Pride Before the Fall Page 8

  Hisashi grunted at my weight and I punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Shut up."

  He wrapped his long arms around me. "Shh... I like it." His fingers pressed into the tense muscles of my neck and back, soothing. "You're like a big lion, all this rippling muscle under that beautiful gold skin. Gorgeous."

  I lifted my head to look at him. "You are full of bullshit, and you're just trying to distract yourself."

  He laughed, raising a white brow in return. "Is it working, do you think?"

  I sighed and kissed his square jaw before dropping my head to his shoulder. "I suppose. Kinda."

  He stroked his big hands down my back in a soothing motion. "It'll be okay, Gesa. We're just being assholes."

  I laughed bitterly. "I know. But I'm not used to it hurting so much. Not used to giving a fuck."

  His hands moved up my arms, leaving a shiver of cool, misty magic behind. "I get it. You all mean so much to me—and in such a short time. It's fucking crazy."

  "I need him," I said softly. "Even with all the rest of you...I need him. But he needs his clan. Other fae. I've known that all along. That's how fae are built." They drew power from their own kind, bolstered each other, lived in communities that buzzed with power from their connections—like a hive.

  Hisashi shifted me in his arms, so my legs were draped over the arm of the chair and I was supported by one of his arms behind my back. He stroked my hair back from my face. "I know."

  I cupped his jaw and forced him to look me in the eye. "You need him too. For your magic?"

  He bit his bottom lip and looked away. "There is that too."

  I turned his face back toward mine. "Tell me. And where the fuck is the sake coming from?"

  He chuckled at that. "It’s a nine-tail thing. I can make sacred sake. From the otherworld. It has all kind of mystic properties. I just need a vessel to put it in." He grinned, showing sharp canines as he let some of his glamour drop. "Lots of fancy crockery at your mom's house."

  "Mystical properties. Like the mystical ability to get you fucked up fast and keep you that way longer than ordinary booze?"

  He laughed. "Among other things." Then he rested his forehead against mine. "I don't know if it was the stress, or the layers of tradition and history in your clan lands," he whispered, "but I'm having a hard time blocking things out. It's gotten worse ever since we left this apartment. And for some reason, when I'm near him...it stops."

  I brushed a hand through his fine white hair. "What can we do?"

  He shrugged. "You're doing it. Oisin's magic...and yes, my damned feelings for the little asshole...seem to calm my own magic down. So does being near you. You feel like...grounding. Home."

  He closed his eyes and a fine shudder ran through his body. The words sounded like they should be comforting, but his body language was laced with fear.

  "What aren't you telling me, Hisashi? Why did you run away from your clan? My mother said something about them building you a shrine...that sounds like they worshiped you."

  He snorted. "No. Not quite." He opened his ice blue eyes and they were rimmed with silver, older than his mere twenty years. "Nine-tails are so powerful and rare in the fox clans. When a nine-tail comes of age, the clan builds them a shrine. Then they bind the fox to the shrine so it can never leave."

  I tensed, lifting my head to stare at him. "They fucking what?"

  He sighed. "It's supposed to be for the nine-tail's own good, you see. To stabilize our power, we need an anchor. But fuck if the community doesn't also gain what amounts to their own personal captive deity."

  His face grew feral. "I refused to let them bind my fox. The clan was pissed—they’re still gaining a foothold here in America and my power would cement that." He shrugged. "My parents agreed with me. They secretly helped me run away. But because of that, they've got the clan shunning them and breathing down their necks to find me. So, I cut ties with my parents too. Took off. If my parents don't know where I am, then the clan can't blame them for me being gone."

  I shook my head. "How old were you when you ran away?" He had mentioned this year wasn't his first summer with the carnival where we found him.

  He studied my hand, where it rested in his. "Sixteen."

  "Shit, Hisashi." He'd been on the street since he was sixteen, making a living as a carnival worker and who knew what else. All while trying to master a magic that could kill him.

  "I'll survive," he huffed. "I always have. But I see why so many nine-tail let the binding happen. I feel completely untethered, and it gets worse as I get older."

  I squeezed his hand. "If it helps with your magic, can't you choose a shrine of your own? I don't get it."

