Pink Princess Fairytini (Fairy Files #2) (26 page)

“Maybe he’s right.” I hated the pity in Frost’s eyes. “Not that I care. I’m just killing time until I get my club back.”

Frost laughed, but it was a sound void of humor. “Your problem, Chloe, has never been that you don’t care. It’s that you care too much. You hide it well, but I can see through your pretense of hardness. You spend so much time caring for everyone else, that you forget to take care of yourself, and you refuse to let anyone take care of you.”

Anger lit me up. How dare he make me out to sound like some sort of saint? Some sort of pathetic martyr. I wanted to rage at him, but I was afraid that would only prove his point. “I’m going to call Vin and find out when she can meet us,” I said. “You can head back to your office. I’ll find my own way home.”

“Chloe, you know I have to see you home.”

And that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. “You think I care too much?” I asked. “Maybe
you
care too much, Frost. You act like it’s your job to keep me and everyone else safe. Like there’s something wrong with me for refusing to take your help. Maybe there’s something wrong with you, for refusing to believe that I
can
take care of myself. That I don’t need help.”

To my complete annoyance, he didn’t get mad. “I know you’re strong and tough, Chloe. I know you can handle yourself. I’ve never doubted that. But I’m a werewolf. I’m a teensy bit stronger than you and it…it calms my wolf to see you safe.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling pretty darn full of myself. “It’s your wolf that wants to see me safe? It’s your wolf that’s worried about me? Well, tell your wolf to back down. It’s the middle of the fucking day, in a pretty decent neighborhood, in a city I know like the back of my hand. I’ll. Be. Fine.”

“Chloe—”

I stepped up to him until we were toe to toe and nose to nose. “Middle of the fucking day, Frost. Leave me the hell alone.”

He threw his hands up, irritation plain on his face. Finally, I’d gotten to him. “Fine,” he said. “Just let me know when you’re back from Rubalia so we can talk about what Missella said.”

“Fine.” I turned my back on him and pulled my phone out of my pocket. I dialed Vin and put the phone to my ear.

Vin answered on the third ring, and I filled her in on what Buddy had said.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I get what you’re saying, but if Missella knew anything at all, she’d tell us. She wants to help the people of Rubalia, not hurt them.”

“Maybe so,” I said. “But she should at least be able to tell us more about the guy Buddy saw running off with his baby.”

“Yeah.” She sighed. “I was supposed to go out with Mercury tonight, our first real date since we moved to the Non, and now I’m going to have to cancel. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Since one of Vin’s major problems with Mercury had been that he’d cancelled all of their dates to work for the rebellion, she meant he’d enjoy her cancelling far too much. “I’m sorry,” I said. “If there were any other way …”

“No, I know. Meet me at the fountain in the city center in two hours.”

“I’ll be there,” I said.

A hand clapped me on the shoulder and anger flared in me like a torch. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” I asked as I spun, expecting to see Frost, but finding a shorter, bulkier man who looked a bit familiar.

“Nope,” he said. “That’s why they call me the…um, the not-quitter,” he said, not releasing my shoulder.

“Wow,
they
are really original,” I said. “Would you please remove your hand from my shoulder, before I remove it from your body?”

“Sorry,” he said, appearing to be sincere. “My boss wants to see you, so I can’t let you go.”

I twisted out of his grip and leapt back, getting my fists up into a fighting position. “Who’s your boss?”

“You don’t remember me?” The guy pouted just a bit.

And then I did. Shit. “Benny the dragon.”

He smiled and nodded. “I told him you’d remember me. I felt we had a connection. It’s why I insisted on bringing you in myself.”

I looked around, hoping that our “conversation” would have drawn some attention. Then a second goon stepped out of a small silver car, and I knew there was going to be pain.

I spun and made a dash for the door to Buddy’s apartment building, screaming his name at the top of my lungs. I was jerked back by my hair and pulled so hard I fell flat on my back, my head hitting the pavement with a sickening thud. Six goons bent over, looked at me, and said, “Oops.”

Strong arms lifted me into the air, making my stomach spin. Something warm was oozing out of my skull, and I hoped it wasn’t my brain.

