Richard: Blood Brotherhood – Erotic Paranormal Dark Fantasy Romance (8 page)

“What would you do?” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to know. Rick would have destroyed it weeks ago when they’d known that Benton was living there. “I know that you were right before, but if we destroy it now, what’s to say that he won’t find another place, with people this time? Someplace where we don’t have cameras?”

“He’s been looking into houses. We’ve seen that. His new weight and size has made it impossible for him to be inside of one for very long.” Remy nodded. “If we take care of this place, once and for all, he’ll have nowhere to go but out in the open where we can see him. Right?”

“I know not. All I know is that he has done more damage in one short year than most wars have done in decades.” Remy sounded defeated. “I’ll have Leo and Jamey burn it. At least for a while he won’t be able to return here.”

When Rick turned back to see what else they could take out of the place, he saw the drawings. Moving deeper into the now emptied cave, he stared at them. Whoever had done them—and he was sure it was Benton—had a violent temper. And he wanted to kill them all. Taking out his phone, the only thing that he carried anymore that reminded him of the way things had been, he took several pictures and sent them along to the command center. How it worked without Internet service was beyond him, but Rick knew that they’d gotten them when Jake, their go-to guy with the computers, asked for ones that were closer up.

You take the worst pictures I’ve ever seen. I think young Ruben could do a better job
.

He answered his message with a middle finger, another added bonus in being with the Brotherhood that he was sure other phones didn’t have, and laughed when he sent him a pile of shit. He was ready to blast back a few more that he’d found when he felt…something.

Hurry to the museum.
It wasn’t much to go on, but he could hear the urgency in Ryiah’s voice. Moving out of the cave, he told Remy and the others to follow him, and those that could took to the skies. Leo stayed behind with Jamey to take care of the cave, while one of the men from the compound drove the vehicle filled with agates back.

Even from the height he was, he could see that Benton had been there. What he didn’t understand or couldn’t make out was what was crawling all over the outside of the building. When he landed, he realized that it wasn’t one thing, but many. The faeries had come to stand behind their mistress. Going to her, he watched as she directed some of the lesser faeries to stand back while the ones with weapons stood guard. Ryiah turned to him when he said her name.

“He tried to kill Hunter and a few of her men. They were scouting around for more of the stones when he came in and told her to come to him.” He held her when she seemed ready to collapse. “Hunter was hurt, but she swears that she’ll be all right. I don’t know what he was looking for. There is nothing in here but a few relics and some displays.”

He moved into the broken building with Remy and Davis. When he bent to pick up a flyer that had stuck to his foot, he knew where Benton had gotten his stash of gems and agates. He was ready to turn it over to Remy when he saw that he had one as well.

“It seems that two months ago there was an agate show. They’d been brought in from all over the world so that people could see the different arrays of them. I never thought to come here to check it out.” Rick felt sorry for Remy. The man was trying his very best to keep them safe and things kept getting in the way. “Do you suppose he came back here to see if he could find more of them?”

“More than likely. One thing we’ve learned about Benton is that he’s greedy. I mean, most would have been satisfied with what he had, a couple hundred stones to last him a long time. But he had to have more.” Remy nodded and asked after the young faerie. “Hunter. Ryiah said that she told her she was fine, but she’s sent her to be looked at. Did you know that they have hospitals like we do?”

“I would imagine that their lives aren’t that different from ours, wouldn’t you?” Rick had a lot to learn about faeries, he guessed. Most of the time, before he’d met and fell in love with Ryiah, he would…. Rick felt himself slide to the floor. “What is it? Are you hurt? Tell me where so that I can have you repaired. Tell me, darn it.”

He looked up at his friend. His sword was out and he was covered in the armor that they’d all just learned about. Rick laughed, hard and long, at the picture the man made standing there in shorts and a pair of work boots.

“
Darn it? Darn it?
When a man falls at your feet because he’s only just realized that he’s fallen in love with his mate, the best you can come up with is
darn it?
” Remy smacked him in the back of the head. “Well gosh golly gee whiz, Mr. Rembrandt. I didn’t mean to upset you any.”

