Once she was gone, I left the alley and finished the trek home. A quick glance at my phone told me Neva was due back any minute. I was going to need a shower after that interlude. Blood wasn’t something I enjoyed keeping on my skin, and while my wound was healed with my accelerated fae healing, the mess wouldn’t go away on its own.
I should have just taken my Ferrari for a spin when I needed to get out. This was part of my problem. I’d been “helping” around this territory for much too long. I was growing complacent, or maybe soft. I wasn’t sure which. Either way, I didn’t like it. My actions were beginning to allow emotions in that I’d fought hard to avoid for many years.
I’d learned long ago that caring would give me nothing but heartache.
King Zephyr stood in my room, holding a doll I’d been given by a complete stranger as a child. The only real gift I’d ever been given. “You showed weakness today. You didn’t kill the fae, and now they’ll think they can get away with disobeying me. That displeases me, Lucinda.”
“I’m sorry, Zephy. I’ll do better next time.” I was only fourteen. Even though I looked like an adult, I was still a child.
“Let this be your punishment.” He tore the head from my doll, throwing both halves into the fireplace in my room. “I need you strong. You can’t care about those other fae. They mean nothing to you. I’m all you need.”
Gods, I’d been so naïve. Even though I knew better now, I still had my issues. A part of me wondered if a change of scenery would get me out of this funk, but I’d been hard-pressed to give up the high-rise apartment I’d swindled out of some movie executive who’d been unfaithful to his wife. Not with me, of course. I didn’t date humans, but I had been all too happy to dole out his punishment and get something for myself out of it. I had one of the witch covens to thank for that job.
I’d come to Earth three years ago and had managed to make the best out of things after being kicked out of Fae Islands by King Easton Zephyr. At one time, I’d been his favorite guard, but the king’s loyalty was only skin deep, and one misperception was all it took for the bastard to turn on me. Even though the islands were my home, I had zero desire to ever set foot on them again.
Instead, I’d come to Earth and chose to begin working with the shifters and witches. The two races typically despised each other, but I’d managed to play them like a fiddle. When one had a problem with the other—or any supernatural race for that matter—that they couldn’t solve on their own, they called on me to handle the situation.
Torturing those who deserved it helped to feed the darkness that stirred inside me—that inner voice that pushed me to be worse than I was the day before. Normally, I didn’t mind using my darker subconscious as a crutch, but lately, something was missing. Though, I hadn’t figured out what that was.
My only rule was that I never messed with kids. If there was ever the slightest chance a child could get hurt, I’d tell whoever was requesting my services to piss off, or, depending on how twisted the situation was, I turned their request back on them.
Sometimes supernaturals needed to be knocked down from their pedestal, and I was always happy to oblige.
It had been that way ever since I was a child. I learned early on that bullies needed to be taught lessons, but there wasn’t always someone around to do so. That was when I decided to be that person.
Right before the previous fae queen died and her brother—the current king—took over, she’d given my parents a falcon as a gift. Weeks passed, and I’d witnessed the predator bird terrorize the other wild animals in our area who, as a young fae, I’d considered friends.
At the age of nine, I’d been so sure I knew right from wrong. The bird had needed to go.
But my parents had thought otherwise, and I was the one who paid the price.
They’d been furious when I’d cut its head off and hadn’t believed me when I said it was only in defense. My penance? They sold me to the king in exchange