Blood Kin (28 page)

“Well, it’s not mine,” I said. Tucker started to speak, but I stopped him. “I know I have to choose a design, but think on it. What’s the likelihood I’d pick something that looks a hell of a lot like a graphic novel logo?” I turned to Gareth. “Can we go see it?”

“The body?”

“Yes. I’m not saying I can focus enough to figure anything out, but I think if we all go, maybe one of us can pin down something.”

“Better come here first,” Rhys said. “Daffyd’s practically bursting at the seams.”

“L
ET ME SPEAK
,” I said, pushing my way in front of Tucker, who’d instinctively moved in front of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Niko doing the same for Adam. I had to be amused at our Protectors, doing their thing. Gareth had gone back to the police station, hoping to get more information out of the officers who had interviewed the spectators.

Daffyd, on seeing us, stood and approached, then stopped in mid-step, hands palm up in front of him, eyes wide. “No, you are not—” He took a step back, looked around and then again at us. “Why did you bring him here?” He pointed at Adam.

“You recognize him, then?” I asked and walked across the entryway to confront Daffyd, who raised his arms in a defensive gesture.

“He is of the other Court,” he said. “Why involve them? He was not the one who Called me.”

“Called?” Tucker said as he, too, crossed into the living room, remaining at my side. Niko and Adam remained standing in the foyer, both with a wary look in their eye. I glanced over at Rhys, who sat in one of the chairs, simply watching this play out.

“I disappeared from the taxicab,” Daffyd said.

I managed to stifle my urge to say, “Oh, really, hadn’t noticed,” but Daffyd caught my expression anyway. “Obvious, yes, cousin,” he said, “but I wanted to explain
that I was Called. The music—” He looked at each of us in turn. “I could not avoid answering the Call.”

“So where were you?” I motioned to the living area and sat. Daffyd copied my move, sitting across from me. Tucker stood next to me, every inch the guard. Adam and Niko joined us, sitting away from Daffyd. Despite the distance of several feet, Daffyd stiffened and moved slightly in his chair as if to keep as far from Adam as possible. “We looked for you, Daffyd. Several times for many hours.”

“I saw the gathering, the vigil of sorts,” he said. “I found myself in the center of a group of humans with candles. Heard them speaking about the music festival and of the tribute to their comrade. I felt the Other there, but could not see him.”

“You know it was a him?” Niko asked.

Daffyd nodded, but didn’t look at Niko. “His energy signature was all over that hill, over those people. I followed, casting a glamour so I could hide. The signature ended, just where the memorial marker stands—at the top of the Hill.”

I heard the emphasis on hill and as he spoke, I immediately saw where he was going. “Oh, my bloody stars—they’re Underhill, aren’t they? No wonder we couldn’t find them.”

“Them?” Adam’s voice chilled me, his icy tone nothing I’d ever heard, not even when he’d fought hand to hand with Niko last October. “There is more than one?”

“There has to be,” I said. “One is dead, at least one Other, dressed in black, dark-haired. The dead Sidhe was blond. If there were two …”

“There are bound to be more,” Adam finished, then addressed Daffyd. “You, then, what know you of this?

These deaths, these rogue Sidhe invading? Where were you hiding all this time?”

“I do not answer to the Unseelie Court.” Daffyd stood and drew himself up to full height. Impressive, unless you were a Kelly and used to a brother fully six foot four and a Viking Berserker to boot.

Adam stood, pushing past a protesting Niko and stopping a scant foot from Daffyd. “I am no longer of that Court,” he said, “but king in my own right.” In the absolute silence following his statement, I heard a hiss from Daffyd at the same time that I felt Adam’s power. He’d let loose his own personal wards, his shields now open. Energy surrounded him, dark light shimmering along his skin, his hair, his eyes flashing green-gold.

“Nightwalker,” Daffyd whispered as he put a hand up to shield his face. “You are the one called Walker in name, are you not?”

“I am he.” Adam’s voice rang with subharmonics similar to my own when I’d commanded Raine. “I had forgiven you, Daffyd ap Geraint, but now, I must rethink that decision. You have caused a great many problems for those who are mine. Know, now, it is time for answers and for resolution. What do you know of the Sidhe who is dead and of the other?”

