Fever Fae Read online

  That’s when I spotted it. The nightmare crouched under a lemon tree. A hummingbird fled from picking honey from a blossom.

  I charged down the steps, hissing, ready to throw my shadow fire at the monster again. This time I’d make sure it stayed dead, for it had uttered the word “kill” with the very intention of harming my family and me.

  The thing glared at me, hatred glowing in its murderous red eyes. Then it turned to a plume of smoke and sank into the ground.

  Just like that, it was gone.

  I cursed and halted in the middle of the yard, staring at the space where the nightmare had been, waiting for my brain to work again as reality and unreality blurred the line. Renewed fear washed over me, seizing my throat. How could I protect my family when no door or wall could stop the smoke monster from returning?

  The uneasy feeling of being watched pulsed in me again, and the space between my shoulder blades prickled in cold air.

  I snapped my attention in the direction I felt the unwelcome weight of the scrutiny. A giant man tried to blend into the shadow of an oak tree at the far end of my yard.

  I narrowed my eyes in cold rage and fear. Had he sent the creature? Or did the monster turn into the man while it vanished as a puff of smoke? After that mind-bending phenomenon happened right in front of my eyes, I’d believe anything was possible.

  Shadows hid the details of the stranger’s face, but surprise flitted across his expression as I stared him down, as if he never expected me to bust him.

  The man peeled from the shadows and strolled toward me, his cold gray eyes never leaving mine. I sucked in a breath as the morning light revealed his gorgeous features. Silver hair flowed past his massive shoulders, complementing the high cheekbones and regal nose that could have been carved from ice. He was large, yet perfectly proportioned.

  “Stop there!” I barked at the silver-haired dude. I wasn’t going to let my guard down just because he was pretty, especially after the assault of the monster.

  From the corner of my eye, I caught another flash of movement.

  A similar giant man with claret hair down to his tanned chin jogged toward me like a glorious sun god, his bright, predatory amber eyes snagging on me.

  The tiny hairs on my arms stood to attention, yet part of me purred.

  He wore a scarlet designer shirt and stretch leather pants. Very few men could pull off that kind of flamboyant style and still look classy, but this guy made the fashion statement work. He didn’t button his shirt up, but showed off the top part of his chiseled chest, a trace of golden hair leaving less to the imagination.

  I tore my gaze from ogling the newcomer’s smoking-hot body and let it stay on his obscenely beautiful face.

  Perfection like these two specimens should be ruled as illegal.

  The golden dude winked at me. His smile was flirty, yet his eyes appeared cruel and dismissive. He must have brushed me into the same category of those women who drooled over him and wrote their numbers on his pompous ass.

  How had he even gotten past the fences around my house? I hadn’t seen him a second ago.

  Annoyed with how he strode across my backyard as if he owned the property, I pointed the sharp tip of my umbrella at him. “You stop there, too, mister. I haven’t invited anyone to a tea party in my yard.”

  And I wasn’t the only one who was irritated.

  The silver-haired hottie, his thin trench coat billowing in the morning breeze, stalked to the scarlet-shirt dude, stopping a few feet from him to block his advance.

  “Baron, what are you doing here?” the silver-haired man demanded in an icy voice.

  “You shall address me as Summer King,” Baron sneered. “Certain court courtesy and formality should remain, King Rowan of the Winter Court.”

  These two were nuts.

  Before I could shoo away the crazies with my umbrella, they talked over each other, trading insults. And I shockingly registered a new detail—they were speaking in the same tongue the monster had used.

  The men sounded refined, velvety, and musical. Yet every timbre in their speech carried hostility and cruelty.

  Both men and the monster showed up almost in the same time frame, and spoke the same exotic tongue. That couldn’t be a coincidence.

  And how could I understand their language when I’d never heard it spoken before?

  So, instead of marching to them right away and interrogating them about trespassing in my backyard, I opted to listen to their squabble while putting up a befuddled expression to indicate that I had no idea of what the fuck they were arguing about.

  After a few more insults, both males glanced my way.

