Demon Girl (25 page)

The smile slid from my face as Conall stepped
into my path.

“No,” I said and stomped my foot. “No,
because I just got here and I am tired and dirty and grumpy. So
no.”

His small smile was apologetic. “Lochlann
wants to speak to you.”

“Later,” I gritted through my teeth. “I need
some sleep and something to eat, if you wouldn’t mind. Is there
somewhere I could wash up?

“Lochlann wants to see you,” he repeated.

I snorted and looked at Breandan for back up.
My heart sunk. “We can’t go sleep, can we?” He shook his head. “We
have to go see your brother right now, don’t we?” He nodded. I
sighed and made a ‘move it along’ motion with my hands. “Lead the
way, Conall. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can
sleep.

Fingers entwined and shoulder’s brushing as
we walked, Breandan and I entered Lochlann’s tent and stopped in
the centre.

He paced the paced in front of us, eyes
narrowed and chest heaving. “Finally, you are here, and I can begin
judgment. Did you get lost on your way here?”

Breandan did not answer. Clearly, the
question was rhetoric.

I however had something to say, “What do you
mean, judgment?”

“You
will not speak
unless spoken to.”
Lochlann’s voice cracked like a whip.

It took a beat for me to recover from the
shock of being told pipe down so rudely. “Who to the gods do you
think you’re talking to? I’m not one of your rebels. You can’t talk
to me that way, or boss me about and expect me to obey.”

He stopped pacing and looked deliberately
from my face, to my fingers wrapped around Breandan’s. “My younger
brother is sworn to me. Your attachment to him makes you part of my
court.”

“Like hell it does,” I fired back. “What
Breandan and I do is none of your business.”

Lochlann had intimidated me when I’d first
met him, but not anymore. Two people had tried to kill me. I was
pissed, tired, had a full bladder, an empty stomach and he was
making it worse. It was hard for me to keep a semblance of calm
when Breandan had only just been healed, and I had been parted from
my vampire-boy. He was pushing all the wrong buttons at the wrong
time.

Lochlann seethed at me silently for a moment
before his face went blank. Instead of relaxing I put up all my
mental guards; I was used to this behavior. Breandan did it when he
planned to manipulate me.

My eyes wandered and landed on Conall who
smiled encouragingly. I managed a tight grimace in return.

Lochlann held out his hand. “The amulet of
wisdom, give it to me.”

“No,” I said.

He blinked and frowned. “I want to see it.
You can have it back.”

“I said no.”

He watched me for a while then said, “You saw
my sister before she was taken captive?”

“Killed,” I said slowly and carefully. “I saw
Maeve as Clerics killed her.”

He pressed his eyes shut, cocked his head
then shook it. “I feel her. She is alive. I would know the moment
of my sibling’s death.”

Breandan nodded in agreement. “She is still
with us. Hidden and bound by iron.”

That was news to me, and why hadn’t he said
so before. I knew fairies had amazing powers of recovery, but could
we survive a bullet to the chest? Maeve had looked pretty dead to
me. I didn’t say this, of course, out of respect.

“The humans have gone too far this time. They
will pay. My sister will be retuned. We will give them one chance
to free her, or we shall take her back by force.”

I didn’t like where this was heading.

“Hold on. You can’t be so general in your
damnation, and you can’t start throwing around ultimatums.”
Breandan squeezed my hand, hard and I shot him a look. “Don’t be
trying to silence me. There are good people at the Temple. Yes,
Lord Cleric Tu and the Lady Cleric were wrong, but not all humans
think like them.” I kept it to myself that a fair portion did.

“We did not start this.”

“You should defuse the situation, not rile it
up. I’m telling you if you march up to the Wall and start shouting
demands it won’t be received well. The Priests will feel
threatened, and they will send the Clerics.”

“I will kill anyone who stands between me and
my kin.”

“Lochlann, I think it’s great you care about
your family, but hurting people in their name–”

“
You
cannot talk to
me
of
family.”