“I beg your forgiveness once more, Nightwalker.” Daffyd bowed his head, hand over his heart. “My connection with you was never deliberate. I would never have—”

“Yes, yes,” I said with a hurry-up motion. “Enough of this posturing, you two. Adam, stop already with the king stuff. Daffyd, get to the bloody point. Did you know that Sidhe or how he died?”

A corner of Adam’s mouth curved up in amusement.

“Very well, Keira,” he said and with a slight bow in my direction, sat down again. Niko, who seemed less than pleased, shook his head and remained standing next to Adam, hands clasped in front of him, the very picture of a bodyguard.

“The dead Sidhe was a bard,” Daffyd began. “I see you know this already. I spoke to some of the people who live on the streets, looking for him. Trying to find a way Underhill. I could not glean enough information to even begin to guess the ritual. Nothing I tried worked. I left several messages for him, notes enchanted to look like random detritus.” He looked sheepish. “Your city workers here are much too efficient. All trash disappeared within hours.”

Oh, great, so if we’d had been in any normal rubbishy city, we might have found him.

“Do you have any idea why a bard from the Unseelie Court would have a Kelly Mark on his arm?” Tucker asked. “Why he would have been here in the first place?”

“Mark?” Daffyd asked, clearly puzzled. “I know of no mark. Perhaps the nightwalker can explain, as I have little dealing with their Court. To my knowledge, bards, as in our Court, have their bardic cloaks, perhaps an amulet or ring or both, depending on to whom they’ve sworn allegiance.”

“We do—did—not mark our bards,” Adam responded. The telltale slip made me wonder if all this exposure to Sidhe made him want to reclaim his place among his father’s court. King of the vampires was one thing, but to be heir to the Unseelie Court as well? That kind of power could tempt even the strictest of ascetics … Adam was no more an ascetic than I was. And he was more accustomed to—and enjoyed—wielding power far more than I.

“We believe he was here because of Keira,” Tucker said. “To welcome the new heir. Do you think that’s possible?”

“Would the Unseelie Court know of her?” Daffyd asked. “I know your ruler had dealings with them, as she did with us, but I do not know in what regard she held them or holds them now.”

“We have more connections than I previously thought. I am not the sole half Sidhe among the Clan. My distant cousin, Gideon, is also half Sidhe,” I said. “His father is of the Unseelie Court—Drystan ap something-or-another.”

Suddenly, Adam was crouching next to my chair in one of those blink-of-an-eye vampire moves that he’d rarely displayed around me. “His father is Drystan ap Tallwch? Are you sure?”

“No, I’m not sure,” I said. “I only know the Drystan part. He’s a king—”

“Not
a
king. High King,” Adam put in. “My father.”

I stared, my mouth open in shock.

“
You
are the missing son of the Unseelie king?” Daffyd’s words were barely more than a whisper. “How then …?”

Adam whipped his head around and glared at Daffyd. “This is no concern of yours. I suggest you remain silent.”

I found my voice and surprisingly, it still worked. “Adam, what the ever-loving hell?”

“Wait a minute, you’re Gideon’s
brother
?” Rhys, the only one of us not too shocked to say the words, spoke. “Keira, that’s—”

“Fucking ridiculous,” I said, standing and walking toward the wall of windows. In the distance, past the lights on the water, past the lights on the road, a trail of lights from a ski run wound down the mountain. As I watched, one of the lights flickered and went out. I took a deep breath
and turned around. Adam was now standing, Niko at his side again, his own expression a battle between bodyguard neutral and utter disbelief.

“There is no fucking way you are my former lover’s brother,” I stated flatly. “That would be too damned much.”

“If, indeed, as you believe, your Gideon was fathered by Drystan, then yes, he is at the very least, my half brother,” Adam said with an infuriating calm. “I must assume that his mother was of your people.”

“How can you not be upset at this?” I asked, throwing up my hands. “I mean, this is something for an episode of Jerry Springer.”

“Or a Lifetime TV movie.” Rhys grinned. “C’mon, what’s one more utterly insane thing to learn?” he said. “It’s not as if we haven’t had our fair share of revelations lately.”

I turned to look at Niko. “And what about you? Are you the secret love child of royalty, too?”

Niko answered in an amused tone. “I never knew my parents. The nobleman who bought me always called my mother a whore and my father the whore’s favorite pet. I doubt you need to worry about any more undisclosed royalty with me.”

“This Gideon,” Daffyd said, bringing the subject back to my former lover. “You are sure he is of your Clan?”

