Fae Chronicles 01 - Fighting Destiny (11 page)

Marie screamed her voice was shrill as she took in the horrors of the room. I winced, as my child self-turned, covered in my mother's blood. I didn’t let her into the protection of the spell and she wasn’t stronger than the child I had been.

Alden came in behind her, his own gasp grated on my nerves.

"Synthia, are you hurt?" Marie asked her voice low and clear.

"My mother is broken. Father is sleeping," the five year old said, as if it was true but she knew better. She knew by then that they were dead. She can feel the loss of them inside of herself, where once there had been love, was now an empty void of death in its place.

"Did she do this?" Alden's whisper made my skin crawl. This is the work of evil, even the child knew that much. In the end she will blame herself, because father had been a warrior, and he’d died to protect her.

"They were looking for something, was it me?" The child asked with eyes too old for a five year old.

"Alden, enough. She's in shock," Marie whispered as if the child wouldn’t hear.

I pulled back, shoving the memories of what happens next away…my hands ripping into my memories as if I could shred them. I won't relive the next part—taking their souls. At five I was stronger than any other Witch. History would record the next details of what transpired. I'd be a lab rat for Alden for years after the deaths of my parents because of it.

"Enough, we risk damaging her mind if you continue," Ryder says softly his voice penetrating the illusion.

The room turns white again, my body shaking with violent spasms. I ground my teeth together, wanting to kill them for seeing what happened.

"Interesting, they were looking for something," the Fae behind me said.

Dristan cleared his throat. "I don’t recognize any of them, they look—"

"Enough," Ryder interrupted sharply and glared at him.

I blinked, bringing the room back into focus as I fought for air and stood before I found my balance. My chest heaved from the pain of reliving the worst day in my life. My eyes flickered to Ryder's golden gaze. He looked almost puzzled and disturbed by what he had seen. I turned to push past his men, but I was boxed in as if they knew I would leave. I hated what I found in their eyes. Pity.

"Move," I snarled, wanting to get the fuck out of here, to go home and curl into a ball until the feeling of hate and hopelessness passes. It normally takes days.

"She was a victim," Zahruk said softly.

"I am. Not. A. Victim!" I growled low and clearly pronounced each word.

"No? Then what are you?" He asked, angered by my words.

"I'm a survivor."

Zahruk bowed his dark blonde head. I'd never allowed myself to be a victim from that day forth. I'd fought hard and was best in the class I graduated with from the Guild academy. Marie had been there every step helping me, cheering me on. Alden had blamed me, but with good reason.

I'd pulled their souls and refused to allow them to leave me. Fear was a bitch. It could make you do things you never thought yourself capable of. I'd pulled their souls before I had known what I was doing. It had been grief which had made me act hastily, mixed with young age and too much power. I'd ended up branded with two stars upon my shoulders as a reminder of my first failure in life.

"She's damaged," another inside the room said as if I wasn’t standing right there.

You have no idea, damaged makes me look normal.

"She is, but can she do the job we need her to?" Dristan asked.

I hated that they had ripped these memories from my mind. And yet this time when they had replayed it, my father's words had not been so silent when it had happened my mind wouldn’t grasp what he'd said.

"Fuck you, fuck your job Ryder. I'm out of here," I growled and turned with every intention of walking out.

"Call the Guild, get Alden on the phone," Ryder said smoothly.

I exhaled and closed my eyes slowly, fighting for composure. "I'm damaged, others can use glamour," I offered him a solution to his problem.

"I don’t want others, I need the best and you came highly recommended by Marie."

I blinked and turned looking at him over my shoulder. "Marie is dead," I snapped angrily.

"She is, but she was a friend of my fathers," Ryder supplied.

"Find someone else," I barked, wanting out of the room, I felt as if the walls were closing in around me.

"Call the Guild," he snapped at the Fae closest to the desk that sat against the back barren wall of the room.

"You just fucked with my head! What do you expect me to do? Kiss your fucking boots, Fairy? Wrong. Fucking. Girl!"

