Page 14

Gluttony

“Stop, that tickles!” “Telling me to stop only means it will last longer.” “I know.” “Come here and kiss me.”

The blast rocks through the entire mansion, unbalancing me. A vase smashes to the ground when my hip hits the corner of the stand. What the fuck was that?

Envy darts around the corner, vines wrapping around his arms and over his palm, the spikes glistening with poison. “Was that you?”

“No, it fucking wasn’t me.” Why would I cause destruction to our own home when there’s plenty of more scintillating targets in the city?

Lazarus comes up behind Envy and grasps his nape, holding him in place. “It came from the cells.”

Saeran.

I expect to find the place caved in, with the bodies of the two men lying in the wreckage. Instead, the cell door’s embedded in the wall, and some of the bars are bent. They’re made of titanium alloy and infused with our magic. Nothing should get through that.

Envy’s nose wrinkles. “Anyone smell that?”

Yeah, I can smell it. And fury is making my blood boil and my hands clench. “They’re Dark Fae.” Mother fucker . How did we not see it? Saeran is a Dark Fae.

“That makes no sense,” Lazarus says with a frown. “We’d have felt it. They can’t hide like that.”

“Apparently, now they can.” Envy touches the edges of the bent bars and whistles low. “A little sloppy but impressive power. How’d they get past the rest of the security, though?”

An excellent question. Between the markings on all entrance doors, the gargoyles and various other magics on the grounds, and the walls surrounding the estate, they shouldn’t have been able to so easily walk out. Of course, Saeran has made a habit of sneaking into my room, so maybe it isn’t that unreasonable.

Footsteps signal the arrival of Lust and Wrath.

“What happened?” Lust asks.

Wrath’s face twists in anger, and he takes three long strides to reach the broken cell. “ Dark Fae ,” he spits out. “The prisoners? How?”

Lust studies the damage curiously. “Why wouldn’t they simply tell us? Are we not allies?”

“I want to know where they came from. Are there more of them?” Envy asks.

“Do they know about Conor?” Wrath adds. “Or where our fucking family is?”

If they do, they weren’t forthcoming with it. “Dark Fae are powerful. They could have left at any time. Why didn’t they?” Why did Saeran stay? Why did he let me kiss him? There are few in the world that are a match for us; the Dark are one of them. Even the Light bowed to them until they didn’t.

“Maybe he was too busy with your tongue down his throat?” Envy suggests.

“Fuck off.” Doesn’t he have better things to do than spy on everyone in the place? How’d he even manage that when technology goes haywire around him?

“Do you know him?” Lazarus tilts his head in confusion.

“No.”

“Just a friendly little make-out session with the enemy?” Envy snickers at his words, and I’m about to shove them down his throat.

“Do you have anything useful to say?”

“No, just making noise. We going after them?”

Hell fucking yes, we’re going after them. Saeran doesn’t get to leave, not until I have more answers. Not until I get more, period. If I have to drag him back here by his hair, so be it.

“Yes,” Lust says, eyeing me. Whatever he sees, he can keep it to himself.

Lazarus sighs heavily. “I’ll get the car.”

“I’ll grab some weapons. You’re coming with me,” Wrath says, tugging Envy behind him. “I need an extra set of hands.”

“Lucky for you, I have two of them.”

“Two sets or two hands?”

“It’s a mystery.”

Their voices fade as they retreat.

Lust snags my arm so I can’t leave with everyone else.

“What?” I snap.

“What’s going on with you?” Lust asks quietly. “You kissed him? Why?”

He knows I don’t kiss. That I don’t anything. I know how it looks. “I don’t know.” There’s something about him, like I know him. I’m positive he knows why. Not particularly good at communicating, the lying little Fae.

“We can look for him on our own. Stay here and see what you can find out about them. It sounds like they’ve been here a while, right under our noses. I want to know how many of them there are, and what they’re doing here.”

“You’re not going without me.” He’s my prey, and I’ll be the one to run him down. All those questions Lust wants answers for, Saeran has them. And they’re mine to discover.

