Daughter of Destiny (32 page)

Katarina eyed the female.
She was good—very good, but the emotions she sensed did not match
the flustered female act. Ariel had ulterior motives involving
Kieran, but without poking deeper into the woman's head, something
Katarina was unwilling to do without provocation, she could only
bide her time and observe.

She chose to let the female
believe she bought her act. "Truce. For the record, orgies don’t
appeal to my husband or me. I don’t know what Kieran likes, and
truthfully I really don’t want to think about it."

Ariel beamed and lowered
her voice to just above a whisper. "I'm Kieran's favorite. He's had
a dalliance or two, but I'm the only female he has sex with
regularly."

Zane laughed outright and
Katarina tried not to wince at Ariel's attempt to convince her they
were one giggle shy of best friends forever. A masculine groan from
across the room drew their combined attention. Ariel lit up like a
fluorescent bulb and she flashed to Kieran’s side, but not before
Katarina noticed the calculating gleam.

"Kieran. Where have you
been?" she purred and plastered her body against his. Ariel pulled
his head down and captured his lips in a deep, long kiss. Katarina
sensed nothing more than annoyance from Kieran. When he peeled
Ariel off him, Katarina couldn't hold back her laughter.

Kieran coughed and his face
turned a couple of shades redder. "Not now, Ariel. If I’m not busy,
I’ll visit later."

Ariel’s pout turned into a
hesitant smile. "Really?"

"Yes."

Ariel leaned into him and
traced a path over his crotch with her hand. "Don’t wait too long."
Then she shifted out of the room.

Katarina laughed until she
gasped for breath. When Finn told her she had a brother, of all the
situations she imagined for their first meeting, none of them
compared to this one. Kieran smiled, but didn't laugh, and for his
sake, she sought composure. Side by side with their father, Kieran
crossed the room. When he stood in front of her, nerves returned.
They stared at each other for a long minute. What did she know
about brothers? Nothing. Would he remember that she abandoned him?
Was he angry? Did he even care?

Kieran took a tentative
step forward and looked to Zane, who nodded and withdrew his arm.
Kieran reached out to help her up from the settee. The moment their
palms touched, energy crackled between them as if positive and
negative electrodes on a battery connected to complete a circuit.
The energy of their powers flowed from one to the other building in
harmonic waves, multiplying exponentially.

Katarina tried to jerk
back, but Kieran held on, levered her to her feet, and then wrapped
her in a hug so tight it squeezed the breath out of her. The hug
calmed her fears that he harbored hurt or anger, but the magnitude
of their combined power stole her attention. From the corner of her
eye, she caught her father's gaze and much like that day long ago
in the woods, pride and worry warred within him. Alone, she was
formidable. With Kieran at her side, very little lay beyond their
reach to achieve. She didn't know Kieran and how he would view such
potential, but that kind of unfettered power scared her down to her
soul.

"Oh god, what do I say to
him?"

"It doesn't
matter."

Unused to anyone getting
past her mental walls, Katarina jumped in surprise, and in spite of
his grip, she pulled out of his embrace. Even with their link, Zane
never entered her private thoughts uninvited. "What do you think
you’re doing invading my head like that?"

Before she could continue
the lecture on the tip of her tongue, Kieran snapped back, "I
didn’t invade your head. You were the one who spoke to
me."

She didn't drop her mental
blocks. What was going on? Kieran eyed her as if he opened a
present to find out the awesome gift was defective. A niggling idea
began to form. Making doubly sure she wasn’t broadcasting her
thoughts or touching him, and that all of her usual blocks were up
she thought,
"Can you hear my thoughts now, Kieran?"
No
answer. She stepped forward and took Kieran’s hand in hers. The
surge of power did not repeat, but it flowed unchecked between
them. Katarina repeated the question.
"Can you hear my thoughts
now, Kieran?"

"Of course I can hear
you. I’m telepathic too, you know."
The expression on his face
punctuated his response with a silent, "duh". She continued to hold
his hand and ignored the patronizing tone. She broadcast a thought
to both Zane and Finn,
"Did either one of you hear any of my
thoughts, or detect me removing my blocks?"

Both answered verbally.
"No."

Zane was a shadow in her
mind watching her experiment.
"When you touch, it negates your
blocks, doesn't it?"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?" Kieran asked.
The fact he didn't hear Zane made her feel a little less like a
radio transmitting signals to anyone with the right equipment to
pick them up.

"All I ask is that he stay
out of your head when we’re making love."

"Zane!"

"Zane?"

Katarina pulled her hand
away from Kieran’s. This was worse than trying to talk on two comm.
units at once. She put a hand to her forehead and massaged it for a
second. "Is it like that for you and Torin?" she asked
Finn.

"No. I suppose it’s because
you are twins. Even among humans there is often a unique bond
between them."

She blew out a heavy sigh.
"Don’t you get it yet, Kieran? When we touch, it nullifies our
mental walls somehow."

Color leeched from Kieran's
cheeks. She frowned. She wasn't thrilled at the idea either, but it
wasn't as if she was going to raid his brain for his deepest,
darkest, secrets. She held her temper in check, reminding herself
that Kieran had no reason to trust her. She reached out again,
ignoring the way he flinched when she touched his arm.
"I
promise not to look into your thoughts unless you show them to me.
Whatever you want hidden will stay that way."

"I won't pretend I'm human.
I'm Fae. We do what pleases us. Father will do anything to please
you, paint a pretty picture of Fairy, live on Earth, whatever he
thinks you want to see. I'm proud of being Fae, and you will either
accept me or not. I don't share his fondness for humanity and I
don't pretend to understand humans. I don't trust other faeries,
why should I trust you?"

