Chapter Eight
Chalen Palgrave stared at the monitor with something close to happiness. He would never allow himself actual happiness because emotion would prove that he was undisciplined, and he was nothing if not disciplined. But still, the sight of Dante Dellacourt lying on the dirt floor, his perfect hair a mess brought a bit of joy to his heart. Dante’s hands were tied behind his back, and he lay at an angle that would surely be painful if he were awake.
Of course, the Taser would have been intensely painful, too.
“And you have the girl?” Chalen asked.
The feed from his mercenary’s tablet turned. Former Sergeant Major Simon Roan nodded shortly, his manner as crisp as his clothing. Chalen doubted the man would get dirty even in the middle of a war. “Her Highness is secured, though I will say, sir, she has quite the mouth on her for a royal.”
“Yeah, well, she’s a cut-rate royal at best,” Chalen shot back. “The twins had to make do with a human. Ever since Torin shut the borders, finding a consort has been difficult at best. Once the twins are dead and Torin reopens our trade routes, I’ll be a hero.”
And his stock would be up.
And his brother would be avenged.
The truth of the matter was he wasn’t sure if Beck and Cian Finn had a direct hand in Kinsey’s death, but they were undoubtedly the reason his brother was dead. Chalen didn’t need to see a body to know that his only brother was gone. Kinsey had understood the obligations of family and business. He would never have walked away.
Chalen still remembered the last time he’d seen his brother. Kinsey had been filled with hope. He’d promised to bring back a beautiful consort named Meg. He’d never returned.
The fact that the Finns had not accepted their place—that was what had really caused Kinsey’s death. If they had accepted the stronger man as their king, there would have been no need for his brother to seek out a consort. Kinsey would have done what should have been his right. He would have purchased the finest consort money could buy. He wouldn’t have died trying to marry himself off to a disgusting human.
“Well, if you need to, feel free to slap Her Highness around. I’m sure she’s used to it,” Chalen said. Everyone knew the warrior king was a barbarian. He couldn’t help it. Beck Finn lacked half his soul. He and his twin were freaks of nature. The planes would be a better place when they were gone.
The sergeant’s eyes narrowed. “I believe I shall forgo torturing Her Highness. I think Beck Finn will turn himself in much more readily if he believes his wife is in good shape. He could be dangerous otherwise. If he believes no harm has come to her yet, he will be more amenable to keeping her from it.”
Chalen didn’t care how it happened. He had no intention of giving up the woman who had tempted his brother. The sergeant could play it any way he wished, but Chalen intended to have that bitch’s head.
“Just make sure you keep tabs on her after you let her go,” Chalen said with a nod. He didn’t betray his true intentions. This was the best team he could buy for the situation. He wasn’t going to lose them due to their leader’s outmoded morality when it came to consorts. Vampires were taught to treat consorts with gentleness. But he doubted his brother had been shown any. “We wouldn’t want her to be left behind with no one to aid her.”
The very British mercenary bowed slightly. “I would never leave a woman out in these woods alone, much less a consort. She will bring a mighty price, sir.”
Yes, she would if Chalen intended to sell her. He had no doubt that Megan Finn would be sought after by every available vampire, but that wouldn’t be her fate.
Meg Finn was going to pay.
And so would Dante Dellacourt.
“Is he dead?” Chalen asked.
Dante hadn’t moved. He just lay there like the lazy, good-for-nothing slug he was. Gods, he didn’t want the asshole to be dead. There was no way Dante had paid yet. More pain. That was required.
The sergeant shook his head. “I assure you, he’s alive. He’s merely unconscious. He received a very large jolt of electricity. I had to take him down that way. The original plan was to create so much chaos we merely had to pluck our targets from the crowd. The ogre created the chaos needed, but I was rather surprised that Dellacourt was actually able to bring the bugger down.”
Chalen felt his mouth drop open. “What are you talking about? What did Dante do? Fuck the ogre to death? It’s about all he’s good for.”
And that bastard had been fucking his mistress for months. That rankled as well. It wasn’t fair. Chalen knew it. He’d been the one to put Ashley in Dante’s bed, but he couldn’t stand the thought of touching her now. At one point, he’d really considered offering her a permanent position, but now he had to consider getting rid of her permanently. She knew far too much.
“I’m still not sure how he did it,” the sergeant replied. “But he wasn’t at all what I expected. From the report you had given me, I rather thought he would be huddling down with the women. Instead, he saved the village. The ogre still did what we needed. The village has been emptied, and my men are going to ensure it stays that way until we can negotiate the terms of Their Highnesses’ surrender.”
“Torch it when you leave,” Chalen said.
The sergeant stopped, his face becoming a blank mask. “As you wish.”
