Genesis

Genesis (Elemental Enmity
Book III)

Christie Rich

Copyright 2012 Christie Rich

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This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are either products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events,
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Copyright 2012 by Christie
Rich

All rights reserved.

DEDICATIONS

As always for my husband, Max: for
endless hours of listening to me ramble about a book that doesn’t
even interest you, and for being my greatest supporter. I love you
with all my heart.

For my children who are the light of my
life. I am so grateful to be your mother.

To my support base beta readers: Karla,
David, Krystle, Nicole, Terri, Nancy, Boyce, and Lacey. Thanks for
finding my holes, and for being the best ever.

To Amber McNemar for bringing my world
to life. Your covers are spectacular.

Ainessa, princess of the house of void,
paced the confining space of the tiny room. Anger consumed her,
lighting her veins with a fire more intense than any she had
endured.

Rayla had gotten away. Not only that,
the retched girl had been able to defy her compulsion. None had
managed such a feat—even Heath had fallen under her spell for a
time. How had a mere Elemental, even the supposed Nexus, managed to
use her will?

She released a sigh. No matter. The
girl’s power would be hers soon enough. All was in place, and, now,
the only thing remaining to do was wait.

The soft sound of the door creaking
open invaded her thoughts, but she did not turn around. She had
almost used up her patience where Nigel Lambert was concerned. The
insufferable man wouldn’t let her out of his sight for more than a
few minutes at a time. She’d searched for a place that would shield
her from his prattling; unfortunately, she hadn’t searched hard
enough. The man wouldn’t shut up, no matter how many times she told
him to.

“
Nessa?” he said, using the
pet name she abhorred. “Are you all right, my dear? You seem
pensive.”

She turned slowly, reminding herself
she wouldn’t have to deal with Lambert for much longer. Putting
that aside, she gave him what she hoped was a genuine smile. “You
are so perceptive, Nigel. Nothing I do escapes your
attention.”

He settled an arm around her shoulders
as if she were a fragile mortal that needed his reassurance. If he
only knew who he was dealing with, he would not take such liberties
with her. He was a coward to the core, but his connections were
necessary at the moment.

As always, he returned her smile. “I
have good news. Keller broke this morning. We now have the
locations of three rebel strongholds.”

Ainessa raised a delicate brow. “Have
you seen the strongholds yourself, or have you merely fallen for
another delay tactic?”

“
I—” he stumbled
momentarily, making her wonder what he was hiding. “I haven’t had
time to personally investigate, but I have dispatched teams to the
areas.”

Of course he hadn’t checked. He thought
himself above such trivialities. She gave a sweet twist to her
smile. “Where are they?”

“
Mexico, Canada, and
India.”

She frowned. All ideal locations,
considering where Grace Keller had kept herself for so
long.

She would send a team of her own. The
rebels could be more useful to her than the Order. She had to get
them on her side. Once accomplished, this world would officially be
hers.

“
Very well, Nigel. Alert me
when you have a report.” She brushed his shoulder with delicate
fingers. “What would I do without you?”

Never in my life had I anticipated a
scenario like this. At a very young age I had imagined how my life
would unfold: from what college I would attend, to how many
children I would have, to where I would live when I was old enough
to choose for myself. Although none of those things had solidified,
somehow, standing in front of five fae lords waiting for one to
step forward to bond with me hadn’t been in my realm of
possibilities.

Each wore an inscrutable expression.
Not one of them had moved an inch even though I had asked which one
wanted to go first.

That’s right—I was getting ready to
bond with five men. Sounds pretty smutty, but thankfully it wasn’t
as bad as it sounds. There has to be physical contact for the bond
to work, but not sexual. Thank heaven.

You might wonder why I would
even consider such a thing, and I wouldn’t blame you one
bit—sometimes all I could do was wonder. When I left home to go to
college, I thought I had everything under control. I thought all I
had to do to claim my dreams was work hard, and with a bit of luck,
I would find myself a world famous painter. Little did I know that
my life was about to become more complicated than I could ever
imagine. Only a few hours outside my hometown the first lord found
me. Since then I’ve been fighting to keep my freedom and to figure
out who I actually love if any of them. My mind is so jumbled with
feelings that shouldn’t be there. Normally you meet a guy, date,
grow to like or eventually love them, or you decide they aren’t
your Romeo. Not so with fae lords. They use compulsion to get what
they want. I still didn’t understand compulsion all that much, but
I knew enough to realize I would be stupid to trust my
feelings
where they were
concerned
.

Some of these men do care about me.
Zach and Luke risked everything when they went to the island to see
what the Order was up to. Unfortunately, Ainessa captured them and
used their power to lure me to the island, as well. She’s bent on
getting my power, and I’m bent on keeping her from having
it.

