Authors: Penelope Fletcher
“
Leave Brother Ryan’s body,
it’ll just slow us down,” he said tonelessly. “Leave the shifter,
the tiger specimen is enough for now. And we have the other two.
Take the fairy.”
I feinted to the left then darted
right, vowing to come back for Alec as soon as I had gotten
help.
I’d taken no more than three running
steps when something whizzed past my face, and something else
slammed into my lower back. Pain lanced through my body, my muscles
seizing up. My limbs left my control and I dropped like a stone.
The pressure and pain increased until it seemed my whole world was
made of electric fire.
Everything went black.
Chapter Four
I was cold, I was groggy, and I was
mad. A sharp, metallic aftertaste stained my mouth, and the smell
of urine, and dead things clogged my nose. Opening my eyes I was
relieved, and infuriated, to meet two sets of pretty brown eyes set
in sun browned heart shaped faces.
“
She’s waking up,” one of
the faces said. “Give her some room to breathe.”
The girl was pretty. A button nose,
wide eyed, and a cute crop of dark brown hair. She crouched close
by me, almost protective. A purple bruise decorated the side of her
face and her pouty mouth looked swollen.
I tried to move my arms to crawl back,
but I winced. My body was not fit to do much but lie still. No
matter, I did not want to lie there like a dead thing, so I shifted
up onto my elbows, but further movement was hindered by a chain
connected to a rusty manacle at my throat, my skin was swollen from
the contact.
Uncomfortable on the hard ground, I
scooted a little more before settling. Then I took in my
surroundings.
The ceiling was low and dirty and the
room wide, crumbling red brick. Candles with sticky wax overflowed
onto the wall casting glowing arcs of light. Rows of manacles and
snaking chains were nailed into wooden panels on the floor. Dark,
shiny patches of red stained the gray concrete I sat on, and
explained the dead smell. The shadowy corners made the walls
curved, a room of death and shadows.
I shuddered, and my eyes settled on
the brown eyes girl again. Oh hell. I was seeing double.
“
What– Where–” I made a
rude noise, squeezed my eyes shut to hold back the
tears.
Panicking would get me nowhere. I had
to remain calm and not see double. Whatever had happened, the
Priests would find me and save me from this…this…place.
I opened my eyes but little had
changed, expect one of the brown eyed girls was grinning
broadly.
“
You’re not going mad,
fairy. There are two of us.” She nodded her head to the second
brown-eyed girl, who stared at my wings with a mixture of
fascination and disgust. “That is Nimah, my younger and spoilt
twin. I’m Amelia.”
I blinked and shook my head. I could
have sworn she said fairy. “Hai,” I said relieved at least I was
not seeing things even if I was hearing things.
“
Why can we smell our Alpha
on you?” Nimah asked and tilted her head back proudly, as if she
expected nothing less than a full and immediate answer from
me.
I’d knocked something important loose
in my brain, I was sure of it. “Where are we?” I asked. I directed
the question at Amelia.
She beamed at me; happy I had chosen
to finish our exchange before indulging her sister. “We’re in the
humans dungeon under the place they train the Hoods.”
Biting my lip, I cocked my head.
“Hoods?”
“
The humans who wear the
red hoods,” she said and trembled. “The ones who protect the
Wall.”
Why did she speak as if human was
something foreign to her? “We’re at Temple?” I said, beyond
relieved. I mean, I had never heard of, or seen this place before,
but it meant I had made it back alive. That was the last time I ran
in demon territory. For a while, I was afraid I had stumbled onto
some of them, the demons.
Thank gods I was safe.
Judging by the lack of light, and the
shape of the walls we were deep underground. Perhaps a Cleric had
found me and not wanted to alarm the other Disciples by taking me
to Sanctuary. Intuition told me that was unlikely, since I was
manacled. Maybe they were being on the safe side? After all I was a
human, but maybe they were afraid a vampire had glamoured me, or
something.
“
What is going on exactly?”
