Hunted (Book One of the Forever Faire Series): A Fae Fantasy Romance Novel (11 page)

“
Y
ou are leaving us
,” a deep voice said.

Kayla closed the last suitcase and looked over at Jannon, who stood in the doorway of her room.

“And you’re a genius. Get lost.”

“You are going to look for Tara.” He stepped inside and closed the door. “I can help you track her.”

She picked up the suitcases and tried to squeeze past him. “Do you want me to punch you in the head again?”

“All living things leave traces of their life forces where they have passed. They do not last long, but they can be followed for a time.” He moved his hand, and two bands of color appeared in the air between them. He pointed to the vivid golden trail. “This is from you.” He tapped the much fainter, dark violet trail. “This is from Tara.”

Kayla’s jaw dropped. “You can track her with that stuff?” When he nodded she dropped the cases. “Let’s go.”

“I have already traced her last movements from here.” He pointed at the window overlooking the oak groves. “She went into the woods. We will need horses to follow her trail in there.”

Fifteen minutes later Kayla rode across the faire grounds beside Jannon to enter the forest bordering the east side of the lodge. She didn’t know how he could see her sister’s trail, but he seemed to have no difficulty following it. The trees and snow drifts slowed their mounts to a walk. They were taking too long.

“If we don’t find her soon,” she said, “she could freeze to death out here.”

“Tara was on foot,” Jannon said. “She could not have walked more than a few miles.” He glanced at her. “I do not believe your sister is evil.”

“Good. That makes two of us.” A thought occurred to her. “You and she aren’t…involved, are you?”

“We are not. Yet. I have hopes.”

“She’s only nineteen,” Kayla said, about to warn him off, but they were wasting time. “Never mind. Let’s just find her.”

They rode for another fifteen minutes before Jannon halted and motioned for her to dismount. After they tethered their horses, he guided her through a snowy thicket on the edge of a mountain lake. Kayla heard her sister’s voice and surged forward, only to be yanked down by Jannon.

“Dark Fae,” he muttered, moving his hand. He showed her a muddy trail crisscrossing Tara’s. “They must have lured her to this place. I will rescue her. You will stay here.”

Without waiting for her to answer, he took off. Kayla waited exactly two seconds before she hurried after him. But they both came to a stop at what they saw. A few yards in front of them, just beyond the trees, stood Tara. But she was wiping away the dried blood from Dirk Blackstone’s battered face.

“I have to go back for my sister,” Tara was telling him. “I can’t leave Kayla with those assholes.”

Jannon’s head reared back at the words.

“We can get that bitch later,” Dirk said. He snaked an arm around her waist, and pulled her against him. “Do you know how long I have thought about this?”

Tara didn’t struggle as the Dark Fae kissed her, and Kayla cringed as she watched her sister’s hands creep up around the biker’s thick neck.

Jannon turned on his heel and walked back the way they’d come, as a blast of icy air slapped her in the face. She started to go after him, but she couldn’t leave Tara just to soothe Jannon’s hurt feelings. No, what she had to do was get her crazy sister away from the even crazier gang leader. Then she and her sister would get the hell out of here.

Kayla crept up behind the trees, and felt her stomach turn as she saw Dirk tearing at Tara’s clothes. When her sister struggled against him, he shoved her to her knees. Tara pushed at the front of his trousers.

Then it dawned on Kayla what was going to happen. In a moment of calm, she saw it clearly.

Dirk doesn’t know who the changeling is. But if he has sex with Tara, so that he can be healed, it won’t work. Then he’ll know the changeling is Tara.

“Please,” Tara begged him, turning her face away. “Not like this.”

“It’s time for you to grow up, little sister,” Dirk said. He tugged out his penis, which was as dark and ugly as a club. “Now open your mouth, damn you. You’re going to give me a nice, long cocksucking before I fuck you.”

Kayla straightened up. It was now or never.

“Hey, Blackstone,” Kayla called as she stepped out where he could see her. “I’m the one you want. I’m the changeling. Let her go, and I’m yours.”

T
he door
to the tack room suddenly opened with a squeal of hinges, and a shower of tiny white stars cascaded down to bounce around the floorboards. Ryan stepped inside and kicked the door shut before he finished transforming.

“We are not done,” he told her, his eyes glowing so brightly his gaze seemed to burn into her head.

Kayla set aside the blankets and folded her arms. “You touch me, or use your magick to make me want it, and I swear to God I will find a way to hurt you. Even if it takes me the rest of my dumbass mortal life.”

“I don’t have to touch you.” He swept up his hand, and bridles began to fall off their brackets. “Nor does my magick.”

Kayla felt something curl around her ankle, and glanced down to see two coils of rope encircling her boots. Regret finally seeped through her fury, for despite his thick skull and utter unconcern for her feelings, this was Ryan. Ryan, whose passion had taken her apart and rebuilt her. Ryan, who had made her feel hope…and this sick, twisted love that wanted her to go along with his horrible plan.

“Please, don’t do this.” She hated how pitiful her voice sounded. “I can’t take anymore, Ryan.”

“’Tis the same for me, my lovely one.” He flicked his fingers, and the buttons on her jacket fell off and rolled away. He bent down, not touching her at all as he breathed in. “I see you and it seizes me inside, with the gilt talons of your eyes. The dark satin of your hair peace-bonds my heart. I am bound to you by every blink of your lashes, by every crystal ring of your laughter.”

He had her bound by the wrists and ankles, and when the leather and rope tugged her back against the shelves of curry combs, Kayla didn’t fight them. Some perverse part of her wanted to see just how far he would take this.

“I dream of us now, every night.” Ryan unbuttoned his own tunic, stripping it off to reveal his broad, beautifully muscled chest. “In the cabin, in the snow, high atop some icy waterfall. We are naked and the world dwindles as we reach to each other. You whisper my name just before my hand covers your naked breast, and then I awake, alone and cold and hard. So hard.”

Kayla’s jacket simply evaporated, leaving her in her tunic and hose. She kept her gaze locked with his as he stripped off his boots and trousers. His pale white skin took on a subtle glow as he straightened, naked and fully erect. Only then did she feel the rest of her costume peel away from her skin, leaving her in her underwear. She could feel her panties clinging to her sex, which had grown damp and throbbed urgently now.

Ryan moved close enough for his body heat to sink into her skin, and put his mouth beside her ear. “I never have to touch you for you to make me like iron, my lovely one. Then all I must do is what is necessary to find peace.”

The whisper of his breath against her ear and cheek made her swallow a moan. “What do you do?”

He stepped back, watching her face as he reached down and wrapped his hand around his engorged shaft. “This.” Slowly he began stroking the length of his cock, his arm flexing and his chest heaving as he dragged in more air. “I remember how it was in the cabin, that night we first had each other. Touching you. Putting my mouth on you. Fucking you.”

Kayla turned her face away, but listening to his hand pumping made her clit pulse, and her nipples pucker into tight beads. “Is this why you tied me up? To torture me?”

“No.” He murmured something else, and light filled the room.

When Kayla’s dazzled eyes cleared, she saw Ryan bound by rope and rein to the shelves, and she was standing where he had been. Her panties and bra were gone, too. She should have run for the door, but her feet took her to him. “I think that spell backfired, my man.”

“This is how you have me.” He looked down at the full, straining bulb of his erection. “And I can find no relief from it. Not even when I use my hand and pretend it is you.” He lifted his head and smiled wanly at her. “Why should tonight be any different?”

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