Dragon Fae Read online

  “Uh, sure, I guess. Did you check in as a visitor?” Cassie asked.

  Ena pulled a visitor pass from her pocket that she’d grabbed at the office.

  They entered the room then, told the teacher she was a friend of Cassie’s and wanted to sit in on her class if it was all right. The teacher told her to take any empty seat she would like. Cassie had wanted her to sit closer to the front nearer her. But Ena had to watch the kids in class, observe them, see if she could learn anything from them.

  Ena took an empty chair in the very back where she could look over all the kids in class. She assumed if one of them had grabbed Alicia, it would have been a guy, and he would have been fairly powerful in build. She also listened to the teacher calling names from the roster to see if anyone was absent. Like someone might be serving guard duty over a fae prisoner. Only two girls were absent.

  More than anything, Ena focused her attention on the seat that Alicia had walked over to and hadn’t sat down in. The big guy sitting there was really nervous about Ena being in class. He looked like he was the kind of build that the fae liked to hire as bodyguards or castle guards. Size-wise, he fit what she was looking for.

  Everyone else was curious about her being there, a few odd stares because of her unusual Goth outfit, but the one guy—he was different. He kept trying to study her when she wasn’t looking. Bryan Jessup, the teacher said his name was. Ena had been watching him as the teacher called out all the names. He hadn’t said anything, as if he didn’t want Ena to know who he was. But she’d been watching him. Saw him raise a finger in the air in a silent way to alert the teacher he was here without making it obvious to Ena, had she not been watching him.

  He garnered all of her attention now. He kept fidgeting, glancing at his watch, touching a phone in his pocket. At least that’s what she believed it was. The teacher was focused on the students, asking questions, and Ena thought the boy wanted to text someone, but was afraid of getting caught. The teacher would probably take his phone away if she saw him using it.

  As soon as the class ended, Bryan jumped from his seat, yanked out his phone and began texting as he tried to move out of class.

  Ena was quicker. She blocked his path, and he nearly ran into her because he was so intent on texting. She smiled up at him. “I know you from last year. Don’t I?” She thought she sounded so sweet, pixie-like, to match her pixie-like—Gothic look. Sweet and innocent.

  He quickly shook his head, his face a little pale, is blue eyes wide. He wasn’t buying that she was sweet and innocent at all. Which was fine with her. He would make a mistake with her anyway. He was already running scared, no one to back him up at the moment. And if he was calling someone, there was more than one fae seer involved. How many? That’s what she had to know.

  “Sure I do,” she continued. It wasn’t like she could do anything with him at the moment, but rattle him. That would force him to make a grave mistake. “Oh my hair was blond last year, longer, and I was a little shorter. And I had a way better tan.”

  “Excuse me,” he said, trying to get around her.

  She moved aside and Cassie joined her. “Did you want to have lunch with me?”

  “I’d love to. Some other time though.”

  Cassie looked crestfallen.

  “Really. I…I’ve got to see if I can locate Alicia.” Goddess, Ena felt terrible, but she had to keep Bryan under surveillance, and she couldn’t get sidetracked.

  “She is missing, isn’t she?” Cassie said, her brows knit together in a tight frown.

  “I have to go. As soon as I find her, I’ll let you her know you want to see her. Okay?” Ena tried hard not to sound as though she was panicking. She never panicked. Well, maybe rarely. But this wasn’t the time to panic.

  “Sure.” But Cassie still sounded worried about her friend.

  “Okay, uhm, I’ll try to see if I can come with her the next time. Gotta run.” Ena gave her what she hoped looked like a bright smile and hurried after Bryan, wanting to see if he got together with someone else.

  If he really was a fae seer, she needed another fae to appear before him so she could judge his reaction. She was not about to show off her own fae aura, not when she was trying to appear human to any fae seer in the school.

