“Taeven!” I shouted. “Tae, stop. You're killing them!”
“I know, and I'm enjoying every fucking second,” Taeven growled into the face of a man he was beating.
Another man, bleeding from savage wounds and both legs broken, started crawling pathetically for the alley's mouth. Taeven casually kicked backward, hitting the man in the head and knocking him out.
“Don't do this,” I said gently as Tae began to strangle the man he held.
In addition to the four that I was pretty certain were dead, the other five men were lying in broken, groaning, bloody piles around the alley, several of them crying pathetically. He'd disabled them so he could kill them at his leisure. So that they couldn't run away. It would have been fucking diabolical if I'd thought for one second that he was in control of all his faculties. But he wasn't, and I knew he'd regret this later. Did these men deserve to die? Maybe, but I wasn't God, and this wasn't a war. Tae had won the fight; he didn't need to go further. Which meant that if he killed them now, it would be murder.
“Tae, they're down. You've won. We can summon the Police, and they will see to it that these men are punished properly,” I tried again.
“Iwill punish them properly,” Taeven snarled and smacked the man's head against a wall. “I don't trust your police.”
“Tae.” I laid a hand on his shoulder, and he shuddered. “Please, stop. You're not a murderer, you're a warlord. You lead, remember? And this isn't the actions of a leader.”
Tae flinched, his grip lightening enough for the man to gasp a breath. “They hurt you,” he whispered. “I failed to protect you.”
“You don't have to protect me, big guy,” I said gently. “I would have been fine; I was just taken by surprise.”
Taeven dropped the choking man casually and turned to lay a bloody hand on my cheek, right over a sore spot where I'd been hit. I winced, and his eyes filled with fury again.Holy shit, was this all for me?Tae started to turn back to the man who lay crumpled at his feet.
“Tae, no!” I grabbed his arm. “I'm all right. You did protect me.” I switched tactics. “I'm safe because of you. You can stop now.”
Taeven blinked and looked back at me. I must have looked awful because his jaw clenched.
“I'm all right,” I said again. “I'm a soldier too; I can take a few hits. This is nothing.” I waved at my face. “Just a bruise. Nothing's broken. But damn, Tae, I think you broke like fifty bones tonight.” I looked around at the slaughter. “Fucking impressive for a man who doesn't like to fight.”
Taeven suddenly pulled me into his arms, tucking my head in against his chest, and I tried not to wince when my ribs protested.
His body trembled around mine as he stroked my hair. “I heard you. Heard what they said to you. I saw Harrison again in my mind, and I couldn't let that happen to you. Not to you. I just . . .”
“You fucking snapped.” I pushed back enough that I could see his face. “You were brutal. I've never seen anything like that. Was it really because of me?”
Taeven leaned down to press his forehead against mine, as if only I could bring him calm. He exhaled raggedly and whispered, “Yes.”
Great balls of faerie fuck. That cinched it; I was in love.
Chapter Fifteen
I ran back to the restaurant, and they sent someone to fetch the Police. It would have been a different story if Taeven had been human, but because of his race and rank, we were both treated with great respect. The surviving men were transported to a clinic to be patched up under guard, after which, they'd be taken to jail for assaulting a faerie. Faerie assault wasn't just stupid in Stalana, it was also a serious crime. Because the Fae had come to our defense against the Farungal, any attack on one of them was seen as a terrible betrayal. So, we were barely questioned, only enough to assure the officers that we'd been attacked first and had defended ourselves. The dead men were written off as suicides. In other words, the officers determined that they were idiots who had gotten exactly what they deserved for having the gall to attack a fae warlord. Then we were released with the apologies of the city of Fellbrook.
The Police gave us a ride to our carriage, which, oddly enough, was parked in front of a fancy hotel. After they rode away, I headed toward the carriage, but Tae grabbed my hand and angled me toward the hotel instead.
“We're staying the night,” Tae said softly. “I sent Tasothor and Altarion to procure us accommodations here. They're already in their own rooms, for which I'm extremely grateful. I do not wish to hear a lecture over going out unescorted.”
“We're spending the night?” I whispered, a nervous thrill shooting through me.
Taeven grinned wickedly as he escorted me into the opulent lobby of the Wolford Hotel. I'd never been inside the prestigious hotel, it was way out of my price range. So I ended up gawking at the vaulted ceiling draped with crystal chandeliers and the paneled walls with their gilded moldings. The floor was polished marble and the whole place smelled like lemons.
The other guests gaped at us, some of the women bringing their hands to their lips in horror, and a glimpse in a wall mirror told me why. I was a hot mess. A bruise was forming around my left eye, I had a swollen cut on my cheekbone just below it, and blood from Taeven's touch was smeared there. My soldier's uniform was also filthy, and I don't think I would have been allowed through the doors of the hotel without Taeven beside me.
Tae, by contrast, looked amazing. Somehow, even with the bloodstains on his clothing and his hair wild, he managed to look exciting instead of horrifying. Like a conqueror, fresh off a battlefield. I just looked like one of his victims.
“My lord!” A little man in a suit hurried over to us. “What has happened? Shall I summon the Police?”
“We were assaulted,” Taeven said stiffly. “But it has been handled. The Police are dealing with the perpetrators.”
“Oh, dear. Oh, my! I'm so sorry! What horrid people!”
