Bronach blinked. D's dark eyes were a deep, midnight blue. Like the night sky, she thought. They were so dark a blue that they were almost black. A color you can almost fall into.
Damn it, quit getting distracted because he's gorgeous. That's not fair to him; he probably has people swooning over him left and right because of his looks. See the person, not the package, the Faerie thought.
And the poor guy has a gremlin living in his hand; no wonder he didn't want to shake hands with me.
That means he probably never gets any privacy and I'm just going to cut that thought off right now.
She walked over and pulled her recliner closer to the fire before moving to behind her desk to grab the chair there. She carried it over to the hearth as well and sat in it. With a flick of her wrist, she gestured to the recliner. "Please, sit down. This is gonna take a while."
D looked at the chair for a moment before gracefully sinking down into it. He adjusted the sword on his back to be able to sit and still draw it. He sat upright, not taking advantage of the chair's ability to recline. His hands rested on his lap as he watched her.
Bronach sat at her desk chair and crossed her legs. She began to untie her boots, wincing at the amount of mud that was on them. "So, there are two main courts: the Seelie and the Unseelie. Simplified, the Seelie is the Court of Day and Summer while the Unseelie is the Court of Night and Winter."
"One of light and the other of dark," D said.
She shook her head and sighed. "It's not that simple, because there's darkness in the day and light at night, but night and day and winter and summer are the courts' domains."
The right boot came off first and she sat it by the fireplace. "One can easily bleed on a summer afternoon as they can a winter night. The courts aren't Good and Evil; that's human morality, not Fae, but both exist in each court, like you can find good or evil people, but most Fae side towards neutrality and hedonism."
She took the left boot off and flexed her feet by the fire, smiling as she felt the warmth creep into her frigid toes. "Then you have the Wild Hunt and the Sluagh. The Hunt is a primal force of balance, while the Sluagh is something that could easily be considered 'Evil'. Think of the Hunt as dawn and dusk, Fall and Spring, while Sluagh holds beings that would come out during the Witching Hour. Undead, blood drinkers, corpse eaters, devourers of flesh. The creatures of nightmares come from Sluagh."
"And you hunt those?" D had propped his right elbow on the recliner's arm and rested his chin on his knuckles. Those dark blue eyes were focused on her, and the unreadable look in them made her shift slightly in her chair.
Bronach nodded and brushed a stray lock of hair that had escaped from her braid from her face. "Aye, I do. Especially if they threaten Drumnadrochit."
"That's the village that's next to the lake and castle," that hoarse voice said from D's left hand, which was resting palm down on the arm of the chair.
D asked, "And what do you do when they attack?"
"I hunt them down and take their heads," Bronach answered as she met D's eyes with a frown. "Beheading kills pretty much everything. Even the Fae."
"Is that how you earned your moniker?" D's legs stretched out, inching closer to the hearth and the warmth there.
She shook her head and closed her eyes. "No, I earned that when I killed my aunt's murderers." She inhaled deeply and clenched her fists, while biting the inside of her cheek.
"Campbell's wife?" D asked, his voice softening slightly.
She nodded and opened her eyes. "Yes. There were those who saw their marriage as an abomination. A group of Faeries went to kill them both. Uncle Agnus survived, Aunt Caoilfhionn did not."
Why am I telling him this? Bronach thought with a shake of her head as she looked away from her handsome employee and into the pale fire.
"Then you hunted the ones responsible for your aunt's murder." D's voice was almost whisper soft. She turned to face him again.
She swallowed and nodded, looking down at her hands. "That's how I earned the title 'Kinslayer'. Because they were other Faeries who I hunted down one by one. Not the Sluagh, but my own kind."
"Your uncle stays here because he doesn't want to go back to where his wife was slain." D's right hand flexed as if it was clutching something.
She nodded and said, "Why would he? He has a coffin here in the lower depths of the castle and all the Faerie blood he can drink. He also keeps Da company. Uncle Angus lost a wife, but Da lost his twin."
"So, Campbell doesn't feed on humans?" D asked with a blink.
Bronach gave him a lopsided grin and shook her head. "He's got gorgeous Faerie women offering their throats and other parts at all hours. Not only do we suffer no ill effects from a Noble's kiss; our blood is apparently magically delicious." She felt her cheeks and ears heat up. "And it's supposed to feel good as well? I've never been bitten, so I can't personally testify to that. However, some of the maids in waiting will go on and on about it. Gets right tiresome."
"The Faerie here are Unseelie, I take it?" D asked.
Bronach nodded and toyed with the cuff of her shirtsleeve. "Except for me, I'm only half."
"Downstairs, the ice wielder, she called you a bastard." His eyes met hers, his stare boring into her for answers.
Bronach swallowed and replied, "Aye, a bastard birthed of a union demanded by both Queens Titania and Mab. The Fae drove the Nobility out of these lands and they wanted to keep it that way. So, they wanted to breed a perfect hunter. Da's natural magical talent could be quite nasty for a Noble if he wanted it to be. My mother was technically a Seelie Faerie, but she runs with the Wild Hunt."
D watched as the blonde looked away from him and into the fire. There was something wistful in her gaze as she watched the pale orange and gold flames flicker in the gleaming hearth. The Fae drove the Nobility out of these lands, and they sought to create a vampire hunter in case any of them came back, he thought as he looked at the Faerie before him.
He had a flash of memory. A sterile lab: needles, tubes, bags, and scalpels with lights so white and brilliant they still burned in this his mind. A lab that he had destroyed while escaping it.
He pushed it aside and looked at the fire as well. He softened his voice as he asked, "It didn't go to plan, did it?"
"No, it didn't. Instead of making a vampire slayer, the Court ordained breeding experiment gave them a Faerie killer." Bronach sighed, her slim shoulders slumping somewhat.
