Courts and Cabals 2 Read online

  Like her dress, Aveena’s pale, creamy flesh was marred with pink scars that were already starting to fade. Some of the blood had made it into her sun-blonde hair, but her cold, silver eyes were harder than battleship armor. Those eyes scanned her surroundings like a predator searching for prey.

  “My Lady,” a changeling saw her go down and rushed to her aid, which only fueled her anger.

  She lashed out and backhanded the half-human woman halfway across the room. She hit with a loud crunch. The bond Aveena had with her vassal vibrated and communicated the weakling’s damage. It wasn’t fatal. She glared at the changeling’s twitching form. She wished it was.

  “Weak, they’re all so weak!” she roared, and the very air in the room began to vibrate with her rage. “Why is everyone so fucking incompetent?” she seethed as she marched up the hill.

  Her room, despite how it might look compared to others at St. Vincent’s, was no different in actuality. The moss-cover floor that squished pleasantly under her feet, the slight hill that contained bathing pools and areas for her minions to lounge, the stone plateau that served as the main gathering space where she slept, and the armory; all of it was glamour. It was an extension of her mind and power. The power of House Foxbelle. The power of the Lady of Winter that ran in her veins.

  Those thoughts cooled her temper as she reached the plateau. She was Lady Aveena Foxbelle, heir to the Winter Throne, a future member of The Nine; the High Court of the Fae. She would not be brought low by some half-blood whore and her merry gang of fucktards. She stomped toward the stone alter at the center of her domain. Her mind churned as she figured out how to proceed.

  Undoubtedly, her mother would have felt the loss of one of her knights. Aveena hoped Ser Frederick wouldn’t be missed at court until she was done with him. The troll was one of the most junior knights, hardly even worthy of her mother’s attention. He wasn’t particularly powerful. Even with only one lesser Fae bound to him, Aveena believed he was enough to end Cameron Dupree.

  The rage that filled her at the thought of Cam’s face made the whole room shake. Cries of surprise and pain echoed through the glamoured space as more changelings went down, but she didn’t care. She was imagining all the terrible fates she could bring down on the head of the unworthy mortal scum.

  “Why won’t he just die?” she clenched her fists and drove them through the stone alter. It shattered upon contact.

  That felt good, so she continued to smash. Her fatigue from the battle evaporated as she took out her frustrations on the glamoured stone. Despite what humans might think, the moss, hill, plateau, and stone were not mere illusions. They were thoughts made matter by her power. She knew the weak-willed humans had trouble understanding that, and she didn’t care to elaborate for them.

  It was cathartic to ground her obstacle to dust with her bare hands. A savage smile broke out across her face as she imagined Cam’s stupid mug on it as she smashed it to pieces. She could create a new alter with a thought, but there was something about destruction right now that really appealed to her. She straightened up from the pile of debris at her feet. Her dress had finally torn during her therapy, and she stood naked in all her glory. Her magnificent breasts heaved as she sucked in air and let it out in a mantra-like fashion. She brushed some stone dust from her hard nipples. The destruction had excited her in a way the mortal men around her had failed to for years.

  She didn’t feel self-conscious. She knew she was the epitome of human beauty, and an object of lust for many men at the academy; teachers or students, she knew they all looked upon her with desire. She crafted her human guise to be just that. She’d done her research before coming to this realm. Large tits, a flat stomach, and a toned ass could work more wonders than mere magic among humans.

  Her mother thought it was vain and unnecessary, but it was Aveena’s decision. If she was going to be among humans, she would show them what she truly was: better than them in every way. She knew that. Most everyone at the school knew that; so why didn’t Cameron Dupree bow to the inevitable? She blew the stone remnants from her knuckles and took stock of her situation.

  She tested the bonds of vassalhood in the back of her mind. Many of her vassals were dead, many others were scattering as quickly as possible away from their enraged liege. Half a dozen had been roasted alive by the whore’s infernal flame. The flame she got as a gift from Aveena’s father.

