Kidnapped By Dark Fae

2

f**k, she hoped that was true. They’d only been training for a year or so, and he was a buttoned-up sort of guy. She didn’t know him half as well as that claim implied.

A strange feeling rolled over her—a humming sort of vibration that sang along her nerve endings, both soothing and ominous. A pleasurable tingle ran down her spine like ice-coated fingertips dancing along her skin, equally chilling and diverting. It was a familiar feeling, one she’d grown accustomed to. One she’d committed to memory, relishing in it, delighting in its terrifying pleasure.

A presence had joined them. The presence. Beautiful and wicked. Exciting…but dangerous. Death incarnate.

It called to her. Begged her to look at it. To notice.

She’d felt the same presence yesterday before the courtyard battle in the convention building at the Demigod Summit, a huge meeting for all the top magical people in the world. It had stood just off to the side, noticed by absolutely no one, a spectral brilliance that not even Zorn, a Jinn, could manifest on his best day. But they had the same roots, at least partially—of that she was certain. This was a fae.

For a moment—a brief, mind-spinning moment—a pair of vivid green eyes flared into existence. The face of a boy a few years older than her—she was just fifteen—stood close by, his body sparkling and shining within its glamor. His severe cheekbones would break a fist crashing against them, and the soft cleft in his chin pleasantly contrasted the strong jaw. His gaze was like a brand upon her skin, awakening something she didn’t want to set loose, sparking something primal and setting it ablaze. His rugged, almost cruel handsomeness was nothing compared to the sparkle of deviousness in his eyes.

Her heart beat too fast. She’d never felt this feverish without being sick. Never felt this terrified, but she wasn’t afraid. She couldn’t tear her eyes away, wishing a body would manifest, wanting him to speak.

In another moment, everything vanished. The face, the presence, everything. Magic too incredible and too potent to track or maybe even acknowledge blinked out.

“What was—what…” Mordecai, having changed into his human form, took two quick steps forward, shock on his face. He looked at the beach.

The bodies were gone. Both of them. The blood, the messed-with sand—all of it. It was as though the skirmish hadn’t happened and Daisy hadn’t killed someone five feet from where she stood.

She opened her mouth to explain⁠—

Shh, little dove. The fae’s voice was strangely familiar in her mind. Deliciously familiar. It must remain our secret, or it will be your group that I must silence. See you soon…

Daisy gasped and jerked awake. The dream—a memory from four years ago but still so vivid—drifted away. The feeling of that fae’s presence remained, though, left behind like a landmine. The image of his face, those eyes, the feeling that’d erupted in her…

She shook herself and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She hadn’t told a soul about him…and he’d still done her dirty. Two days after she saw his face on that beach, he’d shown up amongst her crew—her family—and set loose an unspeakable magic that had nearly wiped them all out.

Served her right, she supposed. Only a f*****g moron messed with fae. She should’ve known he’d f**k her over. It had been stupid to even be curious. Dumb to constantly think of those eyes and their devilish sparkle. His presence⁠—

She flung her covers away and sat up, scrubbing the images from her mind. Four years later and she still had dreams. Still had moments when his memory—the unspeakable feelings of his memory—drifted into her mind and took root. It wasn’t daydreaming when the subject was a human’s nightmare. It was just so damn pleasurable, though. She couldn’t seem to forget it.

After dressing, she headed downstairs. Mordecai sat on a stool at the island, hunched over his phone.

“You’re here again, I see,” she said, opening the fridge and peering in. If she waited long enough, maybe breakfast would make itself and fall into her hands. “Didn’t want to stay at the new lady-love’s house last night?”

He didn’t answer. He’d never been very open about his love life, but he’d been gone for a few nights about a week ago, with only a few grunts for an explanation. Clearly he was getting some action with his new lady of choice.

A pair of green eyes flashed through her mind, accompanied by a flare of heat.

She shook herself out of it. Those dreams were incredibly disruptive. She wished she’d stop having them. Hell, after four years, she should’ve stopped having them. She needed to find a lobotomist.

“What time is training later, do you know?” she asked, pulling out some grapes.

His silence drew her focus. When it came to training, which directly related to her safety, he wasn’t the silent-treatment type. Even if he was mad at her, he usually answered.

Currently, he had no reason to be mad at her. Not yet. Not until later, when he got a taste of her newest booby trap. It was a fun little game she liked to play, and he hated to be part of. He’d then try to pound her during training. Sibling rivalry. They might not be blood, but they’d been raised in really hard times and for long enough to act like it.

Mordecai didn’t look up, bowed over his phone. His black, tightly curled hair was mussed in spots and his dark skin was dry and flaky. He wasn’t taking care of himself like he usually did. At twenty, he was something of a (very sweet and respectful) lady-killer. The girls thought him handsome and a gentleman, not to mention rich and very well connected. He could essentially get anyone he wanted, even with this sad-sack disposition. He went to great lengths to live up to the family name, elevated to the world of Demigods even though their roots were as humble as a gutter rat’s. This situation with him was…unusual. Worrying, even.

Frowning, she closed the fridge door and wandered closer, stopping beside his stool. She popped a grape into her mouth as she kicked the stool leg.

“What’s your problem?” she asked. Soft light filtered through the kitchen windows in the residence they mostly called home. They could multiply their old house four times and it still wouldn’t be as big as this one. Neither of them had ever taken their turn in fortune for granted.

He didn’t react, continuing to doomscroll on his phone.

“Hey.” She kicked the chair harder this time.

“Would you stop?” He cast her an irritated glance. Dark circles lined his red-rimmed hazel eyes.

Not taking care of himself and not sleeping very well. Only danger to their family or girl trouble usually created this. Given she would’ve been apprised of any danger, it was clearly the latter.

“What’d she do?” Daisy demanded, yanking at his shoulder to get him to turn and face her. “Tell me.”

“Nothing. It’s fine.”

“What’s fine?” Jack asked as he sauntered into the kitchen holding a brown grocery bag with something green sticking out the top. He was one of about a dozen people she thought of as uncles, brothers, nieces, a mother figure, or a stepdad type. None of them were blood. She’d been abandoned by blood when she was small and then shuffled around the Chester “care” system, the social services for magic-less orphans. Lexi had found her in the dual-society zone, the crack between the magical and non-magical societies where people struggled to coexist in order to escape their respective governments or law enforcement agencies. She’d been starving and half dead, ready to do unspeakable things for a meal, just to stay away from those horrible and abusive care homes.

Lexi had been her miracle, and Mordecai with her. It hadn’t mattered that Lexi’s house was beyond tiny, or that they lived in poverty, or that they had to scrape and steal just to eat. Lexi and Mordecai’s kindness, their love, had felt like heaven.