  He shook his head. "Once my fox is bound, I won't be able to leave the place. My magic would slowly wither and die inside me every moment I was away. It would break me."

  I growled and he pressed a hand to my chest, feeling the rumble there. "Down, gryphon. It's fine."

  "It's not fine, Hisashi. It's shitty."

  He pulled me close again. "It's okay. I have you and my new family. That's more than I ever dreamed of."

  "Even if one of them is a lying asshole," I grumbled, letting him hold me.

  We sat in silence for a while, Hisashi's magic hands drifting over me, slowly melting the tension out of my body as he hummed something that sounded like a lullaby. We were both hiding, and we knew it. Neither one of us moved an inch.

  I was dimly aware I was being comforted by someone ten years younger than me. I should be the one comforting him, damn it.

  The door clicked as the handle turned, then the latch snicked as it clicked closed again. "Aww...isn't this a beautiful sight," Oisin's silky-soft voice purred.

  I could tell by the degree of beauty and allure in that sound that we were both in mortal danger. Still, I didn't move. Fuck him and his fucking beautiful as fuck fae princess.

  He didn't make a sound as he moved. He never did. One moment his voice was by the door. The next it was whispering right by my ear. "Are you two really in here pouting because you're jealous? You are such children."

  Hisashi's hand curled around my hip. "What? Of course not, you arrogant jackass. I was trying to get laid here, go away."

  I smirked.

  Oisin slid a hand into my hair, fingers threading through, then curling to turn the caress into a grip that was just this side of painful. He forced my head back and I saw he had a similar grip on the longer strands of Hisashi's white hair. "I'm flattered," he breathed. "Really. To think the thought of me with someone else has you both crippled with heartbreak."

  I turned my head to glare at him. "Shut up."

  He shook his head. "You call me a walking cock all the time, Gesa, but really. Even I wouldn't fuck my own sister."

  He waited while Hisashi and I realized how fucking stupid we were. Not that this was news.

  "She's right," Hisashi said. "Just shut up already." His voice was even, but his face was red. Yep. We were assholes.

  And Oisin was never going to let us forget it.

  "I should be angrier than I am right now," the fae whispered. His eyes met mine. "That you would assume I don't care at all about the family we've built. That I would hide something like that from the pride and abandon you the moment another fae showed up."

  I swallowed, guilt raging up inside me and swamping my lingering anger. Yeah. Pretty shitty.

  He sighed. "But, I do keep things from you, so I suppose it is partially my fault as well.”

  Then the beautiful jerk leaned in and pressed his lips to mine, hard. He grasped my face with both hands, holding me still as he reminded me who he belonged to.

  Then he pulled back and leaned across me to kiss Hisashi.

  I tried not to swallow my own tongue and die, because Jesus, Buddha and Odin, I was not going to miss this for anything.

  Hisashi tensed, then lifted his free hand to cup Oisin's face, tilting his head to angle the kiss, his other hand still wrapped around my hip, squeezing. Oisin pulled b
ack, leaving Hisashi staring up at him in shock, blue eyes gone completely silver and his magic trailing around all three of us like a cool caress. "Fuck," the fox's voice was a harsh whisper.

  I wholeheartedly agreed. Why were we still wearing clothes? Why were we vertical?

  The fae straightened and tossed his long hair over his shoulder, once more calm and collected, though his glamour was down, and the tips of his pointed ears were a bit pink. "Now, if you are both done being imbeciles, would you please come meet my sister? I would very much enjoy it if the only family members I don't loathe would get along enough not to murder each other."

  I slid off Hisashi's lap, giving him a moment to cool down as I followed my fae toward the door. "Now you've done it," I told him calmly.

  Oisin glanced at me, face serious, but green eyes full of mischief. "Oh? And what's that?"

  I grinned at him. "My life will never be the same unless I can watch that every day."

  He shook his head as if he were disappointed in me. "Darling, if one little kiss is so earth-shaking to you, I fear for your sanity once we've got time to properly entertain you."

