Chapter 3
Cursed Fae-tale
Quinn Shalom...
While I dreamed.
The marble floor of the ballroom made no sound under our feet as we danced, something like a waltz, slow and turning. My heart beat so slowly, but I felt like I was floating. The strength of my hero keeping me close, my cheek over his valiant heart. Glorious sunlight made waterfalls of gold falling around us as we danced through them.
"We did it," he whispered into my hair. "We raised your son, and we stopped the terrible things they wanted to do to the world."
I smiled. I turned my head to raise my eyes to his, but the windows shattered inward, and the snow swirled across the floor. A giant silver-gray warform wolf stood snarling at us, covered in the blood of the innocents he had slain. I screamed. My hero pulled me behind him, a golden flaming sword appearing in his hand.
"I won't let you take her, Jacob, she's mine. You've hurt her too much; she'll never want you to touch her again."
The monster growled in an unearthly sound, leaving bloody footprints on the pristine white floor. Jacob charged, and my hero pushed me away, they fought. His sword flew through the air, skidding to a stop at my feet. The monster that killed my son, had the only one left who loved me pinned down. Lifting the sword, I thrust it through his heart. The pain I felt was unbearable and I collapsed to my knees, gasping, before I fell into the snow.
Crawling like that night, I dragged myself into my greenhouse and collapsed.
Gerard turned me over, his eyes drowning me in concern, "I'm here, mon petit loupe. I promise to protect you always."
I could taste his honeyed blood as I was dying. "Please... Save my baby, mon ange."
"Stay with me, Quinn. Stay with me."
The sunshine broke golden around us and the world of horrors that was that night faded away. He pressed his lips to mine and breathed warmth back into my frozen body.
As I start to wake, my wolf reminded me of what the dark Fae warned me when he visited and told me not to drink any more of the lovely floral tea the butler always served me with meals. "Remember, just because something looks golden, doesn't mean it's a good thing."
VvvvV
As Gerard stood on the other side of the looking glass, he could see Quinn sitting in the window seat. He couldn't help but be surprised at how beautiful she looked in the afternoon sunlight, like the perfect apple hanging from a tree. Gerard always noticed how lovely pregnancy made females, the glow of the life growing within them, tempted him like forbidden fruit. Sipping hot chocolate while she was reading a book, seemed so childlike to him. When she tipped the book up to rest on her baby bump, Gerard quietly laughed at the irony of the title she had chosen. The story of a maiden trapped in a castle with a beast, but the book doesn't tell the real story, the real end of the tale of how the beast devoured his beauty's soul, after winning her heart and being restored to grace, because that was his true nature.
After blowing the transcendental mixture of pollen and dust from his hand, he watched as it drifted toward her as an iridescent tendril in the sunlight. In combination with the tea his seneschal gave her every day, she would believe his visit was no more than a daydream. He was here today because Sebastian said she was no longer sleeping peacefully until morning the last few nights. And Gerard needed to figure out what had his Belle so upset. He needed her to be calm and happy until the heir was born, he needed her to trust so she would be generous enough to choose him over her mate.
Gerard stepped through the mirror. He smiled as he glanced around the familiar room, this manor always worked its magic for him. Never had anyone he brought here failed to succumb, male or female. They all surrendered to him. In the end, he always got to savor the succulence of a soul freely given, a delicacy few of his kind had the patience to cultivate. Kneeling to place his hand on Quinn's arm, Gerard glowed his most benevolent.
"Quinn? Quinn, wake up."
Her eyes fluttered open and she gazed at him through the malaise of the hallucinogenic pollen and the lulling magic of this place, she was a butterfly trapped in a spider's web.
"Gerard?" She murmured when he whispered her name.
"I am here, mon loup. What is troubling you?"
Shalom gasped and sat up straighter, shaking her head violently to clear it. When she looked at him, her eyes were bright and intense. "Gerard! You have to help me get out of here. Take me with you," she begged in a deliberate whisper, her hands clutching his. "I think he wants to hurt my baby."
"This is a dream, dear Quinn, a projection of my soul reaching to yours. I am still trying to find you. I found your house near Westcliff, but you weren't there." The lie rolled easily from his lips that pursed more with discontentment than concern. "Who wants to hurt your baby?"
"The butler. I found him in one of the books."
Shalom rose and laid aside the book she was reading on the cushions and went to a shelf. The book she pulled was Compendium des Anges et des Démons. She opened it to a page, showing Gerard the image of a dark fae, and the description of his duty. He did not know she could read French and thus she found the truth in a book he did not remember was here.
"See? You have to find me, Gerard. I've tried to escape, but he is always right there to stop me. I am in the mountains of Colorado. Please Gerard, I don't want him to get my baby," her hushed voice had a frantic edge as her eyes relayed her worried determination to save her baby.
He was confounded. Her soul shined with an awareness that it shouldn't hold in this place. She managed to resist the magic in a way no one ever had. Gerard feigned concern, rubbing his hands up and down her arms.
"Has he done anything to you, Quinn? Touched you or hurt you?"
