Maverick found me sweaty and angry ten minutes later. Hitting the heavy bag hanging from the ceiling in the corner of the converted dinning room had only stoked my frustration. I didn't understand the emotions I was feeling. For so long I had skated by, subject to my short temper, but feeling nothing. Now I was a ball of rage and discontent and I didn't. know. why. I punctuated each word with the noise of my wrapped knuckles striking the leather exterior of the bag.
"You have decent form." I ignored the Male behind me. I had better than decent form. "We have to come to some sort of agreement, Delany."
I didn't like his sudden use of my name and the familiarity that came with it. Thwack. I hit the bag again.
"I'm sorry for my over reactions." He tried again.
I whirled around panting to take in the Male in front of me. His posture was relaxed and his hands were open palms toward me in the universal symbol for 'I mean you no harm'. I was becoming concerned that somehow Castiel and Maverick had swapped bodies and the Male was currently stomping around the Guild in Castiel's suited figure causing general ruckus and mayhem, and Castiel was here trying to convince me to play nice.
"Unless you wish to be a vampire's evening meal then this needs to be resolved." Even his tone was bland and non confrontational. I eyed the Male up and down and unhurriedly began unwrapping my hands, letting the slightly bloody tape fall to the floor. I walked toward the large Male deliberately, focusing my attention wholly on him. Watching his every breath.
He didn't back up, but ever so slightly tensed when I was within reach. I circled him slowly, stalking him like Keira would. His shoulders began to tighten, but then visibly relaxed. His breathing was even. I leaned in slowly to sniff the side of his neck. Male. A forest. Damp green growing things. Static in the air after a lightening strike. And heat. Underneath the calm exterior a fire was burning.
I completed my circle and leaned back to look the Male in his eyes. I saw the spark he was trying to stifle and I fought myself. Let it go. I blew out a slow breath and stepped back out of his personal space and stuck out my hand.
Maverick looked down to my outstretched hand, at the split knuckles that had already healed, and the scars that flecked my fingers. His large callused hand was warm as it slowly closed around mine. His palm dwarfed my own. He pumped once, up then down, and slowly drew his hand away from mine his fingers trailing across my palm. I stifled a shiver.
"Ceasefire?" Try, Delany. You have to try or everyone perishes.
The Male nodded and tucked his hands into the front pockets of his dark wash jeans. I could imagine the amount of effort he was expending to seem so relaxed, because I had a feeling it was similar to mine.
We ended up sitting across from each other at the kitchen table. Each of us with a hand wrapped around a cold beer. I would have preferred whiskey, but the beer would keep me level headed. Keira was dozing on the couch in the living room and Flo was doing her best to appear unintrusive. My short fingernails clacked rhythmically against the cold glass of the bottle as I waited for the Male to say something.
"Let's start by just having a conversation."
He made it sound so easy.
"About what?"
"What's your favorite color?" The Male asked me.
"Indigo." I spoke without thinking. Indigo? Hadn't my favorite color always been green?
"Your turn."
"My turn what?"
"To ask me a question. Nothing too in-depth."
I took a swallow of my beer to stall for time. "Coffee or tea?"
"Whiskey."
I let loose a feral grin at his answer and stood pulling open one of the kitchen cabinets to display my borderline alcoholic collection of whiskeys.
"Why don't we play a game?" The male requested slyly.
He stood and reached over me to pull down one of the large bottles filled with amber liquid. The heat of his body warmed my back. He sat back down at the table and twisted off the cap, looking at me expectantly. I returned to my seat and raised a brow.
"Truth or shot." He elaborated after noticing the confused look on my face. "We ask each other questions. Any question. You either tell the truth or if you don't want to answer you take a shot. Haven't you ever played this before?"
I assumed you had to have friends to play this game, but I didn't figure that was his first question so I didn't answer.
"Fine. I'll go first.... How long have you had Keira."
That was an easy one. "Since I was sixteen."
"Okay now you ask a question."
"How long have you and Castiel known each other?"
"We grew up together, so many years."
"How old are you?"
"How old do you think I am?" I asked wickedly, but he shook his head. Not part of the game. "Twenty-six. How old are you?"
"Thirty-two."
Young. So so young for a Fae noble. The Fae were not immortal in the true sense. They were unaging, but they could be slain.
"Do you have any siblings?"
"No, do you?"
"A sister. You need to stop stealing my questions, Delany."
"Why didn't the Fae Queen send an army with you to recapture the Carothannach?"
He smiled and wrapped his hand around the tall warm bottle sitting in between us, dragging it across the table towards him. I watched him lift it to his lips. He took a single swallow of the burning liquid and set the bottle back down.
"How are you able to manipulate fire with no spells or incantations?"
I swiped the bottle from his hand and took a long drink. Desperately ignoring the taste of his mouth on the glass rim.