  The rage threatened to explode out of her at the thought, but she took several deep breaths to calm down. She’d never understood why her parents had thought it a good idea to allow a breeding with the succubus. They were vile, disgusting creatures, that were so far below the noble Fae it was laughable. She understood the curiosity, the need to experiment with the human supernaturals because they were the only threat to the Fae, but why the succubus?

  “Was it really worth it, Dad?” she exhaled all of her anger out in one long breath.

  She knew it wasn’t. If her father had never gone to the queen of whores, Aveena wouldn’t be in this situation. “Why is everyone around me so fucking stupid?”

  “Finished?” a childish voice asked behind her.

  She spun, fury scarring her beautiful face, until she saw who’d spoken. The creature’s glamour showed an angelic child with dimples, rosy cheeks, and teeth a little too white to be believable. Curly blonde bangs swept into his eyes, and with a toss of his head, he cleared them to smile at her.

  Her anger vanished, but it was replaced by dread. “Godric,” she gave the child a small bow. Not the bow of an equal to an equal, but a bow to someone respected that was not far below her own station.

  “My Lady,” his bow was deeper. “You must know why I’m here.”

  Aveena gulped. She knew her mother would know the second her knight died, but she didn’t expect her to send this particular messenger so quickly. Aveena expected the Lady of Winter to send an errand boy through the portal in Ireland, and then that boy needed to travel here. Aveena expected hours, not minutes, which told her how deeply she’d stepped in this particular pile of shit.

  Unlike humans, she could see through the other creature’s glamour. He was no angelic child. His skin looked like leather; cracked and scarred in many places. Most of his flesh was covered in chainmail armor, and he had a pair of swords strapped to his back. His face had more in common with an ape than a human; with a pair of tusks rising up from his lower incisors, and fangs stabbing downward. They lay comfortably along the front of his face for every Fae to see, which might be why he chose such a beautiful child as his glamour. Even among Fae, Godric was butt ugly.

  He was also iron kissed. Aveena could feel the cold iron in the chain mail Godric wore with ease. Any other Fae that wore the armor would have been rendered helpless. One of the remnants of the endangered goblin race, Godric was one of the few Fae races immune to the effects of cold iron. That made him very valuable, which only spoke to how pissed off her mother must be. She wouldn’t send one of her chief advisors to fetch Aveena over nothing.

  “Yes,” Aveena made sure her spine was straight and chin held high when she answered. “When does she require my presence?”

  “Immediately,” his answer sent her stomach plummeting into her feet.

  “Very well,” she prepared to step on the journey to the Irish portal.

  “There will be no need for that,” Godric replied with a shake of his head and wave of his hand.

  Power rippled through the room and tore her glamour to shreds. The hill crumbled beneath her feet, the water from the bathing pool evaporated into steam, and the moss blackened, died, and vanished as a swirling vortex of color exploded in the center of the dorm room. The remaining changelings cried out in panic as they found themselves clustered in the suddenly tiny space.

  “Useless,” she would have spit on them if it wasn’t beneath her dignity.

  “Shall we,” sweat permeated Godric’s brow. He didn’t have the power to conjure portals between the realms on his own, but her mother did. Her le
nding strength to the goblin was another bad sign.

  “Yes,” Aveena didn’t need any more prompting. She needed to face this head on.

  She stepped into the swirling mass of light. It felt like someone grabbed her behind the eyes and gave a yank. There was a slight falling sensation, and then she landed on her knees in the center of a beautiful frozen tundra. She forced down her irritation as Godric stepped through the portal without incident, and it closed behind him.

  Despite her anger at her own sudden nausea, a sense of rightness flooded through her. She’d been in the human realm so long she’d grown used to the sensation that everything was a little off. The realms vibrated at slightly different frequencies. Some were harsher, and others softer. The human realm was softer than the faerie realm, which was why Fae could travel freely while humans couldn’t come here. It was a strategic advantage that was unmatched. The Fae could invade the humans at a time of their liking, and the humans had very little recourse.