  “Did you enthrall the pretty peasant mortal, Winter King?” Baron demanded.

  Chapter 2

  Peasant?

  Seriously?

  This farm girl would have laughed if I hadn’t been angry. The two men strutted around on my turf like overblown peacocks, as if the entitled dicks owned my family’s home.

  But I didn’t rain down my blaze of fury on them. Not yet. First I wanted to learn what these two dangerous crazies were up to.

  “I didn’t need to lift a finger to charm that poor girl,” Rowan said coldly, breathing out a trail of icy steam into the summer air.

  I narrowed my eyes. Was he sick or something? Was that why Baron called him Winter King?

  “She’s already dazed by me, like all mortals,” Rowan continued. “Not even a high Fae is immune to my presence.”

  “This girl is prickly,” Baron said with a chuckle. “She dared to shout for us to halt.”

  They talked as if I didn’t exist. My fury burned hotter. They had no idea what kind of things I dared, like sticking the endpoint of my umbrella up their obnoxious asses.

  “Did you track a Nightling here? Shouldn’t you get your knights to do the dirty work, Summer King?” Rowan demanded.

  A Nightling? That must be what they called the nightmarish creature.

  My heart pounded painfully, and I inched toward them as I didn’t want to miss an answer. If either of them had dispatched that monster, they’d be sorry. Messing with me? I might let it slide, but if they messed with my family, they didn’t get a nice way out.

  “Calling the kettle black, King Rowan?” Baron asked in a sardonic tone. “Not that I’m surprised.”

  The wind blew, tossing Rowan’s silver hair forward across his face, revealing a pointed ear that no human bore before he brushed his hair back. And at the same time, I caught Baron’s fangs as he snarled.

  Fuck.

  My eyes widened. The gorgeous dudes were monsters in beauty’s skin. No wonder they spoke the same language as that Nightling. The only difference was these two looked angelic, while the Nightling bore the appearance of a demon spawn.

  That dark creature’s last words echoed in the chamber of my head, chilling my bones. “Dark. Princess. Kill.”

  I staggered back, my knuckles white on the handle of the umbrella.

  The strangers didn’t notice my reaction, their gazes still fixed on each other. Rowan ignored Baron’s jab, his expression thoughtful. “You think the Night King sent his creature?”

  “Who else?” Baron said.

  “I’ll get to the bottom of this,” Rowan said. “It’s prohibited to release a Nightling to the mortal world. When I prove it’s the doing of that insufferable bastard, I’ll take him down.”

  “We can’t take him down alone.” Baron shrugged when Rowan gave him a scathing look. “We’ve tried many times.”

  Rowan’s attention snapped toward me, a puzzle arising in his glacial eyes. “Why did a Nightling take an interest in a simple mortal girl? It ran from her house. She shouldn’t be able to chase it off.”

  “Why don’t we ask the pretty thing?” Baron asked, his gaze roving over me, his mood improving.

  “I was about to before you rudely interrupted me,” Rowan grated.

  “Let’s play with her first,” Baron said. “I haven’t done it with a human girl for a
long time. Mortals burn brightly before they’re no fun anymore. This girl will beg me sweetly for the taste only a high Fae can give her. Watch and learn.”

  A fit of cold anger shot straight to my head. It took all my willpower not to slam the sharp end of the umbrella where he’d definitely feel it. I forced myself to hold still, gazing at them with an innocent expression and big green eyes.

  Rowan folded his muscled arms over his broad chest. “Just make it quick, Summer King. I don’t have all day for your frivolities. I must return to my court after I get some answers from the girl.”

  “So you can play house with the Dawn Queen?”

  “She isn’t in my court,” Rowan said, ice in his every word. “And it’s none of your business.”

  “Her spies are everywhere. You think she’s the one?”

  “One for what?”

  “The one woman for all the kings,” Baron murmured, his tone somehow still completely menacing. “As the oracle prophesied.”

  “I don’t believe in such things,” Rowan said, his face stony. “And she’s still hung up on the Night King.”

  “That asshole thinks he has the first pick on any woman,” Baron sneered, every humor dropping from his face.