  That’s when she saw Bryan rush to meet up with another guy. They had just gotten together when she saw Prince Deveron and his cousins Micala and Niall, and the prince’s bodyguard, Herlinkis, stalking in the direction she was standing, though they were talking to each other, and they hadn’t seen her yet. They were all in fae form. Not that it mattered. If they were in human form, they’d still show off their fae aura to a fae seer.

  When Micala saw her, he immediately told Prince Deveron. From where he was, he quickly dipped his head in greeting, then made his way across the common area to reach her. She shook her head at him, and looked at Bryan and his friend, who were busy conversing. Motioning with her head, she indicated that Deveron and his companions should approach the two boys.

  She was certain Bryan thought she was trouble. But he couldn’t figure her out because she didn’t look like she was one of the fae. Or at least didn’t have the shimmer to indicate it.

  She wanted Deveron to show himself to the fae seers, if that was what they were. They’d react. They couldn’t help it, especially when they saw so many of them coming at them at once when no one should be able to see the invisible fae. They’d know why the fae had targeted them, too. These guys most likely had Alicia locked away somewhere, if she wasn’t already dead. And the fae approaching them had to be friends of hers.

  Imperious as the crown prince of the Denkar was, Ena knew he’d make a good showing. The four dark fae stalked toward the two guys. The humans suddenly realized someone was approaching them. Both turned and saw the four fae coming toward them. The humans turned white as sheets, eyes rounded, mouths agape. Yeah. They were fae seers, just as if they had witnessed the appearance of ghosts that no one else could see.

  Deveron gave Bryan one of his most dangerous smiles that he could offer, and the next thing Ena knew, the fae had the boys in hand, and they all vanished.

  Ena quickly glanced around at the rest of the busy common area as kids moved to other locations, getting ready for lunch break or another class period, looking to see if anyone else had been spying on the boys and the fae. She saw him then. Another boy. Were there more? She didn’t see anybody else who appeared to have been taking in the show. Just that one guy, and he looked shocked to the core.

  He was big like the others, tall, and muscular. Poor Alicia. She hadn’t stood a chance against the three hulking guys.

  The guy was ashen as he fumbled for a cell, dropped it on the floor, grabbed it up, and rushed down the corridor toward the door that would lead out to the student parking lot. His stride was much longer than hers, but she didn’t want him to become aware of her running after him. She had to turn invisible. If he was going to the place where they held Alicia, she had to know this now and rescue her at once.

  Not having a choice, she turned invisible and took off running after him. A couple of girls screamed behind her. She glanced back. They had dropped their books, their mouths hanging agape as they stared at where Ena had disappeared to. Others were looking in her direction. How many had seen her disappear?

  The kid shoved the door open and hurried out. She couldn’t reach it in time. Once the door shut, she rushed right through it so she wouldn’t have to give the girls and others who might still be watching in her direction more of a show if she’d shoved the door open, making it appear it had opened automatically by itself.

  For a minute in the bright sunlight, she searched for him, then seeing him headed to the back of the parking lot, she took off running again.

  She didn’t know for sure if others like him were involved. But she had to latch herself onto this kid no matter what. Deveron and his dark fae companions would take the other two somewhere to interrogate and attempt to learn the truth about Cassie’s wherea
bouts. This one was hers. One of them would tell them where they’d taken Alicia. Hopefully, before it was too late.

  She didn’t want to give Prince Grotto the satisfaction he’d receive if he knew Alicia hadn’t survived, and he was next in line to rule. She hadn’t ever met Princess Alicia, yet Ena couldn’t help feel sick that she might be too late.

  Chapter 3

  Alicia woke to the sound of a much older man speaking to her from behind her, his voice rough with age, maybe from smoking. She took a deep breath. Yeah, she could smell the smoke rolling off him. She couldn’t tell day from night when the light was turned on in the concrete prison she was shackled in. The room had no windows. Her bones ached from sleeping on the lumpy, moldy sleeping bag on the unforgiving concrete floor, her wrists raw from trying to yank herself free from the pipe that the iron manacles were fastened around. Because of her fae healing abilities, her wrists would heal up fast when she slept and she wasn’t attempting to free herself, but right now they were hurting again.

