Leda let out a relieved breath. “Good. That means the demon didn’t break you.”
Hunter shook his head. “No, but she made me realize that being a cold-blooded warrior has a price. And how much I need you to keep me from becoming that.”
Leda raised her brows. “That’s a lot to ask.”
“Not really.” Hunter nuzzled her, his voice low. “You don’t need to do anything except be yourself.”
Warmth drifted through her. “Goddess, you know how to make a woman feel special.”
Hunter’s sinful smile returned, and dark desires stirred inside her. “I know many ways to make a woman feel special. Want to learn them?”
“Just kiss me, Hunter.”
Hunter chuckled and slanted his mouth across hers, desire flaring into full-blown fire.
A week later, a strange, squat woman appeared at the front door, asking for Adrian. Several tiny human-shaped creatures peered out from around her legs, their dark eyes shining.
“Me name’s Pearl,” she said in a gruff voice when Adrian came to see what she wanted. “I worked for Kalen. He sent me. Now I work for you.”
Valerian gazed down at the small beings with her. “Oh, no. Brownies. Don’t let them in, Adrian. They’re troublemaking little shits.”
One stuck his tongue out at Valerian, and another flipped him off.
“See what I mean?” Valerian growled.
Pearl curled her lip. “A dragon. Humph.” She pushed past the crowd in the hall and made her way unerringly to the kitchen. Within ten minutes she had an apron around her plump form and had started creating astonishing food.
Pearl reassured Adrian about Kalen as Leda and Amber set the table—Kalen was alive and well, and the witch Christine Lachlan was with him. At least, last she’d seen. Kalen had gone to battle the demon Culsu and no, Pearl didn’t know the outcome of that fight.
Two days later tension in the house eased more when Christine herself called. Amber put her on speakerphone, so Leda could hear her say that she and Kalen were on their way to New York. They’d change planes there, and Christine related their flight number and time of arrival in Seattle.
“You won’t believe this,” Christine told them in a soft voice. “But my Immortal is afraid to fly. In airplanes I mean. He can open portals, but he’s being nice and not using them because they make me sick.”
“Kalen is being nice?” Adrian asked incredulously. “It can’t be him then.”
Hunter laughed out loud. He’d healed almost completely, and on the surface was back to his good-natured ways. But Leda knew he slept poorly at night, tossing and turning for hours, or abruptly rising and leaving the bedroom altogether.
“I’m bringing someone else powerful who can help,” Christine continued. “He’s been a great asset so far—don’t judge him by what he looks like.”
“Sounds promising,” Hunter said, his tone skeptical.
Leda grew excited as Amber hung up the phone. They had two Immortals together, and a third, the elusive and enigmatic Kalen, was about to join them. Things were beginning to move.
Leda volunteered to go to Sea-Tac airport to retrieve Kalen, Christine, and whatever friend they’d brought with them, and of course Hunter wouldn’t let her go without him. They took Amber’s car, Leda parking it in a mostly empty parking structure at the airport. She and Hunter walked into the terminal to the waiting area while people rushed past them to stand in the extra-long security lines. Travelers looked anxious, as though they wanted to be anywhere but here.
The monitors showed the flight from JFK delayed. Leda settled herself in the uncomfortable airport seating to wait, while Hunter waltzed over to a food court, coming back with super-sized everything. He handed Leda an enormous cup filled to the brim with sweet soda, then sat back to consume what he called a snack, but what most people considered a meal for three.
Hunter kept a wary eye out as he ate. He’d agreed with reluctance to leave his sword in the car, after Leda persuaded him that the police dragging him away from the airport wouldn’t help anybody. So he’d left his magic blade in the trunk and muttered all the way that he felt naked without it.
“Mukasa wanted to come with us too,” Hunter said as he ate his third burger.
Leda quailed at the mental picture of Hunter striding through the airport with Mukasa at his heels. “These people are scared enough. Seeing a lion—not to mention you with your sword—might have caused a panic.”