“You made her bleed, you idiot,” someone said.

I felt myself land on something hard that smelled like leather, my head bouncing against something even harder, before darkness took over. A blissful, pain-free darkness.

Men believe their greater brawn means they can get whatever they want by force. Women learned long ago that it’s much easier to manipulate someone with sweet words and seduction
. –Chloe Frangipani

Men’s brains are located firmly in their pants. Manipulate the dick, you manipulate the man attached to it
. –Althea Frangipani

The first thing I felt when I woke up was pain, and the first thing I saw was Benny the dragon’s face. I knew two things right away, if I was dead, I’d been sent to Hell and, dead or alive, I was in deep shit. I tried to move my hands to make sure I was still clothed, but they were above my head, shackled. I tried to peer down at my body, but my head exploded and my vision went black.

“Try not to move,” Benny said. “I’m sorry for what my men did, but I assure you it was an accident. My staff healer will be in shortly to ease your pain.”

“Right,” I said. “And what do I have to do to earn this grace?”

Benny feigned shock. “Do? Are you suggesting I’m going to manipulate you by preventing your healing?”

“Yep,” I said. “And my head is killing me, so can we get this over with?”

Benny laughed, the sound of his joy grating on my damaged brain like nails on a chalkboard, making bile burn in my throat. “That is why I love you, Chloe, there is no beating around the bush with you.”

I really hoped he meant he loved me in a platonic way, otherwise this was going to get really ugly really fast. When crazy men decided they loved you, it was never followed by flowers and fine dining. It was usually followed by blood and pain, and not the consensual kind. I knew, I’d seen the movies. “So what do you want, Benny?”

“I want you, Clarinda, to be my queen. I want the two of us to rule the Non together. At first, I thought you were a threat, I planned to destroy you, fuck you, and kill you slowly.”

“How charming,” I said.

“But I couldn’t destroy you. I told every fae who came through my door that you are the fairy princess, because I expected them to fear and hate you. Instead, they love you. They came to your meeting and they accepted your help with their missing children. You are more than just delicious blood and a pretty face. You have something I need.”

“Sanity?”

“Humanity,” he said. “Say you’ll be my queen, say you’ll rule the Non with me, and I’ll give you everything you’ve ever wanted.”

“Okay,” I said. “Sounds good to me. I’m sick of my mother dictating my every move and you’re one fine piece of dragon ass, so let’s do this.” What was I supposed to say? I’m not a complete idiot.

Benny smiled. “I’m so pleased. I’ll send the healer back to fix you up and then we’ll consummate our partnership…with blood.”

Was it weird that I was glad he didn’t say ‘with sex’? Nope, I didn’t think so. “I look forward to it,” I said, simpering with what I thought was a seductive look, but since I was seeing three of Benny, I couldn’t be sure.

“And just to be sure you’re telling the truth,” he said. “I’m going to need you to sign a contract in blood stating that you are now working for me.”

Well, hell, so much for seduction and submission. Blood contracts was the first thing Hieronymus had taught me about. When a fae signed a blood contract, they would be under a magical bondage that wouldn’t cease until they completed the contractual task, period, or promise. In other words, even if I didn’t want to partner with Benny, I’d be mentally and physically incapable of escaping him. “No,” I said, holding my head up as well as I could, considering it weighed more than a bowling ball and my arms were restrained above it.

Benny smiled and leaned back. “So no to the healer then, as well? I’m sort of glad you said that. I’ll have such fun breaking you.”

With that, he leaned in, pushed a long, lethal claw through his finger and drew it down the length of my arm. I hissed at the pain, but it was really nothing compared to the pounding in my head. He bent over and licked the blood from my arm, humming as he worked.

When he looked up again, his eyes were glazed, his expression euphoric, and I recognized a possible escape route. I knew better than to take it right then, because I wasn’t sure which of the three Bennys to aim at, but as soon as I could see and think clearly, the moment after he took my blood would be the moment to attack. In the meantime, I decided to play it as weak as possible.

“Please no,” I said, slurring my words as much as possible. “Don’t hurt me anymore.”

He pressed a kiss to my lips and pulled himself away from me with a groan. “How much you hurt is up to you.”

