The Naughty List (16 page)

Byron flinched as snow and ice stung his eyes, and when he opened them, Etina stood alone in front of the gates.

* * *

“What happened?” Thatch and thin evergreen branches created a roof overhead, high enough that he could stand and not reach it. Roughly-hewn timbers made up windowless walls and a flap of hides covered the exit. All the furnishings reminded him of the rustic displays he’d seen during trips to museums, even down to a small black cauldron in the stone fireplace. His hand throbbed and pain raced up his arm as he brushed it against the table.

“My sisters have been unmade and I have been granted their powers.” Etina’s eyes met his; they were red and the corners of her mouth quivered. “You’re hurt and in need of assistance.”

His injured hand tingled as she cupped it and Byron winced at the stings of pins and needles that marched across his flesh. “Where are we?”

“My home. You will be safe here.”

“What did you do? I deserve some answers, Etina.” The aches and pains retreated from his hand as she released it.

She gave him a sad smile. “I’m what mortals call a faerie. My kind lives near the cold parts of the world and only venture forth to seek mates.”

“Like me.”

“Yes, like you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Etina gave him that look. The one that accompanies someone saying something outstandingly ridiculous.

“Okay, that was a dumb question,” he admitted.

“You were not meant to know. Not so soon, anyways. I couldn’t be sure that you would react well to the revelation.” She wrung her hands as her voice trailed off.

“It’s a lot to take in.”
Okay, she had a good reason not to say anything, I’d have thought she was crazy.
His mind went in a million directions.
She isn’t human, looks the part, but not really. Is she using me as a fuck toy or is it something more? Is that such a bad thing? She does live in a place that’s winter all the time…
“Now what?”

“You have to make a choice. Stay with me or return to the mortal world.” Etina moved across the floor to a hearth of cold ashes. She touched the lintel stone and a fire sputtered to life under the black kettle.

“That seems too neat and clean.”

“It’ll never be neat and clean. You’ve encountered the Fae and none walk away from it unchanged. Many do not last more than a year should they return to the mortal world.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.

“And if I stay?”

“You will be bound to this realm and to me.” Her smile filled him with an odd warmth and affection.

What else isn’t she telling me? Is that the whole truth or is this just a manipulative ploy?
“Why did you choose me?”

“Why not you? You’re a good man, tested by Fate for these past years. Despite everything, you sought me out to keep your promise. You could’ve easily just stayed in the city and ignored it. That makes you special, Byron.” She retrieved a wood bowl and spoon from a cabinet and returned to the hearth.

“I’ll need time to think.”

Etina nodded and pressed the bowl of stew into his hands. “Take this as a token of my hospitality as a guest in my house.”

He smiled at her. “Thank you.”

“Many Fae would punish you for saying that, but I will let it go.”

“Why is that?”

“It is a dismissive statement that tumbles from lips without true meaning or thought. In your case, I know those words are well meant.” She stepped back and settled into a rocker in the flickering light of the hearth. Thin, angular shadows danced on the walls across from him. “Eat and sleep. For in the morning, you will have to make a decision.”

* * *

Etina sat in the darkness and the cold, watching him sleep. She’d put the choice before him. Stay to become one of the Fae or leave and remain human. His entrance into the realm had sealed her fate; there would be no more returning to the mortal world in search of a new mate.

Her mind played over their short time together. How she knew from the first time they met, that he was the one.
Does he understand what will happen if he stays? He must have no regrets when he makes his decision.

“Before the sun’s zenith, he will have to choose,” she whispered to herself. “Are you ready should he wish to return? Can you let him go?”
Or will you kill him like your sisters did to their mates?

* * *

Byron awoke under a cover of furs with Etina pressed against his back, arms wrapped around him. He entwined his fingers into hers, soaking up her cool touch, and feeling her breath on his bare skin. She wore nothing, letting their flesh press together like it had all those years ago.

She’s not human, but a creature from the fairy tales and wants me to stay with her. And I won’t be human any more, whatever that means.
He listened to her sleep and smiled.
It’s winter all the time here and I could live with that.
I’ve made worse choices in life and for lesser reasons than a girl who loves me.