“Be careful, Gluttony.”

The time for careful is long gone if it ever existed. “Do we know which direction they went?”

“I assume they went back to town. There’s nothing else out here to keep their interest.”

We don’t know that. They could be hiding deep in the Cheyenne Mountains, somewhere far away from the populace, where they won’t risk exposure. Lust is right, though; the city makes more sense. Maybe we’ll stumble upon some of our missing brethren during the search since it seems to be the only way we’re getting anywhere at the fucking moment.

I’d prefer more active involvement, with destruction and tearing the city apart until we’re all back under the same roof.

Once we reach the garage, I head for a motorcycle instead of one of the cars and swing my legs over, straddling it.

“What are you doing?” Lazarus asks, an SUV door open, Envy already inside.

“I’m going hunting.” I’ll find him on my own. Something tells me I want to be alone when I find my quarry. We have things to discuss that are private. “If you find him before I do, don’t touch him.”

Ignoring Lust’s curious look, I take off without looking back. The gates are open long before I get to them, allowing me to roar out of the grounds and toward town. No one gets in my way, the markings on the bike easy to identify. I don’t care about hiding or going unnoticed. They’ll fucking move, or I’ll kill them. I have more important things to deal with.

I have no idea where I’m going, yet somehow every corner I turn as I drive through the city is deliberate. Some subconscious part of me knows. I can’t feel him or even sense where he is. But I know .

And sure enough, in the heart of the city, I find him. He’s alone, standing on the side of a deserted street. Almost like he’s waiting for someone.

I doubt it’s me, but I’m who he’s going to get.

He doesn’t look surprised when I screech to a halt in front of him. More resigned than anything. I can’t see his wings, but that’s at least a trick I know about. There are tattoos on the side of his face that I’ve never seen before. Something else he’s hidden from me. A kind of glamour? Another magic that Fae don’t have access to. Who the hell is he, and why doesn’t he exhibit the right signs to identify him? A hybrid? Not possible. The Fae don’t breed outside of their kind, especially not the Dark. They’re far too ritualistic and stuck in their ways to turn from tradition.

He’s still wearing the same outfit as before. All black, decked out and ready for battle. A new bow is strung over his shoulders. I’m sure if I frisk him, I’ll find new blades hidden everywhere too. Now that I know what he is, the cache of weapons makes more sense. I can’t imagine that he and whoever he’s with have done anything but fight since they were forced out of their home.

In hiding.

Anger flashes through me that they didn’t come to us for protection. Why didn’t they? We would have helped them.

“How did you find me?” he asks.

“The same way you find me, I gather.” We’re connected somehow, and I’m sure he knows all about it. “How are you hiding what you are?”

He stiffens and looks away, jamming a hand into his pocket. “We learned to protect ourselves.”

I’ve heard that excuse before. “From us?”

“I don’t know.”

“Stop sidestepping my questions,” I growl. Kicking the stand of the bike down, I get off so that I can stalk toward him. He holds his ground, staring up defiantly. I can’t decide if I want to shake him or kiss him. How dare he run from me?

“We don’t know whose side you’re on,” Saeran says. “Whether we can trust you.”

If there are trust issues, they’re not coming from our side. We aren’t lying or skulking in the shadows like we have dangerous secrets. “That why you’re running from me and why you haven’t shown your face before now?”

“That. And other reasons.”

“Which are?”

His throat works, and my gaze is drawn to it. The urge to be closer is strong enough that I don’t fight it. Heat radiates off him, and he doesn’t pull away when I lay a hand against his throat. If anything, his heart rate speeds up.

“I can’t tell you.”

How convenient. “Because you don’t know whose side we’re on? I don’t buy it. What reasons do you have not to trust us?” Have they been here the whole time? We could have protected them, worked with them the way we used to. I could have met him a long time ago.

“None that you would remember.”