Then he left me, alone in a dark room, with an aching head and nothing to think about except pain. When I got out of there, I was really going to make him pay. I had to believe I would get out of there, because there was no point thinking of the alternatives.

I fell in and out of sleep, until there was a knock from across the room. Daylight had begun to seep in through a window high in the wall and I could just make out a very young girl, carrying in a tray of food. “Hi, sugar. I’m Amy.” She placed the tray on a small table next to the cot on which I lay. “He won’t kill you, you know,” she said in a low voice, as she reached up and unlocked my cuffs.

“What?” I asked, as I lowered my arms and rubbed my aching wrists. My arms felt stiff and sore from being over my head for so long. At least I was now only seeing one of the girl before me, though my head still ached like someone was pounding nails into it.

“He won’t hurt you, because he knows your mother would destroy his business and kill him.”

“I’m surprised he thinks her capable of that.” Amy looked at my wrists and rubbed them, healing them as she went. I hid my surprise that someone so young worked as his healer. “He seems to have an ego the size of Florida.”

She smiled. “He is quite the showman. But he is not a complete idiot. He is also not such a bad guy. You could choose much worse to partner with.”

She placed the tray on my lap and lifted a spoonful of broth to my lips. The scent of food made my stomach twist with revulsion. I clamped my lips shut and shook my head. Shaking my head made the room spin, and I shut my eyes tight.

“Oh, dear. You’re worse than he said. I should have insisted he let me look at you.” She put a hand to my head, and I felt better almost instantly. “Don’t tell him I helped you.”

“You have a light touch,” I said. “But you aren’t a fairy.”

She lifted another spoonful of broth to my lips. This time, I ate. “No,” she said. “I’m a human with a gift.”

I almost choked on my broth. “That’s impossible. You must have some fae blood.”

She smiled. “Benjamin has tasted my blood. I am a pure human.”

“Wow. I thought you were just a myth.”

She fed me another spoonful of broth. “My family thought I was a freak. They were afraid of me and kicked me out. Benjamin took me in, gave me a home. He saved me.”

Oh. Oh, wow. The look in her eyes when she spoke of him suggested not what I’d first thought, that she was in love with him, but that she worshipped him the way cultists worship their leader. I didn’t want to hurt her, but I needed to get out of there.

“You should let me go,” I said.

Her head snapped up, but there was no surprise on her face. “As I said, Benjamin is not stupid. There are three trolls outside your door, and they are looking forward to your escape attempt.”

Three trolls? I could take the girl and one troll, but not three trolls, not without a weapon. I sighed and resigned myself to letting Amy feed me.

She chatted about some of the shows Benny had taken her to see. Apparently, he loved the theater and tourist shows put on by the people of Sarsaparilla. Since Amy was the only one on his staff who enjoyed shows, she was the lucky one who got to go with him. I was sure all of the goons on his staff appreciated her sacrifice.

While she chatted, I pocketed the fork that was on the tray. I hoped she wouldn’t get into too much trouble.

She got to the door before she looked back over her shoulder and gave me a small smile. “You should trust, Benjamin,” she said. “He only has your best interests in mind.”

“Okay.” I forced a big smile. “I’ll try to be open-minded.”

She nodded and left. I was all alone again. On the plus side, I was no longer shackled, but the door was locked, with I didn’t know how many guards on the other side. I stood, happy to find the room didn’t spin and, while I didn’t feel one hundred percent, I felt ready to fight.

I banged on the door. “What?” growled a voice on the other side.

“I have to pee,” I said in my sweetest and quietest voice. My heart pounded and my hands shook with anticipation. I was pretty sure I’d only get one shot to escape, and I didn’t want to waste it.

“What?” the goon asked.

“I have to pee,” I whispered.

The door swung open and the goon glared down at me.

I didn’t want to hurt him too badly. I knew he was just doing his job and I didn’t know if he was a bad person. I also didn’t have a lot of options if I wanted to put him down and keep him down. Hieronymus had hinted that there were ways I could sort of reverse my healing powers to hurt someone, but he’d wanted me to learn to fight physically before I learned to fight with my magic.