Laoch

by Kate LaMontagne

  “Maybe we should have Eoin take him back to Aurora,” Remi suggested.

  “I don’t think it matters,” Little Wolf replied. “What would they do with him? Who would know how to treat this? I’d say let him rest for now, as long as he doesn’t get worse. We’ll see where we stand tomorrow. I’ll keep checking on him.” He chuckled. “Besides, he’ll be pissed if we push on without him. Given what just happened, do you really want to get on his bad side?”

  Something clicked in Remi’s brain when Little Wolf mentioned getting on Tiger’s bad side. He’d pissed Tiger off bad enough a few times to get knocked on his ass by that damn bracelet. The spelled bracelet. Witch powers, not Fae. But he didn’t dare mention it to anyone. Laoch had said not to.”

  He nodded at Little Wolf, rubbing the area around his mate-mark. “Okay, for now we let him rest and see how he does. If he gets worse, we send him back to Max.”

  Little Wolf noticed the obvious discomfort in Remi’s chest and assumed it was from the blow the knife had inflicted on him. Coming from a Fae, it was the equivalent of being kicked by a large pack animal. “Do you want some pain killers to help with that?”

  Remi jerked his hand down. He hadn’t realized he was rubbing at the Tiger tattoo. The pain he was feeling was rebounding from Tiger through their mate bond, another thing that he didn’t share with others. The Fae and TJ knew but it was a vulnerability best kept secret from others.

  “No, I’m okay. I’ll see you later.” He returned to his tent and his mate. He finally understood the seriousness of Laoch’s training. If Tiger didn’t get not only his abilities but his ‘witchy’ guardian bracelet under control, who knew what kind of destruction he could bring down on friend and foe.

  Was he just lucky that he hadn’t been utterly destroyed on those occasions when Tiger had kicked his ass with that thing, or was there something about their mate-bond that protected him? Whatever it was, it scared the crap out of him. Was it possible for an inanimate object to have a sick sense of humor? TJ always said Tiger had anger management issues. That mess in the forest spoke of anger with a capital “A”.

  Chapter 17

  Tiger was still asleep late in the afternoon the following day. Remi had sat up with him most of the night… what was left of it anyway. Little Wolf checked on him every hour, so he didn’t really get any rest either. Despite the imperative to get to Laoch and Noah as quickly as possible, TJ had made the decision to stay put for another two days.

  Remi had finally curled up next to Tiger around noon, when he could no longer keep his eyes open. Tiger’s condition hadn’t worsened during the night so Little Wolf left them both alone and disappeared into the forest after catching a few hours of sleep, coming back a couple of hours later with a Corvan antelope carcass across his shoulders.

  “Hey, Wolfy, watcha got there,” TJ asked with a big grin.

  “Dinner,” he replied, dumping the carcass on the ground near the campfire. “Think someone can take care of this while I go check on my patient? There’s another one of these with a locator tag a couple of miles to the west if the local predators haven’t snagged it yet.”

  “Go do your thing. I’ll send Tony and Eoin out to fetch it, and I’ll take care of this one. Fresh meat is always welcome. Don’t know if our Fae friends will eat it but our guys won’t turn down fresh ‘lope steaks.”

  Little Wolf ducked into Remi’s tent as he was just waking up. He placed a light kiss to Tiger’s forehead and crawled carefully out from under the sleeping bag, stepping aside to let Little Wolf check Tiger’s vitals. When he was done, Remi preceded him out of the tent. He stopped by the fire, pouring them both mugs of hot coffee as Little Wolf sat on the fallen tree they’d been using as a bench. Remi handed him a mug and straddled the trunk facing Little Wolf.

  “Thanks,” he said, taking a sip of the hot brew. “His vitals still look good. I’m not surprised that he’s slept this long. It must have taken a fuck-ton of energy to do all that damage. You have to remember that he’s still part human, and I get the impression from our Fae guys that what he did was impressive even by Fae standards.”

  “Yeah, and he’s not exactly a big man… although I’m not sure that means much when we’re dealing with…” He cut himself off when he realized he nearly said ‘magic’.

