I wasn’t prepared for his mouth when it landed on mine, or the door opening and Ryder’s deep angry growl as I tried to push Adam off of me. It ended up with a clumsy attempt, at best, to push him away from me. I felt nothing, and then, as he tried to deepen the kiss, he growled angrily.
“You’re branded still,” he half whispered, half snarled.
“Don’t do that again!” I shouted, pushing at his chest, angry that he tried to force the kiss on me. I got that he was trying to show me we could do this, but it felt wrong in so many ways that it was hard to list them all.
“Wasting no time, I see. I guess I should remove the mark soon so you can play,” Ryder growled from the threshold of the door where he’d stopped cold in his tracks.
I felt red heat rush over my face with his words. I wanted to slap them both—hard. “Get out, both of you!” I barked back, tired of dealing with everything that they expected of me.
“Syn,” Adam said, unfolding himself from the bed to stand at his full height.
“I told you what I wanted first, Adam.” I met his emerald and lime green eyes, and showed him I wasn’t giving in until I got what I wanted. I’d started this quest at five, and continued it every day after, searching every face in every crowd for those responsible for my parents’ deaths.
“She wants the one who killed her parents,” he said to Ryder, without turning to look at him.
Ryder hadn’t moved. The only sign of his anger was the muscle in his jaw that hammered wildly, and his hands were once again clenching at his sides, as if he wanted to strangle us both. “So she does.”
“You have yet to remove your mark from her.”
Ryder said nothing. He just stared at me as if I’d betrayed him in some major way. He’d been pushing me toward this, and I hadn’t even kissed Adam back! Anger flared inside of me as his eyes damned me. “Get out, Adam. Go talk to your father about the deal we made,” I said softly, never taking my eyes from Ryder’s violent, angry golden stare.
Adam walked out of the room with his shoulders squared, and his head high, unaffected by the tension stirring between myself and Ryder. He stopped and turned back to Ryder. “Remove the mark. She can draw him out by tapping a line. We can kill him, and I’ll take her home—tonight.”
Ryder continued to say nothing. His eyes were hard and angry and continued to scorch my skin. I could feel his anger pulsing from the electrical current that sizzled through the room, thick and palpable. When Adam was gone, he still stood there, just looking at me, as if he was afraid to come closer.
I watched him with pain in my heart that I was still trying to bury. He was going to let me go. I could see it in his eyes. I’d fallen for him. I was so stupid! He wasn’t the enemy anymore, and it left me confused and unsure how to feel about him. My heart, on the other hand, I wanted Ryder to fight for me. To show me I was worth something to him. Stupid!
“You will make a good couple,” he said as he exhaled a long shuddering breath.
“No, we won’t. We will end up fighting. I won’t love him as he needs to be loved. You said I wouldn’t belong to anyone else but you. You have to stop this from happening,” I whispered, meeting his golden penetrating stare. Pleading for him to see what was written in my eyes that I couldn’t form into words.
“What would you give me if I could?” he asked as he strolled across the room, getting closer to the bed, where I still sat.
“What would you want?” I asked, afraid it would be more than I could give him.
“You,” he said, falling to his knees in front of me. “I’d want you, Synthia, to do with as I wished for the rest of my life. You would be mine, completely. I’d want you at my mercy, to taste, and touch when I wanted you.”
“Ryder,” I whispered as I brought my hands up to cradle his face between them. He looked exposed on his knees, and I wanted to kiss away my pain, and his.
“You enjoy me between your legs, Pet. You enjoy it when I dominate you, and control your pleasure. Your body trembles beneath mine and you cry my name when you find release. You are already mine. I wish I could keep you safe with me, for all time.”
“You let them sign me away. Why didn’t you stop it?” I asked as his hands parted my thighs, and his long fingers played over the sensitive flesh of my inner thighs.
