“Two thousand? I thought you said it would only double?” Nathaniel caught himself pacing and wondered if she had done that to him as well, then flushed. Of course she had not.
“Well, each lash will be multiplied by nine correct? Then times the two hundred lashes—
that is to say if that’s all she receives. Could be more, I guess. Anyway, that could make it as much as eighteen hundred wounds. Poor girl will be lucky if she can move for a week or two.
Those kinds of lashes don’t heal quickly, the ones given by the queen.”
Two thousand or more lashes across her beautiful back. He tried to reach out to her again and hit a wall. How would she stand it and why was the queen making her do it?
“Lord Draco, how to I find the queen?”
“Well, sorry to tell you, but you’d have to use them wings of yours if you want to get there today. Ever been to Molavonta? Well, just think about it and you’ll just go there.”
After a quick and very helpful lesson in extending his wings and flying Nathaniel was off.
~Chapter 20~
“Thank you for seeing me, my queen. I appreciate you taking the time…”
“Cut it out, Tess. What can I do for you? And please tell me you are here to stop this stupidity.”
Tess looked at her sharply. Surely word that Nathaniel wanted out had not reached her
before she had a chance to tell her. She started pacing. It had taken her the better part of the day to work through the hurt he had given her, then longer to work through her anger. She had nearly killed three of her more experience men and had sent one of them to the infirmary from exhaustion. He had told her he had been honored to serve her in any way she had needed. She wanted to scream.
All her men had their fae given back to them. Each had their wings and more than half were now being paid for their duties. The others would be receiving their “money” as soon as she figured how to pay them.
Fae warriors had no use for money as none of them left the realm where money was used.
As member of the Black Knights everything they needed was provided for them—food, clothing, armament, even help around the house if they needed it. They had no need of cars either, of course, and those with families simply had help to get what they needed.
“He wants to be changed back. Nathaniel wants to be changed back to a vamp. He isn’t
happy with being fae and is demanding I change him back to the way he was before.” Tess did not look at the queen. She knew what she would see there, disappointment and disgust, just the way she felt.
“I see. And what did you tell him about his abilities? Is he aware of what he is, what he’s capable of as fae? Does he know what happens if I allow him to go back to the human world?”
Tess had hoped she would not ask her this, but knew deep down that she would.
“He…he’s not…Nathaniel won’t let me touch him. He pulled away when I tried to give it to him.” Had she touched him when he was looking at her, everything, all the knowledge and understanding of their kind—no, of her kind—would have been his.
“Tess, look at me.”
“I’d rather not, my lady. Give him what he wants, please. I’ll have Shamus bring him to you when the time is right. I’d like to go now, if you please?” Her heart was breaking. Actually, she thought it was already broken. Shattered in her chest, leaving an empty space where it had been before.
“Have Shamus bring him by after your punishment. Tess, I ask again for you to reconsider your choice of punishment for bringing Lord Lucas to the realm. Had he not been there things might have gone horribly different for us all and you have to realize that.”
“How do you expect my men to follow a leader who thinks she is above the laws they
enforce? If there is nothing else, I’ll be going.”
“You have my permission. Be safe, Tess.”
~~~
“Shamus, my punishment is tomorrow at noon. Could you please have Nathaniel brought to the queen sometime tomorrow evening? She will grant his request then,” she whispered to his mind.
Tess had transformed to fly as soon as she left the castle. She had been moving along the air streams for ten minutes when she felt she could speak to her friend without him knowing just how upset she was.
“Are you going to talk to him first? Or are you just going to let everything go? He deserves better than this, Tess. You should tell him what you’ve given him at the very least.”
“And what of your mate, Shamus? Is she happy with you right now? Oh wait! She doesn’t
know you are her true mate, does she? I forgot you hide that knowledge from her as well as you do from yourself. Are you being fair to her? Are you telling her what you can be giving her?
