He didn"t like that. He darted in front of me and pushed me back by the shoulder. It was not meant to hurt me, or knock me down, but in his anger he went to far. I tried to swing the force from falling to my advantage, and roll back up, but I was not nearly skilled enough. I hit the floor face first, and spat a leaf out of my mouth. Huh. Looked like we were going to have it out right there and then. I had wanted to give him some time, since he"d only just been brought back from the brink of death, but clearly he had something to get off his chest. Getting annoyed at his high-handedness would get me nowhere. We"d been here before too, him pulling and chucking me around like I was unbreakable.
I stood up and faced him. "What do you remember?" I asked shortly. "After the explosion what do you remember?"
He paused, eyes far away. A spasm rippled across his features as his eyes flicked to me. "There was pain in my stomach and my strength was gone. The pain was from iron." He shuddered. "I heard you call to me but I could not answer then there was darkness."
"That"s it?"
"Then, there was more pain. Mine and yours." His eyes sparked anger. "You shared all you are to keep me alive. Do not do it again."
"No," I said and looked him in the eye. "I know my own mind, I can-"
"-take care of myself," he finished. He sighed and looked away, eyes becoming unfocused. His brows mashed together. I didn"t like how it scrunched his eyes and smoothed out the furrows. "Conall healed me," he continued. "It was unpleasant. Then there was only you. You glowed like the sun." His face had taken on a look of awe.
I shook my head; worried he got it wrong. "Not me," I corrected. "You glowed, not me."
His eyes softened. "Trust me, your light is like no other. I woke to find you whole. Close to me."
He smiled and I blinked. His teeth were sharper than normal teeth, fang-like. Even shown in a smile they were scary. I ran my tongue around my mouth and corrected myself. Our teeth were fang-like.
"You want me to fill in the blanks?" He nodded. I thought about how best to break everything to him. "You want the good or the bad first?"
"I am aware the vampire has fed from you." His jaw was tight with distaste. "He attacked you?"
My anger had cooled down some, and I hesitated. I took my worry out on my bottom lip. "Tomas saved me," I said slowly, knowing his pride was going to swell and shatter the peace. "He saved you.
He stiffened. "No."
"You owe him your life."
"I owe that scavenger nothing."
"You"re not thinking clearly. You"re seeing things warped by jealousy."
"Jealousy." His face was incredulous. "I am not jealous of that-"
I put my hands over my ears. "Don"t."
His body quaked with repressed anger as he struggled to contain his reaction. "You and I are bonded. Do you understand what that means?" Teeth clamped together his words sounded short and punchy.
"Yes, and I accept it."
"Then how could you do this?" He roared. "You hid the monster the we tried to protect you from, the monster that killed my sister."
Eyes wide, I shook my head. "No," I said and sucked in a breath. "Breandan, you can"t blame him for something he had no part in."
"His scent was all over the forest. We found a pool of Maeve"s blood and nothing else makes sense."
He needed to know the truth. If not he would hunt Tomas, and I couldn"t have that.
"I never lied to you, but I never told you the truth," I said and swallowed hard. "I"m not good, y"know, and I never pretended to be. Maeve," I said, coming round to the point. "She"s dead and I watched her die." The words tumbled into the empty air and hung heavy. Remnants of confusion drained from Breandan"s face, leaving a mask of pure horror, and the expression was horrible to see. I cast my gaze down to the floor. "This morning, when you found me, I was running from the Clerics that killed her. I found them torturing her. She saw me, even in the dark and she told me to run." Evidence of my pain streamed down my cheeks and ran into my mouth. "It"s my fault. They shot her, and it"s my fault."
"No. My fault." He sc.r.a.pped a hand over his face, eyes burning. "Maeve was there because I was obsessed with keeping you safe. She was too young for such a charge, to guard you, but she is so stubborn and persistent and I-"
His face crumpled, his body was racked with a sob.
"I"m sorry," I said and reached to touch him.
He flinched so hard it shocked me to still. Growling darkly, he backed away from me. The silence stretched on and on and on, and I thought I would drown in the hurt in his eyes I scrubbed at my cheeks. "Please," I whispered. "Please, understand why I couldn"t tell you. I was afraid. You were this strange demon and I was lost. You were showing me the way back to safety. If I told you what had happened you know you would have done something regrettable."
His fingers curled into claws and a wild look twisted his face. "You knew how I worried, and you knew she was my sister. You, said, nothing."
