The Cherished One Read online

  Knowing that he was likely to send out his own thugs to find her if she didn’t start answering his calls shortly, Fawna put her back to the outside of the brick building and sank to the sidewalk, putting the phone to her ear and hoping her voice didn’t sound as devastated as she felt. “What do you want?”

  “You sound horrible.”

  Damn. If Dain noticed, she really must sound bad.

  Fawna hiccoughed a sigh. “What do you want?”

  “The family was supposed to meet at ten. You weren’t there, so we couldn’t meet.”

  She rolled her tear-filled eyes. “That’s bullshit. You don’t need me to meet. I’m a half breed at best. I’m not worth anything to the family. All I do is cause trouble.” She wiped at the tears as best she could with the heels of her hand, exchanging the phone as necessary, trying to keep it from getting wet but it was a lost cause.

  Silence from Dain wasn’t a good sign. “Come home. Mother’s worried about you, and so am I.”

  “Bullshit. You’ve never worried about me a day in your life, Dain. You’ve only ever worried about how what I did would reflect on the family. Get real.”

  More silence before a starchier than usual, “Come home now. Momma’s worried. Can you blame her after what happened?”

  Damn him. He hung up before she could say something snotty and sarcastic. That was just like Dain. Issue an order and hang up, just expecting that it’s going to be followed. She guessed that was what it was like to be King.

  Fawna got up slowly, like an old woman, deeply distracted by her own pain and trying to get her phone back into its little holder within her vast, suitcase sized designer purse. She hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten, or the small group of young white men who were coming towards her with interest, several ferocious looking pit bulls well out ahead of them.

  The dogs were in front of her before she even saw them, and then men simply told them to sit, so that they formed a ring around her, blocking her escape. The guys remained outside the ring, considering her, and issuing what Fawna realized they probably considered were compliments.

  She sighed and closed her eyes. It fucking didn’t rain but that it poured, of course.

  She did manage to surprise the men by hunkering down in front of the dogs and patting them while speaking to them very softly. She was glad to see that they all looked reasonably well cared for, none of them looked like fighting dogs, and the worse thing she could say about them was that they all had fleas and a couple had ticks, which she immediately disabused them of. Each of the dogs then immediately lay down and roll over, presenting her with their bellies for a good scratch, in which she indulged them each for a few seconds.

  Having managed to thoroughly bamboozle the men, each of whom would have sworn that their purebred canine was more vicious and bloodthirsty than the next, she was able to slip out of the circle they’d made, although the dogs all got up and tried to follow her. She turned to tell them to stay, and saw their owners’ slack-jawed looks. If she hadn’t been so depressed, she might have laughed.

  That was until she saw him come out from the alley behind those white boys to crack all three of their heads together. She would never forget that face. At the sight of him, all of the blood drained from her face. He was the one who had so casually, almost carefully slipped his fangs into her neck night before last, threatening so casually to rip her throat out in front of Dag and her family.

  Max. His name was Max.

  And he was coming right at her.

  Before she could turn and run, he was on her, his cool hand holding hers, his fingers reaching further than that to encircle her wrist. He fell into step beside her as if they were old lovers strolling down the street. “I believe you had intended on leaving before you were so rudely interrupted.” His voice flowed over her like melted chocolate. “I’d be glad to escort you to wherever it is you were headed.”

  Fawna tried to disengage her arm from his increasingly intimate embrace but she found herself held against his side, almost obscenely close.

  “Stop struggling or I’ll throw you down on the sidewalk and spank you right here for getting yourself into this predicament in the first place. I can see that Dag had his hands full with you,” he growled. Max could sense the alarms his statement set off in her head and was glad of it. The entire side of his body that she was on tingled just from their slight contact. No wonder Dag had been so captivated by this little scrap of a woman. He, unlike her former lover, hadn’t learned to shorten his strides, and they were eating up territory so quickly she felt like her feet weren’t even touching the ground.

  “Where are we going?”

  “I’m going to see my family. You are getting the fuck away from me.” She was still trying to wedge her arm between him. He had to give her points for persistence. She was so scared she couldn’t even feel how scared she really was. She couldn’t think.

  Had he just threatened to spank her? What had happened to kill? In this neighborhood, no one would have looked twice, and that was certainly what she would have expected from him. She knew from personal experience that he didn’t hesitate to do that kind of thing. Spank her? She must’ve heard him wrong.

  Max could feel her mental confusion, but consciously did nothing to diffuse it, smiling just slightly to himself. Keeping her off guard was going to be a distinct advantage.

  “Your family, huh? I guess that’s back to where we met?” He felt her stiffen even more next to him, and realized that reminding her of how he’d treated her upon their first meeting probably wasn’t his smoothest move.

  They had made it several blocks already, she was guessing with his assistance because she knew she couldn’t have made it anywhere near this far under her own power. He kept her hand tucked under his arm as he hailed a taxi, and tucked the two of them into the back seat.