Shalom shook her head rapidly. "No, but he's been drugging my tea to make my wolf sleepy, so she can't help me escape. You must believe me, Gerard. Something is very wrong here. It seems like the perfect place, like I am safe, but it isn't and I'm not." She put her hand over his heart, and he squeezed it as he knew she expected. "He's a dark fae, a Demonus, and this whole place is a trap. Just like the castle in Beauty and the Beast, but I am not Belle and I will not give in or give him my child."
Gerard wondered what Sebastian did to reveal himself to this clever little wolf. Her fierceness delighted him in its savoriness, as much as her resistance angered and frustrated him.
He took her face in his hands and put his forehead against hers, looking into her eyes, "Listen carefully Quinn, if he is a dark fae, he must not know you know. You must not do anything that might anger him. They are very dangerous creatures. They feed on fear and suffering, the way light fae feed on love. I promise I will not stop looking for you until you are with me and safe." She nodded against his head. "I need to know everything you can tell me about where you are." He only asked because he needed to know exactly how much she figured out.
"I... I know we are very high in the mountains; the air is very thin. I have been to Breckenridge and Telluride and Monarch, and I am not in one of those places. There is a set of ragged red peaks to the north, it reminds me of the Maroon Bells but, they aren't the right shape. There are no roads to the castle. I don't know how we got here or how he gets the groceries for my meals or the flowers for my room. I..." Quinn faltered then added in a rush of panic, "I am scared, Gerard."
She fidgeted with his lapel for a moment trying to recover her courage. He was amazed at how strong she was to fight her fears and to have resisted the malaise of the manor. She looked up and reached with her hand to touch his cheek, it was such a gentle gesture.
"Are you sure you are still in Colorado, mon loup," Gerard hoped to confuse her.
"Yes" she said firmly, "The azimuth of the sun and the stars are the same I have seen for fifteen years. I know I am still in Colorado."
Her hands were so warm as he pressed his cheek against them. He could feel the hum of life and the purity of her soul, flowing from her like a fresh, sweet spring. His lips were on hers before he could stop himself. She hesitated only for a moment then relaxed into the kiss. She had only let him kiss her one other time in a dream, and then she resisted, but this time, she didn't. Gerard inhaled the sweetness of her soul, it filled and satisfied him in a way nothing else could.
"Please save us," Shalom whispered sleepily, as she slumped against him.
He carefully lifted her into his arms, he should not have fed from her soul, but Gerard discovered there were many things that he shouldn't do where Quinn Shalom Philips was concerned that he did. He could not resist the sweetness of her soul. Sebastian opened and closed the doors for Gerard as he carried her to her rooms. Laying her beautifully rounded form on the bed, he felt her mind murmuring to him to be careful as she dreamed. Gerard thought her concern would be touching if he had a heart and he smirked. Such a caring spirit, she made him feel loved and he wondered if this was what his grandfather felt from his beauty.
Gerard stood in the hall waiting for Sebastian to finish closing the door before he struck his seneschal. Sebastian flew down the hall and crashed into a piece of furniture.
"You fool! She knows what you are and what is going on here. What did you do?" Gerard demanded hotly. His rage seething like a black serpent beneath the surface of his skin. As his darkness created a world of shadows in the wide hall around them.
"I sssswear masssterrr, I havvve not ssssspoken orrr harmed the lasssss," the butler hissed in an almost reptilian voice, as he picked himself up from the remains of a King Charles secretary's desk. His expression was the same blank it always was, but Gerard could feel his fear. Sebastian was ancient, but Gerard was more powerful.
"You had to have done something, because she knows. She knows her tea is drugged, she knows the manor is a trap, and she knows you are a dark fae," Gerard snarled. "You need to convince her to stay without threatening her. You need to prove yourself her protector, not her enemy. I do not want her to risk anything that will harm herself or her child. Too much planning rest on his birth and her remaining at my side."
"Yesss, masssterrrr."
"And start putting the dust in her food. She likes hot chocolate, put it in that too. I want her to..."
They both turned at the same moment and looked back toward the library. Light entered the manor; Gerard's brother was there. Gerard stormed into the library to find Galen sitting casually in the window seat where Quinn had been seated.
"Temper, temper, brother," he chided.
Galen's arm was propped casually on his bent knee. Gerard hated the interruption and wanted nothing more than to attack Galen, but that would end his blessing and his brother's curse. Galen was flipping through the pages of La Belle et la Bête and chuckling.
"Really big brother? Beauty and the Beast is your play to get her to surrender to you when you find her. Do you really think she will fall in love with you?" Galen's voice was mocking, "Grandfather would be so disappointed at your lack of originality."
Gerard glared at him. "No, it would take more than a comfortable castle to win Quinn. My beauty is far more complex and intelligent than his simple-minded peasant girl was. Believe it or not, I am trying to keep her and her child safe."
Galen snorted derisively, "She'll never freely give you her soul or her child. I've read her, she's too much of a fighter and you can't take what she won't give you."
Galen sounded so smug, as Gerard reminded himself that Galen didn't know what happened only half an hour ago in this very room. She shared part of her light with Gerard, and she fed him.
