Page 5 of A Dream Shrouded in Fury
His eyes fluttered shut, and he lost consciousness.
His challenge was enough to knock me out of wherever my head had gone.I tightened my grip on him.What the blood was I doing wasting time like this?I had to kill him.Especially now that he’d seen me and what I was.Fae.Trickster.Threat.He probably wanted me to lean closer so he could kill me first.I would need to be fast.His blood sang to me, begged me to savour it, and I was ready to indulge.First I’d tear out his throat, and then I’d drink until my body was sated.
The thrill of his impending death set my heart racing, and once more I bared my teeth, this time fully in control of my instincts.I grabbed his blond locks to yank his head back and leaned in for the kill.
The poetry of his indecipherable words echoed in my ears, made all the more entrancing by the smooth, lilting tenor that had uttered them.His demand that I finish him, his emptiness at accepting his end, pierced my chest.I squeezed my eyes shut, not wanting the emotions he’d stirred to distract me while I drained the life out of him, but even with my eyes closed, the memory of his gaze caressed me like a physical touch.It wriggled under my skin until my insides itched with the awareness of him.He’d looked at me like I was a goddess come to see him home.
I extended his neck and leaned in closer.My fangs grazed the smoothness of his throat, and my tongue flicked over his pulse.The scent of sunlight and damp earth assaulted my senses, and I swore my face warmed under the light of a bright afternoon, something I’d never been able to experience outside the descriptions written in our small collection of stolen novels.
My eyes flew open and discomfort writhed in my gut.I drew back to look down at the fae, but he lay unconscious in my arms.
What was I doing?I needed to get back to the fury, give Cliff and his team the heads up of what they’d find out here.
Yet the thought of my friends finishing what I was obviously incapable of doing myself turned my stomach.
The universe was laughing at me.It had to be.Of all the nights to stumble across this fae, it was the night Thorn had told me my desires were foolish.
Here’s your chance to dare her disapproval, the Fates taunted.You wanted to experience something new?To find out what you were missing?Accept this gift.
“Don’t be a fool,” I upbraided myself.“If he survives his injuries, I’ll have to kill him anyway.”
It was our most important rule: The fury came first.
And yet.
There’s more to life than death, child.Thorn had said it herself, and maybe she was right.
Despite the fae’s challenge, despite how Thorn would react if she found out, I couldn’t turn my back on this opportunity to hear more about what existed beyond these mountains.This fae had to come from somewhere.Soldara, probably.Where, clearly, at least some fae had problems big enough that they believed attacking the royal guard to be the best solution.
And this man in particular…
I may as well be useful to someone.
I tore my fingers through my wet hair, wishing I had someone to ask for advice while knowing no advice I received would be what I wanted to hear.
But maybe my choice didn’t have to be a betrayal to the fury.Something big had happened here tonight.Something that might have greater repercussions than one battle in our territory.Maybe I would serve my fury better by learning what I could from this fae.
Although I knew I’d be breaking every rule, promising myself I would figure it out later, I hoisted him over my shoulder.Tonight, I wouldn’t bring death.Tonight, I would try to save a life.
Jael
III
Vaguely I was aware of being picked up and carried, bundled gently in someone’s arms, but I couldn’t move.I was trapped in my skin, in my thoughts.Every time I opened my eyes, the world spun, confusing me with twisting shadows and glimpses of the most beautiful face.
When I closed my eyes, all I saw was her—the woman with the lethal teeth who’d been so prepared to end my life.She was as captivating as a melody, with skin as pale as alabaster and eyes as complex and layered as a symphony, shot through with death.Vampire.My first sight of one, and it had almost been my last sight of anything.It would have been better if she’d killed me.I’d failed my mission, and my revenge—my reason for waking up morning after morning—had slipped beyond my reach.
Sharp pain shot through my middle, and with each clawing zing, memories overwhelmed me.Silver armour closing in, blades flashing in the moonlight through mist that suffocated the night.Blood, black in the darkness, splashing across my face, the rocks, the ground.All our careful strategizing laid to waste, all our hopes and dreams of sowing chaos and defeating Leonine soaking into the dew-wet ground, lost within the screams and shouts of the fallen, and the rattle of a carriage as it rolled away.
A groan escaped me, and I made another attempt to squirm, this time able to raise my arm.But that small movement sapped the rest of my strength.All I could do was dangle here and try not to think of the life that awaited me.If I could call it a life.Nothing but more emptiness.More of that heavy void that had burrowed so deep into my soul there was nothing left of the fae I’d been.
Though maybe that wouldn’t be an issue.By the numbness spreading through my blood, I suspected my injuries were severe, so there was always a chance I wouldn’t survive to see morning.
When the next wave of stabbing, throbbing, tearing pain swept over me, I begged it to take me.And on my way out, I could think of the bewitching woman that I’d believed had arrived to escort me into the next world.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in darkness so absolute I swore I was already dead.I sucked in a breath, and the resulting pain confirmed I wasn’t.Which meant I was actually in the dark.Trapped in the void with no way out.I screamed into the nothingness with panting breaths, each one triggering new spasms through my ravaged frame, but I didn’t care.I couldn’t stay here.
I rolled onto my side, crying out as something in my middle split apart, and lost purchase on whatever surface I lay on.
