Chapter 42
Lucie readied herself to provoke the energy from Jasper again as Aedan, Abaas, and Ryan stayed close. She was about to speak when a small, pale young woman with ivory hair appeared in front of them.
“What are your plans?” Myra the banshee asked.
“Well, we are going to try to—” Lucie started, but the banshee hissed louder, interrupting her.
“Not what you are about to do! What are your plans afterward?” Myra looked over at Abaas. “You did tell them, right?”
Abaas shrugged. “It doesn’t change anything. They’re going to do what they’re going to do. I don’t think they trust my words anyway.”
Myra clicked her tongue loudly. “Careful. You do know it is within my power to disintegrate your soul.”
“Like you could ever let me forget,” he bit back angrily.
“What didn’t he say?” Jasper turned his gaze to Abaas in frustration.
“Pacifying a djinn isn’t easy. It exists as part of you now.
Almost like a part of your soul. You can’t vanquish it without killing yourself.
The djinn has to willingly leave its host for another but only if it accepts a new master.
So, your options are to control it as a master slave relationship or to bind it to someone else.
By binding it to them …” Abaas turned his gaze to Lucie.
“You can bind the demon to you as its master, making the djinn yours. Making Jasper yours or the new owner yours. The djinn was previously bound to the late vampire king. After his tragic death, the demon could no longer control its bloodlust. When Jester became angry on behalf of his brother, he killed. The same thing is now happening with Jasper.” Myra frowned and looked at Jasper.
“Can I bind it to myself?” Lucie asked quietly.
“NO!” Aedan, Jasper, and Ryan all shouted simultaneously.
Abaas chuckled. “Hardly. The fairy princess isn’t a suitable host for a demon. It would never choose to live inside you.”
“What about you, then?” Lucie asked, turning her attention to Abaas.
“That’s not a bad idea.” Myra said with a grin. “Abaas would have to agree to this, though.”
Abaas stared at Lucie blankly. “I’d become your bound servant. Are you sure you want that?”
“Well, you’re already that anyway, right? Because of your agreement with the vampires.” Lucie shrugged.
“Yes, but with some differences. I would be bonded to you. And with the djinn, I would be allowed to kill. This would involve taking on a new contract of sorts, one where I am loyal to the family but above all to you.” He smirked and tilted his head to the side.
“Are you sure you want that, princessssss?”
“But your bloodlust would be under my control. You wouldn’t be able to kill unless I willed it.” Lucie challenged him back with the facts she had just learned.
“Lucie …” Aedan whispered, and she waved him off.
“I want something in return if I agree to this.” Abaas’s eyes met Lucie’s.
Her gaze upon him was fiery, fierce, and determined.
There was so much confidence about her. No self doubt.
She was clever and quick-witted, and he admired her.
He wouldn’t mind being bound to her as her servant.
As her protector. Inwardly, he laughed. He went from trying to claim a fairy princess to being claimed by a fairy princess.
He was about to make an agreement that would bind him to her.
It would be a devoted role in every way.
A protector, a servant … he would be and do whatever it was she commanded of him.
He could even kill by her command. But this type of agreement would last through the ages and would follow her bloodline just like the djinn had been bound to the vampires.
“Well?” Lucie arched her brow at him and tapped her foot impatiently.
“I want your oath that the bond between our master-servant relationship will be over in the event of your death. And I want my soul returned to the life circle to be born again. This is something the fairy queen can grant.”
“I have no intention of becoming the fairy queen. That position is for my cousin Alexa. My Aunt Reiya is also immortal. She would be the one to grant this. I would have to discuss it with her, but I will do what I can. In the event of my death, you would not be bound anymore. I can at least do that much. But what would happen in that case?”
“I can choose my next master willingly, if I do not get to be reborn.” Abaas watched as her green eyes bore into him.
Lucie looked at her brother with a half shrug. She really didn’t see a downside to it. And Myra was also in agreement. She looked up at Jasper to see him frowning.
“What is it?” Lucie asked.
“It’s just … I don’t understand why.” He looked up at Abaas. “Why would you agree to this in the first place? I understand that you agreed to be the vampire’s servant so your soul wasn’t destroyed, but this is more than that. This is becoming her person.”
“I want another chance. I want another life, and she is the only one that can grant me that. Well, either she can or one of her relatives. I didn’t live my life before, and I want that,” Abaas said quietly.
“I will do what I can to hold my end of the bargain up. I don’t see how giving you another chance at life would be a bad thing.
You wouldn’t retain your memories and would be starting fresh again.
” Lucie didn’t see a downside to his request. He could be evil or good, just like anyone who is born.
And if he helped her out by taking this djinn from Jasper, then it was worth the trade.
She knew the stories of Abaas. He was sick and twisted. Maybe dying had changed things for him. In either case, being reborn didn’t mean he would be a half-demon again. He could be reborn as a regular human. All this did was prevent his soul from ceasing to exist.
“Binding a djinn to his soul will incapacitate him for quite some time. He will be practically useless for at least a month, maybe longer. Although … it is hard to say how it will work on a contracted soul,” Myra added, looking at Lucie.
