Sacrifice Read online

  “We’ll finish this later,” he growls, then moves away.

  I try my hardest to retort but my mouth can’t form the words, instead I turn and walk over to my new truck. Aylesbury is sat in the driver’s seat, so I climb into the other side. I start to ask what the hell he’s doing sitting in my seat, but he cuts me off before I can even get the words out.

  “You are in no condition to drive this masterpiece, it’s safer if I get us home.”

  I’d argue, but he’s right, Bastian’s kisses really threw me off my game and it got worse the longer I held him off from claiming me.

  He grabs my old set of keys I’m still clutching in my hand and tosses them out of the window at Bastian. As Bastian watches, Aylesbury maneuvers us out of the drive at the front of The Manor and onto the road back into the south side of Port Vale. Aylesbury has recently moved in to my apartment building and, without even asking, he’s made himself an employee of my investigation business. I try not to complain too much about it because I could really do with the extra help, but he is a constant thorn in my side. Gone were the days when I could get stuck in to a case without interference, and it has only been two weeks.

  “So, Red, you going to tell me why you haven’t finished the mating?”

  I turn to him and see him concentrating on the road, his face looking serious for once.

  “Are you kidding me? You’re actually asking me about my sex life now. Unbelievable!” I say with as much exasperation as I can muster. “Is there any part of my life you don’t stick your nose in?”

  “I’m just trying to understand why you’re still stringing him along when it’s quite clear you both want this.”

  He did have a valid point, I might have made a huge argument about having the mating forced upon me, but now it was mainly a façade. I was falling for Bastian fast which was another part of the problem. It was happening too quickly, and we’d never even dated. We had gone from obvious dislike to married in a few hours and that was only a handful of weeks ago.

  “Not that it’s anything to do with you, but I’m a virgin,” I say really quietly. Embarrassed.

  “Oh!”

  “Yes, oh. I haven’t got the first clue how to even have a relationship with someone, let alone actually mate with them.”

  He turns to look at me with his mouth open.

  “Watch the road, dumb ass!”

  “Oh!” he says again.

  “Really, the most talkative man alive is suddenly speechless! You asked why, I’m just telling you.”

  “How can you be a…?”

  “A virgin. You can’t even say it, can you?”

  “You’re my family. This is weird.”

  “You asked me, and I’m not your family,” I counter, going back to the old argument.

  “You can deny it all you want, you’ve been my family since the minute they brought you in to the orphanage, and before you try to argue, all families fall out.”

  I’d hardly call what happened a falling out. At the orphanage, we were as close as any two non-siblings could get until I thought he was just as prejudiced as everyone else about my hybrid status. I stopped speaking to him then and vowed to find my family, but wherever life took me, he was always there. I couldn’t get rid of him, he was like a bad smell.

  “So, back to the sex thing,” I say, now I knew it made him uncomfortable.

  “I can’t believe I’m going to even ask this, but how in the hell are you a virgin at twenty-four?”

  “Anyone interested in me was quickly put off when they saw my inner Fae. I apparently can’t control the shifting when I start getting intimate, I shift into my Nymph form, and it’s too close to Fae that it tended to freak-out anyone I got close to. So, I stopped trying to date altogether and concentrated on finding my family,” I explain.

  “Well, that explains a lot.”

  We pull into a parking spot at the front of the Pizzeria that houses our apartment block and office. I get out of the car and head straight through the open storefront, grabbing a slice of pizza and nodding to Dave the owner, as I saunter through the back door with Aylesbury on my heels.

  We both walk straight into the office, it holds two desks, one at the side of the door and the other facing the huge ornate fire place I didn’t have the heart to remove. Aylesbury has now claimed the desk at the side of the door, he moves straight over to it and starts rifling through the files piled in his trays.

  I walk over to him and look over his shoulder. I try my hardest to stay in touch with the cases he is taking on, after all, I can’t have him gallivanting across Port Vale doing who knows what under my name. I already had a difficult relationship with The Guild without letting Aylesbury instigate more trouble.

