Bones Of Contention: The McKinnon Legends - The American Men Book 3 (18 page)

She did have two verifiable half sisters. However, they were not children by any of her father’s Sidhe wives. All right, she conceded, so her father did get around a lot, just not with other Olympic goddesses who were his sisters. That was just repulsive, especially since she knew what her aunts looked like.

Yep, definitely, she thought, she was glad she took after her mother’s side of the family in the looks department. As a child on the one meeting she had with her father’s family, she had trouble telling her aunt Phoebe from her uncle Oceanus. It was embarrassing now that she thought about it. Thank God her father had much better taste than Greek history gave him credit for. Her mother was beautiful.

So, her father, never having conceived with his other Fae wives within the underworld realm of the Fae, named her his heir.

Her father was King Kronos, and what he would bequeath to her was the very throne of the Fae Peoples. He was not just any king. He was
the king
, ruling for over twenty thousand years. That, she mused, was a very long time in Fairy time. She had no idea how many thousands of millennia that would translate to here up on the topside. According to mythology he was the youngest of the twelve original Titans to have dominion over the earth, and because of petty jealousies and rivalries, he was banished from Olympus by the younger gods long before man’s memory was formed.

That much was sort of true, she supposed.

Fact is stranger than fiction in this instance. Truth, according to her father, was that the mountain had just become too confining and conventional. With too much family togetherness for his liking and with no hope of his ascending to the thrown with eleven other brothers and sisters and numerous other offspring of said brothers and sisters, he found his own fields to cultivate and sow.

Crowned by the Sidhe Fae as their leader, Kronos reigned justly and fairly over his subjects, protecting them and keeping them safe from the other more cruel forces of the Earth, his brothers and sisters included.

Later, he kept them safe from the humans and from themselves. Before her father arrived civil war was always a threat, and petty factions fought amongst themselves for power and control. Not so after his ascension to the throne.

He was a good king, making few mistakes. She was his only mistake in many of the minds of the Fae.

She was only half human and older than she could dare admit. The effects of the underworld were strange with a day there equating to centuries passing here on the surface. She lived out her early years there in a place glittering with magic and illusion. That magic only served to hide the true danger lurking around every glistening corner.

Even if her father was well loved by his people, as the heir to the throne of the Fairy World, her mother feared for her life. It did not matter her father was king, or maybe it did. Maybe they would have left her completely alone if she were of common blood. She would never know. She was a “royal” no matter how much she chose not to dwell on it.

There were enemies within the ranks. There always were no matter the circumstances. Power was still power and all creatures, great and small, are capable of coveting it.

There were also many who deemed her unworthy to rule with her contaminated blood and lack of strong magic. She never argued, feeling they were correct. She had no desire to rule the Sidhe Fae. She could hardly keep her checkbook balanced much less run a whole world full of creatures who had political agendas all their own. Her half-sister Patricia would have been a much better fit. However, even she decided to take refuge in the Amazon rather than deal with the Fae High Court.

Nonetheless, as the rightful heir, they had to tolerate her as a child. Most overlooked her, treating her as insignificant, if not totally nonexistent.

One must understand the Fae are totally self-absorbed and beautiful beyond belief, made so by the magic they possessed. They were equal parts cold and ruthless without a warm bone in their small bodies.

Those who took notice of her were mean and nasty, critical in the extreme. However, once she reached her majority and could legitimately take the throne, everyone took notice and attempts on her life escalated.

Much to her relief, there is in existence a treaty between the Sidhe Fae and humans from a long ago society none in the twenty-first century on this side of the gate could even remember. Her mother, understanding the terms of the treaty, managed to keep the assassins at bay long enough to smuggle her to the outer world. Her mother brought her here against her father’s wishes.

Here on earth, at the time she defected, the terms of the treaty held sway. The Protectors were strong, abundant, and standing ready to defend. Then in 1640 B.C. their protection ceased, forcing her and her mother to run after the eruption of Thera decimated the Brotherhood of The Wizards' Warriors.

She and her mother ran and hid for centuries until the year 564 B.C.

The dawn of The Iron Age, circa 600BC-50AD, had further-reaching repercussions than modern man could ever fathom. Iron, a metal the Sidhe could not tolerate, was the reason the Fae fled deeper into the underworld, forever retreating into the sacred hills and mounds of Ireland, British Isles, and other Celtic nations far from their origins of Greece and beyond the Pillar of Hercules, today known as the Straights of Gibraltar.

It changed the face of the world leaving the old ways to die as the mystical creatures faded from sight and eventually faded from the memory of man as faith and art gave way to science and the clinical. Now, it was unthinkable for modern man to fathom the existence of a magical race right under their noses.

Yet, without the amulet she wore around her neck none of the Fae could cross the threshold back into this dimension. The amulet was the key, and her mother had sealed all the known doorways on this side with iron, saving her life and, in doing so, forever shut herself off from her husband, her king, and the one great love of her life. The amulet sealed the doorway from this side. Any Fae who had been here, whether by design or accident, at the time she crossed over into this world of space and time were forced to remain for all eternity unless she freed them with her life and blood neutralizing the effect of the iron on the gateways.  She was neither willing to give up her life nor her blood for a people who were hateful and could hold a grudge for ten millennia without so much as batting an eye.

“Josh? I need to tell you something,” she said snuggling deeper into his warmth.

Uh,oh, here it comes. The other shoe is about to drop, he thought, cringing and holding her closer. He wanted her to open up; now he was going to get his wish. He was dreading it. The vibes he was getting did not bode well for him.

“Whatever it is can wait, Jamie. Let’s get you warm first and then we can talk later,” he offered her a way out. It was his attempt to stall.

