Page 7

“T he pain was excruciating.”

Adira Ré Alyn tightened her fingers around the telephone receiver in her hand, fighting to rein in her temper and moderate what she wanted to say to the whining man on the other end of this call.

“Yes, Dermond, I’m sure you’ve suffered horribly.”

She didn’t doubt his sincerity for a moment. There had been a time, so very long ago, when their men had been fierce warriors. Before they’d been banished to the Mortal Plain. Before they’d been stripped of their magic.

It had been eons since any of her people had experienced physical pain. In those long years, they’d grown soft. Pathetic. Weak.

Dermond Aí Tyrn, for all his beauty and brawn, was no exception. Only his simpleminded devotion to her encouraged her to keep him around.

“You’ve found no trace of the girl? No clue to the identity of the one who interfered?”

The lack of anger in her voice was a true testament to her own strength of will. Dermond’s incompetence had cost her the prize she sought.

“Only her belongings at the carnival grounds and here in her room. As to the Mortal who helped her, I don’t think he was anything more than some armed biker who’d seen too many action movies.”

He sounded like a petulant child, his feelings obviously hurt by her lack of concern for him.

Adira bit back an impatient sigh. The males of her species seemed to have developed such fragile egos, always requiring reassurance. Not so very long ago, a failure such as his would have met with certain punishment, not the coddling he seemed to expect from her now.

Still, times had changed. Dermond was beautiful to behold, and since the disappearance of her chosen mate, Reynard Servans, he was her favorite lover.

“Bring her things to me, my poor darling. And don’t give those two another thought for now. We’ll make them suffer for what they did to you. We’ll find them, and when we do, we’ll terminate the intruder for his interference. Does that make you feel better?”

“It does.” His voice had changed with his pleasure, taking on the low, rumbling quality she so enjoyed. “Do you miss me… my queen?”

Ah, it took so little to make him happy, and once done, he was again eager to please her. Perhaps that more than anything else made him her favorite.

“I do, my darling. Hurry back to me.”

Placing the telephone on her dressing table, she turned to stare at her reflection in the richly carved full-length mirror and realized with a start that she actually did miss Dermond.

Or more accurately, she missed what he did for her. To her. Just thinking of him, the hard planes of his body, the low rumble of his voice, the moist heat of his breath on her skin, filled her with an aching need.

Sex had been the focus of her entire adult life, but she’d never realized its pleasures until she’d come into her own. Having the power to control others was a heady aphrodisiac.

Lightly she ran her open palms across her stomach and up to her breasts, her nipples already hardened and sensitive beneath the sheer robe she wore.

Perhaps she’d consider inviting Flynn to her bed this night. He hadn’t the skill or the breeding of Dermond, but he would do.

She loosened the sash of her robe, allowing the sides to flutter open, pleased with the sight of her own body. Still firm and unmarked after all these centuries.

Aided, of course, by the blood of her young captive.

She’d experimented with so many over the past year, and then, as much by accident as the initial discovery of what blood could do for her, she’d found this girl, Leah.

Leah, who was undoubtedly a half-breed Fae.

For centuries, Reynard had searched the world over for women of Fae descent, always hoping to use them to find his way back into their homeland, the Realm of Faerie.

He’d had it half right.

Adira had no desire to return home. She’d had nothing there save pain and sorrow. But here, with her new knowledge, she would one day soon rule all within her reach.

For some reason, all the Faerie powers that had been stripped from the world of man were returning. Not to the full-blooded Fae who’d been exiled to this world, but to the half-Mortal descendants of Fae.

What a joke. She almost wished she could see the Earth Mother’s face when that impotent bitch learned how all her scheming had come to this. Her plans had failed.

Now, just as Reynard had, she would search out those gifted half-breeds, but unlike him, she had no desire to seek the portals that separated their worlds. She planned to soak up their gifts by taking their blood.

Only a little at a time, of course.

Thank the Fates, she’d learned on those others that it required only a few drops of blood to effect the changes in her own body. It would have been such a shame to lose something as valuable as Leah to those early experiments.

Worse even than failing to capture the girl’s sister.

If one young woman had the gift to heal, what delightful gift might she be able to claim from the elusive sister?

Dermond’s failure to hold on to Destiny was only a small setback. If they couldn’t bring her here by force, perhaps they could lure her to them.

Face flushed with the excitement of her plans, Adira reached for a small ivory-handled feather brush, dabbing it into her perfumed powder before trailing it down her neck, across her breast, and around her hardened nipple.

“Oh!”

The intense pleasure of the light stroke tore the gasp from her lips.

There was no longer any question. She would definitely invite Flynn to her bed tonight.

Dropping the brush, she rolled the darkened nipple between her fingers, letting go to slide her hand down her flat stomach to the curve of her inner thigh.

The heat from within her body caressed her hand, beckoning her to continue.

With one foot propped on the mirror’s raised leg, her slim fingers poised at her moist opening. Her reflection fascinated her, her building desire evident in her hooded eyes, her reddened cheeks, her skin so…

Damn.

Adira tossed back her long red curls and leaned closer to the mirror.

“Damn!” she hissed.

The age lines had returned to the corners of her eyes. This would never do.

Time for another visit with her little guest. A drop or two of the precious half-breed blood and the wrinkles would be long gone before she satisfied herself with Flynn later this evening.