“I do not think I care for you anymore.” Rick was still laughing when he was helped up by Remy. “But I know what you mean about falling in love and it taking you to your knees. Like you, I thought that I’d had my single chance at happiness. Then along comes a woman that beats everything you’ve ever had into the dirt, and you’re left weak with happiness.”

“That’s about right.” Remy nodded and looked around the nearly destroyed building. Rick did as well. “It looks as if he fell through the floor. I would have thought it strong enough to hold him.”

As they looked around, Rick saw a group of the smaller warriors near the other end of the opening and made his way there. Kneeling down so that he was closer to them, he asked what had happened.

“Hunter told us to stand back, so we did.” Rick told them that was an excellent idea when dealing with Benton. “When he ordered her to come to him so that he could murder her, I nearly wet myself.”

One of the other faeries hit the little one in the back of the head, much as Remy had done to him. He had to hide a smile when they began arguing over the story and how it had played out. When Hunter landed on his bent knee, both of the faeries dropped to the ground and curled their wings to them.

“When he asks you a question, you’re to answer. Not argue like a couple of brownies on their first outing.” She turned to him. “I am sorry, my lord. I have been working with them. But they’re new. I take full responsibility for them being stupid.”

“They’re not stupid but terrified of me, I think.” She looked back at them and then at him again, nodding. “I was trying to get them to tell me what happened. If you don’t mind, I’d like to give them practice in talking to me. I know that it’s because of what I am.”

“Yes, they’re not used to a lord that speaks directly to them. Mostly Lord Howard would tell me to talk to them, but I can see where it might be helpful to have them speak to you directly.” He nodded. When he’d meant that they might be afraid of him, Rick had meant as a vampire. It never occurred to him that they’d just be afraid of him. He started to ask her who Howard was when she continued. “Lady Ryiah’s father was a good leader. He wasn’t very abusive, nor did he interact well with what he thought of as his underlings, but he led us into battle well. The mistress, Lady Ryiah, she’s told us that we are all together in this or she won’t be able to help us. Before we were divided up into groups. A group of us having many battles, and then groups of ones that had less. But she said that we can all have ideas that would serve us well. I think her idea that…she said that we are all to one and one to all.”

He corrected her quote. “Yes, Lady Ryiah is correct. We cannot help each other if we’re at cross purposes.” He looked down at the two faeries. “Please tell me what happened here. And I’d like for you to work together in this story, not tumble all your words out at once as if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Yes, my lord.” The little blue one said his name was Pitch. The other introduced herself as Whey. Again, Rick had to smile. “We were looking for more of the stones. We knew that he’d taken what was here. Pretty rocks they are. Why he’d want them is beyond—” He looked at Whey when she cleared her throat.

“Hunter was telling us to be on the lookout for him when the wall just came tumbling down almost on us. We were told to go to the corner and stay, and we did.” Rick looked up at Remy when he came to join him just as Pitch was finishing up the rest of his part in the story. Even telling how Benton had climbed out and crawled away. “After he ordered Hunter to come to him, she told him no and then he talked about how he’d been a friend to Rembrandt. And that he’d murdered his family. Like he was proud of that or something. Hunter pointed out that he wasn’t much of a friend, and then he came at her and fell.”

No one said a word. Rick did look at Remy and saw the man staring off as if he were in pain, and Rick figured that he more than likely was. As he dismissed the young faeries, he stood and turned to Remy. He told him he was sorry.

“’Tis long since passed. I knew that he’d played a part in it…he bragged about it before. But it pains me still. Even after all this time, I see them there. Their faces not so clear, but my love for them has not lessened any.” Rick told him again how sorry he was. “They’ve given us good information?”

