Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) (2 page)

I turned twenty-one just a short while ago, and what a messed-up birthday that was, but just as I thought things couldn’t get worse, I learned how wrong I was. Things can always get worse. The question is, what do you do when that happens? You fight to make things better, you hope, you crawl up, you claw and use your gut and get out of the hole and find a way back …

That is where I am because when the warlock Aaron Dunbar told me he had my Sally (family housekeeper and dear, dear friend), I went charging in like a crazed woman. Sally was attached to a bomb, and I couldn’t find her. Dunbar had her hidden somewhere nearby. The warlock threatened to blow her up with the remote he held in his hands.

My mind reached out for Danté and blasted out his name!

And he came to my call. He’d heard me. I’d wanted to run into his arms, but Aaron stalled me with a wave of the remote in my face. All I knew was that I had to get it away from him. I simply had to …

Danté shouted for me to go to him, and I wanted to run into his safe arms, but how could I with Sally attached to a bomb that would ignite if Aaron pressed the button on the remote? I was terrified of what would happen to her.

Aaron was no more than a wicked creature who called himself a man—and he threw the remote into the pit …

It could hit the walls and trigger the bomb! I didn’t think; I reacted and dove after it. If I thought at all, I thought that I could just shift back once I had it in my hands. I caught it and immediately shifted, but instead of going forward—instead of finding myself out of the pit and standing in the toolshed—I found myself falling through a black abyss.

I don’t know why I closed my eyes, but it was what I did. When I opened them again, it was in a bleak world and one I never thought I would enter: I was in the Dark Realm, and Gaiscioch was grinning wickedly as he walked the distance towards me.

Shit, shit, and more shit!

Oh heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.

Kahlil Gibran

~ One ~

HE WASN’T ALONE. Gaiscioch had four Royal princes at his back, and they were, unlike their Dark Fae brethren, absolutely devastatingly beautiful. They had the Lianhan going on (which means they emit some kind of aphrodisiac power over humans). Fae are basically immune to the power, but a human can literally die from the sexual addiction that occurs. A human would be compelled beyond reason to have any and all sexual exercise with a Lianhan. More simply put, you could say that a human would, if possessed by a Fae with the Lianhan aura, actually screw herself to death.

At any rate, I took their measure, happily immune to their sexual aura. They moved into position and stood two on each side of Gais. They were naked to the waist, and their slacks were tight-fitting, dark brown leathers. Their muscular chests were covered in impressive tattoos, as were their biceps, leaving me to believe they were steeped in black magic.

Each of the four Dark Royals was classically sculptured and exquisitely handsome. I saw at once that although their eyes glittered a coal shade of black, they were exceptionally beautiful and somehow in spite of the coldness in the recesses managed to send waves of lust towards me.

I am not only a Seelie Fae but a Daoine princess and as I said immune to the quality of their sexual vibes, and I still found myself licking my lips …

I felt one of them regarding me with keen interest—an interest that felt more than sexual. Unsure how to react, I frowned at him and then returned my attention to Gaiscioch. I assumed they were allowing Gais to take command in order to reap the benefits of the war he was executing against both the human and Seelie Fae world.

Gaiscioch stepped towards me, a dangerous glint in his brilliant eyes and a sneer on his handsome face as he said, “Well, well, Daoine Princess … miss your mark?”

I sneered back at him and drew my sword. It is a death weapon, forged from metal found in the Fae’s destroyed world of Danu. There are only a few remaining death swords, and they are held by the Seelie Royals and the Queen’s Royal Trackers. A death sword is one of the few things that can kill a Fae—any Fae.

Gais held one as well, and at the moment it was pointed at me. I hesitated because I knew I was in serious danger. I was outnumbered and out-powered. He could shift and stab me through while the others held me in place. Didn’t like that scenario.

Rolo shouted in my head,
Shift, Z! Shift
now
!
Rolo is an ancient Seelie Hallow, and our Fae Hallows are capable of awesome and sometimes unspeakable magic. Rolo is small and disc shaped, and he hangs at my back from a chain I wear around my hip. We have bonded in just the short time we have been together, which began when I found him in a warlock’s house not so very long ago …

“Where should I shift, Rolo? Dark Realm here … not sure where to go,” I spluttered at him. I had decided a while ago, based on his voice, that my Rolo was male, and it occurred to me now that all males seemed to have similar attitudes even when they were Seelie Hallows!

He made a grumbling sound of exasperation, and I heard him clearly say, “Anywhere away from here!”

I shifted and had the pleasure of seeing the look of frustrated surprise on Gaiscioch’s face as I caught a glimpse of him through the haze before we were traveling through space.

It was way different than shifting in Scotland, or even in the Fae Realm. This was like traveling through a gray, misty tunnel full of spidery webs, and I didn’t like it. A discomfort accompanied the experience that made me feel off balance.

Something was off, and I had to adjust my mind, call on my Daoine ability to regain my equilibrium. The atmosphere felt heavy and cumbersome, as though the air in the Dark Realm were trying to hold me in place. And through it all I prayed that my Sally was safe, that Danté would rescue her, and that Aaron Dunbar was by now dead by Danté’s hands.

I pushed out against the dark, sticky tunnel with all my might, and I closed my eyes as I struggled. For a moment when I opened them again, everything around me looked ugly and gooey, so I hugged myself and closed my eyes again until I felt the welcome sensation of once more standing on terra firma. I undid one eyelid that was plastered shut and then the other.

Gray, clay-like, cracked, and barren land was all around me. I could see some trees but they were all dead; some dry, gray bushes, same condition; and a hodgepodge of withered, dried-up growth loose and blowing about like sagebrush. I stood on the cracked, gray earth and wondered what I should do next.

