Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) (24 page)

“He is well, sir.” Chance turned partially towards Danté and began his introductions. This done, the wizard directed us within the castle and took us past the great room and down a long corridor to the kitchen, where a small, roundish, and lovely woman with soft white, short wavy hair came forward with cookies and set them at the long oak table.

“Ah, Chance, you were very young when your father brought you here to us. Do you remember my dearest Charm?” the wizard offered softly.

Chance went forward, took her hand, and dropped a kiss there. “Aye then, how could I forget my lady, Charm?”

Again, introductions were concluded before we all sat and Charm busied herself pouring tea. As gentle and sweet as I believed she was, there was something about her that troubled me—something I couldn’t pinpoint.

Danté whispered in my ear, “Don’t keep staring at her. What you are feeling is the latent vampire in her. She was repaired by the wizard a thousand years ago.”

“Huh … how do you know that?”

“As soon as Chance told me where we were headed, I remembered the tales Breslyn has recounted to me about his friend the wizard. Rysdale comes from a dimension of wizards and has magic beyond our scope. Now, shush.”

I stopped staring, although it was even more difficult now. This sweet, elderly lady, obviously Rysdale’s lady, was a latent vampire? What did that even mean—a latent vampire?

However, Chance was explaining what had happened to our queen, and Rysdale the wizard was pushing his chair away from the table and saying, “Bring your cookies and come with me!”

I think I giggled, but Danté squeezed my arm and I stopped to growl at him. “Ouch.”

“Then behave,” he answered, unabashed.

We followed the wizard, who had already wiggled into my heart. He seemed to be Dumbledore come to life, and who doesn’t love Dumbledore? At any rate, we all filed into a huge room with a vast ceiling. Rysdale waved his wand, and it was as though a blank screen appeared, and suddenly there was Queen Aaibhe.

“Ah,” said Rysdale. “Another few moments and I shall have her coordinates …”

“No, Rysdale, old friend,” our queen said, making me jump. She heard us, saw us—how was that possible? And then she continued to speak in the sweet, all-knowing voice of hers. “I am sorry, but no one must come for me.” And without another word, the screen went blank. She had, by her own hand, cut the connection.

“Rysdale …?” Chance was frowning, and I think we were as well—except for Trevor, who had a cookie in his mouth and was swallowing hard. “What happened?”

“She has obliterated the connection. She will not allow me in. I am sorry, but until she wills it, I can not get the coordinates.”

“Rysdale—is there nothing you can do?” Danté asked on a low, frustrated note.

“Here is the sorry truth, my dears.” Rysdale pyramided his hands. “Your queen does not wish to be rescued at the moment, which leads me to believe she has a plan. Hence, my next question is this: do you still want to attempt a rescue against her wishes?”

We all exchanged glances and answered as one unit, “
Yes
.”

“Ah … then go and make yourselves comfortable, for this will take a little time and effort.”

* * *

Danté and I went out into the garden and sat on the arbor swing. He was deep in thought, but I interrupted his cogitations. “Why would the queen do that to us? Why send us away?”

“We can only assume her reasoning is valid,” Danté said absently.

“She is sacrificing herself, isn’t she?”

“She will only do that if she believes she can destroy Gaiscioch—then, yes, she would sacrifice herself.”

I discovered in that moment that I loved Aaibhe. Agitated, I got off the swing. “She can’t do that! For the good of the Seelie Fae, she can’t do that! Who would rule …?”

“She has been grooming Ete for the position, and now I know why. Aaibhe has the
sight
. She must have known something like this was coming …”

“Well, we won’t let it. When one has visions, it is for a reason—it is so you can change the outcome. I know that—in my heart I know that. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of it all? We are going to find a way to get to her out safely and kill the son of a bitch causing all this havoc.
We will
—damn it all to hell, Danté,
we must
.”
And for some reason, this announcement reduced me to tears. I planted myself in Danté’s strong arms and wept heartily. It seemed to me at that moment I was doing a lot of weeping and I had to stop—had to get control. I sniffed myself out of my
teariness
and kissed his chest through the denim shirt he wore.

He whispered words of comfort, held up my chin, and softly said, “You are right,
enfant
. W
e will find and rescue our queen, and we will destroy Gaiscioch.” So saying, he took my hand and marched us back into the castle. Did he have a plan? Oh, I hoped my Danté had a plan, because this girl, the one who was supposedly ‘the prophecy’, didn’t.

~ Eight ~

HALLOWEEN EXCITEMENT WAS beginning to take over the city of Dublin. People in costumes were already traveling the streets. Revelers were singing and shouting as they made their way through Temple Bar, and no one had a clue that they were about to enter a war with monsters they hadn’t even known existed.

Musicians, many in costumes, played for tips on the avenue, and pubs seemed full to overflowing. I stood in human Glamour with my two remaining brothers and quietly took it all in. I found it all exciting beyond my imagination. This world was teaming with life, and that life sparked a series of sensations I hadn’t known I was capable of experiencing. Humans were so full of emotions, emotions that they allowed full rein …

There right on the street, for all the world to see, that man was screaming at the top of his lungs at another man … a fist fight ensued, and yet on the next corner, two lovers were holding hands …

I will make this world mine
, I vowed.
These humans make me ‘feel’, and I will enslave them and watch them until I have had my fill.

I saw the way they looked at me and my brothers and knew we stood out as quite exceptional. I had something now to compare our stature to, and we were, I saw, physically enticing. We would not even have to use our sexual magic to seduce …

I like that woman whose ass sways as she walks in those jeans she wears.
I decided to have her first. She exuded sex appeal.

“Lovely girl … ” I called to her, and she turned to eye me. Her beautiful mouth dropped, and she walked back towards me. My brothers, I could tell, were excited. We would take her and use her until we were satiated.

