He was probably right about all of that, but still, I needed to protect him from himself. “Unfreeze him then, at least he can have a pretend fighting chance, and you can claim defense,” I whispered.
“Smart. You go check on the probably dead attendant and let me handle this, so you don’t face any trouble from the court.”
I glared at him.
He lifted a shoulder, eyes very determined. “You can keep looking at me, but I’m still going to kill this fucker.”
I turned away, not sparing a second glance. Instead, I left the room. I vaguely heard some scuffling behind me but paid it no attention. I knelt down, which took more energy than I anticipated because every bruise on my body was screaming when I moved. Reaching out, I touched the attendant’s neck and, upon feeling a weak pulse, I sighed with relief.
At least no one innocent died. But I was tired of this. We were now attacked four times in the span of just a few weeks. It was clear we were both at risk now, and therefore, whoever our enemy was, they wanted us both dead. We needed to go somewhere safe and figure this out before we actually did get killed.
Moments later, Ivan appeared behind me. “My love, we need to check your wounds and go to the fucking human realm.”
I nodded, standing up. “Yes, let’s go pack up. Well, after we get help for him.”
Ivan looked down at the attendant. “Yes, help the poor bastard, check your wounds, pack, and then get the fuck out of here.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Chapter Fifteen
Ivan
The human realm smelled bad. I was astounded at how the humans could walk around as if their nose hairs weren’t burning. Xander warned it took some getting used to when he stayed in this realm for a while with Lila. However, no warning could prepare me for the chemical smell floating through the air. It was not natural. Not the fresh crisp air that I was used to in the realm. Even the sky looked duller than our own. The colors of nature around us, what little there was, seemed dead.
We were staying at a human realm fae’s guest house. A pack that was a friend of Lila and Xander agreed to let us stay on their grounds. They lived further out from the city with more trees and grass. While the air was less congested, it was still nothing like home.
However, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Not that the estate was anything to scoff at. It was quite nice, which made sense as there were many people living here. It was a pack of five, with four alphas and one omega. They were wealthy and seemed to all love each other despite their differences. In the fae realm, we would never see a vampire, werewolf, incubus demon, faerie, and witch all live together in a pack.
We were currently sitting in their massive living room with Xander and Lila discussing our predicament. We’d only been in the realm for a few hours, but the pack had been very hospitable so far. Also, I liked their liquor. Perhaps not everyone in the human realm was horrible, but I’d give it more time to decide along with the liquor.
It was just us, Billie, the pack’s omega, and Daniel, their fae alpha leader. He wasn’t what I expected in a faerie. He was from the lost earth tribe, those fae who were separated from the realm centuries ago when the fae closed human access to the realm. He even looked more human than us, but I could tell from his aura that he was using glamour magic to hide his true appearance. Right now, he looked like a human. Sophisticated with his short black hair freshly trimmed and dressed in a tailored three-piece gray suit. Apparently, he’d come home from work running his expensive restaurant.
Billie, a doctor and witch, sat down beside him on the opposite end of the massive L-shaped sofa from Jalisa and me. Lila sat between us, and Xander sat in a cushioned armchair near sliding glass doors leading to a backyard. A large glass coffee table stood in front of the couch under a larger beige rug. Across from us was a massive fireplace and a flat screen TV mounted above it. I supposed everything was large here because they had five adults under one roof.
Daniel placed a hand on Billie’s thigh, and she tipped her curly brown head in his direction. There was an unspoken comfortbetween them that reminded me of Jalisa and I before our breakup. Right now, although she was sitting beside me, she was stiff. Ever since the attack two nights ago, she’d been tense. Unable to sleep, despite me saying I would stay up to watch over us.
Jalisa was a worrier, I knew that about her. She would get wrapped up in her thoughts and would not let it go until she could find a way to fix her problems. Sometimes those fixes were problematic. Such as breaking up with me. Unfortunately, I was of no help to easing her mind. This was especially the case when each day it felt as if I was losing more memories that were important to me. However, I kept the level of my memory lapse hidden from her, for now.
Billie sighed, placing her hand on top of the one Daniel had resting on her thigh. “Well, I’m so sorry this happened to you both. But I’ve never heard of ward magic that removes specific memories or any at all. A ward is to keep things in or out. So, I don’t think itwasa ward. Someone cast a spell on you while they were in hiding or under invisibility magic so you couldn’t see them and disguised it under the ward.”
Jalisa nodded. “Possible, but the fae don’t have spell magic. Potions, sure.”
Daniel narrowed his dark eyes. “It has to be witchcraft.”
Xander adjusted in his seat, an exasperated look on his face “So, there’s got to be witches still in our realm. I guess we didn’t get them all.”
I leaned forward and picked up my glass of brown liquid called bourbon. I wondered if I could sneak a bottle or several back to the fae realm. I knew our court didn’t want anything from the human realm there, but they’d made exceptions in the past. “We have a lot of enemies, so I wouldn’t be surprised if witches were hired to take us down. We’re very popular.”
Jalisa snorted, resting an elbow on the arm of the couch. “And by popular, he means we have several people who want to see us fall. So, we’re here to not only break whatever magic has hold of his mind but have a safe place until we can figure out who is after us.”
Billie tapped her chin in thought. “It’s someone who doesn’t want to see you both together.”
“Sadly, that doesn’t narrow it down for us.”
Billie shook her head. “Well, that’s unfortunate because from the little I’ve seen of you both, you seem like a beautiful couple. And any friend of Lila’s is a friend of mine. So, you must be good people, er, faerie and dragon.”
I smiled at that. She was really making humans look good. They were letting us stay with them for free. Although we’d brought fae goods to exchange with them, they refused it. Anything from the fae realm, I was told, was quite prized in the human realm. “Oh yes, Lila and I are practically family.”
