Blood Kin (17 page)

“So, talk to us, Niko,” I said. “What do you mean by large? Weren’t there only a few handfuls of vampires at the ranch?”

“The ranch is not the only location for our tribe, Keira.
We have other branches, in the UK, other places throughout the EU.”

“Now you tell me?”

“It wasn’t my place.”

“Did you know?” I asked Tucker, who was staring at Niko.

“No,” he said. “No one ever told me.”

Niko put his hands up. “I am sorry. I—” He touched Tucker’s arm. “Tucker, I am not used to having someone I can trust with our—”

“Secrets?” I wasn’t angry. I totally understood Niko’s position. As for Adam … if I knew the extent of the Kelly holdings, all the convoluted political machinations, allies, treaties and bonds, would I share them with Adam?

A sobering thought struck me. As the Kelly heir, I’d probably be expected to learn all this shite. Damn.

“Look, this is not the time or place for this talk,” I said. “Adam and whatever he’s doing is going to have to wait. We’re on a mission here.” I tugged Rhys’ arm. “Shall we keep looking?”

Rhys nodded, his uncomfortable look changing to one of anticipation. “Niko and Tucker, why don’t you guys go around to the east and south. We’ll go west and north—see what we find. If you feel anything, sense anything, call. Meet back up here in about an hour?”

We all nodded. “Once more unto the breach,” I said.

W
E TRUDGED BACK
to the condo building, having found nothing and no one that even vaguely felt Sidhe. A lot of lookalikes, with the music festival going full swing by ten p.m., but no one of magickal means other than ourselves. We’d called it a night around three a.m. At one point during our search, Dad had called and pleaded another delay. He and Isabel wouldn’t be in Vancouver until at least morning.

“I’m beginning to think we’re spinning our wheels,” I said as I punched the penthouse button in the elevator. “Maybe we
should
give up. Daffyd’s not only grown, but he’s at least as old as you two.” I motioned toward Tucker and Rhys. “If he chooses not to be found, then so be it.”

“He’s both grown and old enough,” Tucker said. “I’m at a loss for what to do, also. Perhaps Keira is right. We should let it, and him, be.”

“I’m for that,” Rhys said. “We’ve done all we can for now … unless we want to call in the Horsemen.”

“Yeah, right,” I said. “And what would we say, exactly, to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police? Hey, we’ve lost a faery and—” I stepped out of the elevator and opened the door to the penthouse. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Behind me, Rhys laughed. “I’m sure the Mounties wouldn’t feel that was appropri—”

Adam Walker stood inside, standing at the edge of the living area, as if he belonged there.

I blinked my eyes and shook my head. Well then, that was one question answered. Adam could still shield from me. I hadn’t felt his presence.

“Keira.”

No, visions tended not to sound as if they were in the same room I was. Without looking at the others, I continued on into the apartment, pushing past Adam. My brothers and Niko followed behind me, each of them speechless.

I stopped when I reached the center of the living room. “Adam, I’m not sure I get this,” I said, turning to face him. “Lance called—”

“Yes, I asked him to,” he said. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“Well, that worked.” I threw up my hands. “But how are you—”

Niko spoke up. “Yes, how are you, indeed?”

“Here,” I finished, glaring at Niko. “In Vancouver.”

Rhys frowned. “How did you get in the building?”

“I can explain everything. Shall we sit?” Adam said, and walked on into the main living area. “I apologize for the sudden appearance, Keira, Nikolai, Tucker.” He inclined his head toward Rhys. “I suppose you are another Kelly?”

“My brother Rhys,” I said and sat on one of the couches. Adam sat next to me. Niko and Tucker settled on the couch opposite. Rhys chose to perch on the arm of the couch next to Niko. Odd that they should choose to flank Niko instead of me. Not that I minded; I could most definitely handle myself—whatever weird reasoning Adam might have for showing up unannounced.

Adam took my hand. I couldn’t suppress the electric
thrill that ran through me at his touch, energy snapping into place, establishing a balance I hadn’t realized I’d been missing. Immediately, I felt more at ease, less unsettled. Damn. Not only was I reacting as if we’d been apart for weeks instead of days, Liz had been so right about the energy bond, or whatever.

“I missed you, Keira,” he said, his voice dropping to that melted dark chocolate tone I knew so well. “After you left, I had a change of heart. I hurried to finish some business, then chartered a plane.”