“What do you know about that?” How does he know there are gaps in our memories about what happened the night everything changed? Even before then. It’s all fuzzy, like a movie with nothing but static. From what little I do remember, we guarded them, supported them. What the hell happened that they would be so scared they’d run from us? That they would keep themselves apart all this time?

“Too many things and not nearly enough.”

He’s certainly keeping them all close to his chest. The cat-and-mouse game we’re playing is already old. “Are you going to cooperate with us? Or scurry back into your hole?”

“I’m doing the best I can to keep them safe and alive. Staying away from you was the key to all that.”

“You think we’re going to destroy what’s left of you?” Did he forget the use of the word “ally”? I don’t kill people that are on our side. Granted, very few are on our level enough to be considered allies. The Dark are the only ones I can even think of.

“Not… exactly.”

Fisting his hair, I yank him against me, closing the last of the distance between us. Forcing his head back to at look me, I can’t help but get sucked in by his large, beguiling blue eyes. The intricate tattoos on his face accentuates the perfect lines of his face. He’s a divine creature, built to lure in unsuspecting victims.

“Let me see.” It’s not what I mean to say. Despite how much he talks, he hasn’t told me a goddamn thing. But I need to see. I know what happens when they use their magic. And I want to see his.

He doesn’t deny me. Fae energy rises from him, his eyes lighting like there’s a glow behind them. His tattoos light up as well, slowly turning white, like a river being filled. Unexpected and incredibly beautiful. When his ears curl, I trace the edges of them with the pads of my fingers. Sharp and soft at the same time. And then the last part, the one I want to see most. His hair gets longer until the length traces down to his waist. The strands grow and wrap around my hand, silky and smooth.

“How do you contain it so that we can’t see?”

“It’s like creating a box inside,” he says in a low voice. My hand rests on his throat, the thrum of his pulse under my palm. His breathing elevates at the contact. So attuned to my every touch. “We push all our magic into it and close the lid. It took us years to perfect it. Years of”—his lips quirk—“staying underground like rats. Harder back then to get lost in the crowds, when the population was vastly lower than it is now.”

“You were there that night.”

He knows what I’m talking about. All he does is nod in response, pain flitting across his face.

I lean down, nuzzling the tattoos with my nose. It’s warm and almost buzzing from the magic entwined with it. What does it taste like? No time like the present to find out.

He shudders underneath me as I trace the intricate design with my tongue. It tastes like him , the same sweet smell that all but leaks from him whenever we’re near each other. I move across and down his face, capturing his lips. The taste multiples, his tongue reaching for mine. His hands fist against my biceps, and he arches up into me. He’s light enough to pull up and into my arms. He doesn’t resist, knees hooking over my hips. Staggering to my left, I push him up against the wall, sandwiching him between his bow, the rough brick, and my body.

He tilts his head, changing the angle of the kiss, his moans vibrating through me. The friction as I rock against him is driving me insane.

“Why do you make me feel like this?” Like my skin is vibrating, like I will destroy everything if he stops touching me, like there’s nothing more important than getting his mouth on me.

Panting heavily, we stare at each other. The electricity between us is more than just my magic. More than the lightning streaking across the sky from my elevated emotions.

When I cup his cheek, he turns into my palm with an open mouth, his eyes fluttering closed. Absolute bliss covers his face, like I’m fulfilling his every need simply by being nearby. My thumb slides into his mouth, and he closes his lips around it. The idea of pleasure is foreign to me, and yet with him, it’s all stark reality in bright lights and the only thing that matters. He’s turning me inside out, and I hate it as much as I want to give in to it. There’s a reason we’re so drawn to each other, I’m sure of it.

“Tell me,” I demand.

“It’s because we’re—”

He’s interrupted by a low, familiar growl. One too close. Allowing a chimera to get this close to us is a grave error on my part. Unforgiveable and proving just how pathetic this Fae makes me. Blinded, too ultra-focused on him.

Keeping my eyes on the hideous creature, I lower Saeran to his feet and then shift him so that he’s behind me. “Stay there.”

