Vampires and Sexy Romance (45 page)

A goblin reached out for Min, but his lumpy knuckled claw fell off at the wrist as Luca severed it with a flick of his sword.  The wound burned a hot green, and the creature shrieked in agony.

But that didn’t deter any of the others.  The faeries moved on them like a tidal wave, and though Luca slew three more of their number before she could even breathe, Min knew he was sorely out matched.  But then she took a breath—and the room stood still for a quivering moment.  And without even thinking about it she took hold of the ogre closet to her, a huge beast probably twenty times her size, and smashed the creature into the wall to her left.  It hit the great stone with a dull, wet thud, and she heard its thick bones crunch from the blow.

She spun back to the oncoming fae and they had barely even moved.  Either time had slowed down or she was moving far faster than her usual.  She back handed a slimy creature with what looked like spider web encrusted antlers.  It hit the floor like a load of bricks.  And then there were six fae charging her all at once.  Both her palms burned with fierce heat, and she lifted them as she moved forward.  Flames so great it could have been the very fires of hell erupted from her hands and leveled the charging fae.  No, they weren’t knocked down by the magic fire, they were incinerated by it. 

Luca at her back, Min moved forward with quick, clicking strides, blasting any creature that dared get in her way with the white hot fire of Summer.  Her blood blazed with the glory and power of it.  It was nice to for once be the more powerful.  Hell, the power she was wielding was more than anything she could imagine.  It made her heart pound with unbidden longing.  Somehow, deep inside, she wanted even more power. 

Her steps faltered for only a moment, but she shook the greedy hunger from her like a watershed.  This power wasn’t hers.  If she started thinking it was hers to keep, then she would find herself owned body and soul by the devious faerie queen who had started this whole mess. 

And the bitch had, hadn’t she?  Min made note to take that up with her royal highness the very next time they met…if they ever met again.  For with all the power surging through her at the moment, just looking at the far wall, and the double doors that were suddenly materializing before her, she knew without a doubt that power wouldn’t make a bit of difference. 

She still hadn’t a chance in hell against the Queen of Winter on her home turf.  Nobody did.

But she pushed through the gilded door all the same, making the not-quite-formed entrance crack as she pitted her new strength against it.  The doors swung open, overly dramatic as the hinges whined their displeasure, and Min saw a room ten times the size of the previous chamber, ceiling rising out of sight, walls an icy black, yet sparkling with their own kind of fae light.

The room was filled with not only with a ghastly assortment of many different, and rather nauseatingly gruesome faeries, but also some of the most beautiful men and women Min had ever laid eyes on.  And they were all looking at her, all calm, all absolutely certain of what was going to happen next.

Min looked forward to the front of the great room.  There, on a raised altar, was an enormous throne.  It sparkled like diamonds, but was most certainly ice, and the cascades of ice rose up and up and up, as far as the eye could see.  A chilling, beautiful thing.  But as Min looked harder, the ice had shapes in it; bodies, nude and held in the throes of ecstasy and agony.  Some human, many obviously not.  All, Min just seemed to know, were not just sculptures.  They had been real, alive…and even now, they still were.

She saw a woman, by far the most beautiful creature in the room, standing over the kneeling, shuddering form of her sister.  Andy was held to the spot by long silver shackles, and she was sickly pale and crying. 

The queen turned and a brilliant smile parted her lovely, blue lips.  Her teeth were stark white, and as her mouth opened more.  Her red, red tongue curled with pleasure.

“Oh look, my little star, your sister comes to the rescue.”  She turned back to Andy and grabbed a handful of her hair, jerking her face to see Min.  Her eyes were swollen and red, and she was obviously scared out of her mind.  But the moment she laid eyes on her sister, a surge of hope, of utter love and gratefulness filled them.  And then very distinctly, the glow of defiance.

