Kiss of Vengeance (True Immortality 2)

If they loved her, they’d be worried sick unable to contact her. She hated that idea, but, unfortunately, even if she was ready to talk, it was now too dangerous.

To her relief, a few hours later, Fionn stood and gestured for her to follow him. They boarded one of the first-class carriages of a train bound for Milan with the e-tickets Bran had emailed. They sat opposite each other, a small table between them. First, Rose watched Fionn lay his coat and garment bag across the luggage rack above them, not having to stretch to reach the damn thing. Then she tried not to smirk at the way he attempted to fold his large body into the seat. His knees hit the table.

“You can sprawl your legs out toward me. I don’t mind.”

He stared at her a second and then did just that.

She felt his right leg brush her left one. She looked away so he wouldn’t see her reaction and guess at how hyperaware of him she was.

More silence descended upon them as they waited for the train to leave. The first-class carriage wasn’t full, but Rose wondered how Fionn could continue his story with so many ears listening in.

Just as she was about to ask, Fionn stood, his balance perfect against the slight rocking of the train, and reached into the pocket of his coat. The air tingled with magic a second before he pulled something out of the pocket and sat back down. His legs brushed hers again. He then placed folded-up black headphones on the table between them.

Rose felt a shiver of magic again as he covered the headphones with his hand, feeling that wave of hot energy envelop her. The noise of the train and of the other passengers quietened, dulling to a barely perceptible hum in the background. “What did you just do? Where did these come from?” she asked.

Fionn lifted his hand off the device and gestured to it. “I conjured them. They’re noise-canceling headphones. I’ve just … expanded their reach. We can’t hear them.” He gestured to the other passengers. “And they can’t hear us.”

Staring at the headphones, Rose felt a thrum of excitement. Despite the craziness of her new existence, of the horror she’d seen magic do, she couldn’t help but find these abilities pretty damn cool. “That’s brilliant.”

“Are you ready for the rest of the story?”

If her own coven wanted her dead, then whatever she was, whatever she’d been born for, had to be ominous. Still, Rose had to know. “Tell me.”

“I was about to explain the hierarchy before those warlocks tracked us down. It can get confusing, so tell me if you need me to repeat anything.”

“I think I’m smart enough to follow.”

“I meant no offense.”

“And I take none. I just don’t need anything mansplained to me.”

He smirked, and Rose felt an answering flutter in her belly. She wondered what he looked like full-out smiling. She bet his handsomeness was blinding. Right then she wished for the ability to make him grin. “How about faesplained?”

Surprise brought amusement to the corners of her mouth. “Did you just crack a joke?”

“If you have to ask, then clearly I failed.”

His dry tone made her laugh. “Faesplain away, Fionn.”

The fae gave her a sardonic nod. “You have the queen, her name is Aine, and below that are her royal subjects, below them the aristocracy, below that a middle class, and below them, peasantry. Aine lives in Samhradh Palace among the fae courtiers of the Samhradh Royal House. Colloquially, they’re referred to as the Day Lands because they live in a part of Faerie that never grows dark and is in constant summer. And among them live princes, princesses, lords and ladies, their servants, and, once upon a time, their human slaves.

“On the other side of Faerie is Geimhreadh Palace, ruled over by a Geimhreadh prince of the Geimhreadh Royal House. It is known as the Night Lands as they live in constant darkness.

“Between these two are the countries ruled by the Earrach and Fómhar Royal Houses, called the Dawn and Dusk Lands. The royals are powerful fae who rule over a slightly less powerful aristocracy, and even less powerful middle and peasant classes.

“When the fae first invited humans to Faerie, the royal houses began to play games with them. This led to supernaturals. A new species first came to be when a courtier of the Geimhreadh House was fighting over a human woman called Isis with a member of the Samhradh House. In their fight, the woman was killed, and the fae of Geimhreadh tried to heal her with his blood. This was forbidden.”

Rose was so enthralled by his story, it took her a minute to realize he’d hesitated. “Why? Why was it forbidden to heal her with his blood?”

Fionn frowned. “They discovered when they started invading our world that their blood healed humans. In our world. However, on Faerie, like I said, magic is different. It’s more. Humans reacted to it differently because there’s a wildness to it there, an instability. So … it changed the human instead. Isis was the first vampire. She would live forever, like the fae, as long as she drank blood and no one killed her. Side note: she was hunted by vampire hunter after vampire hunter in the twelfth century and one eventually killed her.

“But back to Faerie. Aine allowed it to stand, to let Isis live, despite the danger she posed. But the other houses were angry. Samhradh House,” he said, curling his upper lip, “cast a spell over Isis so a wooden stake, a weapon of nature, could kill her. And the greatest weapon they spelled against her was the earth’s sun. It was amusing to them to take a creature of the Night Lands and trap her in eternal night. They sought to make Isis the antithesis of nature.

“What they didn’t see coming was her ability to bite and turn other humans into vampires. But as she did, the spell they’d cast over her transferred to those she’d turned. They’re not dead like the myths would have people believe. They eat and drink things other than blood, but they need blood so they don’t starve. Unlike wolves, vampires are immortal, yet they have their weaknesses. On Faerie, vampires were unaffected by the sun, but on Earth, they can only come out at night. And the earth’s sunlight turns them to ash.

“That was the beginning of the worst of the games meted out on humans,” he said, his bitterness finally betraying emotion. “They used humans to distract them from their pitiful, empty eternal lives.

“When a shapeshifting fae, a rare species among the Day Lands, bit a human while wolf and accidentally transferred her gift to the human man, the werewolf was made. The Night Lands remembered what Day did to Isis, and they spelled the wolf. While vampires were controlled by the earth’s sun, they made sure the full moon would control the werewolves.

“Moreover, the fae wore jewelry as symbols of their houses. Geimhreadh House wore silver. Samhradh wore all precious metals and stones but usually fashioned to look like leaves and trees. Earrach wore gold, and Fómhar House, copper. Because Samhradh fashioned a weapon for the vampires from wood, Geimhreadh fashioned a weapon for the wolves out of silver. A werewolf can heal from almost any injury if he or she shifts. But if a wound is inflicted by silver, it’ll leave a scar at best, kill at worst.”

“Holy crap,” Rose whispered, staring wide-eyed at him. “Do you have a Guide to Faerie I could borrow?” Momentarily, she forgot she’d asked him not to mansplain.

To her shock, Fionn almost smiled. “I told you it’s a lot to take in.”

She stared at this huge warrior fae, thinking of him stuck in another world as a human slave. “What happened to you there? How did you escape?”

The ghost of his smile died. “I was there for six years as the queen’s slave. I learned much. Even befriended some fae.”

“Really?”

“It was hard to trust them, but I watched. Always watching. Trying to figure out their natures. There was a princess of Samhradh house who was gentler than the others. She’d taken in a little human girl who’d been stolen into Faerie and was raising her. She loved her. I began to trust the princess a little, and she began to trust me.