Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey 4)

He laughed as he opened the door. Walking toward the tall fae, he waited until it turned towards him before he said anything. The need to submit was profound, and Grant felt himself fall to the ground and spread out so that the strong creature didn’t harm him. He watched as Piper did the same. Holy Christ, he thought, what the hell was going to happen to them now?

Chapter 9

Basil looked over the two he’d come to see. They were more beautiful than he’d been led to believe when he’d been told they were mated. Telling them to stand had the woman popping right up off the ground, but her mate, a fae such as he’d not seen in a long time, just stayed there.

“What are you doing?” He started to assure the woman he’d done nothing but come to see them, but she cut him off. “I don’t know who you are, big guy, but as of right now, you’re on my shit list. Who said you could come here and make us submit to you? I’m betting you thought this was a good idea all on your own. You mother fucking—”

“Piper, this is the king of the fae, Lord Basil. Your majesty, this is my wife and mate, Piper Coby. She’s a phoenix that the queen of these lands changed many years ago.” Basil put out his hand, and the woman slapped it away. “She’s usually a great deal more friendly.”

“Usually, I just kill sons of bitches that

do what you did to me.” Basil watched her face. She wasn’t just angry but worried as well. With good reason, he thought. The king of her mate’s kind hadn’t made an appearance in more years than she’d been born. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Your help? I would ask for a drink too, but I believe you’d spit upon it. You are much more headstrong than I was told. I think I shall love talking with you.” She crossed her arms over her breast and stared at him. “You’ll not believe I heard the ground here had a great warrior. That you were also a woman that could be trusted with all manner of things. That is why I’m here. To ask a favor of you and your mate. You would be good for what I have to ask you.”

“We’re not getting any younger by you talking in riddles. Don’t you guys send out minions when you’re going to visit a place? You know, have the people you’re going to ask something of be ready for you? I’d not think that simply showing up someplace has gotten you too much in the way of good neighbors, has it?” Basil laughed, and that seemed to piss her off more. She was a delight, and he was glad he’d done just what he’d done to see her. “I don’t think you’re the least bit funny. For the last time, what do you want?”

“For you to save my child.” That shut her up. Basil wasn’t sure, however, that it made her any more friendly. “Would you allow me to sit down? Please?”

“Sure.” Before she could put any kind of stipulations on his sitting, he took them both to his own home. Basil made sure he was well away from her before she realized what he’d done. “You mother fucker. You’re just all kinds of stupid today, aren’t you?”

Whatever he expected her to do, it wasn’t for her to shift into a great bird and blow heat over him. It wouldn’t harm him, but he knew that had he not already been prepared for her fire, he would have surely been hurt. Sitting in the chair that had been put there by him, he asked her to have a seat.

“You’re not burning to a crisp.” Basil laughed and told her he’d feel much better if she didn’t seem so thoroughly disappointed. “But I am. You should be dead right now. That is a disappointment to me.”

“I should hope that once you hear what I have to say, you’ll change your mind. Please, my lady, have a seat. I wish to tell you what troubles I have and ask for you to help me with them. I do believe it is only the two of you that can save the faes of your world.” Piper sat down, but she wasn’t happy about it. She also told him she wasn’t fae. “No. You’re not fully a fae, but your mate is. I’ve been keeping an eye on Grant here since he took his first breath. I knew the queen of these lands quite well, too, as a matter of fact.”

“Dante would have told us she was going to just pop in, as you haven’t done.” Basil laughed. He was sure she was upset with him, but he just couldn’t help it. “Tell us what you have in mind. And don’t think we didn’t notice that you’ve taken us off our land. I don’t know where I am, but I’m betting it’ll burn just as quickly as anything on my side of magic.”

“Yes. You’re right. I will get right to the point then. My mate, Lady Rose, passed on. This was a great many years ago, I assure you. But at the time, I could only think what her not being here did to me.” Piper told him she was sorry for his loss. “Thank you. It was a great many years ago. However, it doesn’t mean I don’t miss her at times. She was much like you, Lady Piper. Headstrong, and a woman that demanded courtesy. She also would have had my head had she had any idea what I did to you today. For that, I’m profoundly sorry. But as I said, I need your help.”

