When the Woods Go Silent (Haret Chronicles: Dark Fae #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

T ORRENCE

Dusk has just fallen when I’m locking up the restaurant.

We’ll open Goblin Market again tomorrow, but tonight I have an uncommon block of free time. Julianna isn’t due back for a few days, and I’ve just visited the blood mines. My servers are behaving after the recent accident with the two humans, and thank fuck I don’t have any bodies to bury tonight.

I’ve barely crossed the street when my phone dings with a text.

Watch where you’re going.

It’s from Ruby, and my head swivels up and around as I sling my satchel over one shoulder. I chuckle when I catch her scent on the wind, then glimpse movement between the trees. I was going to visit Arlo and the others at the lodge, bringing some new recipe samples for the humans there to try, but this sounds like a much better time.

“Is my killer out to play?” I call softly into the gathering night.

A giggle echoes to my left, and I prowl into the woods, hunting my pretty little human. It isn’t hard, of course. Not with my mix of gobbelin and fae senses. But I let her hide while I toy with her, getting close enough to excite her before changing directions at the last second. I can almost taste her rising adrenaline, heady and delectable, as she plays with the fear of being caught.

Cat and mouse, we chase each other slowly into the deepest part of the woods, very near where we met around the fairy ring. Her musky scent of vanilla and violets perfumes the night air, and I feel my teeth sharpening against my bottom lip.

If she only knew what was hunting her in the woods, she would be screaming instead of smiling.

Humans love tales of vampires who kill and drink blood to survive, but really, most of those legends and stories should be rewritten as gobbelins. Vampires evolved from us, and although they drink blood for strength, they don’t need it like we do.

They don’t crave flesh like we do, either. Only my fae blood keeps me from wanting to feed like a gobbelin.

“There you are,” a sweet voice says, barely two feet behind me. I whirl, grinning down at the dark-haired temptation before me. “I didn’t think it would be so easy to find you.”

“Maybe I wanted to be found,” I tease her, my eyes sliding down the milky pale of her throat. My mouth waters as I remember how delicious her blood tasted on the rooftop. I resisted draining her dry while she was under my spell, but only because I want so much fucking more from her.

“Well, it’s a good thing I did find you. There’s someone out here kidnapping damsels, and I think you might be in danger.”

A laugh slips past my lips before I can stop it. “Me? And why not you? You’re barely a snack for the big bad wolf.”

“No, I’m a killer, remember? Send the wolves after me, and I’ll come home leading the pack.”

I can’t resist reaching for her and drawing her close. She has no idea how vulnerable she really is, and there’s something endearing about the careless bravado. She’s like a kitten, showing her tiny claws to a panther.

Ruby melts into me, tilting her lips up for a kiss. I give in to that, too, even though it just makes me more desperate to taste her. I know I’m playing a dangerous game, drinking from a local, but the idea that this is my last summer here has me feeling reckless.

Still, I force myself to be slow and intentional, nibbling with my lips instead of biting, sucking her skin instead of drinking her down. I want to keep her, not kill her. The heat between us is foreign to my ice magic, and I’m dizzy with the feel of her soft skin and the taste of her on my tongue.

If I gobble her up too fast, there will be nothing left to savor.

“By the Goddess, you’re a good kisser,” Ruby murmurs, finally breaking away and breathing a bit heavier. I hide my surprise at the word - humans tend to worship a male god, jealous and demanding. There’s no way she actually knows about Haret’s goddesses.

“What’s in your pack? I’ll show mine if you show yours,” I offer, guessing by the heft of her pack that there’s a blanket inside.

“I came prepared for stargazing,” she admits, unzipping a few inches to show a worn quilt.

“Well, I know a few places where the trees give head space for that. And I have snacks.” I pat the bag across my shoulder, full of sample recipes.

“Okay, now you’re just bragging. It’s really not a good look,” Ruby says, giving me a stern glare that sends a surprising need surging through my body. What is she doing to me, this back-talking little human? I want to bend her over and-

She takes off at a run, and I swallow an instinctive snarl. It’s all I can do not to crash through the trees after her and pin her to the ground, taking everything I want like the beast I am. This one is so much trouble, but I can’t seem to stay away from her. I don’t like the idea that Idris could be right about me developing a dangerous need for Ruby’s blood.

Moving slowly to give myself time to calm the fuck down, I’m surprised again when she chooses the same spot I’d been planning to show her.

“Perfect, right?” Ruby asks, already spreading out the blanket. Still wondering what the hell I’m doing having a picnic in the woods with something that should be prey, I pull out a few containers of the food I created earlier today.

“This is tomorrow’s menu, so you have to keep it secret,” I warn, thinking of how much this woman shares with other humans online. Ruby smirks at me, then opens each cardboard container, tasting everything one bite after another. Her moans and sighs would normally have me at her throat, taking exactly what I need, but instead I resist, the hungry ache in my jaw growing into a sweet torture that’s somehow becoming as addictive as my blood is to her.

