Dwellers of Darkness (25 page)

“I agree,” a voice spoke from behind me. I knew it instantly.

“Rez.” I turned and embraced her. I hadn’t really realized how much I had missed them. They were my family, too. They were a part of me.

“Oh, I don’t know. I certainly was fine without her around.” Maya strolled into the kitchen, immediately reaching for Marguerite’s scrumptious coffee cake.

I smiled. “Good to see you, too, Maya.”

She grunted back at me with her attention focused on the cake in her hand. Alki and Koke entered behind Maya.

Koke
moved around me. “If you are back, I will go get extra padding on.” She clicked her tongue in annoyance, referring to that time I had blown up the workout room, tossing us yards away, mangled and hurt. Being Fae we had been okay, but they’d never let me live it down. The room was now built of stone... not wood.

“You don’t look as soft and fat as I thought you would.” Alki circled me and grabbed my arm. I immediately went into a defense pose.

“To me it’s only been a few weeks since I’ve been here.” One eyebrow hitched up, taunting him to attack.

“Oh, no-no-no!” Marguerite waved a spatula between us. “No combat in my kitchen.”

Alki looked like he wanted to see if his teachings were still imbedded in my brain and muscles, but Rez shook her head. “Ember needs to eat and speak with Lars. You guys can beat on each other later.”

Alki huffed in disappointment. “Okay. But you come out later. You cannot afford to go soft.” He pivoted and headed out the back door,
Koke in pursuit.

I smiled, shaking my head. Yup, I even missed Alki.

I need therapy.

“Where’s Nic?” I turned back to Rez. A fuzzy dream from the night before hovered in my thoughts.

Rez cocked her head. “Asleep. He was out late last night.”

“Well, it’s good to see things don’t change around here.”

“Actually, he wasn’t out for himself; he was helping retrieve you. He went with Rimmon, Gorgon, and Lars’ men last night. You didn’t see him?”

So Nic wasn’t a dream. Without a word I headed for the stairs, for the Spanish god’s bedroom.

“My little Dae has returned home,” Nic’s voice came through the dark when I entered.

“I guess I should be thanking you for that.” I stepped farther into the room but kept the door open. Nic was a sexy Incubus and always trouble. Behind closed doors, he was a force I wasn’t ready to deal with. His hand reached out from under the covers and pulled the back of my leg. I fell on the bed next to him.

“I’ve been waiting for you to fall into my bed.” He tugged me, keeping me from getting up. We had a brief fling while I had been in the house. We both knew it was no more than that, but it had been fun. The fact I didn’t actually have sex with him seemed like a miracle now. Nic was almost impossible not to want. He could still fluster me.

“I didn’t come here for this.” I pulled away and sat up. He kept his hand on my leg.

“Why did you come here, then?” He sat, revealing more of his bare chest. His dark eyes penetrated mine. Nic was a sex god, and no matter how committed you were to someone, his power drew you in. I was supposedly immune to his charm. If that were the case, no mortal stood a chance. I could feel myself weakening.

“Nic, stop.” I got to my feet. “I came here to thank you.”

He studied me for a moment, his eyes roving over me. “Well, well, well, my sweet Dae is having sex... a lot of it.”

“What?” My cheeks heated up.

“Em, sex is the only thing I am really in tune with. It is how I know who is vulnerable and who to approach. I can tell when someone is really satisfied and when someone is not. You, girl, are incredibly content. Those can be fun and a great energy boost, but the humans who are lonely and full of self-loathing are the easiest.” He scooted toward me, putting his feet on the floor.

“You are disgusting.”

Nic spread his arms with a wide grin. “It’s who I am.” His eyes bored into me again. “I’m telling you right now I really want to conquer you. You would be a challenge.”

“You wouldn’t get any energy hits off me.”

“I’d get another kind of buzz from you. It would be simply for enjoyment purposes. Not work.”

I looked away, embarrassed.

“Don’t be ashamed of wanting sex, Em. Fairies and Demons are the biggest sex fiends there are.”

I didn’t want to tell him I was also part Dark Dweller, who could equal an Incubi’s need for sex. No wonder I could barely stay in my clothes lately.

