Dragon Fae (The World of Fae) (4 page)

Deveron gave Bryan one of his most dangerous smiles that he could offer, and the next thing Ena knew, the fae had the boys in hand, and they all vanished.

Ena quickly glanced around at the rest of the busy common area as kids moved to other locations, getting ready for lunch break or another class period, looking to see if anyone else had been spying on the boys and the fae. She saw him then. Another boy. Were there more? She didn’t see anybody else who appeared to have been taking in the show. Just that one guy, and he looked shocked to the core.

He was big like the others, tall, and muscular. Poor Alicia. She hadn’t stood a chance against the three hulking guys.

The guy was ashen as he fumbled for a cell, dropped it on the floor, grabbed it up, and rushed down the corridor toward the door that would lead out to the student parking lot. His stride was much longer than hers, but she didn’t want him to become aware of her running after him. She had to turn invisible. If he was going to the place where they held Alicia, she had to know this now and rescue her at once.

Not having a choice, she turned invisible and took off running after him. A couple of girls screamed behind her. She glanced back. They had dropped their books, their mouths hanging agape as they stared at where Ena had disappeared to. Others were looking in her direction. How many had seen her disappear?

The kid shoved the door open and hurried out. She couldn’t reach it in time. Once the door shut, she rushed right through it so she wouldn’t have to give the girls and others who might still be watching in her direction more of a show if she’d shoved the door open, making it appear it had opened automatically by itself.

For a minute in the bright sunlight, she searched for him, then seeing him headed to the back of the parking lot, she took off running again.

She didn’t know for sure if others like him were involved. But she had to latch herself onto this kid no matter what. Deveron and his dark fae companions would take the other two somewhere to interrogate and attempt to learn the truth about Cassie’s whereabouts. This one was hers. One of them would tell them where they’d taken Alicia. Hopefully, before it was too late.

She didn’t want to give Prince Grotto the satisfaction he’d receive if he knew Alicia hadn’t survived, and he was next in line to rule. She hadn’t ever met Princess Alicia, yet Ena couldn’t help feel
sick that she might be too late.

Chapter 3

Alicia woke to the sound of a much older man speaking to her from behind her, his voice rough with age, maybe from smoking. She took a deep breath. Yeah, she could smell the smoke rolling off him. She couldn’t tell day from night when the light was turned on in the concrete prison she was shackled in. The room had no windows. Her bones ached from sleeping on the lumpy, moldy sleeping bag on the unforgiving concrete floor, her wrists raw from trying to yank herself free from the pipe that the iron manacles were fastened around. Because of her fae healing abilities, her wrists would heal up fast when she slept and she wasn’t attempting to free herself, but right now they were hurting again.

She listened to the man speaking, trying to determine his age and anything else without opening her eyes, turning, and looking at him.

“You’re a pretty little thing. My boy said you were. He was all for getting rid of your kind in the past, but I’m thinking it has to do with you’re a girl, and he’s kinda reluctant this time.”

She was getting the impression this man had no qualms about terminating her. She opened her eyes and turned to study him as he peered down at her. Middle aged, thinning gray hair, narrowed gray eyes, a diagonal scar across his forehead, and a paunch bulging against his gray T-shirt. He was wearing navy blue sweat pants and white tennis shoes, and he smelled of stale cigarette smoke and beer.

His thinned lips formed into a sly smile, but the expression didn’t meet his wary eyes. “I knew you were awake.” He had brought down a blue folding camp chair and was sitting on it, making himself more comfortable while he was waiting for her to prove she was already awake. “Bryan said the fact you were a girl wasn’t what was bothering him. I still think it is.”

The man’s bushy gray brows tightened into a frown. “He said you used to be human. At least that’s what his friend Mark said. He knew you from last year. And you had none of this…” The man waved his hands about. “…fae sparkle around the edges of your body. I think he just wasn’t as good at seeing it back then. Or he hadn’t wanted to see it. Because you were a girl.”

“We can’t hide our fae aura,” she said, trying to speak sweetly to him, but she was having a devil of a time of it as angry as she was. She hadn’t intended ever to kill a human who was a fae seer. She had been one! Well, before she found out she was no longer one. She still didn’t want to, unless it was in self-defense and she had no other choice—kill or be killed.

He smiled ruefully. “Okay. So what makes you different? Did a fae bite you? Turn you into one of them?”

She raised her brows, giving him a look like he had to be out of his mind. A vampire fae?
Get real
. “If I tell you, will you let me go?”

“Sure.”