  She listened to the man speaking, trying to determine his age and anything else without opening her eyes, turning, and looking at him.

  “You’re a pretty little thing. My boy said you were. He was all for getting rid of your kind in the past, but I’m thinking it has to do with you’re a girl, and he’s kinda reluctant this time.”

  She was getting the impression this man had no qualms about terminating her. She opened her eyes and turned to study him as he peered down at her. Middle aged, thinning gray hair, narrowed gray eyes, a diagonal scar across his forehead, and a paunch bulging against his gray T-shirt. He was wearing navy blue sweat pants and white tennis shoes, and he smelled of stale cigarette smoke and beer.

  His thinned lips formed into a sly smile, but the expression didn’t meet his wary eyes. “I knew you were awake.” He had brought down a blue folding camp chair and was sitting on it, making himself more comfortable while he was waiting for her to prove she was already awake. “Bryan said the fact you were a girl wasn’t what was bothering him. I still think it is.”

  The man’s bushy gray brows tightened into a frown. “He said you used to be human. At least that’s what his friend Mark said. He knew you from last year. And you had none of this…” The man waved his hands about. “…fae sparkle around the edges of your body. I think he just wasn’t as good at seeing it back then. Or he hadn’t wanted to see it. Because you were a girl.”

  “We can’t hide our fae aura,” she said, trying to speak sweetly to him, but she was having a devil of a time of it as angry as she was. She hadn’t intended ever to kill a human who was a fae seer. She had been one! Well, before she found out she was no longer one. She still didn’t want to, unless it was in self-defense and she had no other choice—kill or be killed.

  He smiled ruefully. “Okay. So what makes you different? Did a fae bite you? Turn you into one of them?”

  She raised her brows, giving him a look like he had to be out of his mind. A vampire fae? Get real. “If I tell you, will you let me go?”

  “Sure.”

  “And I should believe you, why?” She didn’t trust him as she studied the smirk on his face and the narrowed gray eyes. He appeared to be a shrewd man, and he’d kill her just the same. “But you won’t release me. So why should I tell you?”

  “Because we’ll torture it out of you.”

  She didn’t have any reason to believe they wouldn’t. They probably would have killed her already if they hadn’t worried about why she was different.

  “Is your son truly your son?” She still had the notion that maybe one or more of the fae seers had been like her.

  He frowned at her.

  “What of the other boys? Do they truly have human parents?” she persisted, hoping she might have a breakthrough with him.

  The smile returned to his face. “So you’re saying they’re all of the fae? Not human?”

  “They could be.”

  “And you were? Are?”

  “I could see the fae like you can. I was a fae seer just like your son, just like the other boys. I had never been to the fae world. I didn’t know I was one of them. Then I…aged into it.”

  The man scoffed. “I don’t believe a word of it. But I will tell you there’s another reason Bryan and the others wanted to keep you alive for a while longer.”

  She waited for the other reason, trying to come up with it on her own while he made her wait to hear it. She couldn’t think of another reason.

  He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Bryan says that a girl in his class is seeing a male fae. Dating him. If you can call it that.”

  The pit of Alicia’s stomach turned to ice.

  “And they think you were going to see her. So is she like you? Able to hide the fae side of her and then one day unable to any longer?”

  “No, she’s strictly—”

  “Mr. Iverson!” one of the boys called out, his voice rife with panic. “Mr. Iverson!”

  “Down here, Brett! What’s up?”

  “They’ve got them.” The dark-haired teen, maybe seventeen, maybe older, looked like he worked out, his arms muscled, his chest also that she could tell from the way his cotton shirt stretched across his abs. Maybe he stayed in shape to fight the fae? Even so, he was upset, breathing hard, face flushed, and his blue eyes wild. He hurried down the wooden steps. “They took them right before my eyes at the school. We’ve gotta move her. Now.”

