There’s a soft knock on my door and I blink, realizing I’ve been talking to Janie and Lonnie for far too long. Lonnie joined the conversation about halfway through.

“Oops,” I mutter. “Got to go.”

“We looooove you,” they chorus.

I stick my tongue out and blank the mirror before hurrying over to open the door. But instead of the nameless brownie, it’s the amused-then-pissed bodyguard-like-fae.

Not my favorite person, but….. Well, he hasn’t said a word yet, so I guess I can’t hate him quite yet.

He smirks at me. “Dinner, Sinjin.”

Fuck you, faerie man. You’re just a pale version of Janie. Besides, it’s not like saying my name weird is going to piss me off. It’s annoying, but not anything else.

I step out of my new room, letting the heavy door slam behind me. No reaction.

I shove my hands into my pockets are stare at the faerie. This one, unlike the redhead, is clearly a blooded fairy. On the short side and slender, limbs looking elongated, even for a fae. His fingers had the slender, willowy looks to them caused by the third joint in the fingers, one more than most humans had. His ears were pointed and every time he moved, there was the barest glimmer behind him, the ghost of wings. A faerie’s wings only appeared when they were really emotional or using a lot of magic. They were always there, unlike mine, but were near invisible most of the time. I have to admit, as much as I hate bloods, faerie wings are pretty.  They look like gossamer, spider silk, just thin lines of light tracing an odd pattern on diaphanous membranes. They’re pretty useless though.

His hair’s long and a pale green, pulled tightly back in a complicated looking twist, which is sort of odd. Most faeries take great pride in their grossly long hair and wear it loose. Oh well. There’s yellow honeysuckle woven into his hair. They’re only a few shades darker than his eyes. Pale green and pale yellow. That’s kind of a weird combination.

He gets slowly more annoyed, obviously bothered by my open staring. “Let’s go,” he says, turning on his heel sharply and walking down the hall. Woah. I didn’t notice earlier but he’s really, really graceful. Like, insanely so.

His whole body is swaying gently with every step, draping white clothing moving with him and he is, like, literally gliding. And actually going pretty fast for a little guy. I catch up quickly, long legs giving me a distinct advantage.

“What’s your name?” I mutter.

“Jalkyn,” he says without looking at me. His voice is surprisingly average, a little low and extraordinarily smooth. Pretty, but not like amazingly

I smile brightly at him and he gives me a disgusted look. Asshole. I’m happy! Happy dammit! I like smiling.

We walk in silence through the labyrinth. I pay a little more attention to our surroundings this time, half-hoping to get lost. And it’s not like I need to bother to remember the way back- there is absolutely NO chance of me remembering. I’ll do my nifty to the demon world and pack transportation trick if anything. Eliminates the need to remember directions, which is fabulous for me.

I fall a little bit behind, busy swivelling my head this way and that, looking at the minimalist design. It’s pretty cool. There’s not a lot of straight lines and the rooms are pretty sparse. It’s not relaxing, but I imagine it’s all pretty good to do magic in. Easy to concentrate.

Jalkyn apparently decides I’ve fallen to far behind and snaps, “Hurry up, Zord.”

I instantly tense. That mother fucking asshole. A growl works its way up from my chest, erupting from between my lips. Jalkyn shoots me a mocking glare. “Don’t like being reminded what you are, Zord?”

I snarl at him and I can feel claws slipping from my fingertips. That asshole. NO, I do NOT like being called a Zord! I don’t like being reminded that I shouldn’t have lived past infancy and I could drop dead from some genetic malfunction any time!

I snarl at him, control slipping. He smirks at me and that's it. I tackle him, sending him to the ground. And then a wave of pure lust hits me. I gasp and my extras- barely even emerged- sink back into my skin. I suddenly have a raging hard on and my skin is too hot, my heart is pounding, and my face is flushed.

I gape down at Jalkyn and suddenly he’s not odd looking for a faerie. He’s beautiful in fact. So hot, I just want to flip him over and…

I lean down and slam my lips against his, hard enough to bruise a human. I nip at his lips and I suddenly taste blood as my fangs sink in a little too far. But the tangy taste, almost citrus-y, just makes it better. I nearly moan as I suck at his lip. God, faerie blood tastes good, nothing like the metallic, coppery human blood.

Slender hands dig into my hips and that’s all the encouragement I need before I’m growling and rocking my hips into his, grinding our erections together. I nip his jaw and he moans but doesn’t tilt his head back.

I frown and bite again, this time more incessantly but he still doesn’t tip his head back. Something deep inside me that I’ve only felt once or twice responds to that. He refuses to yield even as he‘s moaning and whimpering in something that is so not pain.

I snarl at the challenge to my dominance and one of my clawed hands reaches up and snaps his head back, drawing a gasp from his lips.