  Fawna scooted as far away from him as she could, sitting in the opposite corner and glaring at him. “Look, I don’t need an escort.”

  “You certainly needed assistance with those boys, didn’t you?”

  That got her back up. “I didn’t need any help – I’d already extracted myself from that situation before you arrived, thank you,” she informed him, folding her hands primly over her purse.

  “You might have managed to momentarily distract them from their intent by your parlor trick with the dogs.” Fawna frowned. If he thought he was making points with her by insulting her, he was sorely mistaken. “But they weren’t going to be nearly as easily deterred as you would have hoped.”

  Fawna refused to accept that opinion, and said nothing, preferring to stare out the window of the cab and watch the city go by.

  Max wasn’t used to women being quite so unaffected by his presence. Most women – human women, vampire females – fell all over themselves to get to him. She was going to be more of a challenge than he’d thought, and that sounded extremely appealing to him.

  His eyebrow rose as his eyes settled on the enormity of her purse. “That thing’s big enough to carry a body in.”

  “I wouldn’t know.”

  He chuckled. There was nothing quite like a woman in full snit. He’d forgotten that recalcitrant tone of voice, the fuck-you body language. It, indeed, been an extraordinarily long time since he’d had to fight for a woman, in more ways than one, and he found himself looking forward to the challenge more so than he had much of anything in a very long while.

  Max insisted on escorting her into her family’s compound, and he didn’t so much as flinch when Dain and his men met him head on, bristling with protective instincts as soon as he saw who was with his younger stepsister.

  “Don’t worry,” Fawna said, patting him on the shoulder as she passed, “he was just leaving.”

  Although he knew she wouldn’t see it, Max executed a deep bow to her, then turned and did exactly that, his pace measured despite the fact he was presenting her brother with his back, and he knew the younger man was advancing towards him, silver sword raised menacingly.<
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  “Dain! We’ve have enough bloodshed in this family over the years. I’ll have as little more as possible before I depart this world,” his stepmother, the dowager Queen, decreed from the door with enough royal oomph to call the headstrong King into line, however reluctantly.

  “Why did you bring him here?” Dain hissed under his breath.

  “I wasn’t given a choice,” Fawna ground back at him, sticking out her tongue at his disappearing back.

  Chapter Three

  Her mother caught her shoulder and spun her around into a huge, warm hug, then immediately took a step back and looked her directly in the eye. “What’s wrong?” Lilliana might not have been of the Faeries herself, but she was as close to an empathic as humanity got.

  Besides, a Momma never missed anything about her little girl.

  She found herself wrapped in her Mother’s arms on the comfy sofa in the perpetually cozy family room, deep within the warren-like palace. “Now, tell your Momma all about it.” Lilli brushed the errant baby hair away from her daughter’s face.

  “He’s gone,” she barely whispered, unable to stem the tide of tears that welled painfully into her throat at the words.

  “Who’s gone?” Her mother was the best person she knew – now that Dag was gone – but – guided by her emotions as she was, she wasn’t necessarily the quickest on the uptake.

  “Dag.”

  “No, Dag would never leave you. You must be mistaken.” It was somewhat strange to hear how staunchly her mother was defending Dag. A few hours ago, she would have responded in exactly the same way. The very idea of Dag leaving, especially without a word, was ridiculous. Impossible. Unthinkable.

  There were very few things that could set off Fawna’s temper, but not being believed was one of them. She levered herself stiffly away from the succor of her mother’s arms. “He’s gone. I can’t even feel him within me anymore. He’s... he’s completely—” She stumbled, but steeled herself and recovered. “He’s completely separated himself from me. I don’t even know if he’s alive or dead.”

  “Oh, my poor baby,” her mother dragged her back into her arms, and Fawna finally let go completely, knowing she was entirely safe at last.

  Fawna completely ignored it when she heard Dain come into the room and clear his throat loudly, and Lilliana, she knew just by the way her mother stiffened, gave him such a glare that she heard him sigh loudly and close the door behind him.

  He wanted to convene a family meeting, and he couldn’t do it without two thirds of the family. They both knew he bore a slight resentment that he had to include the two of them at all – more Lil than Fawna, but either of them, really – since Fawna was barely a half breed and Lilli was a no breed, no account human – although he would never say that to her face.

  Her Mom hugged her tight. “We’ll do everything we can to find him, Fawna.”

  She drew back and took the tissue her Mother offered, dabbing ineffectually at her eyes. “No. Definitely not.” Fawna caught her mother’s eye and said it again, more forcefully. “No. You are not to make any inquiries or ask anyone to keep a lookout for him on my behalf. If he doesn’t want to be with me, then that’s it. I’m not about to go begging him to come back to me. I just have to get over him.”

  Her mom squeezed her hand, and Fawna almost dissolved into tears again. “We’d better let Dain have his council. He’s probably wearing a hole in the carpet in the hall waiting for us emotional women to finally get over it.”

