Blood Kin (32 page)

Tucker’s growl merged with that of Niko. “He will pay for this, Keira.”

“No, Tucker, don’t.” I rubbed my forehead. “I can handle Gideon. He took me by surprise. Daffyd was right: Gideon has Changed and, like me, he has all the Talents—the heirship.”

“You mean …?” Tucker closed the distance and sat next to me on the chaise, taking my hand. “Seriously, Keira, you mean Changed changed?”

I nodded. “I’m surprised you couldn’t tell, Tucker. He’s completely Talented, like me. Which is why he caught me out. I knew it was a possibility, but I guess I really wasn’t expecting it to be true.”

Niko joined us on the chaise, sitting next to Tucker. Glenys, a thoughtful look on her face, listened intently. “I thought you said there was only one heir at a time,” Niko said.

“There is.” Tucker was as confused as I was. “I have no idea what’s going on.”

“I think I do,” Glenys put in.

The three of us looked at her as she continued. “Several decades ago, all of our people gathered—”

“Oh no, wait right there,” I said. “The Summit. This was planned? Me, Gideon, both of us as possible heirs? I’m beginning to think that possible was more like probable.” I turned to my brother. “How much you want to bet our fearless leader had this trick up her twisted sleeve all along?”

Tucker nodded. “Sounds like her type of machination.”

“You mean she meant to have two heirs?” Niko looked astounded. “How could she know?”

“I have no freaking idea,” I said. “But I’m damn well planning to find out. Our Gigi is no less ambitious than Attila the bloody Hun—just slightly more civilized in her attempts at taking over the world … our world.”

“She meant for you and Gideon to be together,” Tucker said. “Both of you, heirs to Kelly, connections to both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts.”

“Then,” Niko said, “Adam came into the picture.”

Tucker nodded. “Heir to the High King—a better prospect, since he’d not actually been disinherited. Keira with Adam would give Gigi a greater possibility of aligning forces, creating the greater alliance. I’ve no doubt she’s been scouring for a wer or other heir for Gideon to hook up with.”

“Wait a damned minute, you two,” I protested. “Theoretically, yeah, okay, this is totally just like Gigi. But—and a big but—I
chose
to be with Adam. Gigi had nothing to do with it.”

Niko stared at me, a look of sorrow in his eyes. “He
pursued you, Keira. Desperately. He went to Texas for you. He contacted your leader as to your whereabouts when you left London.”

“I know all of that,” I retorted. “He told me. You can’t mean to think this was at Gigi’s behest?”

“Why could it not have been?” Niko argued. “Keira, I’ve known him for centuries. This singleminded pursuit of you was unlike him. We moved to Texas … to what, for us, was uncivilized country.”

“Oh, please. Niko, do you not remember what we’ve found out about him? How he stalked you as a child and eventually rescued you? You can’t tell me that obsessive behavior is outside the realm of Adam Walker’s usual way of operating—it may be unusual, but not unheard of.”

“She has a point,
cariad
,” Tucker said, his voice gentle. “Perhaps he is selective about his focus.”

“No less am I,” Niko said fiercely and laid a sizzling kiss on Tucker’s mouth. I watched in amusement for a long moment as the two men reaffirmed their commitment.

“Perhaps you and I should leave them to their privacy.” Glenys, who’d kept silent throughout our discussion, said. “We can retire to my own rooms.”

“I think not,” I said. “Tucker, Niko, snap out of it. Plenty of time for snogging—or shagging—later. Let’s go find Adam and get the hell out of Dodge.”

“W
HERE THE FUCK
is he?” I asked Llwyd threateningly. Niko, Tucker and I had spent what seemed like hours wandering corridors, searching for a sign of Adam, or even of Drystan or Gideon, before we’d run into the small fey, who’d then shown us back to the Great Hall. Like Tucker and Niko earlier, we’d found no one. Only Drystan’s throne on a dais, two new throne-like chairs next to it and a few smaller stools and less-imposing chairs around those. “A seat for each son,” Llwyd had said, and giggled.

One seat was
so
not likely to be used. Adam was coming back with us. Whether Gideon elected to stay, I neither knew nor cared.

“I cannot tell you, Keira Kelly.” Llwyd cowered, covering his head with his small hands. “I would be forsworn.”

Niko’s eyes blazed, his fangs extended. “Forsworn or no, little man, you will take us to him. Now.”

Llwyd hopped in place, agitation written all over his mobile face. “I cannot, I cannot.”

