1 - Contact
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Forewarning that this series is dark fantasy, and includes elements of dark romance as well. This was my first foray into the genre and will be my last - I learned a lot about myself while writing this two-book series so I can't regret that, but I encourage readers to pick up one of my other books first if you're new to my stories. I'm still uncomfortable with this book and would rewrite it a different way if I could, but as it's under contract, I can only caution everyone who chooses to go forward in reading this. If you do, I hope you enjoy nonetheless. :)
* * *
Traveling here had taken weeks. Roads had disappeared entire towns ago, and this far into the backcountry, even trails were inconsistent and comprised mostly of crisscrossing, beaten paths half-heartedly blazed by men who rarely took the same route twice anywhere. Constantine had been reduced to asking for directions from every inn and tavern keeper that he had come across, as he moved from town to village to hamlet in his search for the rogue mage.
But he had made fierce progress, steadily retracing her steps and collecting information from those who had encountered her. He had started his long chase in the town of Westline over a thousand miles away, where he had tracked her last confirmed sighting three months prior. And now he was treading hot on her heels, only two days behind if the woman in an apron serving him ale at his table could be believed. Or maybe she was just telling him what he wanted to hear.
"Did you really see her yourself? Or is this something you heard from someone else?" he asked casually, sipping dutifully from the mug and avoiding the froth the best he could. He threaded his fingers through his black tousled hair before setting the mug down. "I keep hearing about her, but I'm of the mind that she's just a story. Been here and there and have yet to ever see her."
"Just have to be in the right place at the right time, sir," she replied with a demure smile and lingering eyes, and then turned away with a stack of empty trays in her arms.
She hadn't answered his question. Maybe he needed to be more direct, but it was difficult to find a satisfactory medium: prying too insistently roused the natural suspicions of small-town people, and they usually banded together to try to protect their own from busybody city folk like him. He had to tread carefully wherever he went. His undeniable attractiveness served well in drawing people to him initially, but the treacherously sinister aura surrounding him made them walk on eggshells just the same. His countenance was entirely too impenetrable for anyone to naturally trust.
That wasn't to say that he couldn't make people talk if he needed them to, and not all of his methods were violent.
"Tell me more," he murmured in the ear of the waitress he had pinned against the wall in the dark behind the tavern building a few minutes later. "I like the sound of your voice. Don't be so quiet."
He flexed his fingers coaxingly, dragging a keening mewl from the young woman writhing under his touch. He lowered his head and brushed his lips against her bared shoulder, and smiled when he felt an answering shudder. But the few seconds he was giving her to let her catch her breath stretched on for too long, and in a spark of impatience, he moved his thigh so that he would nudge her between her legs, incidentally pressing against his own hand at the same time. The sudden jostling of his fingers made the girl's knees buckle, but he caught and held her steady with his other arm.
"Maybe I'll reward you if you keep me entertained," he said, his low voice stroking her nerves and making her buck against him helplessly.
"I - she went north, to Greenshire, with nothing but the clothes on her back," she babbled, barely realizing what she was saying. "She said the wolves should stay away from our livestock now. The elders were hoping she could just kill them off, but she said something about - I don't, I don't remember."
He moved his fingers again, sliding them into her a little deeper. He used his body to press her into the wall and removed his other arm so that he could drag her dress down over her other shoulder. His hand slipped from her collar to her chest. "What about now?"
"She - she said the wolves had only followed their nature - something. She spent five days growing back an entire grove of trees on the other side of the woods and told us to not to cut those down, that the deer would wander in that direction and the wolves would follow. Said wolves normally shy away from loud settlements anyway so we had nothing to worry about as long as we listened. Then she left. I swear, there's nothing else. I promise," she continued to babble, throwing her head back against the wooden wall as he moved his lips up and down the side of her neck.
"I believe you," he reassured her. "You've done so well. Do you want your reward?"
He heard her moan, and then felt her spread her legs a little more. He settled between her more firmly with a satisfied half-smile. Excellent, he thought as he began moving against her, and she clawed his back in a wordless t****l. He was close now, so close. He had known that she had gone north - the scent of strong magic was still thick in the air all over this town, but he suspected that she somehow knew she was being followed. She was hard to pin down, but this close to her, capture was inevitable. He would set off in just a few minutes and put an end to this long, agonizing search by daybreak.
Well, he mused as a deep groan left his throat. Maybe in an hour.
