The Faerie Master (Aaron's Kiss Series) (28 page)

“Vampire men are such pigs.
Shawn didn’t tell me that you had made contact with him.
I’m sorry, but I don’t remember you, or my mother for that matter.
I was...I guess since you were there yesterday, you know what happened to me.”

“Yes.
Your mate, he avenged you and me.
He is a good man, I believe.
As for being a pig, well, you’d know that better than I.”
He nodded to one of the chairs and Cade nodded back.
He sat down and that was when she noticed that he had a chest with him.
“The queen sent it with me.
She said that it is yours through your mother.
I have not seen it as of yet.
She said that I would be able to answer any questions you may have about the contents.”

Cade noticed that Penny and Duncan were no longer in the kitchen.
She was nervous and a little scared to see what he had.
That was when she felt Shawn send her warmth and love.
It moved through her and made her stronger.

“I don’t know what to call you.
I’m sorry.
I know this has got to be just as strange for you as well.
The people who raised me, they never made any bones about not being my real parents and it wasn’t until yesterday that I knew that Garrett had killed them.
Shawn told me that the queen took him away.
Do you know what happened to him?”

“Garrett is dead.
The queen decided that he should be killed in the manner that he was most familiar with and the way of the lives he took.
He was a cruel and heartless man.
His victims were tortured in ways that are beyond what nightmares are made of.
Faeries can be very...how should I say...vicious when they need be.
He suffered greatly for his crimes.”

Cade shuddered.
She wasn’t sure how a faerie could be considered vicious, but the tone that Vladimir used gave her no doubt that Garrett did suffer.
She looked down at the chest.
She wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it either.
Her father seemed to read her mind.

“We can leave it for another time.
I would like to ask you about your mark.
I know that you and your mate have merged.
It is a magic like no other.
You
,
especially
,
will notice the difference.
Your magic will be stronger.
You will be able to summon the earth and the elements to you.”

“I don’t have any magic.
I mean, I didn’t before we...that’s before Shawn and I...we… I don’t have any magic.”
Cade could feel herself blush again.
She knew that magic was what gave her the ability to bite Shawn, but she was sure there was nothing else.
A little overwhelmed, she got up to finish the dumplings.

“You do have it, child.
You have used it
,
too, twice since I have entered this room.
You have summoned the flour to you and you have the oven turned on to use.
You have a great deal of magic, mine as well as your mother’s.
She was a powerful Lesser Faerie.
The Queen was quite proud of her.”

Cade looked at the flour.
Had she?
She didn’t know.
She had caught herself doing it when she was younger and had been very careful since.
Garrett would hurt her...he was dead and could no longer hurt her, she thought.
Maybe that’s why she was using it more, because she felt safer.

“What is a Lesser Faerie?
I mean, I’ve heard the term and I do have a mark.
It’s a faerie on my hip.
I don’t understand what it means to me.
Or to Shawn for that matter.”

Mel shimmered in the room.
Cade tried not to be a little uneasy around the being, but she made Cade feel things she’d never felt before.
Subservient came to mind.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.
Your mother said that same thing to me a hundred times.
I’ve never felt that she was subservient to me.
She was my friend, as I would like for you to be.”
Mel turned to Vladimir.
“You’re right.
She does look like her mother.
She was very beautiful and I have felt her loss for a great many years.”

Cade held onto the counter.
The room swam dizzily around her.
She felt Shawn moving and she didn’t try to stop him.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.

“Someone is coming.
Someone is coming here now.
I can feel their hatred and violence.
They want...they want me.
I can’t ...”

“Cade, look at me.
Cade!
Look at me, tell me what you feel. Who is coming?”
Shawn was holding her.
She vaguely realized he was standing in the kitchen with her.

“It’s a man.
He is angry with...with you. He thinks you are the cause of his downfall. That the Council is after him because of what you did.
I don’t understand.
What does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s my master.
I turned him in to the Council because he was killing humans.
I have to get you to safety.”
She felt his terror as if it were her own.
He was afraid for her.
“Mel, can she stay with you?
I can’t have her—”

“I’m not going anywhere.
You said we were mates.
I go where you go.
If you even try that mind thingy on me I’ll personally make it so you can’t walk for the rest of your long life.”