“No, it can’t wait, Josh,” she countered, looking deeply into his eyes and memorizing his face. This might be the final moment with him. Nevertheless and regardless of the outcome of her confession, she had to be honest. As a couple they would not last a year, much less a lifetime, unless they were honest with each other.

Her background was too deadly and out there not to be upfront with him. He had a living child to consider. If these feelings and this relationship went beyond the day and they ever shared a child, the chances of the child inheriting the magic were a fifty-fifty probability.

Even though she was not technically Fae, by the terms of the treaty the wizards granted all who were born to the realm of the Fae some magic, and the magic was reserved for and was the sole property of the Fae. If their child did hold the magic of the Fae Peoples, no matter how slight, they would demand, by right of the ancient treaty with the people of Earth, to take the child, raising him or her in the land of the Fae.

It was not a place for the faint of heart, froth with dangers of untold origins and wicked jealousies at the ability of the human spirit. Mankind can feel love and pure joy, two elemental emotions the Fae could never feel. They did not understand this basic yet complex gift possessed only by man, but coveted it all the same. Too late did the Sidhe Fae realize the true treasure the wizards could grant them was not magic, it was positive emotion.

Hating her for possessing something they were genetically unable to possess, her childhood was a mixed bag of joy and sorrow.

Her child would live in danger never fully fitting into either world, just like her, and as heir to the Sidhe Fae throne, she would be honor bound. They could force her against her will to relinquish her child by using the common bond she held with the magical race. Having no strong magic of her own to counter their demands, she would be helpless to stop them.

“No, it cannot wait,” she repeated with more conviction.

“Then neither can this,” Josh went in for the kill. He could feel her withdrawing, emotionally pulling away. Whatever it was could well drive them apart. If she was going to leave him then he would fight with the one weapon she confessed was deadly for her. What did he have to lose except her?

Josh woke. He could not feel his arm trying to flex his fingers. It was asleep. Jamie, still lying on his shoulder, was cutting off the blood to his forearm and hand.

Oh, well, he thought. It was a small price to pay for waking up with her beside him. What was even more amazing was how great they were together. The last two days had flown by with laughter, fun in and out of bed, and pure erotic pleasures. He was just beginning to delve the depths of this woman, and he loved everything about her.

He did not feel one bit guilty in his tender yet total assault on her senses. He had seduced her, pure and simple. Only now was he remembering she wanted to talk to him. However, as far as he was concerned, it could wait even longer. Whatever it was, they would work through it.

She wasn’t dying, married, divorced, or on drugs. She was not a serial killer, an alcoholic, or secret cross dresser.

She certainly was not a man. Oh, no. She was all woman.

That he knew for certain after the two days he had spent with her. Anything else would be easily worked through. After all, he had some secrets of his own he probably should divulge. His family was known for gifts of the most unusual sort, too, not that he was in possession of the ability to travel time like Gage McKinnon, the current Duke of Seabridge, the McKinnon ancestral home. He was adopted by his parents, but he was still a McKinnon. According to his mother, he was the child of a distant relation who had not been able to raise him. So the genes were there. He could well have passed that ability onto Jesse or any other children he fathered. They could talk later. Now, he was late for work.

He felt her stirring.

“What time is it? Don’t you need to go to work?” Jamie asked through sleepy eyes, brushing the golden tress from her eyelashes.

He kissed her leisurely before answering. It was time for him to go.

“Yep, and if I stay here another minute I’m going to be tempted to call in sick, something I have never done a day in my life. See how you corrupt me, love?” he asked, then kissed her again before jumping out of bed.

Padding totally naked to the shower, she did not have to wonder why she could want him again so quickly. He was physically magnificent. However, it went deeper than the physical and into a much scarier level. Sometime between his walking through her lab door and last night, he had managed to crawl deep inside her soul and park there. She could feel him in her blood and in her heart and mind.

This rare bonding is called the
Framing
to the Fae. It is where two souls become one joining together to “frame” both their lives into a single masterpiece. Somehow it fit. Nonetheless, she wondered how it was possible. Was she ready?

Jamie lay there in his bed listening to him sing some catchy tune in the shower as the song on the radio echoed off the tile. She watched the steam slowly drift across the bathroom to fog up the mirror. It made her smile. It was so mundane and so domestic. Comfortable was the word springing to mind. She had lived alone for so long; Killer did not count. Could she learn to live with someone else, someone who left hair in the sink, drank coffee way too strong, and had a job where bad guys can, and do shoot first?

Protect and Serve. It was who he was, and she would not change that even if she could.

There was no doubt she would outlive him by possibly hundreds or even thousands of years. Could she love someone that deeply just to watch him die? Would the short time they have together be worth a millennium of pain and loneliness after? She just did not know.

He was so great in so many ways. He would always be a good provider, and she was not even going to ponder how he just seemed to know all the right places to touch her. He was kind, very intelligent, funny, and sexy, which were all good things for a man to possess.

His daughter could be an obstacle, but not an insurmountable one. How hard could it be to win over a teenager compared to dodging deadly daggers and fireballs, or snakes conjured up from harmless jute rope. Her time in the Underworld had shown her all things could be managed when placed into the proper perspective. She would take Jesse shopping. All girls love to shop. It would help them bond.

And just like that, she decided even ten years of happiness was better than ten millennia of none.

She was making him coffee when he came up from behind, circling her waist and pulling her gently back against him. He kissed her hair and whispered softly in her ear as if he was sharing some special secret. “I know we may not be at the same place and I won’t pressure you, Doc, but I meant every word I said,” he reaffirmed his declaration of being deeply in love with her. Then to break the somberness of the moment, he pinched her on the ass and stepped away to put on his body armor.

“See, I knew it. You’re a naughty boy, Josh,” she teased back. Why could she not just come out and say it? Why could she not confess she was in love with him as well and see where it took them?