He shook his head; a rash excitement lit his eyes. "We love storms. Our nature sings to its tune. You should see us during heat waves."
I blushed deeply. "All this time I thought it was strange. The urges I got to run and dance. I could never figure it out."
"Do you want to talk about what you"ve learnt?"
And just like that I was stiff. "You mean how you"re running around leading a rebel demon force until your brother gets his deserting a.s.s back here?" My voice shook again.
"Ana was wrong to scare you like that," he said.
I composed myself. It would be silly for me not to ask him anything. "Wait." I pressed my hands into his chest. Rapt, I watched my fingertips sink into the firm, smooth skin. "I have a question about the Tribe"s last Priestess, the one who shifted the balance." To make myself feel better I slid my fingers down his hard abs, developing a whole new appreciation for touching him.
Breandan looked perplexed. "I thought you didn"t want to talk about this."
"I want to know more about fairies. I want to know more about you. Avoid the bits about me, okay?"
He stroked my hair and tilted my head so he could hold my eyes. "Ask."
"You lead the rebels now? Until your brother gets back, I mean."
"Yes. The majority are sensible allowing me freedom to pursue other interests. Few break the rules. When they do they are found by the warriors, and brought to me for judgment. We"re a solitary people. We don"t need a ruler to dictate everyday life."
I chewed my lip, slotting the information in with what I already knew. "The Tribe is lead by the High Lord, right?"
His hand went still on my back and after half a breath resumed its gentle rub.
"Yes. The fairy High Lord has held the Tribe for centuries and lived more years than I, but less than Lochlann. Those under his charge are still alive and only the last fifty years has he allowed himself to be overcome by his baser nature."
"How many centuries has he held the Tribe?"
"Seven," he answered.
I blinked at his words. "Seriously?" He stayed quiet and I drummed up courage.
"How long have you been alive?"
His lips twitched. "Twenty years. I"m little more than a child in the eyes of some."
My fingers scrunched together on his chest, left shallow slashes that healed the instant I made them.
"I knew you were older, but I never figured the gap was that small." I laughed in relief. "I"m eighteen."
"You"re not eighteen."
I frowned. "Uh, yes I am."
Breandan slid one of his hands to entwine his fingers with mine. His other tilted my head up and held my chin. "Rae, you were born two hundred years ago."
The warmth of his touch helped smother the rumbling of hysteria into a tremble. "I don"t understand."
"You"re birth would have superseded mine, but something happened. The little I"ve found out suggests your birth mother laid a spell on you to-"
"Stop." I tried to pull my head away, wiggle my hand free.
Breandan held firm. "Be calm."
"I told you I don"t want to talk about me."
"You told me you wish to know of the Priestess."
"Yeah," I said wary. "I do. Who was she?"
I knew who she was. Of course I knew, but I needed to hear him say it.
"The last pure fairy and tribal Priestess was your birth mother." He paused letting me take this in. "She gave you that amulet and hid you among the humans."
"What-" I swallowed hard. "What did she do to tip the balance? Her bad decision what was it?"
"She chose to break her vow to her husband and lie with a human male."
"The human male was my father?"
Breandan shook his head. "No. You are pure-blooded fairy. As is-" Cutting off his jaw clenched, and for once, he avoided my gaze.
"Whatever it is you"re keeping from me I will find out. You need to start being honest with me." The hypocrisy of my words had me cringing inside.
"Some secrets are not mine to tell."
I rubbed at my face and nodded. Considering the secrets I held, I was not going to push him. "Okay. So she broke her vow to my dad, got in trouble. How does that break the balance?"
"Your father killed the human and your mother. She didn"thandle it well."
"She got mad and did it on purpose, you mean."
"Her heart was broken and she could no longer see the reason for her being. She abandoned her purpose and split the amulet in three. She gave two of the pieces to those who were closest to her heart. The amulets of protection and," he touched my chest where my pendant lay, "wisdom."
I stifled a laugh. This thing was supposed to inspire me with wisdom? Yeah right, like anything I had done in the last day had been wise.
"And the other?"
He shrugged. "We are not sure." He stroked a finger down the bridge of my nose. "Do you feel better informed now?"
"At least I understand some of why this is happening to me. Why you"re so eager to be with me."