  As I finish chewing a mouthful of pizza, I ask, “What are you working on now, then?”

  “If you checked the report logs that were submitted to you for authorization before filing, then you would know, wouldn’t you,” he answers, never once looking up from the paper he is reading.

  “I didn’t know I had report logs to file,” I answer with all honesty. Yet again, I have no clue what’s happening around me. Rather amazing for an investigator. It’s so much easier working alone.

  “Until you declare me as your partner, I’m unable to submit the paperwork to The Guild. You have to sign it off first then submit it on my behalf.”

  I throw my hand in the air, waving the slice of pizza at him. “Really, you’re telling me this now, and you’ve been sat in here for two weeks doing hell knows how many cases? Bloody hell, Aylesbury, I’ll be hit with a hefty fine.”

  “I did tell you, you were playing with that evil kitty.” He was referring to Jinx, she imprinted on me whilst I endured a stay at The Manor. Bastian found her trying to follow my scent to where I lived, luckily, she’d only gotten part of the way down the road from the Manor before he’d scooped her up and dropped her off here.

  “She’s not evil, she just has good taste.”

  “Anyway, back to the cases. This one’s Mrs Trimble, her nephew has a priceless trinket. She wants us to locate him and bring him home, along with the missing box.”

  “How does she know it was the nephew?”

  “She claims the ghost in her house told her.”

  I laugh out loud at that.

  “You’re being serious,” I say while hiccupping. The pizza I’d shoveled in was now repeating on me.

  “Yeah, she actually thinks she can see ghosts. I’ve located the nephew, I don’t doubt for a second it was him. From his social media accounts, he looks like he’s into a few things the Human police would be quite interested in.”

  “Okay then, I’ll leave you to that while I plough through all these reports I’ve now got to file,” I say, moving over to my computer.

  “You could just make me partner. I think Scarlet James Investigations has a perfect ring to it, don’t you?”

  “I don’t think so!”

  I am not making this a permanent thing.

  Chapter Two

  It has been a really long day, I feel bruised and battered from the earlier training session, and I’m not looking forward to having to get out of bed at the crack of dawn for another round. I’d had three more arguments with Aylesbury about my business, his interference with me and Bastian, and his blatant disregard for anything I say. I was now completely exhausted.

  I step out of the bath I’d been trying to relax in, when I hear my phone ring in the bedroom. I quickly wrap a towel around me and dash in through the door, water dripping from me all over the floor. I quickly catch the towel before it falls as I pick the phone up from the dresser.

  “Yes” I answer.

  “Wow, Aylesbury is right, your phone manner is appalling, sister.”

  “Whatever, Jared, I was just in the bath.”

  I had recently discovered that Jared, who works for The Guild over in Faerie, was my biological brother. I’d finally found the family I’d been looking for and we got on really well, it was lik
e we’d always known each other, but we still had a lot of catching up to do.

  “That explains why you’re not answering your door. You wanna let me in, I’m desperate for a cuppa.” His Irish brogue is deep and filled with laughter.

  I cut off the phone call and run to the door, quickly unlocking it, trailing more water as I move. Jared has it pushed open before I even have the chance to grab the door handle and motion him in.

  “Sister!” he says, his arms open wide, like it has been ages since I last saw him. “I’d give you a cuddle but you’re still wet. Don’t you dry when you get out of the bath? And what’s the deal with the new locks, you trying to keep me out?”

  I move back through to the bedroom leaving the door open, so he can hear me whilst I dry off and put some clothes on.