“Because I can’t do it. I can’t take away the only chance we have of healing my world, for my own pleasure. The only way for me to stop them, would be for me to steal you. Do you want me to? Would you be able to love someone who could walk away and leave an entire world to wither and die?” he asked, and, for the first time since Joseph had cut me open, I saw a sliver of fear in his eyes.
“Why can’t we fix it? There has to be another way, right?”
“I’ve tried to find another way. There isn’t one that we know of, and this is the right thing to do.” he said, but he didn’t give me time to think as he pushed me back, onto the bed and climbed over my body, pinning my legs apart with his own. “Did Adam’s kiss excite you and make you as wet as mine does?” He grabbed my hands, easily pinning them above my head. “Did the boy make you moan with pleasure from a single kiss, like I can?” His mouth lowered and claimed mine. This kiss was unlike any before it. This kiss was asserting ownership; it was staking his claim on me. “I didn’t hear you moaning as you do for me—like this…”
I moaned against his mouth as his lips conquered mine. His sex pressed hard against mine, showing me he was ready for me. He broke the kiss and showered my face with soft kisses as he used his magic to remove our clothing. “I’d have to kill him. It would be the only way I know of right now to void the contract.”
“No, you can’t kill Adam!” I cried as he entered me in one solid move that shot him to the center of my core, creating a rush of emotion as he took control of my passion.
“I’d kill him to keep you. If my world’s survival wasn’t riding on the two of you, he’d already be dead. I’d kill a fucking king to claim you as mine. You feel so fucking good, so right. Your body welcomes me, caresses my cock. Fuck, it’s so good.”
“I don’t want this to stop,” I uttered between his earth shattering thrusts.
He was gentle, and, even though he ignored my outburst, I knew he wouldn’t kill my best friend. We made love for hours, and when we were done, we lay entwined together saying nothing. Both of us knew that, soon, we’d be parting ways. He would go to secure the rest of the relics, and I’d go to marry Adam and procure an heir to heal the land. It was tearing me in two knowing I’d be leaving him.
It was funny how the world worked. I’d fallen for my enemy, and now I had to leave him to cure his land. We’d been through hell and come out stronger together. Now the only way to continue, was to be parted, when I’d finally surrendered to my feelings for this beautiful creature.
Chapter Thirty One
We spent the next day sifting around checking out the locations where the three remaining relics were hidden throughout the world. Ryder had men set up at each place, watching for the Masons to move them. He figured, since we’d obtained one, they’d move the others at the first chance they got. When we returned to the club, I left the main area for the quiet of the room I still shared with Ryder.
“Syn,” Ryder said, coming into the room we still shared.
“Fairy,” I said, lifting my eyes to meet his.
“Are you ready for this?”
“I’m ready,” I whispered.
He was not happy that he had to keep his promise to let me go after the assassin, and it was making him grumpy and growly. His time was up to find the assassin and my time in this world was running out, according to Kier, so Ryder had reluctantly agreed that I could make the attempt tonight.
He held his hand out, and I accepted it. Before I could say another word, we were standing in the old cemetery. My eyes adjusted to the darkness as my Fae sight kicked in to allow me to see better in the dimly lit cemetery. I had to admit, it was better than the second sight I used as Witch
; it may as well have been daylight to my eyes. I moved quickly to stand away from him and his men quickly, as they had no idea what I had planned with Alden. Alden and I made the plans while he’d been hunting relics and Mages the previous week; and it was time to put it into play. There was only so much I was going to allow Ryder and his men to become involved with, as far as confronting my assassin. If I had let him, Ryder and his men would have taken over this operation and packed me in cotton wool. The problem with that, was the assassin would never show. Alden and I were very careful to let Ryder know only the absolute minimum so he could be involved. I didn’t want him jeopardizing my plans. If this went down the shitter at the last minute, he was my plan B. After all, I’d been raised as a Witch, not Fae and we believed in plan B’s.
“No tricks, Syn,” Ryder growled from where he stood a few feet away.
