Taunting Destiny (22 page)

I didn’t need to turn around and look at h
im to know he was there; I felt him. I felt him as I felt my own legs connected to my body. As if he was a part of me. The air grew thick with the electrical tanginess he created when he entered a room. The rich scent that was unique to him filled my senses; intoxicating me. I could sense him anywhere, but inside a room this small, he took it over. Where it had been a kitchen minutes before, it was now filled up with his presence.

“
Ristan,” he said from directly behind me. His voice wrapped around me, like a silken caress.

“
Any luck?” Ristan responded.

“
No and yes. We need to find more information on the items, and someone who can easily pass through so as and not disturb them.”

“
What for?” I asked Ristan, since he was more likely to answer my question. He didn’t, of course—not with Ryder standing directly behind me.

“
I told you this wasn’t your fight. You have enough shit trying to kill you right now. The Guild has closed ranks, and, from the sounds of it, they are weeding out those opposed to turning on us. My guess is they are going to make it very public, very soon as to which side they are choosing.”

“
That’s shit! They don’t have the right to do that.  Alden would never…
oh shit
. We have to get him out of there, now!”

“
He chose to go back inside, Syn. If you go in to get him out, they will know for sure which side he is on. Right now, they have no idea he’s our inside man,” Ryder said gently.

“
No, screw that. I can’t lose him too,” I said as my heart dropped to my feet. My hands gripped the coffee mug hard enough that it cracked.

“
He chose this,” Ristan said softly “He’s a good man. He’s strong and very capable. He raised you to be strong. Have some faith in him.”

“
Fine, but I want in on whatever you have going on then.  I’m not just going to sit around idly while there’s a potential war hanging over our heads,” I snapped angrily.

“
This isn’t your problem,” Ryder growled.

“
No? Then whose is it? The Fae? The Guild? I’m kinda of ‘all of the above’ at the moment. I was part of that Guild, and I still have friends inside of it. I’m also Fae, in case the three day sexual marathon we had slipped your mind!”

He growled beside my ear, so
close that it tickled my flesh. “Hard to forget that, Pet, still, my answer stays the same. You need to stay where I can keep you safe.”

“
Ryder, I’m not the type to sit around when I can help. I can help you. I’m trained to get into places and get out of them. You’ve seen me do it. I can help you.”

“
And I said no,” he warned.

“
And I said I’m doing it, Fairy!” I growled at him.

His lips pressed against my ear as he whispered softly into it.
“Come upstairs, Pet, and I’ll show you how much of a fucking Fairy, I am.”

I turned
, catching his lips and biting his lower one, sucking it into my mouth before releasing it. “Not now, Ryder. We’re fighting,” I said, pausing as a smile crossed my face, “and I’m winning.”

“
No, you are not,” he growled.

“
You two done fucking? You’re making my cock hard just watching this shit.” Ristan laughed boyishly.

“
I’m going up to shower. When I come down, I expect to be included and filled in on the details. I’m either with you, or against you. Figure it out and let me know,” I said, standing up and turning to meet his golden eyes. “Soon.”

“
Are you giving me orders? I think you need another example of who is the master in this relationship.”

“
Relationship? Who the fuck said anything about a relationship? You can’t give me one, remember?” I glared pointedly and headed up the stairs.

I made it
to the middle of the stairs when I felt it. You know how they say that you can tell when death picks your number; how you can feel it as it wraps its cold arms around you? It’s true.  I felt the thickness of the air, and turned back to look down the stairs as I felt it. The air grew cold, as if it too, had felt death’s cold clutches coming for me. The entire house grew silent. Not even the birds outside the house made a single noise. A window broke downstairs, shattering the silence. And then it all came back with a vengeance. The sound deafening and damning as my ears exploded from it. I gasped, knowing I wouldn’t make it out alive.

The entire house shook around me, and the sound of wood splintering erupted as the house started to shake
with force. I watched the blurriness as something fast moving up the stairs, right before it hit me. And then the feeling of weightlessness sank in.

We sifted into Ryder’s cl
ub. It was filled with people dancing and drinking. Right up until we’d sifted in, they’d been having fun. I blinked as Adrian looked right at us, and Vlad, who had been behind the bar, moved in his lighting fast speed to stand in front of us.

“
What’s happened, Ryder?” Vlad’s voice boomed over the music, which made it stop on the spot.

“
Someone just blew up her house, with us inside of it.” Ryder growled, and held me against his frame as my legs threatened to give out. As if he was afraid to let me go. I was glad he was holding me as I had no doubt I’d hit the floor if he released his hold.

“
Adrian, get Syn seated and, get her a drink. The rest of you,” Vlad’s eyes swept the room with a grim look that promised retribution, “follow.”