“Stop, Niko.” I put a hand up to hold the vampire back. “I think he’s trying to say that he literally
can’t
say … not won’t.”

“Is that true?” Niko addressed Llwyd.

The fey nodded happily. “Yes, yes, true. I cannot speak of this.”

“Damntastic.” I threw myself into one of the lesser chairs with a huff. “How the bloody hells are we going to find him?”

Llwyd winked at me, a sly smile crossing his face. “You could leave,” he smirked. “Above, you could go. He could then follow.”

I sat straight up. “Leave without Adam? No fucking way.”

“Wait, Keira, Adam’s bound to you now, isn’t he?” Tucker reminded me. “A blood bond, just like he’s bound to Niko.”

I nodded. “Yes, but I can’t sense him.”

“And Gideon?” Niko asked. “Do you sense him?”

I thought a moment, closing my eyes. The scent of the Court hovered in the back of my nose, still smelling of Adam. A low murmur of music, familiar to me in a tantalizing way, teased the outer edges of my hearing. I concentrated, trying to identify it. Did it have something to do with Gideon? Or Adam?

A sudden turn of melody and I had it. It was the same music I’d heard in the taxicab. Iolo’s Calling.

My eyes snapped open. “I don’t feel either of them, but—the music. It’s the same as I heard in the cab, and then later, as we searched for Daffyd.”

“You hear it?” Llwyd’s head tilted as he studied me, frowning. “Do the others of you hear it?”

Tucker and Niko shrugged. “We hear nothing,” Tucker said. “But Keira’s been hearing this on and off since we arrived in Vancouver.”

“It’s the song of the Court,” Llwyd said. “It calls to kin. But you are not blood kin to us.”

“Nor is Daffyd,” I said. “My cousin on my mother’s side. Seelie Court.”

Another, deeper frown from the fey. “Only blood
should hear this. Only blood can Call.” He took a few steps back. “I must … leave.”

“No, wait—” I said as he scampered away, disappearing into one of the blank corridors.

I settled back into the seat. “Now what?” I threw up my hands. “Do either of you get the feeling that more things are rotten in Denmark than we’ve uncovered?”

“Yeah, we’ve uncovered enough rot to spread over all of Scandinavia, but there seems to be even more,” Tucker said as he came to sit on a stool at my side. Niko came around to my other side but remained standing, one hand on the back of the chair. “I hate to say this, sis, but if only Unseelie can hear the music …”

“Do not go there, Tucker Kelly.” I put my fingertips over his mouth before he could finish. “I know exactly the implication, and honestly, I have no more room for any more data right now. All I want is to find Adam. Then, once we’re all back Above, back in our own turf, we’ll figure this all out.” And figure out how to close this door to Faery, I thought to myself.

“What about Gideon?”

“I’m all for him staying here if he wants. Let Gigi sort him out. For that matter, she can sort all of this out.”

“I have a thought,” Niko said. “What if we three returned Above—”

“Without Adam? I don’t think so,” I said, interrupting.

He put a hand on my shoulder. “Please, hear me out,” he said. “I’m not saying we abandon him.” I sat back, mollified.

“He is Sidhe, correct?” Niko looked at me as he spoke. I nodded. “As such, he can be Called, right?”

I frowned in confusion. Where was he going with this? “Yeah, sure, I guess, but what—”

“You hear the music,” Niko explained. “The music that Called Daffyd from the taxicab. What’s to prevent you, with your Sidhe heritage and your new Talents from Calling Adam once we reach the outside world? The Calling seems to work there as well as in Faery.”

“Wow. That’s …” I stood, paced a few steps forward, whirled and returned to face Niko. “What guarantee do we have that I can even do this?”

“None.” Blue eyes steady on my own gray ones, a look of determination backed up by a sense of pleading, of need, kept me focused.

“You think I can?”

Niko nodded. “I believe that your power is great enough, yes.”

“I’m no bard, no musician,” I protested. “I play no instruments.”

“You can hum,” Niko stated. “Look, I know this is a long shot, Keira. But we could spend the rest of our existence wandering these featureless gray corridors and find nothing and no one. They have hidden from us. Whatever your powers are here, they cannot find Adam. I would wager they’ve been dampened somehow and that’s why Gideon was able to affect you.”

“Niko, you beautiful thing.” Tucker got up and enveloped Niko in a bear hug, laying a smacking kiss on his mouth. “That’s it, Keira,” he said, turning to me. “I’ve been considering shifting, trying to find Adam that way, but every time I thought of it, I got distracted somehow, as if the thought slid away. This place restricts us.”

