Blood Kin (19 page)

“When I became vampire,” he said, “at first, it seemed I lost much of my Sidhe ability. My father felt it was evident that merging our two peoples meant the loss of who I was as Sidhe. That was why he threw me out.”

I blinked in reaction, then grasped his hand. “Like me,” I said. “They didn’t want me because I never showed any signs of magick.”

Adam’s thumb ran across my knuckles. “We are more alike than you think, Keira Kelly,” he said, his voice nearly as quiet as when he’d been speaking to Niko. “Why don’t we all get some rest and regroup later?”

“Yes,” I said. “Let’s. Niko, Tucker, you okay?”

They both nodded in agreement.

Rhys stood and stretched. “It’s nearly dawn,” he said. “I’m for getting a good day’s sleep.”

“Leave a note for Dad,” Tucker said as he and Niko headed to their bedroom. “He and Isabel might show up while we’re asleep.”

“Will do,” Rhys said. “Get some rest, you four. I’m sure you have a lot to discuss privately, but make sure to sleep.”

I looked at Adam, who rose and extended a hand to me. A lot to discuss, indeed. I’d forgiven him—mostly. Perhaps I should let this go. Yet, there were so many things I wanted to talk about. He’d nailed it. There was more similar to our backgrounds than different. Both of us born to fey royalty. Both of us rejects from the Sidhe; him from the Unseelie Court, me from the Seelie. He was now a king in his own right and I was heir to another leader. How much more convoluted could our lives get?

“I
DO LOVE YOU
, Keira,” Adam whispered, his mouth inches from my ear. “I still love Nikolai, and am beginning to love your brother.”

“I’m not jealous, Adam,” I said, turning to face him. We’d gotten ready for bed in silence, the both of us seeming reluctant to bring up the subject of Adam’s background again. “I know you love Niko. He’s part of your life and always will be. I’m fine with that.”

“You are?”

I stroked his face. “I come from a long-lived family, Adam. We have as many ways to express love as has ever existed. We’re not tied into some couple-centric human tradition. I’ve told you this before. I’ve not changed my attitude.”

“Even though you know my secret?”

I regarded his face. The room was dark; light from a few candles played over his skin, the pale gleam reminding me now not only of his vampire nature, but of his Sidhe heritage as well. The Unseelie were often dark of hair with light eyes, as I was—although the Seelie, in general, tended to be fair-haired. I’d inherited my father’s dark hair, one more difference for young Keira in a court of blonds.

Family on my father’s side, like the Celts and Vikings they lived among centuries ago, were fair-skinned, as were the Sidhe on my maternal branch and Adam’s own
family. Many Clan members came from other parts of the world, from Africa to New Zealand, but this branch of the Kellys hailed from the colder northern areas.

“It is the last of your secrets, Adam?”

He nodded. “It is.”

“Then, yes, I’m satisfied,” I said. I didn’t say: For now. Part of me remained wary. I’d never been able to trust the Sidhe. I wanted to trust Adam—before now, I’d trusted him implicitly. We’d fought. We’d disagreed on fundamental beliefs, but at the core of who I’d thought he was, was honesty and trust. No longer certain of this, I had to take a leap of faith, however difficult this was for me. “What happened is in the past and now we all know.” I ran a hand through my hair. “Do you want to find the other Sidhe?”

“I do,” Adam said. “If this is someone from my father’s court, I want to know. No matter how long I’ve been gone, I am still my father’s son. He threw me out, but never officially disowned me.”

“So you are still his heir?” This certainly put a different spin on things. “Is this why you represented your father at the more recent summit?”

Adam sighed. “My father’s whim dictates my status in that court. He claimed he could not be asked to show up for another one of Minerva’s meetings and sent me in his place, despite the fact that I haven’t set foot in Faery in many decades. Then, to my surprise, he came with an entourage after all. Showing me my place, you see. Officially, I am still considered heir—in disgrace, but heir nonetheless.”

“If your father should step down …”

“Yes. Somehow, I would have to figure a way to handle the succession. And since I am still heir, I need to find the
Sidhe who is here. I’m reasonably confident I know why he is in Vancouver and why he was sent.”

“Sent?”

“To greet the Kelly heir,” he said. “You.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” I said. “Really? We joked about this earlier, but you think that’s why?”