  Little Wolf gave him a shrewd look but didn’t press the issue. He sat facing the fire, sipping his coffee. “You know… when I lived on the Res there was this medicine man. Scared the shit out of me.”

  “He could do some freaky things. One time some smartass pissed him off and that night his trailer was struck by lightning and burned up. Another time I saw him kill a rattler that was poised to strike a little girl just by pointing. It was crushed when a boulder fell on it. Everyone said it was just pure dumb luck, but I saw that rock jump. Where it was sitting, it wouldn’t have fallen far enough away from where it sat to land on that snake… and it didn’t roll.”

  “No one believed me when I told them what he did. They said I was just a superstitious kid and laughed at me. Every time that man looked at me, he’d smirk like he and I knew what really happened.” He shuddered just thinking about it.

  Remi side-eyed Little Wolf. Was there a point to this story, like “hey, I know your boy is a witch”, or was he just rambling like an old man? Pretty soon, TJ showed up with the skinned and gutted carcass and got it setup over the fire.

  “Wow, where did that come from?” Remi exclaimed.

  “It just wandered into camp and said, ‘here I am’. Where do you think it came from? Wolf was out hunting while your lazy ass was still in a nice warm bed,” TJ replied.

  Remi looked insulted. “Hey, I didn’t go to sleep till a few hours ago! For a guy who’s trying to recruit me, you could try being nicer to me.”

  TJ leaned back on his haunches and glanced over at Remi. “Now where be the fun in that?”

  Remi made a disgusted sound and headed back into his tent to get some more shut-eye. He knew TJ delighted in winding him up and he fell for it every time. If it weren’t for the fact that they were both in committed relationships, he’d think it was foreplay.

  He was standing in the clearing, wind roaring all around him, leaves and tree branches whipping around, slashing at his face and kicking dust into his eyes. Tiger had his hands up, power pouring off him in a blinding light. Remi was screaming at him, trying to get his attention, but his voice was carried away on the wind.

  Finally, Tiger turned slowly toward him, his eyes washed out by the glowing silver color that grew brighter and brighter. The power pouring out of him expanded outward towards Remi and he could feel it heating his skin. He called out again, but Tiger wasn’t Tiger anymore. His face morphed into something demonic and he laughed manically as Remi’s skin started to burn.

  Remi jolted awake. A pair of violet eyes stared back at him and he jerked back in surprise, breathing hard. “You’re awake! And your eyes are back to normal! Can you see me?!” He grabbed Tiger’s head in both hands and kissed him hard on the mouth.

  “Mmph. Of course I can see you! What is wrong with you? How’d I end up back here? What happened? I think I zoned out after I saw you take a knife… holy shit!” He grabbed Remi’s shirt and shoved it up, looking for the knife wound, but all he found was a large purple bruise.

  “It’s okay Tigger. My vest stopped it but that S.O.B. slammed me into a tree so hard it knocked me out. Apparently, you went a little nuts at that point. We only caught the aftermath. You were sort of like a zombie and your eyes were all silver and… glowing. You couldn’t see, then you passed out.”

  Tiger leaned back, narrowing his eyes at Remi. “What do you mean ‘aftermath’? What did I do?”

  “Well… you kind of blew up the Fae and part of the forest.” He lowered his voice so Tristan and Eoin wouldn’t hear. “Tristan thinks it was a new ability, but he says you shouldn’t have been able to use it against the Fae. I think he’s worried that you’ve come up with a weapon that could be used agains
t all Fae.”

  “Frankly, I think it’s that thing.” He pointed at the bracelet, careful not to touch it.

  “What? Timeout Captain Sexypants. What do you mean I blew up the Fae and part of the forest? I just tried to stop them from opening a portal by knocking them down, like I’ve done to you.”

  “Sweetheart, you annihilated those two. Like, microscopically… and took out some trees and topsoil.”

  Tiger looked horrified. He glanced down at the bracelet, reaching to take it off, but Remi stopped him. “No, you need that right now. I think that was an extreme situation. We’ll figure it out later with Laoch. I felt your pain right before I passed out. I’m pretty sure you thought I was dead. TJ said he heard you scream before he heard the explosion and ran into the clearing.”