“Yes. Benton wanted Hunter to come to him so that he could try and convert her. He must be getting really desperate if he wants to try and convert something so small. Not that she’s not scary for her size, but I don’t think she alone could harm much.” Remy agreed. “Pitch said that when he came out of the hole, he was hurt again. A large piece of some sort of metal had entered his chest. Too bad it didn’t hit his black heart.”

“Aye, that would have saved us a bit of time had he just impaled himself on a spike.” Ryiah asked the faeries if they would look for more of the stones now that they were there, and while there were some, there wasn’t nearly the amount that they’d taken from his cave. Rick was sure that had Benton been able to keep them, the war would have started all over again.

Chapter 7

Lucia liked the house she was in. There wasn’t any magic around and all of her servants were gone, but she’d already decided that when she was finished with this house, she’d simply move to another and then another, until she had to go to another street. But she thought it wouldn’t come to that. She’d have Richard where she wanted him and Ryiah would be dead. And once that happened, she’d have her magic back as well.

The faeries had left her, the ungrateful shits. Not a few at a time, but all of them had simply disappeared as if they had an appointment on their calendar. Lucia was going to punish them all as soon as she was in power again. And the first one she was going to take care of was that bossy Hunter. Had she had her way, that bitch would have been dead long ago. For reasons that Lucia did not understand nor like, Ryiah protected that thing with her very life. But after this, she was going to be hers to do with as she pleased, or she’d know the reason why.

Lucia had been planning out her life since she’d figured out that magic could not just open doors from a distance, but could pull things to her that she wanted without much in the way of effort or expense on her part. She’d had such lovely things as a child, and those things had never gone away when she’d gotten older and her tastes had become much more expensive. So much clothing was in her wardrobe that she’d had to expand her closets so that it would all fit—shoes too. And her handbags had been the envy of every person she ever met. Now it was all gone, thanks to her sister.

Ryiah would have wasted the magic had Lucia not taken it from her. She knew this as well as she did her own name. Where Lucia had made it work for her, Ryiah would let it go, using not just her body to get things done—manual labor, in other words—but she would do it until she dropped. That wasn’t what magic was for. But it had gotten her into a few jams over the years.

Several times she’d had to go before the Gathering. And usually she’d have to pay a fine, or worse yet, she’d have to work for them for a time. Of course she never did. Manual labor wasn’t what she was meant for. Even when she’d been stripped of her rank and sword by Richard’s father, she’d not paid much in the way of comeuppance. The fine, in her opinion, had been paid when they’d made her stop going to the battlefields. But money still found a way into her pocket.

That was when she came up with the idea that Ryiah would get her out of trouble. She would do the things that Lucia was supposed to do, and when finished, talk the one she worked for into giving her a glowing but false recommendation. She supposed it was true for her sister, but Lucia had found the letters sappy and over the top. But even in this, Ryiah had made things difficult for her. Every conversation had ended the same way, with Ryiah making her punish her for something that she’d end up having to do anyway. The first time that she’d told her what to do, Ryiah had told her no. Over and over again.

“You’ll go to these events and say you’re me. Then I want you to keep it to yourself or I’ll take away something that you love.” Ryiah had looked over the list and handed it back to her. “You heard me, Ryiah. If you don’t do this, I’ll take away your freedom and lock you away again.”

“What freedom would that be, Lucia? The little that I have when I sleep? You know as well as I that if I don’t rest, any of the things you have me do for you, and there are plenty, I’d not have the strength to carry them out in your name. I need rest as much as you.” Before she could think of something to take from her, Ryiah continued. “I’m already doing those things on that list from the last time you thought to punish me. My penance, you called it.”

“And are you saying that you’re me?” She told her no. “Why not? You are to go there and tell them that you lied to them, and then give them my name. I have a meeting with the Gathering soon and I’d like to show them that I have become a good ruler.”

“You are not a good ruler. You’re a tyrant and mean. You make people suffer for your good fortune. There are times when I think you care not for even me. And I am your blood.”