Could he be right? I’d used Adam’s power to block Gideon, but still had been laid low. I closed my eyes, trying to reach the part of myself that was wolf. I reached, turning my focus inside. There she was. I concentrated, calling her,
but then as she came into my senses, she vanished, sliding away, like a dream fragment, only wisps of thought left. I tried again, fixing the image in my mind, but it was like trying to wrestle a greased pig on rain-wet caliche.

“You’re right,” I said with a grimace. “Niko, you are bloody marvelous. Here I was thinking we’d be stuck here forever, waiting until Drystan took it upon himself to communicate with us again.”

“So we leave?” Niko asked. “And you will Call Adam?”

I nodded solemnly. “I’m not convinced it will work,” I said. “But I know the entrance ritual now and if I can’t call him to us, I have every intention of marshaling all the Kelly forces and convening my Seelie kin and Adam’s vampires. I’ll raise an army if I have to. We will not leave Adam here.”

“You’re willing to start a faery war?” Tucker looked at me in astonishment.

I nodded, purpose grim on my face. “If that’s what it takes, brother. Drystan’s got another think coming if he believes he can glamour his son away from me. I’ve no doubt that Adam is cooped up somewhere, trying to get free from his father.”

Tucker nodded. “Then let’s do this thing, sister … my liege.”

I shot him an annoyed glance. “You may be my bondsman, brother mine, but stop with that liege shit.” He started to protest but I raised a hand. “No, Tucker, I know, I know. It’s technically true. Okay, completely true, but I don’t intend to stand on any ceremony. Not with you.” I regarded Niko. “Or you either, Nicholas. I’ve watched you guard me. It’s not escaped me.”

Niko bowed his head, a hand over his heart. “If you’ll have me, Keira Kelly, my sister-companion, I pledge
to guard you as your own kin.” He knelt in front of me, sweeping his red hair from his neck.

As solemn as his oath, I stepped to him, lightly touching his nape. “I accept, Nicholas Marlowe, known as Niko.”

Niko stood, and in an unexpected move, he embraced me, arms tight around me. “Thank you,” he whispered in my ear. “Thank you for accepting me.”

I hugged him back. How far we’d come in such a short time. I looked over at my brother, whose grin could have lit up the entire city of Vancouver.

“Well then, oh Protectors,” I said as Niko stepped back. “Let’s blow this pop stand.”

“N
O, THAT’S NOT
quite it, damn it.” I ran a hand through my windblown hair, no longer in its usual neat braid.

Niko, Tucker and I sat on the grassy hill of Victory Square, our exit from Faery less than spectacular and much too easy for my tastes. It was as if the place was glad to be rid of us.

The musicians we’d spoken to earlier, John and Rodney, were still there. Only a few minutes had passed in the outside world while we’d been Below. I’d argued with Tucker and Niko that we needed Daffyd—needed a Sidhe who could make music.

“But the two human musicians are here and they have no need of understanding your reasons,” Niko had argued. “They have the old instruments. A guitar. A bodhrán. We have the flute. I am sure that with your help remembering the tune, we can do the calling.”

“And how the hell am I supposed to explain it to them when Adam pops up out of nowhere?” I’d protested. “Let’s go get Daffyd.”

“I do not trust him.” Niko had stood his ground. Stubborn vampire. Just as stubborn as his sire.

“Neither do I,” Tucker had interjected. “What the hell, Keira, let’s give it a try. If it works, you can vague them up.”

Niko had shot Tucker a questioning look. “Vague them up?”

“Tamper with their memories,” I’d explained. “Kelly Talent—which I guess I can do now. Though I have no idea how.”

“I have faith in you,” Tucker had said. “You’ll figure it out.”

I’d narrowed my eyes and scowled at my brother. “Glad you’re so confident, brother.” I’d sighed and shrugged. “Lead on, wolf. Let’s to it.”

Now I was trying to convey the tune to John. A Sidhe tune, that I, the non-musician, had heard vaguely and only in the back of my head. To his credit, he remained patient and didn’t run away from this crazy woman and her two companions. On the other hand, I wondered how patient he’d have been if we hadn’t paid them quite handsomely for their efforts.

“It’s more like this.” I closed my eyes, trying to conjure up the melody, the haunting refrain, the notes that wove in and out and beckoned to the blood. With a start, I flashed on Iolo, standing on a hill inside Faery, his lute in hand, strumming.

“What is it?” Tucker asked, worry in his voice. “You okay?”