Immortal Craving: Immortal Heart (6 page)

“I had a feeling you’d be the one who came to find me.” Acacia smiled up at Kale, her eyes closed and face raised to the sun. She looked all too innocent, sitting in the grass with her legs crossed and the pale blue skirt of her flowing dress pulled around her knees and tucked under her. Nothing like you'd expect from one of the rulers of the Underworld. “Your sun is warm. Ours is but an illusion—it provides no heat, but it is beautiful.”

“I’ve never asked you or your sisters about the Underworld.”

Acacia patted the grass next to her as an invitation for him to join her. An invitation that was more like an order—its unspoken courtesy that what the Immortal Three asked of them, they
gave. Kale took a seat next to Acacia and followed her lead, taking the time to close his eyes and lift his face to the sun.

“You all hide in the shadows, for a very noble purpose, but you must take the time to enjoy the world you live in.”

Kale didn’t say anything but he nodded. Acacia was right; he couldn’t remember the last time he sat in the sun and just enjoyed the heat.

“Would you like for me to tell you about my world?” Acacia asked, still keeping her head tilted up to the sun.

“Yes, I really would.”

“The Underworld is an unusual place. The part my sisters and I rule is much like your World; it’s really quite beautiful. Our sun has no heat because those who reside behind our gates are comfortable at all times; their bodies maintain a steady temperature around
them. Those who reside with us are happy. They live a new life without the needs of their former Fae life. It’s a good end for those who have earned the right to enter our Kingdom.”

“What about your brothers’ Kingdom?” Kale asked, finally looking at Acacia.

“Well, theirs is a little different. I can’t tell you the details, but the Dark side of the Underworld has different realms of purgatory—those who barely missed the mark into the Light Kingdom are often given the choice of work they do in our world.”

“Do you know all who reside with you?”

Acacia smiled at him. “I wondered if you’d ever ask this question. You know we work under strict rules that determine what we can and cannot do. I see the fates, I know when each of you will join my World, but I can never tell you. Just as I cannot warn you of the deaths of those you love. But I see the future you are running into and there is so much happening outside our worlds. The secret I want to share with you and that I always want you to remember is that I cannot lie to you.”

Kale narrowed his eyes at her. This was news to him. “You can’t lie to me—so if I ask you when I’m going to die you would have to tell me?”

Acacia smiled at him. “No, I told you I cannot tell you that. However, should you guess the day, the time, and the form correctly, then I would be bound to tell you that you were right. It is how you word what you ask, so give it a try and ask me the question to the answer you seek.”

Kale took a second to find the proper wording and braced himself for the answers to what he had long ignored.

“Did Darion kill Katarina?”

“No, she did not join our world at
Darion’s hand.”

Kale’s stomach clenched. Katarina is still alive. Then he considered what Acacia said…
She did not join our world at Darion’s hand.
That didn’t mean he didn’t have her executed

“Did he have her executed?” Kale asked.

“No, she was not executed.”

These were non-answers. Kale sighed as he thought of the right way to word the question.

“Did Katarina ever join your world?” Kale asked.

Acacia smiled. “You caught on quickly and yet I don’t know if the answer will bring you joy or cause you more pain… but your Katarina still lives in the
Human World.
”

Kale let out a heavy breath. He wasn’t sure either. Was he relieved or was he feeling a new stab of pain to know she was still alive? Kale hated his heart right then. It was as it always was, in a constant battle with his brain whenever Katarina was involved.

“You know where she is?” he asked.

“We know where all
Fae are. It’s our job. We see you at birth, we are always aware of you, and we know when it’s time for us to come for you.”

“You collect the souls of the
Fae?”

Acacia dipped her chin. “Yes, we come for all our brethren when it is time for them to join us.”

“Brethren,” Kale said softly.

“What would you call us, Kale? You know the first
Fae were created from the Underworld, and we gave them the Middle World to reproduce and thrive. You descend from the Underworld. So yes, we view all the Fae—Dark and Light—as Brethren. But this is not what is important. What you need to figure out is what really happened with Katarina.”

Kale nodded. Part of him was pissed that over the past fifteen years none of the sisters ever alluded to the fact that Katarina was still alive, but thinking of Cree he kept his cool. It was something he would have to deal with, but for right now he needed his feeding. Then he needed to get back to the
Human World so he could start his search for Katarina. He was
going
to get his closure.

Katarina sighed as she moved down the mostly bare halls of the Siren’s home. She knew his name—she hadn’t entered into a deal with the Light Fae without doing her research—but she refrained from calling him anything but Siren, which usually made his lips twitch into a very attractive smile.