“Humans think they need to be ashamed because they want it and like it. You are really enjoying it, aren’t you?” Nic leaned back on his arms with a leer. “I am merely disappointed it’s not me.”

I laughed. “You’re not upset. You don’t like me that much.”

He shrugged. “I like you more than most. You’ve become one of us here.” He shifted, only a corner of the sheet covering him. “But you’re the kind of girl who wants her partner to be monogamous. I don’t and won’t ever like anyone enough for fidelity.”

I laughed. “Yeah, well, I just wanted to thank you for saving me.” I turned to leave.

“You know I wasn’t the only one who’s missed you. He never stopped searching.”

My hand stopped on the door knob. “That’s because I broke our contract, which doesn’t come without consequences. Lars wants to make sure I pay.”

“If that’s what you want to believe, but he didn’t send out his minions to look for you. He went himself.”

I still continued to face the door. “He needs me right now, but I am just a means to end for him.”

“When he found you were in the Otherworld, he risked exposing his spies there to help you escape. He even had people keeping your friends and father safe.”

I whirled. “What? Who?”

Nic’s gaze was steady on me. “Think about it, Ember. Who is in a position to keep your family protected?”

Then it hit me. “Castien. Castien works for Lars?”

Nic nodded. “He is one of several who have risen in ranks under Aneira. Castien is the highest, and the Queen trusts him. He has been a great informant for us, and we don’t want to compromise him. He does enough so he won’t get caught.”

It suddenly made so much sense why Castien had always looked out for my friends and treated them well. I thought it had been because of Ryan, and maybe now it was, but in the beginning it hadn’t. How many little things did he do every day to keep Aneira from killing them? Why would Lars bother? He certainly didn’t care if any of them survived? I grabbed for the door again.

“Where are you going?”

“To talk to Lars.” I gave him a quick smile over my shoulder. “Thank you again for saving me tonight.”

“How about you owe me one.” He winked.

I chuckled and left the room.

Lars’ office was on the other side of the house. I weaved through the enormous English-style home and barged into his office. “Why didn’t you tell me you had someone
. . . Castien . . . watching over my family. Don’t you think this would have eased my anxiety?”

He sat in his chair, nonplussed by my entrance. “I could not have you knowing anything about my men there. Your ties to Torin could have exposed them to the Queen. Whatever he learned from you, Aneira could have picked it from his thoughts. I had to keep you completely ignorant, for my men’s safety and for your family.”

My anger deflated. He had only been protecting the people I loved... from me.

“Why did you do it? I know you don’t care what happens to them.”

Lars sat taller in his chair. “You are right. I do not, but you do. I needed you to have a reason to fight. I knew as long as they were prisoners you would never give up battling for your family and friends. If something happened to them, you could have gone either way. I was not willing to take the chance.”

Manipulation should be the
Fae’s tag line, but in this case I couldn’t get mad. He had kept them as safe as possible.

“Did you know Ryan can’t leave now?”

“Yes. It was the only way Castien could save him. Ryan was dying. It was my call.”

I wiped the cut on my forehead. “Thank you for saving him.”

He nodded. “Now let us talk about more pressing matters, and why I was trying to contact you tonight.”

“Was it necessary to flip a cop car, almost killing me in order to nab me? You could have asked nicely. Oh, right, Unseelie Kings don’t do that.”

“I saved you from being put in jail. You should be thanking me. Again.”

“You Fae are so screwed up. I love you think propelling a cop car off the road because I didn’t coming running is a perfectly normal thing to do.”

“You ignored my call. I knew something was wrong.” He waved toward the chair. “Please, sit, Ember.”

“No. I have to get back. I need to find Eli
... oh, God, is he okay? What happened to him?”

“He is fine. He was able to get away as well.”

Relief came out in my breath. “I better go. He’ll track me down.” I rocked back and forth on the balls of my feet.

“He will not be able to find you here,” Lars declared.

My lips curled in a smile. “Oh, really? He did last time.”

“What?” Lars stopped, his head darting up. “He was able to find you here?”

“Yes. He couldn’t cross the wards, of course, but he knew where I was. The only place he can’t seem to feel me is when I’m in the Otherworld. He will find me soon enough.”

Lars’ forehead creased. “I am aware he does not connect to you in the Otherworld. But I never suspected your tie to him was so strong it carried through our spells and wards.” He frowned. “I would have been more diligent had I known he could feel you in our compound.”

