“I’ve heard of him. He’s her vampire lover! The master of the hunt. Everyone knows it.” I dodged a kick he aimed at me as I dragged him back. He snarled at me.“I knew I couldn’t trust you, you damn fanger.”
“Settle down, Tom,” I said through gritted teeth.
He fought harder, thrashing in my grip. His pants came loose and he wriggled out of them, darting away, only a small pair of boxers and his shirt preserving any modesty he might have.
“He sure is fast for such a little guy,” Liam remarked, watching as Tom moved through the trees.
He moved faster thanI’d ever seen him, disappearing before either of us could stop him.
“Great, I had more questions for him,” I said, standing.
Liam’s shrug was unconcerned. He didn’t seem to care that the gnome had escaped.
He held a hand out to me.“Come, let’s go.”
“What did he mean when he said you were the lord of the hunt?” I asked.
Liam sighed.“It’s been a long time since I was called that.”
I waited as he stared into the darkened forest, a pensive look on his face.
It was hard enough dating a human man with a mortal lifespan, given all the baggage people tended to accumulate over a few decades. I couldn’t imagine how much more baggage someone with centuries behind them might have.
It made me wonder if I knew Liam at all.
“It’s not a time in my history thatI’m proud of,” he said, his words surprising me. Liam had always been reserved, keeping a large part of him a mystery.“For a time in my youth I was known as the lord of the Wild Hunt. One of them anyways.”
“I thought only the Fae could participate in the hunt. How could a vampire become its lord?” I said, watching him.
He shook his head.“Anybody can be called to the hunt, whether it be hunter or prey. It helps to have Fae blood in you, but it isn’t necessary. Fairy magic is strange. It doesn’t always obey rules. It deemed me powerful enough and so I became the hunt’s lord.”
“Why did you leave it?” I asked.
He looked away.“In the hunt, little else matters except the kill. It was a different age and I was a different person.I’m not that person anymore.”
There was a hint of vulnerability in his expression, as if he expected me to reject him because of this. I couldn’t exactly blame him. Until now, our entire relationship had been a matter of him pushing and me running away.
We moved through the trees together, heading back to the clearing and the revelry that was waiting there.
As we prepared to step out into the clearing, I noticed a slight glimmer on the bark of several trees. I looked further, noting that all the trees rimming the clearing had something similar.
I grabbed Liam’s arm.“Wait. I see something.”
He went still, his head lifted as his eyes turned alert.“What is it?”
“There’s something on the trees. Some kind of symbol.”
His arm relaxed.“We warded the clearing to prevent Niamh pulling any of her little tricks again.”
I frowned at him, looking past him to where the Fae gyrated to the music. Pockets of the clearing had descended into an orgy, the occupants coupling with mad abandon.
I blinked as a satyr mounted a dryad. They certainly weren’t shy.
Niamh’s laugh rang out, the sound of tinkling bells lifting above the music. She hung onto Arlan’s arm, her face turned toward his.
This was the woman who had once held a large piece of Liam’s heart. He’d given up his humanity, embraced his baser nature for her. What did it say about me that jealousy still managed to bite at me? A simple thing like her laugh made me want cringe. I doubtedI’d ever be able to listen to bells without flinching again.
Her gaze slid our way, turning vindictive and cruel for a split second before smoothing into the same too-beautiful lines.