Hunter looked at her in surprise. “Mukasa wouldn’t hurt anyone. He only eats cow.”
“I know that, and you know that. But they don’t.”
Hunter shrugged and chewed his oversized French fries. When he finished his meal, he looked around. “I smell coffee.” He closed his eyes and inhaled. “Mmmm. I love this town. Want some?”
Leda lifted her mostly full soda cup, having drunk only an inch of liquid inside. “I’m fine.”
“Be right back then.”
Hunter gathered up the debris of his meal and dumped it into the nearest trash can, then made for the coffee stand at the end of the waiting area. Leda enjoyed watching his jeans cling to his backside as he walked away from her.
The last week had been both idyllic and frustrating. Idyllic because Hunter had put aside his worries for the future and concentrated on making intense love to Leda. Not only had the sex been spectacular, but afterward they’d lain side by side and talked far into the night, or into the day, depending on what time Hunter went out with Adrian to help keep Seattle safe.
The intimacy had been wonderful—the feeling of Hunter’s long body stretched beside her, his arm folded behind his head as he made Leda laugh with his outrageous humor. But then, after they drifted off to sleep, Hunter would dream, muttering to himself or giving a shout and coming awake abruptly. He’d tell Leda there was nothing wrong when she’d ask, but he’d either lie awake while Leda drifted back to sleep, or leave the bed to sit by himself on the porch.
Leda worried about him but knew there was little she could do. She couldn’t imagine what Hunter had been through, what it had been like to see his brother completely crazy, how it had felt to come across an opponent he couldn’t best. She sensed that Adrian understood what Hunter had experienced, but from everyone else, Hunter buried his frustrations deep.
Leda was startled out of her thoughts when she at last peeled her gaze away from Hunter’s backside and saw that the flight information board had changed. Kalen’s flight was listed as At Gate.
“What the hell?” What had happened to On Approach? Or maybe she’d been far too intent on watching Hunter lean casually on the coffee stand’s counter to talk to the barista. She could see the woman blushing from all the way down here.
Hunter was too far away to hear her shout, so Leda grabbed her purse and hurried toward him, at the same time punching her cell phone to text Amber the message, They’re here.
Leda interrupted Hunter’s conversation with the barista about the various aromas of coffees around the world.
“Plane’s landed,” she said breathlessly.
Hunter held out his hand and heartily shook the young woman’s slim one. “It’s a pleasure to meet a true expert,” he rumbled. He turned away and took Leda’s elbow to steer her to where passengers would be pouring down to exit the terminal.
They waited. Thirty minutes passed, and they saw no sign of a tall Immortal striding down the passageway, a witch by his side.
Leda felt a life-magic force, though, somewhere in the throng of disembarked passengers—glowing and flitting, and . . . worried?
Hunter took three strides forward, earning a warning look from a security guard, and closed his hands around the shoulders of a kid of about sixteen with long blond hair and a bluish tattoo on his cheek. The young man carried a duffle bag, and had a guitar case strapped to his back and earbud wires dangling around his neck. He gave Hunter a startled look from intense green eyes but didn’t try to pull away from him.
Once they got clear of the cro
wd, the young man asked, “Are you Adrian, Darius, or Hunter?” His accent was pure northern Scotland.
“Hunter,” Hunter replied tersely. “Who the hell are you?”
“What are you?” Leda asked.
Hunter unceremoniously yanked back a lock of the kid’s hair and studied his ear, which looked normal to Leda. “Half-Sidhe,” he growled. “Troublemakers.”
“He’s something more than that,” Leda said, gazing at him. “Can’t you see his aura?”
Hunter kept hold of him. “Tell me who you are, and how you knew I was one of my brothers.”
“The name’s Mac. I know Kalen. I left Scotland with him.”
Hunter’s grip tightened. “So where is he now?”
