Fae Chronicles 01 - Fighting Destiny (2 page)

He smiled, his gorgeous chocolate, brown eyes lighting up at my uneasy performance. He was tall and well-muscled. His black pinstriped suit made him look older than most of the Fae normally did. His thick auburn hair sat in silky spikes along his forehead framing his beautiful face. “Mmm, I promise you won’t get in trouble. I’ll take good care of you.”

Oh I just bet you would lover boy!

I smiled wider and agreed. He took me silently down a hall, through another corridor and into what looked like a lounge of some sort.

The room held a long cream-colored couch and rich chocolate brown walls. The carpet was plush, extravagant and a matching brown.

“This room is where the Prince holds more
intimate
meetings,” he said.

“Seriously?” I asked letting the pleasure of the room show on my face. It really was a beautiful room with its rich, natural colors.

“My name is Dristan. Yours is?” He asked, his eyes roving up my covered body. I removed my coat, letting his eyes travel over the tight black tank top I had worn today.

“Angelica,” I whispered nervously, playing it up.

He moved closer, his hand reaching for the jacket I still held in my hands. He gave me a reassuring smile, as if I had no clue on his intentions. “You're beautiful. One would almost confuse your beauty for that of a Fae.”

“Really?” I beamed.

“May I touch you?” He asked, his words sent alarm bells off inside my head…but I needed him close to me.

“I—I don’t know—”

“I don’t bite, I promise,” he said moving over and touching my arm.

He ran his long fingers over my forearm, moving up slowly. I gave a small shaky laugh, as my hand sank into the pocket of my jacket finding the small flat piece of magic vellum. “Your eyes are beautiful Dristan,” I said blinking slowly, as he allowed his eyes to change. The chocolate brown turned into a mass of lime green, outlined by a deep emerald.

All Fae had double colored eyes and the ability to shield them when need arose. He smiled as my eyes grew wide from the true beauty of his. “I want you to see me, all of me,” he replied roughly cueing me that it was time to move before I ended up as his dinner.

Fae were of the few creatures to feed from emotions. They had come to the human world since humans had emotions in abundance, unlike the other Otherworld creatures. The Fae's preferred method to generate the highest emotion in humans was through sex. Seems there was some truth to those old stories about Succubi and Incubi and the Fae not only consumed emotions—they could also take all or part of the soul while feeding.

“You're beautiful,” I inched closer, as if I was being drawn in by his Otherworld attributes as some women were. I raised my hand, touching his cheek and almost smiled as he tried for a seductive smile—and failed. The hand holding the vellum came up and softly planted it on his neck before I allowed him to kiss me.

His lips were soft, his kiss gentle. He pushed me gently towards the couch fully thinking he had me where he wanted me. His hands pulled against my skirt and I let him since I was ditching it soon anyways.

His mouth started going slack and his voice murmured like he had been over-indulging in spirits. “
Somnus
,” I whispered sealing the spell on the vellum against his neck with the Latin word for sleep.

I held his hand and it dropped like a rock. I stood scanning for camera’s knowing there wouldn’t be any placed where the Dark Prince held his personal meetings. Someone should tell the Fae that being secretive wasn’t always a good thing.

I moved, pushing the sleeping Fae from my body and removed the skirt revealing black spandex shorts. It matched the skintight tank top I had allowed him to see. I quickly pulled my hair up and then removed the extra garments tossing them into a wastebasket along with the purse and speaking three words barely above a whisper. "
Exussum
," I whispered the word for burn.

“Syn, you still with us?” Adam’s voice was loud inside my ear, but it pushed away the small ripple of fear that was encroaching into my stomach at the job I had ahead of me.

“Copy that Adam, it’s raining men,” I whispered with a smirk on my ruby red lips.

“Next floor, twenty minutes on the clock.” Adam replied.

“On my way,” I whispered looking at the sleeping Fae. I walked back over and pulled the small special camera phone from my pocket before opening his eye and flashing the device silently. “Thanks Dristan, sorry,” I whispered before moving to the elevator and slapping another vellum onto the door.

