Fire Kissed (26 page)
“Forgive me”—Ferro retracted his lips in some kind of smile, not a friendly one—“but how could this come to be?”
Custo was affable. “Possession.”
The smile aged to a grimace. “And are you more angel or more fae?”
“Angel,” Custo answered. He held out a hand to shake. A dare. “Barely.”
Everyone watched and waited for Ferro’s response. The smart thing to do was shake and make nice, and then decide later if anyone, including her, needed to die. At least with Custo present, Ferro would be distracted from Bastian. But really, how could she have known that Adam Thorne had a half-fae wife? And why on earth would they bring Custo, unless it was some gambit to demonstrate that Order and magic could coexist? No, more likely, they just wanted to throw Ferro off balance, gain an edge for the night that they’d lost when Khan had decided not to come.
No big bad Death at the party. But take this angel-fae freak as consolation. And outside Grey House, the leftover difficulties of a Shadow-induced earthquake.
Ferro held out his hand to Custo, now true charm flashing in his smile.
Why was he so happy now?
Wait ...
Kaye thought, remembering what Gail had said. Connecting her fatigue to that outstretched hand as well. Her plastered smile fell as puzzle pieces clicked into place. Ferro didn’t need the ring to draw from anyone.
Kaye thought, remembering what Gail had said. Connecting her fatigue to that outstretched hand as well. Her plastered smile fell as puzzle pieces clicked into place. Ferro didn’t need the ring to draw from anyone.
But Custo was already in motion. The circumspection in his gaze mellowed somewhat from dare to wry acceptance as he reached back.
Kaye moved to intercept. Too late.
Ferro and Custo gripped hands.
Jack watched the exchange from the back of the group. So far, everyone was on his or her best behavior. He kept one eyeball on the major players, shaking hands and making nice. One eyeball on the dark semicircle of observers, representatives of the mage Houses. He matched faces to those on whom The Order had information. Terrell, Martin, Wright. Some serious wealth and power in the room. And still others he didn’t recognize.
But his heart was fixed on Kaye, a slender flame in a matte silver suit. Her eyes were made larger by heavy kohl on her lids. Her deep red hair was down. She’d glanced at him when he came in, flushed slightly, but hadn’t looked at him since.
Custo was keeping two conversations going, pleasantries with his tongue, commentary in his mind.
Smug piece of shit, isn’t he? Boo, he wanted Khan and not me. Is he going to pout all night or suck it up like a man?
Smug piece of shit, isn’t he? Boo, he wanted Khan and not me. Is he going to pout all night or suck it up like a man?
To which Jack didn’t respond. And then the internal monologue went strange, fragmented:
Hunt. Kill. Blood.
Hunt. Kill. Blood.
“Custo,” Adam said sharply, which was when Jack knew something was very wrong.
A deep growl knocked around Custo’s chest, his shoulders hunching.
When Custo turned his head, Jack saw the wild faelight in his eyes, the slight morph of his facial features into those of a beast.
The wolf was ascendant. Hungry. Angry.
“Kaye, get back,” Jack commanded in a mild tone, so as not to startle the wolf.
For once, she did as he said, and backed up a few steps. Grey, the coward who had loosed the fae beast, followed suit, amusement in his eyes. What a fool; this wasn’t entertainment.
Adam ranged to Custo’s left.
You take him on the right,
Adam said telepathically.
You take him on the right,
Adam said telepathically.
“Everyone just stay calm,” Layla said. She was backing up as well to give Jack and Custo room. Her thoughts were full of
What just happened?
questions.
What just happened?
questions.
Jack had those same questions himself.
Jack flanked Custo, concerned at the cording of the angel’s neck, the bulking of his shoulders. And the angel had been big to start with.
“Your lead,” Jack said to Adam.
“What is going on?” Grey demanded, as if he wasn’t to blame. “What’s the matter with him?”
Custo’s hands were changing as well, nails lengthening to sharp, black claws, the better to rip flesh.