“That’s the thing, mate. They’re gone. One second they’re sitting beside me, then next, poof, gone. I couldn’t sense where, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I figured I’d better land with the plane and let you know.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You’d better not be lying to me half-Sidhe,” Hunter growled
A flare of life magic crackled, and Hunter jerked his hand from Mac’s shoulder. Hunter glared at him, but Mac adjusted his guitar case and said quietly, “I’m not.”
“Is that why the flight was delayed?” Leda asked Mac.
“No, the flight was delayed because of bad weather. Funny thing, no one seemed to notice them gone. Two empty seats appeared when we were over the American Midwest and no one said a thing. The hostess didn’t even remember Christine had ordered a drink. The woman brought mine then kind of wandered away.”
“Kalen can teleport,” Hunter pointed out. “Maybe he teleported himself and his witch someplace they could have some privacy. Kalen’s big on privacy.”
Mac shook his head. “It wasn’t any portal, and Kalen didn’t do it. I saw the surprised look on his face before he disappeared. And other people would have noticed. It was more . . .” He made a motion with his hand. “They just bloody winked out.”
Hunter swore. Before Leda or Mac could stop him, he started up the concourse at a run, shoving people out of his way. He dove the wrong way through the security exit, and the inevitable happened. Alarms rang, men shouted, people screamed. Hunter moved unhampered through the crowd, people parting like water to let him pass.
Mac grabbed Leda’s hand. “Come on, love.”
He dragged her after him, propelling her along with his rapid, youthful pace. He ran as though nothing impeded him, not the heavy bag and guitar on his shoulder, not pulling Leda along behind him. She felt the sparks of Mac’s magic dancing over her skin—a powerfully magical being too agitated to hide what he was.
The two of them caught up to Hunter at the gate where the long airplane was now boarding tired-looking people who wanted out of Seattle. Hunter slammed past the flight attendants, threw off the security guards, and charged into the plane. Mac and Leda hurried after him.
Hunter searched every row as though he expected to find his large Immortal brother hiding under a seat. “Which one?” he snapped at Mac.
“Um, this one.” Mac pointed at row twenty-two on the right side of the plane.
Hunter thumped down into the middle seat. “I don’t feel anything. I don’t feel a damned thing.”
“I didn’t either. I told you, one second they were there, the next, they’d gone.”
Hunter put his hands in the air in front of him, not touching anything, but moving as though he groped for something unseen. Mac and Leda watched him, both curious but not wanting to interrupt whatever it was he did.
Hunter dropped his hands and hauled himself out of the seat in disgust. “Nothing.”
Mac refrained from speaking, his man-boy face puckered with worry. Hunter moved down the aisle again, people pressing themselves out of the way for him.
Leda took Hunter’s hand as they stepped into the terminal again. “Hunter, there are about sixty people out here waiting to arrest you.”
“Yeah?” Hunter growled in surprise. “What for?”
“Breaking every security law known to man,” Mac drawled then he laughed. “It’s tough being a magical being in a mundane world, but I like it.”
How Hunter talked himself out of being hauled off to jail or Guantanamo, Leda never knew, but he did it. Mac was allowed to pick up Kalen’s checked bags—including a long spear with a crystal tip—then the three of them were escorted to Leda’s car and told not to return.
Leda drove back to Amber’s house very carefully. Mac sat in the back, face stricken, Kalen’s spear across his lap. He shoved earbuds into his ears, cranking up music that crackled and whined. “Helps me think,” he said.
Hunter had retrieved his sword from the trunk and rode in the small car with its hilt sticking up between his knees. He was the first out when Leda pulled into the driveway of Amber’s house, leaving Leda to extract Mac from the tiny backseat.
“Where is he?” Adrian asked from the dark of the porch.
Leda hadn’t had the nerve to call and confess Kalen had vanished. Hunter told Adrian what had happened in a few short sentences, and Adrian came down the porch steps, the snake on his arm slithering to his hand before morphing into a sword. Adrian brought the point around and set it against young Mac’s throat.
Mac raised his hands. “Easy now.” His earbuds were still in his ears, but the music had stopped.
