Blood and Redemption (Cassandra Myles Witch Series) (21 page)

“I know
; he’ll be better than fine.”

I started to cry. So much had happened. I let Killian hold me. I shook in his arms.

“What did you do to her, vampire?”

“Relax
, Dominick. I didn’t do anything. She’s upset because a friend she knows is sick.”

Dominick hugged me from behind. He started to stroke my hair and kiss my neck. It felt amazing. Killian kissed my lips. Then he whispered in my ear
, “I want you, Cassandra. I would prefer the wolf weren’t here, but I will share you if that is what you want.”

A part of me did want that. I wanted them both. I couldn’t stop thinking of that night. It felt so good to let go and just enjoy how they made me feel. Neither one wanted to own me
; they just wanted my body and friendship, and that was so much less intense than any of the other men in my life.

He pushed my shirt up and took a nipple into his mouth. I arched into him. Dominick had his hand between my legs. He was teasing me. I had to stop this. I couldn’t do this again. Once was enough to make me feel guilty.

“St…stop. We can’t do this. Please. I’m sorry. We have to… oh, God.”

“I will not force you to do anything
, Cassandra, but we want you and you want us. What is the harm?”

“
Lucius…I could not face him again if we did this.”

They reluctantly removed their hands. My body ached to feel them again, but
I was glad I made the decision I did.

“Mab is having another one of her parties tomorrow night. That may be our chance to kill her. She will be distracted
, trying to control the festivities. If we are lucky, maybe we can ambush her. If the guests remain the same, there won’t be too many of her followers there and we will have some seelie fae there. Plus, Lochlan seems healthy.”

“How do you kill a
fae queen?”

“Iron, which we don’t have,
and magic may weaken her. They can die if there are enough traumas to the body, but it has to be really bad.”

“What if I invite her and Lochlan back here after the party?”

“That would be safer, but we need it to be public, so her followers think twice about killing one of us.”

“We kill her
, and then what?”

“We hope the King of the Slaugh took a liking to our fair Cassandra and he comes to our rescue.
Although that seems like a long shot. It’s too bad you can’t rely on your magic, Cass. We could use some extra power.”

I knew it was possible to drain the magic from a
fae. I had done it to Na’min. I had also never felt so charged. My magic had turned from something I wanted so badly to get back to a curse. Either I couldn’t do anything, or it was uncontrollable when I did. It might be our only hope.

“I may be able to kill Mab, or at least harm her enough
so that someone else could kill her.”

Both men sat up on either side of me
and stared. Killian spoke first. “How?”

“I can drain magic from objects and once I drained magic from Na’min. He was very weak, but it only lasts for a little while. So if I could drain enough from Mab
, we may be able to kill her.”

“You haven’t shared this with us before because
. . . ?”

“Because there is magic everywhere here and I don’t control it very well. If I take in too much
, it can kill me.”

“Can you drain a fae?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never tried. Just what I took from Na’min made me feel like I was going to explode. I’ll need Killian by my side if I do it.”

“Of course
, but why?”

“Don’t agree yet. If I need to siphon off some magic
, I can funnel into a vampire, but it will make you vulnerable. It will make you human again. It wears off, but for a short time your heart will beat, your blood will pump, and you will function as a human. All magic has to balance out, so magic in, magic out.”

“Wow.
Quintus or Lucius?”

“Quintus
.”

“Really
? The old man felt his heart beat again? Seems too good to be true.”

“Please keep that between us. I don’t want every vampire I know coming after me so they can feel human again.”

“So I could be killed very easily.”

“As easily as I could.”

“
Touché
”

“If you can do this, the other
fae will be terrified of you. It may make them think twice about attacking us.”

“Let’s hope I can do this.”

“We are likely to die even if we can kill Mab. Her followers might not be as scared of Cassandra as we would like.”

“Oh
, I get pretty scary-looking.”

“Then we do whatever it takes and hope that when it’s over
, we are all still alive.”

“That’s always the goal.”

Dominick started to rub my back. He pulled up my top and lifted it over my head. “If we die, I want my last night to be in this bed with you.” His warm lips peppered the back of my neck with kisses.

Killian kissed me
with a passion I had never experienced before. “I want you. I won’t likely ever make it out of here, but please forgive me for bringing you to this place. I don’t want to die knowing you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you
, Killian. If you are by my side tomorrow when we kill Mab, consider us even.”

He pressed his forehead against mine. “Thank
you.”

His hands were on my breasts and Dominick was between my legs. It wasn’t as hungry and violent as the other night. It was more tender and sweet.
We didn’t just have sex, but we made love. It was our way of comforting each other. Right now, Killian and Dominick would be my comfort. We were in every position possible. They played my body like we had done this a million times before. When we were done, we lay there in each other’s arms.

I drifted off as Killian kissed my forehead and said good-bye.

Chapter Twenty

I wasn’t surprised to find myself in the meadow again. There was no snow this time and the ground was peppered with puffy white dandelions. A slight breeze whipped up the tiny fluffs, sending them into the air, the sun setting them aglow. They were so beautiful my hands automatically floated up to capture the sparks of magic.