"Quite the opposite, I think you are the right girl for the job," he interjected.

I wanted to tell him where to stick it, but he knew from Alden, that if I didn’t take this job it would be my last one. I could run, live by myself but I'd probably be signing Adam and Larissa's death warrants too. That was something I wouldn’t do. And he knew it, which made him dangerous.

"I have a contract written up. You
will
sign it."

I glared at him without confirming, or denying I would be signing anything.

"You sign it, I will
not
yield to you Ryder," I snapped.

His lips tightened, "Oh but I think you will yield. You will do more than just yield to me," he snapped his fingers and the door to the room opened. "You will lie down and yield even it if includes you begging me to allow it."

"Syn," Adam's voice pushed me over the edge, my anger boiling over the rim. Startled, I looked at him sharply. How long had he been here and how much had he seen?

"You asshole," I snarled at Ryder uncaring who heard, or who pulled a knife, I was ready to attack.

"Syn, be careful. Alden is signing his own contract right now. It's why I was sent over here." Adam advised at my side.

"I bet he is," Alden could count his fucking days. They were numbered by forcing me into this damn corner. It seemed like he had been abusing his power since Marie had been killed. It was widely rumored that he’d been taking jobs from the highest bidder and that was against the laws of the Guild. It had been created to protect the human race, not line our pockets.

"Fine," I snarled holding my hand out for the contract.

He smiled coldly, as if he'd won. I rolled my eyes as he grabbed my hand instead of handing me the contract. His fingers curled around my own reminding me of what had happened on that abandoned stretch of highway. I tried to pull it away, but he was stronger and his pull brought my body flush against his.

"Let me go—now!" I cried the memories of my mother came to the fore with a vengeance.

He released his hold, as if the memories had also flooded his own mind. His eyes narrowed as he took in my ashen color. Maybe if I was crazy enough I could get out of this before signing his stupid contract.

His lips turned up wickedly in the corners. I narrowed my own eyes, wondering if he was reading my mind. I knew some Fae had the ability to do so, I was unsure what powers he had and until I could figure it out I'd be damn careful what I allowed to enter my mind. I discarded the thought and walked to the desk.

The vellum which the contract had been written on was grey and it sent chills up my spine just looking at it. Legend had it, that the Fae made contracts on the skin of those who committed treason against their race. They skinned them alive and kept them in a suspended state until they grew more…only to take the next skin the traitor grew. Put a whole new spin on recycling.

I wasn’t going to touch it, didn't matter what it said and if I didn’t sign it. I would be signing death warrants—for those of my friends. I looked around for a pen, but the only thing on the small wooden desk beside the parchment was a bone handled knife.

A sinking feeling took residence inside my stomach. I turned and glared at Ryder. His smile was still all teeth.

"Read it," he growled huskily.

I raised a single brow. "Does it really matter if I read it? I either sign this or I go to war with the Guild and that's not something I want to do," I had friends inside the Guild, more than just those of my coven.

He picked up the knife and as I watched him, he sliced the palm of his hand wide open. Thick blood turned crimson as it hit the air. My eyes were riveted to his hand, my own balled into a fist and I stepped back. His voice was rich and husky as he asked for mine.

"Uh—"

"Give me your hand," he interrupted my moment of panic.

It took all of my willpower to raise my hand for him while he held that knife in his other hand. My inner-self was screaming. Something more was going on here than just signing his damn contract and my mind knew it. I winced as he cut shallowly into my hand. A hiss left my lips as an audible caress. I had scanned over the contract, but it wasn’t as if it was a choice. Larissa and Adam's lives were on the line if I didn’t.

"I ask of you to honor this contract by blood, do you agree to honor it Synthia Raine McKenna?" His voice was low, hypnotic like a caress inside my mind.

My eyes flickered up to Adams and back to Ryder's. "Yes," I said quietly. The moment I said it, he placed my hand in his, palms together and violent waves of pain and pleasure mixed together shocked my senses until I was holding onto him to stay upright, I cried out feeling something tear through me. He must have been feeling the same thing. His eyes turned hard, as a tick started in his jaw.

