4
Lorcan
Iam not ready.
But I can’t look away as she makes two small, neat stitches in my leg. She then covers the wound with a sticky bandage.
“All done.” She glances up. Gold flickers in her eyes from the bright light as she kneels at my feet. My dick hardens as a hundred different ideas about what happens next fill my mind.
I could take her to faery. I could be done with riding the border and protecting this world. Finding a fae woman is the reward for risking our lives.
Some never ride, preferring to remain in faery and enjoy the endless parties. I wanted to leave and have an adventure. I’d listened to too many tales of the old guardians when they talked about their time in the human realm.
As I’ve learned, things were different a hundred years ago. Even twenty years ago when I started. The tears in the border that let the beasts through never heal, they move and shrink and grow but remain. Nothing we do makes a change. All we do is stop humans from dying.
I’m not always sure it’s worth it. Tonight it is.
Jenna could be my way home. For riders there is no way home except if we bring a woman with us. Fae or human, it doesn’t matter. Without taking women, the fae will die out in a generation. Then who will stop the creatures from faery from devouring the humans?
If I take her with me, she’ll be safe from the monsters. I may not be safe from her though, and I don’t really want to be stabbed again.
Something clicks in the flat and I snap my gaze to the bathroom door. She does too.
I put my finger to my lip and stand—almost falling over my jeans.
Shit.
I pull them up, and do up my belt, then I draw my gun and flick off the safety. Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t make a noise. The thing in the living room is not silent. Claws clack over the timber floor, drawing closer. I listen, trying to figure out if it’s only one gyfnos or if it brought friends.
Quietly, I edge toward the door, then peek out. There’s two. One sniffing the floor, and making its way toward us, the other has its front feet on the dining table and is rummaging through Jenna’s bag.
The moment I shoot, two things will happen the other gyfnos will either vanish, attack, or call reinforcements. Then the neighbors will wake and call the cops and they’ll be here in about five seconds given that they are just over the road and wanting to get out of the rain—I don’t blame them.
However, locking me up for the night won’t keep Jenna safe. She’ll be dead before daylight.
This close I can see the gyfnosau are in poor condition. Their fur is patchy, and they are thin enough that I can see their ribs and count the bumps of their spine. I almost feel sorry for the starving beasts. But hunger makes them desperate. They aren’t too bright though. If they went back through the breach, there’d be plenty for them to eat. As beasts go, these aren’t too bad. There are far worse things to be hunted by.
I could use the silver knife in my boot, but putting my gloves back on will take time, and without gloves the silver will burn my hand.
Jenna moves close. We can’t stay in the bathroom, as there’s not even a window to climb out of. We’re trapped.
The sniffing gyfnos lifts one of its heads and looks at me. Its eyes gleam, then it bares its teeth and growls. The sound makes the marrow in my bones turn to liquid. I’ll never become used to the eerie cries of the beasts.
I wish I had Cillian’s skill with a bow and arrow. He kills silently and from a distance. But I’m glad for the human invention of guns. Without them I’d be stuck lugging a sword around—I know a few who prefer the old ways.
“I’m going to kill them. You’re going to grab anything you need, and we’re getting out of here.”
The quickest way out will be via the window. It’s only two floors. A jump I can make easily, even carrying Jenna. In my mind, I run through what I need to do as the beast stalks closer.
“This is my home. I need everything here.”
“Not anymore.” The gyfnosau have breached her thin home barrier. Now any creature from fae can enter whenever they want.
“I can’t leave. I live here.”
I glance at her. Her horror shows in her eyes, but I don’t have time to soothe her fears.
“Then you die.” I’ve had to walk away before. Some people don’t want help, and they don’t want to learn the truth. I risk a glance at Jenna. “You’re fae. You can have a life in faery.”With me.
