here on Earth for all of the Sons of Darkness and their human … lovers.” He paused at that word, hand still on my lower back as I stayed pressed to him.
I nodded. “I know. I was at the sex party, remember?” He still hadn’t let me go. We were inches apart.
He looked up at a giant house on the hill between the trees. “This is where his plan begins. He only needs three crystals to start creating a protection dome, similar to the one you have in Faerie. Then they’ll all come here and … continue to grow the race until he can get all twelve crystals and take over Earth.”
Take over Earth? That was fucked. Like some cult or something. Earth wasn’t meant to be used like that. Faerie would fall if he took even one of our crystals at this point. So would the queen of Spring, Dahlia.
“Alright, well, let’s do this.” I went to step out of his grasp when his hand tightened at my back and he pinned me closer to his body.
“Look…” His blue eyes bore into mine, tiny threads of orange lighting up inside as he gazed down at me intently. “Last night was … incredible. I need you to know that. You’re … incredible.”
My breath hitched in my throat. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t expecting that.
“I just…” He looked at my lips, wetting his. “I have a lot going on. A lot of people depend on me for survival, and I’ve never been in love or anything before. I don’t know how to do this, but I care about you. I fucking do.”
Love? What the what? Care about me? I realized then that I’d been raised by a warm and loving woman and he’d been raised by a demon. Maybe he really didn’t know how to do this.
I cut him off with a kiss. Pressing my lips to his, I reached up and wrapped my arms around the back of his neck. His whole body relaxed as we came together, and I could feel the smile tugging at his lips. Opening my mouth, I deepened the kiss, letting our tongues brush together in a small token of what we had last night. Desire flared within me; it was hard to explain this feeling of complete contentedness when we were together like this.
When we pulled apart, we were both breathless.
“We’ll figure out how to do this together,” I told him.
He nodded, looking more at ease with himself and less stressed. I wondered if I had only let him speak this morning and had the stupid peanut butter cracker breakfast he’d made, if he would have told me the same things. He wasn’t good with words, that was for sure. I stepped away, heart full for the first time since we’d been together last night.
“Okay, here is the plan. Only I can touch the crystals.” He paused, chewing at his lip. “So I need you to create a diversion out here so I can slip inside there.”
I looked up at the house on the hill. It was overcast and gloomy, dark clouds sending shadows across the rooftop of the home.
I gulped. “Okay.”
He seemed lost in thought, planning. “This will be the most heavily guarded place my dad has, whether he is here or not. I’ll get the crystals and be right back. Two minutes, tops.”
Another nod, but a stone sank in my gut. I had a bad feeling about splitting up. “Be safe,” I said.
He reached out and stroked my face. “Pull up a shield over yourself this time, okay?”
I smiled. “Okay.”
With that, he kicked off the ground and shot in the direction of the house. Gods he was fast. Taking in a deep breath, I kicked off my shoes and sank my feet into the grass, connecting with Mother Earth. Pulling on my training, I called a shield up over me. It was a thin clear dome that would hopefully protect me from harm—if I could keep control of it.
Okay. Distraction time.
There was nothing to fucking distract with! No car, no gun, no dog.
“HEYYYY!” I shouted at the top of my lungs at no one in particular, building a healing ball between my hands. Every Fae had mild healing abilities, enough to staunch a skinned and bleeding knee from a crying child, or ease a headache, nothing crazy. But they were colorful, so I built this purple healing ball and then chucked it over the fence and waited for some kind of noise