Cristina and Her Faerie Boys

Chapter 2

AN/disclaimer: Please note there will several similarities in the next two chapters to the actual work of Cassandra Clare but reimagined in my own words. I am referencing chapters 17 and 21 of "Lord of Shadows". Cassandra Clare is my favourite author, I would never deliberately plagiarize her work. All characters belong to Cassandra Clare.

Kieran regarded Cristina for a long moment, in that faerie way. Long enough that Cristina had to fight against the awkwardness and school herself to remain still. They were both standing in the infirmary of the London Institute. It had only been two days since they had left the Seelie Lands and had been reunited with the rest of the Blackthorns, here in London, which had been a surprising turn of events. Cristina had done her best to try and continue on as if that night hadn't happened. As if those feelings hadn't happened, out of shame.

Kieran's gaze was calculating. Intense. And it had been two days since she had looked at him. Really looked at him. And she quickly found that in doing so the images that bubbled up in her mind made her blush. The memories. Memories of that night in the Seelie Court. In a darkened faerie room where she lay pretending to sleep while...

And now she and Kieran were alone in the infirmary. Kieran was examining Cristina's wrist, her wound from the binding spell. She hoped that since Kieran was faerie he would know how to fix it. Finally Kieran let Cristina's hand slip softly from his and took a half step back. "I believe it is," he began quietly, eyes locked with Cristina's, "that we both hold the same heart within our own." He tilted his head to the side. Cristina watched as dark and shiny wisps of hair fell across his brow. Her eyes skimming over his fine features. Features that reminded her of Mark. That look of faeries. High cheekbones, a seductive slant of the eyes, the otherworldly point to the ears...

Kieran's voice, a raspy lilt of a faerie accent, interrupted her reverie. "You have intrigued me Lady of the roses, Mark's princess..."

Cristina made to interject but one corner of Kieran's mouth curved into a crooked smile, his eyes danced with an amusement she didn't understand. Cristina thought of the way he and Mark had just kissed, in front of her, less than merely a half hour ago. The way Mark had pressed into Kieran so fiercely his head tipped back, how Mark had sucked at Kieran's lip and that tiny gasp...

He closed the gap between them. Standing close. Too close. Closer than he'd ever been to her before. Cristina stiffened awkwardly. Kieran reached out, long fingers sliding down her bare shoulder. She had almost forgotten that she had been stripped down to her camisole when they had reached the infirmary, her shirt having been soaked with blood from the faerie wound on her wrist, the binding spell on her and Mark from the revel in Faerie. "Kieran..." she began in protest, forcing a step back.

"My time in the Unseelie Lands was short...and then I was imposed upon the Wild Hunt. Even for a prince who could have anything, everything...a woman I have never had..."

"Kieran, what are you saying?" Cristina asked incredulously, her eyes quickly scanned the large and echoey room, reassuring that they were still alone.

"'Saying?'" He mused, the term unfamiliar. "I would that I might like to share my Mark. With you." He held her gaze intensely.

Share Mark? Cristina echoed to herself. Like every other weekend and alternating holidays? Like a child whose parents had split up? Her mind becoming a jumble of thoughts. But then she recalled his peculiar emphasis on the word with. And what he said about never having been with a woman...

She looked up at Kieran, he had been watching her. Watching her as she regarded his words, his offer. "With me?" She asked. Kieran smiled, a sly, predatory like smile. And then they both nearly jumped as a loud crack reverberated through the old victorian building. The distinct sound of a portal being opened. And Mark banged through the infirmary doors.

Cristina subconsciously stepped back from Kieran. A move that was inadvertently suspicious, she realized, by the look that flashed in Mark's eyes as he appraised them. Was she guilty of something? Perhaps in her thoughts if not her actions. And she sensed that Mark felt something too.

"Magnus and Alec just portaled in. Livvy, Ty and Kit had got into some trouble in the Shadow Market." Mark said his voice was rough from running through the institute to find Cristina, who he had expected would still be alone as he had left her when he went to find Kieran not long ago. "And Livvy...she's been hurt."