Glamour Bites

“You shouldn’t be down here.” The little blonde haired, green eyed Fey moved quickly behind me in the dark, protesting as I moved farther down the passage. “This area is off limits.”



I heard the sound of a gun clearing a holster and turned to look at the Fey as he pointed the gun at me. “Leave before I’m forced to use this.”



It was at that moment that Raiden walked around the corner behind the other Fey. He grabbed the gun quickly and popped the Fey in the back of the head. “Damnit, Oberon, don’t point a gun at our queen.”



“We don’t have a queen. We just have Carmichael.” Oberon frowned, glaring at me.



Raiden sighed and shook his head. “Sometimes I forget that you guys are the last to learn the new stuff. Mike died two days ago and made Alexia his heir. She took the throne last night.”



“So that’s why the Mound’s came back to life!” Oberon was now looking at me like I was the greatest thing since sliced bread. He leaned into Raiden and whispered, almost like he didn’t think I would hear him. “Could she be the One?”



Raiden glanced at me and shrugged before mumbling back. “Seems likely, but we’ll just have to see, won’t we?” He moved to me and smiled. “Where’s Kingston and Andreas?”



I would deal with the comment about being the One later. “Kingston is still with Darvik, and Andreas felt tired for the first time four thousand years so I sent him home.” I didn’t mention that I was the reason he felt tired, but the look on Raiden’s face said that he knew.



“So it’s just me then?” I nodded and he smiled. “Good. Too many people near the Sheol entrance would attract attention.”



I smiled and stepped into him, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Liar. You just want to be alone with me again.” I kissed him and felt that normal hesitation from him before he returned the kiss.



I pulled back as Oberon coughed. “I’m sorry, but what’s going on?”



Raiden put his fingers to my lips as I opened my mouth to speak. He turned to Oberon and smiled. “I have been chosen to be the Queen’s Consort.”



“What?! Why you, Raiden? Ariel is going to so pitch a bitch fit.” I knocked about a hundred years of Oberon’s age with that one comment.



“Let him. Her power chose me. We couldn’t help it.”



“What do I tell Mum? Do I tell Mum?”



I guess I looked confused because Raiden sighed, taking my hand and gesturing to Oberon. “Queen Alexia Mooren, I would like you to meet Prince Oberon Autumn, my kid brother. He’s the youngest of our line at twenty-two.”



“Finally, someone around here that doesn’t make me feel like a child.” I shook Oberon’s hand and smiled. “I’m almost twenty-two.”



Oberon smiled wide and laughed. “Now you’re the youngest in the Mound, your highness. Maybe they’ll leave me alone now that our queen is younger.”



“Fat chance.” Raiden smiled lovingly at his little brother before shaking his head. “You’re both making me feel old.”



“How old are you exactly, Raiden?” Kingston was around seven hundred and fifty and Andreas was four thousand, so hopefully he was closer to my age than either of them.



“Seventy-eight.” Raiden looked at me like it was normal for a seventy-eight year old man to look twenty-five and be fucking a twenty-one year old. For the Fey, maybe it was normal.



I shrugged and wrapped my arms around his waist, laying my head on his shoulder. “You and I are closer in age than I am to my other Consorts. Guess that means you’ll take my side more, right?”



“Unless it will cause you harm, I’ll always take your side.” He lifted my chin and kissed me without hesitation. I smiled, retuning the kiss.



Oberon snickered and Raiden turned to him. “Go tell Mum and the others. I’ll take Alexia down to show her the Sheol entrance. If you run into Ariel, unless he already knows, tell him nothing.”



Oberon nodded and disappeared down the hall. It gave me time to look at Raiden hard. “Who’s Ariel, and why don’t you want him to know that you’re my Consort?”



Raiden sighed and started to head down the hall as he explained. “If you had not taken the throne within a week, Ariel could have taken it. He was next in life for the throne, but he’s insane and would have destroyed half of us in an instant. It’s why I’m glad you took the throne.”



“What does it mean for you to be my Consort then?” Realization dawned on my and I stopped him with a hand on his arm. “You’re not really my Consort now. Fey law says that the Queen must have a Consort from every species she has within her, but there’s a hidden law that only the Queen and the highest ranking in the Imperial Guard know. You’re not my Consort. You’re my King. You just didn’t want it this way, did you?”



Raiden moved away from me and began pacing angrily. “No! I wanted my family to take it from Ariel as heroes. I love you, Alexia, but I don’t want that to be the only reason I’m King.”