I was so enthralled that I almost missed the
King of the Slaugh flying in the air. He was breathtaking, gliding on the wind, keeping aloft with his giant wings. As he slowly circled lower and lower, I could hear his wings, like a giant sail, echoing in the air. Kael gracefully landed in front of me. His well-muscled arms crossed in front of his powerful chest as his sharp eyes studied me. My heart was pounding. He was terrifying, so strange compared to what my human eyes were used to seeing, but he was beautiful. His wings flexed one last time and then folded behind him.

Anger and power spilled off him and hit me like a million tiny punches. Death felt very close
; it felt like I was straddling a line and he was judging which way to push me. I wanted to say something, anything that would persuade him to help us, but my ability to speak was gone; breathing was hard enough.

“You have asked my people to involve themselves in the lives of the
fae again. I don’t trust the fae. They have used us to gain power and hold onto power. We became neutral and they still pushed us to intervene in their petty squabbles. You say some have changed, but the slaugh have a long memory and some of their atrocities are unforgivable.”

He was going to say
“no.” Shit. He was going to say “no” and crush me like a tiny bug. I wanted to run away, but this was a dream and terror had me frozen in place. I sent a silent prayer to whatever gods might hear me in this realm that he made it a quick death.

“I vowed never to involve myself again in the lives of the fae. Then you come into my realm and expect me to go against my word.”

He was pacing now, his great wings swishing back and forth. Why hadn’t he said “no” and sent me on my way? Was there a tiny chance he was going to help?

“Then I thought about balance. I wondered how one so young had become so wise. You’re right
, little one; there is no balance anymore. The light fae wanted to keep the goblins and the dangerous dark fae out of the fae realm. No trial, in most cases no crime, but they wanted an ideal existence, that’s when it all started. Queen Oona started out trying to protect her subjects from harm and she started a series of events that ended up almost destroying her whole realm and everyone in it.”

Queen Oona was being punished for her mistakes. Mab was making her pay in spades.

“Every action has a consequence. Queen Oona locked all the dark fae away. The light fae became bored with their existence. They started to interfere with your world. So they were locked up, which destroyed their world. Now everyone is out of their prisons and there is no order. What will happen if I interfere? Will I make things better or worse?” I was about to speak, but he held up his hand.

“I have decided not to go against my word. I will not answer to the
fae ever again. I could become king and restore peace, but I will not. I will not go back on my oath.”

“Please
, your majesty. I know breaking an oath is a hard thing to do, but this will leak into my world and then what will happen? Further chaos? My people can be just as harsh as the fae. Do you think it’s a good idea that one day they will know of your existence?”

“I cannot help you move against Mab and
, as I said, I won’t rule, but I will come to your aid when she has been defeated. I will be your champion, Cassandra. It’s you who shall lead the fae until they can lead themselves as a united people once again. I will make sure everyone accepts this.”

“I can’t do that. I want to leave here
, not stay forever. I wouldn’t know what to do even if I did want to.”

“Then you better learn
, little one, because it’s the deal I offer.”

He touched my cheek and I thought his hand would be cold, but it was very warm. “You will learn what to do like any other leader and they will grow to hate you or love you
. Either way, it will unite them.” He knelt in front of me, took my hand, and kissed it. “I will be your champion and as soon as Mab is dead, I will be there to keep you safe and make sure they accept you as their new queen.”

He flexed his powerful wings and shot straight into the sky. I looked down at my hand and
, where his lips had touched, a crescent moon was branded into my skin. He took off. My hand burned where he kissed it.

When I woke up
, the moon was still there. It was healed and looked like a cross between a tattoo and a brand. It was edged in black and the moon itself was a small indent in my flesh. I felt it with my finger and wondered what would happen tonight. Would my champion come when I needed him?

Dominick was awake before me and he
held me and stroked my hair. It felt like home. Like when you’re gone for a long time and you’re finally back and you can relax and feel safe. I was part of his pack. I could feel it now. Meeting him had been a bright light in a dark time. He had helped me make peace with Declan’s death. I was just really grateful he was in my life right now.

“What are you thinking
, little sister?”

“I was just thinking how blessed I feel that I met you.”

“Cassandra, you have no idea. You saved my life. I was… dying here. My wolf ached every day for his pack and I…” He was crying. I wrapped my arms around him. We held each other for a long time before he was able to continue. “I wanted to die, but part of me felt I deserved this punishment because I wasn’t here to help the pack. When you came here, I saw a human who had caused everything. Even then, I knew that wasn’t fair.”

   “I understand
. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. My father had you brought here against your will and you did what you thought was right. You did what they demanded of you. I had no right to hate you for that. Declan loved you and I can see why. You’re a very special woman
, Cass. I know this sounds so incredibly corny, but you made me want to live again and you gave me hope that we might be able to kill that fae bitch. I don’t even want to think about what I would be doing if you hadn’t come.”

We lay there in silence. My mind wandered everywhere. If I killed Mab
, how in the hell was I supposed to rule the fae? I didn’t want her job; I just wanted her dead so she couldn’t have it. I could look on the bright side, I guessed. The chances of me surviving tonight were very slim at best. Mab was powerful and she was always surrounded by goblins and other dark fae. I just had to bide my time and hope an opportunity arose. We would need a lot of luck on our side.

“Were you visited by the King of the Slaugh last night?”

“Yes, I was. I’m still not sure what to think about it, though.” I looked down at my hand where the moon was etched into my hand.