Sharon Ashwood - Unchained

Silently, Reynard pocketed the crystal, sending a prayer of thanks for Holly’s magic. Then he pulled the Smith & Wesson again.

“Miru-kai.”

The prince looked up, his face tightening as he saw who had interrupted his conversation. “Well, old fox, it seems you’ve sniffed us out.”

Eden’s head whipped around. “Captain Reynard!”

She leaped up and streaked across the room, thumping into him in an ecstatic hug. The force of it nearly made him stumble. “You’ve come to take me home!”

Reynard put a hand on the dark curls, the child’s warmth so vibrant against the cold, dead air of the prison. His strength was ebbing fast. His knees were shaking with fatigue. It felt odd, for one immortal. He’d forgotten what illness was like.

That memory was coming back with a vengeance.

But he’d meant it when he said Eden came first. He hugged the girl and pushed her behind him, putting his body between her and Miru-kai. She grabbed the back of his shirt, as if she was afraid he’d vanish. Then one hand slipped into his.

He kept the gun trained on the prince.

He didn’t mind the anchor of Eden’s grip. His head was clear, but his gut was a solid knot of apprehension. In a weakened state there were too many things that could go wrong. “I’m taking Eden back to her mother.”

“Are you sure?” said the prince, his eyes a mix of anger and amusement. “You look like you’re about to fall over. What did you do, wrestle every troll between here and the Castle door?”

“I ran into a group of Undead. We’d no sooner become acquainted than one of your fey buzzed past. A little blue fellow. Are the fey in league with the Eastern vampires now?”

The amusement vanished. “No. For one thing, we had a falling-out over the girl.”

“The fey never give up their prizes,” said Reynard, his tone pure acid. “Not once you’ve won the game.”

The prince gave him a sharp look. “It’s not in our nature.”

“And you always play by the rules.”

“Precisely, when they’re rules we like. However, young Eden was in Belenos’s tender care. He didn’t seem to be daddy material, whatever his delusions, so I liberated her.”

That was interesting. But was anything Miru-kai said ever true?

“And now I liberate her from you.” Reynard meant to simply turn and go, but his vision narrowed, darkness eating away at the edges of the world. Cold sweat stuck his shirt to his skin.

Miru-kai flashed a brilliant but cold grin. “And you are a more able caretaker? I am a fey prince, and you are one guardsman looking a bit tattered around the edges. You offend me, Reynard.”

Then, without warning, Reynard’s legs gave way. He fell to his knees, sprawling forward. The gun clattered on the stone, slipping from sweat-slicked fingers.

“Captain Reynard!” Eden grabbed his sleeve. “Captain Reynard, are you all right?”

Miru-kai rose from his seat in a whisper of heavy silk robes. “Reynard?”

He didn’t respond, instead shaking his head to clear it. He thought he could hear guardsmen in the corridors, calling orders and running. He thought he heard Ashe’s voice calling him, and his heart raced with terror and love. His own existence had gone so very wrong, and this was the one thing he could do to make Ashe’s better. Except he wasn’t quite finished. He really had to get up and take care of loose ends.

Where was he?

What had he just been doing? Memory was flickering in and out of focus.

Oh, yes. He started to climb to his hands and knees, but melted to the right, losing track of his hands and feet.

There was a terrible, terrible pain in his chest.

“Captain Reynard!” Eden shook him with all her strength as the world went black.

Ashe strode in Mac’s wake, Alessandro swift and silent behind them. They had found Mac easily enough. He’d been firing questions at a little blue fey no larger than one of Eden’s fashion dolls. The thing was trying to explain something about vampires and kidnapping and children. When Ashe showed up, argument stopped and they were on the move again.

The demon stormed into a huge, dark cavern. Angry heat blasted from him in waves. As soon as she could, Ashe stepped sideways, finding cooler air. The minute they reached open ground, she broke into a run.

Reynard sprawled in the middle of the cavern, Eden clinging to his hand.

“Baby!”

Eden gave a wordless cry and bolted across the stone floor. Ashe wrapped her child in both arms, holding her tight. An agony of relief ripped through her as she breathed in the smell of her child and felt soft skin against her own.

“Captain Reynard’s sick!” Eden sobbed. “And the prince disappeared when he heard you coming!”

Reynard! Behind the relief came cold anger, then panic. Alessandro and Mac were already beside Reynard, who was having trouble getting to his feet.

“Get him out of here,” ordered Mac. Other guardsmen were trickling in through the doorway, drawn by the emergency. “Make a portal. Get him back on the other side of the door. Get him to Holly. Maybe she can do something.”

Alessandro picked up Reynard, slinging one arm over his shoulder. Vampire strength made light work of the full-grown man. “Lead on.”

The fey prince had to be guilty. Why else would he vanish the moment the authorities arrived? Ashe released Eden and stood, pulling a foot-long knife from her boot. “Goddess! Where is that bastard fairy?” It came out as a rasp. Frantic bursts of fear and relief and horror came one after the other, tearing her to shreds.

Mac rose, running to the entrance to the cavern, flames surrounding him in a white- hot corona. He filled his lungs and roared to the darkness, “Guardsmen, find the fairy bastard!”

The walls shook with the noise, as if the Castle itself cringed before his anger. Wherever the guards were, they heard.

“But he didn’t do anything wrong!” Eden insisted. “He was nice to me!”

But no one listened to a child. No one ever did.

Sunday, April 5, 10:30 p.m.

101.5 FM

“We’re joined here today for an exclusive telephone interview with Belenos, King of the Eastern Vampires. Your Majesty, I cannot begin to express how honored we are that you condescended to join us.”

“Thank you for having me, Errata. Let me begin by saying how much I appreciate the opportunity to speak to your listeners in the lovely Pacific Northwest.”

“It’s entirely our pleasure, Your Majesty. What would you like to speak about?”

“Interspecies relationships. The human media has long maintained that mixing human and nonhuman societies will inevitably lead to disaster.”

“Not all human media.”

“But most. I’m here to say it isn’t true. Peaceful relations can be maintained.”

“How do you propose to do that?”

“Humans outnumber us, so we assume they are stronger. I don’t think that’s true.”

“Why does it matter who is stronger?”

“Errata, my dear, half the time you wear the skin of a mountain lion. Surely you understand the law of fang and claw. Sovereignty belongs to the hunter, not the prey.”

“Excuse me, Your Majesty, but we need to cut to a commercial break.”

Reynard knew he was unconscious, because he’d had the dream so often before. It was New Year’s Day, 1758, at about ten in the morning. He rose from his bed in the big family home in Surrey, discovering that he had slept in his clothes. Drips of wine spotted the front of his shirt and breeches. Well-done, Reynard.

Through the fog, he recalled being rude to his older brother, Faulkner, again. He couldn’t fix on the details. But then, his brother had been drunk, too. His memory would be no better. Hopefully. Reynard wished he could remember what the devil he’d said. Uneasy, he pulled the bell rope to summon a servant.