Immortal Craving: Immortal Heart (2 page)

“Admit it,
Izzy. You loved it,” Kale pushed, a glint in his dark eyes and mischief playing over his lips in the form of a playful smirk.

“I will not,”
Izzy said, shaking her head as she walked through the parting crowd at the packed arena.

“You should admit it, sweetheart. He’s not going to let it go,” Bain said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and dropping a kiss on her temple.

Izzy stepped from Bain’s arms and turned to face the two Immortals. It was they who had just subjected her to three hours of grown-ass men throwing each other around a squared ring. “Fine, the pyrotechnics were cool, though super loud, and I’ll admit the one you called the
Viper
was pretty talented.”

“Ah, she’s a Randy Orton fan,” Kale cooed.

Somehow Izzy had been dragged out on a Monday night to watch WWE Monday Night Raw live, along with Bain and Kale. She couldn’t deny that the superstars were talented and Kale’s obsession with the wrestling franchise was not news to her.

Izzy
had already had six month to learn all about
her
Immortals brothers. Kale being the one she felt a true kinship with. She loved the youngest Immortal as the brother she never had. It was a good thing too. The more time she spent in the Fae world, the more she lived the link between Bain and Kale. They were free-spirited best friends.

Bain placed his hand on the small of
Izzy’s back and the three of them continued to make their way back to her car.

Kale felt a small, electric charge against his skin; awareness that something he hadn’t felt in years was close. Kale’s back went ramrod straight as his eyes devoured the crowd around them. With a nonchalant movement he took a step closer to
Izzy. She was basically immortal now, but she was too important to his brother to risk.

“You ok?” Bain asked, giving Kale a cautious look before scanning the crowd around them.

“Yeah, I think. No worries—just got a weird feeling.”

Izzy’s
blue eyes questioned Kale, but he smiled and shook his head. With a gentle shrug, Izzy let it go. 

Kale wrestled with the facts and the feeling he was having. There was no way
what he was feeling was her—she was gone, had been for years now, but what she was... Well, they were a thriving Fae species, dark creatures, and apparently there was one busy in the Human World. After his chat with Jerry, he was more than aware of the
Succubus
presence.

Bain opened
Izzy’s door for her and she started to crawl in the back seat.

“No, take the front,” Kale told her. They’d argued about
who got the front on the way over—her logic winning out over his chivalry. He was six-foot-three to her five-foot-five or so height. She fit better in the back of her little Audi.

“Not this again?” She raised a brow at him.

“Nope, I’m going to do a sweep.”

“What’s going on, brother?” Bain asked, questioning Kale’s odd behavior.

“Just need to clear the weirdness in my head.”

Bain chuckled. “So what, I’ll see you in a few years?”

Kale smirked. “I don’t know if even years would do it.”

Izzy
rolled her eyes at them, dug out her spare house key, and dropped it in Kale’s palm. “You know the code. We’ll see you later...
tonight,
” she emphasized.

Kale smiled and placed the key in his pocket after giving the flaming wings keychain a good once over. “Probably in the morning,” he corrected.

Izzy gave him a quick hug. “Be careful.” She smiled and patted his cheek before sliding onto the soft leather of her seat.

Bain closed
Izzy’s car door and then turned to Kale. “One last chance, brother—what’s got you all of a sudden on edge?”

Kale’s eyes narrowed. “Like I said, it’s probably nothing, but I felt the charge of a Succubus.”

Bain’s head tilted and his eyes closed as he tried to feel what Kale was feeling. “I don’t sense any Fae.”

“I know, but I swore I felt
one
.”

Bain nodded, his eyes remaining impassive as he spoke his next words cautiously. “One—or do you think you felt her?”

It wouldn’t be the first time Kale’s mind played tricks on him and he thought he’d seen, smelled, or heard Katarina.

Kale smirked. “That would be crazy, because she’s gone—has been for over a decade now.”

Bain lifted one shoulder in agreement, which said
he
knew that but wasn’t sure
Kale
had accepted it. “I can take Izzy home and go with you.”

“Nah, stay at home with your female. No sense in spending your night with me when you could spend the night with her.” Kale smirked, letting his eyes drift to
Izzy’s profile through the tinted window.

“True that, brother,” Bain agreed, a smug smile playing across his lips.

“You are one lucky bastard. You know that, right?” Kale said with a grin.

Bain nodded. “Don’t I know
it. Call if you need anything.”

Kale nodded and headed off towards the charged air while Bain slid into the car.

“Is he ok?” Izzy asked once she and Bain were on the road back to her home.

“Yeah, he’s got demons, sweet
Izzy, but he’ll be fine. And think—now we have the house all to ourselves for the next few hours.” Bain grinned and pulled her hand to his lips to press a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

Izzy
suppressed a shiver. Kale had demons and now she couldn’t think of anything but
her
Immortal naked in bed.

Kale hit the uneven, cobblestone sidewalk with a hard thump. He’d been following the tingle of charged energy for a few miles now. He’d made his way to a historic, downtown area after following a taxi. It was thankfully quiet with no humans around to see him drop from the sky and follow the woman when she exited the bright yellow car. It was definitely her who had sent that tickle of energy against his skin.

Kale was quiet as he followed her, a good thirty feet from behind. His eyes roved her figure; a slim build was hugged by a pair of distressed jeans, high stiletto heels peeking out from under the designer hem, and a red, shiny halter allowed him to peek at her bare back. Her soft alabaster skin teased him while
a high blonde ponytail swayed from side to side as she hurried down the sidewalk.