  “I’ll ignore the first question. As to the second, I came home one day, and Bastian had a security company here fitting all new locks and bolts. Just in case the Lazarus decide to show up again. I’m sure he hasn’t realized a locked door will not stop a horde of massive Demons from gaining entry if they want me that badly.” I was extremely mad when I’d walked up to my apartment to find the key didn’t work, especially when, minutes later, Bastian walked out of my apartment with that irritating smug look on his face. “He thinks they have unfinished business with me, but no one’s seen anything from the Demon Lord who masterminded the whole kidnapping, and the others I came into contact with weren’t the brightest of sparks.”

  “Why don’t you just move into The Manor with Bastian?” he asks, his voice coming from the other side of the door.

  I pull on a top and shirt, then when I’m sufficiently covered I open the door, scowling at him before replying.

  “Really! You too. Firstly, I don’t need to move in with Bastian, I’m perfectly capable of looking after myself. Secondly, I didn’t ask for him to suddenly become my mate. Why does everyone think all of a sudden I’ve got to be glued to Bastian’s side just because we’re mated?”

  “Calm down, sis, anyway, all that’s beside the point. I’m actually really here because I passed through the Vale on the heels of a Demon that matches the exact description of the one you described. I managed to follow him to an abandoned factory about a mile from here. I just wanted to make you aware. You need to be careful at the minute just in case it is him and he’s making another play for you.”

  “I really doubt it’s going to be him. We took out almost all his men, plus, we now have the cure, so he won’t be creating any more Zombie armies.”

  “You still need to be careful around Demons for now, you don’t know which factions and hordes he’s got alliances with.” He rolls his eyes at my exasperated sigh. “If you use your brain, Scarlet, you’ll realize he’s been after you for twenty-three years, only for you to ruin his plans in a matter of weeks. He’s gonna be pissed and he’s gonna want revenge.”

  I know he’s right, but I just roll my eyes. I’m getting a bit sick of all these men in my life taking over, life was so much simpler when I could just do what I wanted without other people interfering. I move into the kitchen with Jared tailing me.

  “I know you can look after yourself and you don’t want to hear it, all I’m asking is you be a bit more careful until we know for sure it’s not him,” Jared says. At least he’s asking me rather than telling me.

  “Tea or coffee?” I ask with a smile.

  “Tea but make it to go. I’ve got a night shift at The Guild, a protection detail for a Fae Lordling,” he says the latter like he’d rather be doing anything else but that.

  “Before you go, is there any news from your side about The Twins?” I ask, pouring hot water into a flask with the tea bag.

  “No, and the queen hasn’t made any rumblings either that her children are missing. There’s something more going off, but without direct access to the palace I’ve got no hope of finding out. I’ve tried not to ask too many questions as I don’t want to drop you in it with The Guild.”

  He moves over to the door and I give him a brief hug before he moves through it.

  “Don’t do anything stupid, Jared. I don’t need to know what they’re doing, I just don’t like knowing they got away.”

  He moves down the stairs and calls over his shoulder. “I wouldn’t do anything that you wouldn’t.”

  “That’s what worries me,” I shout out to him as I hear him reach the bottom.

  I pull on a pair of jeans then quickly lock up the apartment and go back down to the office. I might be worried about Jared doing something stupid in regard to the queen of the Seelie, but I could look in to this sighting of the Demon Lord. It still irritated me he had managed to slip through the net after everything he’d done to me.

  I lock myself in the office and sit down at my desk.

  Ahh, peace and quiet at long last.

  Logging onto the interweb, I look up the abandoned factories around Port Vale. I find three, all in the industrial district within a mile of each other. As I’m unable to access any more information, I send a message to my favourite computer geek at The Guild asking him for surveillance footage from around the three factories. There was a chance he wouldn’t help me now I no longer worked at The Guild, but knowing Tony, he’d try.

  I sit waiting, staring at the screen for a few more minutes before I realize how late it is. I stretch and yawn as I get up from my seat. I’ll probably have an answer by the time I wake up in the morning, so I head back upstairs.

