Behind the Veil: 3 (Temptation Unveiled) (5 page)

Such a coward.

She ran her free hand through her hair and leaned back
heavily. “I like Damon, but I have to know. Is he responsible for Nyctimus and
Kyle becoming hetero life partners? Was he
that
sick of his half-brother
hanging around the house?”

She glanced over in time to watch Meru’s eyebrows shoot up
in surprise and laughed. “You didn’t know I’d been replaced? I mean, don’t get
me wrong, I feel better knowing it took a demi-god to do it, I just don’t want
Kyle getting hurt. He’s already feeling abandoned by us. What if Nyctimus gets
tired of playing good cop and hanging out in corner bars with a lowly human? Or
worse, gets Kyle into something he can’t get out of?”

Meru seemed as unhappy about the news as she was. “I’ll look
into it. Damon and Myrddin
have
been hesitant about Nyc joining the
Fianna
.
Something about Archon blood and a conflict of interest. Maybe Nyc’s just
trying to show them whose side he’s on. That he’s a good guy.”

Sheridan shrugged. “Or he’s bored. Who knows why any of them
do the things they do? Maybe simply because they can.”

“Them. Them meaning Damon?” Meru adjusted a few smaller,
colorful pillows behind her and faced Sheridan. “Them meaning my child?”

“Of course not!” Sheridan’s growl of frustration was aimed
at herself. “That is my family in there.
Your
baby.”

Her cousin nodded. “And you and I have Druid blood and I’m
married to a Lycan. She won’t be a regular child.”

“She?”

Meru laughed softly, her lightly freckled face glowing. “I’m
hoping. We women are seriously outnumbered around here, in case you haven’t
noticed.”

No kidding. “Are you going to tell me what you and that
chatty book of yours have decided I’m supposed to do? Any clues as to what I’m
looking for or where I’ll have to go?”

“Sher, you’re trying to change the subject. Do you still
hate them, all of them, that much? If you do, we’ll find another way. You know
you’re more important to me than anything else in the world. No one will be
allowed to pressure you. I won’t lose you aga—”

Sheridan pressed her fingers to Meru’s lips, cutting her off.
“There
is
no other way or you wouldn’t be here. Do you think I don’t
know that? That I don’t know you’ve always had my back?” She paused and forced
herself to breathe. “I know what this means. It’s time. Just tell me, please. I
need to know what to expect. And I need you to be the one doing the explaining,
so I can prepare without an audience.”

“You’re not going to like it.”

You will let her down again. Let your family down and all
the people they love. And when you do, everyone will die.

Sheridan nodded. “What else is new?”

He shouldn’t be here. He knew that. Raj reminded him before
he went to bed that he expected Finn to respect the privacy of his other
guests. His thoughts were not as polite and far more specific.

Leave Sheridan alone.

Fire-breathing bastard. Unfortunately, Dragon Boy didn’t
know him very well, since his command only made the temptation of being this
close to her more impossible to resist.

Never had he expected to feel jealousy toward Myrddin’s
sidekick, but the easy way Sheridan seemed to have with Raj, the bond they’d
forged here, ate at him. She trusted the bookish dragon prince. A man who could
change at will into a fierce beast that could rip her to shreds, as far removed
from the humanity she clung to as any of them, had earned her friendship. Finn
knew he should be glad she’d felt some measure of safety here, that she could
look at any of them without disgust. It should give him hope. It should…but it
didn’t.

He had to see her. The starlight drifted through her balcony
doors to kiss her bare skin, tempting him to do the same. She was tangled in
her sheets, her lean, beautiful body sideways across the bed as though tossed
there and her fists curled tightly in her pillow as she fought her nighttime
demons. Still.

Finn felt a twinge of guilt that he’d come here to comfort
himself with the sight of her while she suffered. But he didn’t turn away. He
didn’t leave. He was too selfish, too edgy, his mind racing after tonight’s
events. If he woke her from her nightmare he’d be forced to leave and wait
until the sun rose to catch a glimpse of her again.

He was a bastard.

He’d known the plan before they arrived, and he would have
bet all the moons in the Realm that she wasn’t going to take it well. He’d
warned Meru to give her time to adjust to their presence before she scared her
away with the details. He’d braced himself for Sheridan Kelly’s unique brand of
stubborn resistance when the
banflaith
decided to tell her anyway.

There had been none.

Not when Meru had told her that she—along with the rest of
them—had been invited to join the Tuatha for a very special
Imbolg
celebration that would include a royally sanctioned commitment ceremony between
Hawk, Linnea and Val.

Not when Sheridan was brought up to date with the little
they’d learned about what the prophecy might mean, and the sect of Fae secretly
in league with the
Dark
. Fae who apparently had enough mastery over
their minds and hearts to keep their true allegiances hidden, something Finn
hadn’t believed was possible. If that was true, the situation was beyond
dangerous.

