Pain (Omaera Playfair Chronicles #2)

CHAPTER ONE

Drak

The longer Omaera put off our mating, the more and more painful the Mate’s Ache was going to get. Howar said as much, but even if he hadn’t, I was experiencing the agony firsthand.

Raver and I stepped outside to take a call with Howar and let him know what went down with Lerris. He didn’t seem nearly as shocked as I expected him to be.

Even though we all speculated that it was Lerris behind the killing of Delia Refera, Omaera’s aunt, I knew Omaera was still surprised that it was the truth. We’d all been surprised.

But Howar remained alarmingly calm.

Even Raver and I glanced at each other when the Vampire King simply said, “Hmm. Yes.”

“Any news on the vampire killings?” Raver asked. “I needed to get Drak and his mate into hiding, but I am at your disposal, Your Majesty.”

“Nothing new,” Howar said. “It has been quiet over the last few days—thankfully. I would still like you here though, Raver. With Drak on the West Coast and a mate to court, I need a new head of security.”

“Of course, Your Majesty. ”

“How goes the courting, Drak?” Howar asked, directing his question to me. “Is she still bleeding?”

I cleared my throat. “It’s, uh … it’s a slow process. She is very … strongly opinionated and stubborn.”

“Have you told her about the Mate’s Ache?”

“I have not.”

The King scoffed. “You’re too noble for your own good. Tell her. Maybe then she’ll feel guilty about putting you in constant pain and agree to bond with you.”

The last thing I wanted was for Omaera to mate me because she pitied me. Our relationship was already contentious enough without adding a pity bond to it. Not to mention, the Fates wouldn’t allow such a mating to take place, anyway. If her heart wasn’t in it, we wouldn’t bond.

I clutched at my chest as a sharp pain speared between my ribs. Raver’s dark-blue eyes went wide with concern. I shook my head to dismiss him. Omaera was no longer in the house, and she was moving further away from me. Far enough away that my body didn’t like it.

“Talk some sense into him before you get here, Raver,” the King said blandly. “Or tell her about the Mate’s Ache yourself, if Drak has too much decency or whatever to do it. They need to mate or soon she won’t even be able to be in a different room before he’s writhing on the floor in agony.”

Raver’s brows rose as he appealed to me to heed the King.

I gritted my teeth and shook my head stiffly. Not going to happen.

“Let me know when you’re back in the city and I’ll organize a flight for you,” Howar said to Raver. “And send me the coordinates of the safe house they’re at so I can keep tabs on my stubborn cousin and our new queen.”

“I will,” Raver replied.

“Good, good. I’m glad all are well. It’s too bad Lerris got away, but we’ll put out a realm-wide BOLO for him. He won’t be able to hide for long.”

I could merely grunt now. The pain from Omaera’s growing distance was debilitating.

“Chat soon, Your Majesty,” Raver said .

“All right. Goodbye.”

Raver hung up his phone and turned to me. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s … she’s not in the house,” I said with a grimace, turning back toward the healer-mage. I could feel Omaera was no longer in Melissima’s house, which was where we were all staying.

Raver’s eyes went from concerned to panicked. He left me standing next to the box truck he brought us all there in and ran back into the house. I stumbled after him.

“Where is she?” he asked. “Where is the bear?”

I grunted when a new rush of pain filled my chest. “They’ve left together. Not too far. I would probably pass out if they actually left. And she would never leave her friend in the infirmary.” I collapsed into the plush black velvet cushions of Melissima’s couch. “They’re … they’re probably on a walk in the woods.”

Raver frowned. “You really should tell her about the Mate’s Ache. I hate seeing you like this.”

I shut my eyes when a headache joined the chest pain. “No. We’re at odds more than we’re not. She doesn’t like me. She’s said as much. Telling her about the Mate’s Ache would only force her to betray her true feelings. When— if, we mate, I want it to be because she truly wants to.”

“And if that takes a hundred years?” Raver asked.

I peeled one eye open, my vision slightly fuzzy from the pain. “Then it takes a hundred years.”

Raver shook his head and made a noise of disagreement in his throat. “I’ve always known you to be a stubborn son of a bitch, but this is taking it to a whole other level. You’re being stupid now.”

“Don’t you think I want to mate her?” I gritted out. “And I tell her that we should all the time.”

“But why do you tell her? Because it’s for the good of the Realm, or because it will stop your suffering?”

