Sinjin (10 page)

He disappeared from
sight, and a second or so later, I realized my mistake. I tried to listen for him on the air, but was too late. As soon as I heard him, he was already directly behind me with his arm wrapped around my neck.

“Release it,” he said in a tight voice, referring to my dagger, which I still clasped in my hand. When I didn’t make any move, he tightened his arm around my neck and I sensed he might suffocate me until I did his bidding. I immediately dropped the dagger and it clanked on the ground. Sinjin
loosened his hold around my neck, but made no motion to release me. Instead, he chuckled. “You surprise me, little tempest.”

“Why?” I barked out at him, irritated that I’d allowed him to compromise me like this.

“You fell for the oldest trick in the book.”

“Which is?”

“Using your sexual interest in me to my own advantage,” the vampire smugly replied.

“What?” I repeated
, mortified and shocked all at the same time. “That’s completely absurd! I have no sexual interest in you!” I cleared my throat. “I have
no
interest in you!”

He chuckled again and pulled me as close to him as possible. The coolness of his skin felt delicious against the burning of mine. “I removed my
shirt and you lost your focus. Whether you choose to admit it to yourself or not, you are most definitely drawn to me.”

“That’s completely,” I started.

“Perhaps it is more apropos to say your lady parts are most definitely drawn to me,” he interrupted.

“That’s ridiculous,” I
spat out, although the argument sounded weak even to my own ears. It was more than obvious that that was exactly what had happened. Sinjin took his shirt off and I basically surrendered the fight to him.

“That settles the score at
one for the vampire, and zero for the little hellion,” Sinjin whispered into my ear.

SEVEN

“Mah maternal grandmother came from the oldest an’ noblest line o’ the fae,” Odran continued narrating an overly long and tedious story, revolving around the particulars of his family and its fae ancestry. “Och aye, mah grandmother could trace her lineage all the way ta Aimil an’ Beileag,” he finished before facing me expectantly.

“Who?”
I asked, even though I actually couldn’t have cared less.

“
Aimil an’ Beileag,” Odran repeated, as if that were answer enough. Then, apparently realizing I wasn’t up on fae history, he added: “They were the original male an’ female o’ fae bluid. They are the founders o’ the fae.”

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked with a sigh. His incessantly long, historical account about random people and places
failed to interest me in the least.

He stopped ambling forward and turned to glare at me before crossing both of his monstrous arms over his enormous chest. The sunlight reflected the strands of his golden mane of hair and almost made it glow, like a halo. “Ye share
mah bluid, sista ta the queen,” he explained with narrowed eyes and a tightened jaw. “As yer veins poomp fae bluid, Ah thought ye should learn ’bout yer kinfolk, an’ where ye come from.”

“My father wasn’t
fae,” I argued immediately. I hated the idea that the fae, residents of the Underworld, had any claim to me whatsoever. After enduring a hell of a time just accepting that my mother was of fae heritage, and I was tainted with
their
blood, I couldn’t reconcile the truth. Instead, I chose to focus on my father who was one of my own tribe. “My father was an Elemental, and one of
my
people.”

“Aye, boot ye also
cannae neglect that side o’ ya ’twas provided by yer mother,” Odran insisted with his left eyebrow keenly arched.

“I can neglect that side of me if I choose to,” I answered stubbornly, holding my chin up higher as I crossed my arms against my chest and mirrored the expression he was currently giving me. “As far as I’m concerned, that side of me is dead; just as dead as my mother is.”

Odran
didn’t respond right away, but scrutinized me in a detached sort of way. “Ye are a difficult one, lass, Ah will say that mooch fer ya,” he said finally. With a sigh, he dropped his arms from across his chest and rubbed the back of his neck as if he were frustrated with the conversation, or maybe, with me. Probably with both.

“Well, I never asked for that history lesson to begin with,” I rebutted. Shaking my head, I stifled a yawn, and mentally made a note to try to get some more sleep at some point. It had become well beyond apparent that
Sinjin didn’t like the idea of keeping himself company at night. That meant the only time I could sleep was during the day. And on that subject, it wouldn’t have surprised me in the least to find that Odran suffered from ADD just as much as the vampire did.

