Chapter Three
Meg found herself watched by every eye in the arena. Only Fae like Beck and vampires like Dante had come to view her in the tent, but now all manner of creatures stared at her as she forced herself to climb the stone steps to the chaise Rhys and Cara had motioned her toward. She found herself staring openly at what had to be an enormous troll. It was six feet tall, and it was sitting. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like standing up. It was also extremely hairy. Behind him looked to be a group of what she could only term goblins. They were small and muscular with leathery skin and wild tufts of hair in odd places. Somewhere in the back of her head, she could hear the cantina music from Star Wars playing.
“Never been off the Earth plane, huh?” Dante had a dumbass smile on his face.
“Do those fangs ever go away?” Meg heard herself ask irritably.
The vampire seemed to take it all in stride. “Certainly not when I am in the company of a half-naked female with a heart-shaped ass. Sorry, they pop out when I’m hungry or horny. Can’t help it. And as I recently dined on a first-grade meal pill, courtesy of Dellacorp, I think we have to assume it’s your fault. What do you say we ditch His Highness, go somewhere private, and make some baby fangs?”
“Pay him no heed, miss.” Cara looked at the vampire, shaking her head. The chaise was plush and covered with tent of ornate fabric that kept the fierce late-afternoon sun off her skin. “Vampires are not known for their manners.”
“Is that blood?” Meg looked at the pockets of red that dotted the sand of the arena floor. Groups of gnomes were hurriedly shoveling out the offending sand.
“Damn.” Dante sank down beside her. “They already got rid of the chopped-off limbs. That’s my favorite part.”
“They’re really going to fight?” Meg was suddenly horrified at the thought of Beck being out there. It was ridiculous, but she felt such a strong connection to him that she couldn’t stand the thought of him getting hurt, much less dying. It must be Stockholm syndrome. Or maybe it was because he had given her the first honest-to-goodness, real live, no-double-A-batteries-involved orgasm she’d ever had. Whether she turned out to be Patty Hearst or just some desperate girl, she didn’t want Beck’s blood staining the arena.
“Yes, miss,” Rhys answered, taking a seat next to his wife. “Your tournament is the last of the day. It is also the largest. The rest of these females are just simple mates. You are very rare.”
Meg let out a sigh of frustration. The whole thing was terribly confusing to her. She looked to the vampire. He didn’t seem to have a problem telling her the painful truth. “Why? Why do all these men want me?”
His sunglasses receded, and he looked her in the eyes. His green eyes sparkled in the shade. “The vamps or the Fae?”
“Both.”
His manner took on a distinctly academic tone. “The Fae are interested in you as a bondmate. Certain Fae have psychic abilities that are greatly enhanced in the presence of a female whose brain is tuned to theirs. In Beck’s case, it’s a little more urgent. Beck was born with a symbiotic twin, Cian. Think of them as halves of a whole. Beck is the practical half. He is the warrior. Cian is the intellectual half. When symbiotic twins turn twenty-five years old, a bondmate is found for them, if they aren’t already contracted. The female forms a triad with the males. She bridges their minds through hers, and they are able to function together. It makes all three stronger. When Beck’s uncle took over Tir na nÒg, he closed the plane. He did this for several reasons, but no doubt one was to cut off his nephews from a bondmate. They have been forced to look elsewhere.”
“So Beck is twenty-five.” Meg was a little surprised. He seemed older, but perhaps it was his regal authority that made him seem that way.
“My cousin turned thirty nearly three months ago,” Dante replied, all teasing gone from his attitude. “Cian is fading. The intellectual half is in desperate need of the bond. It is killing him to go without. If Cian fades, all that will be left is the warrior with nothing to balance him. Beck will likely go mad. If that happens, he’ll have to be put down.”
“That’s horrible,” Meg replied. “But how can he be sure I’m this bond thingy?”
Now a slow smile curled the vampire’s lips. “There’s only one way to know for sure. Tell me, sister, was it good for you?”
Meg felt her whole body flush with embarrassment. The scene in the tent had been Beck’s way of telling if she was compatible. He’d even told her that was what he was doing, but the thought of everyone knowing what he’d done made her skin turn red. The vampire threw back his head and laughed.
“You are so rude,” Meg complained. She received sympathetic looks from the gnomes.
Dante shrugged, but the grin didn’t leave his face. “I don’t see what’s rude about it. It’s a simple fact of life. We all like to get fucked, sweetheart, and from what I’ve heard, old Beck there knows how to do it right. Of course, it would be slightly different with a bondmate. Even without the full bond, during sex, you would have a connection with him.”
“I would feel what he felt.” Meg remembered that odd, erotic moment when she could feel his hard-on, feel her own pussy gripping his fingers as she came.
“Congratulations,” Dante said almost sweetly. “You’re a bondmate. I’ve heard it’s the most intimate connection a being can have.”