~*~

Andy could not believe her eyes. 
I’m not alone…

Min was there.  Min had come for her.  Min was aglow with fae power, and as pissed off and dangerous looking as Andy had ever seen her.  The vampire was behind her, his back pressed against Min’s, a broad sword in one hand, and the family Bellini in the other.

She hadn’t a hope that anyone would, or even could have come for her.  She’d read long ago that there were very few ways any mortal, witch or no, could make their way into faerie.  And to make it to the heart of faerie, to the heart of Winter…

But there stood her courageous sister, and though it was impossible she had come, the moment their eyes met Andy felt a surge of something more than hope, more than gratefulness.  She felt loved.  Her Sister loved her enough to lay down her own life to save her.

She really wasn’t alone.

“You’re an idiot.” Andy sobbed, but a smile pulled at her lips.

Silence spread through the gargantuan chamber, and Min’s eyes softened as she looked at her sister.  “I couldn’t just leave you with her, now could I?”

And then Min’s eyes hardened again and glowed an unnatural green.  “Okay, bitch.  Let her go and I won’t wipe the floor with you!”

The Winter Queen smiled and let go of Andy’s hair, causing her balance to shift and she fell over to the floor.  By the time she regained her kneeling position the faerie queen was slithering down the stairs leading to Min, and frigid darkness seemed to gather around her, like spider webs.

No…

~*~

Min didn’t wait for the faerie queen to attack; she started throwing the hell hot flares of fire at her the second she started down the stairs.  The queen stopped for the briefest of moments, having caught the great lance of flame in her hand.  She held it, as if examining it, and then snuffed it out by closing her hand.  She laughed and started forward again, not hurrying one bit. 

Min kept throwing the flames.  Maybe the closer she got, the more Summer’s power would work.  But she knew that was just wishful thinking.  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t throw every ounce of heat Summer had implanted in her at the bitch.

But the more she threw at her, the more easily, it seemed, the Winter Queen swatted it away.  And the closer the queen got, the colder the air felt.  For the first time since their first entering faerie, Min felt everything in her start to be chewed and blown away by the bone crushing cold of Winter. 

It wasn’t that Summer had abandoned her, it just wasn’t enough.  Having the Winter Queen so close was overwhelming Summer completely.

Min let out an involuntary scream as the winter queen reached out her snow white, blue nailed hand toward her face.  Luca turned in a flash and the hand he held the iron sword in flashed to take off the queen’s head.  But the queen was oh so much faster than Luca, and with a single light touch Luca halted, his hand turning to ice, and his entire body freezing solid in no more than a heartbeat.  His breath came out in a cloudy gasp and died before he could say another word.

Min’s heart stopped beating as she watched her lover be turned into an ice sculpture…would that kill a vampire?  And in an instant she felt her own fiery anger well up within her.  That emotion joined with the fire of Summer, and she raised her hand, the one with the silver rune emblazoned upon it, to Sliva’s heart.

But again the faerie queen was too fast, and she clamped her far hand on Min’s wrist, and the other rose dramatically, the perfect flesh turning to a cold, crystalline claw, which slashed down and cut into Min’s palm.

Good god it hurt.  It wasn’t just the wound though, Min knew.  It was the fact that Sliva was gouging out the power of Summer from her as well.  And even though it was only borrowed power, it had been wrapped around her very soul, rooted deep into her very being.  It felt as if the faerie were scraping out her very life force with that diamond like claw.

Min screamed and trashed against the faerie queen, but it didn’t even make the queen wobble in the slightest.  She felt herself fading as the queen’s icy fingers found what they had been looking for, and clasped around it.

She knew in that moment that if the queen pried the power of Summer from her like that, it would most certainly kill her.  And in that moment she knew, just knew—she had failed her sister completely.