I shook my head and stopped his pacing, throwing him hard against the wall to get him to listen to me. “Don’t you get it, Raiden? You did earn it. You’re seventy-eight years old and have served as head of the Imperial Guard for fifty years, all through merit. You prevented Ariel from taking the throne while Mike was at Glamour Hunts. You’ve more than earned this.”



“How? To earn the kingship you must fight for it. I have fought no one.”



“Damnit, Raiden, are you listening to me? The power doesn’t choose a king based on the fights they’ve won. It chooses a king that would give his life for his people. It chose you, Raiden, because all others are weak and would give up the Fey for their own lives.”



“How do you know all this, Alexia?” He seemed as confused as I felt.



I seemed to think about it for a moment. How had I known that he had been with the Imperial Guard for fifty years? How did I know how the power had chosen him? I frowned and stepped away from him, feeling the Mound buzz around me. “The Mound. The Mound remembers everything that has ever gone on here. It is what gives the Queen the power. I am connected to the Mound and it’s telling me all this stuff. I don’t see how I didn’t see it before.”



I touched the wall of the Mound and felt it ripple through my hand. I was taken to a room on the other side of the Mound where Oberon was talking to a beautiful white haired faerie. She had Raiden’s eyes and I knew in that moment that it was his mother. I could feel the witch in her and knew that she was very powerful.



I was transported outside the room where a faerie with hair as black as the night, skin almost vampyre pale, and eyes a deep rich hazel stood listening into the conversation. I felt the Mound trying to tell me something when Raiden pulled me from the Mound.



“So, Ariel is vampyre pale with jet black hair and hazel eyes, right?”



Raiden looked like I had slapped him. “Yes, how do you know that?”



“The Mound told me. He’s coming this way. He was listening to Oberon tell your mother about you. You have to decide on your course of action now, Raiden, because when Ariel gets here, it’ll be too late to save the Fey.” I knew that the Mound was telling me that I would lose Raiden if he didn’t become my King. I knew that Ariel would kill him and replace him as my Consort and King.



I watched the same thoughts flash across Raiden’s face. He shook his head and sighed. “How do we go about making me your king?”



“It’s an eternity, Raiden. You’ll be unable to be with any but me for eternity.”



“I know, Alexia, probably better than you do. I want to be with you. I want to be your King. I think that’s why I still have trouble touching you.” Raiden brushed a strand of my hair out of my face and sighed. “How do I become yours?”



I sighed and took his arm, pulling his shirt up his wrist before looking into his eyes. “This will hurt.” I bit hard into his wrist with vampyre fangs and felt his blood fill my mouth, like liquid chocolate. I pulled back and bit my own wrist, holding it out to him. “Take it quickly.”



He did as he was told, his eyes growing wide as my blood filled his mouth. He pulled back after taking a mouthful and shook his head. “You taste like Twizzlers. They’re my favorite sweet food.”



“Well you taste like chocolate, which is my favorite candy. I think the power does that to detract from the fact that we just drank each other’s blood and we’re no longer allowed to be more than a hundred miles from each other. I guess you’re moving in with me.” Something flashed into my mind and I gasped. “I’ve lost Kingston and Andreas.”



“What do you mean?” Raiden held my chin so that I wouldn’t look away from him. “What do you mean that you’ve lost them?”



“I still feel for them, but it was always my power that called to them, it was never me. The power has found an equal, a King to my Queen, so I don’t need any other Consorts. I’m still bound to Andreas and he to me, but it’s no longer a being in love with him situation. The same with Kingston, we’re bound by our demons, but nothing more.” I looked into his gold-green eyes and sighed. “My heart belongs only to you, and it’s not the power.”



Raiden seemed shocked at this. I knew that it wasn’t the power. I had wanted him from the first moment I had seen him, and it had nothing to do with power and everything to do with pure lust. “I’m the only one?”



“Yes.”



“Fuck!” Raiden moved away from me, hand on his forehead. “We’re so fucking screwed right now.”



“OK, I’m a little lost.”



“There was a prophecy set down about three hundred years ago. It spoke of a Queen that was not born Fey, was turned Fey, and became the greatest Queen our Mound had ever seen. She found a king that was Fey without the power guiding her, ridding her of all other Consorts. If I’m the only one, you are that Queen. You’re the One.”



“What does that mean for me?” I was still confused, but now fear was sneaking in.