“Tricks are for kids, silly rabbit,” I said, skating around my intentions. Alden was here already, and he’d brought the sixteen-inch daggers that I’d trained with for most of my life at the Guild. They were custom made for my small hands and fighting style. They were on the long side for being daggers, yet shorter than what short swords would typically be. The Guild Armorer had handcrafted them of iron and some lighter weight metals to keep them as light as possible while still being durable and deadly to the Fae.
I carefully set my iPod down on Larissa’s grey headstone, and looked around; waiting, before sending enough magic out to light the torches Alden had set up. Flames shot up around us, circling the area in which the large group was standing.
The faces of those who had come to help were shadowed by the flames that leapt to life. Adam and his father had come along with a few of their men who had come to protect them if this got too messy. Alden had also brought with him a few Guild members that he still trusted.
I stepped away from them to use the knife that would cut through my flesh and help me to raise the dead. I needed blood for the spell Alden would cast. Tonight, unlike the other times I woke the dead. I needed them to awaken with Dark Arts instead of Light, so that I would be able to borrow some of their strength. As the blood touched the hallowed ground it sent flames shooting from the torches, high into the sky. I whispered a few more words in Latin, completing the ritual, and smiled as I felt the rush of power when the dead rose from their graves.
Billy, a young child who had been here for at least fifty years and loved my iPod more than he actually liked me, was the first to greet me. He didn’t have his normal cheeky grin on as if he could sense the seriousness of why I was here, and knew that this would most likely be the last visit I had with him.
Billy and I had an arrangement, as I did with the other ghosts in this cemetery. I came once a month to dance with them and allow them to feel alive for at least a little while and they blessed the earth around the graves of my friends and family. Billy normally picked the songs that we would all dance to.
“Billy, I need to know if you and the others will help me.”
He tilted his cherubic face, and narrowed his eyes with a keen sense that a child his age shouldn’t have possessed. A moment passed in silence while he spoke to the others around him. The living were not meant to talk to the dead, but tonight Alden would cast an ancient spell that should allow me to hear them. Normally, I tried to interpret what they said by reading their lips or gestures.
“Alden, cast the spell,” I whispered, and felt a small tingle of the rush that came from casting with a coven. I had missed it ever since I’d buried Larissa a little over a month ago. I hadn’t even tried to cast with a coven since her death, not that I’d had any opportunities.
The ghosts watched in open curiosity as Alden, and his fellow Witches and Warlocks, stepped up with items that were needed for the spell. They formed a circle and spoke together in Latin. The wind picked up, and my hair flew into my face as the chanting grew louder. The flames from the torches shot up high into the air as leaves blew from around the trees in a circular pattern behind the coven, shielding them from the Fae in the cemetery.
I breached the circle, and smiled as the hands broke from each other to touch me. I would be taking the taint of the spell into my soul tonight. I’d asked them to cast it, but I couldn’t ask them to take the darkness that came from casting the spell; not when it was I who needed and had asked for this. I was no longer part of the Guild, and asking them to take darkness for me just felt wrong.
“It’s done,” Alden said, stepping back, as did the coven he’d brought.
I turned to look at Billy, who was watching us intensely. I waited for him to say something, and when he finally did, it wasn’t to me, but someone I couldn’t see.
“She’s nuts. You sure you want to be stepping in now, Lady?” he spoke to someone beside him.
“Billy,” I finally whispered, after years of waiting to hear him speak, I could.
“My name is not Billy, its Quinn. So stop calling me the stupid goat’s name!” He balled up his fist and glared up at me.
I smiled and nodded. “Sorry about that,” I replied, a little embarrassed. I was waiting for the language of the dead to take over my tongue, but it didn’t come this time. “I need your help,” I started to say, but he held up his hands, and shook his head.
“We know what you have come for, but it can’t be done. Only she can help you,” he replied with an accent I couldn’t place.
“She?” I asked confused.