“Did you miss the part where I can look after myself?” he says, attempting to push me out of the way. No can do. He might be powerful; I’m still bigger. Unless he wants to fight me with his magic, then he’s shit out of luck.

“Gluttony.”

“No.” For whatever reason, I need to protect him.

It stalks closer on three legs. The fourth drags after it, not properly formed. It’s almost cruel, the way they’re created. Not even I would make them on purpose. What Conor has done is unforgiveable. He’ll die, just like they all will. Whoever he works for and anyone else involved.

Its mouth opens wide, jaws hard as steel that will cut through anything, and dripping with blood. Its own, not from a victim. It hasn’t killed anything on its way here; I’d be able to smell it. It only has designs on one target. An intelligence it shouldn’t be capable of.

Me or Saeran? It won’t get either of us.

“ Please. I’m your equal, Gluttony, not someone who cowers behind you.”

Every muscle in my body tenses at the words. They’re familiar, tugging low at my gut. Sparking something that may be a memory but can’t be.

We’re in this together, always.

“Stay close to me,” I growl, yanking him to my side. “And get your fucking weapon out.”

He slings the bow off his shoulder and into his hands, notching an arrow in it with ease. He’s done it a few times. More than. Equals, then. It’s only one chimera, at least. Easy pickings.

It leaves a trail of dripping flesh behind itself. Its eyes are locked onto Saeran, so I guess I have my answer. Not one single talon will touch him.

“Gluttony.” Saeran’s small hand touches my elbow, and I turn to where he’s indicating.

Another chimera is coming at us from the left. And one on the right. We’re being hedged in. Chimeras are mindless animals, caused by a wrong turning. They aren’t manufactured, and they sure as hell can’t think for themselves or lay a trap.

Until now, apparently. For fuck’s sake.

“You take the left; I’ll take the other two.” Two against one are fair odds.

“Why don’t you take the left, and I’ll take the other two?”

“Are you seriously arguing with me about this right now?”

“I’m not weak.”

“I didn’t say you are.” It’s like we’re having two different conversations, and the defensiveness in his tone makes me think there’s more to his words than he’s letting on. Does he think he’s weak? “Are you?” I ask, risking turning around to see his face.

The fear etched on it doesn’t exactly give me a lot of confidence. The determined cut of his jaw won’t help him if he really is too weak to fight. “Stay close to me,” I repeat through gritted teeth. I don’t care. I won’t allow anyone or anything to touch him, regardless.

The chimera in front of us bursts into action, charging as the other two hang back. Saeran immediately fires an arrow, hitting one of its front legs. It yelps, tripping. My lightning rips through it, and it staggers, getting back up. Doesn’t stop it, though. Their healing abilities are always a pain in the fucking ass.

I didn’t even bring a weapon. Another tick in the “mistake” column. Everything about Saeran makes me lose my mind, and I doubt I’ve scratched the surface of who he really is.

The small dragon I’ve seen him with appears at our side with a “pop,” her wings flapping.

“No, Gyro,” Saeran says firmly. “This isn’t your fight.”

She ignores him, circling them, lightning crackling from her wings.

“What is she?” He didn’t give me a real answer before, and it’s unlikely he will now. That doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop asking the questions. Eventually, he’ll answer all of them. He’ll have no choice.

“She’s yours,” Saeran says, surprising me. “A physical representation of your guardian.” He hesitates. “She’s here to protect you, like she used to.”

The truth isn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d hoped. It only brings more questions.

The chimera is up again, already running toward us. The one to our left does the same, both surging forward and gaining speed. A small cyclone bursts out of Gyro and swings one of them up into the air. The strong wind carries it high into the sky and then drops it. It’s the most glorious thing I’ve seen all day.

“She can stay. You need to hang back.”

“Excuse me?” Saeran snarls. “I already told you—”

I whirl on him, hand against his throat, leaning close. The chimera is breathing down our necks, and it’s going to reach us in a matter of seconds, and I still can’t take my hands off him. “I won’t allow you to be hurt. Don’t be stupid about this.”