What the hell kind of question was that? “Yes, of course,” I said, letting my impatience show. “Evidently that’s never been in question.”

Daffyd’s face paled as he buried his face in his hands. “He impregnated a Clan woman …” he muttered, the words nearly incomprehensible.

“Yes, so?” I asked. “It’s not like that hasn’t happened—”

“Before?” Daffyd said, looking up at me. “Is he the elder?”

“Elder of whom?” Tucker asked, his frown growing deeper.

“Between him and Keira,” Daffyd answered. “Which is the elder child?”

“He is,” I said. “By some months.”

“If this cousin of yours is indeed Drystan’s get, if the nightwalker’s father took a Clan woman and impregnated her, this could mean …” Daffyd shook his head as he studied me.

“What?” Three Kelly voices asked in near unison.

“A second heir.”

“To the Court?” Adam waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Despite your Court believing I was missing, my father never disowned me as heir. There cannot be another.”

“No, heir to the Kelly Clan,” Daffyd explained. “Gideon could also be—”

“Excuse me? Again with the impossible,” I said. “I don’t know if you know the whole way this works, but there’s only one in a handful of generations. I’m it, so QED—there are no others.”

“So you don’t know.” Daffyd watched me as he spoke. “None of you know.”

“Daffyd, this is getting beyond tedious,” Tucker growled. “Either spit it out or I’ll—”

“Please, calm yourselves,” Daffyd said. “I will explain. About seventy-five years ago, your Clan chief, along with many other leaders, once again attempted to unite us—the fey, the Sidhe, the wers, vampires, all preternatural creatures and people of magick means. A summit of sorts.”

“Yes, yes,” I said, “She’d done that before. Back in the first Elizabeth’s time, right? We were discussing it
earlier while you were … missing.” Discussing? Learning about the summits was a mere twig on a freaking tree of impossible knowledge that had taken root in my poor brain in the last few days.

“Yes, and it did not work then. None were willing to concede. But this time was different. She and all our leaders were concerned about modern technology and the intrusion of governments. Identification was being required in more and more places. They began to discuss how to keep hiding—or whether or not we should.”

“Bottom line?” Rhys demanded.

“As they will, they spent decades arguing. Then, some four decades ago, they all came to agreement. I do not know the final result, but I do know that is when your mother, Keira, followed our queen’s command and became your father’s consort.”

“Your queen?” Niko asked.

“Command?” My outburst came on top of Niko’s question.

“Queen of the Seelie Sidhe, Maeve, and mother of the current queen, Angharad,” Adam replied to Niko. “Keira’s mother, Branwen, is Maeve’s niece, her sister’s child and underqueen of a lesser court.”

“You did not know this?” Niko spoke to me.

“Not exactly,” I said, still watching Daffyd. “It wasn’t until recently that I knew about the royalty part. I knew my mother was Sidhe, but that’s it.” I stared pointedly at Daffyd, who had still not answered me. “My mother was commanded? Or was it my father?”

“Both.” Daffyd’s tone remained dry. “If everything my own sire told me was true—and I have no reason to believe it a lie—your leader and our own High Queen made an agreement.”

“And my father did the same.” Adam’s eyes narrowed, a thoughtful look on his face. “I’d thought that—” He shook his head. “No, perhaps I underestimated Minerva.”

“So Gideon?” Rhys mused. “His coma—perhaps he’s—”

“Changing?” I breathed. “Well, by all the things holy and un …”

“If Drystan fathered your cousin, he may take precedence,” Daffyd said. “I do not know your rules of succession, but Drystan is of higher rank, a ruling sovereign, and that may be a factor. Or, if absolute primogeniture of descendants applies, your cousin would inherit, as he is older than you. All contingent, of course, on him coming into all the powers that constitute heirship.”

Those roots in my brain were getting gnarly.

“Drystan is of another Court,” Adam said. “Did they then agree?”

Daffyd nodded. “Yes, the treaty was signed. All rulers were to be included.”

“Keira, does this mean you aren’t going to have to succeed Gigi?” Rhys asked.

I stared at Adam, whose expression remained as neutral as I’d ever seen it. Did he want this to be true? Could Gideon be his half brother and a Kelly heir? Bloody freaking hell, what had my great-great-granny spawned all those years ago?

“I
HAVE NO IDEA
,” I said. “I think that we’d better call our dear leader and get some answers—as in now … right now.”