"Why did you really want me help you two? I know you didn't find anything worth while in my Guild file."
Maverick eyed the bottle in consideration, but decided on truth. "I felt your power the moment I walked through that door."
Of course he had. The Fae had the ability to sense the power levels of other creatures because of their unique connection to magic. It was stupid and dangerous of me not to have considered this before.
"You have a formal education, but your magic seems untrained...?"
I knew what he was asking. All this power and I had struggled to keep the flame throwers going for the small amount of time we had needed them. From what he sensed it should have been easy for me. I twirled the whiskey bottle in my hand, debating.
"My..." I wasn't quite sure what word to use here, "caretakers were able to educate me in many things, but the type of power I possessed was foreign to them. They were unable to instruct me."
The words 'foreign' and 'unable' sounded so much better than 'abhorrent' and 'refused'.
"Would you allow me to teach you? Your power is similar to mine?" A question within a question, but the Male looked genuine in his offer.
I took a quick sip from the bottle. Maverick looked confused at my choice, but the truth was I didn't have an answer to that question. It would be so so dangerous to let him help me.
"What is your power? What Noble house do you belong to?"
"I belong to the House of Maelstrom and Tempests." He didn't elaborate, trying to see how far my knowledge of the Fae houses extended I was sure. Fae belonging to the House of Maelstrom and Tempests possessed magic in a few different categories, but the most powerful type of magic from that house was storm magic.
"You said caretakers, not parents."
"That's not a question."
"I already know that your mother killed your father. What happened to her?"
I decided I could be honest here without revealing anything too important. "She was killed by the Fae."
Maverick opened his mouth, but I cut him off before I could hear whatever he had been about to say.
"What flag does your family fly?"
"The flag of Raging Storms."
It seemed I was correct in my assumption that the Male possessed the lethal storm magic of his house. A lightening bolt over a storm cloud would decorate his armor and shield if he and his house ever went to war. Those with powerful storm magic were deadly. They could summon devastating gusts of wind and torrential rain showers, and they could fry someone from the inside out with the lightening that lived in their veins.
"Are you pure or mixed blooded?" The Male finally asked.
What a hard question to answer. Could someone be both? I decided to play it safe and give him the answer he was already expecting. "Mixed."
"Why do I make you so angry?"
Maverick pulled the bottle out of my hand and drank once. Twice. Three times.
"Do you have a boyfriend, a lover?"
I growled at the smirking and arrogant face of the handsome Male in front of me and grabbed the bottle, matching him drink for drink. Instead of asking me a question he just took the bottle back and put it to his lips. It seemed our game was over, which was good. I had a high metabolism but I could feel the warm alcohol swimming through my veins from the shots I had taken. I would be fine in an hour or two but right now I had a decent buzz. It was getting late and we still had plenty to do before tonight. Maverick tipped the bottle toward his mouth and I swiped it from his hand earning an annoyed grunt from him. I capped it and put it back in the cabinet.
"There are still things I need to prepare before tonight. And if I drink anymore I won't get them done."
"I'll help."
Together the Male and I prepped some wooden stakes, dipping the tips in tea tree oil. The oil could be used for many things, but its most popular use was against vampires. Vampirism was similar to a virus passed on through the saliva in a bite. Once 'caught' the victim would either die or turn. The antiviral properties in the tea tree oil were especially potent when driven through a vampires heart on the tip of an ash wood stake. Ash wood was one of the few materials that could pierce the skin of the undead.
I only had a few ash wood stakes to divide between the three of us, and my own enchanted katana that would be of any use tonight, but it would have to do. By the time we had finished preparing everything it was almost time to meet Castiel back at the Guild.
"Keira come on! Its time to go."
Maverick and I were standing on the back porch while I hollered for Keira to come out of the woods. She had decided to go hunting after her nap when Maverick and I's uneasy truce didn't look like it would crumble anytime soon. She came jogging out of the woods looking annoyed that her hunt had been interrupted. She sat in front of me with a look I interpreted as 'what is so important?'.
"We're heading back to the Guild now. Are you ready?" Keira's front legs stretched out in front of her and she arched her back, then relaxed back into a sitting position. "Requiem." I spoke the incantation that would send her back to her resting spot on my shoulder blade. I didn't want her out and about around the vampires unless she had to be.
"What exactly is Keira?" The Male asked me as we made our way through the house and out the front door.
"Games over. You can save your questions for next time."
He let out a small growl of frustration but otherwise seemed unperturbed at my lack of an answer.
"Ride with me?" Maverick held open passenger door to the old truck in invitation.
"When banshees sing." I threw my leg over my bike and I could swear I caught the hint of a smile on the Male's face before I shoved my helmet on and peeled out of the driveway.