Falling in Love with My Unseelie Kidnapper (That’s (Para)Normal #6)

Prologue

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Finally.

Castor

The thunder of music surrounding me makes it really hard to hear my soulmate’s heartbeat, but it’s there—hammering away beneath the horrific noise.

I don’t know exactly how Danielle ended up stuck amid this nonsense; I only know that another man’s hand is gradually lowering on her hip, and I am gradually contemplating a very detailed, very slow murder.

Invisible to most everyone in this raucous place, I glide through the crowds, finding that with every step my heart wishes to match the rhythm of my mate’s as it attempts to flee my chest.

“I really do appreciate this,” Danielle says, grasping the man’s hand to keep it from wandering further. “I didn’t know what to do before you showed up.”

“Nah, don’t worry, baby. You needed a meal and a place to stay. I told you my roommates and I would be happy to help you out.”

“Say the word, Dani,” a small dark pixie who is with my bright, brilliant girl snips. “I’ll rip out their tongues and make them swallow their eyes.”

I can’t hold down my smile. A dark pixie.

It has been an age or two since last I met one of them.

Furthermore…she smells like my Danielle.

My darling, darling little bird crafted a dark pixie in the depths of her soul.

Despite all her blinding seelie shades, a darkness so deep it became the origin for an unseelie pixie to burst from feels too right.

Danielle chuckles, awkwardly, as though having these men swallow their eyes isn’t on her to-do list.

What. A. Shame.

It’s on mine.

Planting my hip against the dirty table and using my body to block one of the louses off, I murmur, “Danielle.”

My precious mate’s tangible shock wheels my way.

“Who’s this guy?” the pixie quips. “What in the world is he wearing? Humans don’t…” The small, young creature gasps. “You’re not human, are you?”

Sure enough, I am not.

Blood flees Danielle’s face as she focuses a hardened tone on me and says, “How do you know me by that name?”

“Storm?” The guy clinging to her rubs her side. “What’s wrong, baby?”

“N-nothing.”

Little liar. How adorably human of her.

Hopefully, she’ll not be too attached to that—or any—part of her humanity for long.

Lifting my foot, I plant it against the man’s shoulder, then kick him out of his chair.

One of the other men at the table swears as Danielle braces herself to keep from tumbling after him. “Wha—” she chokes on the word.

I grasp her arm, pull her upright, and steal her away from all human perception, cloaking her in my glamour, bathing her in my very essence.

The sensation pours over my nerves and makes it almost impossible to breathe.

Nevertheless, I welcome the agony of an inhale to coat my lungs in the decadent scent of her.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she hisses. “Who are you? What are you?”

“Do you really want our introductions to take place here, in this cesspool, Danielle?”

“That’s not my name anymore. I’m going by Storm now.”

I chuckle. “What a bold selection. It hardly suits you as you are right now, my feather.”

“I’m not your anything. Let me go.” She tugs against my grip.

“Zahra,” I say.

Recognition robs the fight from her.

Even her pixie stops fruitlessly hammering her hands against my shoulder to chirp, “You know Zahra?”

“You’d have saved yourself weeks of trouble had you told her where you were and let her get you herself.” I comb my fingers through Danielle’s hair, feel the soft waves against my skin. It’s long. I wonder, desperately, what exact shade it might be.

But.

Truly.

Something as insipid as that doesn’t matter.

All that matters is that Danielle is mine.

After so long. After centuries. Here I stand with the woman who belongs to me.

“Don’t touch me so familiarly,” she mutters.

“You didn’t say that to him.” I direct my chin toward the man scrambling off the sticky floors, likely looking everywhere for the woman he must assume by now pushed him.

I take note of the way his spirit feels and the strings that connect him to this world…

just in case I feel the urge to hunt him down later.

Danielle stiffens. “I was using him to get a free meal.”

My very soul constricts as my stomach knots. “Please do not tell me you’ve been doing this since you left home. Locating the trail of anyone who smells like you will be almost as frustrating as disposing of their corpses.”

A splash of Danielle’s fear hits my tongue as she steels herself…against me.

I, quite completely, despise that.

She grits, “You can’t know Zahra. She wouldn’t be friends with someone like you. You’re one of the faeries who can get in my head.”

My brows rise, because—to my knowledge—spare few are capable of such a thing, and personally I only know of one such creature.

“Don’t think for a moment you can toy with me.”

Toy with her? Don’t be ridiculous. I intend to treat my soul’s mate with nothing but kindness, consideration, and sincerity. Should we take to playing games, they will be far more meaningful than mere toying. “I wouldn’t dream of it, love.”

“Unhand me. Now.”

“No, I don’t think I will.”

She, quite nearly, knees me square in the groin.

After I catch her leg, her balance tips, and she whispers a fragile oh dear.

“Hush.” I sweep her up into my arms before she can fall, revel in the way my heart finds solace in this weight of her, and turn us toward the exit.

Behind me, wings flitting in a constant buzz, Danielle’s pixie wraps her fists around the knot of my blindfold. “Stop it! Stop! Where are you taking her?”

“Nowhere you can’t join us, hatchling.” I let my lips graze Danielle’s forehead as she holds onto my robes for dear life. “I would take care not to tamper with my blindfold, though. My eyes turn creatures to stone, so there is a very good reason why I keep them covered.”

Her tiny hands release the fabric. “Where are you taking my Dani?”

“Home.”

“Where is home?” Danielle asks, songbird voice wobbling.

Anywhere with you, love. My love. Mine. Finally.

I answer, “Somewhere safe, and enchanting, and lavish. Where I can spoil you senseless and plot the demise of those who have wronged you.”

“Why would you want to do something like that?” Her sweet voice breaks.

“Why?” I murmur, pushing us out of the club and into a balmy night. “Because.” My tone blackens. “Doesn’t it sound like fun?”

Before she has a chance to reply, I locate the nearest trod to Faerie, step through, and let the cool night breeze of my domain guide us up the path toward my palace, which is now—and forever—to be my beloved mate’s new home.