Shadow's Light (7 page)

Cocky, horny, arrogant bastard.

I followed the sound of his laughter, he'd already made it several feet down the road. Simply expecting me to chase along in his wake. I contemplated going in the other direction, but that would only play into his hands. So, I turned towards the sound of his chuckles and came face to face with my first fey.

Why Avery had not sensed him, I don't know. But, I knew immediately that he was one of
them
.

Long blonde hair past his shoulders, green eyes and chiselled cheekbones. A soft, kiss-me-quick mouth and a faint scent of honeysuckle. He was taller than me - but that's not saying much - and nicely toned. Not overly muscled like a vampire, but well defined under his white close fitting T-Shirt and hip hugging tan trousers. He smiled when I looked back at his face, after taking in the length of his fine body, and simply held out his hand to me. As though he expected me to take it without any hesitation at all.

I did raise my hand. I couldn't seem to stop myself. I felt drawn to his body, his scent, the swirl of his eyes. All rational thought left my brain and only clasping that hand made any sense at all. And then my mind was assailed by images flicking across a screen. One after the other in quick succession, but slow enough for me to recognise who they were of. Michel. Michel and me. Laughing, talking, loving. A sense of utter contentment stole over me, a happiness at the thought of what I was seeing was so very real. Michel was waiting for me and this man, this fairy, would take me straight to him.

It must have been the fact that I had thought of the blonde god-like man in front of me as a fairy that broke the spell. Shattered the images. Made me realise it wasn't true. I gasped, my hand already held in his, and tried to pull away. His eyes flashed a vivid green, a chartreuse in amongst lime and I felt myself slump against his toned chest, his other arm immediately curving around me as he held me trapped against his body.

I struggled for a moment, I fought to free myself from his clutches and then I heard a sweet musical chiming, softly in my ears, and I was instantly lying in Michel's bed. His body draped around me, his hands caressing my skin, his mouth on my neck laying delicate kisses down over my jaw. I hadn't seen that bed for over two months, but his touch was like a flame to a moth, like honey to a bee, I craved it. I wanted it. I couldn't deny myself this moment. It was what I wanted most of all in the world. I would gladly give up my soul for one more moment in bed with Michel.

I began removing my jacket and started to take my singlet off too. A wetness had already formed between my legs. I moaned as Michel shifted to position himself above me. I wanted him so badly, I wanted him right now.

More musical chimes interrupted my pleasure. I wasn't used to hearing them in our house. Then in between his nips and suck, his licks and kisses - which were driving me to fever pitch, so close to the edge I thought I would explode - were further noises that were out of place in our bedroom. Someone had started shouting something and I recognised the voice. It wasn't Michel's. I stopped kissing Michel back and tried to decide whose voice it was and where they were. They sounded desperate for me to listen to them. But Michel simply couldn't hear them, or he thought they weren't important, because he drew my attention back to him with his hand slipping beneath my skirt and starting a gentle stroke above my wet core.

I arched against him and relished the sensations I had for so long considered gone. This feeling of letting go. But I couldn't let go, there was a reason why. I just couldn't remember what that reason was right now. The chiming got louder, Michel became more determined to seek my pleasure. Pressure built; wonderful, beautiful, pressure. I rode his fingers, crying out for something more. He didn't disappoint, removing my panties completely, but simply pushing my skirt up my thighs and out of his way.

Another unwanted thought interrupted my precious moment with my kindred. I hadn't been wearing a skirt. Had I? The chiming changed, lowering to a seductive tone. It wrapped around me as surely as Michel's hands wrapped around my hips and then he slid between my legs preparing to enter me. The touch of his hard tip at my entrance made me groan and all other thoughts disappear from my mind. Just my kindred, just Michel and what I wanted so desperately, so badly, so fiercely to happen next. I hunted it, I sought it, I chased that next longed-for sensation. There was nothing in this world, on this Earth, that I wanted more than Michel to be deep inside me, encased in my swollen centre, rubbing, grinding, rocking me to oblivion.

And then Avery was there, taking away my moment, my happiness, my release. Denying me what I wanted most. I sank to a cold, hard, unforgiving, concrete pavement - so far removed from the bedroom in St. Helier's Bay - and moaned in unrelieved hunger. My hand automatically going to my groin, my thighs squashed together trying to find some form of relief from the unrelenting urge to find release. I needed that release. I needed it now and it didn't matter that I was panting and now on a busy street in Rio. It didn't matter that I was no longer with Michel by my side. In my head, Michel was still there. In my head, Michel was going to give me what I needed, what I craved above all else.

