Catch & Hold-Legend (Legend series) (12 page)

Chance grinned. “Och … aye … what ’ave we here? Trouble for the love doves, is it? Don’t ye worry, lass, I’m here for ye—whenever ye want.” He made a show of sighing woefully. “Sorry I am, little Daoine, ye didn’t choose me first. Och now that would have been something—and I promise ye, it still can be.”

Danté took a menacing step towards him, and I hurriedly put my hand to his chest and ignored the sensations that rushed through me. I looked hard at Chance and said without a smile, “Chance, we are here because we just came from the Dark Realm, and—”

His whistle, low and long, interrupted me. “Have ye now? Doona know why you went there, no, I don’t—” He cut himself off and pointed his chin at Danté. “Did he not try and stop ye? Baffles me, it does.”

“Well, if you would shut up for a moment, maybe you wouldn’t be baffled so much,” Danté grumbled sharply.

They eyed one another, and I saw them both clench and unclench their fists as well as their strong jaws. I stepped completely between them and held a hand to each, trying to contain the situation.

Fae and Milesians haven’t forgiven each other in all these thousands of years. What has made it worse is that this remaining community of Milesians used our own Danu dust to forge their weapons against us in the Great War. In so doing they also managed to breathe in quite a quantity of Danu dust, rendering them immortal with similar magic as we Fae—not as powerful perhaps and not as refined, but mighty all the same.

“We have to get this organized, and it won’t be done unless you two …” I tried to reason, but Danté got by me and was up in Chance’s face, and the two of them looked as though they were just about to go at it.

I needed to diffuse the situation, so I did the only thing I could think to do. I played girlie girl, put a hand to my head, and pretended to swoon.
Me
—swoon? Never happen, but I made a good show.

Did either of my hunky hunks care? No. Did either one look my way?
No.

There I was, fainting with no one to catch me, when suddenly Ete was at my side, taking my hand in hers with Prince Breslyn bolstering me from behind.

I pulled a face and whispered, “No—no, I’m fine!
T
hem
 … I was trying to distract them!”

Breslyn jumped into action, and I stood back to watch these three incredible warriors go at it in fine style. They were in each other’s faces, and a few Milesian hunky bucks were idling over and appeared to want to join in the argument.

Ete pushed her waist-length auburn hair behind her back and tied it with a leather as she smiled sweetly at me and said, “Males are forever a trial, are they not?”

“Understatement, sweetie pie,” I answered, my arms now folded across my middle. There was a whole lot of shouting going on, and suddenly I had had it. I marched right up to them, took Rolo off my belt, and held him up. “Go on, Rolo—put them each in a corner and silence them.”

“It will only work for a few minutes, Z.”

“That is all I need,” I said sharply, and then I don’t know what my Seelie Hallow did, but he had them all parted from one another. There was a hushed quiet as they stared from me to the Seelie Hallow I held up.

I cleared my throat. “We have a problem. That common problem is Gaiscioch. He means to lead the Dark Fae into Ireland—your beloved, our beloved Ireland,” I said, pointing a finger at Chance. “I was lucky enough to catch a quick glimpse of some of the locations where he means to open his largest portals. He knows I have seen them, but he can’t do anything to change the location of the two largest ones, now at the last minute. It is nearly Samhain … and he is about to strike.”

I paused and looked at all the men standing about. Danté looked like a towering inferno about to burst, but I noticed that a slow smile had curved Breslyn’s lips. While it held no warmth and a whole lotta grim, it appeared he had made a decision. He took Danté’s shoulder as though to keep him in check, so I continued. “One of the portals will be opened in an unusual location in Inverness, near the river. The other portal he plans to open will be in Dublin near the River Liffey. Are we going to let him get away with this? Are we going to let him overrun our beloved land with Dark Fae and kill the innocents?”