Vlad’s voice was cold, and sent chills racing down my spine. I almost felt sorry for the asshole that blew up my house
—almost. Ryder turned me in his arms and planted a firm, gentle kiss on my lips before sifting out with the others. I looked around the club and blinked, everyone except Adrian and a few humans had left.

I turned to Adrian, who moved swiftly to embrace me. “Are you okay, Syn? I know how much you loved that house.”

“
I didn’t love the house, Adrian. I loved the memory of my parents that I had inside the house before it was turned into something darker. It’s gone now. Everything I had of them was inside of it. I don’t even know if Ryder’s men made it out alive.”

“
No, Syn, you have them inside of you. Here,” he said, placing his hand over my heart. “They can’t touch how you feel, or the memories you made with them. No one can tell you to forget that, or even replace it with something else. You choose what you remember.”

I blinked at him.
He’d gone off topic, and I had a feeling he was referring to us. “I need some water, please.”

I walked to a booth
, as he moved to the bar to grab the bottle of water I had asked for. My hands shook with the realization of just how close I’d come to being nothing more than a pile of ashes. Had it not been for Ryder, I would be nothing right now.

Tears rolled down my cheek as I considered the fact that h
e’d gone back to the house, and he was in danger there. I had a feeling that Adrian wasn’t quite sure what to do with me. He had a frown marring his beautiful bronzed skin, and the crease between his eyebrows showed he was trying to figure out how to make me stop crying.

“
I’m sorry,” I cried even harder, unsure how to make myself turn off the waterworks. It was just too much, and everything was crumbling around me yet again. I kept getting knocked down, and it was getting harder to get back up each time.

Adrian smiled, and pulled me
to my feet. He wrapped his cold arms around me, and whispered that it would be all right. I buried my head in his shoulder and hugged him back, as the reality of what had just happened overwhelmed me.

Adrian was a vampire.

Adam was the Dark Heir of the Fae.

Larissa was dead.

Alden was facing danger to help us.

I was
homeless, jobless, and attracted to the one thing that would surely kill me in the end.

The reality
set in that I had even lost my dog, and now my life was just one tragedy away from becoming a sad country song.

Reality sucked.

I cried harder, promising myself that this was the last time. This was the last time I cried over my life. Tomorrow, I'd pick myself back up, kill the asshole that did this, and move on. In that exact order. I was getting ready to pull away from Adrian and ask for the water when Ryder sifted in, and growled an inhuman sound that made my spine stiffen and my heart race.

I turned, and leveled him with a pointed look.
“Did everyone get out? Is there anything left?” My voice hitched, and cracked as I said it, which made his eyes soften a bit. He nodded, lifting my hope. “How bad is it?”

“
House is a total loss. We managed to save a small portion of the clothes, pictures, and anything pertaining to your parents that we could find.”

“
Wait, you went back to get my stuff?” I asked, incredulous that he would risk anyone's life for things I cherished. On one hand it was sweet, while on the other, it was stupid.

The tick in h
is jaw was working overtime now. “Yes, I took
immortals
inside a fucking inferno for your stuff; things that I couldn't replace, or anyone else could for that matter. Fae can’t undo that kind of damage, or turn back time, but we can recreate what we have seen. We just don’t know what was in there so that we could reproduce it for you, so we tried to save what we could. I know how humans like to keep memories from their past.”

“
Thank you, thank you all,” I said, looking around to find people covered in smoke and soot from the fire. “Next time, Ryder, screw the stuff, and kill the motherfucker who did it. Don't risk anyone's life for things. They are only items, and even if they can’t all be replaced, I’d choose safety over things any day.”

He
stared at me openly as if I'd just shocked, confused, and made his day all in one sentence. I moved closer, until I was standing on my tiptoes, and kissed his untouched cheek. “And thank you for saving me.” Because I, like a ninny, had forgotten I could sift! And he'd known I would, predicted it, and saved me from death. I wasn’t quite done with Transition yet, and this could have put a damper on my future as an immortal.

H
e wrapped his arms around me, pulled me closer, and whispered in my ear, quiet enough that only I could hear him. “You almost got killed yet again, Synthia. I'm about to wrap you in fucking bubble wrap.”

I smiled against his chest.
“I hear plastic isn't in these days and, besides, it wouldn’t last long since I have a weakness to pop the bubbles.”

He laughed
, but it wasn’t the musical one I wanted to hear. I could hear his heart hammering wildly inside his chest. My own was matching his in tempo. “Someone openly tried to kill you tonight, Synthia. Come back to Faery with me where I can keep you safe,” he said with possessiveness flooding his tone.

“
No, someone tried to kill me. Tonight, I'm upset. Tomorrow, they die. I won’t run from a fight, and this guy needs to be dealt with,” I smiled sadly as I pulled away. “I'm not hiding. I'm just not that type of person, Ryder. They want me; they can come and try to get me.”