  His mood turned sour again, the Summer King wheeled toward me, a cruel smile spreading across his lips. If I hadn’t eavesdropped on him and understood all the nasty things he’d said, I’d have regarded him as fuckass hot.

  Well, he was still first-class hot, and I wasn’t completely immune to a gorgeous man even though I knew he was a monster. One of them had said not even a high Fae could resist their power, and in their eyes, a mortal girl like me was lower than a low Fae.

  “Come, mortal,” Baron commanded me in English.

  His sexual power slammed into me. I parted my lips in shock and struggled to get a breath of air into my lungs. My body was more than eager to respond to his command, eager to go near him. He smirked, a little bit amused and mostly bored. I was too easy, just like every girl he’d played with.

  But maybe I wasn’t exactly like an average Jane. The logical part of me was still in control, and that part screamed for me to run from the predators. Yet the wildly emotional part wanted to go to Baron and win his affection. It liked bad boys. The Fae’s animalistic power and wicked beauty called me like a moth to the flame.

  While the two parts of me wrestled, I hesitated.

  Surprise and irritation flashed in Baron’s amber eyes.

  “She’s seen through your glamour,” Rowan chimed in with an uncharitable smile. “Her eyes widened and she looked freaked out at one time. This mortal girl might be more than meets the eyes. She has the Sight.”

  “That’d only make the game more interesting.” Baron didn’t even bother saying it in the Fae tongue to disguise his wicked intention. He was cocky enough to believe I was a fly in his cruel net and that all he needed to do was to lift a pinkie to prod and then squash me. “I’ve been so bored for centuries.”

  Centuries?

  Literally? But they looked in their late twenties.

  By now, I was sure they were a different species. No human could hold that kind of perfection—that is when they didn’t display fangs. They moved differently too, their gaits lithe and lethal at once.

  Run! The smart part of me screamed again. But fleeing would be futile. The predators had come to my turf, ready to pounce, and my siblings were huddled together inside the house, terrified. I wondered if Emmett had the presence of mind to call the police as I’d instructed him.

  I didn’t hear a siren approaching.

  If I ran back to the house, I’d bring danger to my family. The two Fae would get off by chasing me. I had no one to rely on but myself, and my siblings depended on me for their survival.

  Cold reality cleared the residual power Baron had imposed upon me. I must drive away the hunters and make sure they never returned.

  The shadow fire had aided me. Maybe it would blast out of me once again to counter my foes?

  “Come now, mortal,” Baron commanded impatiently in British English, flashing an impish grin that showed his fangs. “Let’s play. After I’m done with you, I’ll have questions for you, and you’ll answer them truthfully.”

  The compulsion touched me again, but I was too busy staring at his fangs for the power in his voice to affect me.

  Oh. My. God. A vampire! He’d said he was Fae, but he’d been using his power to compel me. Vampires did that all the time in the movies.

  Whatever he was, he’d read me all wrong. I wasn’t the type of girl to let a man use and discard me like trash.

  A deep part of me suddenly swirled alive at the thrill of danger and provocation. The call of battle started to sing in my blood.

  I leveled my gaze on Baron. He looked annoyed as he waited for me to obey his command.

  I sauntered toward him, swaying my hips for good measure.

  He chortled in vicious delight. “See how easy it is with a mortal girl?”

  Rowan kept up his icy demeanor and stepped a few paces away, his aloof eyes glazing with boredom and distaste. “Seems like overkill to coerce her with your power.”

  “Are you always a sore loser when it comes to a female?” Baron bit back.

  “Am I?” Rowan snorted.

  Anger flashed by Baron’s eyes, which now glowed deep gold to match his long, golden eyelashes.

  It seemed these two douches had a history of fighting over women.

  “Get down on your knees, mortal,” Baron ordered me, not even bothering to learn my name. “And suck my cock. If you prove to be good, you’ll be rewarded.”

  I stopped two feet away and gave him my best sultry smile. “With pleasure, sir,” I purred. “But you need to unbutton your fly for me to get your junk out for a good suckle.” I smacked my lips. “I hope it’s big, babe.”