I shrugged. “You could be as careful as you want, it doesn’t stop him. It’s kind of annoying, but it won’t.”

“I am starting to gather as much.” Lars scowled.

“Wait. How did you know Eli could not feel me in the Otherworld?” I trailed off; the answer already came to me. “You saw Eli while I was gone. And you knew I was alive the whole time and didn’t tell them?”

Lars calmly nodded. “He was causing enough disturbances here on Earth. I needed to control the situation and keep you protected. He would have destroyed my efforts if he knew you were alive.”

I groaned.

“You should thank me.
Elighan would have gotten himself killed. There is little doubt he would have tried to get to the Otherworld for you, drawing the Queen’s attention doing it. He was not subtle or discreet during your absence.”

The other stories of what Eli was like during that time only backed his statement. Still he was going to be so pissed when he found out Lars knew the whole time I wasn’t dead.

“Let’s get to why you brought me here so I can get back.” I crossed my arms.

Lars stood and walked to the glass doors overlooking his sprawling landscape. “It took me a while to realize what I saw on your back.” His voice was distant, lost in thought.

“I know the location of the map on your back. I am actually displeased it took me as long as it did to decipher it. I should have known...” Lars cleared his throat, ridding himself of any emotion he might have shown. “It has a great deal of meaning to me.”

“Really? Where?” I stared at the back of his head.

“An area near Thessalia.”

“Like in Greece? Really? I’ve always wanted to go there.”

“Yes.” He turned to face me. “We are heading to the monasteries of Metéora tonight. You and the Druid are coming with me.” Of course Kennedy would have to be there. A Druid had to break the curse so we could get to the sword.

“Tonight? What about the Dark Dwellers?”

Lars shook his head. “We do not need them.”

A sputtered laugh fell from my lips. “Need them or not, they will be coming.”

Lars looked out the window and sighed. “I do not want them with us, but I will agree to this only because of your connection to Elighan. He will follow anyway. I suppose they could be an asset in protecting you and locating the sword.” Lars walked toward me, his expression severe, and his eyes stared deeply into mine. “But our deal still holds. The moment the sword is no longer needed to dispatch the Queen, it belongs to me, or he dies.”

I nodded slowly. “Agreed.”

“All right, let us go.”

My face scrunched up. I was worried how Eli and the group would take the news about Lars, especially because I’d been keeping it secret.

Mom somehow sensed my approach since she stood waiting at the property line. My stomach twisted in knots, nervous of what was going to
happen. No one would be happy about Lars.

“Ember,” she yelled as she ran to me. “We were so worried about you. I was going crazy. Elighan didn’t know what happened to you.” The strength of her arms crushed the air out of my lungs.

“Can’t breathe, Mom,” I choked out.

“Good, because I was planning on killing you once I knew you were all right.” She stepped back, gripping my shoulders tightly. Her eyes wandered from the top of my head to my feet, making sure I was in one piece. “Don’t do that to me again.”

“Didn’t have much of a choice.” I looked around, ready for a raging Dark Dweller to come out of the woodwork. “Where’s Eli?”

“He went out searching for you. He said he could feel you but was having trouble locating the exact spot. What happened?” She dropped her grip on me.

“About that
... there is something else I need to tell you guys.” I cringed knowing how they’d all react.

Mom froze in place, and I saw her nose sniff the air, her eyes growing wide. “Oh, crap on ash bark. No!”

“Oh, yes.” Lars stepped from the shadows, addressing my mom with a cool expression. His head gave her a terse nod. “
Sionnach
.”

“Lars.” Mom nodded in return, quickly regaining her composure. “How disappointing. I was hoping I would never have to see you again.”

He sneered. It was one of those icy smiles that always made me squirm in my seat. “You should have come to me, Lily. I could have saved you from a lot of agony. All those years on the run keeping Ember away and then being tortured merely because of your obstinate nature.”

“I wanted to get her away from that life. To keep her safe. You would have only thrown her in head first.”

Lars stepped closer. “And did you prevent it from eventually happening? No. You simply left her ignorant, vulnerable, and weak.” Anger punctuated each word.

