Fever 4 - DreamFever Read Free

stare.
      My fists clench. I keep my nails real short; still, they gouge blood from my palms.
      Two Fae are dragging Mac down the front steps of a church. She's naked. They drop
her like a piece of trash in the middle of the street. A third Fae exits the church and joins
them, and they stand, imperial guards around her, heads swiveling, surveying the street.
      The raw sex they're throwing off blasts me, but it's not like V'lane, who I'm gonna
give my virginity to one day.
       I'm as obsessed with sex as anybody, but those ... things ... down there ... those
incredibly--fecking A, they hurt to look at; something's wet on my cheeks; are my eyes
boiling in their sockets?--beautiful things scare even me, and I don't scare easy. They
don't move right. Storms of color rush under their skin. Black torques slither at their
necks. There's nothing in their eyes. Nothing. Eyes of pure oblivion. Power. Sex. Death.
They reek of it. They're Unseelie. My blood knows. I want to fall on my knees at their
feet and worship, and Dani Mega O'Malley don't worship nothing but herself.
      I wipe my face. My fingers come away red. My eyes are leaking blood. Freaky.
Kinda cool. Vamps got nothing on Fae.
       I close my eyes, and when I open them again I don't look directly at the things
guarding Mac. Instead, I take a wide-angle image of the scene. Every Fae, fire hydrant,
car, pothole, streetlamp, piece of trash. I map objects and empty spaces on my mental
grid, lock it down tight, calculate margin of error based on likely movement, slap it over
my snapshot.
       I squint. A shadow moves in the street, almost too fast to see. The Fae don't seem to
know it's there. I watch. They don't respond to it. No heads swivel to follow it. I can't
focus on it. Can't make out its shape. It moves like I move ... mostly. What the feck?
Not a Shade. Not a Fae. A blur of shadow. Now it's hanging over Mac. Now it's gone.
Bright side--if the Unseelie aren't noticing it, they shouldn't notice me when I whiz in
to snatch her. Dimmer side--what if whatever it is can see me? What if we collide?
What is it? I don't like unknowns. Unknowns can kill.
       I catch the glint of Mac's spear in a red-robed man's hand. He's carrying it at arm's
length from his body. Only Seelie or humans can touch the Seelie Hallows. He's one or
the other. The Lord Master?
      They have Mac. They have the spear. Don't know if I can grab both so won't try.
Would chance it if it wasn't Mac. They hurt her bad. She's bloody everywhere. She's
my hero. I hate them! Fae took my mother and now they've taken Mac. I refresh my
snapshot of the scene right before I let myself go nuts inside, let that ancient sidhe-seer
place in my head swallow me whole.
     Instantly, I'm cool and perfect and detached from everything. I'm the Shit. It's the
most massive high in the world!
      I zip from one freeze-frame to the next. No in-betweens.
      I'm on the roof of the building.
      I'm in the street.
       I'm between the guards. Lust--wantneedsexdie--incinerates me, but I'm moving too
fast and they can't touch what they can't see and they can't see me and all I have to do
is not cave; hate, hate, hate, make armor from it. Got enough hate to Kevlar all Ireland's
Garda.
      I grab Mac.
      Freeze-frame.
      Heart in my throat! Shadow-thing blocks my path! What is it?
      I'm past it.
      Hear Fae shouting behind me.
      Then I'm screaming at Kat and the crew to get their asses in there, grab that spear,
and kill those bastards.
      Mac in my arms, I freeze frames as fast I can, heading for the abbey.
 
                                       Dani: November 4
    L   et me be certain I'm understanding you correctly," Rowena says tightly.
       Her back is to me; her small frame bristles with anger. Times, Ro seems ancient.
Others, she's wicked spry. It's weird. Her spine's ramrod-straight, her hands fisted at
her sides. Her long white hair is braided, wrapped regal as a crown around