Andy pulled with all her strength against the bonds that held her to the spot, but to no avail.  She would not be able to help her sister at all.  The Summer Queen’s words, that she was the only thing that could stop Sliva, had been a crock.  Tears ran down her face as she listened to Min’s agonized cries.  The Winter Queen was tearing the very life out of her.  And there wasn’t a thing she could…

Then something hit her in the face: one very interesting fact.  The Winter Queen had had her in her possession for what seemed like hours, and yet she hadn’t consumed her. 

Why not?

She could hurt her, but she hadn’t just devoured her as Andy had imagined her doing.  If anything, the queen had…she had been trying to force Andy into allowing her to do so.  She’d been doing nothing but trying to make Andy give up.

And hadn’t she been so very close to doing that?  To giving in to the heartless, evil bitch.  But that was until she’d laid eyes on her sister; her sister who was going to die at the Winter Queens hand.  Who was going to die any moment.

But what had the Summer Queen said?  That this had all been a trick.  To make her cousin want her in the
worst way
, to make her want her so much that…

That she forgot I was a being of light.

Adrenalin rushed through her veins and she screamed her next word with such intensity, the walls of the throne-room all but shook.   “Stop!”

Every set of eyes in the chamber turned toward her, including the winter queen’s.  That’s all this had been, more trickery.  Sliva was using Min to push her into giving up. 

Was there no freaking end to Faerie treachery?

Andy let her emotions flow.  She was very much afraid for her sister’s life.  And she allowed all that fear and worry to choke her now, to make her words as pathetic as possible.

“I give up…I give up.  Please, you can do whatever you want with me…just d-don’t hurt her!”

~*~

Sliva closed her eyes as Andy spoke, as if she were listening to the most divine music.  Satisfaction filled the chilling beauty of her face.  Min shuddered as she realized what she’d done.   The queen hadn’t been able to eat Andy’s power.  That’s why she’d been torturing her, to make her give in.  And now…

And now her sister was going to give her exactly what she’d wanted.

To save me…

No…

Min tried to tell her sister not to give up, to not let the faerie bitch touch her.  But Sliva twisted her fingers into Min’s hand all the harder, and all that escaped Min’s lips were agonized screams.  The words in her head liquefied into those feral cries.

“You give yourself to me to do as I wish?”  Sliva’s voice was hard, and sharp as a scalpel. 

“Yes,” Andy blurted, breathing hard, her voice cracked and hoarse.  “Anything you want.  Just let my sister live.”

Sliva looked down upon Min, for she was a limp weight now, held up only by the faerie queen’s arm, and the hand that was magically penetrating her own.

“Your offer is most satisfactory…I accept.”

Sliva released her hold on Min, extracting her hand from hers.  Min fell to the floor, at the feet of her frozen vampire, and she tried pulling in breath enough to call out to her sister, but when she rolled over she saw the Winter Queen was already by Andy’s side. 

Andy stood, the silver manacles that had held her to the floor now gone, she stood staring into the Sliva’s eyes as the faerie queen crept closer.  Like a great snake that has captured a mouse with its gaze.

Sliva reached out and touched Andy’s shoulder, the serpentine smile on her face widened, her eyes bulged with excitement.

No, no, no…Run Andy, run!
  But the pain the faerie queen had caused her had sapped so much of Min’s strength, she could hardly pull in breath—speaking was out of her grasp.

As if she could read Min’s mind, Andy turned and glanced at her, all fear gone, a knowing grin spreading across her pretty pink lips. 

And she winked.

~*~

Andy knew the moment Sliva touched her that this insane plan of hers was going to work.  Unlike before, when the faerie queen touched her, she could feel a dark power begin to bite down on her, it was painful and smothering.

And it was exactly what she needed: a way in.

Before Andy had felt nothing but fear and hopelessness.  But now she was filled with heart-stopping hope, and with joy.  Joy that her sister had truly loved her after all.  And joy that she was about to save both of their lives.

She turned toward the dark faerie queen and slapped her hands up on either side of her face.  Gleefully she pressed her lips to the ice cold lips of the winter queen, and everything turned blindingly bright.