“The bike,” the stranger beside me said softly, drawing me from the nightmarish image threatening to capture my mind. “He clipped you as he took the corner. Clumsy fool.”
“Oh.” I swallowed. “I’m… okay.”
Minus the daydreamy state I’d lost my senses to.
The world shifted as he moved us into the doorway of a building, one I recognized as my destination. Odd. I could have sworn that was a block away.
Who is this guy? Why is he holding me?
His arm loosened, giving me a chance to flee, but I found my back pressed up to a wall instead, my vision lost to a haze of momentary darkness.
Something’s wrong. A thought that had tried to appear moments ago, only to disappear beneath this strange magnetism. Whatever spell he’d cast over me had my mind short-circuiting, my body bending beneath his command.
Must… stop… this…
“He warned me you would be beautiful, Aflora,” the voice whispered, his face far too close to my neck. “But I didn’t expect you to be such a delicate little flower.”
My lips curled down at the phrase. “Wh-what?” I stuttered, my breath seeming to escape me as he kissed my throat. What are you doing? I wanted to demand, but my mouth rejected the words, choosing to moan instead. How do you know my name?
This can’t…
Oh…
His mouth touched my skin, causing my knees to buckle.
Holy Elements…
This was bad. I felt the illicitness of it crawling inside me, igniting my instincts, only to be tampered down by a seductive, dusky cloud.
Dark magic, I recognized, my heart skipping a beat. It swam all around us, infiltrating my ability to reason. To think. To run.
“Stop,” I managed to say, my demand lost to the raspy quality of my tone.
He chuckled against my neck, his tongue darting out to tease my racing pulse. “I wish I could, delicate flower. But I’ve been given a task. You.”
My fingers curled into fists, my limbs locking up as I fought to break the spell he’d woven over my form.
Which only earned me another chuckle from the powerful Midnight Fae before me. “Mmm, yes. More of that, please.” He nipped the tender skin behind my ear, his amusement palpable. “I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I’d found the wrong fae, what with your easy acquiescence and all.”
Easy acquiescence.
I’d show him easy acquiescence.
Just as soon as I could find my will to freaking move.
But his magic swathed me in a sea of black, cutting off my access to the element I relied upon for survival, and sank harsh claws into my soul.
I gritted my teeth, furious that I’d allowed him to trap me so effortlessly. That bike had momentarily stunned me, allowing this Midnight Fae jackass to hook me in his dark web.
Fortunately, it wasn’t my first date with his kind of magic.
Closing my eyes, I ignored the inky strands floating around me and focused on finding the core of my strength.
Earth.
It was dangerous to access the source of my element, but my royal bloodline enabled me to seek it out, to see the original World Tree. Its massive roots resembled a tangle of life reaching out to every living Earth Fae, the thickest band connecting to me—the last Earth Fae heir.
I crawled along it, absorbing its strength and readying my attack.
The Midnight Fae wouldn’t know what—
His canines sank into my flesh, eliciting a scream from my throat. Dread, darkness, and desire flooded my senses at once. A denial parted my lips. My soul screaming at the wrongness of his bite. While my body melted into him in a stark betrayal of my mind.
A tear slid from my eye, the pleasure from his embrace cutting deep into my spirit while my mind recognized the absolute horror of what this meant.
Midnight Fae were not meant to consort with other fae in any capacity. And that included tasting the blood of an elemental or any other fae.
This defied every rule I’d ever learned, and not just because of his teeth in my neck, but because of the very visceral need his touch elicited from within me.
“Stop,” I demanded, but the moan underlying the word belittled my intention.
He captured my hip with one hand, his chest a solid wall of muscle at my front. How could my assailant feel so good? Every part of him seemed to line up perfectly against me, including the impressive erection digging into my lower belly.
Wrong, I reminded myself. But feels so good.
I wanted to crumple into a pile of agony and ecstasy at the same time. But with every pull, I felt my connection to the elements faltering, the life energy I adored slipping from my grasp.
To give in to him, to lose myself in this way… No. I couldn’t. I had to fight. My fae brethren would understand. They’d prosecute him for this. Because it wasn’t my fault. They had to know that.
I hope.
However, if I didn’t at least make my displeasure known, they’d assume me to be complicit in this crime. And then we’d both be punished.
My limbs began to cool as my blood flowed in the wrong direction—toward his mouth. There wasn’t much time. I had to make my stand now, while the feed distracted him.
Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to go limp, feigning submission. Come to me, I called to the source of my elemental power. Fill me with the vitality I need.
This would be easier in the elemental world, the Human Realm far away from the core of my energy. But it heeded my call, recognizing my royal bloodline and filling me with enough strength to rock the foundation of the ground below.
It knocked the stranger’s footing out from under him, causing him to lose his grip for just a moment.
I sprang out of his hold, grabbed the nearby rocks of the walls, and commanded them to pelt him.
Only, he deflected them with a flick of his wrist, his icy gaze glowing with his dark essence. “You’re going to regret that, princess.”
“I think I’m going to regret a lot of things,” I countered, calling on a heftier brick to fly in his direction.
He shoved it aside before whirling into a gray cloud.
My lips parted, shocked by his disappearing act.
Which was exactly what he wanted—a distraction.
Shadowy ropes tied around my torso, yanking me backward into the nearby portal. “Oh Fae, no,” I said, trying futilely to break the smoky bands, but they just reattached every time I sliced through one.
And then the doors closed.
I dove toward the buttons, but he was faster, his hand appearing to key in a foreign code that definitely didn’t match the destination I had in mind.
“Oh dear,” he murmured, materializing beside me. “It seems I need to confess to committing a crime. I hope you don’t mind Midnight Fae, darling. Because you’re about to meet a whole council of them.”
Chapter Two
Aflora
I’d never been a particularly violent person, but I really wanted to kill the smirking lunatic sitting across from me. He’d wrapped my wrists in some sort of impenetrable smoke before shoving me into a chair in what appeared to be a reception area of sorts.
Only there wasn’t a receptionist.
And the room was anything but welcoming.
Snakelike vines climbed the walls, their beady red eyes glowing intently at the ends. I seemed to be the object of their focus, their rattling tails hissing to an ominous beat that unsettled my insides.