Chapter 31

"I really don't think it's a good idea," Bo complained, slightly out of breath from trying to keep up with the shifter's longer stride, "They betrayed you, set you up to play a Trojan wolf."

"I need to know if I am right in my suspicions and if I am then why ," Dyson repeated stubbornly, "and anyway, we need Trick, devious or not, he's the one with the expertise to restore the fae world, even if we have all the tools."

"So, freshly out of one trap, we are happily walking into another," the succubus eyed the dark building in the seedy side alley she had been led to.

"Trick is not here," the wolf replied pushing the heavy door open with an effort, "They must have relocated him on the off-chance their antidote didn't work and the enthralled wolf would be leading an assault team on their hideout."

"Are we here for the fresh air then?" Bo grumbled, arms akimbo, not enjoying the temperature of said fresh air outside and doubting the freshness of the air inside.

"We are here because they should've left someone behind to check if someone shows up," Dyson patiently explained, "And this someone is going to lead us to the two fae we both have lots of questions to – to Trick and Tamsin."

"Or you can ask straightaway, Tammy is here," the voice that rang form inside the dark passageway managed to deliver an inordinate amount of sarcasm in those five words and a tall figure appeared in a semi-circle of light provided by the lamp over the door.

"The welcoming party," Dyson's openly unfriendly tone was reinforced by his fangs elongating into a lethal smile to match the Valkyrie's, "We can start off by you explaining why the hell you sold me down the river."

"Just a little experiment, for the good of all fae. Did it work by the way?" the blonde couldn't help a lingering glance at the gorgeous brunette behind Dyson's back. She knew taking her eyes off a fast-moving opponent like the wolf was risky but for the moment looking at the woman seemed worthy of the risk.

"Shall we go through the routine from the previous time you suspected me of being Lauren's puppet – me saying something really offensive about the good doctor to prove the antidote worked? Like calling her Skinnyboobs?" the wolf sneered, contemplating and discarding the opening to pounce he had glimpsed a second ago.

"You're here, alone, with a new slut of yours and that just looks like same old Dyson to me," Tamsin shrugged dismissively.

"If you are baiting me into a fight, save your breathe," the wolf was getting tired of this exchange of pre-fight pleasantries, "I am here to talk to Trick, not to settle accounts with you."

"What a gentleman," Tamsin, on the other hand, was not done sneering, "You can break a girl's heart but not her bones. Beware, darling, he goes through his girl-friends a hundred a century. Also not really particular, the last one was even a human."

Bo's nose scrunched in disapproval at the disdainful tone of the blonde. "I couldn't care less about Dyson's bedroom practices," she chipped in, "But I don't appreciate your trashing my friends, human friends especially. Whatever scruples about hitting girls he has, I don't."

"Oh, isn't she adorable," the valkyrie drawled, her eyes swinging back to the brunette, "Who is this human-lover after all?"

The blonde saw the deep brown flashing blue, saw the movement and was going to dodge it easily but, instead, found herself pushed into the wall with teeth-rattling force. Soft female body pressed into her and an enticing piece of cleavage was heaving well within Tamsin's visual range to send her mind spiralling down into the gutter. However, the surprisingly muscled arms pinning her to the wall and the sheer power emanating from the woman were compelling enough to hammer home the gravity of the valkyrie's position and cut short the snarks and the lustful thoughts.

"I am Bo," the succubus enunciated, the electric swirls holding the other woman mesmerized, "And I want to see my grandfather. Now!"

The realization hit the blonde as her mouth hang open with awe but the innate stubbornness and long-polished loyalty persisted, pushing her to shake her head, to try and shove the woman away but that intent drowned in a slowly spreading warm sensation flooding the valkyrie's body, making her knees buckle and her mouth spread in a goofy, adoring smile.

"You are so beautiful, you know," she murmured drinking in Bo's gorgeous features.

"I am and I do," the succubus flicked the tip of her tongue briefly over her suddenly dry lips and with a little effort dragged her mind out of the same gutter the valkyrie's was languishing in, "And you're going to lead us to wherever the old schemer is holed up."

###

Royal luxury had never been the Blood King's way, even before it became too much of a cumbersome and telltale feature for his low-key existence in the new world. His new residence, picked as a precaution against the possibility of the enthralled Dyson leading doctor Lewis' army to their long-sought goal, was a humble, outwardly run-down one-story, whose major advantage was its protectedness. The first line of defense went down with a little noise as the wolf dispatched the security posted at the entrance. The second line, however, the invisible magical one unyielding to his brutal strength, threw him off as soon as he tried to enter, making him fly a dozen feet before hitting what used to be a trimmed green hedge possibly a decade ago.

After the man sagged to the ground, dizzy from the impact, Bo ran up a few rickety stairs and stepped up to the spell-protected threshold, tugging Tamsin by the hand she hadn't let go of. The blonde was looking like a kid who scored a whole cookie jar and was riding the sugar high, her stern face alight with a blissful expression, her usually sharp green eyes muted.