  He breezed out the door and I looked back over my shoulder at Hisashi, who was just changing from a half-shift back to human form. His ears and tails disappeared, and he gave me the most adorable look I'd ever seen—part smug satisfaction, part scolded dog. I rolled my eyes. "Please. Like I didn't know you guys were going to end up together."

  He stood and followed me to the door, pulling me to a stop with a hand on my arm. "I get the feeling you don't exactly mind?" he asked, his light blue eyes studying my face with a mixture of joy and fear.

  I shook my head. "Oh fox. You really are naive." I pulled him to me, imagining I still tasted Oisin on his lips as I kissed him. Pulling back, I grinned. "Welcome to the pride, Hisashi. Good luck surviving it."

  I turned and walked away to the sound of his deep laugh.

  Time to go meet the in-law squatting in my house.

  Chapter 12

  I took a seat at the table, glad I'd given in to Hisashi's insistence a couple weeks back and bought more chairs. "For visitors," he had said. Now that I looked back on that particular conversation, I was pretty sure he knew we were going to have a guest. I mentally made note to lay some ground rules for how he used his precognition. If we were going to have an unexpected visitor I wanted to know. Next time he could tell me, so I could be far, far away when it happened.

  Oisin's sister puttered around the kitchen, setting out some sort of soup and fresh baked bread. Con followed along behind her, adjusting things, setting out items she forgot. Trying his best, in his shy human way, to get his damned kitchen back.

  I gave the beautiful woman a pointed look. "Sit down and stop fussing. You're the guest, right?" Not your fucking space, chick.

  She smiled at me, revealing perfect white teeth that lacked the sharpness of Oisin's. "I'm sorry," she said in a sweet French accent, tucking her gold curls behind her small, not-that-pointed ear. I wondered if these physical differences between the gorgeous waif and my fae were because of age. She must be much younger than he was.

  "I haven't really introduced myself properly." She rushed to plop into the seat next to mine and grasp one of my over-sized paws in her own tiny, delicate hands. "I'm Evalyn," she nodded at Oisin, her purple eyes sparkling. "Oisin is my elder brother."

  Her face glowed with love and adoration at the word "brother." I tried not to vomit on her as I tried to think of a good way to tell her to go away and stop fucking touching me. She kept beaming like a fucking ray of sunshine, all warm and golden and smelling like flowers. I felt like a toad next to her. A very large, very warty toad. "And you are my dear brother's consort, yes?"

  I raised an eyebrow at her. "Consort?" Like Oisin was royalty.

  Oisin laughed softly as he buttered his steaming roll, clearly amused by my reaction to his sister. "Yes, Evalyn."

  Hisashi nudged Oisin and handed him the platter of fruit. I had no idea what half of the stuff on it even was. Apparently, we hadn't been doing a very good job feeding our fae.

  Evalyn's eyes took in the interaction with interest. "And this one too, brother? He's very handsome. They both are. I applaud your good tastes."

  Hisashi stared at her in confusion. I tried to pull my hand away, but she was clingier that Kaimana. The octopus was currently staring daggers at the fae woman. Which was new. Her dark blue eyes met mine and she glanced pointedly at where the fae clung to my hand.

  I rolled my eyes at her. And I thought I had problems with being overly possessive.

  Oisin simply lifted one corner of his damned lush mouth in a smirk and said, "yes, eventually. Once he reaches adulthood."

  Hisashi smacked him upside the head and took the fruit back. "Fuck you. I'm not a Gods damned child for the hundredth fucking time."

  Evalyn was unfazed by our manners. She twinkled at Oisin. "You will have your hands full, I see. But you always did enjoy a good fight."

  Oisin's smile grew less warm. "Yes."

  She immediately let go of my hand and leaned across the table to touch Oisin's arm. "I didn't mean to offend, I promise. It was a jest, yes?"

  He shook off her concern. "Eat your food, Evalyn. Then we will figure out how to fix this mess and get you out of here."

  She pouted but did as she was told. I decided to ignore them all in favor of the delicious food—even if it was vegetarian. I was halfway through my fifth butter-slathered roll when Con got up enough nerve to speak.