I asked, failing to keep panic from my voice.
The tight ball of fear in my gut was
painful. Movement close by in the shadows made me tense. I squinted
then there was a hitch in my breathing.
A small, gangly figure was curled up
in the corner, huge eyes with black holes for pupils, swallowing
the whites of his eyes. His lips were small, and pouty, and his
bone structure delicate. He was clothed in a threadbare tunic.
Stained and torn it hung loosely from his shoulders and was bunched
up in his fisted hands. He was bald and frighteningly skinny.
Hunched over, I could see the vertebrae in his back jut from
beneath his sallow skin. His fingers were boney and his cheeks
sunken. He stared at me. But gods his eyes were huge, dominating
the top half of his face. Cuffed to the wall, his manacle chain was
coiled by his legs.
“
Fairy?”
I frowned, shifting my attention back
to the girls. “Why do you keep saying that?” I lowered my voice.
“And is that … is that a….”
“
Goblin, yes. A half-breed
I think. We call him Runt.” She beckoned to him. “Come here, cutie.
C’mon.”
If such a thing was possible, the
goblin-child’s eyes widened to perfect circles, and he shuffled
closer to the wall, turning his head into his shoulder to hide his
face. He made a faint keening, snuffling noise.
Amelia shrugged. “He doesn’t talk.
They have zapped him one too many times, I think. He is afraid of
his own shadow. He won’t even let us try to treat his sores. He
just eats and drinks once a day then sits in his corner. It is sad
really. It would be nice to have someone else to talk to. My sister
can be a total bitch.”
Nimah whacked her on the arm,
scowling. “Bite me, I’m sitting right here.”
“
I know you think the whole
world revolves around you, but believe it or not even though your
name was mentioned, I wasn’t talking to you.”
“
Why are you horrible to
me? Even when we were cubs you were mean to me.”
“
What part of ‘not talking
to you’ don’t you understand?”
I cleared my throat. “Uh,
girls….”
“
What?” they said and
turned to me simultaneously.
My head swam, and I blinked a few
times before squinting. “You called me a fairy….”
They shot strange looks at each other.
The younger sister made a sweeping motion with her hand to her
twin. “Go ahead; I know how you love to baby the broken
ones.”
“
Touch your ears,” Amelia
said.
Frowning, I did as she said, confused
as to what she was getting at. I touched my ears pointing out of my
hair. I froze and my fingers twitched over the tip of my ear that
was decidedly pointy. Then I was aware of the two limbs resting
across my back and then floor. I was aware of the tail curling
about my waist. My heart pounded and I squeezed my eyes shut. “I– I
feel sick–” I gasped; memories hit me in the gut and bombarded my
mind. My eyes shot open. “Alec!” I shouted and stood. I spun round
and launched myself at the door, a moment after I remembered the
iron manacle. I jerked to a stop and lost my footing. I fell hard
and smacked my head on the floor. I felt the skin at my temple
split.
“
Be still, fairy. If you
make too much noise they’ll come.” Amelia touched my shoulder and I
shrugged her off violently.
Surging up to my knees, I crawled away
from them and put my back against the wall.
I remembered everything. I was
protecting Alec and had been tagged by the Clerics. Me dropped by
tazer probes … how could I be so stupid? Why was I not focusing on
what was going on around me? How the hell did they get so far into
the Pride? Something was no right here and I needed to find out
what.
“
I need out of this hole,”
I growled.
“
Oh, don’t worry,” Nimah
said. “No doubt they’ll be back for you soon. You’re the new
plaything.” She shot me a dirty look, and tipped her nose up. “Now
you seem to have returned to yourself answer my question. Why is
the scent of our Alpha on you?” She crossed her sinewy arms over
her chest tightly. Unlike Amelia she had a heavy fringe that fell
into her eyes. “I thought I scented Alec, and you seem to know him,
but that’s just crazy talk. Why would his scent linger on you? For
it to be so strong there would need to be prolonged skin to skin
contact.” She glared at me. Was this shifter-girl the one Alec
confessed he wished to Claim? But he had told me she didn’t know he
existed.