D tilted his head and looked back at her. "How so?"
She fidgeted with the cuff of her sleeve again before looking back at him. "I have magical resistance. I can't really cast spells except with a few small glamours and a half assed version of Prestidigitation, but I can sure as bloody hell tank them head on if they're thrown my way. I also can regenerate faster than my Faerie counterparts. I'm stronger and faster as well. Keener senses and whatnot."
D nodded at that, taking that information in. "You nullify magic then?"
"Lord and Lady no. If I did that, the Hunt would have killed me at birth. My body just resists it. It says 'no' and the spell just dissolves around me." Bronach shook her head before flashing him a lopsided smile as she held her hands up palm first.
"Faeries have no ill side-effects if a Noble feeds off of them?" D clenched his left hand into a fist to keep the parasite from speaking out of turn.
Before Bronach could answer him, D heard footsteps coming up the tower. Bronach turned her head to the door with a frown as well. She sighed and rubbed her forehead before her eyes met his.
"I'm sorry," she said with a wince and a grimace.
D frowned at her and asked, "Why?"
"Bronach, I brought you some water in case you wanted to make tea," a breathy, female voice called out.
Bronach closed her eyes and rested her index finger and thumb on her forehead. "Thank you, Étiennette."
A tall, statuesque woman entered Bronach's study – Solar, D reminded himself – carrying a tray with a pitcher on it. She, like almost every other Faerie he'd encountered other than Bronach, was dangerously curved and had those knife point ears. Her skin was an ebony so dark that it seemed to gleam, hair a shade lighter than her skin fell to her waist, and black eyes fixated on D. A smirk graced her full lips as she sat the tray down on Bronach's desk.
"Well, our guest is as gorgeous as Isobel and Duchess Gwendolyn proclaims." Her voice took on a purring quality as she continued to eye D.
Bronach now had her index and middle finger on each of her temples with her eyes closed. "Yes, he's bloody lovely."
"You have actually taken notice? Mayhap you are not as frigid as we all feared." Étiennette smirked at Bronach before bobbing into a curtsey. "Please let me know if you need anything else. Anything at all."
D grit his teeth together as the dark Faerie walked with a sway of her hips out of the room. Bronach opened one eye as she scowled. "Again, I'm so sorry."
"You have been informative and answered my questions honestly. You don't need to apologize," D said, allowing a slight grin to curve his lips.
Bronach blinked as she looked at him, leaning forward in her chair. "I called you all the way from the Frontier."
"I didn't have to answer the summons," D replied. Yes, I did, he thought.
Bronach nodded and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her pointed ear. "Ah yes, why I think there's a Noble running around who's not my uncle."
"You said your uncle doesn't drink human blood, only Faerie?" D asked. That explains why the scent of blood was so different. It was coming from a source I've never smelled before.
She nodded and replied, "And if he didn't?"
"Then I would be forced to hunt your uncle," D answered as he looked into her large, violet eyes.
Her eyes widened before she frowned, leaning back in her chair. "If he did drink from the unwilling, I would let you. I can't say the same for Da, but I wouldn't stand in your way."
"You said unwilling, not human." D canted his head at her.
She sighed and bowed her head. "Aye. If he started biting people against their will – human or Fae – that's akin to rape no matter if they're mortal or not. Which I would not abide, uncle or not."
"Would you let him drink from you?" D asked.
She grimaced and stuck out her tongue with a shake of her head. Her entire body shuddered from her seat. "He's my uncle, for Lord and Lady's sake! That's a taboo that even the Unseelie won't touch."
He bit back a grin at her response. "Point taken."
"Do you drink blood?" Bronach asked as she looked back at him.
Left Hand asked, "You offering, sweetheart?"
D clenched his left hand into a tight fist, digging his nails into the parasite's face.
"I'll take that as a yes," Bronach said in a soft voice.
D nodded. "I take plasma supplements."
"Well, be prepared to have the ladies in waiting offer to open a vein and more for you." Bronach snorted and shook her head, rolling her eyes.
"They'll be disappointed; besides, they shouldn't be wasting themselves with someone like me." He shrugged and blinked as she looked at him with those wide eyes again.
She smiled and he noticed it lit up her whole face. "You're exactly the kind of person they want to get their hands on."
"You don't get along with them," D said. He kept his left hand clenched to keep the carbuncle quiet.
Bronach shook her head and looked back to the fire. "They call me frigid, and other things. I know I'm . . . odd."
"You've never taken a lover?" D could smell it on her, underneath the smell of mud, lavender, and rain. I want to hear her say it. It may make her a liability if this becomes a real hunt.
She looked back at him and gave him a crooked smile that didn't reach her eyes. "I'm a thousand-year-old virgin, if that's what you wanted to hear."
A muffled noise came from the palm of his left hand. D dug his fingers deeper into his hand, feeling the bite of his nails against his skin. "I'm sure you have your reasons, but it will also make you a target for the vampire that may be hunting your land."
"I might as well wear a dinner bell, right?" Bronach asked with a snort.
D answered, "You . . . would be a tempting thing, yes."
"That means I'd make good bait." Bronach leaned forward in her chair, folding her left arm over her legs, and resting her chin on her right fist.
He shook his head. "I'd rather not put my employer in that position."
"We may not have another choice." She shrugged with a tiny grin and hard eyes.
She does think like a Hunter, D thought, trying to rationalize if it was a good thing or not. Most Hunters he had crossed paths with weren't the most upstanding individuals. Yet, she's the one willing to put herself at risk.
"Hopefully, it doesn't come to that," D said.
Bronach uncrossed her legs and sat up in her chair. "Now, let me tell you why I think there's a vampire hunting these lands."