I didn't manage to finish the picture I was forming, at that thought in my mind. Avery, bloodied and dishevelled and with eyes shining jade, scooped me up and I just screamed in frustration.

“Ms. Monk. We must leave, now!”

He crushed me to his chest and despite the blood I could smell on him, despite the coolness of the breeze against my arms as he flashed through the streets, I twisted in his grasp, closed my eyes and imagined I was still with Michel.

I recognised the hallway to my apartment and I almost lost my hold on the magnificent movie of being with Michel playing in my mind. I heard the door crash closed behind us and then I was placed on top of a bed.

“I need,” I panted.

“I know,” he said. “I'll make it go away.” I could barely understand him through the fog in my mind.

Then I was back with Michel again, I rubbed against his thigh, dumbfounded that he wasn't just sinking into me in one hard thrust. Taking me, like I was picturing in my mind. I shouted in my head for him to pay attention,
this is what I want
, I thought, as I showed him exactly what he could do to me.

“Fuck me,” I said as I stroked Michel. “Now.”

“Shit,” he gasped. “Ms. Monk...”

Ms. Monk? I mentally shrugged my shoulders, Michel was playing a game. I forced more colour, sound and sensation into the movie I was making in my mind, reinforcing just what I wanted Michel to be doing.

And then suddenly I wasn't in Michel's bed, but lying in the grass on the hills above my parents' farm.

“
Ma douce,
” Michel's voice whispered against my flesh. His lips brushing my fevered skin. His tongue lapping a long hot, wet line between my breasts.

Oh, this was different, so intensely vivid, so
real
.

“Michel,” I whimpered.

“Shh,” he said as he positioned himself above me and finally, thank Goddess, entered me in a slow, hard thrust.

I cried out in relief and heartache. A cocktail of emotions that should not exist side by side and made absolutely no sense at all. My orgasm came quickly, his hips rocking back and forward at a slow and steady pace. Then he shuddered above me, sinking as hard and far as he could inside and then stilled. Looking down at me with such love and devotion.

I noticed the shadows beneath his eyes then. The sweat on his brow. He looked different somehow. He was also shaking with the effort of what we had just done. But, it had been over so quickly and he had taken it so slowly, it shouldn't have left him gasping for breath.

“I cannot stay. You must find a way to detect them sooner.”
Them
? A creepy feeling started to settle between my shoulder blades, my mind lifting out of a fog. Then he kissed me, long and hard and full of everything I wanted to say to him but no longer could. “
Je t'aime, ma douce.
”

And then he was gone.

“Fuck,” I shouted, jumping up from the bed. I was fully clothed and completely bewildered. “What the hell just happened?”

“Well,” Avery drawled, “you have been under the mind-control influence of a fairy and I brought you back.”

“No you didn't. That was Michel.” I began pacing, trying to get my nerves back under control.

Avery stiffened and looked at me strangely for a moment. I ignored him and continued to pace.

“Who the hell was that fey?” I asked through gritted teeth, as memories of the street in Rio came crashing back into my mind.

“A member of the Royal Court of
Ljósálfar
.” Avery answered and then added unnecessarily, “The portal here is open.”

“No shit,” I snapped. “How come you didn't sense him?”

He looked a little uncomfortable then, but straightened his shoulders slightly and said, “I did. I had hoped the experience would be a good training session for you.”

“You what?” I asked, stopping my pacing to face him, hands on hips. “Stuff you, Avery, you thought I'd just stumble on a fairy and be able to hold my own? A test, huh? It fucking backfired, didn't it?”

“I hadn't expected there to be three,” he admitted, reluctantly. Wait, there were three? “If I had thought you would be in danger, I would have prepared you better. But it seems, they are determined to return you to their prince.”

“Their prince,” I muttered to myself. Then fixing Avery with a hard stare, asked, "Just what happened on that street? What did you
see
exactly?" I was thinking it was probably different from what had happened in my mind.

"You about to waltz off to
Álfheimr
without a backward glance."

Shit. "He made me think something else entirely."

“Yes,” Avery said languidly. “I am well aware what the fairy made you think." He paused and ran a hand through his hair, a subconscious movement to make sure it was all in its rightful place. "The fact that they are working in groups is alarming though. What did you feel before you came out onto the street?” he asked, quietly.

I thought about that for a moment and then said, “Angry.”

“Not what you were feeling towards me, Ms. Monk. What did you sense around you?”

I shook my head. “Nothing. But, I knew it was a fairy as soon as I came face to face with him.”

“So, you acknowledged what he was immediately, but were unable to fight his influence despite that knowledge?” Avery asked.

I felt a blush creep up my cheeks.