“Open, patefacio,” I said adding the Latin to intensify the spell. When I was inside, I quickly kicked from the side of the glass wall and jumped to the top. Luckily the glass double paned elevator window didn’t cave from my weight. I pushed the top open from where I stood with two feet pushing against the glass and removed it before making the small leap and grasping the opening with my hands to pull myself up.

When I was on the top of the elevator, I paused checking for more cameras. I held my hand up to my ear and relayed to Adam. “Clear, heading up to the vault,” I whispered.

“All is quiet outside Syn, good luck,” came back over the comm.

“Who needs luck?” I gave a soft nervous laugh after the com had gone silent. I looked around, still kneeling since the elevator had yet to stop. There was an overhanging ledge from the top floor, which would mark
his
rooms.

When the elevator had finally gone up close enough that I could jump, I did, sailing through the air with no margin for error. My fingers touched upon the thick metal and held. I inhaled slowly, letting it out even slower. After a brief second, I pulled myself up and used the small picture of Dristan’s eye at the sensor to gain entrance into the chamber.

I held my breath and after a second that seemed to last for an eternity, it finally beeped and the doors slid open revealing the Dark Princes’ personal rooms. These were not warm and neutral, as the other room had been. They were masculine shades and vibrant. The walls were a bright shade of red with artistic Celtic designs that seemed to encircle the entire room. He had expensive white couches that had been strategically placed throughout the entryway. The large mirror that sat behind the couches wasn’t just for looks. It was expensive double paned glass that you could watch those who sat in the entryway without them knowing they were being observed. Shit.

I ripped another piece of vellum from my pocket and slapped it on the wall whispering the same words…and the entire wall opened up. I quickly stepped back and took a fighting pose.

The mirror that sat behind the couches opened, revealing nothing more than a walkway into the next room. I approached it cautiously, my eyes searching for anything out of place. When I was satisfied that it was only a passage and not an actual portal into their realm I stepped through. Thick spelled walls moved, pulsing with a life of their own.

We had suspected that the Fae had brought parts of Faery into our world to bind the two and keep their entrance open. But this was more than we could have imagined. It also indicated that the Dark Prince probably had a Witch working with him.

The spelled walls were a dark blue, with a vibrant green that seemed to be pulsing, moving and twisting as I walked beside it. It begged to be touched, calling out with a sirens song. I knew better, but even knowing it would probably lock me in place wasn’t helping much. When I finally spotted another entrance, I took it.

This one opened up to his bedroom, not exactly where I would have chosen to go. The bed was huge, red silk sheets covered the entire frame snugly. Black pillows that matched the color of the walls were propped at the top of the bed and silver chains had been sewn into a few of them—so the Prince had a dark side.
Go figure.

Pathetic
. I scanned the room noting there was only a single camera inside this room and it was aimed at the bed…yup, guy had issues. I left the room without a sound, scanning the few doors that were open to other rooms down the long hallway. I grinned when I finally saw the one I needed.

It was thick type of wood and would take a few strips of vellum to open it. After I applied it and spoke the words very carefully, I entered the room and cussed violently. It was not lost on me, the irony of it all. It had been relatively simple getting to this point.

Before me stood what appeared to be a torture chamber. And if that wasn’t bad enough, a medieval obstacle course ran the length of the room up to the vault doors. It wasn’t the torture chamber that had my knees shaking, nor was it the wicked looking tools either, it was the course. Whatever Fae had designed it had either spent way too many hours watching bad B rated movies or had a perverse sense of humor thinking this would deter humans.

Wicked looking curved blades swung from the wall in a synchronized pattern. While thick twelve-inch axe blades swung from another part and fire blared to life right after those nasty little bits. Of course it had been crazy easy to get inside. No one in their right mind would try the damn course.

“Syn? How we looking in there?” Adam's voice vibrated in my ear.