"Come out, Gramps," Bo called after she cast a quick look over her shoulder to see Dyson picking himself up with a stifled grunt, "I have Lauren Lewis, I have your valkyrie, I have your wolf and his utter approval of my actions. No more playing around, time for some answers."

After a short while, indicative of pretty short hesitation period, a light came on in the ante-room and a regal straight-backed figure, its miniature proportion failing to detract from the regal air, appeared in front of the two women, one of them still in a charmed wooziness, the other visibly oscillating between anger and warmth.

"I knew you'd come," the Blood King said and wrinkled his nose as his own corny choice of words hit him. He scrutinized the two girls only one of whom appeared under the influence and continued conversationally, "So, I was right in my assumption that a succubus cannot be enthralled by her own blood."

"A succubus probably can, but I am no garden-variety succubus," Bo's eyes were mirroring a fine mixture of emotions the sight of her infuriating grandfather provoked.

"No, you are not," his smile was full of pride, "You, born of a blood mage and a succubus, are destined to rule the fae, to bring about the era of peace and prosperity for our kind."

"First off, are you quoting some incredibly wise old text? Cos that definitely doesn't sound like something a normal person would say when miraculously reunited, after so many years and so much hardship, with his only granddaughter," Bo replied mockingly, "Secondly, I am pretty sure there's more to that mix. Aren't you forgetting my father? The one that shall not be mentioned, most likely because no one knows him, mummy dearest possible included – the bane of all succubi, too many candidates for daddy. And thirdly, whoever told you hefting the fate of all fae onto my shoulders is exactly my definition of what makes Bo happy?"

"You cannot escape destiny," Trick sounded wistful, "When you were born and I read the signs, I knew you were the one to rectify my mistakes as a ruler, to mend the rift, to possibly annihilate the old divide between the fae. But first your mother acted out and ran away to hide you with the humans, then you reappeared and vanished again before I could work my way into your trust and instruct you along your destined path. For a while I even thought the humans had changed you irredeemably, had stripped you of your royalty, corrupted the fae-ness out of you. I thought I had lost you for good. But then doctor Lewis managed to overturn the Light ruler and seized control – with her clever science and her magic-blood girl-friend. That was the moment I knew there's no walking away from your birth-right, Bo, you'll rule. Doctor Lewis was only a blip on our radar, someone instrumental in helping you snap out of your fascination with the humans and realize your duty."

"So, Lauren is a blip, I am your thoroughbred prize mare, and Dyson? The one you first had sent to watch me and cozy up to me and who then you yourself threw into the lion's den without a paddle?" Bo was getting distinctly hot under her collar as her idioms came out creatively mashed together.

"Dyson was supposed to guard you, apart from keeping me posted on any developments relating to you," Trick explained, a fleeting expression of guilt in his eyes, "He chose to become your lover and indulge in too much pillow talk."

"He fed me to save my life and he told me about my real mother, about a certain humble barkeep jerking me around and what crushing weight of responsibility he was going to dump onto me. The same way Lauren told me about who I am, about my species. You were the only one to keep things from me and lie to me, however noble were your goals," the succubus didn't hide the hurt or the accusation in her tone.

"You weren't ready, child," the Blood King uttered barely above whisper, "Truth is only good when timely. That truth pushed you away from me and off the path you were born for."

"Will you ever come to understand goal could be achieved faster, easier and generally casualty-free if you only stopped leading people by the nose and started sharing with them," the wolf grumbled as he came to stand by Bo's side, "If only you had trusted Bo with the knowledge, the whole Lauren disaster could've been averted. If only you had told me about the ante-dote, I might've gone along with the plan willingly and wouldn't be nursing a serious grudge against you right now."

"Like I trusted you to accompany my favorite parlor maid to my court in Nantes," Trick huffed, crossing his arms on his chest, out with an accusation of his own.

"I was young, barely 700, and foolish," the shifter growled with a defensive note to his deep voice, "And not like I had much else to occupy myself with – that was when our esteemed king was going through his human-loving, peaceful stage and throwing truces and no-violence decrees left and right."

The succubus, genuinely surprised to hear about that kind of mindset of her complicated grandfather, was swinging her eyes from one man to the other with a growing sense of helpless confusion.

"Stop squabbling like two teens over a porn magazine!" she finally snapped as she felt another century-worth of mutual recriminations coming, "Not quite the time. We need to band together and sort out this whole mess, we need to un-thrall the fae, we need to restore order, we need to stop the ensuing wave of lynching and executions. And I need you both at your best and in my corner for that."

"So you have finally embraced your destiny?" Trick turned to her, his expression hopeful.

"I embraced my D-size boobs when I was 15 and the rest of the girls were padding their bras. Coz that is what I am," she shot back, "Now I am just ready to do everything to help my people and to stop them from hurting those I love. Coz that's what I have to do."

"Lauren," Dyson muttered, "You want to save her from summary execution."

"Unlawful seizure of power and enslaving and killing fae, as well as incipient insanity, might be on her CV, but no one is going to hurt Lauren Lewis, even if I have to become the fae ruler for that," Bo muttered darkly.