Mystical Seduction: full-length sensual paranormal romance (The Protectors) (22 page)

“What man?” Sapa asked Faith, his accent heavy.

She had to swallow the food she’d stuffed into her mouth
before she could answer. Horace wasn’t any help. He watched her with what
appeared to be a mixture of amusement and dread.

Once she could talk, she described Ballou and explained how
he’d taken several shots at both her and Horace. She also added that he nearly
killed her parents with a power that wasn’t of this world. The frightening
memory of how she’d nearly lost two of the most important people in her life
triggered a cold sweat.

“Ah, a powerful creature. We fear him as well,” Sapa said
with a nod.

“You know of him? What was he?” Faith asked.

“I do not exactly know,” Sapa admitted. “There are others
like him. They come here sometimes. They come because of what is in our cave. I
believe they are foot soldiers of a more powerful force. They are the ones who
brought Horace to us six years ago.”

“But why?”

“Because of what is in the cave,” Sapa answered as if it
were as simple as that.

With Sapa’s veiled answers and Horace’s lack of interest in
his mysterious missing years, Faith found herself quickly losing her patience.
With an angry huff, she slammed her bowl of stew on the ground.

“What the hell is in the cave? Gold? Treasure?”

“A window to another world,” Horace answered.

“You remember the cave now?” she asked.

He nodded slowly. “It’s fuzzy, but ever since we saw Muk, my
past has been returning.”

“The protective walls are dissolving,” Sapa said
approvingly. “You have found your mate. It is time you return. That was the
promise you had said you’d made with them.”

“With who?” Faith asked.

“But they are not joined properly,” Muk said.

“Why did you tell him that?” Horace grumbled in her ear.

“Because he might be able to help us put the leash back on
your powers.”

Sapa paced the small hut, his movements stiff and his skin
hung like thin sheets over his bones. “This makes your need to remember all the
more important. I should have never let you talk me into blocking your memories
or hiding your mark in the first place.”

“No,” Horace said with less heat this time.

“Let’s go back to talking about how to fix the bond that
links us,” Faith said. “There seems to be a problem with his powers.”

But Sapa only shook his head again. “It is not our place to
interfere in the relationship of the king.”

“I’m not a king.”

* * * *

“My sentiments exactly.” A disembodied voice shimmered in
the hut as if the sound alone could take shape and become a tangible thing.
Horace rubbed his temples, trying to remember why that voice made his stomach
turn.

He remembered one thing clearly enough. The voice meant
danger.

Horace pulled Faith tight against his chest just as the air
inside the hut shuddered.

But that thing—whatever it was—didn’t attack him or Faith.

It attacked Sapa. The old man cried out in pain as his
features stretched and pulled and snapped until he changed from a small,
wrinkled man into a tall, dark-skinned youth with glowing green eyes.

“Manelin,” Horace said with a start of surprise. He should
have remembered sooner. How could he have ever forgotten such a monster? “Although
you smiled and fawned pleasure at being second best, it never did sit well with
you, did it?” Horace said, choosing his words with care. He released Faith and
crossed his arms over his chest.

If the power-hungry prince knew how many holes Horace had in
his mind, Manelin would use it against him.

“This is Manelin?” Faith asked as she scrambled to her feet.

“That’s
Prince
Manelin to you,
human bitch
,” the
faerie lord spat.

“That’s
queen
human bitch to you,” Faith quickly shot
back, which made Manelin’s shimmering complexion turn an unpleasant shade of
reddish pink.

“You’re no queen. He hasn’t mated with you, he’s fucked your
brains out and turned you into a weapon by unleashing his power in you,
slut
.”

“Stop,” Horace said and raised his hands.

Muk and several other healthy young
Protectors
froze
where they stood.

They’d been on the verge of attacking Manelin. Horace didn’t
blame them. Their leader had just been transmuted into the faerie’s form. They
would naturally want to fight. However, an attack on Manelin in this form would
only harm Sapa’s body.

The upstart prince licked his lips. “You do have a nice
shape, slut. I can see why Horace would enjoy burying himself between your
legs.”