“
They just fucking did. They blew up your fucking house with you
inside
of it! If I hadn't been there,” he paused, and shook his head as if dispelling the thought. “You'd be inside that burning fucking mess.”

“
But I’m not, because you saved me. They failed, because the guy at my side is the biggest baddest boogeyman on the fucking block. They failed, and if I hide they win. I can get knocked down, but what I can't do is stay down. Don't ask me to, because it will be
no
, every fucking time.”

He shook his head
and grinned. “All right, then we need to figure out who is trying to take you out. It could be the same asshole who keeps showing up at your house, or…Could it be someone from the Guild or, perhaps, one of the fanatics outside of the Guild?” he asked, raising a brow.

I crinkled my nose and nodded.
“It’s possible. If they are making a list and collecting information on those who were sympathetic to the Fae inside the Guild, I’d be on that list by default.” 

“
Drinks, come sit at the bar,” Vlad said when he noticed it was going to be awhile, and I was shaky on my legs at best right then anyway. I guess almost getting blown up had that effect on a person. I sat beside Ryder as his men circled his back.

I'd noticed that anytime he couldn't put his back to a wall, they became the wall that stood at his back. He was
always guarded and never alone; unless we were inside a room together. I was willing to bet that someone stood close to the door guarding it as well. He was important to his men; even if he wasn’t the Dark Heir, he was definitely a prince who was extremely important to his people. He had an elite guard of men he cared about, and who worked like a well-oiled machine. He was fast enough to remove me as a bomb went off in my house, and strong enough that people listened without questioning him. He was primal, sexual, and deadly to his very core.

“
We’re out of tonic right now. Gin and seven, ok?” Vlad said, and my stomach pitched and rolled with the sound of the drink.

“
Just a bottle of water please,” I replied, smiling when he cussed.

“
This is a bar. I can’t do my stereotypical bartender moves if you only order water.” He winked, joking with me as he tried to lighten the mood.

“
Do I need to throw up everywhere, because right now the only thing I can stomach is water?” I countered and watched his face turn to a mask of disgust.

“
So rather you didn't. Water it is.”

“
Okay, so we know the Fae who showed up at the house knows you. He said as much, and he was in your memories. What we don’t know is if he was with the group of Fae that were with the Mages who attacked the mansion or if he is also the one who blew up the house,” Ryder said as he brought me back to the reason we'd sat down at the bar in the first place.

“
Yes, he was there. He raped my mother, and he's the one that killed my father. He also had fangs—like mine,” I whispered past a lump as the memories flashed to life inside my mind. They were no longer as painful as they had once been.

“
He knew your name as well, Syn, and he didn’t set the wards off. It’s curious that he got through while they instantly seek anyone else out. Question is, who is he and why does he want you dead? He’s definitely after you alone. It’s possible he was sent to kill you.” Ryder said.

“
No idea. Considering we don’t know who I really am yet, I have no idea why anyone would want me dead.”

“
We need to figure it out. It might help us determine who is trying to kill you.”

“
Alden said that the wards might have been guarding against the Unseelie, but since there are hundreds of different kinds, it would be impossible to narrow it down to just one caste.” The entire club went silent with the word, as if it was taboo to speak it out loud. You could have heard a pin drop from across the room. I looked around, and back to Ryder, since the most I could see was a wall of backs guarding us.

“
Could be, but that doesn’t make sense. What would the Unseelie want with you? You are not even of our world, and most of the Unseelie are not allowed into the human world.”

“
It took you to your knees the first time you came in; maybe you are Unseelie,” I pointed out.

“
That happened one time, and we discussed why that might have happened.” He smirked boyishly. “So, there goes that theory.”

“
Okay, but why hide me from the Unseelie? It makes no sense.”

“
It makes no sense in a human world, but in ours every caste is always at odds with another. One clan could have hidden you from another. Stop thinking as a human, and start thinking as what you are, Syn. Nothing will ever make sense if you keep thinking as a human. We just need to figure out why they wanted you hidden to begin with. That might lead us to who is trying to kill you.”

“
Okay, so say they did. How do we tell which caste he's from, or me for that matter?”

“
We don't. We set a trap.”

“
With what?”

“
With someone who looks like you,” he replied.

“
Why not just use me?”

“
Fuck. That.”

“
I second that,” Adrian shouted over the wall of men.

“
I'm not some damsel in distress, and you’d all do well to remember who I was before I changed, because I’m still me.”

“
You’re also sick, Synthia. Something is making you unstable, you have yet to tap into the powers you were born with.”

“
Maybe it's too much testosterone arguing with me?” Everyone inside the club snickered at that.

“
Only way you're going out as bait is if I'm standing right fucking beside you.”