He really knew how to use words to effect.
“Fine. I admit from what I’ve heard my roots leave something to be
desired.” I took in a breath, things were getting a little close to
home, but I’d started this and I was going to finish it. “But we’re
not talking about me. We’re talking about your actions that may
start a war. The last time the demons and humans clashed, the
entire human race was nearly wiped out. I’ve been told that many of
demonkind were not happy to fight. What’ll happen to the human
survivors who face demons
motivated
to kill. We’d be looking
at the extinction of an entire species.”

“These Clerics. You would be able to show
them to me?”

My lips twisted. Lochlann was not listening
to me; in fact he was completely ignoring me. If the fairies took
this stance it would only end in bloodshed. The thought of my
fellow Disciples clashing with these beings made me sweat. “If
revenge is what you’re thinking, you’re too late,” I told him. “The
Lady Cleric was killed by–” I stopped and slid my gaze Breandan’s
way. His only reaction to the topic was a flaring of his nostrils.
“She’s dead,” I said flatly.

“The vampire,” Breandan explained through
clenched teeth.

Lochlann paced in front of us, his eyes on
me. There was little warmth there. “Brother,” he said in a tone of
quiet command. “Your, female has shown no respect for who and what
we are. How do you know she can be trusted?”

“Rae is true to me.”

“She kept the truth from you, on more than
one occasion. Because of her you nearly lost your life. And this
thing with the vampire–”

“Is none of your business,” Conall cut in
scathingly.

Lochlann barely glanced his way. “Your family
is the single greatest disappointment to our race. As the Elder you
should be helping her to along her new path, not encouraging her
foolishness.”

“Elder?” I asked.

“Head of the family,” Breandan told me.

Conall stared at Lochlann with thinly veiled
hate. There was a niggle in my mind, two dots dancing around each
other waiting to be connected. Elder, head of the family, gold
eyes.

“She is mine, Lochlann. Let me leave with
her, and I swear you a month of peace.”

Breandan blanched.

I spun round and glared at the newcomer. When
I saw who it was I managed to splutter, “What did you just
say?”

“I wasn’t speaking to you,” Devlin said and
let the tent flap drop behind him. “I was addressing the one you
refuse to follow.”

“I did not say I would not follow him,” I
objected hotly.

I had remembered too late that not following
Lochlann, meant I was in Devlin’s Tribe.

“You’re not seriously considering…” I trailed
off at the look on Lochlann’s face. It was blank, calculating.
Cold.

Sucking a series of shallow gasps I slowly
looked at Breandan’s face, terrified at what I would find there. He
glared at his brother so balefully I was surprised the older fairy
could withstand the weight of it.

“One month with no attacks?” Lochlann
asked.

Devlin made a big show of lifting his chin,
and placing his hand over his heart. “I swear it.”

Uttering the oath the air thickened with
magic and hung, waiting for acceptance.

“No.”

The word was not shouted, or hollered or
uttered in any way that could be conceived as emotional. It was a
flat out refusal, brooked no argument. It was a command. The magic
sighed and dissipated. Breandan slid me behind him and I wrapped my
arms around his waist. I couldn’t stop my body trembling.

“Do not deny the reason of it,” Lochlann
said.

“I said no.”

“This isn’t just about you,” Devlin said.
“You would continue the death of fairy lives for the sake of one
female.” He made a scoffing noise and ran his eyes all over me
disdainfully. “She is beautiful, and pure though she reeks of
another. I promise you take her once and she will lose her
appeal.”

“That is enough,” Conall barked. We all
turned to him as he lithely stepped over to stand beside Breandan.
“This isn’t even a discussion.”

“Who are you to interfere?” Devlin
sneered.

“You know very well,” he hissed back.

“Well then would someone mind letting me
know?” I asked in a low voice. “Because I am mighty confused.”

Breandan shifted and put his arm around me.
“It is not the right time.”

I shrugged his arm off and ignored him. I
ignored everyone, but Conall. I tapped him on the shoulder and he
turned, reluctantly, to look down at me from his lofty height. His
eyes, deep gold, shimmered with suppressed feeling. When we had
first met he had told me he knew me as a baby. Truth rung inside my
head and in a rush my thought’s tumbled over one another, fighting
for recognition.