  “Yeah, I did think you were dead. I felt the knife slam into you. When I woke up and you were here in bed with me, I thought maybe I dreamed all of that. I can’t imagine what it would feel like if you’d really been killed. Now I have an idea of what Laoch feels.”

  Tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes and Remi swiped them away with his thumbs, kissing Tiger tenderly. “I thought I lost you too Tigger. Wolf said he thought you just needed to sleep it off, but you’ve been out for eighteen hours. I could feel your pain too.”

  “I’ll go let Wolf and TJ know your awake. Stay put.” He tucked the covers up tight to keep the winter air from chilling Tiger and ducked out of the tent.

  Little Wolf and TJ rushed into the tent, Little Wolf going directly to Tiger and TJ standing in the entrance smiling like a loon. He stuck his head back out and yelled, “Hey, someone keep an eye on that ‘lope meat! Don’t let it burn!” A “yes Cap” floated back.

  “Antelope?! Is that what I smell cooking?!” Tiger threw his covers off and scrambled to get up.

  “Hey, take it easy. Let me check you out first.” Little Wolf tried to stop Tiger who was yanking on his pants.

  “Fuck that! I’m starving!” He grabbed his shirt and boots on his way out, pulling his shirt on over his head and hopping to get into his boots as he walked. Abruptly, he stuck his head back through the flap. “Did we get all of them?”

  “Yes, we got all of them,” TJ replied.

  Tiger grinned and his head disappeared again.

  *****

  “What do you mean we lost them?!” Cillian roared. He threw his wineglass against the wall, shattered glass raining down as red wine dripped down, puddling on the floor. “Do I have to do everything myself?!”

  “I’m sorry sir. They made it to Dominion but there’s been no word from them since. We haven’t been able to reach them by Cortex.” He winced and ducked a little, expecting Cillian to fly into another rage.

  “How many men did we send?” he asked quietly.

  “Twelve, sir. Four Fae and eight humans.”

  “And we have no Fae who have been anywhere up there.”

  “No sir.”

  Cillian sighed tiredly. “An oversight we shall remedy in the future. Send more men and this time make sure they’re all Fae. I’m tired of dealing with incompetent humans.”

  “Yes sir.” The soldier saluted and withdrew quickly.

  Cillian poured another glass of wine and sat back down at his desk. He drummed his fingers on the desktop. At this rate he was going to run out of men unless he hired mercenaries. He had been working on building up an army on Old Earth to oppose the queen’s court but Laoch and his father had pretty well fucked up his funding.

  The men he’d rallied to his cause were soldiers willing to fight on Fae soil for what they considered a noble cause, but they would not fight on Corvan and they would not lend their swords to his nefarious actions there. Honor was everything to most Fae, even if it was only the appearance of honor. Court politics trod a fine line between the light and the dark.

  He might have to cut his losses and return to Old Earth to focus on his primary goal. Laoch would die on his own soon anyway. It wouldn’t be as satisfying as killing Laoch himself, but this grudge was depleting his resources and wasting time he didn’t have.

  Chapter 18

  Laoch was healing well now. He still had limited mobility in his left arm, but the infection was gone, and the wound was closed. Without nano-bots, the deep tissue would take a while longer to heal.

  He was more mobile now. He went with Noah to help gather food and check the traps, but they couldn’t wander far, and they only went out at night. He was afraid it was only a matter of time until the watchers spotted their activity. So far, no one had come to the cave.

  The valley was enclosed by the mountains with only one way in and one way out. The watchers always had eyes on the pass, and they sent out an alert anytime someone came through it. If he and Noah were spotted without the watchers seeing them enter, pandemonium would ensue. While the natives wouldn’t kill them that didn’t mean no one else would, or possibly detain them indefinitely.

  Most would assume they had snuck in for some disreputable purpose. Laoch still couldn’t cast a portal and he was afraid to tell Noah that he didn’t think he’d ever be able to again. He was up walking around and looked functional, but he knew things were not right with his body. He was tired, didn’t sleep well, everything hurt, and his reaction time was slower than normal. He didn’t look it, but he felt like he was slowly fading away; a ghost of himself.