“He’ll hurt you to get to me.
You have to understand that he’s powerful and that I can’t lose you.
You have to obey me on this, Cade.
I’m not kidding.”

     
“Obey you?
Are you for real?
I obey no one, fang face.
I will listen to suggestions, reasonable ones anyway, but you won’t tell me what to do and expect me to hop to it.
If you do,
it’s going to be a very long eternity for you.” Cade flushed when she heard her father laugh.
She turned on him in a heartbeat.
Embarrassed or not she didn’t think it was a laughing matter. “Listen here, bucko.
You think this is funny?
Then you can kiss any father-daughter dances goodbye.
I am not going anywhere.
Now, what’s the plan?”

“I would in no way laugh at you, my dear.
I was just thinking how very much like your mother you are.
Shawn, you might as well give it a rest.
She will wear you down.
I had it happen to me many times in the centuries I lived with her mother.”

“I cannot take her to my kingdom anyway,” Mel said.
“I am bound by your laws of the challenge.
If you fail to win, Cade is his to do with what he pleases.
I can’t stop him, nor can I condemn him, not about that.
You will have to face Ferris with Cade at your side or not.”

Before Cade could form an answer or even begin to wonder about her father spending centuries with her mother both Sara and Aaron came into the room.
It seemed they too could feel the creature making his way toward them.
Cade was afraid.
Not for herself, but for those around her.
She looked up at Shawn and knew that he was as well.
Cade was just going to suggest that they leave now before he hurt any of them when Aaron spoke up.

“You have a choice, Shawn and Cade.
Challenge him and kill him, or run.
If you run you’ll never be a master.
If you stay you chance losing Cade.
But I know that you can beat him.
He is a young vamp who has risen to what he is by terror and murder.
You are strong, Shawn.
Your age and your newly acquired magic gives you an advantage over others and he wouldn’t be expecting it.”

“What do you mean by challenge him?
You mean fight him?
To the death?
I don’t think so.
I may be new to this whole mate thing, but there is no way you are going to challenge some guy because he’s pissed off.
Hello?
It’s been my experience that pissed off men tend to fight dirty.”
Cade looked around the room.
They all avoided looking back except the queen.

“It would do him no good to run.
Ferris will come and destroy what he leaves behind.
Cade, with your added magic, Shawn will win.
You must have faith in him.”

Cade looked at Sara.
Realization dawned on her.
They were hoping for Shawn to fight this guy.
And, for whatever reason, thought that she would aide him in some way when he did.
And if she failed him they would both die.

“He’s here.
I can feel him now.
He is outside. Cade, stay inside until I talk with him.
Maybe I can convince him that you aren’t a part of this.
Please listen to me, you have to stay inside.”

When Shawn moved toward the door Cade was too shocked to follow.
Her heart was thundering in her chest and the roaring in her head was making thought nearly impossible.
Shawn was going to die and it would be her fault.
She looked at the two women who had stayed with her.
Sara looked worried and Mel looked...looked pleased. There was something so eerie about her smile that Cade closed her eyes against it.

Cade only had one choice.
And she moved toward the door before either of them could stop her.
She knew what she had to do.

The four men, Aaron, Shawn Vladimir and Ferris, stood in the yard just behind the house.
Ferris was asking Shawn how he could have done such a thing to him.
Cade could feel his anger, not at Shawn and what he’d done, but that he’d been caught and was now having to stand trial for it.
He thought killing Shawn would be a way to stop the trial.
Then she could feel him, she knew who he was.

“I thought we were friends, Shawn.
I can’t believe that you’d turn me in without asking me if this was true.
You’ve no proof, that’s what the Council said, you’ve no proof.”

“I do, though, don’t I?
You took the money, or at least you made me take it.
You’re the guy who ordered me to steal the money from all those people,” Cade interrupted.