Conall’s eyes were a unique colour I had only
seen on one other person. He had touched me, several times, and I
had never thought anything of it. When he had it wasn’t like
Breandan, whose touches felt like fire and ice. His touches felt
natural and comforting, and he’d never shown aversion to touching
me; even areas sacrosanct like my tail. Conall had watched over me
and shown a level of understanding a stranger would not have
deserved. He had the same skin, eye and hair colour, for gods
sake.

“Brother,” I said with certainty. “You’re my
brother.”

He nodded once. “I had hoped when you finally
visited Orchard, the place of our birth I could explain your
origin, our connection. I had hoped to get to know you and for you
to learn to trust me. Things have not worked out like I
planned.”

I was dumbfounded. I was dirty and tired and
drained. Too emotional to try and explain how I felt, I simply
said, “Later. We’ll talk later.” It was anti-climatic but he didn’t
seem to mind.

“Yes, that would be…nice.” He paused. “Would
you like to know the first time I ever laid eyes on you?” Eyes
wide, I nodded wordlessly and he beamed a smile. He was positively
delighted by my acceptance. He stood straighter and his eyes
sparkled. “When you were born and I was a young one, hours after
your birth I peeked in your cradle. I tried to touch your cheek,
but you fisted your tiny hand around my finger,” he held his
forefinger up, “and refused to let go. You puffed up your chest and
held your breath, so fearsome and brave. Mother called you, her
little warrior.” He laughed before his eyes became sad, haunted. “I
did not mean to let you go. It was not… Understand when our mother
took you…” His face was pained, pleading. “I searched for you, for
years, but the spell on you was so strong. We only found you
because you chose to venture beyond the Wall and become entangled
with Breandan’s future.”

Large, warn hands slid around my waist. I
leaned back, needing the support. Turning round to look at him,
Breandan saw the worry in my eyes. He kissed my nose.

“It will pass,” he said softly.

I knew he meant the pain, the sharp stabbing
pain of feeling the years of abandonment issues coming to the
forefront.

Taking a deep breath, I straightened my back
and glared at Devlin. Before, I had denied him with a few words,
and I was sure it would work again. I was learning there were rules
to how the fairies operated. Devlin was walking around without
chains, and I guessed that was because he had been defeated and
captured fairly, meaning he could not leave unless he was saved by
his own people or set free. Honor and magic bound to follow the
rules.

“I’m going nowhere with you,” I said.

The words were backed by the rules of magic.
They had weight and the tension in the room cranked down a notch.
Lochlann made a noise of annoyance. I fought the urge to run over
and stick my tongue out at him.

“That settles that,” Conall said
diplomatically.

“For now,” Devlin replied.

He and Lochlann shared a long, loaded glance.
We all caught the look, who wouldn’t, but I could not care less.
They could plot and scheme all they wanted. Devlin would never get
my bonded mate to agree with his brother and I would never say the
words they wanted me to.

Breandan squeezed me before letting go to
stand before Lochlann. “Swear to me you will not consider this
again.”

Gazes locked they stood still and silent for
a long time.

“You ask me to give up the chance for time to
seek a peaceful solution?”

“It will not allow it.”

“You are sworn to me, little brother.”

Breandan had an intense look of concentration
on his face. He was deciding something and for less than a beat, I
felt apprehension. I had lied to him, kept secrets and aided his
enemies. I had refused to listen to him, and caused him a whole
heap of problems with his family and lord. Oh gods. Maybe he was
thinking I was more trouble than worth. He had said himself our
bond was not sealed because of my connection with Tomas, and the
fact our union had be created, but not sealed by magic.

“Release me from my oath,” he said.

Lochlann stiffened, his eyes snapped to me
and blazed with loathing. “You let her destroy your honor.”
Lochlann placed a hand on Breandan’s shoulder and shook him. “She
makes you weak.”

“We could break the bond,” Devlin said. “She
has a blood tie to another.”

Breandan’s jaw worked. “That is irrelevant.
It would not work.”

“You are so certain,” he said with a small
smile. “Hearts can change, and hers is already split in two. How do
you know she will choose you?”