Savage Fae (Ruthless Boys of the Zodiac Book 2) Read online

  I could feel eyes on me from the other patrons, but I couldn’t give two shits about that. I just wanted to get out of here.

  “Excuse me,” I said almost rudely as I lost my patience with the waitress and her fiddling. “Is there any way I can borrow a phone? I’m kinda stranded.”

  The middle aged woman turned to look at me slowly, an eyebrow raising as she pursed lips painted blood red and eyed me like I was something unpleasant on the bottom of her shoe. She had a tattoo across her cheekbone of the Scorpio constellation and thick eyeliner rimming her brown eyes.

  “And for some reason, you thought coming in here looking for help was a good idea?” she asked, stepping closer and placing a bottle of dark liquor down on the bar between us.

  “It was my only idea. I dunno about a good one,” I replied, ignoring her icy tone. “But if you let me make my phone call then I can get the hell out of here again before you have to worry about it.”

  Silence fell around me and a creeping sensation along my spine let me know that someone was drawing closer to me from behind.

  “And why would she do that?” a deep voice sounded way too close to me. “When you trotted in here so willingly like a little toy just waiting for us to play with her?”

  I stilled, pushing into my Vampire senses as I detected the thrum of excitement moving through the heartbeats of the people closing in on me. There were at least five of them lurking nearer and I could see them out the corners of my eyes though I didn’t turn my head to let them know that.

  My gaze dropped to the bar where my fingers had been tracing a pattern in the woodwork without me really acknowledging it. A symbol sat beneath my hand. A crescent moon with a serrated edge. The Lunar Brotherhood symbol.

  Well shit.

  It looked like I’d just walked into a gang bar. The kind that didn’t take well to random girls with lilac hair wandering in off the street and demanding to use their facilities.

  I reached for my power on instinct and a spike of fear shuddered through me as the emptiness inside my chest echoed hollowly. I was tapped out, suffering the worst hangover of my life and reaching the end of a very short fuse.

  A man’s hand landed on my shoulder and I snapped.

  With a shot of my speed, I grabbed the hand, yanking it forward and sinking my teeth into his wrist the moment it passed before my lips.

  Gasps rang out around me and someone dropped a glass in shock as I felt a hundred sets of eyes on me, but I didn’t give two shits. In a minute, when I was done feeding and all those angry gang members were looking to punish me for what I’d just done, I’d let myself worry about it. But at that moment, the only thing that mattered was the blood washing over my tongue and the power sliding into my veins.

  I swallowed greedily but stopped once the ache in my gut had lessened. The man’s blood was enough to fill my reserves and take the edge off, but it wasn’t what I was craving. I wanted to drink from one of my Sources. Ryder and Dante’s blood was like my own special kind of addiction. And drinking from this random Fae was like drinking piss in comparison.

  I shoved his arm away from me and turned my attention back to the waitress.

  “Phone?” I asked again.

  Her eyes were on the guy behind me. The silence in the room was deafening. And if I was totally honest, my balls were seriously running out of steam. But I couldn’t back down now. I’d gone and walked into the viper’s pit, so I was going to keep pushing until my luck ran out. Which it might have already.

  “In all honesty I don’t actually have the number memorised, so I’m going to need to do a quick search on the web too,” I added lightly. Like I gave no fucks. Some fucks were beginning to stir though, especially as the woman’s cold eyes slid back to meet mine.

  “Well look what just wandered in here looking for an initiation,” she purred, her voice soft and all threat.

  “No thanks,” I replied dismissively. “No offence but gang life isn’t for me. I don’t work well with others.”

  Every fucker in the place growled at once and the blood in my limbs practically froze solid.

  Probably not the best response.

  The not-so-tasty snack behind me snatched me off of my stool in an instant and hoisted me off the ground.

  I cried out, throwing my hands out and sending a shockwave of air tearing from me which knocked half the assholes in the room off of their feet but also burned through the entirety of the magic I’d stolen from him.