Meg swallowed nervously, not wanting to think about it. She wasn’t here to fall in love. She shouldn’t be here at all. She would suffer through this. When she had the chance, she was going to get away, and no intimate bond was going to stop her. She decided to slightly change the subject. “And the vampires?”
Dante leaned in, his fangs showing beneath his wide smirk. “Darling, the vampires are here because you taste really fucking good.”
Cara leaned over Meg’s lap and slapped the vampire. Dante took it with good grace, merely leaning back as though he was slapped by females on a regular basis. “Stop teasing the girl. Miss, the vampires are looking for what they call a consort. You have to understand there are two types of vampires, the peasant and those of royal blood.”
“Don’t call them peasants,” Dante whistled under his breath. “Them’s fighting words. One day you call them peasants, and the next day they unionize.”
Cara ignored him. “The royals are the vampires with ancient blood. They are pure vampire. If they can find a proper consort, their lives are greatly elongated by taking his or her blood. The consort also receives a much longer life by taking the vampire’s blood into his or her body. The consort’s blood makes the vampire stronger than he or she would normally be. I heard your sister recently married her consort, Mr. Dellacourt.”
Dante’s nose wrinkled in distaste. “Yes, now our house is filled with love and roses every day. I’m not having any of it. What’s the point in an extra couple of hundred years if you can’t party? Susie and Colin. What idiots! They walk around like love-struck teens. It’s disgusting. See, the bad part about finding a superhot piece of tail like you is the inevitable, long decline into idiocy.”
“He’s trying to say that vampires fall deeply in love with their consorts,” Cara said primly.
“You say potato, I say potahto,” Dante sang.
“You, Miss, could serve as either a bondmate or a consort,” Rhys interjected over the increasingly impatient crowd. “The psychic connection apparently comes with some changes in the blood. Normally, there would be plenty of suitable men and women. It is a common thing in Fae creatures. It’s why our poor king is related to that one. Mr. Dellacourt’s father took the king’s aunt as his consort. The Fae and Vampire planes are closely linked.”
“Well, they were until that bastard Torin took over,” Dante said.
“And why does everyone speak English?” Meg found that very confusing. “I don’t get it. Dante sounds like every half-assed player prowling the bars on a Saturday night.”
Dante touched his chest and looked horribly offended. “Now who’s rude? For your information, I speak English because my people created it a really long time ago. You can’t possibly think your ancestors were intelligent enough to come up with such a convoluted and ridiculous language. At some point in time, my people found the door to your plane and taught you a thing or two. It probably happened around the time your people started standing upright. By the way, fire? Also a vampire discovery. You have us to thank for that, I’m sure. As to my speech patterns reminding you of your home plane, I can only say, ick. I don’t mean to sound like some human. It’s an unfortunate truth that our planes are very closely connected. If the DLs on the subject are correct, there are a lot of similarities between the two. Think of it like this—our planes started out on the same track, but humans took over your plane, and vampires were the evolutionary winners on mine. There are bound to be many, many similarities.”
“Like the potato song,” Meg mused.
“You have that, too? Funny how that happens sometimes. I’ve heard you can run into yourself on planes like that. The Vampire plane and the human plane are parallel. I wonder if there’s another me on the human plane. I bet I’m getting an enormous amount of tail there.”
“Hush,” Rhys said. “It’s starting.”
Meg leaned forward and watched as a line of men walked out from the far side of the arena. A masculine voice boomed loudly, announcing each as they walked through. It was easy to tell the Fae males from the vampires. The Fae wore only pants and boots. Their chests were bare, and their long hair was pulled back and knotted behind their heads. The vampires wore long sleeves and gloves on their hands. They wore sunglasses like Dante’s, and their shirts came with a hood covering their heads.
“We burn easily,” Dante said when she asked about it. “Our skin is very delicate. The sun on our plane isn’t as strong as the others. We don’t have a lot of ultraviolet light. Dellacorp is currently working on a cream that will protect the skin.”
“Yes, it’s called sunscreen.” Meg felt a strange sense of pride. Score one for the humans. “We piddling humans came up with it long ago.”
“Seriously? You don’t happen to have any of that on you? I could make a killing with that.” Dante’s business sense was quickly shelved as a vampire walked into the arena. Dante stood up and went to the railing, his sunglasses flowing as he moved into the light. “Well, if it isn’t Kinsey Palgrave, you stupid ass. You suck, Palgrave! And your profits were down ten percent last quarter! Yeah, everyone saw it, you pathetic chump. Your stock’s going to take a nosedive.”
The other vampire shot Dante the bird and bared his fangs. “Why don’t you get down here, Dellacourt? Or do you need your sister’s permission?”
Meg could hear the “eat shit” smile on Dante’s face. “My sister would never allow me to fight in this tournament.”
The big vampire, who looked like he might be taking steroids, laughed. So did all his friends. They seemed to be having a laugh at Dante’s expense. “Big sister doesn’t want baby brother to get a boo-boo?”