I bite down on the exposed skin hard and more of that citrus blood fills my mouth, intoxicating me.

I pull away suck at the bite, drawing more of that blood out, but I don’t swallow it, just taste it. I pull away as he finally goes limp, yielding, being properly submissive. I smirk in victory, more of a feral barring of teeth, and lick at the wound, lapping away the blood before pulling away to look at my handiwork. There’s a perfect imprint of teeth in his pale throat.

The lust is suddenly gone and I pull away, horrified. Bile is rising through the back of my throat and this time, I can’t help myself. I bolt, managing to get a couple rooms back and to a bathroom I saw before I lose the contents of my stomach.

There’s not much to lose and soon, I’m dry heaving.

I finally finish and stand, glancing in the mirror. There’s blood smeared on my chin.

I drop back to my knees and they bang on the stone floor and I’m losing it again, this time it feels like my lungs are trying to come up my throat along with stomach lining and possibly an intestine.

I finally subside, but just kneel there for a moment. A snicker from behind me makes me whip my head around. Oh God. There is blood everywhere. Jalkyn is covered in it, the bright red liquid still oozing from the bite on his neck. I dry heave again and this time, not even a drop of bile comes up.

“Faerie blood is poisonous to demons,” Jalkyn says. He sounds perfectly okay. In fact, he’s purring and it is an utterly sexual sound. But I find nothing attractive about it. “You’re lucky you have a weak stomach and didn’t ingest it or you might be dead in a couple hours.”

Somehow, I don’t think I’m allergic to fae blood, but if that’s what he wants to believe, so be it.

I glare at him as I turn to grab a towel, surreptitiously not looking at the mirror. I wet it and wipe my face and hands clean before throwing it at Jalkyn. He catches it in midair and starts dabbing at his cuts. I stand and move closer to Jalkyn, focusing very closely on his eyes instead of the cuts and bites marking his lips, jaw, and neck. Sure enough, there’s a thin gold ring circling his iris and a bright, light green ring circling his pupil. “You’re an ainmhain,” I mutter, accusingly.

He laughs and that sound has all the blatant, typical ainmhain sexuality missing from his appearance and voice. God, in a different situation, that laugh would make me hard. As it is, I’m pissed.

“What gave it away, sweetie?” He’s purring again. I’m suddenly wondering what it would feel like if his mouth was around my cock when he was purring like that.

Oh God, his powers aren’t reliant on touch I realize, horrified. Oh that’s bad. I hurriedly throw up the mental barriers I use for Janie and the lust is gone again, but I’m still just a tiny bit curious about what it would be like to sleep with him. That’s all me, I can admit that. And that sucks. Shit. He’s not even attractive! Well, he’s not attractive for an ainmhain faerie. They’re flawless, beautiful, easily the most attractive race I have ever seen, far surpassing other faeries races. And honestly, Jalkyn isn’t even that attractive for a regular faerie. Oh, he’s still exceptionally pretty compared to other races, but there’s something about the shape of his lips that doesn’t say sex or cute, it just says stern. And some of the strands of hair have worked their way free of his twist and they’re hanging limp around his face. His hair color makes him look a little sickly. And white is doing nothing but washing him out.

But, well, still. Fucking an ainmhain faerie would be an experience and he’s the first I’ve met, excluding Janie who doesn’t count because she has titties and doesn’t have a cock. Wrong parts man.

I glare at him anyway. I’ve disliked people I want to sleep with before. This’ll be no different.

He frowns faintly at something I can’t see and then says, “Well, come on. We still need to get to dinner.

I sigh and bend down to wash my mouth out in the sink before following him, wiping the water away. “What are you going to tell them about the marks?”

He sends me a sidelong, amused glance. “I could tell them the truth. That you went crazy and bit me.”

My eyes narrow. “And I could say that it’s your fault.”

He chuckles again, this one more dark than sexual. “But that would make us both tattletales, wouldn’t it?”

I nod warily and he chuckles again and then the marks disappear. I blink at him and he smirks back. Damn, he’s really good at personal glamour. I wonder if he’s hiding anything else with that magic?

We walk in silence for a while. “What are you doing here?” I finally mutter before realizing how that sounds. “Uh, I mean-”

“I’m your brother.”

I gape at him, open-mouthed and then, “Ew! Fuck!”

He laughs and it’s sexual again. “Not by blood. I’m afraid I’m the bastard child of your father’s late wife.”

“They’re both dead?” And then, “Uh, I mean, sorry for your loss.”

He snickers. “She died years ago and they found me the same way they found you.”

I grin. Heh, we’re both unsympathetic bastards.

“How‘s that going? Living here?”

He shrugs. Ha, Cyaden! You can suck it! He shrugs too! “It sucks.”

“Ouch.”

"You'll get used to it," Jalkyn says flatly. "Oh," he adds as an afterthought. "We're not friends."

