Chapter 2 - section 1

I stood stone still, ignoring the jostling around me and mentally cursed. Fey come in all different types and it’s a blood-based hierarchy. The one thing that it inevitably means, no matter the sort of fey with which you're dealing, is power. Unfortunately, as a half breed, even one with the unusually potent blood of my father running in me, I wasn’t completely immune to the power of others. My abilities were far above what even some full bloods can manage, but it’s still damn hard to resist a full-blooded fey getting her glam on when the human in you responds.

Even worse, friendship in fey terms doesn’t truly exist. Getting an honest answer out of Laila wasn’t going to be easy. Knowing what was honest and what wasn’t would be even harder. If I had any other leads with which to hunt my sister down, I would have turned around and walked away. Unfortunately, at that moment, no such options existed.

I gritted my teeth, set my mental resolve and resumed motion.

“Tara, how lovely to see you,” Laila trilled sensuously as she lifted a languid porcelain hand towards me.

The silent curse in my mind doubled itself. She knew my name. My sense of wrong rose, momentarily cresting the buzz of fey awareness that jangled my nerves. My stomach turned, but I counted that as a blessing since it bothered me enough to ignore a little of Laila’s oozing glamour. As the sudden heady fragrance of flowers and sweetness swirled like an invisible fog between us, I swallowed, the foul taste in my mouth countering some of the effect.

“Do I look like some sort of pollen sucker to you?” I growled irritably. “And where the hell is Vicky?”

Laila’s exquisite green eyes flattened and her smiled faded. So, too, did the overwhelming olfactory presence. “Touchy, hmm?” she lilted, sizing me up. “What do you want with her?”

A grim satisfaction added strength to my efforts at shielding her glamour. She might have pulled my name from my mind, but she didn’t know my relationship to Vicky. That meant I might have the upper hand here. Laila could sense the blood in me, I had no doubt, but she’d have no idea the extent of my reserve.

A flicker of a smirk twitched the dark-haired beauty’s lips and a sudden wave of pain nearly doubled me over as if someone had punched me in the gut. I lost my breath with a grunt. She was strong. She’d have to be in order to make it out of the Mistlands or at least have accompanied someone strong, but this was clearly all her. I could feel the sweat at my forehead and the back of my neck as I focused, forcing her back enough that the pain was merely discomfort. Fortunately, I’d had plenty of practice fending off attacks like this from Vicky when she didn’t get her way, though it did little to improve my mood.

“Someone asked me to find her,” I managed to get out with a tone normal enough that it surprised me.

Clearly it surprised her as well. The attack halted as quickly as it began and Laila’s lower lip actually jutted out in a pout. With the glamour still on her, she managed to make even that ugly expression somehow alluring. The man closest to her began to stroke her arm and the others pressed closer, trying to get near to her. “You’re no fun. She’s not here.”

“I’m aware of that. Where is she?”

Cat-like, the enchanting woman’s eyes narrowed to slits at my query and I tensed, wrapping my irritation and anger around me like a protective cloak. Even if I knew damned well the fey thrived off of their games, I didn’t have to like it. While I was loathe to let her know my strength, I sure as hell wasn’t about to let her play with me more than necessary.

“Find the toy she stole from me. She’s probably still playing with him.”

This seemed promising. Her jealousy seemed realistic enough, although I kept my gaze fixed on the beauty. If she had been cheated out of one of her charmed, she might consider it fitting revenge to send someone to break up the liaison. At the same time, I had to keep on my guard. Promising or no, it seemed just a bit too easy.

“Who is he and where can I find him?”

I was ready for her next attempt at an attack and the fear she sent whipping at me like an emotional shadow was halted before it even had the opportunity to touch me. That was one of Vicky’s other favorites. I felt a stirring of satisfaction as this success cracked the Fey’s glamour long enough for her to scowl at me. For just a second, her eyes gleamed dangerously and she bared her teeth. In an eye’s blink, she recaptured her control.

“What’s in it for me?” she hissed.

I couldn’t help but smile inwardly for some of her sultry tone had been lost, too. Now we were getting somewhere. “How about you tell me what I need to know and I leave all your happy little thralls intact?”

“You don’t have that kind of power in you, little half-breed,” Laila scoffed. Her composure had returned and she exuded nothing but sleek confidence. “You might be able to resist me, but I can smell the human in you. You don’t have anything to bargain with.”

My temper flared. I had a problem with escalation and this particular fey was bringing out the worst in me. I knew I shouldn’t. I knew it would make an enemy out of Laila and I knew that I’d regret it later, but the yearning to put her into her place overwhelmed me. I’m sure my eyes must have flashed as I drew myself up to my full height. My only thoughts were of showing this arrogant creature who and what she was dealing with as I opened my free hand.

I sent out a small spark of my energy towards the man still stroking her lovely white arm. With a careful touch and eyes locked on the Fey in front of me, I explored the invisible silken strands of her will wrapped around him. As I expected, her hold on him wasn’t tight like a cocoon, but something more like a net, allowing him to move and think for himself within the constraints of her desire. Touching my thumb to my middle finger, I plucked the strands holding him prisoner. They broke with a silent twang that felt like ethereal rubber bands tugged so taut that they split. Laila was aghast, her eyes widening in disbelief and her glamour loosening on the remaining men.

The liberated fellow shook his head, blinking. He looked like someone entering a dark room from the vivid glare of a noonday sun and unable to get his eyes to adjust. “Where? What time is it?” He held up his watch to his eyes, trying to focus. “Shit!” Alarmed at the hour, he beat a hasty retreat to the door.

I dropped my hand and took a sip from my Guiness, although my sense of satisfaction died under the ice of Laila’s stare.

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

And she was probably right. I shouldn’t have, but I really can’t bear to be challenged. At least this way, she knew my threat wasn’t idle. “Now that we’re clear that I can, perhaps you’d like to tell me who this guy is and where I can find him? Or should I free a few more?” I sloshed my glass towards the men drifting slowly away from her.

Like dogs hitting the end of their leashes, the men halted, all of them at once. Clearly, my mention reminded Laila of them and she had renewed her hold on them. She tightened it, too, if their motion was anything to judge by. She gnashed her teeth and gritted out unwillingly; “Travis Loome. 210 Foster Street.”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it now?” I ignored the waves of ire steaming behind me as I turned, dropping my glass onto one of the nearby tables.

Her voice held an arctic chill when she called after me, “Who the hell are you, Tara?”

I was still basking in my satisfaction at finally besting her and so without thinking, I answered. “One of Allister’s bastards.”

The force of her stunned silence paused most of the bar. I took that opportunity to force my way back through the crowd and out of the joint. Without looking over my shoulder, I made my way back to the car. Even the sensation of being watched couldn’t rob me of the joy of a minor victory.