“Peachy,” I growled, trying to figure out the pattern of the blades. I wanted to turn tail, go home and eat some chocolate just from looking at the damn thing. I’d live longer, my ass might not like me come morning but I would be
alive
for it not to like me.

“Peachy as smooth or peachy as you found something you didn’t like?” Adam persisted.

“Hey, tell Larissa she can have my OPI collection if I don’t make it out of here,” I said moving up to the course.

“Syn—”

“Enough Adam, if you don't hear from me in twenty minutes you need to head in and report to the Guild.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” he said in a small voice.

“I need silence, no noise on the comm Adam,” I growled trying to make myself grow enough balls to take the first step into the course.

I turned, eyeing the glass walls, what was it with these guys and glass? I noticed my platinum blonde hair looked darker inside the room. My azure eyes looked a little too big with the thick eyeliner covering them. I looked like a mess. My shorts were just that, very short. The tight tank top hugged my size D’s seductively drawing my eyes to them instead of the star brands on my shoulders.

My mouth was actually quivering and I was never afraid of anything—except the Fae. I turned away from the mirror since it wasn’t helping me and I needed to do this now before the Prince returned. I re-pulled my hair back into the tight ponytail and stepped up to the gauntlet.

I inhaled watching as the blades moved. I bit into my bottom lip and shook my head. There was no way to get past the knives. I was pretty sure the moment you tossed something in to their space, more bad things would pop up. I let out a shaky breath and took off from a dead stop that would lock me into the deadly course.

The wicked looking blades shot out the moment I entered their path. One sliced through the small of my back, but it only drew a thin line of blood. Sure enough, as soon as I turned around, wicked looking poles shot up to keep me locked into the course.

“No going back now,” I said to myself. I turned and ducked, rolling on my stomach as the blades whizzed past me. I was flat on my back as they swung mere inches from my face. I took a quick breath before I turned my head slowly, watching as the axe blade gouged two inches from the ground next to me.

I was skinny, but not that skinny. I counted and then rolled quickly to the next thing before standing effortlessly and twirling my body through yet more sharp blades and axes. When I had successfully made it past them, I barely avoided the flames that shot from the walls.

“Fire in front of me, water beneath me. Meet.” I brought my hands together to give the spell more force, without needing the ancient language.

Nothing happened. I hated
his
Witch, whoever it was…someone had used a lot of blood to insure those flames were magic proof. “
Aqua within,
come to me,” I whispered allowing the magic to pulse through me, my body used the water inside to cover my skin, turning it slick and wet enough to quickly step through the flames and up to the vault door. “Take that Witchy Witch,” I growled already tossing a few pieces of vellum onto the thick metal door. “Patefacio," I said even as the thought crossed my mind that the course had been a little too easy.

I gave a wicked little grin at my success and stepped through the door—to guns pointing at my face. I swallowed and looked around calculating my chances of escape. I met a pair of eyes so golden that it startled me. The face they belonged to was harsh and beautifully masculine. Shit.

“Abort, that’s a direct order,” I said with more calm than I was currently feeling.

“Syn?” Adam shouted.

“Run.”

I reached up carefully so as not to get shot in the head and removed my comm. I tossed it to the floor, knowing if I did more I might end up dead before I could figure out how to get out of this situation alive. The Dark Prince stood before me, his hair so black that it almost appeared blue in the lights. Golden eyes stared at me, no emotion in their endless depths, at all. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
Would
ever see, since my life was about to be cut short prematurely.

“Search her,” he ordered. His voice had a slight brogue to it.

My knees were kicked out from behind me, making me hit the floor ungracefully. I bit into my bottom lip to keep from crying out, or making any sound. Rough hands searched me from behind for weapons and came up empty.

“She’s clean,” the Fae who was still behind me said after he was sure I held no threat. As he continued to search me, he found the thin paper in the tight pocket of the spandex shorts I wore. They had been tipped off, it was the only way they would have been waiting for me. I glared as cuffs were secured around my wrists from behind.

“You came for the crown?” The Prince asked as his eyes slid down my body slowly as his men brought me back up to my feet.