I looked at them as they broke out in hushed murmurs that soon escalated into heated words. Danté came to stand beside me and said in the loud voice of many, the voice of compulsion, which he used only to get their attention, “My Z is right. That is why we came to Dravo. We need to set aside the past and work together now to save the future. We need to work together in order to accomplish this, as the Dark Fae have numbers that could wipe out entire cities in a matter of hours before our few numbers can save the humans.”

“Aye then,” said Chancemont, putting out a hand to Danté and looking towards me. “So be it.” He then inclined his head towards me. “Well done, beauty … well done.”

“Good girl,” Ete whispered softly as she came to stand next to me, folding her arms across her bare middle. She was clothed in a navy spandex halter, navy leather pants, and boots. She certainly was an eyeful of pretty.

I saw Breslyn turn his dark blonde head and look her over with a soft smile. Open adoration glittered in Breslyn’s eyes as he looked at Ete. I bet he wouldn’t let Morrigu hump
his knee
,
I told myself. I looked at Danté and none too happily. He frowned, and I know he was at that moment confused and taken aback by my glare.

Back in front of the queen, I had let my guard down and had taken his hand. I had allowed him to think all was forgiven as he had taken me into his arms. For a moment back then, it wasn’t forgiven but put aside. However, it kept coming back in waves of green …

I only half listened to Rolo mumbling something about getting on with it as I watched Chance, who had turned away from conferring with his men and was now coming towards me. Ete was still standing at my side, and all at once I felt my eyes open wide as I saw Prince Breslyn take long, hard strides to get protectively between her and Chance, a threatening smile on his face.

Ete giggled. I shook my head. This was getting nowhere fast. Too much testosterone waving its big hands in every direction.

Planning strategy was going to be harder than I thought. I had to get everyone serious about the business of working together, and so I found a round table in my mind, a mind that had become nearly all Daoine as my human ‘thinking’ was left in the bleachers.

Bam
,
a table appeared between us, with chairs set in place. I motioned for everyone to be seated. When they all hesitated, I made a face at them and said, “Who is the real enemy
? Gais
—and don’t we want him destroyed and the Prison Wall intact again?
Sit
.”

Only Ete sat immediately, but she tugged at Breslyn and he sat beside her, still one hand on his death weapon. I turned and glared at Danté, and he pulled a chair out for me and I sat. He quickly sat himself between Chance and me.

Five of Chance’s men took up their chairs, and one grinned at Chancemont. “Wasn’t expecting this so early in the day and with your head still full of ale and Mary, eh?”

“No, aye, thank ye for reminding me, Terrence,” Chance said and leaned back on the hardwood chair to scan everyone at leisure.

Flanked by Ete and Danté, I sighed and hurriedly conjured up a map of Scotland and one of Dublin similar to what I’d seen in Gais’s chamber and laid them both out on the table.

“
Now
 …” I started and waited for everyone to take a good look at the map.

* * *

I was in Danté’s arms as he shifted us to MacDaun, and I leaned my head against his naked, hard chest and wished the shifting would last forever. All I wanted was to be right where I was. Didn’t need a bed, didn’t need terra firma; here in the solitude of space was just fine for me.

I had asked him to take me to MacDaun because I wanted to see Sally and make sure she and her family were all comfortable and safe. We arrived, however, in my bedroom, and when I started to pull out of his arms, he detained me—firmly. He turned my face and lifted my chin so I had to look up into his gold, glittering, oh so warm and beautiful eyes. I reached back to unhook my sheathed sword; he took over and performed that office for me, sending it with his into their waiting dimension (I think of it as the Sword Closet).

Rolo hung at my thin chain belt, and I undid the belt and set my Seelie Hallow gently down on a bed of pillows by the window.

And then Danté pulled me into his arms. It was what I wanted … but I am a contrary thing and annoy myself at times because all I wanted, as I have said, was to be in his arms, but what did I do? I tried to pull away!

