Sebastian (Bowen Boys, #5)(21)
He’d come out of nowhere, his fangs dripping with saliva. As Wanera stood over the body of Fryda, the panther looked at Wanera as though he knew that he’d killed Fryda. The panther had leapt at him, tearing a large opening across his chest as his claws connected with his flesh. As Wanera had tried to stand up and leave the magical realm, the panther had attacked again, this time tearing a large opening in his thigh. Bone was exposed, and his muscles were torn so badly that he still couldn’t walk for long before the pain got to be too much. Killing the panther had proven to be nearly as hard as the faerie, and by the time Wanera had returned to his bed, he was nearly dead, too. Without the help of his beings, he would have perished long ago.
As he moved closer to the scent of the panther, he could smell traces of the female. Humans had been with her as well as several panthers. One of them was a male, the leader of his group. He moved to the opening of the alley and called to return home. He’d found no traces of his messenger there.
“Keep looking,” he told the being as soon as he returned to his lair. “That wasn’t where he died. And the next time you send me off like that without some warning, I will come back here and make your remains look worse than that one.” He pointed to the mess being cleaned up from the front hall. “And make sure that you take him to be buried. He served me long enough to reap that benefit.”
Wanera paced his lair. Fire blazed hot in this room and would have roasted a large elk had he any desire for food. But he needed the warmth now that he’d returned from the human world. Something in the other world always made him ill and chilled to the bone. He flopped himself into his chair and tried to think.
He needed the faerie more than he needed anything else right now. He glanced at the large tome over the mantel. He’d forgotten about the curse that had come to him when he’d taken this job. He had to find a female to breed with and have a child before the next summer solstice. If he did not, then he would be killed and his replacement would do it. He could have a child of his own take over for him once he was mature enough to do it, and watch over him as he grew into his power, but he had to have the child or have one expected to be born before the summer. That gave him less than one year to find her, be given her permission to take her, and to breed her. Not going to be easy to say the least. He reached for the book near him and opened it to a random page.
Romance was not his cup of tea. Snarling at the words on the pages, Wanera thought it dribble and trite that any person would have to go through something as stupid as a wooing ritual to lure a woman into his bed. He thought that simply taking what he wanted should be enough, and that any female should be impressed with his ability to f*ck her so well and so thoroughly and to breed with her. He didn’t think that this faerie was going to be that easy.
But he no longer had a choice. He needed to have a being much like himself— which he was sad to admit had eluded him until they were all taken by others—or one as strong or stronger than him. The only thing stronger than him was the faerie and there was just the one left. The scratching at his door had him bidding them to enter.
“I have found a small trail, sire. I do not believe it to be from the same female, but there might be enough of her power to do what you need. She is in a place called New Mexico. Have you heard of it?” Wanera nodded and stood up. “She is there, and if you would give me your permission, I will send you there posthaste.”
Wanera nodded once and felt the air stir. Then he was standing outside a door in a house with no idea what he was going to do. He was seriously going to have to figure out some ground rules for the beings he had working for him. Like, when he’d said yes, he had his permission to send him, he’d hoped that the being would at least give him the chance to ask a few questions so he’d be somewhat prepared. Apparently, asking for it and receiving the okay meant to go f*cking right now.
The door opened before he could knock. The male standing before him didn’t look like he was human, much less faerie. He smiled at him, and the man raised a brow. This was not going to end in his favor, Wanera just knew it.
“I don’t suppose you’re a faerie, are you?” Steam seemed to pour from the male, and before Wanera could do much more than blink, the man had hit him, hard enough to knock him back onto his ass. He started to stand when the man came out of the room and stood, really towering over him.
“What my sexual preference is has no bearing on me, do you understand me?” Wanera nodded, not having a clue. “A man or woman has their rights just the same as straight people. Get the f*ck away from here before I have my partner blow you to pieces.”
The man standing behind the mammoth held a gun pointed right at Wanera’s head. It wasn’t loaded with silver, but at that moment, Wanera knew that he’d hurt him all the same. He called to his being and was on the floor of his offices seconds later. He didn’t move as he looked up at his being.
“I want you to know that the next time you send me to the upper world without letting me be prepared, I will kill you.” The being nodded. “And I need for you to look up the word faerie and what it has to do with sexual preferences.”
“It has to do with gay relationships, sire. The slang for the people who are in same-sex relationships is called fairies. I do not believe it to be the same thing.” Wanera only glared at him. “Did you find the faerie that you were looking for?”
Without answering him, Wanera stood up and went to his room. Stupid beings were going to be the death of him sooner or later. Pulling the small romance book to his lap, he started reading again the story of a female and her tribulations in trying to escape the arms of the one that wanted her, even though she wanted him as passionately as he wanted her. Passion was another word that made him ill. He forced himself to read until bedtime, then tossed it in the fire. Hopefully one of the hundreds of others would be of more use than that one had been.