She met his measuring gaze
and wondered if fear of rejection burned as brightly in him as it
did insider her. She trusted her heart and placed a hand on her
brother’s smooth cheek.
"I don't expect blind trust. I'm happy
to earn it. None of us are perfect, Kieran. Not Fae, not humans. I
won't pass judgment on you as long as you don't do so to me."
She was rewarded with a small smile.

Finn cleared his throat and
Katarina stepped back. "It isn't every day I meet my long lost
brother, but I think it's time to leave Fairy. I happen to have a
world in need of saving."

Kieran’s eyebrows shot up.
"Do what?"

Finn laughed. "You didn’t
expect her to stay here did you?"

"Well, I thought maybe
she’d come home with us."

Now it was Katarina’s turn
to be surprised. "You don’t live here?"

"We have our own realm,"
Kieran answered matter-of-factly.

With a glance to no doubt
make sure she wasn't touching Kieran, Finn cast a thought to
Katarina.
"We live on Earth. He just doesn’t know
it."

Katarina forced her
expression to remain blank.
"Okay, now you’ve really got me
curious."

"I’ll explain another time.
I promise."

Kieran frowned and
complained, "Father’s worried about something, but you I can’t read
at all."

"That’s because I block
better." If she sounded smug, she decided she earned it considering
the amount of work and pain she suffered through to reach her
current level of expertise.

"There are only a few human
empaths or telepaths. Why do you need such strong
blocks?"

"The noise of billions of
minds can be just a bit overwhelming. Living there, I also had to
learn to contain the power inside of me."

"Because of our mother?" He
spat the question with vivid hatred flowing from him.

Katarina winced as the hate
slammed against her walls and made her stomach roil. "Not exactly.
Kieran, Mom did the best she could. She lost you and I believe she
lived in constant fear that if I discovered my true identity, I
would be whisked away from her. I'm still angry at her, but I've
realized that if she didn't love me, she would have let me
go."

He feigned indifference,
but Kieran’s anger still seethed beneath the surface. "It doesn’t
matter now."

"No, it doesn't," Katarina
agreed, hoping that with time he would be less
condemning.

Zane stepped forward, his
soft soled boots making no sound on the marble floor, and extended
his hand out to Kieran. "Nice to meet you, brother."

Kieran stared for a second
before accepting the proffered hand with the same wariness one
might use to pet a "tame" lion. Zane stood about an inch taller
than Kieran. Zane's current spiky crew cut lent him a ruthless edge
that mocked the effeminate look of Kieran's strawberry blond hair
which brushed the collar of his silk shirt in soft
waves.

Finn circled to stand
between Zane and Kieran with the same silent grace Zane possessed.
Finn hid the darker aspect of his personality, but Katarina still
saw it. Of the three men, her father was the most dangerous. Zane
killed in the line of duty or to protect innocents. Katarina
doubted Kieran even grasped the concept of death or its
repercussions, which was a danger unto itself. Finn's murky morals
meant he might kill at a moment's notice if he deemed it justified
his goals.

Finn put a hand on each of
their shoulders. "Zane’s all right. He knows just how to deal with
your sister."

Katarina glared at Finn.
"Don’t start that again."

Zane laughed and pulled her
close. He rubbed the throbbing spot on her back, earning himself a
reprieve, especially when he replied, "Don’t forget she’s quite
capable of handling us as well."

She stood on tiptoe and
kissed Zane's cheek. "I knew I liked you for a reason." Katarina
turned to her father and brother. "Time to go."

Finn cocked his head as if
listening to something. "Yes. The Goloth attack force has reached
Earth."

Zane asked Kieran, "You
want to go kick some Goloth ass?"

Kieran shrugged one
shoulder. "Why not?"

After another brief round
of “who's in charge of shifting” Katarina won and shifted all of
them directly to the military base directing Earth's defense. Finn
still stopped short of panic each time she did so, but she knew
what she was doing and it got easier the more she did it. If the
Fae didn't know how to tap into someone's visual cortex to get an
image of the destination, she didn't plan on enlightening them. She
figured she needed to stash a few tricks up her sleeve anyway.
Besides, she preferred the Fae not hop into people's heads. She
highly doubted they would be as discreet and considerate as she
tried to be.

Katarina used Naia as an
image source, so they materialized a few feet away from her. The
brightly lit crowded room buzzed with activity. Rows of computer
terminals filled the room, each of them occupied by at least one
and sometimes several soldiers. Tension filled the air, yet no one
even noticed their arrival. A metal staircase led to a second level
which overlooked the main floor. Engrossed in the blinking display
of a huge holographic map, not even the people above noticed their
abrupt appearance. Katarina's head ached just thinking about the
new levels of security humans would have to address, but she
suspected the average human did not possess sufficient power to
shift space.
Thank heaven for small favors.
She headed for
Naia, passing radar and sonar stations, but the other computers she
passed she couldn't identify. Sounds of battle echoed out of a com
unit, turning the buzz of equipment and voices into a cacophony.
She couldn't make heads or tails of the chaos.

Following behind her, Zane
squeezed her hand.
"It’s okay. From what I can tell, they have
things under control, or well, at least the invasion
part."

"What do you
mean?"

Zane pointed at the far end
of the room.
"Those are reports of unexplained 'incidents'.
There's a laundry list popping up and swamping local
officials."

"Crap."

A high pitched wail joined
the din of noise.

"And that would be someone
finally noticing the civilians wandering through the war room,"
Zane remarked.

Their little group came to
a halt as a line of six soldiers stepped in their path. Katarina
stared at the barrel of a gun pointed at her head. She raised both
of her hands. Behind her, Kieran surged forward. She froze him in
place and sealed his lips, just in case. Patience didn't seem his
strong suit.