“I don’t care for you, Ryiah. I don’t think I ever have. As far as I’m concerned, you’re nothing but a slave to me, and not a very good one either. I don’t care for you any more than I do dung on the bottom of my shoes. But at least with that, I can burn it in the fire. You keep hanging around as if you’re wanted.”

Ryiah didn’t shed a tear that time as she had in the past when Lucia had been particularly cruel to her. And now that she thought on it, her sister had changed after that meeting. It was then that Ryiah started to become mean back to her.

“Well, I won’t be having that either. She’ll straighten herself up and live by my rules. And if someone has explained to her that she’s the eldest, I will have that beaten out of her as well.” She’d have to figure out a way to lock her away too, in a dark cell with stone walls and no windows again. The one that she’d used before was in the heap of a house that was no longer fit for her. But she had enjoyed her time away from Ryiah, even though it had made her weak and her magic slower to respond to her commands. “But that certainly made her less sassy after she came out of that place before.”

But it hadn’t lasted. Ryiah had been getting harder and harder to control of late. Not just refusing to do the things that Lucia had wanted, but she’d also not been as whiny about how she’d treated her. Or how she had others treating her. She’d have to be careful of how she got her sister hurt from now on as well. She had a feeling that Ryiah would report her now, even if she’d not really risen a hand to do anything.

Lucia decided to go shopping and let the bad thoughts work themselves out of her head. Shopping had always made her feel so good about herself. Her mother had liked it as well, but she was gone now, another victim of the Gathering. And, of course, herself too.

After she’d filled the car with some clothing, jewels, and a few other things that she wanted, she tried to find herself a suitable chair, one that she could rule from. There was no doubt that she’d be in charge again. Planning was everything, and Lucia prided herself on being precise on her timelines and getting things done the way she wanted them.

Whatever creatures had come through the town she lived in had certainly made it easy for someone like her to have all that they wanted. She simply had to enter a place, find herself a cart, and take whatever struck her fancy. And a great many things had. She’d filled her cart twice on just handbags alone.

But it was exhausting having to lug everything around that she wanted. For that matter, there were not many people around, fewer than she’d realized, but no one gave her any trouble when she went from shop to shop just taking what she wanted. There wasn’t a lot to choose from, but she had made a day of it. It was really too bad that none of the restaurants that were all boarded up had anyone working in them. Lucia went home wondering what she was going to fix herself to eat. Or even how to go about that.

She dragged all her bags into the house and dropped them just inside the door. Next time she’d have to get someone to go with her. This thing with having to do everything on her own was too much work. There had to be someone around here that would want to work for a faerie of good standing. Well, one that appeared to have good standing anyway. She was still grinning about that when she made her way to the living room to rest.

The knock at the front door startled her. Going to it, she had a thought that it might be that creature that she’d seen in town earlier, but realized then that he’d not knock but come right on in. The monster had been talking to himself and speaking in such a slurred way that she’d barely understood more than a few words…Rembrandt being one of them, and bitch the other. For a moment she’d thought him calling her that, but he didn’t appear to have even seen her. The second knocking at the door reminded her what she’d been about.

Not opening the door, Lucia tried to use magic to see who it might be. All she managed to do was frustrate herself and give herself a slight headache. Just before opening the door, she heard laughter. She nearly fell back on her ass when she saw what was standing there. The woman looked like...well, a goddess.

“Hello, Lucia. I see that the mighty have fallen this day. But then it’s been a long while in coming, so I’m glad to see that it’s finally happening.” It was in her head that she should be afraid of the creature there, and to bow before her. But instead, she held her ground and had to fight hard with her body not to drop. The creature laughed at her again, and Lucia wanted to hurt her. “You can’t hurt me, Lucia, but I might enjoy you trying. And it’s only because you have no magic that you can win this war with me. But that won’t last either.”

“You mean that I shall have my magic back? I never realized how much I depended on it before. Well, I suppose I did, but without it, things are just too exhausting. And I do not care for having to do everything for myself either. I’ll take more if you have it on you. If not, you can bring it later. I don’t know why it’s gone in the first place, but now that you’re going to give it back, I’ll not bitch too much.” The woman didn’t even blink at her. “Well? Are you just going to stand there all day or get me my magic? I have to find my…my sister, and bring her to her knees. Then kill my future husband.”