“Keep me informed. I want to know the instant you have those twins in custody.” Chalen turned off the monitor, and his office sank back into gloom. He didn’t bother with the lights nor did he open the blinds. He liked the dark. It suited him.
A wave of stock numbers began to crawl across the bottom of his monitor. The Dellacorp symbol flowed by, along with a ridiculously huge number attached to it. Chalen felt his fists clench. Palgrave Industries was in the toilet stock wise, and it had been since the day his brother had walked into the arena. The press had gotten word that Kinsey Palgrave was fighting Beck Finn, and the company’s stock had taken a dive because no one believed Kinsey could best the Fae warrior king. The stock dove even further when news of Kinsey’s disappearance had made the press.
No one believed he could handle the company the way his brother had.
Well, he would prove them wrong. He would bring Palgrave Industries back to its rightful place, and he would bring Dellacorp to its knees.
Starting with Dante.
* * * *
Dante’s head pounded. The pain was like a sharp hammer beating a quick rhythm against his skull.
Fuck, he was in trouble. How much Scotch had he had last night? It was pretty much a blank, so it had to have been considerable. A party? He remembered climbing a really big tree and thinking that a dog was hot.
Yep, he was going to rehab.
“Dante.” An annoyed feminine voice screeched his name.
“Mom?” He tried to focus, but his eyes weren’t working. “Don’t yell. I know I’m in trouble, but I seriously need something for this hangover.”
“I am not your mother, Dante. Wake up!”
He felt something kick him.
“Wake up, or we’re going to die!”
Drama queen. Whoever was yelling at him was a total drama queen. “Susie? Susie, don’t tell mom. And whatever you do, don’t tell Dad. He’s pissed enough as it is. Don’t tell him I got drunk and blacked out. Fuck, did the paparazzi catch me?”
“Oh, for god’s sake, Dante, it’s Meg.”
Dante forced his eyes open. Meg. His brain started to function again. He had been with Meg, and there was a tremendously smelly mountain he’d had to climb and shoot through the eye, and he was married.
“Where’s Kaja?”
He focused, putting all his will into figuring out just how screwed they were. He tried to pull his hands up, but they held tight. His hands were tied behind his back, and his feet were bound as well. He was lying on the floor of a tent. He couldn’t see Meg. Where was Meg?
“I don’t know where Kaja is.”
Dante turned his head up and to the right. Meg had been given the courtesy of a chair. Her worried face stared down at him.
“Just tell me they didn’t kill her.” He couldn’t stand the thought. How long had he been out? What terrible things had been done to Meg and his wife?
The flap to the tent opened, and a shadow fell over Dante. Three mercenaries strode into the room.
“Who is this Kaja?” a cultured British voice asked. There was a snap of his fingers, and Dante felt himself being hauled up to seated position.
That was when Dante saw her. A brown wolf poked her nose through the door and glided in on graceful paws. Lovely, undeniably feminine, and way smarter than he had given her credit for. His Kaja.
“She’s just a girl I was fucking,” Dante said as though it really didn’t matter.
The wolf growled just a bit.
“I don’t think she likes you,” the asshole mercenary said. His hand came up to pet the wolf at his feet.
Dante felt like growling, too. “The feeling isn’t mutual. She’s gorgeous. Where did you find her?”
Kaja sat back on her haunches. Dante fancied he could feel her satisfaction.
“She was at the site of your victory over the ogre,” the man explained. “I thought she was yours.”
The fuckers had hit him with a Taser. He could use that to his advantage. “I don’t really remember much about that fight.”
“That’s a shame. I would really like to hear that tale.” The mercenary turned to Meg and bowed deeply. “Your Highness. My name is Sergeant Major Simon Roan. I lead a small group of vampires who take on all sorts of jobs.”
“We call them mercenaries where I come from,” Meg replied.
“Ah, we have that in common then.” The vampire stood in front of Meg. “Are you feeling all right, Your Highness? I deeply apologize for the bindings. They are made from the finest silk, so they shouldn’t cut your delicate skin. Are you thirsty? I can have my men bring you anything you like.”
“I would like to go home,” Meg stated plainly.
“Alas, that is the one thing I cannot give you. I assure you that you will be treated with the utmost respect while we await your husbands.” Roan took a long breath. “And after the inevitable happens, please know that I will personally ensure your safety. I believe my employer intends to leave you on your own, but I will not allow that to happen.”
“Inevitable?” Meg asked, glancing Dante’s way.
Dante shrugged. “When they execute Beck and Ci.”
Meg laughed, her chest bouncing a little with the effort. She had little tears dripping from the corners of her eyes. Dante had to admit, it was a little funny. Even if they’d brought a small army with them, he didn’t see how this Roan fellow was going to take down Beck Finn.