Golden sparks danced above Faith’s head. “I defeated your
henchman, so don’t be thinking that I’m afraid of you.”

“Not afraid?” Manelin chuckled. The sound chilled Horace’s
blood.

He pushed himself up to his feet to stand his ground against
the evil prince.

“If you’re not afraid, you are incredibly stupid, my slut,” the
prince said. With a flick of his fingers, Manelin used his powers to knock
Faith off her feet. Her legs flew up into the air, and she dangled as if an
invisible cord had been wrapped around her ankles.

Manelin mumbled an incantation that started Faith spinning.

“Put her down,” Horace demanded too late. Faith and Manelin
had already disappeared like smoke into the air.

Dammit
. Horace couldn’t let Manelin take Faith away.
He couldn’t lose her…not to Manelin. Not to anyone.

But where had Manelin taken her?

Even if Horace had been in full control of his own powers,
he didn’t have the ability to chase after Manelin, not by teleportation. None
of
the Protectors
had powers to match a faerie prince.

Helpless and frustrated that he’d let Manelin take Faith in
the first place, he pushed his way out of the hut, hoping beyond hope Manelin
hadn’t gone far.

The bastard hadn’t. Horace quickly spotted Manelin standing
at the edge of the high cliff. And Faith…Horace’s heart dropped into the pit of
his stomach.

She dangled, unconscious and upside-down a little more than
an arm’s length over the cliff’s edge and several hundred feet above the
ground.

“Don’t distract me,” Manelin warned, his smooth otherworldly
voice tickling Horace’s ear. “It takes quite a bit of concentration to keep her
in the air like this, and I don’t think you would want me to accidentally drop
her.”

“What do you want from me?” Horace demanded.

“The throne.”

“Fine. You can have it. I don’t want it. I never asked for
it in the first place.”

“It’s not that easy, Horace, and you know it. You’re the
king. Until you die, you will be the king.”

“And you’d like that day be today?” Horace guessed.

“By your own hands,” Manelin said. “I can’t kill you. It’s
against the rules.”

“But you could send Ballou to do the deed?”

Manelin shrugged. “As long as your death isn’t by magic…”

The faerie prince looked away from Faith long enough to
shoot a gesture in Horace’s direction. A bright light shot from the tips of the
Manelin’s fingers. It blazed as if a hot fire turned the late afternoon sky
blood red. Flames leapt from the eerie light and rained down on Horace’s skin.

While the flames scorched the ground and sent the alpacas
running for cover, Horace barely felt their heat.

“The royal sages were overly cautious when they let you
leave. You’re protected,” Manelin explained.

“But Faith isn’t?” Horace guessed.

“It would be a shame for her and her unborn child to drop
from so great a height. I can’t imagine anyone surviving the fall.”

“
Child
?” Horace suddenly had trouble breathing.
“That’s impossible. I’m sterile.”

“Not after the sages were through with you.” A sick smile
spread across Manelin’s lips. “I enjoyed how your screams filled the palace
while they changed your body into what they believed would befit a king’s
needs, including a kingly dose of fertility.”

Horace closed his eyes, remembering. How could he have
forgotten the horror and torment he’d suffered as a trio of bearded men tore at
his body, making him feel like an unlucky version of Frankenstein?

Manelin had enjoyed that?

He would have, the bastard.

Horace had prayed for death more than once during that time.
When he’d finally convinced them to let him return to the mortal realm to go in
search of a mate, his only goal had been escape.

He’d begged Sapa to wipe his memories clean, to cleanse him
of the nearly debilitating fears those monsters had instilled in him.

The royal sages had ruthlessly seared his body with fire,
burning their way into his spirit, transforming him into the ruler they wanted.
Some days, death had played the role of welcomed friend in his torture-induced
fantasies.

“Go with that thought,” Manelin purred.

“No, Horace! Don’t you dare do anything he says!” Faith
shouted as her eyes fluttered open.

“Faith? Are you okay?” Horace darted to the edge of the
cliff. Pebbles skittered off the edge and tumbled down the long distance to the
ground, only emphasizing how great the peril Faith faced.