Putting her hand over her mouth, Lucia realized how much she’d said. The woman laughed, and this time Lucia thought it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. An expression that she’d never realized how apt it was until now.

“Ryiah, as we both know, is not just your sister but your older sister. And as your elder, you should have been treating her as such. It is a shame that she isn’t like you. Not in all things, but in this.” Lucia nodded. Her sister wasn’t anything at all like her, and she was finally glad that someone was seeing it. “I don’t mean to compliment you, Lucia. You’re evil and she is not.”

“I don’t know that I’d go that far in calling me evil, but of course she’s not like me. Why is it you think my mother told me to lie all these years? She knew that Ryiah wasn’t going to be much use to us. I alone, figured that in order to have the things I wanted the way I wanted, being in charge was going to be what gave it to me.” Lucia looked around, then back at the woman. “I just realized that you know all about me, or you think you do. But I don’t have any idea who you are. Not that I really care, but should I know you?”

“Yes. All with magic know me. You should have been paying me homage, but like your mother before you, there was nothing forthcoming. You failed in keeping your queen happy.” Lucia snorted. “You don’t believe that as the queen I should be happy?”

“I think if you were the queen and knowing what you do about me, you’d have killed me by now. Since we both know that you’re not going to, I think you should give me the magic you promised me and be on your way.” She told her that she’d promised her nothing. “Yes, you did. You said that because I have no magic I can win this war, whatever that might be. Then you said that you’d make that part right. By giving me magic.”

“Nay, I did not. I said that you can win against the compulsion I have put against you about bowing, but I never said you’d get magic. What I was referring to was that you won’t last much longer.” She started to ask her what the hell that was supposed to mean when the woman spoke again. “You will be human when you pass from this world to the next. And I’m sure you’ll like it no better than you do lugging around your ill-gotten gains.”

“You mean that you’re going to kill me?” The woman shook her head. “Well that’s good to know. For a moment there I thought that you had plans to kill me. So back to this misunderstanding about you giving me magic. I don’t even know where mine went. I think that Ryiah has gotten it in her head to disobey me and has taken mine. I’d like that returned as well.”

“Ryiah was never to obey you at all. And you should know that I shan’t kill you, Lucia. Ryiah will.” Lucia was shaking her head even as the woman continued. “You have harmed her in ways that should have gotten you killed long ago. Taking her from her element, starving her of the light of the sun. These are only a few of the things that she has against you. There are others, many others that I could name. Like you having her lie for you to the Gathering. That alone can have you beheaded. But that won’t happen either. As I said, Ryiah will be the end of you.”

“She can’t kill me. I’m her blood. I know that. Believe me, I know that. I’ve been trying to find a loophole in that little bit of magic for a very long time.” The woman only smiled at her. “I know what you’re thinking. That I’ve broken the bond. No, I haven’t. She’s still alive, isn’t she? And I’ve never actually told anyone to hurt her. The man that beat her? I told him to beat everyone he saw. The guy that put her in the dungeon? He told me that he’d thought that Ryiah was going to try and kill me, so he put her there to keep me safe.”

“You gave the man who whipped her daily a bonus when you found out that Ryiah was hurt. Of course he would try harder to gain more from you. The man that you claim was keeping you safe? You told him that you thought that Ryiah would harm you in your sleep. And that should that happen, he would be hanged for allowing it to happen. You have set things up so that your lies have double meaning. But I know the truth of it.” Lucia said nothing, admitted to nothing either. “Why do you not invite me in, Lucia? I’m sure that we could talk better if you were to allow me entrance.”

“I don’t think so.” Lucia laughed. “If you are indeed the queen, and I’m not saying that you are, inviting you in could mean my death. I don’t have any idea where you got it in your head that I was stupid, but I’m not.”