“Hello, Siren,” she said.

She smiled and watched as his lips did as she had expected and twitched into that very same smile she’d been thinking of.

“How is my trusted Succubus today?”

“Stressed and wondering what the plan is.”

“The plan is as it has been,” he replied, pushing a stack of papers aside and folding his hands on the desk top.

“We need to move up the timeline,” she said, moving to take the seat across from him.

“No, in fact we need to keep our heads clear and take precautions.”

Her eyes narrowed; they didn’t have time for this. Her mind drifted to the room that had been her prison in Darion’s castle.

Something that should have been beautiful with its deep, rich colors and expensive fabrics; there wasn’t a piece of furniture in that room that had not been kissed with silk in some way. The colors used to be some of her favorites—deep reds and purples. She would have rather been left on the hay-strewn floor of her original dungeon cell.

“You ok?” the Siren asked, his eyes full of the concern that had made her want to trust and help him.

“Yeah, it’s just I spent years in that castle and I can’t stand the thought of more of my people still being there.”

“I know. I want to help them just as badly as you do, but we need to be careful. I’m still working on entry and exit strategy.”

She nodded. “Ok, what do you need from me?”

“Have you somehow figured out who the
Succubus
out there killing the human men is?”

A frown marred her pretty face. “I would have lead with that if I had, but I’m working on it. I went and saw both Gwen and Zoe; they seem to be doing well. They chose to stay together after we escaped and are keeping each other out
of trouble. Gwen had it the hardest after her twin disappeared; she nearly refused to leave with us.”

Katarina’s mind wandered back to that night. She sucked in a sharp breath; Gwen and her sister
Synawen had been among Darion’s favorites. It wasn’t surprising. They were gorgeous, with such light blonde hair and some of the fairest skin she’d ever seen. Their dark blue eyes had shone starkly against their pale complexions. They had all been used, but Gwen and Synawen seemed to get the worst of it.

Syna
, as they had all called her, was already gone when they finally made it to her room to get her out. They searched as long as they could before—in Gwen’s opinion—abandoning her sister. Katarina asked Jake about Syna, but he said he never saw her again. They all needed support of some fashion and Zoe was Gwen’s.

Katarina, on the other hand, had needed time and distance from everything that was connected to her captivity.

She had been beaten, abused, and used. It took some time before she was comfortable enough with herself to finally give in to what her Succubus side had longed for and craved. The simple feedings had gotten her by for a while, but she finally had to give her body what it needed for survival… a good hook-up at least once every couple of weeks.

It wasn’t until she had been free for over two years that she was finally strong enough to allow Jake back into her life. It was hard a first to look at him—he’d seen almost every humiliating experience she was exposed to. It seemed ridiculous, especially since he’d saved her, but it took time to be able to look him in the eye. Shame had been something she’d worked hard to release.

“I don’t know what he did to you.” His low, strong voice interrupted her thoughts, bringing Katarina back to the small office she was sitting in. “But my imagination has come up with some pretty solid estimations. So I understand that you feel protective of the
Succubi
who escaped with you, but I’m Light Fae and I believe in protecting humans from our kind—so we need to find whoever is doing this.”

Katarina lifted her gaze to a pair of sympathetic, understanding eyes. He was right; they couldn’t let this keep happening.

“I’ll find and help her,” Katarina assured him.

“You have your fingers in a lot of cookie jars right now. I know all of what you are taking on and I will do my best to protect you… but you need to be careful.”

Katarina smiled. “I know and I will be.”

“Good, have a safe night.” He nodded and smiled back at her.

.

Kale was still reeling from his conversation with Acacia.

Katarina was still alive.

She had been for the past fifteen years as he mourned her death and seethed at her betrayal. Now he was going to find her.

Kale barged through the tinted glass doors into Hawk’s Eye headquarters.

“Hi, Kale.
To what do we owe the pleasure?”

“Hello Sienna, where’s Lucas?”

Sienna smiled her radiant smile at Kale and he couldn’t help but return the gesture. Whether he was raging or not, Sienna radiated calm.

He’d thought it interesting that Sienna had wanted to move to the Human World, to run the front office of Hawk’s Eye. Sienna was a Nymph, so when she approached Cree for the position, they were all surprised that she would want to leave the forest of the Light
Fae lands for the more concrete jungle of the Human World. But Sienna had brought their lands to the office and Kale suspected her home as well.

Sienna’s magic was flowing through everything around her. Hawk’s Eye Securities lobby was a stunning display of her power. The room had various plants decorating it, a small indoor pond filled with
Koi, and bouquets of flowers randomly placed around the seating area. She made Hawk’s Eye warm and inviting and it had been good for business.

