Summon (17 page)

Repeatedly stabbing his dagger into the tree bark
then slashing at nothing above his head, Gunarr kept muttering, “Never miss.
I–Never–
Miss
.”

Rae’s voice turned shrill as she babbled
incessantly.
The fireflies whirled
faster and faster in reaction to her anxiety.

At what
point did my life become thus?

Eyes crossing, I grabbed Rae’s chin and closed her
yapping mouth. “Spit it out.”

“No touching.” She twisted from my grip. Rae
squeezed the rabbit a mite too firmly. It thumped its feet against her arm.
Starting at the creature’s sudden desire for freedom, Rae dutifully set it
down, but ignored its nippy bounce into the woods, preferring to glare at me.
“High gods, why does
everybody
forget
the personal space issue?” Appearing confused as to why she held another
animal, Rae knelt and let the hedgehog plod into the bracken.

“We hugged. We are family, or have you changed your
mind?”

“Since I need you I won’t unleash my godlike powers
and singe the mane of hair Daphne considers
glorious
clean off your head.” She sniffed. “You deserve hideous baldness.”

My heart tripped at the mention of the vampire.
Glorious?
“Touching is allowed if it is
inappropriately violent?”

She stomped her foot. “We’re
not
having a ‘touching’ moment. They happen when you’re being
nice
to me.”

I groaned and held my head. The throbbing returned.
“Rae,
please
–”

“Honey-cakes.”

My brows lowered in mystification. “Honey-cakes?”

“I need one.”

Why is she
bothering me with this?
“You are
immortal. You no longer need to eat fruits of the earth.”

“You’re High Lord and no longer need that gigantic
massively humongous chip on your shoulder, but it’s there. I deal with that. So
you need to deal with this.”

“Go. Away.”

Her smile dropped into a snarl. “I am fully
prepared to set Baako on you if you don’t help me.”

“That is
not
what
a Familiar–”

“Here’s the funny thing about something being
mine.
” She stabbed a thumb to her chest.
“
My Familiar, my highly inappropriate
rules.”

Squinting –
because the gods know
her
voice grates on my nerves
– I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Lily
oversees the food.”

“And she’s being unreasonably tight-fisted with it.
Do you think I’d be asking for help if I were able to ask for one? Lily’s
guarding each cake as if they’re sweet and fluffy droplets gifted from heaven.”
She licked her lips. “Not that I, uh, think they are, or anything.”

I eyed her askance.

Breandan suffered her predicament countless times
as a youngling. The cooks pinched his ears when they found him ankle-deep in
the pastries he favoured. Sticky nectar smeared over his ingenuous face.

Ancestral tattoos of the Wyld Guardian crawled up
his thin arms even then.

My lips twitched at the memory.

“’Tis strange. Lily is not vigilant. Most times you
can easily pinch a treat as long as she does not catch….”

Rae blushed and chewed her thumbnail. She mumbled
crossly at her feet, the sooty crescents of her lashes gleaming in the low
light as her sulky expression morphed into mortification.

“She caught you stealing?”

Rae’s luminous face darkened as it lifted. The air
charged, and the leaves quivered on their stalks. “
Stealing
.” The squeal ripped through the higher octaves of her
vocal register. “Really? We’re calling it that?”

We faced off, staring at each other with equivalent
measures of sibling dislike.

I would have smiled at how easily we’d fallen into
the roles of brother and sister if my features weren’t iced into the glower I
saved for intimidation.

Despite being shorter than me by a full head and a
half, Rae managed to look down her pert nose. “Are you going to sneak me one or
not?”

I thought back to our past confrontations. I
grinned.
Finally, I win
. “Not.

Face slackening, she blinked. “You’re just like
Breandan.”

She stalked off. Stopped. Spun and jabbed a finger.
“I’d watch your back, Lochlann. Never know when a bear might
maul
you from the shadows.” She clawed
the air in front of her with a feral grin then skipped away.

Perplexed, I turned to Gunarr who’d dropped to the
ground, and landed crouched. Scratching the second spike on his red Mohawk,
scarlet irises shifty, he muttered about skinning an owl for a feathered hat.

“What did she mean?” I asked. “What traits do I
have like besotted, obstinate, impetuous little brother?”

Ignoring me the fairy searched the tree canopy. He
stilled. Growled with such menace, I fully expected an enemy to charge from the
gloom.

The owl hooted. The sound came from the opposite
direction we travelled in.

Throwing his head back to yowl a battle cry, Gunarr
bolted, blurring into a green and red streak.

Lifting my hands, I let them fall with a slap to my
sides. “Does no one
listen
to me
anymore?”

Daphne weaved around low bushes and shrubs towards
me. Her ankle was bloodied, but healing.

Kian battled with the badger, swinging his arm back
and forth in panic until he tripped and fell.

Stopping in front of me, tottering on her toes,
Daphne blinked, swayed, and patted my chest. “I listen to you.” One eye closed
in confusion as the other rounded in distress. “Don’t I?”

“You
most of
all
disobey. I warned you the wine the human drank was strong. Still you
fed.”

Daphne pointed to her throat then her stomach.
“Hungry and thirsty.” She blinked oddly then pointed to her mouth. “I meant my
stomach was thirsty, my throat hungry. Wait. That’s just not right either. Is
it? My stomach–”

The twitch under my eye quickened to a vibration. “
Then you should have taken from me.”
My
chest heaved, and I clawed back the protectiveness that detonated within me, an
upsurge of jealousy and desire that occurred from the mildest of things
concerning this vampire.

Tipping her head back, Daphne’s eyes sparked. “I
don’t care for your tone.” She softened, eyes dreamy. “But I do care that you
do pretend to not care because you do.”

My brows plunged as I waded through her convoluted
meaning.