Sparks danced around her head.

“Be careful!” she called.

He should be careful? Did she have no sense of
self-preservation? He wasn’t the one dangling more than five hundred feet above
the ground.

The sages had made sure to protect him from danger, but they
hadn’t given him a damned thing he could use to save the woman he loved. And
mating with her had effectively drained his powers.

Unless…

He raised his hands over his head, extended them up into the
sky, in a desperate attempt to call his powers back to him. He needed to tap
into the universe again. Without his powers, he had no hope of pulling Faith to
safety.

“There is only one way to save her,” Manelin said. The
bastard pressed a curved knife into Horace’s outstretched hand. Horace
recognized the knife, it was the same ceremonial knife Horace had brought with
him into the apartment above the café when he wasn’t sure if he was going to be
able to save Faith or not. “There is only one way to end this.”

No
. He would not, could not, end his life this way.
He had never easily accepted defeat. He had always been a fighter. On the
streets. At his club. And especially in defense of Faith.

“I would hate for her to fall.” As the words left Manelin’s
lips, Faith started to plunge toward the ground. Horace gave a shout and put
the knife to his own throat to show that he’d cooperate. For Faith’s life, he
would do anything Manelin demanded of him.

“Nooo!” she screamed. But as soon as he’d touched the blade
to his skin her freefall had come to a sudden stop.

Manelin smiled broadly. “Do it! Do it now, or I’ll drop her
again.” He pressed on Horace’s hand, making sure the blade bit deeply into the
soft skin at his neck.

The power glowing all around Faith turned so bright that it
hurt to look at her. Shielding his eyes Horace called out to her, “Are you
still okay, sweetie?”

She wiggled her toes and floated up just a little. She
didn’t look the least bit worried about her own safety. But her brows wrinkled
with concern. For him.

As backward as the idea seemed, she appeared to think she
had the situation under control. She floated up toward the edge of the cliff a
little more and made Horace wonder if, with just a little more effort, she
could float to safety.

Apparently, whether he controlled it or not, his powers
protected her. But if he didn’t act soon, with Faith glowing so brightly, that
same power would spin out of control and explode in their faces. He wished he
had taken the time to teach her how to perform a banishment spell. Even a
fledging
Protector
could manage such a simple spell, so why not a human?
Faith could use it to get rid of Manelin—at least for a while—and give them a
chance to regroup.

Horace lowered the knife from his neck and turned it over in
his hand.

“You can’t harm me,” Manelin said, his confidence beginning
to slip. “If you strike me down, you will only be killing your Incan friend and
letting your whore drop to her death.”

“She’s not a whore. She means much more to me than what her
body alone can give me,” Horace said his voice low and steady. “And she’ll be
furious if I did anything stupid, like kill myself. Are you willing to risk the
entire universe with her fury?”

Manelin refused to back down. So did Horace.

He realized then that he and Faith often found themselves at
a similar stalemate. Their pride and his fear of commitment, and fear of love,
had created a wall between them.

Of course, that’s what had caused their mating to be
incomplete. Horace had kept a wall between them, a sturdy wall that blocked
their path even now.

His powers had flowed freely into the Faith, because she’d
opened herself up to him. She’d given him her heart. But his powers couldn’t
return, they couldn’t complete the circle, because he had erected a wall
between himself and the rest of the world.

If he could destroy that wall, his powers might even grow in
the same way the free flow of power strengthened Dallas and Brendan’s
relationship.

Though he’d joined his soul with Faith’s, he still hadn’t
been brave enough to let her into his life or his heart.

“I will not lose her.” He tossed the knife over the edge of
the cliff. “I will not give you my life.”

“Then she will die,” Manelin said with a shrug, and she
started to plunge toward the ground again.

“No!” Horace shouted.

A bright beam of light spiraled up from Faith’s body as she
fell. It pierced Manelin in hundreds of laser-sharp points. He spun in helpless
circles and screamed. With a sharp yelp, the faerie that had taken over Sapa’s
body released it.