I didn’t have long to wait, when she stepped out of the shadow veil that only the dead were allowed to enter, and into the cemetery. I gasped and took a step back. “Oh my God,” I cried and Adam made an anguished sound behind me.
Larissa stood in front of me, as beautiful as she’d been before the Mage had cut her open. “Syn,” she whispered, and grabbed my hand, which made me shake to my very center.
“I can feel you!” I felt my heart rate increase as a million different thoughts erupted inside of my brain. “You’re alive?” Hey, it had happened once before.
“No, Syn, I’m dead. My soul is here, and you can feel me because of the spell. Alden cast more than just a simple spell to allow you to speak to us. He cast one to allow us to rise for one night as the living.”
“Larissa,” Adam said as he stepped closer with a confused look on his face. His heart was on his sleeve, and tears shined in his eyes as he took her in his arms and held her close.
Larissa smiled, and I felt a hot tear flow down my cheek. I stepped back to allow them to talk alone for a minute. I hadn’t realized that I was crying, or that Ryder had moved closer to me. I backed up into his solid wall of a chest, and turned when I felt the electrical current against my skin that he alone could create.
“Are you okay?” he asked for my ears alone.
“I think so, she looks…happy,” I whispered back and met his eyes.
I turned to watch Adam pull Larissa against him as he kissed her deeply. I felt no jealousy at knowing I would be soon marrying him, or that he was making out with a ghost. The feel of Ryder against my back felt right; I felt safe with him.
Adam pulled away from Larissa, and began to utter apologies as if the same thing had just crossed his mind, but it wasn’t me he was apologizing to. It was her. “Lari, I couldn’t stop the need. I tried…I couldn’t stop, I was in Transition…”
“Shhh, it’s okay. I understood why you did it. I feel no anger toward you or the women who took care of you during Transition. I couldn’t have fed you as they did. I don’t blame you for marrying Syn, either,” she said, shocking us both. “Don’t force yourself on her, Adam. If you do, I’ll haunt your ass for eternity,” she said, smiling amenably.
“You saw that,” he uttered with a defeated sigh.
“I couldn’t leave you. I stayed until they took you from her house. Those Fae packed my stuff with Syn’s, and I was able to follow you because my essence was connected to it. I wasn’t ready to be seen, nor were either of you ready to see me. The pain of loss was too raw for you both. You both neede
d time to heal before I allowed either of you to see me.”
“I looked for you; everywhere. That fucking Demon pulled me away though. I couldn’t stop it from happening, Larissa; I just couldn’t stop the need I felt!”
Larissa snorted and rolled her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. “Seriously? You were in Transition. I was there; I know you couldn’t stop it.”
“You watched me?” Adam asked, shocked.
“Of course I did. Besides, I showed you most of the moves anyway. And the guilt you felt kinda held me there. You kept me there. It wasn’t as if I wanted to watch you with other women, but you wouldn’t stop thinking of me while you did so. Which, call me petty, but even though they were absolutely gorgeous, but you wanted me, and it was one of the most wonderful feelings of my life…or death, whichever.”
“Syn, now you on the other hand…bad girl! And Ryder, tsk-tsk I underestimated your skills. I need a word with you, by the way,” Larissa said as she walked over to us. I waited until she tapped her toe on the ground. “Alone, Syn. Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad, or about you.”
“Do you blame me?” I blurted it out before she could disappear with Ryder. “For failing to save you?”
“No, and neither do your parents, Syn. You can’t fight destiny—taunt it, yes, but to fight it will only consume you and, in the end, destiny always wins.” She smiled sadly and cupped my cheek. “I need a word with Ryder, and then we have some payback to dish out.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“You okay, Adam?” I asked as I stopped awkwardly beside him.
“Define okay? She watched me, and she knows about us too,” he whispered as if he was afraid Larissa would overhear him from where she stood talking to Ryder.
“Ouch,” I said, unsure what else to say. He’d been planning on asking Larissa to marry him until she’d been killed right in front of me.