But, as
to sleeping or not, the subject was basically moot because I had other plans and sleeping didn’t figure into them. No, my plans centered around first getting the hell out of Kinloch Kirk and, more specifically, out of Scotland. I was long overdue to get back to my own people; and I was tired of waiting around, wondering whether or not Luce would make contact with me. I was also tired of wondering if I’d done something wrong that might account for his protracted silence. Now I intended to take things into my own hands and be responsible for my own destiny. The time for waiting and procrastinating was over. Now was the time for action.

I’d been formulating a plan in my mind ever since
Sinjin had retired earlier this morning and handed over his post to Odran. Unfortunately for Sinjin, he had to play the part of the sacrificial lamb when it came to my escape, but c’est la vie. If someone had to die, better him than me …

Bryn,
I interrupted my train of thought.
There has to be another way! Sinjin shouldn’t have to die just because you want to escape.

There’s no way around it,
I argued with myself.

There has to be another way. And, what’s more, maybe the reason you’re
condemning Sinjin is because you don’t like the feelings he’s making you feel.

Don’t be ridiculous!
I yelled at myself.
Sinjin is my enemy and he’s in my way which means I’m going to have to get him out of my way…

“If ye
arenae interested in learnin’ o’ what ye come from,” Odran interrupted my internal argument. He studied me with a new glint in his eye, “perhaps ye would be interested in seein’
where
ye come from?”

I
narrowed my eyes on the fae king, trying to shelve the pang of anxiety that accompanied my thoughts about Sinjin and the part he had to play in my plan. There was something inside me that kept rebelling over the idea of killing Sinjin. I didn’t know why I felt that way, but it bothered me nonetheless.

A warrior should never have any qualms about killing her
enemy...

But,
I started up again.

Sinjin
isn’t anything to you!
I chided myself. It wasn’t a good enough argument though, so I decided to temporarily drop the subject, and instead, answered Odran. “What do you mean, seeing where I come from?”

Odran
smiled smugly, as if he suddenly had me right where he wanted me, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, inhaling deeply, he walked a few paces ahead of me before stopping so abruptly, I nearly walked headlong into him. After barely managing to avoid him, and suddenly feeling irritated, I stood with my hands on my hips and tried to figure out just what in the hell had gotten into him. He cleared his throat, and with his back still facing me, held out his right arm. Flapping his arm in an arc-like motion in front of him, he appeared to be waving to someone. As soon as he dropped his arm, the scenery before him, which was mostly a grassy hillside and the ocean just beyond it, suddenly appeared very blurry. I blinked a few times, but the view was distorted by what appeared to be ripples in the air, as if the hillside was somehow underwater.

“What did you just do?” I asked the
fae king warily.

He turned around and gave me a self-impressed grin before facing the horizon again. He took a few steps forward, and thrust his left arm into the ripples of the hillside. As soon as he did, his arm disappeared
. I realized he must’ve opened some sort of a portal.

“Ah mad
e an openin’ inta the fae realm,” he explained.

“Is that like a portal?” I asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“Aye. After ye, lass,” he said, but continued to stand there, half of his arm vanishing into the portal.

“I’m not going in there,” I replied staunchly, crossing my arms against my chest. “I have no idea where it leads to and it’s not as though I can trust you.”

“Whit do ye think Ah woulds do ta ye?” he demanded.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I barked back. “Maybe send me off to prehistoric times and leave me there!”

Odran glowered at me, but soon replaced the expression with another arrogant one. “Then if ye willnae venture inta the portal, would ye prefer Ah continue explainin’ the history o’ the fae people?”

“No,” I replied immediately before inhaling a deep breath as I saw the determination in his eyes. Looking back at the portal, I noticed it was impossible to see into it. “Where does it lead?” I
demanded. Meanwhile, I rationalized to myself that it wasn’t in Odran’s best interests to drop me off God only knew where since he would have my sister to answer to afterwards. And I didn’t imagine Jolie would respond well to knowing her sister was keeping company with Neanderthals.