Dante knew something the rest of the world didn’t know yet. Beck and Cian had come into their powers several months ago. Beck Finn had been born the greatest warrior of his generation. Now he was also a storm lord. With the flick of his hand, he could call on the power of a hurricane. His cousin didn’t have perfect command over his powers yet, but Dante knew he could handle a band of mercenaries.
Meg bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I am very grateful to you, sir. I would rather not have to watch my beloved husbands being executed, if you don’t mind.”
Roan stared down at her and seemed to come to some decision. “I can see I’ve upset you. I apologize, but it is necessary. Trade must flow between our nations.”
His hand came out. It almost touched Meg’s hair.
“Hey,” Dante said. “Her husbands aren’t dead yet, Roan. You have no fucking right.”
The mercenary pulled his hand back immediately. His face was blankly polite. “Of course. I am terribly sorry.”
“Show me your fangs, asshole,” Dante said. He had a very nasty suspicion. If it was true, it might be very bad for Meg—and it might be a tool to use.
Roan growled a little, baring his teeth. It was just as Dante suspected. Roan’s fangs were curved and thin. Unlike a peasant’s, Roan’s fangs were meant to feed, but not kill. Those fangs told Dante everything.
“How the hell did a royal end up as a mercenary?”
Now those blank eyes went black and cold. “Even a royal can fall, Mr. Dellacourt. I believe you’re about to find that out for yourself. I will protect the consort. She is merely a pawn in this game. But you, I will allow my employer to slaughter as he sees fit. You’re everything that is wrong with our system.”
The mercenary got to one knee. He patted it, and Kaja walked obediently to him. His hands slipped into the wolf’s fur.
Now Dante really wanted to slit the fucker’s throat. Dante could see that even in wolf form, Kaja had a slight glow. In human form, she practically had a halo, but in wolf form it was slightly muted. Dante knew to look for it. He doubted that Roan would notice it. It was better that he didn’t. The vampire was obviously hungry for a consort.
The mercenary didn’t move his hands. “I’ll take care of this one, too, Mr. Dellacourt. I have a weakness for the beautiful creatures of this world.”
He stood and walked from the tent, Kaja following.
Though it made him crazy, Dante understood. Kaja could learn a lot in this form. She could figure out what they were planning. She could learn what weapons they had. She could get a lay of the land.
She could run away from him. She could decide that he wasn’t worth the trouble. She could decide that Roan would take better care of her.
Damn it, he wanted to kill that fucker.
“Dante.” Meg pulled him from his fantasy about taking the very fit Simon Roan apart with his bare hands. “What the hell is going on? Why is my captor being so very nice to me even as he talks about killing my husbands?”
“He’s a royal,” Dante replied. If Simon Roan got a look at Kaja in human form, he just might fall at her feet. “You haven’t spent a lot of time in vampire society. Royals treat consorts like they were made of gold.”
“You don’t.”
He shrugged. “Only with you, sweetheart. You’re like my sister now. I don’t treat my sister very well.”
It was true. Ever since the instant he’d seen Kaja, Meg had kind of faded to the background. She was where she should be, relegated to the role of a loved relative.
Kaja had followed Roan.
“She’s playing a game, Dante.” Meg was looking at him with sympathetic eyes.
Was he that transparent? “I know that.”
“No, you don’t. But I know what she’s doing. If she’d wanted to run, she’d be long gone. She’s going to help us. Is this man working with Torin?”
The fight Dante had been so eager for seemed to be coming at him like a steam train. “Yes. There’s a faction on the Vampire plane that wants to make a deal with Torin. The royals are desperate for consorts. We age until the moment we take a consort. You’re kind of our version of the fountain of youth. We’ll still die one day, but as long as we’re taking consort blood, we’ll look damn good when we go, if you know what I mean.”
Meg let her head fall forward. “What would happen to me if they managed to kill Beck and Ci?”
He didn’t even want to think about it. “Right now there would be a riot if you hit the open market. The tournament would be huge and bloody. I don’t think Roan intends to allow that to happen. He fully intends to take you when you’re available. If he gets his fangs into you, no one will question his claim.”
“God, I don’t understand any of this. Not really.” Meg sounded tired, her voice soft and weary.
Meg hadn’t grown up on the linked planes. She’d been born on the Earth plane. It was a difficult plane to travel to. It was very isolated. She didn’t have any real comprehension of how special she was.
She needed to understand the power she had over Roan. “Royals are raised to treat a woman like you with great reverence. If you play your cards right, he’ll take care of you no matter what happens. But you should understand, he’ll have a price for his care. He’ll feed off you, and he’ll definitely want to fuck you.”
Meg shuddered.
