A Symphony of Savage Hearts (Fae Guardians Season of the Vampire Book 3) Page 2

  Jimmy was Carla’s fourteen-year-old son. When he wasn’t working in the factories, he was scrounging and selling anything he could find to keep his mother and sister fed, warm, and alive.

  “Jimmy?” Carla’s eyes focused. Her voice sounded fluid and thick, as though she had a cold. “He’s finding us food and medicine.”

  “Okay, well, don’t you think it’s better for Polly if you wait for him inside?”

  Carla’s eyes watered as she shook her head. “I’m their mother. I should provide for them.”

  Silver’s throat closed. As much as she hated to admit it, Polly’s and Carla’s situation was a dime a dozen here in Crystal City. Too many people were without food, medicine, and clean living spaces. Silver beckoned to Rory.

  “Give her a copper bead,” she urged.

  When no answer came, Silver glared. But the lieutenant’s expression crossed from impassive to incredulous.

  “I could give her all my copper and it would make no difference.” Rory’s hard eyes turned annoyed. “You know that.”

  Goddamn it, she did. The metal was precious because it was rare, but in terms of monetary value here on the streets, it was worthless. Crystal City had no currency. Everyone had a job, an expertise, and they were trained to do their part. In return, their welfare was looked after. But the problem was, these supplies were coming in short from the top. The elite living in Sky Tower stashed essentials for themselves. Silver had a fair idea of where to find the items, but even if she raided the stores, it didn’t solve the bigger problem—humans needed to get out of this drab place. They needed virile land and sun. They needed what the fae hoarded.

  Silver stared into the eyes of a woman she’d once thought her friend. But the past few years had changed Rory, and Silver couldn’t put her finger on why. Rory used to be more welcoming, warmer, even laughed a few times. This war was changing all of them.

  The sound of footsteps had them all bustling to the side as three fishermen ran toward an alley headed back riverside. Rory grabbed one’s collar as he passed.

  “What’s happening?”

  The fisherman’s eyes widened when he realized who had stopped him.

  “The p-p-president,” he stuttered. Those wide eyes filled with awe. “Your f-father. He’s giving a speech.”

  Rory grunted and shoved him away. She turned to Silver, probably to urge them to keep walking so she could explain exactly what it was Silver refused to do, but Silver wanted to hear what Nero had to say. If he was down at the docks, then there could be news. Maybe a raider ship had come in. Too many were disappearing on the water, or lost in Elphyne if they had to make an emergency exit through a portal.

  Then again, Nero could be there to calm the growing unrest about supply shortages.

  Silver followed the fisherman to where a small crowd had gathered around a man standing on a wooden crate. With the river and sky as his backdrop, Nero stood resplendent in his navy tailored suit, polished gold trim luminous in the dull light. Gray streaks at his temples, a Roman nose, and wrinkles around his eyes only added to the appearance of a man who knew what he was doing. She stood at the edge of the crowd and tuned in to his speech.

  “… the fae didn’t build the world. It was there before any of them. It was there before us.” He paused for effect. “But we were here first. If anyone has a right to it, we do.” Cheers rang out. Nero met the eyes of many, connecting with them as he continued with narrowed eyes and a hard voice. “Of course they don’t want us to use metal, because it will help humans to rise above their oppression. Of course they refuse to trade with us. They’re afraid their people will discover our value. And of course they humiliate and torture us because they’re afraid of us.”

  Murmurs of agreement rolled around the crowd, and Silver couldn’t help being one of them. How else could she explain the fae’s unwillingness to negotiate, or even trade with them? They must be terrified the human way of life will infect theirs, and God forbid any of the fae having a choice.

  “They want to destroy everything that makes us human. They want to erase our history,” Nero continued. “They want to smother it as though we never existed. But humanity has survived for thousands of years. What makes them better than us? What makes their children better than ours? We were bred tough. We’re not going to give up now. They might have magic, but we’ve got heroes who go out there with nothing but their skin and each other for backup to face the evil—” His eyes landed on Silver, and he pointed. “Heroes like her.”