When you make yourself known to her, then you can tell me how to handle my own mate. Now have Nathaniel there after the punishment.” She closed the connection and dropped to the ground. Her heart was broken, she decided then. It would have to be to hurt his badly.
~~~
Shamus appeared in the house just at daybreak. Nathaniel had been startled and he fell backwards and tripped over an end table. He could feel the anger boiling off the man and Nathaniel felt his back arch in response to the emotion. He wondered if his wings would somehow protect him and let the thought go.
“Come with me. I need a witness and you need to have a conference with the queen. But you speak first or, if things go as planned, you won’t have the opportunity to.”
“All right.” As soon as the words left his mouth and he grabbed Shamus’ hand they were in the antechamber of the queen’s personal residence.
“Did she see you? No? Good. All right, Nathaniel, let’s get you changed. Before I do, I must ask you some questions. Have a seat. Are you enjoying your time here? I hope so. We’ll all miss you very much. Especially Lord Draco, he has taken quite a liking to you.” The queen moved over to her chair and indicated the other two with a nod of her head as she spoke. Nathaniel sat next to Shamus.
“It’s a very beautiful kingdom and if you think to change my mind with this line of
questioning then know it won’t work. I’ve used these tactics myself on a criminal. I’m going to be vampire and that’s all there is to it.”
“Why would I want to change your mind? Tess has called in a favor and I’m granting it for her. I owe her a great deal,” the queen said, looking perplexed.
“Whatever.” He knew she was trying something on him and it was not going to work. He
had been an officer of the law for too long for much to get by him.
“Why do you want to be a vampire again?” The question startled him a little because
although he had been saying it all day—he wanted to be changed—no one had asked him why.
“I liked my life the way it was before. I see no reason why I should have to change that to be here.”
“But you won’t. Be here, I mean. Once you go back to being a vampire you won’t be able to return here again. Molavonta does not allow others to come and go.”
“What about Avalone? Will we be able to live there?” Tess would be farther away from her work, but being able to fly should help with that.
“I don’t think you understand. You’ll be back to the way you were before. Which brings me to my next question.”
“Why do I get the feeling there is a trick here somewhere? You aren’t telling me something.
What is it?”
“I have no idea what you mean. Do you want to remember Tess or not? I would suggest not.
It’ll be hard on you enough, I think, as it is. But that’s up to you.”
“I would think, as my mate, it would be important that she knows who I am. It will make things less weird when we make love and I need to feed from her, don’t you think?” He started to laugh, but realized that she was serious.
Then he noticed the exchange of looks between Shamus and the queen. He knew that
without a doubt he was not going to like this.
“Tess will no longer be your mate, Nathaniel. She has to stay here. I cannot release her kind and I cannot lose her to the human race. You will go back—as you have demanded—to the way you were before. In order to do that I’ll need to make you human first, then vampire. I cannot allow a vampire, an unmated vampire, in my realm. It wouldn’t be safe.”
“You lie! Aaron MacManus comes and goes as he pleases. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt because you don’t know, but I do not lie. I can’t. As the holder of all magic, it is impossible for me to tell an untruth. Magic is unstable enough without having a liar at the helm, don’t you agree? And Aaron is mated. Mated and happy with what he is and what he is to this realm. Tess will remain here as an advisor to the Black Knights.
Your bond will be terminated. Now, I ask again, do you want to remember her or not?” There was steel in her voice, hard and unforgiving.
“There’s something else you should know, Nathaniel,” Shamus started to say, but the queen cut him off.
“No, Shamus. This is not his to know. He wants his life back and that is not information he needs to make his decision that I have put before him. Well, Nathaniel, what’s your answer?”
“What is it, Shamus? What do you feel I need to know about Tess?” He sounded desperate because he was. His heart was hurting. Not to see her again was too much. He could not think beyond this moment.
