Fae Chronicles 01 - Fighting Destiny (30 page)

"Fuck destiny, I decide my own destiny Ryder. Not some fucking preordained bullshit," I snarled tired of listening.

"Fighting destiny," he shook his head and smiled, "Every time I think you can't become more of a puzzle Syn—you throw in a new piece. Go ahead and add more pieces Syn, it only makes me need to put them all together and see what the end result is."

"You’re a bastard Ryder," I hissed trying to turn away and put distance between us. He didn't allow it, he moved with Fae speed, my hair flying with the wind he created, wafting over my cheek.

"I don’t make excuses for what I am, or what I do. I play hard. I love hard and I fuck even harder Syn, I am what I am. So if you play games with me, keep in mind I will be more than happy to play them with you—and I always win," he growled close to my ear before his lips gently fanned against mine. When I looked up, he was once again standing beside Zahruk with his lips twisted in a devastating smile that was a touch of seduction and amusement.

It was the first time I'd seen him move like that—no not move. He'd just sifted time and space. I'd knew the Fae could do it and even though I'd known he should've been able to, it still shocked me to my very being. I'd never seen it done before, ever.

I brought my hand up against my lips still feeling his kiss burning against them. I shook from the need to chase him and see where that kiss would lead to. I didn’t, instead I turned away from him searching through the crowd for an empty spot to stand in, away from what my body was feeling for Ryder.

I didn’t find a place, instead I found Adrian standing back in a dark corner with his eyes watching me closely. I stepped forward and headed directly towards him. When I stepped closer, I could read overwhelming desire in his eyes.

"You shouldn’t be here Syn," he whispered.

"And you should be?" I retorted as I watched his face close off once more. He was hiding something, I could feel it. "Adrian…what are you hiding?" I asked him bluntly, tired of playing word games.

"I told you as much as I could Syn. You should leave the club,
now
."

I scanned his beautiful face. His face was covered in the same strain as Zahruk's was. I took a look around the room noting several other Fae in close proximity looked the same, as if they were struggling against something. The air had also grown thicker inside the club, a loud thud echoed as metal grates were pulled across the only exit I could see.

It looked like a fog machine was sending a thickness into the room, making it eerie and dangerous. I turned looking back at where Adrian still watched me carefully, his eyes pleading as his head bent forward. "You need to run fast and deftly when the time comes baby. Don't stop running until you're safe." And with that he disappeared from where he had been, vanishing from the spot completely.

"Adrian?" I called not caring how stupid I looked talking to thin air.

A microphone sounded as someone tapped it and welcomed the Fae.

"I see we have some fine hunters here tonight." A tall leggy brunette said as her emerald green eyes looked around the room, her smile was filled with amusement as growls sounded around the room in confirmation to her words. "The fun will start shortly, until then find the prey you brought with you and make sure it is marked."

Howls erupted from the men next to me, along with several others who joined in. The fine hair on the back of my neck stood up with their unworldly sounding noise. I turned around and started back in the direction which the elevators had been but I must have had it wrong, because in their place was a wall of solid glass.

"Going somewhere?" Ryder asked from behind me.

"Home," I whispered breathlessly as I took him in, he no longer looked human. He was taller, his features more defined as he watched me. I truly was his prey in this moment, his eyes tracking everything I did. When my hands fisted at my sides his eyes flicked to the subtle motion, his head tilting, as if he had just found the most exquisite prey.

"There is no turning back now Syn," he said thickly, his voice leveled with gravel in his tone.

"Ryder, something isn't right here," I breathed.

His wicked smile sent my pulse racing as he closed the distance and sniffed my hair, his hands resting on my exposed shoulders. "I can smell your fear Syn, your heart beating wildly as it realizes what it truly wants," his mouth pressed against my ear making heat flood my center, "You want this, you want me to catch you. To make you my mine in every sense of the word, don’t you?"

I placed my head on his chest as his hands drifted lower, his fingers tracing softly along my naked arms. I lifted my head as he took my hands and rubbed my palms with his thumbs with small circles. "And if I don’t want this Ryder. What then?" I asked out loud.

