Fae Chronicles; Fighting Destiny Part 17

Twenty.

"I buried you!" I cried pus.h.i.+ng his hand away as everything inside of me cried in denial. This wasn't real. It had to be someone using something.

My earpiece shook as Adam spoke loudly. "Syn, this is not the time to be thinking about him."

"Thinking? Adam I am f.u.c.king looking right at him!" I whispered not caring that Adrian was listening to the exchange.

"Fancy face," he said in a soft husky voice that vibrated through me kick starting my heart back to life.

"This isn't real, why are you doing this to me?" Tears made my voice strain as I choked out the words.

"I'm real baby," he said before stepping even closer and placing his lips gently over mine. He was cold, but his kiss started a spark I couldn't deny. It was a soft h.e.l.lo kiss, gentle and not forceful.

"Why?" I cried as I pushed him away from me. "Why," it was all I could manage to get out as my mind raced trying to put pieces together.

"I chose this," he said carefully. His eyes scanning my face and then lower as he took in the vinyl I wore. "New look? I like it. Who would have thought that you had a darker side Syn?"

I watched him close the distance between us and wait for me to push him away again. His skin was still bronzed and golden. His body was still a solid wall of muscle. His touch still sent shocks to my toes as it had the very first time we'd been together.

"You left me," I cried feeling as I had the day I'd discovered his blood covering the floor of the parking garage and the walls. "I mourned you dammit," I growled with my chest heaving from the loss all over again.

"You buried nothing Syn, I taught you better. Never believe something is dead until you have seen it with your own eyes, poked it and sat on it for days."

"Oh my G.o.d!" Adam and Larissa said from behind me as they came to a stop as shocked now as I had been at Adrian's resurrection.

"You knew we were here," I whispered shocked at the knowledge that he was using the covens bond to track us, which meant someone very powerful had made it so we couldn't feel him prying in on it. Someone was s.h.i.+elding him from us and had been since the day he'd died.

"I did, I needed to know if you let me go," Adrian whispered leaning his forehead against mine.

"You abandoned us willingly?" I whispered brokenly.

"It's hard to explain Fancy Face, dance with me?" He didn't give me a choice as Gun's and Roses Don't Cry played through the clubs speakers. His hands wrapped around me holding me close as his lips played against my ear. It was the same song Billy had played last night at the cemetery.

"You need to tell me why Adrian, how could you do this?" I asked as my eyes searched and found Ryder's golden eyes narrowed on us with murder in their depths.

"Not here Syn, I'll come to you when you're alone and explain why I had to do this," his breath feathered over my skin making me s.h.i.+ver.

"You killed Belinda."

I didn't ask him, I knew he had. No one else around us had the same crimson colored aura as Adrian did right now, not inside the club tonight anyways. He laughed but it was cold, sending a s.h.i.+ver racing down my spine at how hollow and empty it was. His tongue was hot, unlike the rest of him as he flicked my earlobe with it before nibbling on the tissue of my ear gently.

"I needed to get your attention Syn. Going through the Guild wasn't an option and since you seem to be playing with the enemy lately. Knocking on your door wasn't an option either."

"So you killed her to get to me?" I swallowed past the bile that pushed up with a vengeance as his words rocked through me.

"She was turning us onto inside information from the Guild Syn. Believe it or not I still love you enough to protect you. She was looking into you specifically. I found hundreds of pictures inside her apartment. Of you. We never asked her to look into you Syn, which means someone else had. When she wouldn't give up the information, I took her out."

"And the bomb?" I snapped angry at everything happening around me.

"Had to make it look like the killer who keeps taking out immortals to get you to look into it and hopefully come here."

"You killed Rex, h.e.l.l! You almost killed me Adrian," I whispered vehemently.

He stopped moving his eyes flas.h.i.+ng with regret. "You don't normally go to crime scenes, how was I supposed to know you would've been there standing over the f.u.c.king body?"

"Next time call my f.u.c.king cell phone, or send a f.u.c.king letter Adrian, like normal f.u.c.king people do."

"Oh and what Syn? Oh by the way, I'm not dead and could you come with me because we found something that could, or couldn't be from the serial killer? No, because I know you baby, you wouldn't have listened to anything I said without slamming the door in my face." He shouted making those around who hadn't been staring before, now do so.

"Well maybe if you would have kept your f.u.c.king pulse beating you wouldn't have to hide in the f.u.c.king shadows!"

"I made a choice, I was given an ultimatum and I took it. I couldn't chance the coven' life and I couldn't be with you because you wouldn't either. This way, we can be together!" he was growling now his words coming out hard and sharp.

"Yea? Ever consider the fact that I don't f.u.c.k dead things!? What did you think this would do? Did you even f.u.c.king think about asking me how I felt? Did you think we'd live happily ever f.u.c.king after if you did this?"

He smiled sadly and shook his head, "No Syn, nothing is that easy with you. I was given a choice, one that could ensure I'd be strong enough to protect you from the things that killed your parents. But h.e.l.l maybe I was wrong since you're currently f.u.c.king one."