“Your power will be greater than all other rulers as soon as you bind to your King. So therefore your power is greater than all other rulers. You can speak to the Mound, which we’ve seen before we were even bound, but most importantly, even if someone else sits on that throne while you’re outside the Mound, no other can rule our people.” Raiden seemed delighted, but at the same time, scared.



“What aren’t you telling me, Raiden?”



“There will be those who will not want you to rule us for eternity. They will come for you.”



“Let them come. I can handle myself. Not to mention that I have you and the Imperial Guard. Andreas and Kingston can fight pretty well too. Ian, Harper, Gabe, and Matt would be more than willing to keep me safe as well.”



“Allies of different species was the last part of the prophecy.”



“Great, I’m digging the hole deeper, aren’t I?” The Mound moved and I looked up at the hall, hearing Ariel coming at me. “We can’t think about this now. Ariel’s coming.”



I turned to Raiden and found him only an inch away from me. It took my breath away. I raised my hands around his neck and felt him move to me, kissing me like he had never kissed me before. There was no need for him to hesitate now. He was my King, my lover, the future father of my children. That last thought was no pleasant, but I knew that eventually I would have to release the spell on myself and bear a child of the Fey.



We were still kissing when we heard Ariel’s voice coming from the passage entrance. “I am sorry. I do believe that I may be interrupting something. I was told that I could find Raiden Autumn and the Queen down here.”



Raiden pulled away, but not before giving me a small kiss that said, without words, that we could deal with this threat together, as we were meant to. “Ariel Leafson, how nice to see you. I don’t believe you’ve met our queen, Alexia Mooren.”



I looked at Raiden and smiled before turning back to Ariel. “Alexia Autumn, as a Queen should bear her King’s last name.” I could smell the blood rise into Raiden’s face at the comment. Anger flashed across Ariel’s face, but then was gone. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ariel.”



“And you as well, Queen Alexia, but what did you mean by your comment about Raiden being your King? You have not been on the throne long enough to see what others around the Mound have to offer.” His hazel eyes held a power to them that made me want to squirm, but I remained still, unmoving, cutting off my heartbeat and respiration.



“I did not need to look around the Mound to find the man worthy enough to be by my side. Raiden is the only Fey that the Mound itself did not reject.” I closed my eyes as the Mound’s power rose in agreement. “Goddess, you’re going to have to stop that before I lose all thought process.”



“Who are you talking to, your highness? Raiden and I have not touched you and I cannot feel any power around us that would cause you distress.”



The Mound grew angry at his insolence and I opened my eyes, shooting him into the far wall without meaning to. “Don’t question me, Ariel. I had powers that you would only dream of having.”



The Mound cheered at my response and I shook my head. “Stop it, please. I can handle this on my own.” Almost as if sighing, it pulled away from me, leaving me alone with my own power. But my power was the Mound’s power. I could feel it moving through me, begging to kill Ariel where he stood against the far wall. “You see, Ariel, I am truly Queen here. I know of things in these walls that had seen everything in the last several hundred years. It begs me to kill you for your cruelties. I’m beginning to think that might not be such a bad idea.”



“Alexia.” Raiden laid his hands on my shoulders and a little of the power inside me calmed. I could still hear the Mound begging me to destroy Ariel. I could see the visuals in my head of just what atrocities he had committed and shuddered in disgust.



“You are a disgrace to the Fey community, Ariel. You torture your own people in the fashion of the vampyres, but no vampyre I know is as cruel as you are to your own. You don’t deserve to be Fey.” I felt the air around me change and the Mound moved visibly. Raiden gasped and Ariel began to scream as it used the power to pull the Fey out of him, leaving him a crying human on the floor. “The Mound has seen it my way. You shall live with the memories of what you have done, Ariel, but you shall do it as a human on the outside, never to return to the Faerie World.”



I saw a few guards come into the room. They took one look at me and took Ariel away. As soon as they were gone, I collapsed again Raiden. He pulled me into his lap as he moved to the floor and held me against him as I cried over the horrors I had seen through the Mound’s eyes. “He killed your father. He tortured him into telling him the truth about your powers. Your father didn’t give and he was killed for it.”



Raiden radiated with anger, but he kept his arms around me. I knew what he was thinking. I was the One. I was the Faerie Queen that they had been waiting for the last three hundred years. I didn’t know if having a killer on the throne would be a good thing or not, but I was almost a hundred percent positive that the Goddess had chosen me for a reason, as she had chosen Raiden for me. Here’s hoping I didn’t disappoint her or the Fey who trusted me.