Kale’s eyes narrowed as she turned down a dark alley and out of his sight.

Feels like a trap,
Kale mused. Where was this little vixen leading him? He picked up his pace and opened up to his senses as he rounded the corner of the alley.

“Why are you following me?” The voice drifted from a shadowed corner and set his heart racing.

It wasn’t her. He knew she was dead, but his mind was playing tricks on him. The voice quivered and it sounded like dripping honey. It was sweet just as he remembered hers being. But it wasn’t possible; he had to keep reminding himself of that.

“Step out of the shadows, Succubus,” Kale ordered, his voice
coming out angrier than he had intended—but anger was all he could hold on to nowadays

He caught the steady staccato sound of her hard heels hitting the dirty alley before he saw her fleeing.

“Stop!” he roared as he took off after her.

Succubi
were no match for an Immortal warrior. They weren’t super strong or super fast, but the life force they fed from gave them a boost in both strength and speed—making them a little above human.

There true strength came in other ways... like in charming their prey. Their skill in the bedroom was something of legend. They were sex personified. Most
Succubi
found Fae to feed from since Fae life energy was stronger than human; lasting longer and giving them a little more strength then a human’s chi would. And based on the speed in which this female fled from him, she was either digging up the speed from somewhere deep, possibly fueled by fear, or she’d found a Fae to feast from.

So what was she doing in the Human World?

Kale didn’t sense the other Fae. He had been so focused on the fleeing female’s form that he didn’t even know they had company until a tree trunk of an arm close-lined him. Kale flew onto his back; the breath he’d been pumping through his lungs to catch the female forced from body.

“Stay down,” a deep voice growled as the sausages the man called fingers wrapped around Kale’s throat.

Kale scoffed.
Right… because the order would make him actually listen to this hulk of a man.

“Fuck you,” Kale spat.

A deep chuckle reverberated through the air around Kale. “Do you know what I am?”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you are. As far I’m concerned, you’re no more than the shit I flush down the toilet every morning.”

The sausages squeezed tighter against Kale’s neck as they lifted him from the dirty alley floor. “You shouldn’t insult a
Trow
.”

A
Trow? Was he serious?
He was the largest fucking
Trow
he’d ever seen and way too strong.

Trows
were cousins of Trolls. They turned to stone in the sunlight and usually they weren’t strong enough to enter the Human World. This guy was big too—nothing was adding up right now and the loss of oxygen was making black stars dance in Kale’s vision.

“Jake, put him down and let’s go.” The female’s voice reached Kale, his eyes shooting towards the sound. The blonde stayed hidden in the shadows, making Kale struggle. He needed to see her face—needed to prove to his grasping mind that the face of the woman did not match the picture in his head.

Jake—quite the name for a three hundred pound, six-foot-six
Trow
—quirked a smile at Kale that said this was going to hurt. Jake released Kale with a swift toss across the alley into a brick wall. By the time Kale found his bearings again, they were gone.

Kale pulled his phone from his pocket and let a string of curses slip past his lips. The screen was shattered.

****

“Kitty, that was close,” Jake said as they slowed their pace.

She nodded and they melded into the more crowded downtown area that housed the small bars and pubs the college students loved so much. It didn’t matter what time of night or what day of the week it was, there always seemed to be a steady string of humans. It was part of why she had chosen this area in the vast Human World—to try and pick up the pieces that were left of who she was. To try and create a new life where she was nothing more than another nameless face in a sea of people who looked her age. Plus, before Jake had come around, she needed the endless sexual chi the horny college students provided.

“Kitty, you ok?” Jake asked, stopping her with a meaty hand on her shoulder.

She smiled up at him. She loved Jake. She wasn’t
in
love with him, but he was a good, sweet, protective companion. At times, she felt bad. She knew in the moments when he fed her that it pushed the limitations of their friendship. She had the inkling that while she loved him but wasn’t in love him, he felt both forms for her.

“Yeah, I’m ok. I guess I knew someday I would run into one of Rowan’s Immortal Warriors, but I wasn’t ready for it tonight and certainly not for it to be him.”

“Why was he following you? You didn’t do anything, did you?”

She arched a light brow at him. “What do you think, Jake?”

“I think it was a close call. He would have returned you to Darion.”

She shivered at the thought, but he would have to.

She couldn’t go back there. She wouldn’t. No matter the cost, she would never return to Darion. She’d grovel at the feet of the Light Fae leader and her warriors before she would let Darion place another twisted finger on her.

“Sorry,” Jake said as he absentmindedly scrubbed his square jaw; his light gray eyes telling her he really did feel bad for mentioning
Darion.

She smiled and linked her arm through his. “No worries, let’s get home.”

“Are you going to tell me what you were doing tonight?” Jake asked as they moved down the littered sidewalks, through plumes of smoke and the smells of over-abused bodies and booze.

“I went and saw Monday Night Raw.”

Jake smiled. He knew most of her story, but he didn’t know all the details. He did however understand this weird obsession of hers... It was the one thing she still held on to. The thing that reminded her to remember what she once had.

And she did remember… He’d been Light
Fae and she’d been Dark Fae, hiding from the oppression of their own allegiances. His leader knew of her and she had thought Rowan had accepted that she loved one of her warriors, but she had been so wrong. Rowan and her warriors had sold her out to Darion. It was the final betrayal before everything in her world had truly gone dark.