I slapped him before I could think better of it. The sound was audible and harsh over the song still playing. "f.u.c.k you Adrian," I snarled seeing red at his words.

"If you're not f.u.c.king him Fancy Face, then why the f.u.c.k are you wearing his mark? Why the f.u.c.k are you shacked up in his f.u.c.king house? Explain why I felt you react to him more than once?"

"I buried you! I f.u.c.king mourned you Adrian. You have no f.u.c.king right to be p.i.s.sed about anything I do or don't do. Not anymore."

"You think I don't want to leave you alone Syn? I've tried, believe me baby I've f.u.c.king tried and yet no one can replace you. h.e.l.l, they can't even come close to giving me what you have."

I felt more tears push at the back of my eyes but I refused to allow them to fall. This was too much, I had buried him and he'd been a few blocks from my apartment the entire time. He'd become something else entirely and he'd chosen to. I pulled further away from him which was harder than it should have been.

I wanted him to hold me, to tell me this was some sick and twisted joke and that he was human still, but he wasn't. He lacked a pulse. "I came to find out if you guys had any bodies piling up Adrian."

"I just told you I wasn't over you and you ask about dead bodies."

I turned and took the ashen color of Adam and Larissa. They were in shock which meant neither of them had known he was alive either. "I can't do this right now Adrian."

"No, you just don't think I am the same guy. Take me for a ride Syn, I promise it will be one you will never forget."

"Seriously? You want me to just forget that you pretended to be dead, or the fact that you left me and the coven you vowed to protect and you used us!" I was poking my finger into his solid chest with anger now. "Ride you? I want to kick your f.u.c.king a.s.s Adrian! What you put us through is unforgivable."

His eyes started swirling as he moved closer to me, his movements that of the undead. Quick, deadly and calculating. "You belong with me Syn. You always will."

"No, I belonged with the Adrian I buried. The one I loved is dead. You had my heart, but you played it. You left me for them, not because you needed it. Not because of me," I swallowed and turned to Ryder, "Did you know he was alive?"

"No," Ryder replied with honesty.

I turned to face the Undead King, "You have my attention. I'm walking out of here in about two seconds, so if you have something to say I suggest you say it now."

Vlad searched my face intently before he spoke. "You might be a target for the serial killer. He sent us a female child. She's in the back of my club hidden. We have had nine born Vampires turn up with missing pieces. Your face was all over the news coverage for the Fairy that was killed. Adrian said you were different than the Witches at the Guild, was he wrong?"

I narrowed my eyes on Vlad, "Describe different."

"You are currently owned by Ryder, no coven has ever given one of their own over to the Fae and yet the Guild leader didn't hesitate to hand you over, which is curious to say the least. I heard you signed a blood contract, which means if Ryder told you to not disclose information to the Guild you would have to comply with his wishes," he turned and watched Ryder nod his reply.

"You're point?" I inquired carefully wondering where he was going with this.

"She seems to know you, she said your name and Adrian showed her a picture and she just replied with Synthia Raine McKenna. She was with the killer for an entire night and yet she is completely whole. Someone is killing immortals and your name just keeps popping up," Vlad continued.

"That makes no sense. I just found out about this case, just started to investigate it. The murders have been happening for a while and as best as I can tell it had nothing to do with me," unless someone was hiding the facts from me.

"Seems you're involved whether you know it or not Synthia." Vlad purred before nodding to a man who had been standing in the doorway that led to the rooms where Ryder had been with the serving girl.

The guy stepped aside and pushed the small girl's shoulders gently encouraging her to move forward. She opened her vivid green eyes and tilted her small cherubic face bouncing her burgundy curls out of her face as she did so.

Everyone watched as she took small steps until she stood directly in front of me. She was dressed in a small pink summer dress that had short sleeves and she was barefooted in a Vampire club. Her eyes took me in and found me lacking. I almost laughed, I found this outfit lacking as well.

"She looks human," I blurted feeling brilliant.

Vlad choked and looked horrified. "For someone hanging around Fae, you don't know d.i.c.k about them." He flicked a quick nervous glance to Ryder who almost nodded imperceptibly. Vlad knelt down to the child's level. "They look human until somewhere about twenty or twenty two and then they go through the "Transition-it's a bit like p.u.b.erty...but a h.e.l.luva lot more violent as they come into their full powers. At this age they could be mistaken for Witches' children-cute as all get out-with a lotta magic." Ryder chose that moment to growl, cutting anything else Vlad might have said off.

When the child indicated for me to come down closer to her level I winced.

Ryder had taken up a position to my right and Adrian was on the left, Adam and Larissa were still rooted to the spot they'd taken since coming in and finding Adrian undead. I pushed the vinyl closer to my skin as I bent my knees trying to keep some resemblance of modesty while getting low enough to be eye level in the heels.

"Synthia," she said barely audible even at eye level, "I have a message for you."