  “They took my son?” Iverson’s voice was hollow. He gave Alicia an icy look that told her she didn’t have much time to live.

  Whoever the fae were who had taken his son had to get here quickly! They were probably interrogating the boys. She hoped the humans would spill their guts—word-wise—soon before these two decided to eliminate her and save their necks. She didn’t really want them hurt.

  “Yes, sir. We gotta hurry and get her out of here. They’ll torture them. You know they will. And then they’ll tell those bastards where we’ve got her, and they’ll come for us.”

  “So that means we need to kill her and disappear.”

  “No, we gotta hide her and somehow we’ll ransom her for them,” Brett said.

  “They’ll never let us live,” Iverson said. “Think about it. They kill our kind. After they learn we’ve been killing them and still have this one as our hostage, they won’t let us live.”

  “Unless you’re fae,” Alicia said, not knowing if her people would allow them to live or not after they took her hostage and planned to kill her. But it was the only chance she had of saving herself, she thought. She had to put doubt in the boy’s mind. The old man knew he was a gonner. “And you haven’t received all of your abilities yet.”

  Brett stared at her, then looked at the older man as if seeking his confirmation as to whether she was telling the truth or not.

  “Don’t believe her for an instant,” Iverson said. “She’s just trying to save herself.”

  “The old man won’t change,” Alicia said. “But you, Brett. You could be just like me. I appeared human up until a couple of months ago. I could see the fae, but that was it. You could be just like me in a matter of months, weeks, days even. Do you want to throw that all away? You have no idea what some of us are capable of. What our world is like.”

  “She’s lying,” Iverson said. “She was hiding her fae aura.”

  “I didn’t have any to hide,” she said to Iverson. “What will happen if you gain your fae powers, Brett? Will you still seek to destroy our kind?”

  “You’re not like them. You won’t be like her. She’s twisting you around that fae logic. She’s trying to confuse you,” Iverson insisted.

  Brett seemed confused, almost willing to believe in Alicia’s words.

  She opened her mouth to speak again, to attempt to convince Brett to save her when a girl called out, “Knock, knock. Anybody home?”

  Their faces visibly paling and lips parted, Brett and Iverson appeared surprised at the intrusion. They looked at each other with questioning
glances.

  “Do you know who she is?” Iverson whispered to Brett.

  He shook his head. They both turned their attention to Alicia.

  “Don’t look at me. It’s your house.” She had no idea who the girl could be either.

  Mr. Iverson stood up from his chair, and the girl appeared at the head of the stairs. A Goth with short black hair and pale green eyes, her gaze on Alicia first, a ghost of a smile on her light pink lips. She was petite, wearing thigh-high black leather books, slim-fitting leather pants, and a black velvet bustier type top decorated with gold braid and gold buttons. She didn’t have any fae aura. Alicia thought she might try to help her, because the two guys didn’t know the girl. On the other hand, she was human so she must be a fae seer, heard about the fae they were holding down in the basement, and came to join in the game.

  “Am I interrupting anything?” she asked so sweetly as she turned her attention first on the older man, and then on the boy. She began to walk down the steps, one at a time like in slow motion. Somehow the narrowed look in her eyes and the way her mouth was curved up just a hint gave her the appearance of someone who was darkly amused about the whole situation.

  Who was she?

  The boy backed away toward the wall. The old man was frozen in place, just staring at the girl. “You’re not of the fae. Or…you’re hiding it. I knew they could do that. Damn it to hell.” He cast Brett a scornful look as if telling him he told him so and the boy wouldn’t listen.

  Then the girl gave Alicia a bright smile. “Well, imagine finding you here. We haven’t met yet. I’m Ena, stands for ardent in Irish. Like committed, passionate, eager, devoted, fiery. Or in the Celtic way, simply fire.”

  Alicia knew the girl was trying to tell her something. What?