“Yeah, that about covers it,” I said, my voice cracking slightly. So much for the big, bad hunter I'm supposed to be. I walked straight up to a fairy and almost let him abduct me, spiriting me off to another realm altogether.

I sat down in an undignified lump on the couch. “How the hell am I going to fight them?”

Avery didn't say anything for a while, then finally, “It's not all lost, Ms. Monk. You did recognise what he was, after all. We'll just have to train you to be more aware of what is around you.”

“And how do you plan to do that, Avery?” I asked, feeling a little overwhelmed by the task ahead.

“We'll stake out the portal and have you sense them before they sense you. Repeatedly. Until you can sense them in your sleep.”

“And then what? Because, in case you didn't notice, that fairy didn't have much trouble getting me to believe something different from reality and...” I trailed off, feeling a sudden, shocking emptiness in my chest for what I had felt and then lost all over again. Michel.

Avery stood and came over to the couch. He didn't sit down next to me, which was probably a good thing. I was still extremely raw from what had happened. I'd even wrapped my arms around my stomach in an effort to hold myself together. He just stood in front of me for a minute and then ran a frustrated hand through his hair. Quickly reorganising it again as soon as the motion had been completed.

“How did you block my influence when I was feeding from you?” he asked, his voice a low growl. I'm betting he wasn't happy I was able to block him. Most vampires use feeding as an opportunity to service many of their needs. If I had responded to Avery then, I'm sure he would have taken advantage of me further.
I am not an animal
, aside.

I looked up at him and stared back at his hard gaze. “I used shields and my Light.”

“Your shields would have tumbled with little effort from me. They are satisfactory under normal circumstances, but when feeding they will not provide much of a hindrance. I am betting they won't be to the Fey either. But, your Light on the other hand, may.”

I'd never tried to use my Light as a shield before. It had just been instinctive at the time. I had almost felt remote from the action. From the events unfolding. Avery sucking on my vein. I hadn't allowed myself to get wrapped up in the moment. If I had done that, too many painful memories would have come flooding back in. Despite the fact that I had moments before been craving them. I had kept aloof and cool and managed to cloak myself in my Light. Could I do it again though?

“We will need to practice,” Avery said, still standing there looking down at me.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “So, when you feed, I'll just try to shield with my Light again.”

“And what happens tomorrow, when you insist on going to work in daylight and I am not there to protect you from the Fey?”

Well, yeah, that kind of sucked. But, if he asked me to stay home until the sun set I don't know that I could. I needed some semblance of normality. My job at the bar did that. Not to mention the money to pay the rent. Even though we would probably have to leave here before too much longer, I was not going to run until I really had to. They hadn't beaten me yet.

“We can attempt to increase your awareness of them at the portal tomorrow after dark,” Avery offered. “But, tonight we work on your shields.”

“Right now?” I asked, my voice hitching in alarm. Just how much of my blood did he want to drink?

Avery reached down and grabbed my hand abruptly, then hauled me to my feet and into his arms. I struggled immediately, but his hand was a vice-like grip on my wrist and his other arm went steel around my waist.

“I can manipulate your mind. Create a scenario that will mimic a fey attack. It won't be pretty, Ms. Monk. But then, if you really want to remain out of the clutches of a fairy prince, I suggest you harden the fuck up and get on with it.”

Avery. In my mind. Immediately my heart rate tripled, my throat closed over: all dry. And my breath started to come out in a pant. Avery growled against me, his head coming down to my neck and then he inhaled. A long, slow breath in.

“Your panic excites me,” he murmured against my skin. “We can play this game - and believe me, I couldn't think of anything better to do right now than chase you - or, you can let me into that pretty little head of yours and learn to protect yourself.”

“Would I...” I had to swallow to get the words out. “Would I be able to shield from you manipulating my mind again in the future?”

He started running his tongue down my neck and nuzzling his teeth into my skin. “Perhaps,” he managed to get out between nibbles on my ear.

“Avery,” I warned, pulling away from him.

“Hmm?” he whispered against me, pulling me back and starting to rub his thigh between my legs and his groin on my hip.

“Cut it out! Stop humping me. This isn't part of the deal,” I said, exasperated.

“Then shield, Ms. Monk. Stop my attack on your mind.”

“You're not attacking my mind, you're attacking my body,” I said, arching towards him involuntarily. He growled in appreciation.

“Aren't I?” he bit hard on my neck, no fangs and didn't break the skin. “Is this real or not?”

Holy hell. It felt flippin' real. I could feel his hand stroking down my back, cupping my arse and pulling me hard against his thigh. I felt my head roll back as he continued to nip at my neck, leaving tiny trails of teeth marks in his wake. His hot breath washed over the top of my breasts. His free hand came up and cupped one, stroking a thumb over the nipple there.