  Of course, there were other realms with harsher frequencies that posed the same danger to Aveena’s home realm, but there were protections against those that the humans had not discovered.

  “And likely never will,” she smiled as snow blew across the stunning landscape.

  Sunlight rained down on the endless field of ice, highlighting each individual snowflake for anyone that bothered to watch closely enough. She smelled the cleanness in the air, tasted the artic bite on her tongue, and felt the wind caress her body like a long-lost lover.

  “Home,” she sighed.

  Any human who inhaled the air here would have their lungs freeze in their chest. It was beyond cold, but Aveena felt nothing but warm comfort blossom in her heart. With that sense of relief flooding every fiber of her being, she dropped her human glamour.

  Even in her true Fae form, Aveena was considered stunningly beautiful. Her true form was more humanoid than most Fae, with some stark differences. The first was her height. During the battle with the whore, she’d assumed part of her true form in the human world. It was against the laws of her people to show the mortals their true form. Humans were not worthy. She was not supposed to show anyone what they really looked like, but in the heat of battle, she nearly disobeyed.

  Her half-sister might have caught a glimpse of her through her glamour armor, but the other witnesses had seen nothing but a massive armored figure. Here, in her homeland, she wore no armor, she wore nothing at all as she towered twice as tall as the six-foot goblin. Her hair whitened from sun-blonde to snow white, and her skin took on an ice-blue hue. Blood-red geometric patterns swirled across her body in random expressions of her power. Humans would think they were tattoos, but, yet again, the insignificant human mind couldn’t fully comprehend what they represented.

  Another deep breath and her massive breasts heaved with the effort. She could smother a mortal man between her true form’s tits. She flexed powerfully-built arms and legs. The males of her species were shorter and built of muscle and fur, but the stronger females exposed their bare flesh to the elements as a sign of strength. They also exposed everything else, and dared a male to even think about trying to claim them.

  The human’s Worldwide Registration Act required all Fae to announce their species when they stepped through immigration. Aveena’s identification showed her as a frost giant. She’d laughed at the immigration officer’s confused expression when she’d first entered the mortal realm. Not only because her glamour looked nothing like a frost giant, but because frost giant wasn’t what she truly was. No human could understand the power and heritage of her proud race.

  Out of courtesy to the hot-tempered males of her race, she donned clothes. Her sudden arrival would be distracting enough without spilling blood in an effort to court her. With imperceptible effort, she summoned a white, hooded robe and strode toward the ancient stronghold of House Foxbelle. Even from this far away, she could feel her mother’s displeasure radiating across her domain. Aveena didn’t falter, and Godric had to jog to keep up with her as she marched to face her fate.

  Chapter 3

  “Dani, slow the fuck down!” I yelled as the van slid around a corner like it was in the latest Fast and the Furious movie.

  I had a white-knuckled grip on the armrest and would have grabbed the Jesus bar if there was one. As we skidded, I locked eyes with an owl in a tree. I saw its pupils widen until the gold of its eyes were nearly nonexistent. I could reach out and touch it for a moment . . . and then we were past, tearing down the dirt road toward the safehouse we prayed was there.

  We were close. I could tell. There was something in the air I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but it sent a chill up my spine. This might be a safehouse, but it probably wasn’t the nondescript apartment in the middle of some city you saw when a CIA agent was on the run. This place belonged to one of the most powerful cabals in the world; an organization filled with mages, succubae, imps, dwarfs, and gods only knew what else.

  I was still thinking about what we were walking into when Dani slammed on the breaks. I jerked forward and would have hit my face against the seatback in front of me if the seatbelt hadn’t snapped taught.

  “Oomph,” the air was squeezed out of my lungs, but that was better than Lilith. She slid forward and onto the floor between the two sets of seats with a thump.

  “Shit, sorry,” Dani apologized as she threw open the door.