Gobbelin blood always finds the weakest, the most open to the influence of magic, and renders them helpless and happy. They sleep right through the bloodletting, remembering nothing when they wake. And Ruby, for all the strength and survival instincts she has as a smart young human, is incredibly, disastrously susceptible to my magic.

“These are my favorite,” she says, taking another soft cookie made with goldenberries and hazelnuts.

Her tongue darts to the corner of her mouth to catch a crumb, and I hold back another possessive growl. There’s no other gobbelin here to take what’s mine, but the animal need to claim her anyway is like a thousand crystals of ice pricking my mind. Each bite draws her deeper under the spell as she consumes my blood with the sugar and fruit, and as Ruby gazes up at me with heavy eyes, I can’t resist any longer.

I surge my body over her small form, caging her between my arms and diving my mouth onto hers as she squeaks breathlessly. Even her skin tastes like ambrosia.

I suck at her lips, tasting my blood on her tongue, and a feral insistence beats relentlessly behind my eyes. She hasn’t fallen asleep yet, and unlike my full-blooded gobbelin family, I refuse to fill her mind with fear. Fae are better than that.

If I lose control, neither of us will be able to save her.

I’m shaking with the effort of holding back my teeth, and my cock is like steel between us, but I can still tell when she notices the strange power she holds over me. Her scent grows heavy with desire, and her hips raise to meet mine. Her body undulates against me, rubbing slowly up and down the length of my shaft through our clothes, and the kiss flares into something dangerous, explosive.

“Wait... want to... slower,” she pants, pulling away. The moment shatters, offering me a choice.

Will I be a man to her? Or a beast? I want to believe my fae side is stronger, but I’ve never tested it like this.

“Ruby,” I grind out, a hard warning in my voice. “I’m not made for slow.” The last shred of my willpower is nearly gone.

She stops moving, a look of guilt flashing across her pretty face. “Holy hell. I’m sorry. I’m giving you mixed signals, aren’t I? Sorry,” she says again, squirming to the side. I raise up on my elbows, letting her escape as some of the heat between us dissipates into the chilled night air. The darkness has grown thick and velvety around us, and I sense the trees watching carefully. They don’t trust me, and I don’t blame them.

“I want to respect you,” I manage, hoping she won’t hear the lie in my voice.

I want to be very, very disrespectful to this little killer kitten.

It’s a new experience for me to hold back, and it’s one reason I never fuck humans. They’re too fragile for my appetites. I’m not quite sure why I’m doing any of it now, but the idea of hurting Ruby feels as much like torture as never seeing her again.

“I... I think I want to wait. I want to. I really, really want to,” she says, her breath coming in little puffs as she tries to calm the lust I can smell coming from her skin in waves. Fucking hell, she’s making this hard.

“You want to what?” I ask, unable to resist this at least. I can pretend to be good, but I’m just not made that way. The beast within will always find a way out.

Her cheeks flush even more, and my grin widens. Is she going to play shy now? How unexpected.

“You want to kiss me?” I ask, brushing some strands of hair away from her flushed face.

Ruby nods, her lashes sweeping her cheeks as she closes her dark eyes briefly, relishing my touch.

“You want more than a kiss?” I tease, my fingers dragging down between her breasts before grasping her hip, pressing her down into the forest floor with a bit more strength than I’ve used with her before. She gasps a little, and I feel how hard it is for her to resist me.

It makes me want to push harder, to see how much she can take before she breaks.

“I want... to wait,” she finally manages, and I find I’m actually pleased to be playing this game. How much fun will it be to break her down, bit by bit? Erode her willpower more each time, until she’s begging for me to fuck her?

The gobbelin animal in me retreats, leaving the game-playing fae side in charge as I decide I want to play with my little kitten until she’s so desperate that she forgets to be shy. So needy that she begs me with the dirtiest words she can imagine, and so hungry that she tries to force me the way I’m denying her right now.

This game is exactly the distraction I’ve been needing, though I’m annoyed that Arlo was right.

“Tell me about how the store is coming along,” I suggest, leaning back and giving Ruby an out so we can play again later. She sits up and reaches for another bite of a flaky appetizer pastry, launching into all the work they’ve done and the plans they’re making.

Somewhere along the way, I agree to provide hors d’oeuvres for their grand opening, and I snicker to myself as I imagine how pissed Arlo will be.

“I just wish Rose were enjoying it better here,” Ruby says, and my attention snaps back into focus. I’ve lost the trail of the conversation, enjoying watching her instead of listening.

“What’s not to enjoy?” I ask lightly, though just hearing her friend’s name aggravates me. She’s the thorn in my plans for Ruby, and no matter what I do, I know the redhead will be watching me play the game like a killjoy referee.

“She gets spooked easily. She’s used to the city, not woods like this. It’s messing up her dreams and everything.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, although I already know it isn’t the woods entering Rose’s dreams, or Ruby’s, either. It’s dreamwalker magic, rooting around in their subconscious to learn their secrets.

“She even went sleepwalking the other night. She’s never done that before - and into the woods with nothing on!” Ruby scans the trees worriedly like her friend might show up again right now.

“Never? What made her do it?”