"No matter how you try to reason it, you belong to me and I to you. No matter what has happened in the past, or future forces that will try to keep us apart. Lochlann will return and take his rightful place. Then I can focus on helping you become who you are destined to be."
Who was I destined to be? I didn"t feel ready to hear what I knew was coming, and I threw a question at him before he could continue.
"We are immortal?"
"We live for millennia, but are relatively easy to kill if damaged quickly enough so we cannot heal." Contempt entered his tone. "Vampires are immortal."
Uh oh. No. I did not want to talk about vampires.
"It"s too heavy, let"s change topic," I said hastily. "Tell me why you left the Tribe, I want to understand what I"m facing. Were you just following Lochlann?"
"The decision was mine, and I made it. The Tribe is made up of simple fairies trying to live their lives. There are a core few devoted to Devlin and his way of life. These influence and control the rest. It is because of them demonkind is experiencing the darker side of the fairy race." He face was sad. "It"s their nature which leads them to dominate. To twist things for their own gains."
"They"re evil," I said.
"Yes," he replied bluntly. "I will not pretend that my brother is a saint, but he wants peace. Lochlann wishes to bring back the old ways."
I pressed my fingertips to his face; let them trail along his scar to his jaw, careful this time for my talons not to scratch him.
"And you think that will be a good thing?"
He shrugged. "It cannot be worse than how we are now."
"Lochlann is losing. He was hoping to have two amulets, but now he has none and the Tribe has one." Breandan stiffened and his jaw cracked beneath my hand. "Apart from you, the rebels have no clue where any of the amulets are, but Devlin knows I have a piece." At the surprise and hesitation I caught pa.s.sing his face, something clicked for me. "Lochlann knows," I said. "He thinks he knows where one is. That"s why he left so suddenly, isn"t it?"
I had my own suspicions as to where an amulet piece was, but if Lochlann had left his entire rebel force to go find it, surely I was wrong.
Breandan shrugged, not bothering to deny it. "He would not leave us for such a long time if it wasn"t important."
"You should have told me all this." My hand dropped as my face became as mad as my voice. "I"ve been fumbling around in the dark." I pressed a hand to the s.p.a.ce beneath my collarbones where the amulet piece lay. "I"ve been a target this whole time and you didn"t warn me."
"I"m protecting you. We didn"t want you worrying about your birthright. Concentrate on getting used to your true form."
"G.o.ds, Breandan, enough already. Be plain, what is my birthright?"
"If I knew you would not overreact I would. As it stands, you had better ask Conall the next time you see him."
Resting my forehead on his chest, I smelt the woods he liked to run in. Head b.u.t.ting it hard, I placed my hands on his sides.
"You can"t protect me from everything. I need to know these things sooner rather than later. You put me in more danger by keeping me in the dark."
"Yes I can," he said matter of fact. "I may have failed my brother and my sister, but I will not fail you."
At the mention of Maeve, I froze. My heart sunk to somewhere below the soles of my feet.
"Why do you think you have failed your sister?"
"Maeve has not returned. When one of us goes missing for so long-" He sighed. "No. It does me no good to think such thoughts."
Leaning away I saw the pain in his eyes. Clasping my hands around him I pressed my eyes closed, and listened to the truth I desperately wanted to say crawling around my head. He needed to know what had happened to her, but he was already so upset about losing the amulet piece entrusted to him, which in a way was my fault too. If he hadn"t been so distracted by me crashing around in the woods, lost, he would have been more on guard to defend against the thief.
"I"m trouble," I said. "One day you will hate me for it."
Breandan pulled me away to kiss my eyelids, forehead and cheeks. "You"re mine," he said. "The one thing I want for myself, and I could never hate you." A gush of warm air down my throat made me smile. He stroked the bridge of my nose and followed his finger with kisses. "There is danger for you everywhere. Devlin is convinced you are key to the future. And you are right. He knows you have an amulet, but he cannot just take it. It must be given freely. The Tribe will try to take you from me, but together we are safe."
His words made me feel ill. I was lying to him, and all he wanted was for me to feel safe. I didn"t deserve his trust. After all, I hadn"t given him all of mine. Before he could kiss my lips, I darted away.
Soon, I heard the tinkling of water, and came to a small stream. It was lovely, the craggy rocks and clear, crisp water. I drank until I was satisfied, and wiped my mouth on the back of my hand.