  He looked confounded at my glee, then he shrugged, his hand reaching his fly. Rowan thinned his lips, yet he was waiting to see me perform a blow job for his rival.

  “This wench talks too much,” Baron said in Fae tongue and chuckled, his foul mood gone. “And she’s a bit crude for my taste. But I can’t blame her for her ardor, though. The good fortune of sucking a Fae king’s cock doesn’t just fall onto every mortal girl. Even the high Fae ladies compete for such delightful sports. Who doesn’t want to be my consort?” He drifted his gaze toward me, ready to grab my lush hair for his pleasure after I went down on my knees. “Let’s see how good she is.”

  Rowan arched an eyebrow. “And if she isn’t any good?”

  “Then this pathetic creature will get a good smack, to say the least,” said Baron. “No one who offends the Summer King will go unpunished.”

  I was raised in the South most of my life, even though my family constantly moved around. In the South, manners still mattered. Though I’d changed and swore more than I should, I still appreciated good manners in my core.

  And how did I handle rude people?

  I whipped the bathroom refresher up toward Baron’s eyes, faster than anything, and squeezed the handle. The chemical shot into his beautiful, predatory eyes. He shouted in shock, and I adjusted my aim toward his curvy lips.

  He needed to wash his mouth.

  While he was distracted and hurt by the content from the refresher, I stepped closer and rammed my knee into his groin.

  He had a sizeable erection. Too bad for him.

  He roared in pain and rage as he staggered back, one hand rubbing his eyes frantically, the other hand cupping the front of his pants. The next, he sneezed so hard I almost felt sorry for him.

  “What the bloody hell!” he said, spitting out the chemical that had gotten into his mouth.

  “Don’t complain, dude,” I said. “I hate people bitching for no good reason.”

  “Bitch!” he uttered.

  “That’s not nice,” I said as I swung my leg—faster than committing a sin and not giving him a reaction time—and kicked the side of his face. Really hard.

&nbs
p; It’s a shame. I thought ruefully. He’s so damn good-looking.

  However, the kick didn’t dent his face like I wanted. Instead, it was like booting a boulder, which was a shocker to me, but then I was barefoot. I regretted greatly not wearing my army boots.

  But when I studied the dirt I left on his cheek, a small satisfaction swelled in my chest.

  While I had disabled one dude, the other watched from the sideline. To prevent retaliation from the other “king,” I popped open my umbrella and aimed it at him like a shield.

  Rowan opened his mouth in shock, which lasted less than a second. Then he threw his silver head back and roared to laughter. I almost laughed with him because his laugh was just that infectious and sensual.

  Damn these two Fae, or vampires, or whatever they were. They could influence people like that. Lucky for me, I might be among the few who could resist their X-men power.

  Rowan raised his elegant hands in the air in a gesture of surrender, still laughing his ass off. “I won’t hurt you, girl. I have no quarrel with you.”

  “You’re wise for your age,” I said. “But to prove you’re truthful, you’ll stay where you are. And stop laughing.”

  “I obey. I stand still,” he said. He stopped laughing, but amusement still danced in his piercing gray-blue eyes.

  “What did you use on me, woman?” Baron glared at me, redness rimming his amber eyes. “It’s the foulest thing ever!”

  He seemed to recover fast, but since he called me woman instead of bitch this time, I decided to tell him the truth.

  I beamed at him. “It’s a refresher. My little brother uses lots of it after he poops. I can sell it to you for twenty bucks, so you can use it too after you’re done with your business. You should try it. It’s a good brand.”

  We got it from the dollar store.

  He stared at me incredulously.

  “Or better yet, you should use it to wash your mouth, Scarlet-shirt,” I added, my body staying tense and alert, ready for his revenge. I folded the umbrella, my hand tight on the handle, the sharp metal shaft pointing at him.

  Rowan shook with laughter again, the ice in his demeanor melting. “This has turned out to be the best day ever. I haven’t laughed for a long time. Should I thank you for this entertainment, Scarlet-shirt?”