“He’s out on a job. Believe it or not, we do real security work here,” she answered.

Kale shook his head at her snarky comment. “I realize that.” Kale surveyed the lobby and opened his senses to hear the everyday noises of the office, but it was quiet. He only heard one set of fingers flying across a keyboard and the muffled sound of someone on the phone. “It’s quiet in here. Is everyone on assignment?”

Sienna continued to smile as she moved around the front office watering her plants. “They are, business is booming, but Lucas just called in a few minutes ago and should be back anytime now. You’re welcome to wait in his office.”

“No, I’ll wait in my own. I need to do some research. When Lucas gets back, tell him to come find me.”

“Of course, would you like me to make a fresh pot of coffee?”

Kale shook his head. He didn’t need his nerves anymore on edge. “No, thank you. Take care of your babies.”

Sienna beamed another radiant smile at him. “They do look gorgeous, don’t they?”

“That they do,” Kale mused as he headed up the stairs towards his office.

He and his brothers each had an office, though they were rarely used. They called upon Lucas to do most of their research, and even recon, so he wasn’t surprised by the thin layer of dust that had settled on his desk. The third floor was off limits to most of their employee’s, which included the maid service.

“Ok,” Kale breathed. “Where do I start?” he asked himself out loud.

Kale was good with computers and he did alright with research, but he couldn’t focus or decide where to start. So he did what any reasonable person would do… he searched the name Katarina Montague and, of course, came up with nothing. He tried just looking for people named Katarina and narrowed his search down to Vermont. He was going to find the little Succubus he’d followed the other night. Now, more than ever, he believed he’d been within reaching distance of Katarina.

A throat cleared in his doorway. Kale lifted his gaze to a questioning Lothar.

“What are you doing here, brother?” Kale asked.

“I had an interesting conversation with Cree.”

The air of question that had enveloped
Lothar when Kale first looked at him washed away to something altogether different. Lothar’s dark, steely irises seemed to melt. They had a unique way of telling others that Lothar was reading them; they took on the qualities of melted, flowing metal.

“All you need to do is ask,
Lothar. I would answer anything you asked of me,” Kale said before returning his attention to the useless computer screen.

Lothar
moved into Kale’s office, closing the door behind him. “True, however, I can’t help but read you, Kale. I never know where your head is at.”

“You never ask,” Kale remarked before closing the browser on his computer and shutting it down.

“Fair enough. So you want to tell me where your head is at right now?”

“It’s fucked up and confused.”

Lothar smiled softly. “Katarina always had that effect on you.”

Kale leaned back in his chair and sighed.

“You know, little brother, you’ve never come clean and told us what happened to you that day.”

That day
, Kale thought. No, he never wanted to talk about it.

“It changed you, you know that, yet none of us know what happened to you.”

“Not true,” Kale countered.

Lothar’s
eyes narrowed. “Who have you confided in?”

“The one person who could not tell…
Rowan.”

Lothar
smiled. He could imagine how that conversation had gone. “Are you ready to tell me?”

Kale squeezed his eyes tight and let the memories of that day take hold.

Kale followed the Pixie into a trap. He didn’t see Katarina when he pushed through her front door; he was instead greeted by
Darion and a handful of his guards.

“Wait until nightfall,”
Darion began ordering the Pixie, “then go and inform Rowan I have one of her warriors. Tell her I’ll give her and her remaining Immortal Warriors passage to come plead for his life.”

“Where is Katarina?” Kale struggled and ground out the question.

Darion smirked at him. “She’s in my castle awaiting her punishment for consorting with a Light Fae. I’ve told her, I will take her setting this trap for you into consideration when I decide her punishment. You see, you can’t trust a Succubus. She got tired of playing with you and came to me. She informed me she knew how to capture one of Rowan’s Immortal Warriors.”

“She wouldn’t,” Kale growled.

“Oh, but she did, only she ratted herself out in the process.”

Lothar
felt each emotion flood Kale as he told him what had happened that day. Lothar felt the pain, the sorrow, the betrayal, the love and the hate—it was a jumble of emotions that left his head spinning.

“It’s time we get you some answers,”
Lothar told Kale.

Kale nodded. “Yeah, no shit, but I want to take my time. I want her to look at me and be forced to see what she has turned me into.”

“You’ll get that, and I think I have a plan that will allow you to get your closure.”

Kale’s brows rose.
Lothar was the kind, reasonable one among his brothers. So the gleam in his eye seemed out of place but had perked his interest.

“Talk to me, brother,” Kale smiled.