He held me fast and firmly, and as we silently struggled my foot hit my nightstand and knocked off a picture frame. It didn’t break, but I made a fist and slammed him in the chest anyway.

He didn’t even blink, which annoyed me, and then he said, “Z, you need to know what you saw
wasn’t real
—Morrigu was on me as soon as I shifted inside the library. I went to the palace
looking for you,
and, Z … she was already naked and on me before I knew what she meant to do. I swear to you,
enfant
, she came at me, and I was about to extricate myself when you arrived on the scene and misunderstood it all.”

I sniffed, as I had nothing to say to this, and he sighed heavily and continued, “My sweet love, I thought you knew … understood … what I feel for you—”

A knock sounded at the door, and I wanted to scream. Had he been about to tell me what I had wanted to hear? Did he love me? Was he going to tell me so?

“Radzia …?” Sally’s voice at any other moment would have been a delight to my ears. At any other moment—however, I put a finger up at his face and made eyebrows at him that clearly said this conversation would continue later, and then I went to the door and opened it wide.

Sally hugged me to her, and we stood like that for a long time before she said, “I won’t ask how you two got here without my seeing you enter—as I’ve been constantly going back and forth to the window and your room here, looking for your return. It’s been days, Radzia …”

“Days?” I had forgotten that time in Tir was so different, and it must also be different in the Dark Realm. “What day is it, Sally?” I silently berated myself. I should have realized. I should have sent her word that I was fine. I should have—

“Why, ’tis Wednesday, the twenty-ninth,” she said, appearing surprised that I didn’t know.

“Halloween in two more days!” I screeched this and turned to Danté.

He nodded and clenched his teeth. We had lost valuable time in the Dark Realm and would have a great deal to do. “You and your family are well? Have there been anymore disturbances?” Danté asked Sally while I frowned over the time I had lost. Halloween was upon us. We would have to work fast.

“Yes, though they keep asking what is it we are being protected from.” Sally eyed Danté pragmatically, which was her way—had always been her way.

“And what, wise Sally, do you tell them?” Danté smiled sweetly at her.

“I tell them that there are things beyond our control and they must trust me.” Sally smiled and added, “And they do.”

“Excellent,” I said and gave her hands a squeeze.

“So then, will ye be telling me what this is all about, or do I guess?”

“What would you guess?” I asked curiously.

“That it all has something to do with the People of the Light … whom your father and his father before him faithfully served. Radzia, I have always known.”

My mouth dropped open, and she smiled, obviously amused. I shook my head as I asked, “Sally … what do you know about the ‘People of the Light’?”

“I know that when your father hired me, he said I might notice things, and that your family was not the average sort. We talked about legends, and he asked me if I believed in the possibility that there were Druids who served to help the Fae keep up the ‘Wall’ against the Dark forces. I told him that I did, and he hired me on the spot.” She sighed and then touched my mouth to close it. “So I have always known … things were not quite as they seemed.”

I was speechless, and so Danté stepped in. “Sally, we have a few things to do, so we will be in and out, but first tell me, any word about Aaron Dunbar?”

“Despicable villain,” she almost spat. “No one has seen him about, but I have a feeling he is still lurking around, going in and out of his home at night. The word about the village is that he is into black magic, and everyone steers clear of both the bed and breakfast place, which is still empty, and the Dunbar estate.”

“Why do they think that, and why do you think he is still lurking about?” Danté’s wonderful brows were drawn together. I was staring at him, I knew, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to trace the tattoos on his chest with my tongue. I wanted him to trace mine near my hip and thigh with his—and hell, what was I thinking with Sally in the room? Nuts—I had to be nuts from my time in the Dark Realm.

“Because he wasn’t finished,” Sally said simply, and I thought with perfect logic.

“Thank you, Sally,” Danté said with a gentle touch to her shoulder. “Radzia and I will be for the next few days in and out of MacDaun. You aren’t to worry, but don’t … please don’t go into town or anywhere off the property during this time.”