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, to explain but there were no words. What I had done was selfish and cruel. I was a coward. I reached out to him again and he knocked my hand away. He paced before striding up to me and clamping his hands down on my arms. He stared into my face and squeezed me until I thought my bones would break. Instinct took over. I pulled my lips back to bare my teeth as a hiss rumbled out of my throat. I held my ground until his face fell into some semblance of human again. Storm clouds rolled in Breandan"s eyes and lighting flashed in mine, but then the desire to fight him drained. I was left empty. His eyes widened, realizing his grip was hurting me, and he dropped my arms as if contact with me would infect him.
"You break my heart," he said and clenched his fists, looking up at the dark tree canopy. He took a series of short, sharp breaths, and when he looked at me he was composed. "We don"t have time to waste bickering. Let"s go."
"I want to talk. To explain."
He turned away. "Must you fight me on everything?"
"Now you understand that Tomas had nothing to do with it. He helped me, carried you to safety. When I thought you were-" I couldn"t say it. The memory was too horrible and cast a shadow over the joy of having him safe, with me. "I was a mess and I couldn"t think straight. Don"t you see we both would have died without him? He pulled me together."
"And before then, when you first met him? You knew I hunted him."
I shrugged helplessly. "I did the only thing I could. A vampire cornered me and told me he was not going to kill me, but wanted to talk. I was terrified, and he behaved so well before I knew it I was agreeing to hide him."
Apart from a tightening of the eyes he was calm. "There is more." It was a simple statement of fact. "He did not feed from you the first time you met. I would have known it."
My face pinched in preparation and my eyes welled with repressed worry. "You"ll be mad."
His were impatient. "I need to know, to decide how to act." His finger tapped my chin up. "Tell me."
"He needs my help."
He held my eyes, disapproval stamped across his features. "This relationship you have with him, it cannot last. Our kinds do not mix."
"How did you know?"
He looked away and sighed. "It was obvious that he cared for you. Such a creature of darkness could not feel such a thing without it being returned." His face became blank and his eyes blazed. "I will kill him if he dares to touch you ever again." His eyes gentled. "Come, we can go now to the Grove. You wanted to go."
"Breandan"
He remained silent but his grip on my chin tightened.
My foolishness p.r.i.c.ked like thorns. "Have you never done anything stupid for someone you-"
He chuckled. "What? Love?" With a snort, he released my chin to brush his fingers along my collarbone. His mood swings didn"t surprise me anymore, so I smiled up at him tentatively. "You should know something. Devlin was right about you being part of the Tribe. In the eyes of fairy law, my claim on you does not have to be honored unless you swear fealty to my brother. Because our union is not lawful our bond is weak. What you feel for the vampire is the result of this. When our bond is sealed any feeling for him will be overwhelmed by your love for me." He grimaced. "Will you swear fealty to my brother? Was he kind to you?"
My mouth dropped as I remembered the proud face so familiar yet strange to me. If Breandan"s raw energy and beauty were refined, and hardened the result would be Lochlann, Breandan"s older brother and leader of the rebels had returned. And what did he come back to? His brother in company with a vampire and the silly fairy he"d bonded to practicing dangerous magic, after nearly destroying his rebellion. And I had wondered what his problem with me was.
Breandan shifted and looked apologetic. "He can be over protective at times."
The air in my throat caught. "He came back. I- I have to be honest, I didn"t expect him to, did you?"
"Oh yes." He covered my hand, holding it to his face and a dark smile played on his lips. "He was not happy when he learned of our connection, but do not worry, he will accept us. I will make it so. We have the amulet of wisdom and that will please him, even if he does not show it."
I laid my hand over my pendant and grimaced. Breandan thought I was going to be handing it over. He thought wrong.
A rash excitement was lighting Breandan"s eyes up. "Are you ready to begin your new life? I have so much to show you."
I sucked in a deep breath, my chest puffing out. "Don"t you dare think because you"re all gorgeous and perfect I"ll start following you around and doing everything you say because I"m mated to you. I won"t hide behind you like a love struck fool every time there"s a fight. I want to learn magic, how other fairies fight and how to defend what"s mine. And don"t think I won"t question you and Lochlann"s logic because, I got news for you-"
His hand tugged my chin forward. "Stop talking."
I became still as he closed the distance between us. "Breandan," I said his name as his lips silenced mine.
He kissed me, slow and gentle. Then he was grabbing at my hips and biting my lip. When he pulled away my lids were cast to half-mast and my lips bruised.
"Oh," I said and whimpered as he smirked, tugged on my arm.
We ran again, and I could not stop smiling. Then when I stopped I was in the Grove and I positively beamed.
