She's No Faerie Princess (9 page)

She smiled in satisfaction. Let him think about that on hispatrol tonight.

Raising an eyebrow, she reached up and eased hishands off her shoulders, taking a path that skimmed thesides of her breasts so she could watch his eyes heatand his nostrils flare in reaction. A girl had to take herpleasures where she could find them.

"Thanks for everything, Spot." She grinned and traced a finger over his lower lip, still damp and swollen from their kiss. "I can't say it's been fun, but it has been interesting. You should look me up if you're ever in my neck of the

woods. I could… show you the sights."

This time, when Walker looked down at her, he didn'tlook irritated. The glow in his eyes definitely had more todo with arousal than annoyance, and if she hadn't knownbetter, Fiona might even have thought his expressionheld something almost like regret.

The corner of his mouth kicked up and his handssqueezed her waist gently before dropping to his sides. "I'll keep that in mind, Princess. Take care of yourself. Have a safe trip."

He stepped back and slid his hands into his pockets. Fiona let her gaze linger as she looked him over one lasttime. Then, she blew him a kiss, waggled her fingers at Jake, and turned toward the gate for home. She look astep forward, leaned into the magic, and felt the slam ofrejection as the power picked her up and hurled her awayfrom Faerie and back into the world she had justattempted to leave.

Something was very, very wrong.

CHAPTER 8

Walker had been busy telling himself that he'd done theright thing and that he should really stop staring at Fiona's butt when said butt sailed through the air andslammed straight into his chest, knocking him back four

steps until he bounced against a tree trunk like a walking

pinball.

This was really not good.

That cuttingly sharp insight barely had time to register inhis mind before he heard Jake shout and looked up fromthe feminine bundle in his arms. He followed hisnephew's pointing finger to the Faerie gate, which nowlooked less like a fissure in the rock around it and morelike Vesuvius had right before Pompeii had settled downto dinner for the last time. The rock seemed to bulge andcontract, like a beating heart pumping magic instead ofblood. An eerie orange light glowed behind the crack,making the entire thing look ready to split and pourmolten lava over them in a murderous flow.

"Holy shit," Jake breathed, looking from the gate to the unconscious Fae princess and back again. The ground rumbled beneath them, and he staggered to the side. "Uncle Tobe, I think we'd better get out of here. Now."

This time, Walker didn't carry Fiona far. Just to thenearest street, where Jake hailed them a cab. Walkerpoured her into the backseat while his nephew told thecabbie a story about a fear of dentists and a large dose ofsedatives. When that didn't work, the kid showed enoughfang to get the taxi moving and the human drivermuttering prayers in an indecipherable language. Jakesat up front to keep an eye on him, while Walker slid intothe back beside Fiona. By the time the cab pulled to ahalt outside a massive gray stone building on the Upper East Side, she had begun to stir and was clinging to himconvincingly enough that the cabbie wasn't reaching for

his cell phone as he burned rubber away from the curb.

Jake bounded up the steps to the front door and poundedwhile Walker scooped Fiona back into his arms andfollowed more slowly. The doorman on duty took one lookat the two Lupines' expressions and the unconsciouswoman with them and stepped back to admit them.

"I need to see the alpha," Walker growled as soon as the door to the Vircolac club had closed behind them. "And if the head of the Council isn't here right now, someone needs to get him. We've got a situation."

One thing to be said for having a Lupine doorman—theyalways smelled trouble, even without a lot of explanation. Within fifteen seconds of crossing the threshold, Jake, Walker, and their charge had been ushered into the officeof the alpha of the Silverback Clan, who also happenedto be the owner of Vircolac, the largest private club for Others in New York City. Fifteen seconds after that, thealpha himself strode through the door.

Graham Winters wore a blue chambray shirt with thesleeves rolled to the elbows, faded jeans, and a waryexpression. "What's going on? Henry said it was urgent."

"It is." Walker deposited Fiona on yet another sofa and straightened with a scowl. "I've discovered a problem."

Graham raised an eyebrow, glancing from his beta to theunconscious woman behind him and back again. Hismouth curved up in a smirk. "She looks like you ought tobe able to take her, buddy, but if you really need help,you'll have to call someone else. Missy gets cranky when I start handling other female problems."

Walker had no doubt that the alpha's mate, Missy, wouldcheerfully gnaw him into hamburger if she ever caughthim touching another woman. That was how mate bondsworked, and the fact that Missy happened to be humanwouldn't do anything to change that. But at the moment, Walker had bigger concerns. He gestured to Fiona's limpfigure. "Take a whiff."

He watched as Graham's expression turned puzzled. Theother man stepped closer to the sofa and leaned down todraw Fiona's scent in deeply. Walker ignored theunexpected impulse to throttle him for getting too closeand waited for his reaction. It only took a second before Graham's head jerked back and a growl rumbled from histhroat. He spun back to face Walker.

"You'd damn sure better be able to explain to me how your scent got all over an unconscious Fae woman, Walker. In case you haven't noticed, I don't have time to go to war against an invading army from Faerie right now."

"Like I'm overrun with free time? She's wearing my

clothes, Graham. How stupid do you think I am?"

"Based on the evidence, pretty damn stupid. What the hell is she doing here, why the hell is she wearing your clothes, and when the hell are you planning to send her back home?"

Beta or not, Walker's temper didn't appreciate beingprodded. Not after the last couple of days. "I'll answer thequestions as soon as you shut the hell up long enough togive me a chance."

A low, unhappy sound continued to rumble in Graham's

throat, keeping Jake's back against the wall and the exit in his line of sight. Walker noticed his nephew's discomfort out of the corner of his eye but didn't shift his gaze from the alpha's right temple. He wasn't far gone enough to get into a staring contest that could easily be mistaken for a dominance challenge, but neither was it in him to back down.