He has to—there; I pull a blade out from the flap on his back. It made zero sense for him to have it there since the difficulty of reaching it hardly seems practical for battle. Having it there for someone else to use? That makes more sense.

I twist, slashing out, getting the chimera right across the jugular. A push kick flips it onto its back. A flash of lightning, not mine, twists into his chest, right where its heart should be.

“Is that why she can use my magic?” I ask even as I kneel and plunge my hand right where Gyro had struck. Ripping out its heart, I throw it out of reach. Even crushing it here won’t keep it down. It has to be disposed of properly.

Once we deal with the other two. The broken bones in the one Gyro dropped have already heeled, and the two of them circle us, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Wearing us down one by one. Giving the third time to recover from the heart removal. The level of intelligence is astounding, and part of me wants to study it. How is it being done? What kind of magic is Conor using? I don’t care about the ethics of it, not like Lust and his boy toy, only that Conor’s using them against us. What if we can turn the tide and use them against him instead?

“I want one alive,” I say abruptly.

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. Once they’re down, we dispose of all but one.”

The chimera on the right pounces, and I catch it by the throat, throwing it to the side and away from Saeran. He fires another arrow right into its heart. It staggers before righting itself and ripping it out with its own teeth.

“That’s… not normal,” Saeran breaths out.

Nothing about this is normal.

Saeran notches two more arrows, each one hitting the exact same place, directly into the chimera’s heart and splitting down the middle of the one before it. It rips out each one as it advances on us. Clenching my fist and pulling magic around it, crackles dancing and currents rising in the air, I wait until it’s in range. Then with a mighty swing, I connect with its jaw. The electricity smashes into it like a freight train, and it explodes from the inside, blood and sinew spraying everywhere.

“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Saeran says, staring unblinking at the carcass left behind.

“Won’t keep it down forever.” Resilient assholes that don’t like to stay fucking dead. There’s a reason we haven’t attempted to turn anyone since Raven, and not for a long time before that. He was a special circumstance.

“Saeran!”

Lightning strikes automatically in the vicinity of the newcomers, standing on a nearby rooftop. Three men. One I recognize as Tiernan, Saeran’s companion in the cells. The one who’d tried to protect him as if anyone could stop me from going to him. The other two I don’t know.

I glance at Saeran, ready to attack them if need be. They don’t smell like anything, either, and I hate everything about that. How can we know who’s on our side if we can’t even tell the Fae from each other, let alone them from a human?

Saeran’s small hand rests on my forearm, forcing me to turn back to him. “They’re friends, here to help us.”

So he says. He’ll forgive me if I’m not inclined to believe that without some form of evidence. “If you don’t stay behind me, I’ll kill all three of them.” It’s not an idle threat. I don’t know them, I don’t care about them, and he can damn well listen to me for once.

Saeran’s grip tightens, and then he steps back, keeping my body between him and them.

A chimera comes at us from the side, and a swift kick to its front leg snaps it. It lets out a deafening screech as it stumbles, still snapping at me with its large claws.

It should have been the last one, but a fourth jumps out of nowhere, heading straight for Saeran. Before I can let out a warning, Saeran’s silky wings come into view, glistening under the sun. He leaps to the side, half running across the wall, and more arrows are let loose, strategically placed to slow the creature down.

A blast of energy smashes into it from the side as the three Dark enter the fight. Tiernan comes to me, using a dagger to slice across the chimera’s flesh. Are they all still living in the past, with their primitive weapons? Have they never heard of a gun before? Normally, I’d be carrying one on me, but my focus had been so heavily on finding Saeran and dragging him back to the estate by his hair that it had completely slipped my mind.

Good thing that I don’t need a weapon to be dangerous.

“Protect him,” I growl, grabbing the chimera by the throat and smashing it back into the ground hard enough to break its neck. “Now.”

Tiernan nods once and moves away to take care of the last chimera.