“And I should believe you, why?” She didn’t trust him as she studied the smirk on his face and the narrowed gray eyes. He appeared to be a shrewd man, and he’d kill her just the same. “But you won’t release me. So why should I tell you?”

“Because we’ll torture it out of you.”

She didn’t have any reason to believe they wouldn’t. They probably would have killed her already if they hadn’t worried about why she was different.

“Is your son truly your son?” She still had the notion that maybe one or more of the fae seers had been like her.

He frowned at her.

“What of the other boys? Do they truly have human parents?” she persisted, hoping she might have a breakthrough with him.

The smile returned to his face. “So you’re saying they’re all of the fae? Not human?”

“They could be.”

“And you were? Are?”

“I could see the fae like you can. I was a fae seer just like your son, just like the other boys. I had never been to the fae world. I didn’t know I was one of them. Then I…aged into it.”

The man scoffed. “I don’t believe a word of it. But I will tell you there’s another reason Bryan and the others wanted to keep you alive for a while longer.”

She waited for the other reason, trying to come up with it on her own while he made her wait to hear it. She couldn’t think of another reason.

He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Bryan says that a girl in his class is seeing a male fae. Dating him. If you can call it that.”

The pit of Alicia’s stomach turned to ice.

“And they think you were going to see her. So is she like you? Able to hide the fae side of her and then one day unable to any longer?”

“No, she’s strictly—”

“Mr. Iverson!” one of the boys called out, his voice rife with panic. “Mr. Iverson!”

“Down here, Brett! What’s up?”

“They’ve got them.” The dark-haired teen, maybe seventeen, maybe older, looked like he worked out, his arms muscled, his chest also that she could tell from the way his cotton shirt stretched across his abs. Maybe he stayed in shape to fight the fae? Even so, he was upset, breathing hard, face flushed, and his blue eyes wild. He hurried down the wooden steps. “They took them right before my eyes at the school. We’ve gotta move her.
Now
.”

“They took my son?” Iverson’s voice was hollow. He gave Alicia an icy look that told her she didn’t have much time to live.

Whoever the fae were who had taken his son had to get here quickly! They were probably interrogating the boys. She hoped the humans would spill their guts—word-wise—soon before these two decided to eliminate her and save their necks. She didn’t really want them hurt.

“Yes, sir. We gotta hurry and get her out of here. They’ll torture them. You know they will. And then they’ll tell those bastards where we’ve got her, and they’ll come for us.”

“So that means we need to kill her and disappear.”

“No, we gotta hide her and somehow we’ll ransom her for them,” Brett said.

“They’ll never let us live,” Iverson said. “Think about it. They kill our kind. After they learn we’ve been killing them and still have this one as our hostage, they won’t let us live.”

“Unless you’re fae,” Alicia said, not knowing if her people would allow them to live or not after they took her hostage and planned to kill her. But it was the only chance she had of saving herself, she thought. She had to put doubt in the boy’s mind. The old man knew he was a gonner. “And you haven’t received all of your abilities yet.”

Brett stared at her, then looked at the older man as if seeking his confirmation as to whether she was telling the truth or not.

“Don’t believe her for an instant,” Iverson said. “She’s just trying to save herself.”

“The old man won’t change,” Alicia said. “But you, Brett. You could be just like me. I appeared human up until a couple of months ago. I could see the fae, but that was it. You could be just like me in a matter of months, weeks, days even. Do you want to throw that all away? You have no idea what some of us are capable of. What our world is like.”

“She’s lying,” Iverson said. “She was hiding her fae aura.”

“I didn’t have any to hide,” she said to Iverson. “What will happen if you gain your fae powers, Brett? Will you still seek to destroy our kind?”

“You’re not like them. You won’t be like her. She’s twisting you around that fae logic. She’s trying to confuse you,” Iverson insisted.

Brett seemed confused, almost willing to believe in Alicia’s words.

She opened her mouth to speak again, to attempt to convince Brett to save her when a girl called out, “Knock, knock. Anybody home?”

Their faces visibly paling and lips parted, Brett and Iverson appeared surprised at the intrusion. They looked at each other with questioning glances.

“Do you know who she is?” Iverson whispered to Brett.

He shook his head. They both turned their attention to Alicia.

“Don’t look at me. It’s your house.” She had no idea who the girl could be either.

Mr. Iverson stood up from his chair, and the girl appeared at the head of the stairs. A Goth with short black hair and pale green eyes, her gaze on Alicia first, a ghost of a smile on her light pink lips. She was petite, wearing thigh-high black leather books, slim-fitting leather pants, and a black velvet bustier type top decorated with gold braid and gold buttons. She didn’t have any fae aura. Alicia thought she might try to help her, because the two guys didn’t know the girl. On the other hand, she was human so she must be a fae seer, heard about the fae they were holding down in the basement, and came to join in the game.