“You’ve decided, haven’t you?” Etina said, keeping her voice in a low whisper.

“
How did you know?”

“The change has begun.” Her hands moved down his front, drawing across his abdomen with a light touch. She cupped him, her fingers caressing the soft flesh with a gentle touch, tickling the hairs as she went.

“But I didn’t say anything.” She didn’t seem as cool against him anymore. His cock stirred to life at her ministrations.

“Words are a poor messenger for intent. We’re creatures of passionate emotion, not logical thought. All we need to do is complete the pact and you will be one of us, my love.”

“What do I have to do?” Her hands stroked him to full erection.

A mirthful laugh filled the room, as she rolled him over. “I believe you have a rather crude term for it, but it fits the situation.”

“Fuck you silly?” He ventured a guess.

She straddled him, pressing her pussy against his face. “Yes.”

His hands grabbed her waist and gave the puffy lips before him a lick. She shivered at his attention and responded by engulfing him with her mouth. Her nose pressed against his testicles, tickling the hairs as she exhaled.

A floral taste filled his mouth as his tongue traveled from clit to opening, darting inside to lap up more of her wetness. The scent of her arousal grew and created a heady, dizzying sensation.

Cool air wafted across his cock as she released it from the damp entrapment of her mouth. “Now, you’re good and ready. Take me, my love. Fill me and let us join together.”

Byron sat up and shifted around behind her. He brushed the tip against her lips, slicking it with her wetness, sending another shiver through him.

“Don’t tease…”

He took her hips and pushed into her warm and inviting pussy. Slowly, he stroked in and out, taking his time and savoring the intense sensation of his tip brushing against her insides, her muscles contracting and releasing in time with his movements. Her moans of pleasure and the push back against his hips.

She sat back, forcing him into a kneeling position and still impaled on his cock, twisted around to seek out his mouth with her own. “Yes. That’s as good as I remember.”

They kissed, sharing the taste of each other, as she rode him. Their cries of passion and moans of delight filled the small room, rising with each passing moment.

Etina pushed him flat on the bed, hips grinding together as she shrieked and stiffened, clenching down on his cock. His own orgasm came, throbbing against her muscles that soaked up every last drop. With a satisfied gasp, she flopped back on his chest and lay there, breathing heavily.

“I love you,” he whispered in her delicately pointed ear.

“As only my mate can. You belong to the Fae now and to me.”

“That sounds like something out of a fairy tale. Does it come with a happily ever after?”

“It does for now.”

* * *

Author Doug Blakeslee
lives in the Pacific Northwest and spends his time writing, cooking, gaming, and watching hockey. His interest in books and reading started early thanks to his parents, though his serious attempts at writing only started a few years ago. From time to time he blogs about writing and other related topics at The Simms Project at thesimmsproject.blogspot.com.

To date, he’s published almost 20 short stories in such anthologies as:
Someone Wicked, Astrologica: Stories of the Zodiac, Fossil Lake 1 & II,
and
A Chimerical World: Tales of the Unseelie Court
. His current project is an urban fantasy novel about a war between the Fae. He can be reached on Facebook or [email protected].

Stealing Time

Wendy Sparrow

Chapter One

Hannah Lyons was living a charmed life—she’d escaped death thirty-seven times in the last three hundred and fifty-seven days. But Time was about to catch up to her. Time—or, in German, Zeit—was nearly upon her… and about to give Hannah back her scarf which she’d dropped nearly as many times as he’d saved her life.

Zeit snapped his fingers as he approached the sweet brunette stumbling through the snow. All around him, shoppers froze, and the air went still. Snow hung in place like a fog. Hannah shouldn’t be out on the streets on the day before Christmas. It was too busy. Too crowded. Hell, it was too easy—she made it easier to kill her than to keep her alive on days like this.