“It’s going to be okay,” Dante said. If he’d had hands to do it, he would have put them on her shoulders. “They don’t understand what Beck is. Roan is a royal. He was raised to be very gentle around women like you. Just be sweet, and he won’t let anything happen to you. It shouldn’t be too long before Beck shows up and blows the roof off this place.”
But a lot could happen in a very short amount of time. Roan was a royal, but Dante would bet the rest were peasants. Peasants didn’t have the same worshipful reverence for consorts that royals did. If the rest of Roan’s team decided they could make more by selling Meg, they would. If they gave her to Torin—he didn’t want to think about what would happen to her.
Beck could handle these guys easily, but Beck wasn’t here. Dante was responsible for Meg and for Kaja.
He had to get them away from here.
“Can you move at all?” Dante asked.
He was bound tightly in sonic cuffs. The mercenaries were well equipped. They had all the latest sonic equipment. The swords at their sides could slice through flesh with almost no effort. If they managed to get Beck in hand, they could kill him. Killing Beck would almost certainly kill Cian.
“I have a little room, but it could take me a while.” Meg’s arms moved, struggling against her bonds. They might not be sonic, but the old ways worked, too.
“I can’t get out of these, sweetheart.” He would need the locking sequence. Even if they could get Meg free, Dante couldn’t get out of his cuffs. His mind raced. “If you could make it over here, I might be able to use my teeth to loosen those ties. It’s not exactly how I imagined getting my mouth on you, but it will have to do.”
“Or we could just wait for Kaja to get me out.” Meg nodded toward the front of the tent where Kaja was nosing her way through the flap.
He’d never seen anything as beautiful as that wolf. Kaja would save Meg. There wasn’t any hope for him, but maybe they could get to Beck.
Kaja shifted, her form moving easily from wolf to one gorgeous, naked woman. She stood, her perfectly shaped breasts bouncing slightly as she walked toward Meg. She really was lovely. He might never get her breasts in his mouth. He really should have sucked her little pink nipples last night, but he hadn’t quite managed to get his face out of her pussy.
“Kaja, you need to get Meg out of here.”
She turned her face to him. Her lips curled up softly. For a woman performing what amounted to grand theft consort, she was remarkably calm. “Yes, that was my plan, Dante.”
She moved around to Meg’s back.
Dante wondered how much time they had. If she managed to get his cock out, he could probably get off really fast. It might be his last time. Even a hummer would work.
Meg shook her head at him. “Dante, seriously? What is wrong with you?”
Nothing from what he could tell. Meg was staring at his erection. It was pushing his pants up admirably. Nope. Nothing wrong with that. And his fangs were out. He was fully functional. “She’s naked. You can’t expect me to think about my inevitable death when my wife is walking around with all her pretty pink parts on display. Now, Meg, I really don’t care if you watch or not, but Kaja and I need to say goodbye in the nastiest way I can possibly achieve with my hands and feet tied.”
Meg flexed her hands. “And he calls me a drama queen. I don’t think I like real, actual bondage. There was nothing fun or sexy about that. At least when Beck and Ci tie me up, I get something out of it. This time, I just got a headache. You don’t have time for sex.”
“There is always time for sex. Come on, Kaj. I’ll be really quick.” He knew he sounded jokey, but deep down he really wanted her. Without Meg to keep him in check, Roan was likely to take out his frustration on Dante. He probably wouldn’t come out of this whole, if he came out at all. He wanted her. He wanted that moment with her. He couched it in sarcasm, but he wanted to know what it felt like to really bond with his wife.
“Does the First believe we will flee without him?” Kaja asked, her hands sliding over Meg’s, massaging her wrists back to life.
Now there was an idea…
“He’s not very smart,” Meg replied, ignoring him entirely. “You watched how they put those things on him?”
Kaja smiled brightly. “Of course. Their First did not realize what I am. He allowed me access to many things he should not have. He also fed me some lovely thing called beef jerky. The mercenaries have several pets. They tried to fight me for the jerky, but they fled after I growled. I enjoyed it very much.”
Kaja knew how to get him out of here. His cock could wait. He would rather live. Damn, he’d finally found the thing he’d rather do than have sex. “Oh, lover, I am going to buy you all the jerky you can handle once you get me out of here.”
Kaja knelt behind him and with a few twists, his hands came free. Kaja moved in front of him, but before she could reach to his feet, he caught her. He let his hands sink into her silky mass of hair and drew her close. He let her sweet scent fill his senses. He could hear her pulse, feel the softness of her skin against his.
“Thank you, Kaja.” He pressed his lips to hers.
The smile on her face lit up his whole fucking world. “You are welcome, Dante.”
Kaja knelt back down, and his feet came free. He wasn’t bound anymore, but he had to wonder if he hadn’t just become her prisoner.