  "You never mentioned a sister, Oisin," the human said with an attempt at a smile for Evalyn. He was trying to be polite, but I could see the strain. He and Oisin might not be lovers, but they did have a close bond. Even Con seemed to be feeling slighted. "Evalyn, do you live near here?"

  She smiled at Con. "Ah...no. Oisin sent me away ages ago. He doesn't want me anywhere near him." She pushed out her lower lip, turning her pink bowstring mouth into a pout. "Much to my displeasure."

  Oisin sighed. "It's for your own good, Eva." He met her eyes. "I would keep you near if I could, dear one. But it's for the best, as long as our father lives and breathes."

  She nodded, face going serious for once. "I was so afraid," she whispered. "When my magic came back to me."

  Oisin put down his spoon and stood to begin clearing away dishes. "All's well, love."

  I leaned back in my chair as the flavor of his lie rippled over my gryphon senses. "Okay, this has been fun and all, but let's tear off this Band-aid so we can all get some sleep. Oisin, you told me you killed your siblings. Why is this one alive? And why is she here? And why the fuck do you keep lying to me?"

  My fae turned to lean back on his elbows, braced against the counter on the other side of the kitchen as if he had not a care in the world. But I saw what he was doing. Distancing himself from the rest of us. "I killed the others." He said calmly, as if discussing the weather. But I saw the shadow of old grief in his eyes, there and gone again like a cloud passing over the sun. "But when Evalyn came along, I found her sooner. And I found...another way."

  "Oisin," she said, reaching a hand out to him. "You don't have to say what—"

  He ignored her outstretched hand, his snide mask firmly in place—the one that hid his emotions from the world. "I kept tabs on my father's hired dogs. The mages he used to drain people, to hunt his children. One day, I learned that one of the mages had a... soft spot, shall we say? For pretty male fae."

  I gripped the table, knowing I was going to hate this. And knowing he wouldn't allow me to coddle or comfort him. Arrogant ass. "You—"

  He stopped me, his emerald green gaze so sharp it cut. "Yes, Gesa, I let him tie me up and fuck me into the mattress to save my sister's life. It wasn't the most enjoyable time I've ever had. But it was necessary."

  He avoided meeting Hisashi's gaze, his eyes trained on me. "Then I convinced him to help me hide Evalyn from my father. He took her magic, in a way similar to the way my father might siphon it off. But instead of dest
roying it, destroying her, he was able to place it into a soul stone for me and hide it...within my own auric field." He shrugged. "I've carried it with me for over a hundred years, masked under my own magic. When father couldn't sense her magic anymore, he believed the story I fed him about her death. And she has lived a quiet human—though extended—life ever since. Far away from me and my father."

  "What changed?" Hisashi said, voice calm and even as if he were trying to show Oisin he wouldn't judge him. "She has her magic now. It isn't as strong as yours, but it's there, flowing around her like the sun."

  Oisin grimaced. "Were I to die, the spell was meant to break. Her magic would return to her. We planned it that way so at least she might have some defense if my father killed me and I left her alone."

  I growled. "Oisin...."

  He nodded. "Yes, love. When we ran into the hunters. Their damned poisoned darts had me so near death's door the spell broke. I felt it when I woke in White's damned medical center."

  "Darts?" I demanded. "You mean enchanted fucking shotgun slugs. You were so close to dying that the spell thought you were already dead?" I stood and paced toward him, wanting to get my hands on him so I could shake him. "And you were absolutely neurotic about the wards after that. And you wouldn't tell me why, you jackass."

  He held out a hand, pressing it to my chest to keep me from getting any further into his space. "Yes, gryphon. I told you I had others to protect."

  I growled.

  "Oisin?" Evalyn said, her voice trembling with a hint of fear. I felt her magic surge, preparing a spell, and I ignored it.

  "Don't worry," he said lightly to his sister. "She's just posturing. She won't really harm me, darling. It's a gryphon thing. It will pass."

  I glared at him. "Fuck you."

  He gave me a bored look. "Yes, I know. Maybe growl some more if that makes you feel better."

  I wanted to strangle him. Or pin him down and fuck him just to prove he was still alive. My beast side did not like the reminder of how close we had come to losing him.