Finding Fae

Mal

This was stupid. I made it a point to include myself, since Fae was with me when she was taken away. She was supposed to have been with me always, but I was an idiot and now everyone was treating me like I was the Judas at the party.

We went to Nando’s house, since he had all of the materials he needed there as well as his mother, who had more experience in things like this, though she admitted it was very minimal. Unless Ben or Nando felt the need to fill me in, I was left in the dark as to what was going on. Blaine didn’t say anything aside from “it’s taking time. Just focus on feeling her”, so it wasn’t like he was being a dick, unlike his brother.

It was no secret that Zane hated me. What no one else but the two of us knew, was the why. You could say that I offended his alpha male ego, and you wouldn’t be that far off. Before I showed up, Zane was the top dog, so to speak. Girls fell at his feet, not that he showed much attention from what I heard. But he was into this one girl. Stacy or Macy? Tracy, perhaps. Then I show up and whoever she was decided that Zane was no longer worth her attention and threw herself at me.

I couldn’t stand those types, but it didn’t matter. Zane saw what she wanted him to see and that was all he needed to hold a grudge against me for the rest of his life. Then, as twisted as fate was, Fae comes around. I knew from day one that he had a thing for her. A blind man could see it. Then the Soul Bond happened and I had to admire the irony. To him, I was once again stealing his girl.

I can understand why no one trusted me after what I did. But we all knew enough about Soul Bonds to know that there was no way I was going to make that mistake twice. Granted, I shouldn’t have made it the first time, but I didn’t know that she would feel any of it. The nearly physical pain you felt in the very center of your being from not having the other part of you there, the sadness of the loss... I didn’t even think that she would get depressed, but she had been seeing a demon cat for therapy, apparently.

I had been wrong on so many levels and I meant it when I said I would pay for it for the rest of my life if she would just allow me to grovel for her forgiveness. Even now, I could feel the pain of separation coming back and it had only been two days.

I rubbed my chest, like I had been doing since I made the stupid choice to leave in the first place and shook my head. I had been trying to feel for her since I woke up and was told she was gone and I still had no luck. Occasionally, I would get some faint feeling of anger and fear, mixing into a terrible cocktail that made my mind race with all of the terrible possibilities. She was just too far away. I flew around most of the day, trying to find out where might be closer for me to feel something more and never got any thing other than the nagging feeling that something was happening to her.

It was driving me insane. The more I looked the less I felt like I was doing. Yesterday, I barely made it back to Nando’s house, my wings cramping to unbearable measures making it difficult for me to see straight. Still, I got up before dawn again today and left, hoping that the Bond between us would lead me to her.

Ben was a genius and stuck a wisp to me every day before I left that would let us talk back and forth, in case I did find her out here before they could track her charm bracelet. He mainly used it to make sure I stopped and rested occasionally, which I never did. Finding Fae was more important.

I landed for a quick breather, sitting down on the damp ground and leaning against a tree, breathing heavily. I focused, first, on slowing my breathing down and regaining control over my heart rate. Then, like I had done every ten minutes since she was taken away, I focused on Fae. How her outer beauty came from deep within. Her kilowatt smile that lit up the day brighter than the sun could ever manage. The laugh that, when provoked strongly enough, resulted in an unbelievably cute snort that only happened for me. The way her hair stood up all over her head in the mornings and the grouchy sleepy bear look on her face as she shuffled to begin her day. The freckle in her lower left eyelid and the way she nibbled on the side of her mouth when she was concentrating.

Gods of the ages, what I wouldn’t do to find her!

“Hey, lover boy,” I heard Ben coming through the wisp I kept tucked behind my ear. “We found the bracelet.”

“Where is it?” I asked as I jumped to my feet and took to the air.

“Fifty miles to the west of your current location, if my wisp is accurate,” he said. “It’s a comm wisp, not a tracking wisp, so there’s a pretty decent margin for error.”

“I’m on my way,” I said as I took off like a jet.

Fifty miles was nothing to me. I closed the distance in a few minutes and landed only a short time later, praying that this was it. That we had found her. Looking around, my hope faded before it even had a chance. There was nothing here aside from trees and undergrowth.

“Ben, there’s nothing here,” I said, tapping on the wisp to activate. “I don’t even think there are any fae about to ask if she’d been through here.”

“Blaine will be there in a little while,” Ben said. “Aside from you, he’s the fastest one of us. Keep looking. Maybe you’ll find something through the Bond.”