  We’d parked in a small nook in the woods. Trees crowded in on either side of us, but a glance told me it was manmade. It was too neat; free of weeds, grass, and nature didn’t make right angles. This looked like someplace someone parked their car. The advantage was that it hid us from anything unless it was right on top of us. That was good, because I could hear the chopper getting closer.

  “While I wouldn’t mind camping in the woods sometime,” I hurried to pull the door open and grab Lilith, “where the hell are we going?”

  “About fifty feet that way,” Dani pointed at a path I’d missed hidden in the night’s shadows.

  I scooped up Lilith and ran for it; with Dani in the lead and Xamira bringing up the rear. It didn’t even occur to me that Lilith felt like a feather in my arms. The path was narrow and branches reached out to snag at me. I shouldered through them, only letting Lilith get slapped in the face once by a particularly bendy bastard. She didn’t even stir as the leaves tickled her nose.

  After a minute, we emerged into a clearing, and I felt something snap inside me. I stumbled and nearly dropped my charge. It hurt to breath for a second; like something had a hold of my lungs and was squeezing, but after a few moments of panic, it subsided.

  “Wards,” Xamira stated. “Well, no use in being quiet,” her longer legs took her farther and faster than the rest of us as she took over leading the group.

  The clearing covered several acres all the way up to the side of an impressive hill. There were some fields off to one side – all barren and covered in snow – but come springtime, they’d be ready to plant. Anything from corn to pumpkins could be grown as long as the weather cooperated. My nerves didn’t allow me to feel complacent, even with the safehouse in sight. My eyes scanned the sky as much as the area in front of me. Our getaway van might be concealed, but we were sitting ducks out in the open.

  My body propelled me farther and faster, to the point I left Dani in my wake. I heard her grumble something about, “stupid, short-ass legs, and too-big tits,” as she fell behind.

  I was still far behind Xamira, but I saw her stop as a figure appeared from the house ahead. It was a stereotypical Victorian. Not quite a mansion, but pretty damn close. It was three stories with its siding painted the light blue of the open sky. A wrap-around porch encompassed the entire perimeter of the structure, while a steep, irregular roof, and tower of cupola perched on top. There was a plethora of carvel inlets, and enough gilding to border on gaudy.

  Despite the late hour, light blazed through dozens of windows; enough to beat back the shadows of the woods. To complete its disguise as a r
egular, rural house, smoke wafted out of the chimney, and I thought I could smell fresh-baked Christmas cookies fanning out the door the owner had just walked through.

  I drew close enough to see her. She was the first person associated with the cabal that I wouldn’t call beautiful; handsome and imposing was more like it. Her face was stern, with hawkish features. Her tall, willowy body was covered in a flannel robe, but the way she walked screamed predator to me. My steps faltered as I got closer. Something in me rebelled at bringing Lilith, in her current condition, closer to whoever the hell this was

  Xamira bowed to the stately woman, while I stopped about ten feet away. The woman didn’t pay attention to either of us. Her eyes were fixed on Dani. I looked behind me and saw Dani had skidded to a halt another twenty feet back. Her face was white as a ghost, and her hands shook in fear. She looked ready to bolt.

  “Ah hell no!” she yelled and took a step backward.

  The action seemed to propel the woman forward, and the next thing I knew, I’d nearly been knocked over by a gust of wind. I turned and saw the woman had Dani by her long braid. Now, the dwarf was frozen in fear as the woman sniffed her throat. Judging by her reaction, my first instinct was vampire, but I knew vampires, and she didn’t seem like your average vamp. Whatever the hell she was, she looked like she was about to take a bite out of Dani.

  “We come seeking shelter!” I yelled into the near-homicidal silence.

  The woman’s eyes lingered on Dani for a second, and then snapped to me. Between one blink and the next, she was directly in front of me. I would have retreated, but I’d learned from Dani’s mistake. You didn’t run from a predator who savored the hunt. There was something very dangerous about this handsome woman.

  “I was wondering why a snack willingly walked into my territory,” the woman’s voice was a little too deep to be feminine, but something about it caressed me in all the right ways. I shivered as she studied me.