“Come on, Ms. Monk. You're not even trying. I could be inside you right now and you wouldn't even have put up a hand to stop me.” He growled and licked across my chest. “Do you want me inside you? Do you want me to fuck you in your bed, like that fairy had you thinking Michel was doing?” He sucked a breath in. “God, it looked good, seeing what he was doing to you, all in your mind. I want that, Ms. Monk. What do you say? What will you
do
?”

Whoa. This was all wrong. I wouldn't let Avery do this, period. What was wrong with me? I'd be biting back. Shoving at his chest. Calling him every name under the sun. Or stars as the case may be. But, I sure as hell wouldn't be sucking on his tongue and running my hands all over his bare chest. Scraping my nails over his flesh. And when did that happen? I don't remember him getting naked, but now he was. And god, it scared me and thrilled me in equal measure.

Not only couldn't I stop touching his bare arse, so totally touchable as I remembered it to be, from the alley where he fed from and screwed that young girl against the wall while her boyfriend happily looked on. But his shoulders were broad, like Michel's. I couldn't stop myself running my hands over them, down to his washboard abs. And, oh I could just imagine licking my way down those! And hey! I was and you know what? He tasted fucking awesome. Just like Michel did.

My hands ran around to his butt, just because it was there and I had to touch what I had seen in that alley. So tight, so buffed. Just like Michel's.

I froze.

This wasn't Michel, but Avery had me believing it was. He was in my mind. Not in front of my body, naked. He'd been in my mind before. But, Michel hadn't felt him. Hadn't sensed him there at all that time. Didn't know what was happening until I screamed Avery's name out as I came and Michel had been forced to scour my mind afterwards to find out what had happened. This was Avery's talent. And he was in my mind again.

I pushed hard against his chest and attempted to head butt him at the same time. He simply avoided my forehead and tightened his grip. Then he pushed me down to the floor and flipped me over onto my stomach. Crushing my body with his into the floor boards.

“Are you fighting me, Ms. Monk?” He ground his erection between my thighs, smoothly gliding over my wet folds, but not penetrating. “Or are you going to
fight
me?” he growled and started rolling his hips back and forward, increasing the friction between my thighs. Making heat wash up and over my body and my back arch to give him better access.

“You can do better than this,” he gritted between closed teeth. And when I bucked beneath him, he demanded, “God dammit! Use your bloody Light you stupid wench!”

And just like that, I had my Light wrapped around me and Avery out of my head.

“Fucking hell!” he shouted at me from across the room. He had been nowhere near me. He looked a little green around the gills too. He'd even messed up his hair, something I hadn't seen before. And he was fully dressed, not naked as he had appeared in my mind, in such clear, believable, imagery.

Not that I looked much better. I was panting and aching and had, by the looks of it, been writhing around on the couch. My knickers were soaked, my breasts heavy with need. And a fine shake had started in my fingers. A tremor that matched my rapidly beating heart. And then the nausea hit. Avery? I had got excited over Avery? What the fuck?

“Do you wish to parent a fey bastard?” he asked, a slight rasp to his voice. “You didn't even try!”

I started shaking all over, my whole body beginning to tremble. My breath starting to come in little hiccups. A tear started to track down my cheek and I tried to suck a deep breath in to compose myself.

Avery watched me from the other side of the room. A cold, assessing look to his eyes.

In a more controlled voice he said, “They will not always give you time to realise it is an attack. And it may not always be an abduction that they seek to carry out. Not all of them will be willing to hand you over unharmed to the
Ljósálfar
Prince. You will suddenly find yourself on a beach in Hawaii, alternately sucking back
piña coladas
and their cocks. And you
will
be enjoying it. You will think it the best fuck of your whole god-damn life and you will want more. You will
beg
them for it. All the while they will be taking you. Not in your mind, but here and now in reality, while your head is somewhere else entirely.” He took a deep breath in and held it. Then said through gritted teeth as he exhaled,  “So, tell me this, what the
fuck
are you going to do about it?”

I had started to come down from that painful high. The need and want had morphed into an anger and repulsion at what I thought I had done. Or not been able to do. Get him out of my head. I couldn't stop the shakes and Avery was looking at me with such anger, but also such coldness in his eyes I could hardly breathe. I just wanted it all to go away. For it to be back how it was. Safe with Michel. Not running for my life. Not hiding from fairies and the
Iunctio
and some crazy arse Russian Mafioso vamp. Not battling a Dark vampire who could manipulate my mind. I just wanted it to all end.