  All eyes shifted to Silver. Time paused. Then a deafening roar of approval shook the wooden deck at her feet. Bile rose in her gullet, and her vambrace seemed to constrict on her forearm. They called her a hero, but she wasn’t so sure.

  Rory slanted a meaningful look at her, as if to say, See? We need you.

  With a growl of frustration, Silver pivoted on her heels and headed toward the staff change room. She didn’t stop until the swinging door closed behind her.

  Long, low benches separated rows of lockers. Silver ignored Rory’s entrance after her and found her spot. She pounded on her locker door with a fist until it swung open. She shoved her wrench and respirator inside. Tools were precious down here at the docks. You had to keep them secure.

  After her items settled, Silver stayed staring at the shadows within. They seemed to reach out and take hold of her by the throat. Heroes like her. She itched to take the coveralls off and tighten the corset.

  Rory’s watchful eyes felt like an oven at her back.

  “You said I didn’t have to leave again,” Silver whispered, refusing to face the woman standing behind her.

  “Things change.”

  Silver’s fists clenched.

  Rory stepped closer. “You’re the only one equipped for this mission. I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

  “No.” Silver tugged on the vambrace laces.

  “You haven’t even heard what it is.”

  “I don’t need to.”

  “People are starving.”

  “I know that.”

  “Every time we send a team into Elphyne, they don’t come back. The fae are bolder with their retaliation. You saw the state of Alice’s mind when she returned. You know Bones hasn’t come back. Do this one thing and then that’s it.”

  “That’s what you said last time.”

  “Didn’t peg you for a scaredy cat.”

  Silver whirled and hissed, “You know that’s not the reason.”

  Unflinching, Rory faced Silver’s fury. She might be the only person in Crystal City who stood a chance against Silver’s fists. She’d trained Silver, after all. But she was also the only person who knew the truth if Silver let herself go. And that was why she was here. She squeezed her eyes shut as her memory slaughtered her.

  “No,” she cried and tried to hold the rapidly decaying body, but it crumbled beneath her touch. “No, no, no.”

  But nothing she did reversed it. The black poison poured from her heart and coated the man before her, infecting his every cell, turning it to black ash, freezing his face in an eternal scream. The single rose in his hand, withering and dying.

  Rory’s gray eyes dipped to the vambraces. “Take extra protection.”

  “I could be covered in metal, and it would make no difference if it was taken off.”

  They stared bleakly at each other, considering.

  “I’ll have something made for you,” Rory offered.

  At the idea of new armor, Silver almost capitulated.

  Instead, she said, “Too risky.”

  Rory sighed and trailed her copper knuckles along a locker, clanking and knocking against the surface. Her eyes defocused as she spoke. “Every time we wake up, there is risk. Before I step outside my room, I think, will today be the day we run out of food?”

  Silver pulled the scarf from her head. She tossed it into the locker. “You’re laying it on thick, you know.”

  “I don’t need to. You saw the state of Polly’s mother. Building the airships
will mean nothing if there are no people left to pilot them.”

  “In a city of almost a million, I doubt that.” Silver slammed the locker door shut and faced her superior. But her words felt flat. They were the last ounce of defense against the guilt of her potential and past. She sighed and met Rory’s eyes. “I don’t have a choice, do I?”

  “No.”

  “What is the mission?”

  “A simple extraction.”

  “One of our own?”

  “Sort of. The child of someone who used to be one of our own, or so my father tells me. I’ve not met her.”

  Silver’s eyes narrowed. “Then how do you know this is true?”

  “I don’t question Nero, and neither should you. We need this child because she’ll replace the psychic we lost. We need you because once you have the kid, no one will mess with you. You’ll bring her safely home, unharmed.”

  Queasiness churned in Silver’s gut. She’d never kidnapped before. This was next level shit. Her mind traveled to Polly and Nero’s speech. What makes them better than us? What makes fae children better than ours?