“You couldn’t have realized that before we left?” I pulled my hand away, not wanting his touch to distract me. Oh sarcasm, how I missed you.

Adam smiled at me, knowing I was hiding my joy and confusion in my usual snarktastic self. “I was stupid,” he admitted. “I let my sense of responsibility override what I knew to be right.” There was that word again: responsibility—something that caused normally balanced and sane people to do things that didn’t make sense … like leave your girlfriend to face an uncertain future by herself, while you stayed behind to be “responsible.” It was no wonder that I didn’t particularly want to find out what new responsibilities were ahead of me.

“A change of heart.” Niko’s own voice was full of the same sarcasm that colored mine. Except I could tell his wasn’t backed up by joy, but by suspicion. What did Niko know—or suspect—that I didn’t?

Adam’s face remained neutral as he regarded his second. “Yes,” he said, voice as expressionless as his face. “I changed my mind.”

“And the tribe?” Niko pressed. “Everything is fine, Nikolai,” Adam insisted. “You know I would not leave otherwise.”

“Then I ask the same question as Keira,” Niko said. “Why now? Why not two days ago?”

Adam said nothing, but continued to regard Niko with that “I am king” look—neutral, no challenge, a reminder that no matter what, he was the leader and his word was law.

The silence continued, Adam staring, Niko staring back. The rest of us remained quiet. I didn’t want to get in the middle of a vampire fight—been there, done that. Not something I cared to do again. Seconds stretched into minutes. Behind me, the hum/tick of a clock was the only sound, other than our breaths.

“So, Adam … how exactly
did
you know where to find us?” Rhys finally broke the tension. He didn’t repeat his earlier question.

Rhys had a point. I’d never told Adam the location of the condo. When I’d left voice mail, I’d only said we were stuck in Vancouver because of weather and would be at the Kelly condo. Neither the penthouse nor the building was listed under the Kelly name specifically, but under one of our holding companies. I didn’t even know which one. Ciprian kept all that information and frankly, I’d never been all that interested in the details.

Adam blinked and smiled at Rhys. “Your father told me.”

“Say what?” I turned in my seat to face him directly. “You talked to my dad? When? How do you even know him to talk to him?”

Adam relaxed back into the couch, a picture of confidence. “Your father remained in touch with me after Marty’s death, Keira. He wanted me to keep an eye on you. He knew you were more affected than you were allowing to show.”

I stood up and walked a few steps away, then back. “You knew my father well enough to stay in touch?”

After a moment, Adam answered. “When you left London,” he began, “I petitioned your leader to help find you. By then, though, they’d all gone to Canada and were no longer in Texas.”

I was dumbfounded. When Adam had shown up in Texas he had acted as if he thought I was human. Now he was telling me he not only knew I was Other, but that he was acquainted with my family.

He sat there, studying me in silence, then continued after I gestured, speechless, for him to continue. How this was playing out, I didn’t know, but I needed to hear the rest.

“Minerva refused to tell me where you were, but I managed to communicate with your father. He had no qualms about telling me you had returned to Texas. That’s how I initially found you in Rio Seco. Then Marty died and your father contacted me. We’ve spoken since then a few times. Last night, I rang him so I could get information as to your location here in Vancouver.”

“You stayed with me because my
father
told you to keep an eye on me?” Could this really be true? Everything I’d thought for the past half a year was wrong? I thought Adam loved me, fought for me, risked his life for me. Now, here I was finding out that for some bizarre reason in some not-so-random twist of fate, Adam Walker and Huw Kelly had been BFF for years. And that my wonderful father, in all his absentminded glory, had encouraged Adam to become my boyfriend.

“That’s not at all what I’m saying, Keira,” Adam said, his voice taking the patient tone that I detested in adults. It was as if he were talking to a cranky child. I might be
cranky, but I’m definitely no child. At this rate, it’d be a hell of a long time before the softer side of this Kelly returned.

“So what are you telling me, then? That Dad had nothing to do with
this
?” And by
this
, I meant our relationship
and
the fact that he’d followed me to Vancouver, changed his mind after giving me extremely valid reasons why he wouldn’t accompany me. “What changed, Adam? First you tell me you can’t come, then you show up several hours after we arrive with some lame-ass excuse.”

He started to interrupt, but I held my hand up. “No way, buster, I’m getting my say in first.” He closed his mouth and nodded, keeping his expression completely neutral. Damn it, I hated the fact that he and Niko could both do that so well. Must be the vampire in them.