Danu had put precautions in place to prevent such treachery.
The Horde was proof of that. A Fae whose soul turned to darkness found that
their bodies soon followed, making it impossible for them to live among their
own kind. The
Dark
had found a loophole.

That anyone of his people could or would work with the
Dark
without changingbaffled him. Shamed him. That they might do so
under his family’s banners—the intelligence indicated the suspects came from
multiple houses—only enhanced the humiliation. Danu forgive them, because he
never would.

Archons were another matter entirely. He expected deceit
from them. Since they’d arrived in this world not long after his own people,
Myrddin, who had been known by many names—Enki, Merlin, Professor White—was the
only Archon Finn had ever trusted completely. The rest were power-hungry, petty
monsters, with too much reliance on their advanced gadgetry to understand natural
magic and no desire to evolve. Danu had been right to keep the two peoples as
separate as possible. Though even that hadn’t been enough.

He made another mental correction. Damon’s “brother”
Nyctimus had resisted his genetics the same way Myrddin had. Perhaps it was
because he was half human. He wanted to join the fight alongside them, and
despite his arrogance, Finn saw potential in the son of Zeus. It was too bad
Damon didn’t agree.

A moan drew him back to the darkened room. Sheridan. She was
more like her ancestor than any of them knew. Strength and sacrifice were Áine’s
defining characteristics. Few knew what she suffered for the people she loved.
Sheridan had the same courage, and she’d shown it tonight.

By the time the men had returned from Raj’s opulent kitchen
with sandwiches and hot tea, she’d been prepared. She’d stood with her back to
the fire, and when she was sure they were all listening, made her demands. He’d
tried not to be offended that none of them were directed at the only being in
the room who was actually Fae and had a chance of fulfilling them.

He saw hints of the feisty spirit he’d been drawn to in her
requests. She wanted detailed information about those Fae that Linnea and “The
Brads” viewed as the most likely suspects, she wanted Badger, in addition to
Damon, to be in charge of protecting Meru while they were in the Realm…

And Kyle. Most of all she wanted to work with her old
partner Kyle.

Finn felt the telltale pulse at his temple as he studied the
perfect curve of Sheridan’s hip. Even encased as it was in her favorite pair of
faded plaid boxers, the sight made him…hungry.

He shook his head. The Druid he understood. She and her
counterpart, Bear, were both strong. Gifted. Not Fae. But Kyle was only human.
A full-blooded human, with no scent or trace of any Other ancestry—more of a
rarity than most knew. Once Sheridan had gone to bed, he’d felt compelled to
tell Meru of the difficulty of that particular demand.

“Linnea is human, isn’t she?” she’d said, clearly confused. “They
don’t seem to mind her presence. I never got the impression that they would
turn someone away for being human.”

Finn sighed. “The Guardian Mother carried a Fae child in her
womb. Crystal left her mark on her mother before she was born, cloaking her
instinctively for protection and diminishing her inherent attractiveness to my
people.” He looked over their shoulders and out the window into the darkening
night sky, trying to find the words to explain. “The human will is not usually
strong enough to survive that kind of mingling. And my people, as well, would
be unable to resist the temptation Kyle represented…unless he were claimed
first.”

He could see she didn’t understand. Truthfully, he wasn’t
sure he wanted her to. He had been a
Fianna
warrior long enough to know
that Tuatha ways were unique. Their desires were unusual, different from the
Archons. They had never longed for power or wealth, never longed to rule…but
life, in all its forms, was irresistible. They craved it, sometimes to excess.
Danu’s people were peaceful in their way. But it had been so long since they’d
walked freely among humans, so long since they’d tasted pure, untainted mortal
life. They would be irresistibly attracted to Kyle and, being human, he would
be easily enchanted. It was unavoidable. Dangerous.

Up to this point, Kyle had been protected. Finn had shielded
him from the full force of his own Fae nature out of habit. It was something
that came instinctively to him now. If he didn’t camouflage himself, he would
never be able to do his job. Kyle and any other human he came across
would
be
far more than agreeable, but it would take away their free will. That defining
trait valued above all others.

The options were distasteful. Deny Kyle access or watch him give
his will over to the Tuatha—either choice ensured Sheridan’s wrath.

Meru had been adamant. “I don’t need to know what you’re
talking about, but, Finn?
I don’t care
. Make it happen. Sheridan gets
what she wants for this. She’s doing it for me. For us. Voluntarily going to a
place where everyone is Fae. Where everyone looks like…”

Like Eonis. Like Finn. It all came down to that. Even with
Kyle and the others beside her, would she be able to work with him? Would she
be able to endure a weeklong celebration of decadence surrounded by his kind?
Finn had fooled himself into believing that if she never forgave him, he would
find a way to survive, if only she would give him a sign that her spirit hadn’t
been completely broken by her capture. Give him hope that he would someday be
able to face himself again after his failure to protect her.