  “Fine,” she said. “But make my armor a corset type breast plate. I need more support.”

  Chapter

  Two

  A mile away from Crystal City, Shade lounged on the long bough of a tall, leafless tree. Small clumps of snow spilled as his leather clad leg dangled and swung restlessly while he watched the gate in the distance.

  His eyes burned from holding a steady gaze, but he refused to remove his sight for an instant. It was bad enough he had to sleep during the day, but now that it was night, if he blinked and his mate emerged and somehow evaded him… a swell of something he could almost compare to panic rose within his chest and that was ridiculous.

  Shade never panicked.

  He planned. He waited. And what he wanted came to him.

  He rubbed his chest. The ache was probably thirst. Every night for the past five months, he’d drunk the blood of rodents and other forest creatures stupid enough to wander nearby. Thanks to a choice taken from him, he now craved Well-blessed human blood. Everything else tasted like cardboard. No matter how many creatures he supped on, the gnawing need remained.

  Not for long.

  Refocusing on steel gates between the opaque crystal walls a mile away, Shade pulled a pouch from his pocket and removed a lock of silver hair to count the strands. Only ten left. Violet and Peaches had donated the lock so he could cast a tracking spell and locate this fated woman. The hair belonged to their friend—another who’d thawed from a two-thousand-year sleep.

  Shade had never trusted humans, but this woman’s power was foretold by the Order’s psychics to be strong. She would be a formidable partner for Shade, plus one feed from her would satisfy his insatiable cravings—this incessant dark whisper in his ear to claim and take and gorge on any creature he could sink his fangs into. One feed from her would sustain him for weeks.

  Her name was Silver.

  Just like her hair.

  Just like the forbidden. Poison wrapped in a pretty package. Or so he’d been told.

  He’d waited five months for her to emerge from the fortress, and nothing. Only two Guardians had ever been inside the city walls and come out alive. There was so much contraband in there, that access to the Well cut off, rendering any fae impotent where magic was concerned. Shade shuddered at the thought.

  Rush, a wolf shifter in the Cadre of Twelve, wasn’t much help in assisting Shade to get inside without being noticed. Rush had been cursed and invisible at the time he’d entered the city. Unless Shade wanted to court the inky side of the Well and risk the chaos a curse brought—including possible death—then he had to find another way to get in.

  Shade’s gift was walking through shadows. He could step through them to another place in Elphyne, almost like portaling. It relied on access to the Well. Any spell created to hide his identity and pointed ears and fangs would also be cut the moment he passed through the gates. He’d be vulnerable the moment he entered the city.

  A rustle of wings announced the arrival of company. Metal, leather, and dirty male sweat told Shade they were Guardians straight from a mission. One landed on a branch to his left, and the other on Shade’s bough, tipping his balance, creaking the wood, and spilling more snow.

  Cloud, a tattooed crow shifter, crouched. Loose dark curls fell over his blue eyes as he judged the snow-covered swamp beneath them. He broke a twig off the thick branch and used it to scratch between his black, feathered wings. For someone who’d once been held prisoner and tortured in the city, the Guardian was remarkably calm.

  “When was your last feed?” Indigo asked, drawing Shade’s attention back to him.

  Recently mated to a Well-blessed human, Indigo had never looked better. Color flushed his olive-toned cheeks. Mischief danced in his eyes. And he had the nerve to judge Shade for being in the same situation he was six months ago.

  Shade hugged himself against the cold. Why were they here, anyway? Shade’s mate was none of their business. Unless…

  “Has Clarke had another vision?” he asked, hope lifting.

  Indigo shook his head and returned a concerned look. “She’s been in a sleep-state for days. Rush thinks she’s stuck in a psychic dream.”

  That couldn’t be good.