Gerard gave Galen an arrogant smile. "We shall see... What are you doing here, little brother?"
Galen shrugged as he snapped the book closed with a thwap. "Your tantrum drew me. "
Gerard leveled him with a look, to which Galen just smirked before answering, "Fine, I've decided to take your advice and, ummm... indulge myself. I've met someone. Madeline is gone and a fae has needs." He handed Gerard a card for a very exclusive new gentleman's club. "Come tonight and meet her?"
"You're dating a stripper?" Gerard mocked, laughing.
"She is a classically trained ballet dancer, who graduated from Julliard. And she is the owner. I've arranged for all her best professionals to entertain us and a few dozen friends and acquaintances."
"Really? And what, pray tell, brought on this change of heart, little brother?" Gerard couldn't help his suspicious nature. Galen never did anything without a purpose. He was noble to a fault, foolishly so in Gerard's opinion.
Galen eyed him critically, "I decided that if I am going to bear the burden of your cursed darkness that you were right, and I should enjoy it."
"Did you invite Mother?" Gerard asked just to judge his brother's reaction.
Something like hatred flashes across his boyish features, then Galen growled, "Party starts at 10 eastern time, don't be late."
He stood, looking at the book one last time before rolling his eyes. "You amuse me, Gerard. You really do." As the seneschal opened the door and brought in a tray of tea, Galen grinned at the old Demonus, "Seb, old demon, how is my brother treating you?"
"Well, Masssstherrrr Galen. Will the young Massterrr be sssstaying for dinnerrrr?" Sebastian hissed in a deeply inhuman way.
"No, I won't. Thank you anyway, Seb. I'm having dinner with an old friend before my party later tonight. I'm engaged. Be a good demon and make sure Gerard wears his Armani this evening," Galen said cheerfully as Sebastian bowed.
"Of courssssse, young masssterrrr and congratulationsssss,"
"Thank you, Seb. Later, brother."
"Brother," Gerard responded as he watched his brother disappear through the mirror.
He wondered what his brother's game was, but then Galen acted like this when he first met Madeline, irritatingly happy and foolishly pleasant. Gerard hadn't seen him happy since before her death a century ago, since before their mother used Madeline's soul to alter the perceptions of theirs. Gerard was blessed and Galen was cursed, and there was nothing Galen could do about it until Gerard released him. Galen couldn't harm Gerard, or he would be trapped with his brother's darkness forever. The same as Gerard couldn't harm Galen, or Gerard would receive his darkness back three-fold.
Gerard looked at himself in the mirror, he was golden and perfect, and he wondered how much good Galen did to counteract the evil he did. It must be an enormous amount because Gerard looked like an Adonis.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, I am the fairest fae of them all.
VvvvvV
Shaking his head because Gerard's vanity knew no bounds, Galen watched his brother preening in front of the mirror for a moment. Galen was going to miss the feeling of hating him once he broke this curse. It was the only part of the darkness he would miss. Galen got no pleasure from wealth or violence or meaningless sex. He missed the feeling of being loved, and he envied Bianca because she was no longer cursed. Galen smirked to himself, he may have had a hand in doing that through his dear brother's darkness. Sometimes evil could be made to do good.
In a few hours, he was using Bianca's club as a diversion. His best friend would draw his brother away from his vigilance over Quinn long enough for her to escape. He stepped from the mirror into her room, she was sleeping peacefully. He needed to plant a suggestion in her mind, so she would be able to help her rescuers. Her hand was too cool when he touched it.
Burning molten rage poured through him but he smothered it before Gerard could feel it. Galen now realized why his brother was being so arrogant, Gerard had been feeding from her soul. Galen realized he should have warned her. He would have curse aloud, but that would reveal his lingering in the manor. Galen knew he would have to come back tonight during the party, restore her energy, and then return to the party without being missed. Pocketing her scarf, he looked at her one last time before closing the bedroom door.
Hastily, Galen walked down the hall to the door that led out to the garden. He would have to wing it to find those he needed to rescue her tonight. Galen hoped they followed his breadcrumbs. After an hour's worth of flying, he landed in a snowfield. Shapes that were once the most noble of beasts moved through the woods. Folding his ebony wings, Galen stood and waited as they surrounded him. They were his only hope to save Quinn tonight, of protecting her until her child was born, and of hiding her from his brother's intentions.
Snarling and growling to each other, Galen waited for them to decide, for the great gray Raver to decide if they were going to attack him or not. He held out the scarf he took from her room. The large Raver snatched it from Galen's hand, sniffing and baring his teeth before handing it to the rusty-colored beast to his left. The cursed fae watched as they passed it from one gnarled claw to the next. White eyes surrounded with silver-gray fur stared at him. Galen missed his old friend, and his odd sense of humor. Joshua was there for Galen from the day he became cursed, and Galen vowed to do the same for Joshua now that he was cursed as well.
"Hello Joshua. Are the big bad wolves ready to rescue little red riding hood tonight?"
Joshua growled out a sound that was almost a laugh.