Demon Girl (24 page)

The fairy-man returned the gesture though his
mouth pressed into a thin line and a vein in his neck bulged.
“Whatever debt she owes you for your help will be paid. You have my
word, but you cannot come where we are to go.”

I studied his face and wondered who he was.
Clearly he was an oath-sworn rebel, to have come with Conall. He
couldn’t be older than his mid twenties in human years, making him
ancient as a fairy. He felt dangerous, vicious. In comparison
Conall’s presence was timid.

“You know boy-vampire,” he continued. “When a
fairy speaks it can only speak the truth.”

I blinked at that. I’d lied out of my ass a
thousand times before.

“Yes, I know this. Just as I know Rae will do
her best to return to me.”

I felt my face flush and my heart thump too
hard. He was standing up for me, and I liked that he had such a
high opinion.

Breandan tipped my face to his and peered at
me. I avoided his eyes.

“Let’s go,” he said. He released me and
stood, slowly, nodding his head at Conall to say thank you. The
fairies drifted a few paces away then waited for me.

Tomas and I stared at each other. We had been
through so much together in so short a time. To be parted from him
would hurt me, I was sure of it.

He saw my confusion. “Go with your kind,” he
said.

I stood, and rubbed my hands on my thighs. I
avoided looking at him. “Where will you go?”

“Back to my nest.”

“Uh, you’ll be okay? I mean, you’ll make it
back there with no problems? I’d hate for anything to…it’s just I
don’t like the idea of… ” Gods, it was pathetic. Why could I not
just spit it out?

He stepped closer. “You owe me,” he said in a
low voice.

“I’ll see you again, and pay my debt. I
promise.” A bird screeched nearby and I looked to the east. I
frowned, worried. The sky was getting much lighter. “You’ll need to
find a dark place.”

He reached for my hand. “A safe place.”

“Rae,” Breandan called. “Come now.”

Tomas stopped reaching for my hand, and
instead leaned forward to whisper into my ear, “I’ll find you.”

He blended into the shadows and was gone.
There was a peculiar feeling on my mouth. I pressed my fingers to
my lips and they were cold, plumping back up as if they had given
under pressure.

When I turned round, Conall beckoned to me
with a grin, and took off behind the fairy-man. Breandan waited for
me then we ran too. My thoughts lingered on Tomas. Our goodbye had
felt wrong. Incomplete.

Breandan ran for a long time without saying a
word and that was fine by me. He kept sneaking looks my way.
Opening then closing his mouth. Sighing. He said, “Will you explain
why I feel a connection between you and the vampire?”

“No,” I said simply. “It’s separate, from us
and not something I can discuss with you.”

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 scrapped 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 pricked 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 coarse 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.