“So no sending him off to find and kill the witch?” Lucie smiled and bit her bottom lip.
Abaas chuckled. She wanted to order him to kill immediately. Having her as a master would be interesting. He thought back to a time when he wasn’t so corrupt. Before power and jealousy took control. He could remember it clearly … the first time he saw her …
Abaas watched from the bushes as the fairy princess Alice sat in a field blanketed in flowers. Sunlight poured over her, clinging to her skin, tracing every soft line of her form as if the light itself adored her. She was perfect. Radiant. Untouched by darkness. She looked so happy, so at peace.
And for the first time in his life, he felt … happy.
As if she was happiness itself. And he wanted it. Wanted her.
He kept his distance, watching in silence. Day after day, he lingered in the shadows, unseen. He watched her laugh, watched her tend to others with gentle hands and a kind heart. Her light, her goodness—it drew him in like a drug, pulling him closer with every stolen moment.
Somewhere along the way, he fell in love with her.
One day, he dared to step closer.
His wolf howled the truth the moment he did.
Mate.
The word echoed through him, shaking him to his core. Clinging to that certainty, he gathered what courage he had and approached her.
She ran. Fear filled her eyes as she fled from him, as if he were something monstrous.
Still, he tried again … and again … and again. Each time, she ran without giving him the chance to speak, to explain, to prove himself. Soon, she was no longer alone. Her guardian, Dylan, remained constantly at her side, a barrier Abaas could no longer cross.
Something inside him began to rot. He started going mad.
The rejection festered, poisoning him from within while his wolf clawed at his sanity, driven wild with need.
She didn’t feel the bond like he did. She wouldn’t let him get close enough to feel it.
But he knew—knew—if he could just reach her, she would feel it too …
or at least give him the chance to make her understand.
He tried again. This time, it ended in confrontation. Rage took hold, twisting his desperation into something darker, something dangerous. He vowed in that moment that he would take the fairy princess as his own.
The fairy queen acted swiftly. Alice was sent away.
Time passed, and word eventually reached him that Alice had married Nathon, the Alpha of the Red Grove Pack.
That was the day something inside him finally broke.
When another wolf claimed her, she didn’t run. She stayed.
The pain was unbearable.
He festered. It hurt. He wasn’t good enough for her. Not because of who he was, but because of what he was. A demon. Something unworthy. Something beneath her. A crushing, drowning feeling invaded him. The agony consumed him. His wolf went mad.
He had to have her.
He needed to have her.
He WOULD have her.
The obsession had poisoned his existence.
It was no longer good enough to just have her.
He would take the next fairy princess as his own.
He deserved the pureness of the fairy princess.
He should have had it from the beginning.
His wolf was strangely fixated on the idea that any fairy princess would do.
As if his wolf had been brainwashed and driven to only accept a fairy princess as his mate.
The corruption deepened as his mind unraveled further.
He needed to start a new species, one that was half-demon and fairy.
A species that the fairies wouldn’t find unworthy because they would also be fairies too.
He would be able to enter into Elysia and so would his offspring.
He would be accepted by them. Reality and fantasy blurred together, and the lies became truth.
The fairy princess had wronged him. She felt like she was too good for him.
And in spite of him, she took another werewolf as her mate.
Yes, she did it because she thought she was better than him.
He was crazy, he was evil, he was corrupted, and he couldn’t see past obtaining a fairy princess.
He no longer cared if it was Alice, her daughter, her granddaughter …
it didn’t matter. He would have the fairy princess and produce an heir.
The next fairy princess would be part demon.
They could never look down on him then. He would own Elysia, and a new world power would come into existence.
“Are you ready?”
The sound of Lucie’s voice brought him back from his memories.
Abaas looked up at Lucie and into her green, serene eyes.
She didn’t look down on him. She didn’t treat him like she was better than him.
She didn’t fear him. She challenged him as an alpha female should.
He could see the events of the past clearly now.
He’d wronged the fairy princesses. Alice was a pacifist, a fairy princess who didn’t have a fighting spirit.
Seeing a half demon would have been terrifying for her, and he could forgive her for simply being scared. What he did because of this was wrong.
He was obsessed and poisoned. Jasper asked why he would do this?
Why would he enter into this agreement? Because it was his penance.
But they would never believe that. So he used this opportunity to ask for what he wanted.
A second chance to live. To live without the poison.
And whether he was granted this or not, he would be happy to serve her.
He didn’t deserve forgiveness for what he’d put her family through.
But he could only offer himself. It was all he had to offer.
She could do with him as she chose. She could even destroy his soul if she wished.
And in the event of her untimely death, he hoped he could be reborn.
But she would be immortal, so death could only come from an outside source.
As her protector, he would sacrifice his soul in exchange for her life.
The fairy princess Reiya had definitely saved him by killing his corrupt self.
The vampires kept his soul as a slave. Now that his soul was free of corruption, he was able to remember the events of the past clearly.
Now, the next fairy princess was offering him a chance to serve as penance.
The depth of contrition he felt meant it would take several lifetimes to earn some redemption.
And he was willing to offer himself to her for eternity.