  The big dipshit dropped me as he was knocked on his ass and I rolled across the hard wood floor before springing upright with my speed. Pain sliced through my skull at the jarring movement but I fought to ignore it even as I stumbled.

  Members of the Lunar Brotherhood lay all around me on the ground and my heart lurched as I turned for the exit. Before they could recover, I shot towards the door using my gifts, heading for the vague promise of safety offered outside this bar.

  My hip collided with a table as I misjudged a turn and I swore as pain spilled into my body. I almost fell, but just about kept my footing.

  I nearly made it to the door before a hard body collided with mine.

  A hiss escaped me and my fangs snapped out as I recognised another of my kind. The other Vampire bared her fangs too, her hand locking around my throat before she whirled me around and threw me back into the centre of the room.

  I hit the ground hard and rolled across the floorboards, colliding with a chair and the feet of some of the gang members who had recovered from my air strike. My stomach lurched up into my mouth and holy shit I was going to puke.

  I pressed my palms to the floor as I started heaving but my empty stomach had nothing to offer up.

  Someone caught me around my waist and the world flipped upside down which was so not good for my headache and writhing stomach that it was untrue.

  My back slammed down on the bar and the sound of shattering glass filled the air as drinks were sent flying. A slice of pain bit into my bare thigh as a sliver of glass found it but I couldn’t spare it any attention as I battled to get up.

  Pressure crashed into my chest as a wave of air was cast to keep me down and with my magic tapped out, I couldn’t even try to gain control over it.

  I kicked and snarled, the most colourful curses in my vocabulary pouring from my lips, aimed at all of the fuckers who surrounded me.

  The air holding me down suddenly disappeared and I tried to lurch upright, only to find that ice had replaced its hold on me.

  “Get the fuck off of me!” I demanded as the cage of frozen crystals spread from my chest over my arms and down my legs. The creeping cold of it was descending into my body and a shiver raced through me as I tried to strain against it.

  “Do you wanna tell me who you were trying to call?” the woman behind the bar asked as she moved to lean over me, her fingers hovering between us and letting me know that I could thank her for the cage of ice. “I’d like them to listen while we gut you.”

  My heart was pounding and my gaze wheeled around the sea of faces which leaned over me. There were pissed off expressions, angry ones, even a few who looked eager for the next part. Zero compassion, not a slice of empathy. I was royally, utterly screwed. I knew it. They knew it. Hell, even the fucking stars must have been in on it at this point.

  The woman’s fingers tightened and the cage of ice holding me sharpened around the edges, cutting into my skin and pulling a hiss of pain from my lips.

  “I’m looking for that answer, lavender, and I’ll get it from you one way or another,” she promised. “Who did you want to call?”

  For a wild moment, my thoughts went to my brother. That’s who I wanted to call. But that option was long gone to me and I didn’t have anyone else I could rely on anymore. I almost told her as much, admitted that I was about to call the fucking administration building at the academy and see if there was any chance a teacher might come and help me out like the pathetic little girl I was, but my gaze snagged on the symbol tattooed on her chest i
nstead. A crescent moon with a serrated edge. The mark of the Lunar Brotherhood. And I just so happened to know one of the most - if not the most - important member of their entire gang.

  I started laughing. Because I was so fucked. So, so fucked if I was going to try and call on him for help but I was straight out of options and it was the only idea I had.

  “I was going to call someone you might know actually,” I said, smirking up at her.

  A lock of lilac hair had fallen over my face and I blew it away irritably.

  “Oh yeah?” the woman spun her fingers until a blade of ice formed between them. I watched her magic with interest as the dagger lengthened and curved, sharp ridges forming along one side of it until it resembled their symbol. It was pretty clever of her to make a murder weapon that she could just melt out of existence again once she was done stabbing. Bye bye evidence. Maybe I could shape air like that to use against my brother’s killer when I found them. If I didn’t die now.

  “Yeah, he might not be too happy with the welcome I’ve received here either,” I added because, fuck it, if I was going to call on him then I might as well go all in on it. If he chose not to help me then I was dead anyway.