She was between us, taking out her breasts, and as I fondled her on the street, people watched … It was exciting, but we needed to protect ourselves so I enacted a spell of concealment. My brother removed all her clothing, and he was already sodomizing her as I, I had my cock in her, and we pumped her together …

Annoyed, Hordly hovered, waiting his turn, but he could not wait, and so he took her hand and put it around his dick, and she worked him … and we worked her … and worked her and took turns working her on the hard cement path, with people walking around us …

She would die; in the next few moments her heart would give out from the level of hormones our bodies induced her to experience. She would die like the ones we’d left in the hotel room not so far away.

I had no pity for her … yet, I meant to temper myself in the future and perhaps keep a human of my choice alive for this exceptional pleasure.

And as we screwed her to death, I could see her eyes go blank … What was that I felt? Regret? I didn’t wish to feel that—regret was a weakness I wouldn’t allow.

My brothers and I had never had any female other than Morrigu, and this new experience with female humans was very much to my liking. I liked the scent they gave off when they were in the midst of their heat …

My brother moved away as he thought himself clean and back in human Glamour. He said softly, “She has expired … shall we get another?”

“No, we have other things to do,” I answered them. “We have other matters to attend to.” Theory and reality had collided at Dravo, and they were slightly unsure how to proceed. My brothers looked to me for all their answers, and although I was happy to lead as always, I found myself just a bit shaky still from the loss of my youngest brother, as well as from the sudden dawning that my brothers could be killed far more easily than I …

I didn’t want to lose them. Until that point I had thought them all as invincible as I.

“We will rule this earth, and now the Seelie Queen, Aaibhe, can do naught against us. Gaiscioch has her trapped,” I told them, but I wasn’t sure. “We have pleasured ourselves, and now we will release the Flapper caste and allow them to run amongst the human and feed. We want chaos. Perhaps then the humans will thank us when we bring order.”

“And the Dark King—will he allow us this freedom? Does he not like humans? His woman is a human,” Hordly asked on a note of concern.

“He cares for no other—only her, his precious Crystal,” I snapped and felt the old bitterness line every word. “He is off with her no doubt, oblivious to all, save her needs. When he finally notices, it will be too late. The world will be hours. The Isle of Tir will be ours, Aaibhe will be dead, Queen Mab will be secreted away in exile, and we will rule.”

“But the Seelie warriors … will they not be able to stop us? They are mighty—and the Daoine even mightier.”

“They will try, but we will be ready for them,” I answered and felt the grimness in my tone.

“They have the power to send us back and repair the fissure in the Prison Wall.” Hordly was still not convinced. “I don’t want to go back.”

“We shall not go back. We will gain control and remove that power from them. Besides, as long as the queen remains a captive, they will not be able to use that power. It is hers alone.”

“Gaiscioch must kill her,” my other brother said with a shake of his handsome head. “He must do it soon.”

“If he does not, we will find her and do it for him, and then … we will dispose of him as well. In the meantime, I am sorry to say, I believe we still need him. We cannot destroy him until she is found and put to death.”

“Agreed,” both of my brothers said as one. We lifted the spell of concealment and watched as humans screamed and surrounded the dead and naked woman lying on the sidewalk.

* * *

“Queen Aaibhe cannot stop you from finding the dimension Monlow. That is a given … isn’t it?” I asked Rysdale, as nearly half an hour of precious time had slipped by without any results.

“Monlow, the land of green and yellow with two moons,” Danté said to Rysdale. “Find it, and we will do the rest.”

“I know exactly where Monlow lies, but even as I probed the queen’s whereabouts she spoke to me and asked me to stop. I feel I must honor her wish,” Rysdale said sadly. “And we must remember—she is very wise.” He shook his head, and his pointed wizard’s hat went askew. I felt like giggling as I reached over and set it right for him. He smiled at me and patted my hand. “Besides, if you arrive outside her circle you will be poisoned with the Danu dust trap Gais has set for you.”

“She is sacrificing herself for nothing!” Danté roared. “You must give us the coordinates for Monlow and allow us to do the rest, and we need it now … not tomorrow, not even later this evening. Samhain is upon us, and they will walk the earth. Will you allow them to do so?”

“It isn’t I allowing it or not, my dear Prince,” Rysdale offered sadly. “It is my dear friend Queen Aaibhe’s wish that I leave it to her wisdom. It is my wish to at least give her just a bit more time.” He put a hand on Danté’s shoulder. “And in the interim, I am working on a shield to keep you safe from the Danu dust … give me the time I ask for.”

“How much do you ask for?” I put in as Danté looked frustrated as hell. I felt that Rysdale had a point. No sense rushing in like fools and being shut down by poisonous dust. Besides, Queen Aaibhe was formidable. It occurred to me that she probably did indeed have a plan that might be better than ours, which was kind of willy nilly, spur of the moment.

“Two hours more—by then it will be nine o’clock, leaving us still three more hours before magic can be used at its worst,” Rysdale answered.

“I’ll agree to one more hour,” Danté responded unhappily.

“You will agree to two,” Rysdale answered solemnly.

“Wait—make it one and a half hours, Rysdale, and then Danté will agree without further argument,” I stuck in.

Rysdale’s aged eyes twinkled. “Very well, we have a bargain.”

Chance had been sitting and listening in on this. At this juncture he got to his feet and said, “My sister and I are for home, as apparently we can do no more here. We need to gather our forces and meet Breslyn and Ete in Dublin.”

“Right then,” Danté agreed.

“I’m going with them,” Trevor announced as he got to his feet and took Lana’s hand. Chance walked over and gently separated the two once more, and I thought this time the giggles would just take over. I held myself across my middle with a hand over my mouth.