I didn’t say anything, and I closed my eye.

“Yeah, I figured. Like I said, stupid. ”

The infirmary door beyond Melissima’s kitchen opened and the platinum-blonde mage with the flowy dress beneath her surgical smock, trailing behind her like a patchwork train, joined us. “Where is the Queen?” she asked, her sharp-blue eyes scanning her home.

“I believe she and the bear have gone for a walk,” Raver said. “How is the human?”

“She will live,” Melissima said, removing her surgical smock and shoving it into a whicker hamper next to her dishwasher. “It will take a long time for her to heal from all of her injuries, but she will live. It is her mental injuries that have me the most concerned.”

“Mental how?” came a voice from the hallway just before the fire-mage with the head of dark-red hair and a psychotic streak emerged, knuckling sleep out of his eyes. “You know that if Gemma isn’t okay, Omaera will never forgive herself.”

“Yes, I can feel the love Gemma has for the Queen and the love the Queen has for Gemma. However, I do fear that although she will recover …”

I opened my eyes, but managed no more than a squint to focus on the healer-mage.

Her gaze turned more serious than ever. “She will never be the same person she once was. It’s too soon to say what parts of her brain were damaged from the repeated torture and attacks. There is a lot of swelling, and once the herbal poultice I mixed up for her reduces the swelling, I’ll be able to better discern what areas I need to focus my healing efforts on.”

Maxar pulled out a chair at the table to sit down, but the healer-mage stopped him with a dainty hand on his arm. “I would like to check out your injuries too, Maxar. If I may? I have time now.”

He winced when she touched him, forcing her to cock her head in curiosity and pull her fingers away.

“But do you have the energy?” he asked. “Or should you be reserving what you have in case Gemma takes a turn?”

Her mouth dipped in concern for a moment before she shook her head. “I have done all I can for the human right now. All we can do at this point is wait. Wait and hope. ”

We all exchanged pensive looks before I was forced to close my eyes again.

“All right then,” Maxar said. “Where would you like to examine me?”

“The spare room where you were resting should be fine. I don’t want you in the infirmary with Gemma, otherwise it would cause some of my healing powers that I left with her to transfer to you since you are of our realm and she is not.”

“Whatever you say,” Maxar said. “Meet you in there.”

“I just need to grab a few things,” Melissima said, her voice breathy and calm.

I didn’t bother to open my eyes, but I felt the shift in air pressure and knew she had approached. Her cool hand on my forehead confirmed it. “You are experiencing the Mate’s Ache.” It wasn’t a question.

I popped open the same single eye as before. “What do you know of the Mate’s Ache?”

“I know all that ails those of our realm. It is my job.”

“He won’t mate with her,” Raver said. “He’s being stupid.”

I growled, and my other eye opened too. “It’s not that I won’t. It’s that she doesn’t want to. She won’t. And the Fates don’t allow forced matings anyway. If her heart’s not in it, the bond won’t take.” I grunted in pain. “We all know that.”

“Have you told her of the Mate’s Ache?” Melissima asked.

“The answer is no ,” Raver said. “And there’s no sense in berating him about it. He’s trying to be all noble and shit and wait until she wants him . Right now, they’re more enemies than lovers in this enemies to lovers romance trope.”

Melissima’s eyes widened.

Raver scoffed, looking mighty pleased with himself. “What? I pay attention to things. And I happen to know that the enemies to lovers trope is a fan favorite in both books and movies. It’s a classic. A tale as old as time. But this idiot is stubborn and determined to play the wounded hero for a hundred years if he has to.”

I glared at my best friend.

He gave me a smug look back.

“I can make you a tea that will help manage the pain. It won’t take it away, and drugs like morphine and codeine won’t work. But it’ll dull the ache enough that you can function.”

“Man, they just keep pumping you with drugs, don’t they?” Raver asked. “Aren’t you also taking something for your blood lust because your mate bleeds every month?”

Melissima’s eyes went even wider. “When was the last time you took your medication for that? That would also be contributing to your severe pain.”

I couldn’t remember. “I took it right before we left to go find Lerris and get Gemma back, but … that was hours ago. I put a spare capsule in my pocket if we ended up getting delayed, but I don’t have the whole bottle.”