“It leads
ta one o’ mah fae lands, lass,” Odran answered matter-of-factly.

“Hmm,” I said as I studied him, still trying to decide if I should trust him or not.

“Ye should see fer yerself the lands where ye come from.”

I had to admit that my curiosity was piqued and, what was more, I
could possibly use this little excursion at some later point. Maybe after I managed to make my way back to my own people. And, yes, it had crossed my mind that it was beyond strange that Odran was even interested in taking me to his lands. He was more than aware that I was his adversary. I just chalked it up to idiocy on his part. That, and I also had the feeling that Odran, as a king, was very proud and cocky. That was probably the real reason why he wanted to show me his realm and kingdoms. Yep, this was most likely just another case of the male ego showing off. Well, whatever it was, I preferred to view it as another tour of reconnaissance that might interest Luce.

Having made up my mind to trust
Odran, I started forward and thrust my arm into the portal, watching it disappear into the nothingness beyond. I pulled it back out again and inspected it briefly, not really sure what I was looking for, but also glad my arm wasn’t in any way harmed. “Anything I should know before I get into it?” I asked, studying Odran pointedly.

“
Nae, lass, just step through it. Ah will be jist behind ye.”

I nodded and hoped I wasn’t making a drastic mistake. With a deep breath, I allowed
Odran to lift me up by my waist as I placed both of my feet into the portal and they instantly disappeared. Odran leaned forward, pushing the rest of my body through the portal until he released me. I registered a slight coolness against my body that almost felt wet. Seconds later, I landed on my ass, but I was on the other side.

And, luckily, there were no dinosaurs or cavemen to speak of.

“Um,” I started while standing up and trying to get my bearings. I glanced around, as my eyes went wide. “Whoa!”

I found myself standing in a
jungle of flowers, as in I was surrounded by them. Craning my neck all the way back, I could just see the tops of the flowers because they were so tall. After studying them more closely, I realized they were tulips. Well, tulips of the fae variety, because last time I checked, tulips couldn’t grow seven feet tall.

“This way, lass,”
Odran suddenly announced from behind me. He quickly walked past me and turned to his right. With a forward march, he pushed the tall stems of the tulips out of his way with his hands. When he grew tired of using his hands, he started kicking at the stalks with his legs until they bent in half. Then he simply trod on top of them in order to carve a path forward. It was very slow going because they were so densely packed together.

Following behind him, I noticed
I was no longer wearing the black stretch pants and sports bra I had been earlier. No, now I was clad in a … dress? “Okay, what the hell is this about?” I demanded before I stopped walking and indicated the empire waistline and capped sleeve atrocity that was now covering me. The material was white, gauzy and so long I had to lift it in order to see my feet, which I found ensconced in what looked like white ballet flats. As I leaned forward, my hair fell over my shoulder in a cascade of honey brown ringlets that were adorned with flowers and ribbons.

“Whit is whit
aboot?” Odran asked, not bothering to look back at me over his shoulder.

“Um,
do you care to explain to me why the hell I’m wearing a dress?” I snapped, my tone of voice evincing my anger.

Odran
chuckled and stopped decapitating the giant flowers as he turned to face me. He took me in from head to toe; and judging by the expression on his face, he liked what he saw. “In the land o’ the fae, ye moost dress appropriately, lass,” Odran answered as his eyes continued to rake over me. “An’ ye are a true sight ta behold!”

“I don’t do dresses,” I muttered even though I realized that, apparently, now I did.
Odran didn’t respond as he faced forward again and resumed his task of trampling the tulips just to get to wherever we were going. “So may I ask why you had the portal put us directly into this tulip forest anyway? Couldn’t you have gotten us closer to wherever we’re going?” I inquired, not meaning to sound so testy.

“Ah
cannae determine exactly where the portal spits oos out, lass,” Odran replied somewhat defensively. As he kicked the stalks of the last row of tulips, which snapped and fell immediately, we found ourselves in an open expanse of green pasture.