Sighing, I noted that the color scheme in the Dark Realm was based in shades of black and gray, no variations.

Biting my lower lip as I considered my options, I noticed something in the distance. I felt my face scrunch up as I tried to focus on it in the dim light cast by the two moons that hovered in a black, starry sky. Was it slithering? I think the damn thing was slithering, and it was doing it as it pointed itself in my direction.

That couldn’t be good. Maybe it was just a trick of the eye?

“Where in the Dark Realm are we, Rolo?”

“Not sure.”

“Oh just great—thought you knew your way around here?” Rolo had once belonged to the Dark King and had lived in the Dark Realm hundreds of years ago.

“How should I? I was never taken outside the Dark King’s retreat—so very different from all of this. It was a place he created for his human woman. I brought you to that spot—to where it was, but something has happened … It doesn’t seem to be here any longer.” Rolo sounded baffled.

What was I going to do with a baffled Seelie Hallow? No help there. I raised my arms in exasperation, and my hands brushed up against something. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it wasn’t repulsive—good thing so far. And it wasn’t gooey, but then, oh jeez, it vibrated. I jerked my hand away from it as I hurriedly jumped back and stared hard, but at that moment another thing caught the corner of my eye both grabbing and diverting my attention. That slithering thing was in fact moving in my direction, and it was closer—much closer …

“Rolo …”

“Touch the fabric once more, Daoine Princess,” Rolo said softly. “I think you have discovered something new—something that occurred after I was separated from my Dark King.”

So I did touch. I pushed in fact, and it felt like an electric current went through me and then back against the invisible wall—and that was what it was, some kind of invisible wall.

“Enter, Daoine Princess—we have been waiting,” said a voice without gender, without feeling, something like what you might imagine a computer-generated voice might sound like if it wasn’t given the ‘human’ touch.

“Rolo?”

“If I had shoulders, Princess, I would be shrugging them.”

“Oh great, just great,” I said but heard a hissing sound at my back. I turned my head and saw that the thing that had been slithering towards me was the most enormous anaconda I had ever seen, and this one was a Dark Fae, with coal empty eyes and teeth as large as a shark’s. Moreover, this one was a Dark Fae caste with Dark Fae powers …

I turned back to the invisible wall that was presently parting like a curtain and showering me in a blinding ray of light.

I took a chance and stepped through!

* * *

Being a Fae Prince and realizing that I was helpless made me want to put my fist through something. I smacked myself across my head. How could this have happened? Why hadn’t I seen it coming? Why wasn’t I there when she needed me? How did I not save her when she jumped into the pit?

Aaron Dunbar was backing away from me. I saw him, but I didn’t have time to bother with him. I had taken care of Sally already, and she was safe. Now I had one thing I had to do, but first I hurriedly sent a mental message to Breslyn. If he could he would go after the black sorcerer and deal with him while I attended to my Z.

How had this come about, you ask, and rightly so.

Earlier, I had made a complete and thorough search of the MacClennys’ toolshed, and all had seemed quiet there. At that point in time, my
enfant
had not been there, and thus there had been no scent of my Z.

It seemed odd at the time, but I was too intent on finding her and didn’t give it enough consideration.

I was, however, struck with the notion that I should have disobeyed my queen (as Bres and I have done so often) and dismantled the black portal. However, on my queen’s direct orders I had left it in place.

I didn’t take time to listen to the portal and believed it wasn’t active, so I left it and went in search of my Z. All roads led me back to the toolshed … and damn if the bloody pit wasn’t alive and active. Something in my gut earlier (humans are right to listen) told me I should have dismantled it. I have a better understanding of humans than my queen has. I knew that leaving such power within their unpredictable reach was not wise. Yet, in this instance … I followed her direct command. At any rate, I realized too late that the damn thing was secretly alive. If one listened, one—a Fae that is—could hear it breathe. Definitely should have closed that portal. No sense keeping it alive.

I was still searching at that point for my Z and decided I would close the pit as soon as I located her and had her safe.

I decided to check MacDaun. It wasn’t likely she had returned there, but there was the outside chance—and
I had to try …

She would not have disobeyed the queen for nothing. If she left where the queen had asked her to stay, she must have had what she thought was a good reason. What was that reason? What could have prompted her to take off?

A few moments of concentration made her reasoning very plain—it was the warlock! She would have viewed the warlock’s continued presence as unfinished business, and being Z, she would have believed herself capable of handling him herself.

She hadn’t thought it out. She didn’t realize that Gais was pulling the warlock’s spidery strings, making Aaron Dunbar more powerful than he would otherwise have been.
Right. Best go to visit Sally on the outside chance Z had stopped by there, if only to pay her a short visit …

Would Sally know where Z had gone off to? No. It was a hopeless errand, as I had come to know my
enfant
;
she was forever running about without informing Sally, anyone actually, where she was going.

Still, and because I wasn’t sure at that moment what else I could do, I shifted to MacDaun and went to the kitchen in search of the housekeeper. What I found was Sally’s apron thrown carelessly onto the table.

That was not like the MacDauns’ loveable housekeeper. I scanned the house for her and realized she was not inside. And then it came to me in a wave—
his scent, the warlock’s scent
. Why had I not picked it up as soon as I entered? Because I hadn’t been looking for it—that was why. I hadn’t been tracking as I should have been.
Damn the man’s lost soul
. He had been here, and Sally’s scent was mingled with his. My eyes closed involuntarily.
Dunbar had Sally.

Z would do anything to save the dear woman. However, it was an odd ploy for Dunbar to use. Warlock he might be, but he was nothing compared with a Fae Daoine princess. She could shift in, touch Sally, and shift out with her. Later she could do a memory spell to ease Sally’s mind regarding the shifting.