“My love, this is an understood requirement. When a new heir is recognized, representatives of each group come to pay their respects. I’m sure your Gigi sent the word out.”

“But wouldn’t you have gotten the word?”

He chuckled. “It’s highly unlikely that she sent me a formal invitation,” he said. “Since you were with me and I’m the catalyst for your Change. Minerva would have assumed I knew to come.”

“But you didn’t come until now,” I said, still miffed that we’d had the “you’re not coming” argument to begin with, if he’d intended to come all along. More of his great acting.

“You are correct,” he said. “I honestly wasn’t sure how much to tell you, or how even to tell you. If I’d said anything before you left, I was afraid you’d not go—or go forever.” He kissed my hand. “Forgive me?”

“I already have,” I said and kissed his hand in return. “I’m trying to be adult about all of this. Now that I am one.”

“You are that,” he said. “And I deeply appreciate it.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Now, let’s get some sleep so we can work out what to do next.”

Adam’s eyes glittered green in the dim light. “Are you sure you want to sleep right away? Could I not persuade you otherwise?”

I stared into his eyes and smiled in answer.

He reached for me and I let myself be persuaded.

A
DAM LEANED
forward. “You had two visions, that clearly?”

We were all sitting around in the main living room, mostly because even though the condo was large, this was the biggest room in the place. Adam and I perched on one couch, Niko and Tucker on the other, Rhys in a chair—same as earlier, but all of us were a lot more relaxed. After some much-needed time reconnecting, Adam and I had slept several hours and regrouped with the others mid-afternoon. Thanks to the blackout draperies, both Niko and Adam could be comfortable.

When we’d woken, Adam had excused himself and gone to speak with Niko. Tucker, Rhys and I made a quick trip to Tim Hortons and brought back coffee and pastries.

By the time we got back, Adam and Niko were in the living room, both smiling. I could tell by Niko’s body language that he’d come to terms with Adam’s revelations.

Adam had asked for all the details of our recent searches for Daffyd. I’d supplied them. Then he’d asked about the visions.

I shrugged as I answered his question. “If that’s what they were. I could be channeling someone’s fantasy world.”

“I doubt that, Keira. You’ve had plenty of visions before.” Adam reminded me of recent and not-so-recent events involving my visions.

Rhys leaned into me, looking deep into my eyes. “Oh yeah? How come you never said anything about that? This is going to be fun. We’ll point you in the direction and you can have a vision about—”

I pushed him away and settled into the corner of the couch. “Yeah, fun. Like the time you and Ianto shifted into wolfhounds and made me take you to Victoria and walk around so you could have women fawn all over you?”

Tucker burst into laughter, startling Niko, who stared at Rhys. Adam kept the same amused smile on his face.

“My brothers, Niko, may have been around for centuries, but that doesn’t mean they’ve grown up.” I patted Rhys on the head. “Don’t try that again, bro. I’m not as naive as I once was.” He laughed and gave me a hug. I’d spent hours walking around Victoria with the two of them in Irish wolfhound form one afternoon. I’d been bored stiff. Eventually, they’d tired of the game and accompanied me back to the car. We’d barely made the last ferry across.

“Damn, girl, I’ve missed you. I haven’t had much of a chance to say that in the past couple of days.”

I relaxed into his hug. Not being around my brothers was the only reason I regretted not living at Kelly Central. I had Tucker, sure, but one brother couldn’t substitute for all six of them, plus my dad, my aunts and the cousins I’d grown up around. As much as I sometimes hated the overbearing presence of Family with a capital F, there was something to be said for a built-in support group.

Rhys let me go with another squeeze. “You think this Sidhe is doing something hinky out in the streets of Vancouver, yeah?” He addressed Adam, but I answered.

“Maybe,” I said. “Adam, those folks last night talked about someone found dead in a hostel. But if it was the guy I envisioned, it seemed like he died of natural causes. Seemed peaceful … although …”

“Although?” Adam asked.

“Last night, you talked about the music I heard in the
taxi,” I said. “In my vision, the old man heard music. I blew it off, thinking it was some dying-induced dream—some human idea of angelic choirs or something. I’ve escorted way too many Kelly family members to believe in that, but now that you explained it, I bet it was Sidhe music.”