“Once you leave her she’ll become infertile. Our kind can only have children every one hundred years. But because she is the last of her kind, with a mate her ability to become impregnated is every ten years until she has three pair of children. Warrior fae are the strongest beings there are among all beings, and her race will dominate and change whomever her
offspring mates with to repopulate the realm. Once she has fulfilled that count she will continue to have children in the normal time frame. If you return to the human world Tess will never have a child.”
“Are you saying that she doesn’t revert back when I do? And why is she the last anyway? At her age I would think she would have several hundred relatives by now.”
“I cannot take her heritage away from her. When I did it the first time her family was still alive. Now they aren’t. Fae children can die before they turn twenty-five, at the age of maturity for her kind. Tess’s siblings were all murdered by unknown forces, though now I’m sure I know who may have been responsible.”
Nathaniel’s mind was reeling. He needed a quiet corner to absorb it all in, but he knew the queen wanted her answer too.
He wondered if it was all true and realized that it did not matter. He loved Tess and, even if they took all his memories away about her, he knew that his heart would still have a hole where she had been. He thought of his life without her today and realized that he could not go an entirety without her. He thought about her little house and the yard. He thought about the food he had eaten today and the apple he had pulled off the tree and eaten. The taste of it, amazing and warm. Then the sun on his face and his talk with a dragon.
He then thought about Tess. They fought so much, not about important things, but just
fights. And the sex was fantastic. He sobered then. A child. He would not see her grow large with their children. Or see them grow. He would never see Tess hold them, smile at them. He would not wake beside her, hold her in his arms as she suckled their child. Could he give that up? Yes, he realized he could. But did he want too? That was the real question.
“Where is Tess right now?”
“The south field. She is having a bit of a sword play with Lord Draco—in his human form that is. She is exhausted, though. I believe she has bested several of her men today. What sort of frustrations do you suppose she is trying to work off?”
~Chapter 21~
Tess was worn out. The stress and working her men through their paces on little sleep had her feeling like she had been hit by a car. And then the driver had backed up to have another go at it.
A ripple of magic told her Draco was near. Looking up into the skies Tess could see him swoop across the blue of it and then he disappeared for a few minutes before she heard him coming through the forest. When he cleared the forest—literally—she smiled at him. The woodland nymphs were going to be pissed. Again.
“They told me to do it, Lady Knight. Their leader…I cannot remember his name, could you help an old dragon?” he whispered through her mind.
“Lord Oak, Lord Draco. His name is Lord Oak. He did mention that he needed some help
with the forest. I thought he meant the planting.” Tess grinned as her men scrambled out of his way.
Draco made a grand entrance when he was in the form of his dragon. She so loved the fact that he cared not that he was leaving lake-sized footprints nor that he was scaring half the forest animals in his wake.
“Ah, yes. Well, he said that he wanted to trim the trees. Do you think that’s what he had in mind?” They both looked at the destruction he had caused.
Tess laughed. “I doubt it. And I have a feeling you were aware of that too. What brings you to my field, sire? Besides crushing all manner of trees and flowers?”
Draco shifted to man. A very handsome one at that. But it was his eyes that mesmerized her.
The purple of his wings with the flecks of gold—not the color but actual gold sprinkled within them. His hair, also a deep purple shade, hung to his waist, straight as a rod. He looked to be about in his mid-thirties, but she knew him to be more than two thousand years old. His beard, just under his mouth, trimmed neat, was just beginning to gray. His face, scarred from many battles, was beautiful despite that. He grinned at her now.
“Come. Come and fly with me. It has been so long since we have taken to the skies. I know a place where we can fly forever and see the realm as it’s meant to be seen.”
Tess could feel her exhaustion crushing down on her. Her hurt and anger at Nathaniel as well. She looked to the sky and thought, what could it hurt? In a few hours she’d be taken to the dungeon anyway.
“Okay. But I have to be at Molavonta in two hours. So you have to not let me forget.” Like she would be able to. Something about being beaten stuck in one’s memory very well.