Removing the heart of this one is harder, some kind of steel encasing it. What the fuck? More experiments? Using all my strength, I pry it away, the metal slicing my fingers open. Finally, it comes free, and I can rip out the beating heart. There’s something different about it. Different enough that I don’t crush it instantly. I want Nero to study it, when we get him back.

“Saeran!”

The yelled word has me turning just as Saeran’s eyes roll back in his head. His four wings go limp as he drops. Tossing the heart to the side, I dart toward him. By some miracle, I manage to get there before he hits the ground, diving under and catching him against me. He’s out cold, dead weight in my arms.

“What the fuck happened?”

“Nothing,” Tiernan says, brows drawn in, concerned eyes darting between us. “He was fighting, and then he just collapsed. Nothing hit him.”

I check him for injuries anyway, but there are none. Still breathing though his forehead is burning. No matter where I search, I can’t find the problem. Gyro nudges his cheek with her nose. He doesn’t stir. The small mewl that comes out of her mouth is more like a cat than a dragon. And not particularly reassuring. What’s wrong with him?

“How do I fix this?” I ask her. She sits herself on my shoulder and droops over it. Sad, dejected. The worry twisting in my stomach worsens. “Saeran. Saeran, wake up.” Gentle slaps against his face do nothing. His wings are like the softest silk under my fingertips and yet somehow lifeless. I want to see them properly, so he’ll have to recover from whatever this is. I refuse to allow anything else.

The other two Fae get to us, and one tries to reach for Saeran. I growl low in my throat and stand, taking him with me. “Touch him and I’ll rip your fucking head off.” He doesn’t want to test me right now. I’ll follow through, with prejudice. “Tell me what’s wrong with him.”

“We don’t know,” Tiernan says. “This happened about a week ago, after he ran from a chimera. He recovered with rest.”

“How long?” I demand. Fae are strong, they’re not like this. They should know what’s wrong with him and stop it from happening again. Bullshit nonanswers aren’t good enough.

“A few hours. His body just needs to replenish.”

“From what?” I snarl. I didn’t once see him using his Fae magic, aside from the wall jump. His arrows and his knives. Not enough magic to require this kind of replenishment.

“We don’t know,” one of the others says, looking as frustrated as I feel.

“Who the fuck are you, and why shouldn’t I kill you right now?” If they can’t help me, they’re useless and can be disposed of.

The Fae tenses, ready to fight. If he wants to die first, be my guest.

“Diarmuid, stand down,” Tiernan says tiredly. “Our inability to answer your questions doesn’t make us the enemy, Gluttony. Saeran keeps many things to himself. I would wager this is one of them, and I’d like to know what’s going on just as much as you do.”

I highly doubt that. “Who is he to you?”

“He’s our king,” Diarmuid said angrily. “So you better be careful with him.”

“We’re going with you,” Riordan says firmly. “Wherever you go. Wherever he is. And if you harm one hair on his head—”

“Threatening me is bad for your health.” I may tolerate a lot from the one in my arms, but I won’t tolerate it from anyone else. I pause, the anger fleeing. “Did you say king ?” I stare down at Saeran’s soft face. “He’s a Tenebris.” The strongest bloodline to ever grace Fae walls. I know the name, the lineage. For some reason, the name of their king, who has ruled for over a thousand years, always eludes me. Saeran. If that’s true, then he’s as old as my brothers and me are. Possibly older.

How much he’s seen, how much he’s been through… the answers he can give us are endless. He needs to wake, so I can ask more.

Tiernan nods sharply. “The last of his line.”

The last of his line. The only legacy to royalty the Dark Fae has left. I can understand wanting to protect him. “You,” I throw at the one with the temper. “Take my bike. I’m taking your car. You can drive.” That order’s directed at Tiernan. I expect them to obey, and if they don’t, I’ll kill them. I don’t have time for any of this nonsense.

They don’t argue with me, which is suspicious in and of itself. If they’re thinking to lure me into an ambush, they’ll find out why it’s a bad idea to fuck with the Sins.