“As much as I’d like to believe I’m that irresistible, I highly doubt that you up and chartered your own plane almost immediately after I left you so you could join us here on a whim. Something happened in that time that changed your mind. The only guess I have is your conversation with my father, a man I never even knew you knew. Hell, when I first figured you for a vampire … when we first got reacquainted in Rio Seco, you acted as if you had no idea I was not human, let alone anything about the Clan. When I was trying to explain about my family, you even pretended to not know about shapeshifters!” I shook my head. “Has all this been a game to you? I don’t get this. Any of it.” I looked at my brothers. “Why on earth did the both of you keep this from me? Tucker? Rhys?”

My brothers were still gaping at Adam and me. With a slow shake of his head, Tucker answered. “Keira, I know no more than you do. First time I’d even heard of Adam
was when you told me about him in Rio Seco. You never even mentioned him during your London stay.”

“I’m afraid we’re all completely baffled, Adam,” Niko said, a note of anger in his voice. “I’ve been your second for more than a century. We’ve shared everything … or so I thought.”

I sank into the closest chair. I couldn’t be on the couch with Adam. Not Niko, too. If anyone had known about this, I would’ve expected Niko to be the one. He was right. As Adam’s second, he should know everything. That was kind of the point of being the second. Ready to step in should anything happen to Adam—as it almost did a few days ago.

“Is everyone done?” The wry tone didn’t escape me. Mr. Neutral Vampire’s emotions were bleeding through.

We all remained silent and let him speak.

“First, I did not share my relationship with your father, as he requested me to keep silent,” Adam began. I started to say something, but, as I had, he put up his hand to stop my questions. “Please, allow me the same courtesy I allowed you, Keira. Let me finish. Some three or four years ago, when I first met you,” he said, “I knew there was something about you. Something I wanted to know more about. In trying to discover more about you, I stumbled across your family. Well, stumbled being less exact than that, actually. I reconnected with your family.”

“Reconnected?”
I squeaked, the word escaping before I could stop. Tucker’s mouth dropped open as he, too, fell into a nearby chair. Niko’s frown turned into a scowl, lines on his forehead deepening as Adam explained.

“I’d met some of your family before,” said Adam. “And I met your parents before you were born.”

“Did you just say you knew my parents? As in
both
of
them? Oh, do not tell me this is some godawful disgusting thing like you knew me in the womb and imprinted or something gross like that,” I blurted out. “By all the things that are holy and un-, you are seriously not going there, are you?”

“When you were—” Adam looked puzzled. “What—oh my, that’s not—absolutely not,” he said. “This isn’t some badly written young adult stalker romance, Keira. I met your parents during a … let’s call it a political meeting—before you were even conceived. And as to not knowing about shapeshifters—not one member of your family ever let on. I was absolutely honest with you about that.”

I eyed him warily, unsure of what to believe. “Okay, I’ll give you shapeshifters … we’ve been known to hide a lot about ourselves, but a political meeting? Sorry, I’m just trying to get over the whole idea that you knew—after London—that I wasn’t human, that my family—”

“I’m sorry, Keira. I did deceive you.” Adam nodded. “But I also did not realize you were going through the Change until that first time we touched. I had no idea you were coming into your family heritage. It … took me off guard. As for me knowing your family … I should have told you, I know. But there were implications you couldn’t understand.”

“Politics,” Tucker said with a grimace. “I get it. You not only met Keira’s parents, but Gigi, as well. Summit meeting, I take it? You represented the vampires?”

I stared at Adam, trying to decipher what he was going to say next. He let me look into his eyes for a brief second, then just as quickly looked away.

“Not specifically,” he said after a moment. He raised his head and looked directly at Tucker first, then Niko, then me, then back to Tucker. “At the time, more than thirty-eight
years ago, many of the leaders in the supernatural world were called together. Not for the first time, but this was the most recent of the times. And yes, by your Clan chief,” he said as he caught my questioning look. “Minerva Kelly put out a call to all of us, whether vampire, wer, fey … anyone who could claim to be outside the so-called normal world. Niko was in Greece at the time, handling some of our own business. Since I was not attending as a representative of the vampires, per se, I did not involve him. A distant connection of ours, one of the London tribe, came to formally represent our people.” He paused and looked at me before continuing. “Keira, I know that I should have told you this before—”