  “I’m not scared of your boyfriend, lavender, wanna give me his number though? I’ll make sure you’re still alive until he gets here. I can cut off quite a few pieces of you while we wait. You’ll be surprised to find out just how much your body can take before it gives out,” she purred and I didn’t miss the excitement in her eyes at that promise.

  “I can imagine,” I said dryly, my bravado staying in place through sheer force of will. I was just glad I’d peed in Gabriel’s apartment or I’d definitely be pissing myself now and giving away my terror. “But like I said, I don’t know his number off the top of my head, you might already have it though. Presuming you’re important enough...”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she leaned closer to me, trailing the tip of her blade up my bare thigh.

  I clenched my teeth against the sensation of my skin splitting beneath the sharp point, the warmth of my blood trickling over my flesh.

  “I want you to call Ryder for me,” I said slowly.

  “Ryder?” she scoffed. “Ryder who?”

  I gave her an eye roll because we both knew who I meant. “Draconis,” I said like she was slow or something. “He’s a friend of mine.”

  She scoffed like I was fucking insane and lifted the blade until it was poised over my cheek, just touching my face.

  “Do you think you’ll buy yourself some time with this bullshit?” she breathed. “Because you’re only buying yourself more pain.” She pressed down on the blade and the sharp bite of the cut was weirdly dulled by the freezing blade. But I didn’t miss the wetness that rolled down the side of my face and dripped over my ear as my blood was spilled again.

  “Just call him,” I hissed in response. “Or you’ll regret hurting me when he finds out.”

  She stared into my eyes for a long moment, a flicker of suspicion in her gaze. She was going to ignore me, but that little bit of doubt made her pause.

  “If I call him and you’re lying, you won’t be any better off,” she growled. “If Ryder comes to finish you, you’ll die wishing it had been me.”

  “Just pick up the damn phone,” I said impatiently. “I’m getting bored.”

  Her eyes narrowed to slits and she slowly withdrew from my personal space.

  Muttering broke out around the bar but I resisted the urge to look between the gang members, watching the woman as she unlocked her phone and dialled the number she clearly knew by heart.

  An endless minute passed as she held it to her ear and I strained my Vampire hearing to listen as it rang.

  “Yes?” Ryder’s voice came tersely and I could tell he was less than pleased to be disturbed.

  “Ryder, we have a...girl here who claims to know you. She strolled right into the bar and caused a fucking brawl, I was going to teach her a lesson but-”

  “What girl?”

  “I didn’t catch her name,” the woman looked at me.

  “It’s Elise,” I said, friendly-like and loud enough for him to hear me.

  “Elise apparently,” she repeated unnecessarily.

  Ryder didn’t reply for a long moment. “What does she look like?”

  The woman’s gaze slid over me. “Purple hair, pretty, mouth like a sailor’s and clearly not one of us.”

  “It’s lilac actually,” I corrected.

  Ryder’s silence went on longer this time. I waited, heart in my throat, wondering if I’d been right to think he might just give the tiniest bit of a shit about me. Because if he didn’t, I was so screwed it didn’t bear thinking about.

  “I’m coming,” he finally replied. “Don’t touch her, she’s mine.”

  The line cut off and I swallowed a lump in my throat. That wasn’t exactly the most reassuring response. And I wasn’t his. But I decided to let that slide this once because it might just be the only thing stopping her from making any more moves with that knife.

  “I didn’t catch your name,” I said with a smile as her assessing gaze dripped over me like she didn’t know what the hell to think.

  “Scarlett Tide,” she replied slowly.

  My heart thumped wildly at that name. Because she wasn’t just some random member of The Brotherhood, she was Ryder’s second in command. The woman rumored to have killed every man she’d ever screwed. The Ice Killer, Frozen Butcher, Cold Hearted Queen. In short, just about the worst fucking person I could be sat giving lip to right about now. I didn’t let any recognition show on my face but I knew who she was. Everyone in Alestria knew who she was and I was starting to realise I was in a whole heap of trouble right now.