It was nothing special, the same trees of the forest and the same star speckled sky. I stepped forward and nearly walked into a side of roasted pig hung high from a tree. What made me smile was the fairy-children dressed in knee length tunics, swinging from hammocks, and slumbering peacefully. Snuggled into their mother"s side. I peeked at a few and cooed at their rosy cheeks and soft crowns of hair. Many of the fairy-women were dressed in heavy fabrics, jeans, jumpers and thick plaid shirts. The popular hairstyle of choice seemed to be up in a sloppy bun. Well I"d fit right in. The men slept below on the floors under their women in coa.r.s.e blankets. To the back there was a large tent. A fire crackled and popped outside it. The Grove looked like any other campsite, but the campers had pointed ears and glowed with an inner light.
The smile slid from my face as Conall stepped into my path.
"No," I said and stomped my foot. "No, because I just got here and I am tired and dirty and grumpy. So no."
His small smile was apologetic. "Lochlann wants to speak to you."
"Later," I gritted through my teeth. "I need some sleep and something to eat, if you wouldn"t mind. Is there somewhere I could wash up?
"Lochlann wants to see you," he repeated.
I snorted and looked at Breandan for back up. My heart sunk. "We can"t go sleep, can we?" He shook his head. "We have to go see your brother right now, don"t we?" He nodded. I sighed and made a "move it along" motion with my hands. "Lead the way, Conall. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can sleep.
Chapter Nine.
Fingers entwined and shoulder"s brushing as we walked, Breandan and I entered Lochlann"s tent and stopped in the centre.
He paced the paced in front of us, eyes narrowed and chest heaving. "Finally, you are here, and I can begin judgment. Did you get lost on your way here?"
Breandan did not answer. Clearly, the question was rhetoric.
I however had something to say, "What do you mean, judgment?"
"You will not speak unless spoken to." Lochlann"s voice cracked like a whip.
It took a beat for me to recover from the shock of being told pipe down so rudely. "Who to the G.o.ds do you think you"re talking to? I"m not one of your rebels. You can"t talk to me that way, or boss me about and expect me to obey."
He stopped pacing and looked deliberately from my face, to my fingers wrapped around Breandan"s. "My younger brother is sworn to me. Your attachment to him makes you part of my court."
"Like h.e.l.l it does," I fired back. "What Breandan and I do is none of your business."
Lochlann had intimidated me when I"d first met him, but not anymore. Two people had tried to kill me. I was p.i.s.sed, tired, had a full bladder, an empty stomach and he was making it worse. It was hard for me to keep a semblance of calm when Breandan had only just been healed, and I had been parted from my vampire-boy. He was pushing all the wrong b.u.t.tons at the wrong time.
Lochlann seethed at me silently for a moment before his face went blank. Instead of relaxing I put up all my mental guards; I was used to this behavior. Breandan did it when he planned to manipulate me.
My eyes wandered and landed on Conall who smiled encouragingly. I managed a tight grimace in return.
Lochlann held out his hand. "The amulet of wisdom, give it to me."
"No," I said.
He blinked and frowned. "I want to see it. You can have it back."
"I said no."
He watched me for a while then said, "You saw my sister before she was taken captive?"
"Killed," I said slowly and carefully. "I saw Maeve as Clerics killed her."
He pressed his eyes shut, c.o.c.ked his head then shook it. "I feel her. She is alive. I would know the moment of my sibling"s death."
Breandan nodded in agreement. "She is still with us. Hidden and bound by iron."
That was news to me, and why hadn"t he said so before. I knew fairies had amazing powers of recovery, but could we survive a bullet to the chest? Maeve had looked pretty dead to me. I didn"t say this, of course, out of respect.
"The humans have gone too far this time. They will pay. My sister will be retuned. We will give them one chance to free her, or we shall take her back by force."
I didn"t like where this was heading.
"Hold on. You can"t be so general in your d.a.m.nation, and you can"t start throwing around ultimatums." Breandan squeezed my hand, hard and I shot him a look. "Don"t be trying to silence me. There are good people at the Temple. Yes, Lord Cleric Tu and the Lady Cleric were wrong, but not all humans think like them." I kept it to myself that a fair portion did.
"We did not start this."
"You should defuse the situation, not rile it up. I"m telling you if you march up to the Wall and start shouting demands it won"t be received well. The Priests will feel threatened, and they will send the Clerics."
"I will kill anyone who stands between me and my kin."
"Lochlann, I think it"s great you care about your family, but hurting people in their name-"