I had never seen him lose his cool before. No matter how frustrated or upset he’d gotten with me, he kept an air of control. He was always in charge, but something in his tone now made me feel his restraint was slipping.

“She had a life and was loved. Loved more than
you
could possibly understand.”

My head snapped to look at my mom. Something in her words and menacing glare caused my stomach to plummet.

“You do not know anything of the kind. You never gave me the chance.” He opened his arms before clasping his hands together.

“Oh, I think I knew you both well enough to realize she was better off without either of you.”

Fear clung to my lungs. I struggled to breathe, knowing what was coming. I had felt it for a while but never let myself fully accept the thought. Now, I was watching myself being swept down a river toward a waterfall, helpless to stop it.

“She is my blood!” Lars bellowed and his body shook. “
My
blood.
My
family.”

Noooo
...
I was now going over the waterfall into the crushing rocks below.

“What does that matter to you?” Mom stepped closer, her shoulders rising. “You have no idea what family even means. All you cared about was power. You couldn’t love anyone but yourself. She doesn’t belong to you, Lars.”

“And she belongs to
you
?” he snapped back.

My heart battered against my ribs. One idea absorbed my thoughts. Was I listening to my mother and
father
fight? Did my gaze dart between two former lovers? My parents? Everything about it seemed wrong. Lars and Lily together? In love?

My head shook back and forth not wanting to accept the notion. Lars was the exact opposite of what Mom liked. Sometimes opposites attracted, but this was still hard to grasp. I was more shocked and confused about the fact my mom and Lars could have been together than the fact he might be my father. It had been there all along, this possibility. From the moment I had met Lars I felt a strange connection to him.

“Why? Why didn’t you tell me?” I looked into Lars’ face, searching it for evidence that I came from him. His glowing, yellow-green eyes stared back into mine. His jet black hair was the same color as mine. I always thought the eye color we shared was a Demon thing. Guess it was more than that. I certainly hadn’t got his tan skin tone. My nose and lips didn’t seem to come from either of them.

“I did not feel you were ready for this information at the time. There were more pressing matters.”

“More pressing matters? Training me and creating a weapon against the Queen was more urgent than telling me you are my father?”

Lars and Mom stilled, both turning to me. A huge gulf filled the space. Dread shot into my gut like an arrow. There was more they weren’t telling me.

“Y-You are my father, right?”

“No. I am not your father, Ember,” Lars said matter-of-factly.

The rug slithered out from under me. A Ferris wheel in my head was spinning my emotions and thoughts around and around. “Wh-what? I thought... you just said...” I didn’t know what I was trying to say anymore.

“I said you were my blood, not that you are my daughter.”

Blinking, I stared desperately at him then at my mom when he didn’t continue.

Mom compressed her lips together, and sighed. “Ember
... Lars is your uncle.”

What? My uncle?

“My twin brother was your father. He is dead,” Lars stated as he regarded me.

Mom glared at him, “Why don’t you tell her how he came to be that way.”

Lars’ Demon-colored eyes slanted. “There was no other choice.”

“So convenient for you, wasn’t it?” Mom hurled back at him. “You wanted everything he had.”

“Power maybe, but I lost the two things that meant anything to me to acquire it.”

“You know nothing of loss. You destroyed the—”

“Stop! Stop!” I grabbed at my head. My entire body trembled with anger, confusion, and fear.

There was a tense silence before Lars spoke. “Ember, do you remember when I told you about the previous Unseelie King?”

It took me a moment before the memory came back to me. It happened the first time I talked with Lars, after I almost drowned and ended up passing out on his land. He had hinted that he had killed and taken the title from the last King. “Yeah.”

“Your father was the previous King,” Lars’ body became rigid and his stare distant.

I shook with denial and turned to my mother. “You told me my father lived in New York. I saw a picture of him. Was it all a lie? He wasn’t real either?”

“I didn’t lie exactly. He was an old boyfriend of mine. You found the picture of us and assumed he was your dad, and I let you believe it. He really does live in New York with a wife and kids. That is all real.”

“Just minus the fact he isn’t my father. That my father was a Demon who was the Unseelie King.”

“You have to understand. I wanted you to have nothing to do with this world or life. I thought I was doing the best thing for you.”