“Whatever it is, I’m sure we can help you.” Basil looked at Grant and nodded. “You said this had to do with your child. Have you only one?”

“I have none, as a matter of fact. That is where the two of you come in.” Piper stood up, and Basil quickly went on to explain. “I don’t wish for you to have my child, Lady Piper. No, not that. But to be a somewhat surrogate for it. It will be much easier than having to go to a physician to have you implanted with one, should that be the route we take. But I need only to touch the two of you, and you will go about creating the child on your own.”

“I don’t understand.” He looked at Piper and asked her what she needed him to explain. “You just have to touch us, and then we’re going to somehow carry you a child? That seems fishy to me. What’s the catch?”

“Catch? Why none, I assure you. You will both be well paid for this. Very well.” Piper said they didn’t need money. “No. I suppose you don’t. Then what is it you would require for you to help me? You see, I’m not long for my world. I only have a few thousand years left in which to train a child to do what is needed to care for the fae. I have, I’ll honestly admit, been doing too much in order to keep things going. I should have approached someone before now. But had I done that, the magic would have likely killed the person that does such a job for me. The two of you are so strong it will not be an issue for either of you to carry the magic that would be required for you to carry a fae king.”

Neither one of them said anything, at least to him. He knew they were talking to each other, however. When Grant looked at him sharply, he had a feeling his mate had figured out what was going on and told him. Basil, instead of telling him anything, called for refreshments to be brought to them. Then he confessed.

“I have less time than I told you, as I’m sure your mate has said. I will not see the birth of this child, nor will I be able to teach him the things he’ll need to know to be a good ruler.” Piper told him to tell them all of it. “Of course. Once I touch you, the two of you will not just have my child for me, the king that will someday replace me, but you’ll be the king and queen of the faes until such time that your child will be able to take over. It is imperative that someone watches over the people here. Just as it was important for me to keep the lands safe for you and your family to come to take it. Dante, she knew I was dying even then.”

“What caused you, the king of faes, to be so ill like this?” He wanted to sob to Piper, to thank her for her gentle tone. But he was a leader after all and needed to show them that. “You know, I could care less how strong you want us to see you. For all I care, you could be doing this on your deathbed. You might well be if you don’t get to the fucking point.”

Basil couldn’t hold back; he did burst into tears. She was gentle and kind when it was necessary and hard when that was a better way to approach things. Just as his own mate. He got up to hand them the picture of his wife that had been painted so long ago. It made it easier for him; he thought if they could see what a wonderful person he’d lost.

“There was fighting among our kind for many years. Then when we weren’t trying to kill each other, the humans would be fighting with us. It turned out that one of my own kind was the one that ended my reign. I was fed iron. So was my lady wife. She was with child when she was poisoned, to the point of her losing the babe. Then her own life was taken before it was figured out what had been going on. My own brother—he wished to be king in my place.” Piper asked him if this bother was still alive. “Nay. My Rose killed him while taking her last breath. He is no more. But what he did beforehand, it’s taken everything that we have held dear from us.”

Piper got up and began pacing the room. He could feel the touch of her magic. Basil wasn’t sure he could have stopped her, so he didn’t try. She might well hurt him, and he just couldn’t let that happen. Things depended on him telling them what was going on. When she stopped suddenly, he watched her.

“May I touch you?” He put out his hand, and she said she needed to touch his heart. “It’s there where the iron is. I wish to see how much there is.”

“Plenty, I’m told, to have killed a lesser fae.” Basil stood up and opened his shirt for her. “I’m to understand that iron does not affect you. I wish I had thought of making that a reality for my family as well. Things would have been so—”

“Hush. I need to hear.” He did so and watched her face. She had a lovely face, but expressionless too. Sh

e would defeat all with that look. No one would be able to tell if she was bluffing or that she had—