  Lilli chuckled, knowing the truth her daughter spoke. Her stepson was not the most patient of men. He took directly after Reed, his father, and her much-mourned husband. Only Dain hadn’t yet found the right woman, and it showed in his temper. Or rather his distemper, for which his half sister was always suggesting he needed a vet appointment.

  They adjourned to the council room, which more closely resembled a jungle, to assemble on what constituted their thrones. Their family came from a long line of royalty, of kings and queens who ruled over the sprites and spirits of the forest and the animals. Their roles – which were generally known as faeries - had changed quite considerably over the years, and Dain now presided over them in his father’s place.

  Usually, a king would have had a very large family, and Dain would have had multiple brothers and sisters amongst whom he could have divided the work. As it was, he only had his stepmother, who was wholly human, and his stepsister, who was only half-faerie, and, as far as he was concerned, not much good, regardless.

  Why he wanted to have a meeting now, Fawna would never know, but she was sure Dain wouldn’t hesitate to tell them.

  “Considering what happened recently, we need to make sure that we’re safe from attack by vampires.” He stared directly at his sister. “I’m surprised Max brought you here. Where’s Dag?”

  Her mother nearly fell out of her chair. “Maximilian brought you here? Why on Earth would you allow him to do that? Are you all right?” She hurried over to her daughter, checking her over as if she thought she might drop dead in front of her, despite the fact she’d been fine five minutes ago while they were talking.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine.” Fawna turned to her brother. “Dag has removed himself from the picture. He’s no longer in my life.”

  It wasn’t easy to stun Dain. He’d seen it all, or at least he liked to think he had. He remained quiet for a while, then surprised Fawna by coming over to her and hugging her tightly. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say. I wouldn’t have thought he’d’ve left you in a million years.”

  Fawna was unsuccessfully trying to battle back tears. “Neither would I.” She turned to her mother. “I was downtown, at one of his—” She really didn’t want to say that she’d been at one of the places where she knew he kept a coffin, nor did she want them to know exactly where that location was. Both of them would have conniption fits if they knew she’d gone to that part of town, near dark, alone. “One of the places where I knew he would go to sleep if he got caught too close to dawn. But he wasn’t there. He’s just...gone. No note, no nothing.”

  Dain sighed. He had been hoping to enlist Dag’s help in keeping his sister safe from the very vampire that had darkened their doorway not a half an hour ago. She was in grave danger, and didn’t seem to comprehend that fact. Maximilian wasn’t someone to be toyed with, and they had been very lucky, several nights ago, to have escaped with their lives, most especially Fawna.

  Female faeries were particularly susceptible to vampires. That was why Fawna had had such a hard time getting support for her relationship from her brother and her mother when she had fallen in love with Dag. Now, Dag had been what was, for a vampire, an upstanding citizen. He no longer drank human blood, and hadn’t for years, and was well known for that fact. He had integrated into human society as much as possible while managing not to reveal himself, which was exactly what the Faeries did their best to do also.

  And, as both her mother and her brother could see, he loved Fawna. There was no disputing that. Anyone who bothered to look could see it plainly in his eyes whenever his gaze fell on her, which was all the time.

  But Max loved no one. The last women he had loved had been someone Dag had also loved, a human that they had fought over a millennia ago, before Dag had become as civilized as he was currently. Max had won her, fair and square, but Dag had decided that if he couldn’t have her, neither of them could, and he had destroyed that which they both had coveted, draining her of blood and life, right in front of Max.

  Neither of them had really been the same since, but Dag had managed to deal with his pain. Max had never learned to forgive, and night before last, he had managed to breach both Dag’s and Dain’s security arrangements and gain entrance to the enclave where the family was holding a sacred meeting on one of their highest of holy of days – the first day of Spring.

  Max had gotten a hold of Fawna before either of them could do anything about it – practically before they knew he was in the room, and Dain had a suspicious feeling
that Dag had had to surrender his love to his enemy in order to save her life.

  Of course, his sister had no idea of his theory, and he wasn’t about to enlighten her about it. Dain would bide his time and watch what happened. She was alive, and Max had even gone so far as to deliver her unharmed to his doorstep. He could have killed her six ways from Sunday – including when he had her in his arms with his fang sunk into her in front of all of them that night.

  The thought of his enchanting, annoying, delicate little pain in the neck sister lying lifeless in that man’s arms made the blood run cold through his veins. Dain didn’t know what he could do to keep his sister safe, but he already had his sages working on it. If he had to, he’d kidnap her and have her cloistered here, but, since the bastard had already shown that he could waltz in without so much as a by your leave, there didn’t seem to been any need in that, yet, and he couldn’t see alarming Fawna any more than was necessary, especially now that she was already so upset.

  But, perhaps he could work that to his advantage anyway.

  “You don’t want to go home to your apartment, do you, Swee’pea?”

  It had been a very long time since anyone had called her that, and the only living person that could get away with it was Dain. And maybe her mother. Sometimes her brother could be a little too insightful. Rarely, but sometimes. “And what would you suggest instead?”