“You’re magical,” Adrian said. “Where’s my brother?”
“You must be Adrian.” Mac looked him up and down, his green eyes almost amused. “Kalen’s told me about you.”
Hunter stood behind Adrian, broad arms folded across his chest, and spoke to his brother. “This one’s Sidhe-get.”
“Hey, watch what you say about me mum,” Mac said. “Seriously, for your own sake. She’s got a temper. And like as not, she’ll be ringing me any time now. Had a respite on the plane—mobiles off.”
“Tell me who you are and what you have to do with Kalen,” Adrian said in a hard voice.
The young man took a step back and bowed slightly, keeping his eye on Adrian’s sword, which hadn’t moved. “My name is Manannán mac Lir. Niniane, Queen of the Sidhe, is my loving mother. Lir, God of the Sea, my Da.”
Adrian lowered the sword a little, but kept a firm grip on it. Behind him Hunter huffed. “Just what we need. Another bloody demigod.”
“You’re right,” Leda said, sending Mac a grin. “Another demigod is exactly what we need.”
Leda woke abruptly that night when Hunter rolled out of bed and ran from the room. After a few moments, she heard the back door slam, then a whisper of wind chimes shimmering on the night. She lay back and considered leaving him alone to wrestle with his dreams as she did every night, then decided she’d left him on his own enough.
She pulled on jeans under her nightshirt and moved silently down the stairs and out onto the quiet back porch. Hunter leaned on the porch railing, staring out across the green, jeans his only protection against the cool wind. Moonlight revealed the white and pink scars on his back, vicious lines running through his brown skin. He’d healed, but the scars would be with him for a long time.
Mukasa lay below him on the grass, so still in the starlight he might have been carved from stone, except for his glittering eyes.
Leda closed the door quietly and moved to Hunter’s side. “Everything all right?”
He glanced at her. “Dream. Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“About the demon?”
Hunter pushed off the rail and sat heavily on the porch swing, which creaked as he moved it. The house behind them remained quiet and dark, no one coming to investigate.
“A dream about a ton of dirt falling on me.” The brawny hand that rested on the back of the swing shook once. “One of the worst things that’s ever happened to me.”
Leda nodding, a familiar lump in her throat rising. “Seeing it happen was pretty much the worst thing ever for me.”
“I knew I wouldn’t die,” Hunter said, matter-of-fact. “I kn
ew I’d lie down there forever with no light and no air.” He let out a breath. “The very worst of it was, I’d never see you again.”
Leda sat next to him and looked straight into his eyes. “I was prepared to get you out any way possible; I wouldn’t have left you there. Even Mukasa was ready to dig through the concrete with his paws. I begged Kali to come for you, and she did. You aren’t alone anymore, Hunter.”
“But I might be alone in the end.” His face was bleak, no longer Hunter the teasing, playful Immortal, but a warrior who’d lived for ages with loneliness. “Maybe that’s what Kali and the Undine meant when they said I’d have to make a choice. The choice to be alone.”
Leda touched his face. “You don’t know that. The big sacrifice might be you giving up coffee.”
Hunter gave her a faint grin which didn’t reach his eyes. “No way will that ever happen.”
Leda got off the swing and stood between his long legs. “You’re not alone, Hunter. You have me and Mukasa, and your brother and all his friends. You’re safe here.”
“I know.”
Leda straddled Hunter’s lap, placing her knees on either side of his thighs. He looked up at her, his hands warm on her waist as he steadied her. “You can sleep now without fear,” Leda said. “No demon will reach you in this house.”
“You’re beautiful when you go all protective.” Hunter’s smile was more genuine. “Not to mention when you sleep. Have I told you how much I like watching you sleep?”
“With my face smashed against the pillow? Maybe a little drool?”
“With your hair tangled around you, and your eyes closed. You look so peaceful, and beautiful.” Hunter smoothed his hand through her hair. “I want to remember you like that.”
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