"You want them in order?" he snapped.

Graham nodded sharply.

"Fine. First, according to her, she's on vacation." The alpha snorted. Walker knew the feeling. "Second, she's wearing my clothes because she lost hers. And trust me, we're all better off if she remains clothed at all times."

"I don't doubt that you're better off," Graham said, eyeing Walker's clenched hands and ticcing jaw. "But how does a grown woman—Fae or not—just
 
lose
 
her clothes?"

"She did it to torture him," Jake murmured.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Walker gave his nephew a warning glance. "She said they just disappeared. That it was some sort of spell."

"Now that's the kind of magic I need to learn." Jake grinned, subsiding into the background when Walker glared again in his direction.

"Okay. And when is she going home?" Graham

demanded.

"That's where we run into trouble."

"What kind of trouble?"

Walker hesitated a split second.

"Ugh. What is it about this trip that's making me spend

half of it on my back?"

All three men turned at the sound of the grumpy femalevoice and found themselves being surveyed by her brightviolet eyes.

Walker's body offered an immediate response to herquestion that had him gritting his teeth and biting back asuggestion. One that had to do with making the time Fiona spent on her back infinitely more enjoyable. Hedoubted the alpha would have approved.

The princess pushed herself into a sitting position andblinked at her surroundings. "And what is it with mewaking up someplace different from where I was whenthe lights went out? It's worse than sleepwalking. I couldget a complex." Shoving a tumble of dark hair away fromher face, she smiled vaguely up at Graham. "Hi, I'm Fiona. Who are you?"

The alpha blinked down at her and her extended hand fora moment, then shook it warily. "Graham Winters. Howare you feeling?"

Fiona shrugged. "Not bad, considering that in the lasttwelve hours or so I've been nearly eaten alive and thenalmost electrocuted with a really vicious warding spell. How are you?"

Graham turned on Walker with a snarl. The beta raisedhis hands and shook his head. "Does she look like she'safraid of me, Graham? Gimme a break. I'm not the one

who tried to snack on her. This is bigger than that."

"Of course it is. Besides, if Walker was the one trying to kill me, I'm pretty certain he'd take care of it himself, not leave it to chance in the hands of an obviously incompetent demon or a far from lethal spell on a gate he didn't even know ahead of time I'd be using."

Walker could see the changes of expression flit acrossthe alpha's face as he waded through that reassuranceand attempted to figure out what the hell she'd actuallysaid. It didn't take a mind reader to guess when thewords "demon" and "gate" finally sank in. Especially notwhen Graham punctuated each epiphany with a mutteredcurse. He turned to Walker and spoke through clenchedteeth. "Tell me everything. Now. Start from the beginning. Of time, if necessary."

The order didn't bother Walker. He heard it and got onwith it. Unlike his predecessor as pack beta, who hadmoved to Connecticut in order to assume the role ofalpha of his own pack, Walker had no desire to lead hisclan. After seeing what the upheaval of the last year hadput Graham through, he'd have to be crazy to aspire tothat position. He had enough headaches of his own. Asbeta, he was answerable to no one except the alpha, andsince the alpha was a first cousin he'd grown up with andwhom he loved like a brother, that suited him just fine. Hehad most of the authority of a pack leader with very littleof the responsibility. What could be better? At least, that'swhat he'd thought before today. Before a princess haddropped into his lap.

He kept his summary of events clear and concise andslightly lacking in details. Especially the ones about

Fiona's royal relatives. He figured the rest of the storywould cause quite a sufficient amount of trouble withoutthat tidbit of information coming out. He also sent up aprayer that the princess had sustained just enough of ahead injury at the gate to keep her from interrupting untilhe finished.

Graham listened to the whole story before directing hisfirst question to Fiona. "Did you notice anything odd whenyou originally came through the gate?"

"You mean other than the big, slavering demon?" She shrugged. "No, the gate worked the way it always does. It got me here in one piece. That's the only thing I've ever kept track of."

"I have a hard time believing the demon was just a coincidence. There've only been three confirmed demon sightings in North America in the last century, and all of those were still under the control of their summoners. It strikes me as a little weird that the fourth happened with no sorcerer in sight right next to a gate to Faerie."

"Could the demon have come in through the gate, too?"

Walker speculated.

"Not a chance," Fiona said. "If you think it's been a long time since you had to worry about demons around here, you got nothing on Faerie. Our borders have been sealed against them for almost three millennia. Since the end of the Wars."

The Fae-Demon Wars had resulted in the banishment ofdemon kind from the human world and the now-inbornhostility the Fae and demons felt for each other. Demonsmade very poor losers, but they'd been confined to their

own plane for aeons, just as Fiona had said. Because the human world had its share of summoners and sorcerers —interchangeable terms for magic users known to consort with demons—the creatures appeared there occasionally, but not often and never unattended. If that had changed, it meant trouble. Right here in River City.

Jake piped up again. "Then how can we be sure the gateand the demon are related at all? They could be twototally separate issues. Stranger things have happened. Every Thursday and twice on Sundays."

"At the moment, we can't afford to take chances," Walker said. "There's too much at stake in these negotiations. We have to be paranoid."

"You're right about that," Graham said, his expression grim. "This is not the time to fool with the negotiations. For six months, we've been crawling along at a snail's pace, deciding nothing more consequential than whether or not someone from each side needed to taste the refreshments before every coffee break to be sure nothing had been tampered with. But now we're finally beginning to make headway. Last week, the human delegates from Europe proposed the first passage of a potential Bill of Others Rights. If even two-thirds of the other humans agree to it, we might finally have a starting point to work from. Before now, we couldn't even get most of them to agree who qualified as an Other, let alone that they should have legal protection."