“Big sister knows it’s stupid to fight the warrior half of symbiotic twins.” Dante’s face twisted into a sweet little smirk. “Besides, I would never fight my cousin.”
It seemed to Meg like the entire arena suddenly fell silent. The vampire named Palgrave went even paler than before as he stared up at his rival.
“Beckett Finn is here?”
Dante pointed at the back of the arena, and Meg saw that Beck was just walking in. He didn’t really walk. He strode. There was confidence in his easy gait as he strode into the arena. The rest of the males had sunk into the sand, but Beck seemed to almost glide above it. He was graceful. He was a shark, and suddenly everyone else looked a little like guppies.
“They’re scared of him,” Meg breathed, sensing the anticipation in the crowd. The minute Beck stepped out, the crowd fell silent and the whispering began. Every eye in the arena was on the big, dark-haired man with the stormy gray eyes.
“He is a bad ass.” Dante sat back down. He opened his jacket and pulled out what looked like an iPad. He pushed the screen a few times and then touched his ear. Meg hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a small device in his ear. “Yeah, give me my sister. Hey, Susie, you gotta dump all the stock we have with the Palgrave funds. No, I am not out drinking. Listen to me. Kinsey Palgrave is about to fight Beck. Yes, that’s what I said. Even if Beck lets him live, he’ll be out of commission for weeks. His even dumber brother will be acting CEO. Dump it now before the price goes down. You’re welcome.” He smiled smugly at Meg. “That will teach them to call me a screwup.”
“How many does he have to fight?” It was starting to sink in that this was really happening. These men would fight. The one who was left standing would expect her to go home with him. She would be his slave.
“Stop panicking,” Dante said, leaning back negligently. “It is all going to be fine. You’ll love Beck, and you’ll be crazy about Cian. No woman can resist Cian when he’s on his game. They’ll treat you like a princess. This is going to be a piece of cake for him. There’s only twenty-five, no, there they go…fifteen to fight. Wow, they must be desperate. I was sure we’d get it down under ten.”
A group of men shook their heads in disgust or fear and walked out of the arena.
“They don’t want to fight the great Beckett Finn,” Rhys said with no small amount of pride. “He’s a legend across the planes. The vampires will stay because of pride. If the word got out that they paid for an entry and then wasted the money by walking away, they would bring their families shame.”
Dante nodded, agreeing with the gnome. “Vamps are damn serious about corporate funds. The Fae can walk away because there’s no shame in surrendering to the King.”
“King?” She’d heard Beck referred to that way, but now it seemed serious.
Dante’s arrogance was gone, and in its place was an earnestness that made him almost angelically attractive. “Yes, Beckett Finn is the rightful King of the Seelie Fae. A pretender sits on his throne and has since Beck was seventeen years old. Beck lost his mother, father, sister, home, and kingdom all in one day. He has been on the run ever since. He has been forced to live as a peasant, barely getting by. He sells his sword to put food on the table. All he has in the world is his brother.” Dante sat forward. He placed his hand on hers. It was slightly cool to the touch. “You can change that for him. You can make his life worth living. I love my cousin. He’s more like a brother to me. If Cian makes a comeback, it is entirely possible I can get my sister to back them financially. Once the money starts flowing, Beck’s loyalists will come back.”
Meg sighed. She knew there had been more to this than simple lust-at-first-sight. He had ambitions, and she figured into them. “He wants to take back his throne?”
“Yes,” Dante replied, as though it should have been blatantly obvious. “He wants to overthrow his murdering uncle. I know that you intend to run at the first opportunity. Don’t try to deny it. I would do the same thing in your place, but I’m asking you to give him a chance. Is there anything you could do on your home plane as important as freeing an entire population from tyranny?”
Well, put like that, getting back so her TiVo didn’t fill up seemed a little silly. The store where she worked wouldn’t be a problem. When she didn’t show up, the district manager would just fire her and put another in her place. She’d been told on more than one occasion that she was a dime a dozen. There were overeducated morons everywhere who needed a job. Her parents had divorced years before and started new families. It would be months before they even realized she was gone.
She could feel her face setting in stubborn lines. She hadn’t asked to be brought here. Just because her life was a little dull didn’t mean it was inconsequential. She had friends. Well, she’d had Michael’s friends, and they had all taken his side in the divorce, but she intended to make friends one day. She couldn’t do that if she didn’t get home. Cara’s small hand patting her in a comforting way didn’t count as friendship. The little gnome was her jailer.
No, no matter what that vampire said, she was leaving as soon as she could.
A loud horn sounded, and the crowd leaned forward expectantly. The battle was beginning. Meg’s breath caught as she saw Beck look for her. Their eyes met, and he bowed formally to her.
Yes, she would leave. Even though he made her heart pound, she couldn’t stay. Could she?