling and did what he was told, no more.

He said nothing as he retied my wrists and tugged me forward. I stumbled and gritted my teeth, fighting against the weight bearing down on my frail body. The fever still ravaged me.

Cadoc pushed me forward, my mind spinning with every movement. Sweat trickled down the side of my face. I was determined to stay upright if it was the only thing I managed. Garrett and Cadoc walked me out of the room with Amara following behind. Garrett glanced over his shoulder, a frown creasing his forehead.

“He shouldn’t be moved. He’s still ill,” Amara declared.

Garrett’s eyebrow cocked up. “Don’t tell me you of all people care about his well-being? You who’s been lying, cheating, and deceiving him for years?” A huge smile spread on the Irishman’s face. “You sure didn’t seem to care about him the other night.”

At one time I might have cared what Amara did…or who. No more.

She ignored his insinuation. Garrett shook his head and faced forward again. Two more of Garrett’s men joined the group, walking behind to box me in. I wasn’t stupid enough to try to escape. I had no axe, no magic, and barely any strength to stand. The fever continued to rage through my veins, pumping out drops of sweat down my face and back. The more steps I took, the more my legs shook, and my stomach cramped into knots. As much goblin poison as I took in, I was surprised to be alive at all. But a conflicting ache in the pit of my soul made me restless, desiring to move, to keep walking.

The connection to Zoey was distant enough to ignore, turning it into white noise. I redirected my focus on the surroundings, tailing along through a maze of corridors, up a flight of stairs, and down a hallway. There was little doubt I was in Vadik’s compound, which was rumored to be somewhere in Seattle. 
How long was I unconscious?
It was hard to know. The trip from Peru to Washington wasn’t as long for fae as for humans. Fae doors sprinkled all over the world would shorten our trip to minutes or hours, depending on the moods of the doors that day.

My feet pushed between the hand-sewn oriental rugs and dark wood floors. The house was the type you would imagine if someone said they lived in a modern Italian-inspired villa. Intricate iron railings, antique furniture, curved arched doorways, and large paintings hung on the walls, depicting landscapes, oceans, and dead, rich ancestors. Wealth from “old money” oozed from the pores of the large house. In my haze I couldn’t lock on anything particular, all portraits blurring into a haze of undistinguishable faces and streaks of color, although something struck me about some of the paintings, like I had seen them before. I knew I hadn’t, but the sensation of
déjà vu
coiled around my mind.

Garrett finally stopped in front of double curved oak doors and knocked.

“Enter,” a deep voice called from the other side. Vadik.

My muscles constricted in defense as Garrett opened the door and motioned for Cadoc to bring me through.

Vadik sat at a desk with his fingers steepled together, leaning back in his leather office chair. His white-blond hair was slicked back, emphasizing his dark navy-blue eyes, which sparkled with arrogance and ruthlessness.

A huge bay window framed him, sun sparkling off the deep blue lake. We sat high enough to look down at the dozens of white yachts and sailboats floating and darting across the water like bleach spots on a blue canvas. A private yacht berthed below bobbed in the house’s boat dock, eager to go play in the sun. The green, dense forest beyond only emphasized the stark white of the boat’s sails and contrasted sharply with the few boats whose owners were rebellious enough to pick another color to flaunt on their sails.

I knew this area—Bellevue, Washington, along Lake Sammamish. I had stolen from a few properties over in the prestigious West Lake Sammamish area. Maybe it was why some things in this house looked familiar. 
Had I stolen from here?
I didn’t remember ever being in this house, but my mind wasn’t functioning properly.

Cadoc pushed me close to the desk. He held up a lot of my weight, and I pushed my shoulders back, trying to stand straighter. Besides not wanting to show how weak I felt, Vadik inflicted a hatred so deep, I had to swallow back the urge to leap over the desk and rip his head off his body.

“I have to admit, I am surprised you survived. You were out for almost four weeks. There were a few times we didn’t think you would wake,” Vadik said evenly. “You are stronger than I thought.” He dropped his arms and sat forward. “But then again I probably shouldn’t be too astonished. You are the fierce Wanderer, are you not? You were conceived to fight, to survive, to escape. Possibly even death.”

I pinched my lips together. I had many questions, but none were about me. With men like Vadik, you let them talk. They loved to hear their own voices too much to stay quiet.

“Silent and stoic.” Vadik kept his eyes locked on me. “Living up to your name…oh right…except for actually not being a Wanderer anymore.”

My feet shifted underneath me as if burrs were stuck to the bottom of my feet.

“How does it feel to no longer have your magic?” Vadik’s eyes flashed, a slight grin curling his mouth. “Now a human has your powers—a Collector, a seer who wants to destroy us, dissect us like lab rats?” He piled each word on top of the other, building them up to taunt me. “Now you are dying a slow painful death. You will grow feeble…useless. Dying like a pathetic human if you even last that long since many enemies will come for you. And none of them will give you the quick death you will beg for.”