"I'm aware." Bastard.

And then he opens a door and we're standing at the front of a very, very large room. There's a single long table stretching the length of the room. All the people I've met are near the head, or at least in that half of the table, except for the brownie. He doesn't seem to be present.

Jalkyn moved forward confidentially, leaving me to trail behind him. He perches about halfway between his uncles and the cousin bodyguards. Cayden waves me forward, and indicates I'm to sit next to him, cattycorner from Meara. Well, this is going to be interesting. I move over and perch next to him. He's sitting across from Meara and between them- at the head of the large table- are a man and a woman. Both are older looking and once again, I bear a creepy resemblance to the man. Not as much as I look like Cayden and Meara, but definitely very, very similar. The woman looks different, much more delicate.

Meara glares at me as Cayden says, "Mother, father, this is Sinjin, your grandson."

Oh shit. Grandparents? I didn't even think of that. Grandparents aren't really something I do. Nonetheless, I stand quickly and offer a hand.

Meara snorts and Cayden sighs gustily and says in a tight voice. "Faeries do not shake hands. Sit back down."

Oh. Whoops. I actually knew that. I sit back down, a little embarrassed. The couple is kind of staring at me , with their faces blank. I think I just made a very, very bad first impersonation. Fabulous. This is going to be a long meal.

As it turns out, I'm not really expected to talk. I manage to keep my mouth shut through Cayden's excuse of my lack of manners and his promise to teach me personally. Oh hell. That's going to be tons of fun. I'm enjoying the facts that it’s not Merara when said faerie fuck adds, "I will assist."

Well hell. That pretty much kills my appetite. And I'm still feeling nauseous from the gate. And the Jalkyn incident. I nearly throw up the two bites I managed to force down when I think of that. All the blood, everywhere. I sneak a glance down the table, but Jalkyn seems fine, chatting to a faerie man across from him. The man's cheeks are red and he's tugging at his collar. Looks like Jalkyn got over the incident quickly enough. I wonder how many times his powers have worked against him? If his first reaction when someone tackles him with the intent of hitting him is making them feel lust, it has to be a pretty high number. He's infuriating.

After that, I just poke at the foreign food on my china plate. I recognize some of it, but most of it is strange to me.

The dinner drags on. Courses are brought out. I recognize the little brownie who took me to my room peeking out from behind a door that I can only assume is the kitchen- all the plates have been coming through there. I catch his eyes and wave a tiny bit. His brown eyes widen and he quickly ducks back behind the door.

Bloody unsocial little creature isn't he? I'm a nice guy most of the time. A little rough, but I mean, with the exception of today, I don't really go around hitting people and I rarely have issues with my powers. People don't really fuck with me back home so it’s not really a problem. I avoid starting anything with anyone and when I know my mouth is going to get me into trouble with someone, I avoid that person. It works for me.

Maybe I can get something like that here. Or just barricade myself into my room until I'm eighteen and can go back to Border Town. Finally, everyone rises. It's simultaneous. Freaky. I rise several beats behind and stare on in confusion as they all bow their heads. Praying? I didn't know faeries were religious.

Then Cayden hisses, "Bow!"

I bow my head belatedly and then realize we’re bowing to the couple at the front of the table as they bow back. If they’re supposed to be grandparents, shouldn’t they be like older looking? Faeries age, don’t they? They’re supposed to at least. The two depart and the rest begin to trail out. Many pause to speak to each other. Bows are exchanged and flirtatious glances. I push my chair back and begin to edge away from the table, planning on getting out of the room and teleporting.

Cayden stops me. “Sit,” he hisses.

I sit.

He waits until everyone has trailed out but him and Meara. Jalkyn is the last to go, smirking at me as he leaves. I have no idea what’s up with him, but he’s sort of an ass.

Finally, it’s just the brothers and me. The plates are floating out by themselves, the same way they came in. It’s a terrible waste of magic, but I stay silent. I’m learning. Slowly. Sort of.

My two probably-but-hopefully-not uncles stare at me silent. I fidget and studiously ignore both, staying mostly silent.

Meara breaks first.

“I’ll be teaching you magic.”

Yeah, that’ll go fabulously.

“Cayden will teach you etiquette and how to fight properly.”

Is he implying I don’t know how to fight? I laid his ass out. I manage to not say anything although Cayden seems to know what I’m thinking because he gives me a look.

“I’ll teach you how to fence. That is the faerie’s way of fighting.”

I barely hold back a snort. Yeah, and what do faeries do when they don’t have a sword? Bend over and take it? Besides, Meara was just about to tackle me back. At least that’s what I think he was aiming to do. I guess I could be wrong, but what else would he be doing? Getting in my face to talk me to death?

“Your lessons begin tomorrow,” Cayden said.

Well shit. Not fun, bro.