Rip out their throats. Gorge on their bellies.
Rip out their throats. Gorge on their bellies.
Easy,
Adam thought.
Slow approach. We restrain him and decide what to do from there.
Adam thought.
Slow approach. We restrain him and decide what to do from there.
“Can I help?” Kaye asked. If she was scared, no one would know it.
“No,” Jack said.
He’d had no idea just how close to the surface the wolf had been within Custo. He must have to battle with it every second of every day. Jack knew what an undertaking it had been to master the wolf in the first place, and how close Custo had come to failure and rabid violence. There’d been a time when almost everyone had wanted Custo put down. And seeing him like this, Jack wasn’t so sure he’d argue against it.
“What game is this?” Ferro shouted.
Jack knew he’d started it somehow. But how?
Now,
Adam said to Jack’s mind.
Adam said to Jack’s mind.
Jack moved in swiftly toward Custo, grabbing at his arm and twisting it behind him. Adam moved in, kicking at the back of Custo’s knee to knock him off balance so Jack could take him down. But Custo was too fast. He leapt into the air, striking back at Adam, and spun around to Jack, who got an elbow to his face and found himself colliding sharply with the wall behind him.
Adam was sprawled on the floor, face forward.
Too strong. So fucking strong.
Too strong. So fucking strong.
Layla stepped into the fray. “Custo!”
And got a backhand from the beast that sent her flying. She hadn’t been there the first time around. Hadn’t seen how Custo had almost strangled the life out of his love, Annabella, before the angel overcame the beast trapped within and stopped the madness. Layla had thought to reason with a wild animal. Not possible.
She fell back too, all thought knocked momentarily out of her mind.
Now Kaye was moving to intercept.
“No!” Jack shouted. The other mages retreated to a mass at the back of the hall, but he knew Shadow was stirring among them. And Ferro just watched, a satisfied leer on his face.
The wolf growled, lips pulled back to show sharp, elongated teeth. He was crouched to leap with his bulking hind legs. Ears pinned.
“Stop!” Kaye cried. In her hands she held a great bloom of faefire. Golden bright, with feathers of umber, orange, and hot, hot red, the fire both fed and illuminated the darkness.
“Down,” she said to Custo, one fistful of light brandished his way. In her light, each smoky tendril of magic encircling her was revealed. And so too were the faery voyeurs lurking about the foyer, watching with keen, glowy-eyed interest the dramas of magekind.
Custo’s growl lowered, and he cowered from the light.
Jack felt the outward push of Kaye’s power. He was ready to become an angel again and face Custo himself, if need be.
But how could he when Kaye was incandescent in the blackened hallway, keeping Custo’s madness at bay. Jack was not afraid for her. Not this glorious woman with courage in every pore. The fae looking on were just as entranced.
“Leash the wolf,” she commanded Custo.
And Jack could feel the angel’s intellect battling the violence. Angel and fae circled each other within one body, but the Shadowfire made the wolf draw back just enough from the flame. Just that little bit within the angel. And it was enough.
Custo sat back on the floor, his head in his hands, the wolf mastered again.
With the danger passed, Kaye was like a candle in the darkness, her light on the faces of the gathered party. And then the Shadow dispersed, dim electricity taking over. With reality came murmurs from the other guests.
She clenched her fists, smothering her fire, turned, and took in the state of the group. She opened a hand toward an inviting drawing room. “I think we should discuss the fae first.”
Ferro quaked on his spot at Kaye’s interference. She smiled into his face, eyebrows raised to urge him back to reality. “What would you like to drink?”
But he turned away from her without answering to take in the chaotic foyer.
Every man needed a wife, but not one who made him look small in front of his guests.
The woman, Layla, and Adam Thorne, were on their knees making much of Custo Santovari and the human, Jack Bastian, on the floor. The high mages gathered in the foyer were whispering like the fae, and all Ferro could hear was the name
Kaye, Kaye, Kaye
.
Kaye, Kaye, Kaye
.