"Tell me you don’t want me Syn, make me believe it and I'll open the fucking doors and let you out now."

My gaze locked with his, as his dangerous golden fire searched mine. He'd hear the hesitation if I lied, I sensed he'd know it in this form. His smile was beautiful, his eyes rimmed in obsidian caressing his golden depths. I considered backing away from him and running but I wasn’t sure where to run.

"Ryder," I murmured watching as he moved closer, his head still tilted as he closed the distance between us.

"I promise to be gentle," his mouth pressed against mine, his tongue pushing against my lips demanding entrance as he invaded it. I melted against him, his kiss stealing my mind and taking my will as I took his mouth and allowed him to continue. When he broke the kiss, I held on to him. Not because I wanted to, but because my legs had stopped working along with my brain. I gasped as his hands held me pressed tightly against him. "That's why I brought you here Syn, because you need release and you would never give up this tightly controlled self-image you have of yourself without it being this way."

What the hell did he mean by that? I liked control, I didn’t like unknown factors and right now I was
inside
of one. I stepped backwards and watched as he followed me step for step until I was pressed up against the solid wall of glass. "I'm not that girl Ryder. I don’t want to become food for anyone, or a plaything."

He stopped and narrowed his eyes sharply, "Who said this was about that Syn? This is about making
you
lose control," his hand reached up and tilted my face until I was staring up into his inhuman eyes, "I want to see you wild, see who you are inside," his finger drifted up from my navel to my heart, "Inside here. Not what you pretend to be for everyone else."

I snorted, "I don’t pretend to be anything that I'm not Ryder, this is me."

He smiled and licked his teeth slowly, "No, this is the battered five year old who doesn’t want to be afraid. The same one who watched helplessly as her parents were murdered. She's afraid to be hurt, or getting attached to something she might care too deeply about and lose one day. This is the hurt little girl that got a little too cocky on an assignment and lost her first love. You're afraid of losing, of paying the cost again because beneath it all you're scared. You're afraid that you might like it. But once in a while you need to let go Syn. You need to live."

"I'm not that five year old, she was
helpless
. I will never be like that again," I choked, fighting back tears. I hated that he could read me like an open book, as if he had a window into my very soul. I could feel him
inside
of me, touching, opening up pages and reading me easily.

"No Syn, you’re a beautifully skilled killer. One who shows no emotion and yet you wear your bleeding heart on your sleeve. Everyone else just failed to see it. But I do.
I
see
you
."

I was about to tell him off when howls erupted around us coming from the Fae close to the stage, the female announcer was back. She was wearing some kind of cloak. The only thing visible was her ringlets of brown hair and ruby red lips.

"It's time to hunt my beautiful brethren. We honor the Horde King and give him strength tonight, in hopes of his swift return back to us," when the last word came out the room erupted into a mass of guttural screams.

I shook as the room began spinning around me with the realization of what was happening. I knew Ryder was watching as everything fell into place inside my head. I should have known, should have been smarter and shouldn’t have let him distract me. I was in a room filled with several different castes of Fae.

"The Wild Hunt," I whispered breathlessly afraid to be right, afraid that if he said yes, then I'd been brought here by him to be hunted and claimed as his prize in a fucking contest filled with skilled hunters.

His head tipped slightly as his smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth, he removed his hands from me and started undoing his cuffs before removing the jacket and deftly worked the buttons of his crisp white shirt to reveal his wide span of sinewy muscles with his brands pulsing on his skin.

I shook my head in disbelief, this wasn’t happening to me. "He's missing, why honor him?" I offered hoping it would stop this, but knowing it wouldn’t.

"Why indeed Syn," with his shirt undone, he shook easily out of it and handed it to Zahruk who had come up behind him right on cue as always. The other men from his group once again circled us, but Ryder didn’t stay. "Have her ready and make sure she knows the rules gentlemen."

I watched him walk away as his men closed in around me. I was shaking from the mere rumors of this event. I was so stupid, how could I have missed it? A club of Fae, on Samhain!
How fucking stupid was I?