But it wasn’t enough.

“No more.
Please
.”

Hell. He couldn’t leave her like this. He refused to allow
her to suffer, even in her dreams. He should wake her now and bring her back
from whatever terrifying place her subconscious had taken her.

Bring her back…or join her?

Finn moved closer to the bed, not letting his boots touch
the floor, knowing the others would hear him if they did. Using his gifts as a
Fae tracker to sneak into a woman’s bedroom was not something he was proud of,
but that didn’t stop him from recalling another ability his kind was born with.
He hadn’t thought of it before because it hadn’t been sanctioned for ages.
Because Finn, for all his bluster, followed the rules. But it was a way inside
the one mind barred to him.
Her
mind. A way in.

His body betrayed his excitement at the prospect—cock
hardening, muscles flexing even as he tried to calm his mind. For her. He was
doing this for her, giving her the gift of distraction and guiding her to a
different kind of dream. This had nothing to do with what he wanted.

Liar.

Centuries ago, his people had walked freely through humanity’s
dreams, sharing in their darkest desires and most longed-for fantasies as they
slept unaware. Sheridan’s mother would call it the astral plane. For Finn, it
might be the only place he could go to show Sheridan how he felt. To help her.

To touch her.

He may not be able to read her conscious thoughts, but her
spirit? Her unconscious? Well, that was another matter entirely. First, of
course, he would have to find her. For that he needed concentration and focus,
a serene state of mind he would never accomplish this close to her tempting bare
flesh.

A warm, brilliant light consumed him as he directed his
travel with a thought. Flashing, Sheridan called it. He arrived at the place he’d
taken her the night they first met, before they’d changed course and headed to
Myrddin’s house. The place he’d often come to since for solace.

Danu’s Joy. It was the highest mountain in
Riocht an
Athais
, his people’s home. From it you could see the glow of life, the
light of the Fae. From here, he could recall all the reasons he loved his
world. Loved his people. Here there was always music in the wind. The breeze
smelled of ancient aphrodisiacs and caressed his flesh as a lover would. His
body pulsed with its rhythm, instinctively harmonizing with the home they had
made for themselves so long ago.

It was here, on this very spot, where he’d kissed Sheridan
Kelly for the first and only time. And been slapped for his efforts.

She hadn’t known where she was, had barely known him. She’d
just watched her cousin come under attack from the Sauros, the lizard-like
hybrids that obeyed the Lord of Air. In hindsight, it hadn’t been the best
moment for seduction. But then, Finn had never had to work to seduce a woman
before, it just happened. He’d also never met one whose mind he could not read.
Someone whose scent was so addictive.

Sheridan made it clear from the beginning that she wanted
nothing to do with him, but he knew there was something between them. More than
either of them had been willing to admit until it was too late.

She’d locked her heart away at the same time Finn had
realized he’d wanted it to belong to him.

He thought about how his friends had found their mates. Had
it been less than a year? Their lives had all changed profoundly in such a
short time. The
Fianna
was changing. They were no longer a group of
solitary male guardians defending the North portal. The women who had entered
their lives had complicated matters with love and children, with new
obligations and the tempting possibility of a future. A family.

Unlike Sheridan, Linnea and Meru had both pushed past their
own fears and those of the men they loved. The Guardian Mother had literally
chained Hawk and Val in her bedroom to make them admit their true feelings.
There was a tantalizing merit to that idea, though after Sheridan’s experience,
Finn didn’t dare. Look how she still suffered. He would have to find another
way to convince her that she wanted him. Needed him.

But there
was
something he could do that those women
could not. If Sheridan would not come to him, he would simply go to her. In her
dreams. On her terms. Whatever it took.

Finn folded his legs beneath him and sat, his palms turned
upward in supplication. He was a tracker. The best of the trackers. He would
find her.

As his body absorbed the powerful energy of his mountain, he
concentrated on the images of Sheridan that were never far from his mind.
Images that should allow him to find the right path.

The first moment he’d met her in that bar, when she mistook
him and the other
Fianna
for strippers she’d purchased for Meru’s
birthday.

The startled desire that quickly turned into false animosity
when he’d kissed her here, on top of Danu’s Joy.

Her glorious, fearless fight against the
Dark
when
they’d found Linnea and her daughter Crystal, the lost Fae heir.

The terror in her eyes when he’d found her bound and
brutalized. Her struggles as he freed her, struggles against him, not realizing
he wasn’t the enemy. Not realizing his heart had only started to beat again
when he knew she was alive.

Sheridan.

Where are you?

* * * * *

The black mist clung to her, a filthy film of loathing and
envy and pain. So much pain. It filled the room, blocking her view of the door.
Blocking all hope for escape, even if she could get out of these jagged
bindings that tightened with every movement, cutting into her skin. She was
trapped.