He could feel the pull of the Fates as they attempted, once again, to steal her from him. His beautiful conundrum was standing too close to the curb again, and about to hit a patch of ice. In another fifteen seconds of mortal’s time, she’d have slipped on the ice, as that woman carrying the terrier brushed by, knocking Hannah out in front of the snow plow.

Messy.

“You’re getting gruesome,” Zeit called to the Fates.

He stopped in front of the pink-cheeked mortal.

“Thirty-eight times now, Hannah.” Thirty-eight times he’d stopped the clock for her.

Snow clung to her eyelashes, and her red lips were parted, probably in shock that she’d, once again, dropped her favorite scarf. Her hand was poised at her neck, feeling for the crimson scarf he held in his hand.

She was shorter than average-sized with probably average features. He’d never really tried to tell mortals apart until he’d met Hannah. Chances were, few of the people she saw today would think she was anything out of the ordinary. She was ordinary, and then, she also wasn’t. Not to him. To him, she was as different and as delicate as a snowflake and just as beautiful. It was irritating as hell.

He unwound the scarf from his fist as he shook his head. “You’re going to catch your death.” Zeit draped the scarf around her neck. She liked it wrapped once and then one end tossed over her back and the other end over the same shoulder in front. “Although possibly not if I get to you first.”

He lifted her up by grabbing her waist—which put her mouth in close proximity to his—something he could ignore, if he concentrated. Her soft, shoulder-length hair brushed his lips, and he blew it out of the way as he carried her farther away from the curb and the lady with the yappy dog. He’d moved her quite a lot this last year, sometimes for great distances. She was seeing a mortal doctor about that—if only she knew
that
was the least of her worries. She’d gone to see Hoover Dam and nearly caused a bloodbath.

“You’ve got a week,” he told her, setting her down on her feet like a giant posed doll. She could be a doll, with her cheeks rosy like this, and her eyes glassy from the bite of the cold air.

One more week should be long enough to get her out of his system, and that was what he was going to do. No more slipping into the shadows of her life. He’d see what made her so singular and beautiful—reason out why she’d captivated him, and then on New Year’s Eve, at midnight, he’d steal the rest of her hours as he’d been assigned to do almost a year ago.

He brushed a finger along her cheek, even as he felt the push of hours. They shoved at his back like a strong gust of wind. Time wanted to march on. But he was master here. For now. Though that might end if he didn’t kill Hannah this time. The year end’s sacrifice demanded a lifetime and, last year, fortune had favored him with that heart attack a few feet from his Hannah as she’d been counting down the minutes at the ski lodge.

The Fates had not been amused by the substitution. Snippy old bats.

He traced her jaw. She did look like a doll. Even those puffy red lips of hers belonged on a porcelain figurine. His gaze shifted from mortal to mortal around her. There had to be someone else more interesting and less… marked for death. But no. Just Hannah. The others slipped from his thoughts as he looked away—their features indistinct memories of noses, eyes, lips, and so on, whereas he could spot Hannah a mile away from behind.

Admittedly, she did look good from behind.

Zeit stared for one last mortal minute into those dark brown eyes of hers. This was insane. He was insane.

And yet…

“Stay out of trouble, Hannah.” He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear—he liked her ears. Every day, there was more and more about her he liked. It was a shame. A damn shame.

In a general sense, time was not on her side, but today, Time definitely was. In fact, he wanted to be wrapped all around her. But, in eight days, he’d kill her at midnight and the Fates would let another year go by without damning everyone’s luck.

He stepped back from her and, after one last shake of his head, walked away and snapped his fingers again.

It was impossible not to glance back over his shoulder—she had
that
much of a hold on him.

Her gaze met his. She narrowed her eyes.

Zeit stared back. He
was
memorable, and they’d bumped into each other one too many times for her to believe it to be a coincidence. Nodding, he winked at her before turning and going on his way, leaving a very irate Hannah swearing as she wrestled with why she was hopping from location to location.

It couldn’t be helped, not if he was going to keep her alive long enough to steal her life.

* * *

“Jeanie, you think I’m crazy, don’t you?” Honestly, if she didn’t, she might be the only one.