I searched all over the place in hopes that there was a footprint or a broken bit of brush. There was nothing. Story of the week so far. A whole lot of nothing.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on Fae again. It was fuzzy, like trying to use the antenna on a TV to get a better picture. Then, suddenly, I found the sweet spot.

It was agony. Every part of my body hurt in so many different ways. I burned, I ached, I felt like I had been cut to ribbons, I swore at least half of my fingers and toes were broken and my face felt like it had been slammed into a rock a few times. But there wasn’t a single mark on me. Not a scratch, a bruise, or even a paper cut.

“Malachi!” I heard Fae calling to me.

I knew she wasn’t here. This was the Bond at work. She had felt me reaching for her and the sound of the pain and terror in her voice had me on my hands and knees as I gasped for air. The pain I felt wasn’t from me. It was Fae’s pain. Whoever had her was doing this. They were hurting her.

“I’m coming for you, Fae. I promise! I’m coming. Just hold on a little longer,” I said, hoping she would hear it over her torment.

Then it was gone, leaving me shaking violently as my body tried to process her pain. Gods, that was all her pain. The realization had me emptying my stomach with great heaves until there was nothing left.

“Malachi,” I heard Blaine call quietly as I crawled away from my mess and collapsed. “Please tell me you didn’t connect with Fae. Tell me that isn’t what she’s going through.”

I looked over at him and saw how pale he was and how, even with him trying not to show it, he was still shaking a little bit. He had to have seen. Nothing else could leave him rattled like that.

“Tell me that it wasn’t her!” he shouted and I just shook my head and looked away.

He knew. He knew before he even asked, but my inability to answer sealed it. I had never seen a hellhound loose it’s cool before, but I had heard stories of how destructive they could be, even under the best control. A fully mature, well-trained hound could level a town like ours in less than one night, ripping souls from bodies like pits from cherries. That was, after all, the basic purpose of hounds. Once loyal to a person, they fed on the souls of their enemies, gaining strength with each meal to be sent back to it’s master.

I was watching as man and hound fought for control, only breathing out in relief when the man won and Blaine fell to his knees and opened his hand, showing me a little doberman charm.

“We tracked my charm, since I’m the fastest of us, aside from you,” he said. “Tracking all of them at once would have taken longer.”

“The odds that they didn’t find the charms is slim,” I said, closing my eyes that ached like I hadn’t seen light in days. More of Fae’s pain, I’m sure. “But I reached her. It wasn’t stable, so I couldn’t feel where she is. I don’t know if we’re closer or if her pain just made it easier for me, but we’re wasting time.”

He looked up, looking like a kicked puppy instead of a terrifying hound of Hell.

“She can’t stand that kind of torture for long,” I said to the silence, getting a loud growl in response.

“Why would anyone torture her?” Blaine shouted.

“I don’t know, and I doubt we’ll find out because as soon as we find her, I’m killing anyone that isn’t one of us,” I said, looking at him.

Fae

I had no idea how long I had been here anymore. The only things I knew was pain. Rex broke my bones, cut me up, burned me, electrocuted me, then he had someone come in and heal me just enough. Not to take away the pain, but to keep me from dying.

Every time they came for me, it was the same thing. I no longer had the strength to fight as they dragged me from my cell to the metal room. I was chained up, strapped down, locked into cuffs that were pulled apart until my joints popped out of place, only to be reset and pulled apart again just when the pain dulled.

The whole time, Rex would ask me things I didn’t know how to answer.

“Where are your parents?”

“Who are they?”

“Where are your Bonded?”

“How many do you have?”

“What fae are you?”

The only ones I could answer, but refused, was about my birthday. I had no idea what he wanted, but there was no way I was going to answer any of his questions. At first, I had tried not to scream, not to give him that satisfaction, but it was impossible. Even if I wanted to answer him, I doubted I had any voice left to speak with.

I was being pulled apart again. The second time this session, meaning it was nearly over with, thankfully. How sick is that? I was actually happy to be tortured if it meant it was almost over. I was close to blacking out, it hurt so much. But then I felt something I never thought I would feel again.

I felt Malachi as if he was right there, holding me tight as he flew us to whatever getaway he had in mind. The pain lessened and I nearly sobbed in relief, even knowing that he was taking that pain upon himself. I don’t know how I knew, but he was protecting me as best as he could.

“I’m coming for you, Fae. I promise! I’m coming. Just hold on a little longer,” he said.

I cried as my arms and elbows popped and the darkness took over again.