I swallowed and nodded wondering what this child had seen at the hands of the killers. I hadn't noticed Ryder's men coming inside but every one of them made a semi-circle around us, which I was gathering was for protection more than just looks which they all had since they were immortal Fae or Demon.

"Which is?" I asked the child in a firm voice that belied the emotions running through me at being singled out by the killer.

"We know what you are. Nothing can stop what is coming. Not even you Synthia. What we did to those who hid you is nothing compared to what we will do to those protecting you now. You cannot hide from destiny, you are a missing piece."

I almost fell over from my perch. "Who told you that? How do you know my name?"

"You can't stop him, can't stop them from coming-they know what you are. What is coming cannot be stopped," she said softly as if she wasn't aware of what she said at all.

"Who sent you?" Ryder interjected pulling me up and against him as Adrian growled at his actions.

The child chose that moment to crumple into Vlad's arms as we all watched in silence. I felt the power, putrefied by evil, slither over my skin. My knees buckled as I recalled the last time I had felt an evil this powerful. It had been when my parents had been murdered.

"Breathe Syn," Ryder growled against my ear as I took strength from his warm body pressed against mine.

"It's them, they were controlling her somehow. How the h.e.l.l did they find me?" I whispered shocked by what the child had said. Was it possible the killer knew, or was working with the Fae who had killed my parents?

"We're leaving, now," Ryder growled but Vlad stopped him with his other hand as the child sat up and started to whimper.

I watched her small green eyes meet and hold mine. She was afraid, she'd been through h.e.l.l and I knew she'd seen horrible things just by the sheer panic I could read in her young eyes. I pushed from Ryder's hold and went to my knees again. "I'm Synthia, you're safe here."

She said nothing, but giant tears rolled down her cheeks as I held out my hand for her to take, which she did with trembling hands. She was the only link we had between the killers and their victims. Something inside of her had been worth stealing or using and we needed to know what it was that had attracted them to her.

"Synthia," Ryder and Adrian said in unison.

"She's been through h.e.l.l," I said not moving since she was terrified of us already.

"They entered through her to get that message to you baby, they could do it again," Adrian said as Ryder growled at his term 'baby'.

"She isn't yours anymore. She is mine for now," Ryder growled not helping the situation we were in at all.

"You guys can compare d.i.c.k sizes later. Right now we need to get medical help because I would think that the only way to take over another Fae is by implanting some very painful devices or powerful magic. So if you're done fighting over someone, who by the way, belongs to neither of you, we need to get her to medical facility specializing in Fae."

Ryder was the first to respond, "We have a small medical facility inside the mansion and you are mine under contract."

"Syn's not Fae, she's not obligated to consider the contract binding," Adrian growled but Vlad stepped in placing his hand on Adrian's shoulder as his eyes flickered to Ryder in fear.

"He's young sire, please excuse him."

"Sire?" I asked carefully. Why the h.e.l.l would Vlad call Ryder sire? Unless the Vampires had decided to team up and become controlled by the Dark Fae, but if the Horde King ever came out of hiding it wouldn't bode well for either of them since we had heard that the Horde King was the alpha among the entire Fae race and the other was the reclusive Blood King.

I jumped as a small hand folded into my other hand and then was thrown on my a.s.s when she crumbled into my arms. "It's okay, you're safe. I won't let them use you again little one."

I looked up to catch Ryder giving me a weird look, as if I was a mystery which wasn't the case. The fact that she'd been around the men who had killed my parents wasn't comforting. They had been evil to their core and she'd made it out alive. The vamps wanted me here thinking this had to do with the serial killer, but the child was talking about the Fae who killed my parents-how could these killers be connected?

"They're afraid of you," the child whispered as she pulled herself up to look down at me.

"What makes you say that?" I asked narrowing my eyes.

"You are the only one who can stop them," she replied before placing her silk hair back in my face as she held on as if I would disappear from beneath her at any moment.

"They won't get to me. I have the Dark Fae helping me find them. See that scary man standing there?" I asked her flicking my eyes to Ryder so she knew who I was referring to, "He's the Prince of the Dark Fae and do you know what that means?"

She sniffled and shook her head. "He's scary," she mumbled while sniffling more.

"Yes, but it means they have to get past him to get to me," I said hoping she would understand it. I held Ryder's eyes briefly, for the first time since signing his stupid contract I was glad I had. He was deadly and he was under contract to protect me as I was to serve him.

I heard Adrian cuss as he understood what I was saying. I was giving Ryder the right to protect me and my coven while telling him that I was his verbally. I couldn't put this on the Guild, Alden was under lock and key and unless I wanted the same fate I had no choice but to truly give in and trust Ryder.

He was deadly, as were his men and I had just had a pretty red bull's-eye tatted on my rear end by some sort of supernatural Jack The Ripper serial killer or the Fae who killed my parents-or they were they one and the same? I had my coven to consider and the child who was now sobbing into the vinyl lace up top I wore. I met Adrian's eyes briefly and walked out of the club with the child in my arms.

Twenty One