When the violent reaction had slowed and our pulses were once again at a semi-normal rate he slammed both our hands on the graying parchment. The walls lit up, with a glowing fluorescent blue color. And then it was gone just as fast as it had started.

"What the hell did you just make me do?" I shouted.

His eyes narrowed considerably as they snaked from my head down my body slowly, his tone low and dangerous as his words filtered out penetrating me sharper than the knife had ever come close to doing. "I took your blood. Now there is nowhere you can hide that I won't be able find you pet. You took from me, I took from you. Tit for tat so to speak, I suggest next time you read fine lines inside a contract before blindly signing it.
I own you
."

I was freaking out, yet I managed to keep it hidden—just barely. I hadn't been able to see a way out of signing it, now the deed was done. Now reading it in a booth across from Ryder, I was considering a long jump off a tall bridge.

"I am not feeding you! Ever," I snarled reading the page again.

He snorted and slammed his own copy down onto the table. "It says only in the event that it is an emergency situation, for which my needs take higher demand than your prudish pride."

"I'm
not
a prude," I wasn’t. Was I? Some at the Guild said I was, but then I wasn’t a virgin either so I didn’t consider myself to be one.

"I bet you have never been naked with a man, not completely. I'm not speaking about clothes either."

Uh…wasn’t that what being naked meant? I groaned, rubbing my fingers over my temples. Adam sat one booth away from where I'd sunk into a booth in the back of the club to lick my wounds alone. Ryder had followed me like a proud peacock that was ruffling his feathers with his damn contract.

"That is so none of your business," I sneered not knowing what the hell he meant, only that I didn't want to go down that road of discussion right now. I needed coffee, or tea. Anything with an insane amount of caffeine would be welcomed right about now.

I scanned through another section finding yet another thing I wasn’t about to let happen. "You want to pick my clothes? What the hell is wrong with my clothes?"

His eyes took in my sleeveless top and sank lower as if he was sneering with disdain at my jeans. They were jeans for monkey butt's sake! "I have a certain reputation Synthia. I won't have it smeared with being shadowed by a child who wears the clothes of an immature teenager."

"I'm wearing jeans, half the country wears them!" I cried pissed that he was nitpicking everything about me.

"Don’t worry. You can pick out your own panties…for now."

I grumbled and continued to read, regretting being so hot headed and not reading before he'd taken my soul…
if
that is what he had done. I could still feel the heat boiling in my veins, but I had to determine if that was him or my anger.

"Why can't I date while in your employment?" I squeaked. What the hell was up with his sudden interest in my personal life anyway? Did it matter who I dated, or what I wore?

"It's to protect my interest. Besides, with a mouth like yours I'm pretty sure you don’t have men lining up at your door asking for a date."

I glared while chewing on my bottom lip nervously. Okay, I really didn’t have men lining up to date me, but as if I'd tell him that!? Oh hell no. "This is bullshit, we don’t even know who we are after or if they will make an attempt for your bride anytime soon. It could be…like weeks before anything happens!"

His eyes just stared at me, like I was the most brainless woman on the West Coast. When he didn’t say anything I continued. "This is only good until I find who is after the princess right?" I babbled as my panic started to escalate.

"It's indefinite, or until I decide otherwise. I'm Fae, we like to own"—his eyes moved to my chest and back up to meet my eyes—"things."

I swallowed down the urge to scream, it wouldn’t help me now. I squirmed in my seat, my nails sinking into the expensive leather of the booth's seat. My stomach was pitching, my mind running wild with the knowledge of what I'd done. "How long before I can be released from this contract?"

His eyes scanned me carefully. His lips growing taut as he considered it, but said nothing, just sat there and watched my reaction.

I'd tried to save my friends and in the process I'd lost my soul to him. If he wanted to fuck me, all he had to do was demand it! "I can't do this. I can't." I sputtered needing to get outside to get air. I was up and moving in the direction of the door before I had the words out from between my lips.