  As I walk up the stairs to my front door, I shift from my Human form to my Nymph form. I’d been shifting my forms so much more freely recently I barely noticed the tingling sensation as it rippled down my body. I watched as my hair swished into my vision, changing from long dark and straight to blond, curly, and streaked through with green. I’d decided I was no longer going to let the feelings of others dictate what form I should use, although I still tended to stick to Human and Nymph.

  I walk through the apartment door and Jinx shoots out from her hiding place under the sofa. I fuss her for a few minutes then head to the bedroom, stripping down to my underwear before I move into the room. As I walk through the door I throw the discarded clothing into a corner, then jump out of my skin as I catch movement out of the corner of my eye. I almost scream, but quickly force it back down.

  I spin around to see Bastian artfully sprawled on my bed wearing just his jeans. His bare chest catches my eye immediately.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” I shout at him. I almost cover up my bra and panties but decide that would just show him how much he’s affecting me.

  “I told you earlier, we’d finish this later,” he says with a slow grin spreading across his face. “It’s now later.” His eyes sweep down my body and then stay fixed on my black lace bra.

  I flush slightly from his blatant study of my body, even though I shamelessly stare back at him. I have a very large bed and he takes up most of it, even though he is propped up against the wooden headboard with his arms clasped behind his head. Which, annoyingly enough, only seems to make his gigantic arms look bigger.

  “Still not understanding why you have broken in to my apartment, again.”

  “It’s not really breaking and entering when you use a key,” he counters with a grin.

  Insufferable ass! I bet that was why he’d really changed the locks.

  He gets up from the bed and stalks over to me, his dark hair brushing his shoulders as he moves. He has that feral glint in his eyes again. I try to look away as he approaches, but instead, I find myself staring at the massive expanse of his chest and the way his muscles tense and contract as he walks.

  “You know why I’m here,” he says, his gravelly voice vibrating along my skin as he pulls me into his embrace.

  I try to think of a snarky response, but once I feel his skin against mine all rational thought flees. His arms tighten around me and he lowers his mouth to my neck, pressing his lips softly against my skin in a shower of kisses against my sensitive throat.

&nb
sp; I groan and arch my back, pressing as much skin as I can against his hard body. He lifts his head from my neck and places his lips against mine in a deep passionate kiss that just ignites me further. When he kisses me, it isn’t a soft touch of his lips, it’s a hard claiming, where he holds all the power and he knows exactly how to use it.

  Right at this moment, I’m no longer concerned with keeping my distance, my body has just decided this is happening, my mind is no longer in control.

  As his tongue dances with mine, his hands slide around to grasp my ass. He grips my cheeks then lifts, until I’m chest to chest with him and my legs are wrapped around his waist, the whole time his mouth never leaves mine. I can feel him moving us over to the bed, so I pull away placing a hand on his chest. Slightly reluctant.

  I open my mouth to speak, but he cuts me off. “I know you’re a virgin. I promise I’ll take it slow.”

  “I cannot believe Aylesbury told you! That guy cannot keep a secret,” I exclaim, trying to push out of Bastian’s embrace. His fingers tighten against my legs, holding me firmly in place.

  “He has your best interests at heart. Its better I know, I could have forced the issue without taking that in to account, and you would have hated me for it.”

  He cuts off any retort I have with another searing kiss. I quickly forget Aylesbury’s betrayal.

  He lowers us on to the bed and the minute my back hits the covers, I feel Bastian settle between my legs, his hardness resting against my core. The feel of him where I need him to be heats me further and I moan.

  Bastian tears his mouth away from mine and says, “If you’re going to change your mind about this, now would be the time.”

  I just stare into his black eyes and wait for him to carry on. He smiles, then leans in again to claim my lips, moving his hands up my side and in between us, brushing against the lace that encloses my breasts. The friction makes me suck in a breath even though his mouth is still firmly devouring mine. He breaks away from kissing me, and braces himself on one arm, bringing the other down to trace the ivy vine that curls around my body and up over my breast before wrapping around my arm.