“Am I interrupting anything?” she asked so sweetly as she turned her attention first on the older man, and then on the boy. She began to walk down the steps, one at a time like in slow motion. Somehow the narrowed look in her eyes and the way her mouth was curved up just a hint gave her the appearance of someone who was darkly amused about the whole situation.

Who was she?

The boy backed away toward the wall. The old man was frozen in place, just staring at the girl. “You’re not of the fae. Or…you’re hiding it. I
knew
they could do that. Damn it to hell.” He cast Brett a scornful look as if telling him he told him so and the boy wouldn’t listen.

Then the girl gave Alicia a bright smile. “Well, imagine finding you here. We haven’t met yet. I’m Ena, stands for ardent in Irish. Like committed, passionate, eager, devoted, fiery. Or in the Celtic way, simply fire.”

Alicia knew the girl was trying to tell her something. What?

“Your grandfather wants you returned home, post haste.” Ena glanced at Iverson. “She’s the king’s granddaughter.
If
you didn’t know. And that means? He’s highly pissed off at you with the power to back it up.”

“And he sent you? One young girl?” Iverson asked, scoffing at her arrogance.

“Cassie missed you yesterday at lunchtime. She told me,” Ena said, ignoring the man and pointed a long black fingernail at Brett. “His fault, I know. Your grandfather wanted me to bring these two to see him.” She waved her fingernails at each of the guys.

“Two others were in on this with him, at the very least,” Alicia warned. Though she wondered because Brett had said her kind had taken them away. So who had if this girl hadn’t?

“Oh, Deveron’s taken them home with him.”

“Deveron,” Alicia whispered. She’d been so annoyed with him because he wouldn’t resolve the matter of Micala and his interest in Cassie. But Deveron had come for her. Although if the roles had been reversed and she’d learned he was in trouble, she would have been there to rescue him.

“Queen Irenis will have a wonderful time with them,” Ena said.

Mr. Iverson growled. “What’s one fae girl going to do against two of us?”

That’s when Alicia saw another set of iron manacles hanging off his belt around his back. He seized hold of them, then said to Brett, “Grab her.”

If they got the manacles on her, even on a wrist or one ankle, Ena couldn’t fae travel.

Ena tilted her head to the side and took the final step onto the concrete floor. Alicia was sweating like crazy. How could the girl be so calm? So collected? Alicia wanted to scream at her to do something. Leave. Get help!

“I don’t think so.” The Goth girl stretched her arms out to her sides, closed her eyes and looked toward the ceiling as if calling on some tremendous power.

When she looked at Alicia again, Alicia expected Ena’s eyes to be ringed with gold, but her pale green eyes had changed to shimmering emerald beacons.

The man shouted, “Now!” He was terrified, shaking, his heart pounding. He knew she was going to do something really bad.

Alicia’s heart was drumming, the blood rushing in her ears, afraid for the girl and afraid for the guys.

Brett and the man bolted for Ena. The Goth girl’s black clothes shifted into shimmering olive green scales, and her outstretched arms were suddenly draped in giant leathery wings. Her impish face grew long and bony. Her whole appearance? One pissed-off dragon.

Dragon fae. Ohmigod, she was a dragon shifter. Alicia had read about them in some of the ancient journals—that all her people had been actual dragon shifters at one time. She’d seen the sketches of them flying high against a cloudy sky, and she’d thought how much she’d wished she could have shifted like that.

Seeing Ena as one was terrifying, even though Alicia kept telling herself the girl was a dragon fae like her. That she had come to rescue her. That she hadn’t planned to…
fire
! She said her name meant fire. That was the message
.

Sucking in a breath, Alicia was certain
this was going to get really bad, really fast.

Letting out a strangled cry, Iverson stopped dead in his tracks, no longer able to clamp a manacle on the girl’s arm because it was now a wing fully stretched out. He glanced at her leg, leathery, bony, still the right size for the manacle.

Brett had come to a halt and backed away. Ena was standing directly in front of the stairs. No way for either of the guys to escape.

The old man wasn’t giving up. He dove for her leg. She let out a breath of red hot flame and incinerated him, melting the manacles into gray goo and the man into gray ash that crumbled onto the gray concrete floor. Her flames scorched the wall behind him, and Alicia was glad she hadn’t been in the path of the fire though the intense heat warmed her as if the temperature had risen to south Texas summer hot in seconds. Ena whipped around to face the teen.