“
Oh, shut up, Ni. Leave the
poor girl alone.”
A startling thought occurred to me.
“I’m a demon,” I said and blinked. I was still struggling to
adjust, and though these girls seemed to need some answers from me,
I was still running a few things through my clouded mind. Where was
Alec now? Was Breandan looking for me, and how long had I been down
here? Oh gods. How long had I been down here? Conall would be going
nuts. And as for Breandan…. Yeah, I was in big trouble.
“
Yes,” Nimah promoted,
jarring me out of my horrified thoughts. “You’re a….” I said
nothing, still shocked and confused. Witheringly, she looked at
Amelia.
I looked too. I could use some
direction.
“
Fairy,” she
said.
At the expression that twisted my
face, they both tensed and shuffled closer together. They waited
for my shriek, or yell, but it never happened. The twins watched
me, heads cocked together. It was like there was a mirror but the
reflections differed slightly. Amelia’s face was a smidge rounder
and Nimah’s eyes were a fraction darker.
“
They must have hit you
with a high voltage to screw with your memory so badly,” Amelia
said after a terse pause. “Don’t worry, it’ll get clearer
soon.”
“
She’s still hasn’t
explained why she smells like members of our pack,” the young twin
said bluntly.
Running a hand down her hunched back
in comfort, Amelia’s voice was hard. “Give her time. She has been
through a lot. Remember how you were when we first got
here?”
The younger twin wiggled, to get her
sister to back off, but she kept stroking so she
stilled.
My hands flew up and out. “Unguh, they
did hit me too hard.” I smacked myself on the forehead. “You’re
Byron’s missing daughters, aren’t you?”
“
So you do know our
father.” Amelia shifted forward, a light coming on in her eyes.
“He’s coming for us?”
I nodded. “Yes. We had a deal. I’m
going to rescue you.” As I said the words, I flushed. “I mean, uh,
I was going to rescue you before I was caught, of
course.”
Nimah was watching me, distrust plain
on her face. “I don’t believe you. Our father would never ask the
fairy-lord for help. And involve one of his concubines? I don’t
think so.”
I spluttered, “Concubine? Give me a
break. I’m not Devlin’s concubine. My name is Rae, and
I’m–”
The door shuddered.
Nimah and Amelia instinctively slid
closer together. Both turned their gaze upon me and I saw panic in
their eyes. Even Runt had turned to look at me, and if possible,
his face was even paler than before.
The door swung open and slammed
against the back wall. Three figures in crimson blazers with black
tails stood in the doorway. Hoods pulled over their heads, the
light, and my eyesight was enough for me to make them out. All were
much older than us. Men. One had sunken eyes and a crooked nose.
The other was fair and stunningly handsome, for a human. The last
was stockier in build and rougher in appearance; stubble was
visible on his jaw and his blazer looked rumbled. I thought I saw a
faint trace of guilt flitter across his expression, but then it was
gone, and his expression was blank.
Amelia shuffled forward and crouched
in front of me. She arched her back and hissed, sounding like a
cat, a cat that was pissed. Nimah came up on my other
side.
“
Good thinking, Melia,” she
muttered. “Throw our lot in with the fairy stupid enough to get
caught.”
The Clerics stepped forward and I
figured out my next move. The iron had drained my strength, no
doubt. I was weak, disorientated, and the stench of the metal made
me retch, but I had been trained in combat by these Clerics. I knew
how they would move and fight. If we could overwhelm them, we could
escape. I may not get another chance. I had to try.
They needed to come closer. Close
enough so that they were in punching distance. Close enough, so
that I could snap their neck in one of the three ways I had been
taught in Martial Arts. Damn, close enough so that I could bite and
scratch the crap out of them if needs be. I had never killed anyone
before, and I did not want to start now. But hell would freeze over
if they thought I was going to die without taking at least one of
them with me.