"No, he calmed you. He grounded your power with his own. Most Fae spend eternity looking for a familiar who can ground their powers. Yet you, a newborn walked in with one in your pocket. Explain."
"Explain?" I laughed, "Okay, last week? I was a Witch. I knew where the hell I belonged Ryder, this week? This week I'm a fucking Fairy Ryder. A fucking Fairy, my entire life has been a huge fucking lie. I got people who loved me killed because I can't think of another reason for those Fae to be inside my house that day. No one can, but now that I know I'm Fae—or turning Fae, I know they were there for me. So explain? I have no fucking idea, Ryder…I don’t even know who my actual parents are, or why they hid me. Adam is only getting pieces of what he thinks we are —hell! He doesn't even know why he is drawn to me, but he is. When I get pissed or upset—he feels it! Nothing in my life makes any sense now. The only thing I do know is that I don't want any of this."
"I need to know what the mark is on the back of your neck is," he growled.
I threw up my hands and stood there, waiting for Ryder to invite me in so we could get this over with. When he didn’t say anything I tapped my foot impatiently waiting. I looked around us at the smiles and smirks from his men. Ristan was there, a guarded look in his eyes, a sad expression on his face. Maybe he felt bad for everything that had ensued after he'd asked me to investigate the Light Heir.
"Come, we will go inside," he said crisply.
I started forward but it hurt, I'd done too much today already and I had yet to fully heal. I flinched as I stepped forward and felt my knees try to give away under the weight. Ryder was instantly there, catching me by the waist to steady me on my feet. "Let go of me, I can manage on my own," I growled at him.
"I think thank you are the words you're looking for Syn. If you're not healing, we need to figure out why," he said letting me go and heading back inside, awarding me with a view of his firm ass in his low hung jeans.
"Did you go broke and couldn’t afford shirts in the budget this month?" I grumbled having to look at his exposed skin.
"You liked my brands inside Faery. You interrupted a training regimen Syn," he said smiling over his shoulder. "If I remember correctly, inside Faery you tried to taste every one of my brands—"
"With my tongue," I snapped back as his men fought the urge to smile.
"Don’t tempt me Syn. I've decided to only keep one source of food inside my house."
"Claire?" I asked glaring at him.
"You."
I tripped over my feet and ran into his back, it made the wound scream in pain and before I knew it I was falling. Once again he was faster the gravity was. He caught me with a worried look in golden depths. "You need to rest. You're not healing fast enough."
"Sucks to be me then. Contract."
He smiled coldly, "You drive me crazy and I think you do it on purpose. I had to watch you almost die Syn, do you have idea how fucking hard that was for me? I had to watch them cut you open to stop the bleeding and I watched you bleed out three fucking times before Eliran could stop it. And then I had to watch as your fucking coven came in and took you away from me while citing breach of contract bullshit and I couldn’t fucking kill them because if by some fucking miracle you woke up and I had, you would never forgive me. I saved you Syn, not them. You'd be dead if I hadn't of been Fae. You'd have died in the arms of your coven."
I swallowed slowly and reached up against my will to caress his face gently, "Thank you for saving me, next time—try not letting me get stabbed first."
He smiled and searched my face before setting me back on my feet. His hands steadying me before he released me, "I meant what I said Syn, I plan on punishing you. Soon."
"Yeah, you like to say that, but you're going to have to get in line. I'm waiting for a visit from the puppet master at the moment so we need to hurry this along."
Thirty Six
It took three hours to finish signing the contract. Once again I was his property. At least for a while, but I'd stood my ground and refused to back down on some things. I was back in the Guild car and heading to my shared apartment when Larissa called to check up.
"Local morgue, you stab them, we slab them," I said smiling impishly knowing she'd hear it in my voice.
"Syn, how'd it go?" Larissa replied with nervousness inside her tone.
"It went okay," I said turning onto the highway and frowning, "Everything okay?" I asked noting she lacked her normal pizzazz tonight.
"It's fine, are you on your way home?" I didn’t miss the hopeful note in her voice as she asked.
"Yup, need something from the store?" I asked wondering if that was the hope I'd heard since I was already out.
"No, I was just checking," she replied.
"You and Adam need me to stay gone for a while?" I crinkled my forehead and made a mental note to set them a schedule, or have them go to his place from here on out.