Zahruk handed off the dress suit jacket and the shirt along with it. He nodded at Dristan who left and returned swiftly carrying a glass of red liquid, "Drink Synthia, it will help steady your nerves."

"Get me drunk and then make me run?" I asked through chattering teeth.

He smiled, "Trust me, it will help you."

Dristan handed me the glass, his eyes roving over me from head to toe before he walked around and lifted my hair, his fingers grazing my skin as he removed the necklace Ryder had given me for protection. "Run fast, he isn't marking you for death Syn. He's earning the right to claim you as our ancestors have done for many millennia. When he catches you—and he will, you will have to decide."

"Decide what?" I howled shivering as Zahruk and the rest of the men smiled coldly.

"If he is worthy to have what he has caught. If not he will release you for the next hunter to claim. Just remember, not all follow the honor code Ryder does, some won't care if you scream
no
."

"There's a flag right? If I make it to the flag I don’t have to choose," I seethed as anger from what was about to happen set in.

"Not quite," Zahruk said crinkling his forehead, "If you make it to the white flag, you get the hunter who won last year in your bower."

I raised an eyebrow in question, "And who won last year?"

Zahruk smiled impishly. The others were laughing and snickering around us. I closed my eyes and counted to twenty, hoping I'd wake up in my bed and this would all be a twisted nightmare. No such luck. I took the drink from Sevrin that Dristan had handed off before removing the necklace and gulped it in one drink, much to his boisterous amusement.

"Sevrin, go get her one more," Dristan said carefully.

"I need to tell you the rules Synthia," Zahruk continued, "They're going to open a portal into the enchanted forest and you will get a short head start. Don’t touch anything, no flowers— they're poisonous. If anything calls to you—stay the fuck away from it. Only death calls to you inside Faery. The hounds will scare you at first, but they are trained to find and protect until their rider gets to you. They have been given your scent already. They follow a hunter, only a few can tame the hounds. Nod if you understand what I am telling you."

I nodded while sipping the red liquid down slowly.

"Nothing is safe inside Faery,
nothing
. Ryder will find you Syn and he will protect you." He said again.

I snorted enjoying the heat of the alcohol as it rushed through my system. The room had stopped spinning, but my heart hadn't stopped pounding yet. I swallowed yet another drink before meeting Z's level gaze. "If Adrian joins the hunt, what happens if I go with him?" I asked letting curiosity get the better of the situation.

The men around us growled with disapproval, but not Zahruk, he was calm, his face showing no signs of anger or disappointment. "If you choose the pup, Ryder
will
kill him. Inside the hunt he won't care who he takes out Syn, human rules don’t apply inside Faery. Don't be stupid. Don’t make him do something he will regret later. With his mind consumed by the need to hunt, he won't be himself."

"So I go to him, no matter what," I stated, when he nodded I continued, "Why didn’t you just start with that?" Dristan smiled charmingly in reply as if he'd already told Z that. The rest seemed to not care either way.

Zahruk narrowed his eyes and shook his head before smiling, "And to think, Ryder said you would be fighting us every step of the way until we got you inside Faery."

"I know when to fight, just like I know when I'm fucked. Right now it would be futile to argue or fight. Either way I do this, ends up with me inside of Faery with Ryder hunting me down. I could kick and scream if it would make you feel better?" I smirked as he shook his head.

His lips broke into a smile, "Nah, you have balls Syn, you might just have enough to give Ryder a run for his money."

I flinched as the woman started up again, her voice flowing over the noise of the crowd easily. "Are we ready to hunt?"

Shrieks and howls once again erupted as I bent down to undo the heels that laced around my ankles. When I stood back up I handed them over to Zahruk.
Metallica's Of Wolf and Man
came on, as the wall across the room shimmered to reveal a portal into Faery.

The room around us vibrated with powerful magic, it took a very powerful Fae to call open a portal this big. It also meant there was a leyline directly beneath Ryder's club. It was wide open, drawing from this planet and Faery alike to open it.