  Clarke was Rush’s mate, and the first Well-blessed human to wake from the old world. Well, that’s what they’d initially thought. It turned out others had been awake for years, hidden among the fae and humans. Prophecy said more would come. Some would join the fae, some would join the humans, and this coming battle over the last habitable land on earth would be the last.

  Shade returned to watching the gate. “If you’ve come to take me back to the Order, you’re wasting your time.”

  Cloud and Indigo shared a look that said they’d been talking about Shade. His lip curled, knowing exactly what they would have been saying. That Shade was on a fool’s errand. That his mate might never leave Crystal City. That there were more pressing matters to attend to.

  Unseelie High Queen Maebh had all but declared war on the Order, closing her borders to travelers. As if this looming war between humans and fae wasn’t bad enough, the fae had to squabble amongst themselves.

  Indigo packed a ball of snow in his hands. “Maebh still hasn’t opened Unseelie borders. And there are reports of a new monster causing havoc in Elphyne. We think it’s the one she created in her basement.”

  “You mean the one she denies exists?” Shade drawled. Since he’d left Maebh’s employ decades ago, she’d spiraled into someone he failed to recognize. Once, Shade had considered being Maebh’s royal consort. The power of such a position was everything he’d dreamed of, but when the position was within his grasp, he found he no longer wanted it and couldn’t explain why. Maebh was raving mad.

  “This beast is hunting all over Elphyne,” Indigo said, still packing his ball.

  “You’ll handle it on your own.”

  Indigo and Cloud shared another loaded look.

  “Spit it out,” Shade clipped. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  If the Prime of the Order of the Well wanted Shade back, she could come here and ask him herself. After decades of service, she owed him this time. Besides, the Order needed Silver on their side.

  Shade turned to Cloud, knowing he’d give a straight answer.

  Cloud tossed the twig he’d been scratching with. Contempt twisted his features. “Before he was a monster, he was the human named Bones.”

  Shade tensed. He was sure Cloud had history with Bones. Something had happened between the two while Cloud was a prisoner in Crystal City over a century ago. The humans in charge had been perverting mana to keep themselves young. Who knew what other atrocities they committed behind those walls?

  And Maebh had taken tips from Bones and experimented on him in her dungeons. Shade vaguely remembered the man had been chained and hung on a blood-stained wall, his body mutating and warping despicabl
y. But at the time, Shade had been under the influence of Maebh’s magic and unable to control his own functions. The queen and Shade had a long, convoluted history that went from a brothel to her bedroom as an amaro—as one of her harem.

  Dismissing the memories, he studied Cloud. Power enhancing tattoos covered him from neck to toe, except the face. There was something else underlying Cloud’s expression—something other than the usual permanent scowl. The unnamed emotion amplified every time Cloud stared at the city in the distance.

  “Still don’t see what this creature has to do with me,” Shade said.

  “Demogorgon. That’s what she’s called it,” Indigo said. “And it’s attacked your childhood home.”

  “What?” The brothel he’d grown up in? Surely it was a coincidence that Maebh’s creature had attacked it. A flicker of doubt passed over him. Was Maebh still holding a grudge about his defection? Were the Rosebud Courtesans alright? “Are they okay?”

  “No one is dead, but it can’t be a coincidence it’s your old home she’s targeted.”

  “They’re her own subjects,” Shade gaped, wide-eyed.

  “It doesn’t seem this creature has a moral compass. It’s picking through everyone. Hunting.”

  Shade shook his head with a frown. “It’s probably just collateral damage. A coincidence.”

  “That’s what we thought at first,” Cloud said. “But then we realized some of the other attack sites were places you’d visited recently.”

  “Fuck.” This was just what Shade needed. He scrubbed his face.

  “There’s more,” Indigo added. “We’ve yet to lay eyes on this creature, but we’ve seen the devastation it’s caused. Witnesses are saying it’s unstoppable.”

  “That’s what they all say until a Guardian turns up.”

  Silence settled. Shade’s gaze darkened on the city. Time was running out. He needed to find Silver and get back to work.