  She pursed her lips and the blade in her hand melted, slowly followed by the ice pinning me to the bar. Every drop of water was pulled away from my body and she directed it into a sink behind the bar where it swirled away down the drain.

  I sat up and twisted so that I could slip off the bar. The gang members closest to me moved aside and I picked up a bar stool before planting my ass on it to wait.

  Scarlett watched me for a long moment then nodded to a guy on my left. Vines curled up around the legs of my chair, hooking around my shins and up over my knees as they secured me in place. I guessed with my speed I was a flight risk but a strange part of me didn’t want to run. I wanted to wait for Ryder. I still had no goddamn idea where I was aside from the fact that I must have been deep in Lunar Territory and I still felt like shit, so the idea of him coming to get me was all I had to hold on to. I didn’t even care if he was mad with me. There was something between me and him and no matter how angry he might be with me, I didn’t think he’d really hurt me somehow. At least not yet. Not while I still held his interest. If that ever wore off then we’d just have to see what happened.

  “Any chance of a drink?” I asked as most of the other gang members sidled away from me and returned to whatever they’d been doing before my unexpected arrival.

  “Do you have a wedge of auras tucked inside your panties?” Scarlett asked. “Because we aren’t a charity.”

  “Not so much. But I do have one fucker of a hangover and a glass of water might just help me not puke all over your bar.”

  Lie. Putting something in my stomach might just be what it took to make me vomit after all, but my tongue was so swollen and my mouth so parched that I was desperate enough to risk it.

  Scarlett picked up a dirty, overturned glass from the end of the bar and slid it towards me before conjuring water to fill it. Before she passed it over, she leaned forward and spat in it then placed it in front of me.

  “Drink up,” she said sweetly.

  “Fan-fucking-tastic,” I muttered, looking away from the glass.

  I spent a few minutes gazing around the bar, wondering what the hell all these people did with their time. Were they planning gang strikes, sitting around insulting the Oscura Clan, or just hanging out chatting about
their love of the moon and killing people? All I was really sure of was that I didn’t see anything here that would remotely tempt me to join up.

  Scarlett took a seat on the other side of the bar and it didn’t take me long to figure out that she wasn’t serving drinks. That job fell to a guy with way too much dirt under his fingernails for me to want him serving me anything. He shot me glares between serving the other punters while Scarlett just sat and fucking stared.

  I had zero things to say to her so after a while I just tipped my head back and closed my eyes.

  The pounding in my head lessened a little when I did that. Not enough. But it was better than nothing.

  I still felt cold from her goddamn ice but I doubted she’d get a fire Elemental to warm me up if I asked, so I just tried not to shiver.

  Eventually the deep purr of a motorcycle came from outside the bar and I looked up as Scarlett got to her feet before me.

  The tightness of her posture was enough to tell me whose bike that was and I turned to the door just as Ryder stepped through it. He was dressed in black jeans and a T-shirt with a tear cut into the side of it, exposing a flash of his muscular stomach. He blocked most of the light coming in from outside with his broad frame but every inch of his body seemed coiled with tension.

  His gaze fell on me and my breath caught in my throat at the cold, hard rage I found there. His right fist clenched tightly at his side, the word pain drawn tight over his knuckles and I was suddenly reminded of all the reasons that I should fear Ryder Draconis.

  I bit my lip and waited for him to get over the shock of seeing me here. Because I was pretty sure that when he decided to speak to me, I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

  I strode into The Rusty Nail with tension in my posture. How new girl had gotten all the way out here was a fucking mystery to me. But that mystery came closer to being solved as I found her on a bar stool in some guy’s shirt, her hair screaming recently fucked. She smelled like male shampoo, her cherry gum scent entirely absent.

  Scarlett nodded to me and the whole bar fell still as they realised who had just walked in. The future king of the whole damn Brotherhood. Their leader and the son of the man who’d made our gang legendary.