Before he left, Zach sent me to Ignis,
the fire realm, to wait until he and Luke came back. That’s where I
met Heath.

When I first saw him, he was an
underlord who liked to mess with my mind. He would test me every
time he was near me, seeing if I could withstand his compulsion. I
thought he was just playing around, having a bit of fun until he
fought Finn for the right to claim me. Finn was the lord of fire
until he decided his feelings for my best friend, Cassie, were more
important than power.

Even though I hadn’t known what would
happen to me, I was thankful Heath won that battle. And amazingly,
somewhere along the way, I grew to care about him. I still can’t
grasp why it happened. One minute I couldn’t stand to be around him
and the next, I was on the island trying to bond with him. I told
myself there was no other way to escape the Order and Ainessa, but
sometimes I think I might have real feelings for him. It’s
impossible for me to know, but there is one thing I can’t deny…he
was the only one that came after me when all of them knew I was in
trouble. Sure, Jett showed up with the fae army at the last minute,
but Heath was the one that got me out of danger. It wasn’t his
fault that I stepped right back into it.

The Order used me just as much as the
fae ever hoped to. They experimented on me, took my eggs, and tried
to inseminate me. When that didn’t work, they sent Roger Wayne in
to seal the deal. I’d run to escape Roger and found Heath coming to
rescue me. Turned out Roger wanted out of the Order, but he sure
was one sick puppy. He even married me to get me out of the
compound long enough for Heath to come get me.

I almost laughed out loud
thinking of the absurdity of the situation. I could no longer
pretend my life would go back to normal
.
Not that it had ever really been
that way. Growing up, I had always felt different than the kids at
school, and it wasn’t because I was the only one who had lost her
mother.

Something inside me recognized that I
didn’t belong with humans.

You see, I have power these men want. I
am what’s called an Elemental. I can manipulate all five elements,
which is pretty rare. Most Elementals only have power over one
element.

Each of the lords standing in front of
me wanted my power for his own reasons. I have glimpsed a fraction
of their motivations, but some like Heath were as cryptic as a dead
language. I shivered thinking about what I would be doing in mere
moments. Like it or not, I was about to mentally tie myself with
people I really knew nothing about. Tabitha had claimed this was
for my protection, so Ainessa couldn’t hijack my mind to claim me
herself.

This was just temporary, and I knew it.
When we finally rescue my family, I will have to pick a lord to be
my bondmate for a very long time.

Whatever happened to good old-fashioned
dating?

Tabitha craned her neck in my
direction, her pale grey eyes studying me. At certain angles, they
looked completely white. Freaky effect, but I’d gotten used to it.
She’s a kooky old bird with her strange eyes and cryptic
communication skills. She’s the spiritual leader for the fae, sort
of like a shaman or something. The worst part about her is she can
read my mind. I tried not to let my thoughts wander any farther,
even though I’d bet it’s harder than holding onto a bolt of
lightning.

I glanced at Luke to distract myself.
The glamour he’d used today misted over his real appearance. I
didn’t let on I could see underneath it to his disfigured face. The
deep gash near his right eye still puckered around the tight scab.
Dark purple bruises freckled both of his cheeks, spraying out to
parts of his forehead. One, maybe even the worst of the bunch,
circled his neck as if someone lassoed him and hung him from a tree
for days.

The jury was still out where his nose
was concerned. It sat askew on his face, as if broken ten times too
many. Weren’t fae supposed to heal fast? Whatever I did, I needed
to keep my concern for him from migrating to my face. He was too
proud a man to want my pity. The sadness lurking in his eyes made
me want to pull him into my arms to sing lullabies until he found
the peace of sleep, but I didn’t want to embarrass him in front of
his peers. Ainessa maimed more than his body on that island. As I
fought the tears that threatened to betray my thoughts, my throat
thickened uncomfortably.

He looked away after offering me a
small smile. A part of my heart squeezed in response. Did he think
I was that shallow? That I wouldn’t care about him if he was
disfigured for good? Such a thing would be laughable. Even in this
state he was more beautiful than most men could ever hope for. I
wanted to console him but had no desire to torment him further by
making him talk about what had to have been unspeakable. He would
tell me when he was ready, or never. It was up to him.

I sought a different place to rest my
gaze and found Jett’s emotionless eyes watching me. “Come on,” I
said, meeting his stare with a challenge of my own. “Are you guys
afraid to be first or something?” With uncertainty clinging to my
mind, I studied his hard expression. I thought he would be pouncing
on me by now.

Tabitha stepped forward, giving me a
tiny laugh. “That is not how this type of bonding works,
Rayla.”

Would have been nice to know
that
before
I spent
over an hour worrying about exactly
how
I was going to bond with these
men. Oh well, chalk another one up to fae keeping secrets from
me.