  For Noah’s sake, Laoch tried to appear happier, and in some ways he was. Noah was beautiful, funny, sexy and smart. He was a ‘glass-half-full’ kind of guy. They filled the boring hours talking about anything and everything and having sex… lots of sex. They hadn’t fucked but they’d done just about everything else. Laoch wasn’t ready for penetration yet. Being a more intimate and emotional act, it still seemed like a betrayal of his relationship with Aidan.

  He hadn’t told Noah he loved him. He wasn’t really sure how he felt about Noah. He liked him. They had a good time, even under less than desirable circumstances. If he thought he had a future, he could easily see himself with Noah. They were seizing the day… but only each day.

  To hold Noah in his arms and tell him he loved him as they mated required the ability to plan a future, otherwise it all just seemed like a lie. His life was in turmoil even if it wasn’t visible.

  “Tell me about yourself,” he told Noah. “We’ve talked a lot about me and my family, but what about you? Do you have a family… other than the Rangers?”

  Noah went quiet for a few minutes. They were back in the cave, relaxing after a meal of wild game birds that reminded Laoch of the pheasants on his father’s estate. They sat staring into the fire, soaking up the heat as they leaned against each other.

  “I never had any family other than the team… that I knew anyway. Obviously, I had a mother and a father, but I was abandoned as a baby and bounced around from foster family to foster family. When I was old enough, I joined the Army. TJ and the rest of the guys are the only people who have ever showed me any love.”

  “When I was in foster care, I was just a paycheck to them. I try to look forward, not back. My life started when I met TJ and the guys. He said they were all misfits and that I’d fit right in. I was kind of insulted at first, but then I realized he was right.”

  “They’re crazy, irreverent, uncouth, and they all have issues, but they’re also fiercely protective, honorable, dependable and loving. There’s no better group of men on this planet and I’m proud to be a part of that.”

  “How old are you Noah?” Laoch suddenly asked.

  “Twenty-four, why?”

  “It just seems like you’ve been through a lot for someone so young,” Laoch replied.

  “You talk like an old man. You’re not much older than me. You’re what… thirty?”

  “One hundred and ninety-two,” Laoch said. “I am an old man, in years that is. I stopped aging at thirty.” He laughed at Noah’s open-mouthed expression and gently pushed his jaw up.

  “Holy shit! How is it that that never came up in all our conver
sations?” He thought about it for a moment. “Is Tiger that old too?”

  “No, Tiger is twenty-eight, but I think he’s already slowing down. He’s only part Fae, so everything is pretty much guesswork where he’s concerned. I don’t think he’s ever going to look any older though.”

  “Wow, that’s just unbelievable! Wait! What about Remi? He’ll get old and Tiger will be in the same situation as you!” Noah’s distress at the thought of his friend’s doomed future touched Laoch.

  “Remi stopped aging when he mated with Tiger. His lifeline now matches Tiger’s. You don’t understand. Mating among fated-mates is a mystical event. It’s not just sex. A bond is formed that links mates physically and spiritually, allowing mates to feel each other… pain, joy, arousal; even death. It all passes between mates.”

  “Everyone has a spirit animal, even humans. When Fae mate with their fated-mate, both receive matching marks that reflect their spirit animal. Aidan had a phoenix just like mine. Tiger and Remi have a Tiger.”

  “So, even though Remi’s human, he has a mark because he and Tiger were fated,” Noah said.

  “Correct. If they hadn’t been fated-mates, it would have been just sex. No marks, no extended life, no-link. Tiger would still stop aging because that’s just a normal Fae thing. That’s what I tried to explain to you at the lake. Aidan was my fated.” He brushed the back of his fingers down Noah’s cheek as the reality of their situation showed in his expression.

  “I get it now,” Noah choked out, rising. “It wouldn’t be a true Fae experience for you if we were together. Just sex. Like going from steak to canned beans.”

  Laoch reached out, grabbing Noah’s hand before he could pull away. “Noah, you are not canned beans. I didn’t try to push you away because I think you’re not worthy of being my mate. In the beginning, I admit to being attracted to you, but I couldn’t get beyond my guilt, feeling like I was betraying Aidan.”