She hooked an arm around my neck and
hopped
a foot in the air. Our eyes
connected as she mashed her lips to mine.

Braids bounced around her shoulders when she landed
lightly, but awkwardly. “Breaking the rules is fun.” Looking side to side
suspiciously, she slinked back. Whispered, “Don’t tell Rae I said that.
Never
tell her that I said that.”

My mouth curved in a smile.
How unexpected.

Gawking, Daphne shook herself all over. She
forcibly turned her head, hands pushing out. “Just like Breandan.”

Flushed and grinning, she staggered away singing
off-key.

Refined features curdled, twigs in his hair and
scratches marking his arms, Kian shook his fist. “Save her from a forest
creature, she bites you. Bellow at her and she kisses you. Mad female.” Yet he
trailed after her.

Just like
Breandan?
I smile like little brother? She couldn’t mean I kiss like....

Spinning on my heel,
I roared, “
What did you say,
vampire
?”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Rae

I haven’t learnt the greatest lesson of them all.
No matter what happens, stay in bed.

The furious male hurling epithets and curses at my
back as I attempted to reach the Wyld boundary unseen made me wince.

When I woke, and peered at the dark figure looming
over me, reluctance stomped on my earlier resolve. Wry, I shook my head. Again
I planned to leave the safety of Breandan’s arms. Recent history made me
cautious, and I didn’t want to leave. I’d hesitated ready to make a number of
selfish excuses as to why waking Breandan was a brilliant idea.
I haven’t fulfilled my dare.
I’d looked
up to find the space above me empty. My gaze roamed until I found Tomas’
flickering body blending into the surroundings as he walked through the
dwelling wall. I sighed and turned to press kisses on Breandan’s face. He
mumbled nonsense, and his lips pressed a wild kiss in my direction. As I tried
to slip from the bedding, he shifted, and slung an arm around my waist. I
released a pent up breath when he tightened his hold in a hug then released me
to roll over. My sad sigh became a squeal as I was shoved out the bed by his
much larger and stronger wings. Landing on the floor with a noisy
oomph
, I rubbed my bruised bottom.
Amused, I watched Breandan’s broad back rise and fall in slumber.
At least I know he’s used to sleeping alone.
I was set to crawl under the covers again when Tomas cleared his throat
outside.

Leaving
had been hard enough.

Now I stood a few minutes from the boundary arguing
with my dangerously pissed Familiar.

I’d managed to leave Breandan’s dwelling unseen,
but Baako sensed my heightened emotional state as he guarded the tree base and
roused himself to investigate. He’d found me sneaking off with Tomas playing
look out, and a crappy look out at that.

Seconds from Changing and clawing at the air, Baako
growled and exuded menace. His eyes darted every which way. He could sense
Tomas and hear his voice. Distinguish a glimmer of mysterious power in his
periphery vision, but he couldn’t smell or see him. Scent was vital to how
shapeshifters perceived the world.

My options were to tuck tail and run, or make a
firm stand and settle the perimeters of our relationship. I straightened my
shoulders. “Do this for me?”
I wish my
voice hadn’t pitched higher at the end.

“I should be going with you, Twitch. Not that
vamp–ghost–argh! Not that
thing
.”
He snarled spinning a circle so fast it made me dizzy. He resumed pacing until
his weighty tread flattened the brownish grass. “I need to protect you. Do you
know how hard it is to rein the impulse to grab you and run somewhere dark and
safe right now? Yeah. A dry cave somewhere nice and high. A river nearby for
fish.” He spun again. Dirt flew, and his heel carved a circular groove. “I’ve
begun to think of you as my cub. You can’t wander off with a
thing
and not let me go with you.”

I realised by accepting a predator shifter as my Familiar
I’d be dealing with possessive animal tendencies, but this was extreme. “You
promised you wouldn’t interfere. I warned you. I do things that won’t make
sense right away. Please, Baako. I can’t tell you anything more that I have.
Stay and look after him.” He threw me a scathing look, and I responded with a
wobbly smile. “For me?”

Baako scrutinized me. With a full-bodied slouch, he
dry washed his face. “Whatever you say, Twitch.”

 
Scowling fiercely at the moniker, I paled, shaking my head
when the roguish twinkle in his eye gave up his next move. Squawking, I turned
to run. He latched onto my shoulders and jerked me off the ground. Rotated
mid-air, my eyes rounded as bulging arms crushed me in the ultimate bear hug.
My dangling legs thrashed thinking themselves still in-flight.

“Don’t die,” he grumbled, rubbing his bristled
cheek across my crown. His chest vibrated with laughter. “I’d never live it
down.”

Gasping for air, I grunted my agreement. Breathing
proved difficult when several hundred pounds of shifter squeezed you tight.

Baako shot a baleful look over his shoulder that
drifted when he couldn’t pin point his target. “I don’t care how infallible you
think you are.” Anger roughened his tone. “Anything happens to her and there’s
nowhere you’d run where I wouldn’t find you.” Growling to reinforce the
warning, Baako squashed me to his muscled chest one more time, dropped me, made
sure I was steady on my feet then stalked off without looking back.

Materializing with a surly expression, Tomas opened
his mouth to verbalize the nasty thought mirrored on his expression.

Something caught his attention over my shoulder.

The whites of his eyes blotted with black, and he
sneered. Jealousy tinged with fear twisted his pale face into a frightening
mask.

Eyes briefly slipping closed, I turned.

Breandan stood behind me with an expression so
bleak, I swear, my heart ruptured and bled.

Gaze skimming over the scene, his face remained
guarded until he decided to forgo the shouting, and clutched my shoulders.

Breandan’s eyes burned a hole through Tomas until
they swooped to me, clouded with betrayal. “Why?” The question was resigned.
“Why leave me?”

This is
more than difficult.