“Best thing?” I yelled. “Lying to me? Keeping me ignorant and unaware of what existed out there? I thought I was crazy most of my life.”

Mom’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at me. “I am so sorry.”

“Sorry is not going to change the reality I had to live through your ‘murder’ and had to be committed for a while because I was seeing and hearing things. Sorry won’t bring back my father.”

“Mark is your real father for all intents and purposes. Devlin knew nothing about being a parent or caring for a child.”

“You never gave any of us the opportunity.” Lars thundered, but my mind fastened on something else she said.

“Devlin? Was that his name? You told me it was my father’s family name?”

“It was.” She responded softly. She hadn’t exactly lied about it, but that didn’t make me feel any less angry.

I still felt tricked. The whole time I had another clue laughing in my face, like some twisted inside joke that I was never let in on. Ember
Aisling Devlin Brycin. My name was one long farce. Every one of the names hinted at who I was or about the world I came from.

“Tell me about him.” I hugged myself to keep from exploding.

“Devlin was my twin.” Lars shifted his weight to the other leg. “My brother and I shared identical looks and powers... the ones you have inherited. We were very close and did everything together, until he fell in love. Then everything changed.” Lars’ lids shifted to glance at Mom before they came back to me. She kept her head down, staring at the ground.

So the Demon Unseelie King, my father, fell in love with a noble Fay, my mom. They had a torrid love affair. When I came to exist, all of their lives went to shit.

How very Shakespearean.

My father was dead. Killed by the present Unseelie King, my uncle. Forget Shakespeare, we should be on a reality TV show.

The notion that I would never get to meet him, to know who he was, struck me. I was sure I should feel something, anything. I didn’t. I only felt numb and detached.

“Why did you kill your own brother? To become the King? To be more powerful? How could you do something like that?”

Lars pinched the space between his brows. “I had to. It was not something I wanted to do. He went insane and was no longer fit to rule.”

“So you killed him?” A strangled cry punched out of my throat. “Is that how you solve things? He was your brother no matter what.”

His lips turned down, and he bowed his head. There was no sadness or emotion in his voice. “It is how it is done. You never
retire
from being the Unseelie King. It is a fight to the death, and whoever wins is King. Devlin killed thousands of humans and was no longer suitable to be King. He lost himself and became volatile. I remained the only one powerful enough to challenge him. It was up to me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“After what you went through, you were not exactly stable. I did not think it would help you to hear that the former, tyrannical Unseelie King was your biological father, had gone insane, and almost wiped out a country. That your own uncle had killed him and became the current Unseelie King. You needed your human father and friends to focus on. To revenge them. To stabilize you,” Lars stated. “It was also unsettling for me to see how untrained and defenseless you were. I needed you to focus on your powers and be able to protect yourself.”

For most of my life, I had wondered about the man in New York, my alleged real father. Before Mark, I looked at men on the street and pretended they were my dad. I witnessed fathers pushing their kids on the swing or playing with them on the front lawn. I imagined how it would be to have one. My father would tell me how sorry he was and promise never to leave me again. That he loved and missed me so much.

My daydreams never included him being a Demon or an Unseelie King. Or deceased. I envisioned getting together with my father’s family over Christmas dinner, not over a thousand year-old text that prophesized my killing a Fairy Queen with a mythical sword. My dreams had been a little simpler: a dog, a ball, and a lawn.

That was never meant for me. My biological, Demon father was dead, while my true dad was locked up in the Otherworld by a psycho Fay bitch. That was my reality.

Someone has a really sick sense of humor.

Mom held her hand out to me. “Ember, I am so sorry I lied to you. I only wanted to protect you.”

“No.” I stepped out of her reach. “I’ve had enough of your idea of protection. It’s only brought me pain and heartbreak.”

Her face filled with horror and devastation. I didn’t care. I pivoted and dashed into the dark night. I needed to be alone. My thoughts were like angry gnats, buzzing around my head. I heard Mom call my name repeatedly, but she didn’t come after me. I continued till they were out of sight, then the earth came up to collect me as my legs crumpled.

Breath went in and out of my lungs too quickly. The world around me spun, and I curled into a ball. When the wards went off, it felt distant and far away. Somewhere in my brain it registered Lars must have crossed onto the Dark Dweller’s property.