“Could be,” Adam said. “But there’s no need for one of my father’s Court to kill a human. You mentioned there has been news of two homeless men recently being found dead in the area. There’s been a lot of outsiders—musicians and such—coming in for that music festival you encountered. Events like this sometimes attract petty criminals, thieves. Maybe someone got carried away and accidentally hurt them.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I protested. “Why would anyone try to rob a homeless person?”

“Who knows why humans do anything, Keira?” Rhys answered. “Maybe they had some coin and they were easy marks. In any case, take a look at this.” He shoved a copy of today’s
Vancouver Sun
at me. “Look, here’s an article about the Vancouver Police Department investigating that man’s death as a drugs case and calling in the RCMP.”

“I’d like to think I know a little something about humans, Rhys,” I retorted after skimming the article. “After all, I grew up with them.”

“But not with criminals, little sister,” Tucker said. “Our brother and Adam are probably right. Daffyd taking Adam’s energy was one thing, but the idea that a Sidhe, even from the Unseelie Court”—he acknowledged Adam with a nod and a smile—“is murdering humans? Highly unlikely. Besides, we’re not investigating the murders. Just looking for Daffyd and the other Sidhe.”

“Maybe. I don’t like it. This is a nice city. There shouldn’t be this type of murder here.”

“It’s a
city
, Keira,” Rhys said. “Bad things happen here just like anywhere else. There are shootings, theft, drugs—Vancouver’s not some shiny utopia, no matter how much you love it. Plus, it’s not our turf, so we can only sit back and let the Horsemen handle it.”

“Why on earth would the PD bring in the Mounties?” That wasn’t normal. “I’d have thought that the Vancouver police would handle this.”

“No idea why they called the RCMP,” Rhys said. “All I know is what I read in that article.” He looked at me as if a thought suddenly occurred to him. “This isn’t some silly excuse to delay the inevitable, is it?”

“To what?” I stared at my brother, who crossed his arms and stared right back. The other three echoed his stare.

“Delay seeing our matriarch,” Rhys suggested. “With your Unseelie vampire prince in tow? Now that the weather’s clearing, there’s nothing to stop us from either driving up or calling for a plane.”

“Ha funny ha, Rhys. I’m not avoiding anyone. The weather might be clearing up by the enclave, but I’ve not gotten any phone calls yet—not even from Dad or Isabel—so as far I know we’re here for whatever the duration is.”

I tried to remain indignant, but staring down both my brothers and Niko was an entirely futile undertaking. “Okay, okay, maybe I’m not exactly sorry no one’s called, nor that Dad and Isabel haven’t shown.” Indignity turned to defiance. “I hadn’t consciously thought of that, but yeah, I’ll grant you that avoiding Gigi legitimately for a couple of days—especially considering what Adam’s now told us—I’d like nothing better. It’s just …” Damn it,
could I be more lame? “I kind of have a feeling.” Sheesh. Lame times a thousand. I really couldn’t describe it well, it was sort of …
something
… I’d had visions, heard Sidhe music when no one else did. I
needed
to follow this through.

“A feeling?” Adam stood and approached me. “Are you having another vision, then?”

“No visions, not now,” I said. “But I hate leaving this unfinished—Daffyd out there who knows where, another Sidhe responsible, a couple of dead homeless guys right in the area where we think Daffyd and this Sidhe might be …”

“Murder’s not right.” Niko put in his two cents from the couch, where he’d made himself at home. “But that doesn’t mean there’s anything other than human greed involved.”

“You’re correct there,” I agreed, however reluctantly. I really hadn’t seen or heard anything that led me to believe there was more to the murders than met the normal, nonsupernatural eye or ear here. Nothing paranormal or outside the realm of human actions. Maybe Rhys was right and my subconscious was trying to come up with another excuse not to go the enclave right away. I wanted at least a full day or two with Adam to process everything before I faced my great-great-granny.

“Rhys, we should really try to see if we can find out about Gideon’s status and fill folks in on Daffyd and all,” Tucker said, shooting a quick look at me. Damn it, now
he
was being right, too. Despite Isabel’s assurances, we really needed an update about Gideon. Even though no one had called us, the phones could possibly be working.

“I’m sorry, I—”

“Never mind, Keira,” Tucker said gently. “I know you
really want to put this out of your mind and trust Isabel’s assessment of the situation. I’m not blaming you for not asking. Just wanting to know, that’s all.”