He forced himself to turn back. “You were splendid, darling. Absolutely dazzling.”
One half of her mouth pulled upward. “I like to make you proud.”
Ferro could have handled Santovari. How dare Kaye step in front of him. How dare she show off in Grey House.
“A whiskey, please,” she said to the staff.
Adam Thorne brought the angel-fae to standing; Kaye’s lover was still sprawled on the floor.
“Please excuse me, Mr. Grey,” Santovari said, again more angel than fae.
Ferro noticed he did not approach. At least there was one person here who knew whom to fear. Not Kaye. Fear Grey.
Ferro was flush with well-being and strength. His angel in the basement was missing, but she’d never given him anything remotely like the high he’d gotten off one tug of angel bliss from this monster.
“I don’t think I’m fit company this evening.” Santovari tilted his head at Kaye’s lover. “And I may have injured Jack as well. We’d best be going.” He glanced around the foyer. “You all enjoy the rest of your night.” Then to Kaye, “Thank you for your help. And congratulations again. I wish you every happiness.”
Kaye nodded, with a tight smile. At least she had sense enough not to approach Santovari or her former lover.
She needed to learn her place.
Santovari and Thorne stooped to help the human up, shoulders under arms, the angel-fae saying, “Come on, old man.”
Thorne stepped away just as Shadow blossomed inky beautiful into the foyer. Santovari had the power to cross into Twilight. The fae lurking in the darkness reached, the trees of Twilight moaning under the weight of their magic. A heady scent beckoned. Music dripped like dew from the jewel-toned leaves.
Ferro’s heart seized with longing as the angel-fae carried that, that
human
into wonderland. That the human, Kaye’s lover, got to linger in those ancient trees, and not a graymage, was an insult Ferro would not bear.
human
into wonderland. That the human, Kaye’s lover, got to linger in those ancient trees, and not a graymage, was an insult Ferro would not bear.
“You have interesting friends, Kaye,” Ferro said. Friends with gifts she had not fully disclosed.
She angled those pretty scars his way. “Let’s make them your friends as well.”
Jack rode Shadow into Twilight on a plunging, drowning surf of magic. He had a moment in the trees, the color, smell, sigh, before Custo was dragging him back out again. His head was muddled, but he could have sworn that a tree was on fire. And that the fire took flight ...
We’ve got to be fast,
Custo said, heading for Ferro Grey’s desk.
Custo said, heading for Ferro Grey’s desk.
Jack took a second longer to get his bearings. They were still inside the Grey House wards and, more specifically, inside Ferro Grey’s office, as they’d planned. But how they’d gotten there was definitely not the agreed-upon arrangement. At some point during the evening, the Segue group, with Kaye’s help, was supposed to facilitate Jack getting into Grey’s office to search for some indication of what was to come. Earthquake, then what ... ?
What did Grey do to you?
Jack asked Custo. He found the computer hibernating. A nudge of the mouse and the screen lit. Jack ignored the grasp of Shadow around him, put aside the whispers filling his mind. He didn’t know the language the fae spoke, but he knew that they were taunting him to go back and take her. Take her. Take her.
Jack asked Custo. He found the computer hibernating. A nudge of the mouse and the screen lit. Jack ignored the grasp of Shadow around him, put aside the whispers filling his mind. He didn’t know the language the fae spoke, but he knew that they were taunting him to go back and take her. Take her. Take her.
I don’t know what the bastard did,
Custo answered.
But I was weakened enough for the wolf to take control. If that happens again, seriously, someone needs to kill me. Khan will do it, if no one else will. He knows not to flinch when someone’s time is up. If the wolf hadn’t been afraid of the Shadowfire, I don’t know that I could have reclaimed control.
Custo answered.
But I was weakened enough for the wolf to take control. If that happens again, seriously, someone needs to kill me. Khan will do it, if no one else will. He knows not to flinch when someone’s time is up. If the wolf hadn’t been afraid of the Shadowfire, I don’t know that I could have reclaimed control.
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