They’d had their fun. I’d had my twenty-first birthday. I needed to feel safe now.
Chapter 4
Sebastian
She was part fairy. There was no doubt in my mind. Her eyes had burned with raw magic as all fairies’ eyes did. I’d half-expected that. The contract had indicated as much. No other half-breed would have been able to pull enough power from the Immortal Realm. Why would Seraphina want her dead?
Seraphina rarely involved herself in dealing with half-breeds. The siren had been killed because she was dangerous and because she would draw far too much attention. A half-fairy wouldn’t. She wouldn’t be able to draw power without training or desperate need.
I needed more information.
As I strolled past the buildings that surrounded the club with my hands in my pockets, I thought about the girl. She was beautiful in a very Dark Court way. Her chestnut hair was more than a little wild. Fair skin that had a natural tan from spending time in the sun. She was meant for the woods, not this city.
And that magical scent. Dark power that had no outlet, no direction. It just swirled around her. Intoxicating power that longed to be used. For the first time in centuries, I felt something stir inside me. Not a physical urge. Something more. Something deeper. Something darker.
I sighed. I didn’t want to kill this girl. At the same time, I didn’t want to force Nyx into a confrontation that only one of us would walk away from. Seraphina had to have known that I’d hate doing this. This had nothing to do with killing the girl and everything to do with pushing me into a position that would give her an excuse to execute me. Then, the Dark Court would rise up against her, and she would have a good enough reason to slaughter them all.
If only Nyx would have let me just hide her away in the Dark Court. Seraphina wouldn’t have even looked for her. She hated spending time in the Dark Court.
What a twisted web you weave, Seraphina. You were meant for that damned Court of Light. No one in the Dark Court could be so cruel and vindictive.
I gritted my teeth. No, I would have to kill this girl, but first I would come to know her at least. I would understand her so that at least someone remembered her after she was gone into the void.
Walking into an alley, I touched a shadow and felt the warren beneath it. It was time to meet the girl that had to die.
* * *
I lay down on the roof above the girl’s sorority house. She’d come home several hours ago and would almost certainly be asleep. Especially with how drunk that girl had been. It was almost painful to watch her get hauled out of the car by her friends, and it had been especially painful to see the guy putting his hand under her skirt as he “helped” her.
That was none of my business though. I wasn’t here to judge her life, only to understand it. Someone should since her friends most certainly wouldn’t. No human could ever understand a half-breed’s life. The need to be around others of their kind would be a constant burden that would never be relieved.
It would feel like they were wearing someone else’s skin. Especially since she’d never touched the Immortal Realm, never claimed her magic. She would never know what it was like to let all that power loose to change the world before her eyes.
I lay on the roof of the sorority house and closed my eyes, reaching out and searching for the only person in the house with any sign of power. There it was, the shimmering ball of magic inside her. Dark and twisted, it writhed inside her, full of pain and longing.
I built a tie between us out of my own power, a skill every incubus knew instinctively, and I left my body to join her in her dreams.
* * *
A tile floor. Aisle after aisle of racks of food. Boxes and bins filled with produce.
She was drunk and dreaming of a grocery store? I guessed that her friends decided against giving her anything to eat after getting her drunk. I shook my head softly. Terrible friends.
I approached the girl and noted that she still wore the same outfit that she’d gone to the club in. A corset top that accented her thin waist. A miniskirt that would have made any man want to run his fingers over her legs in the hopes of discovering what lay under the fabric.
“Good evening,” I said as I approached her while she filled her basket with produce.
She glanced at me and then turned all the way around to look at me. “You!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing in my dream?”
I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head in surprise. “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I be in your dream? You tried to catch me, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” she said, giving me another glance. “But you shouldn’t be here. I didn’t create you. I would never have given you those clothes?”
I glanced down at myself. I wore the same thing that I wore to most human women’s dreams, a pair of slacks and dress shoes. No shirt. It wasn’t especially creative, but human women were generally appreciative of it.
“What’s wrong with my clothes?” I asked.
“You look ridiculous is all,” she snipped as she went back to picking up cantaloupes and sniffing them.
“Most women would disagree with you.” I stepped closer to her, and I could see her pick up on my magical scent. The same one that drew the Fae to me.
“If you walked into a grocery store wearing that, they’d throw you out. Even with