Melissima clicked her tongue. “I see. Well, I’m no spellcaster-mage, but I do have the means to make you a similar compound to what I’m sure was made for you before. For now though, stay away from Omaera as best you can—which of course makes the Mate’s Ache worse, but until I can mix up the compound, its best. I’m going to go deal with Maxar. Then I’ll return and brew you the tea and make the compound.”

“Thank you,” I croaked.

“You’re an idiot,” Raver repeated.

I glared at him. “Water,” I said with a groan. “Be useful and get me a water so I can take my remaining pill.”

Rolling his eyes, he complied, returning from the kitchen a moment later. I reached into the inside of my jacket pocket and pulled out the capsule made by Mr. Fiddleman, the spellcaster-mage, back in Chase City. I wasn’t feeling the blood lust, but then again, maybe it was because Omaera was far enough away?

I didn’t want to risk it.

Locking eyes with my oldest friend, I shoved down the pain so it wouldn’t cloud my thoughts. “Do me a favor, Rave?”

He grunted and lifted his thick, dark brows. “Hmm?”

“Don’t give Howar the real coordinates to here, okay?”

Raver’s eyes darkened and turned serious. “Okay. But why?”

I shook my head and closed my eyes again, barely able to stay awake from how bad the pain was now. “Just don’t. Promise me you won’t.”

“Okay,” he said again, his voice solemn, “I promise.”

I nodded and kept my eyes closed. The darkness helped with the pain.

I’m not sure how long I lay there until Melissima returned with tea and a cold compress that smelled a little funky, which she placed over my eyes and forehead. “A comfrey compress,” she said. “Sit up and drink this tea. It’s made of nettles, ginger, turmeric, and cedar bark. I’ve spelled it to help with the pain. It should make her distance a bit more bearable.”

I accepted the warm, blue mug from the pretty mage, cupping it in both hands and groaning as I sat up against her couch before bringing the rim of it to my mouth. It didn’t smell terrible, but it also didn’t smell great. The cedar bark was overpowering the rest of the scents. But at this point, I’d do whatever I had to in order to mitigate even a fraction of this agony. Wincing at the taste, I peeled open an eye and glanced at the mage. “All of it?”

“Yes,” she said with a soft nod.

I drained it and handed her back the mug. “Thank you.”

“Your vampire friend has left,” she said. “But he asked me to tell you that he will do as you requested.”

A bit of the tension in my jaw dissipated. We were both loyal to our king, but I took solace knowing that Raver—like myself—was more loyal to me. Even though it would have pained me to do so, if he asked me to keep something from the King, I would have. Howar was my cousin, my monarch, and my friend, but Raver was … Raver was my brother without the blood. I would kill and die for him, and he would for me. There was no question of his fealty. While, at the moment, I was having some disconcerting feelings regarding my noble king and where his allegiances rested.

I pulled in a deep breath, and my eyes widened in surprise. It was the first inhale I’d been able to take since Omaera and the bear left that didn’t feel like a thousand tiny daggers were piercing my heart. “This works fast,” I said with a grunt, relishing the deep lungfuls of air and the ease with which I could draw them in.

The mage nodded. “Rest, Lord Ferrin. When I finish with Maxar, I will get to work mixing you the compound.”

“I just took my last capsule, so we have a few hours.” I reclined again on the couch, propping a pillow under my head.

“You are noble not to tell her about the Mate’s Ache, but sometimes nobility can be to our own detriment. Perhaps if she knew, it may soften her resolve toward you and she could, in quicker time, agree to the mating in order to ease your pain.”

I grunted, shook my head, and closed my eyes again. “She has enough on her plate right now. I’d rather not add to it.”

The mage probably frowned, but I couldn’t see it. Her hum of disapproval was enough to know she disagreed. The swish of her skirts and change of air pressure around me said she took her leave of me, but I didn’t bother to open my eyes.

Whatever she put in that tea flowed through my icy veins and numbed the pain, which meant the chaos of the day and all that we’d been through finally had a chance to break free to the forefront of my mind, encapsulating me in a rush of overwhelming fatigue. I probably couldn’t have opened my eyes, even if I wanted to.

I was nearly off to sleep when the faint sound of Omaera’s voice broke through the fog of drowsiness, but when I tried to move, when I tried to open my eyes, I couldn’t.

What did that mage give me and why wasn’t I unable to wake up? I was suspicious of everyone now. Anybody could be working with Lerris, even Melissima. What if this was all a trap? I tried to scream out for Omaera, but fell into sleep, deep and dreamless before the words even came out.