Something bright and golden caught my gaze in the gla.s.sy waters reflection.
My skin glowed. Ear tips slender, and elongated to points peeked through my wild halo of hair. I took out the twig holding it up, and it cascaded down, the inky tips resting slickly across my back. My tail snaked through the air over my shoulder, and my wings rustled. They were gold. Not a light brown or pretty hazel but dark, powerful gold that matched my eyes and wrapped around my shapely body. My mouth opened to gasp and I saw the brilliance of my teeth, sharp and fang like. The small whimper of sound that escaped sounded like c.h.i.n.king crystal. My eyes, sparkling pools of light, widened. I hesitantly ran a finger over my shapely jaw, and tilted my head slightly to the side. My profile was sleeker, yet softer and more regal. I looked beautiful and I took my own breath away. I was scary, a demon.
"Rae." Breandan"s voice was smooth and warm. He waited for me a few paces away.
It was this moment I realized how much I needed him safe. He was in danger, because Devlin wanted him dead. There had to be something, some way to keep him safe. The thought sent an icy chill down my spine. It was the first time in my life I had ever thought of someone else"s wellbeing before my own, and how was I supposed to protect him from forces I barely understood?
He jumped over the pool and landed on the other side, dislodging a few pebbles that rolled down and plopped into the water. The ripples that fanned out distorted my reflection.
Breandan"s face was lit up, glowing with excitement. "Enough doom, follow me," he said.
I lost myself. We raced the thunder to where the lightening had struck. It was Breandan"s favorite game. We pushed each other about playfully, and played a demented game of hide and seek. Demented, because we could sense each other. There was nowhere to hide. I came to a stop, my chest heaving and breath coming hard. I pressed my front against a tree and waited. Strong arms enveloped me from behind, and I forgot I was in the embrace of a powerful demon as the storm raged around us. I pushed Breandan away and twirled. Hands spread, head flung back, I giggled as I tripped over my own foot. He caught me before I fell, and chuckled, cradling me in his arms.
Was being a demon meant to be fun? I still felt like me, like the Rae I always had been, just with a few extras.
"Thank you for explaining," I said, genuinely grateful. I gripped his shoulder to beam into his luminous face. For the first time that day, everything didn"t look so dark.
"I know you wish to be normal, human, but soon you will see there is nothing better than what you are." He set me on my feet and scrubbed a hand over his head. "When Lochlann returns we will be able to spend more time together, having fun." His eyebrows pulled together and his face became thoughtful. "I worry I"m not doing this thing properly. I"ve never been bound to another before."
Biting back a smile, on an impulse I pressed my fingers to his face. He lifted my other hand to press it to his heart.
"It"s not bad," I admitted. "I thought it would be, but the more I think about it, the less scary being tied to you seems."
The, thing between us was complicated and tricky. I still hadn"t told him about Maeve or the vampire-boy in my wardrobe. The thought distracted me, and tugged me from the dreamlike state I was in. I needed to get back to Temple. Tomas was probably beyond p.i.s.sed off right now and pacing my room like a caged predator.
Breandan smiled wickedly, clearly delighted. He stole a kiss and jogged backward. His face filled with mischief.
"A race," he suggested and crooked his finger at me playfully.
I grinned; skipped to join him then ran, hearing his laughter behind me. I noticed my sense of direction since I had become a demon was stellar. My centre of gravity was rooted to everything around me. I moved and it shifted in relation to the direction of north. I knew how far I was from water, a deep cave or from a high place.
I got back first and wondered if he had let me win. Stomping my boots, mirroring the pound of my heartbeat, I did more happy spins, waiting to get dizzy and for Breandan to come catch me. Round and round I spun.
A figure, darker than the coming night stepped from the gloom and motioned to me.
I stopped dead.
Head spinning, a cry of panic was already bubbling in my throat. I drew in a deep breath, and reached to the Source. Not the best of ideas since I was hardly proficient, having only used it a few times before, but I was facing evil and it was no time to be scared of what I was, or what I could do.
A warm hand closed around my waist and pulled me back, shielded me.
My lungs collapsed, and a squawk of alarm was replaced with knee watering relief. I released my hold on the energy I"d gathered, felt it flow in a warm stream of power from my fingertips.
Breandan, eyes flashing blue fire stepped forward.