“She blamed it on some ghost story she’d been reading about something that lured people into the woods, but I just don’t know. Rose usually likes scary things.”

“Sweet Dreamer?” I ask, before I think it through.

Ruby’s eyes snap to mine. “How did you know?”

“Local legend,” I answer, shrugging, but mentally punching myself. I should have noticed that Julianna was pulling this shit again, and I need to put a stop to it. She put me in charge here, and if too many humans start to disappear again, it’ll ruin everything I’ve been working for. No matter what her plans are, there’s a stupid, probably childish part of me that wants to figure out a way to revive this restaurant when the war with the fae is over. I actually like Clearwater - I don’t want to ruin it.

“Legend or not, it’s fucking creepy. I mean, I want to believe in the good parts of magic. Not the potential for evil - the world already has enough of that,” Ruby is saying, so sweetly innocent.

“Everything good has a potential for evil, little killer. Every sunrise is eventually followed by midnight.” I can’t tell her how right she is. Magic is both beautiful and deadly, depending on who’s wielding it. I could create a sparkling six-foot icicle with one hand and slide it through her neck with the other.

And if she ever saw my true form beneath the gobbelin glamor, she would understand the monster I really am.

“Do you believe in magic?” Ruby asks me suddenly, and I bite down on the laugh that escapes me. Her face flushes and she looks off into the growing darkness around us. “Never mind. I’m just teasing.”

“Why does it mean so much to you?” I ask instead of answering her. Lots of humans love the idea of secret magic, but it’s something more for Ruby. I want to know why - what does she know?

She sighs. “I know, I’m a little obsessive. Probably need an official diagnosis, or whatever.” She weaves her fingers together, staring down at them. “But did you ever have the experience as a kid, when the grown-ups were talking about something you didn’t understand, then they denied it and told you it was nothing? But you still knew it wasn’t nothing?”

Ruby sighs again, the sound more disgusted this time, and I can see the frustration in her face. Her belief in magic is a mystery to her, too, and that’s what makes me want to open the door a little wider for her.

“I think most of us believe in magic, in a way,” I hedge, and she gives me a tiny side-eye. “Before the scientific explanation for things is discovered, it’s always thought to be magical. Like the stars and planets. Or fire.”

Ruby nods, forcing a small smile. “Right. Of course. I just can’t help but think, though... we have fairy tales. Imagination. Dreams. We can come up with things that don’t exist yet, and then make them exist. Why is it so weird to believe that there’s more to the world than we understand now?”

Something in her voice nearly convinces me to spill the secret she’s searching so hard for - to show her real magic. To prove to her that she’s right, no matter what other humans have told her.

But I don’t. It’s not forbidden, but it never goes well.

“It’s not weird,” I assure her instead. “I think we have a lot to learn about magic. Maybe you’ll be one of the first to find it,” I suggest, and her face softens in relief as she leans back into me, tilting her lips up for another kiss.

This time, I’m careful to keep my movements slow and languorous, playing the romantic card as I draw her under deeper with each caress. I know she’s had enough blood by now, and soon enough, the magic she unwittingly searches for lulls her to sleep, and I’m free to sink my sharp rows of teeth into the soft sweetness of her neck.

My eyes roll back at the addictive taste of her blood, as my gobbelin instincts seethe with the need to rip apart her flesh and gorge myself on her supple body.

I would snap the neck of any other gobbelin under my charge who dared to feed like this, in the open woods where any human could find me. The gobbelins in the blood mines aren’t even permitted to drink straight from the vein - they have to prove they have more evolved control to earn that privilege, like my servers.

But none of them know about the fae blood in my veins, not even Arlo. It gives me more control and a truer glamor than any gobbelin has, and I could make the two of us invisible with a flex of power.

So when I hear steps in the distance and scent Arlo’s blood, I easily hide the evidence of bloodletting from Ruby’s neck, tapping into my fae fire magic to burn away the telltale scent of iron just as he enters the clearing.

“Midnight tasting menu?” he asks, sneering at Ruby’s sleeping form and the food spread around us.

“Just taking your advice.”

“Well, Tor, it should be obvious, but fucking works better when the human is naked.”

“And awake,” I add, rolling my eyes at him.

“Eh. That one’s not an issue.” He shrugs. Gobbelins aren’t known for the sort of morals humans tend to keep. “But if you’re not going to take advantage of the situation, maybe I could have a go.”

A snarl rips from my throat before I can stop it, giving him more information than I’d like to share. Arlo chuckles, scanning Ruby with a keener interest.

“So she really did catch your attention. Wait... is this your first human?” His eyes spark with unwelcome curiosity.

“Unlike you, the only thing I’m killing is time,” I shoot back, and he flinches. He knows I let him off way too easy for the deaths of those two human women.

“Come by the lodge later, if you want a bit more skin than that,” Arlo says, nodding at Ruby as he turns to go. I know it’s past time to make an example of him, before he decides he’s better than the others.

And I will, but not tonight.

Tonight, I want to stay here with Ruby until she wakes, then take her safely home.

Tonight, I don’t trust the woods or the gobbelins - or the dreamwalker - to leave her alone.