by HC Playa
"Yes?" Katarina responded in a neutral tone, biting her tongue to keep from reminding the queen she was not a child.
"You will swear fealty to me and King Torin."
Beside her Zane stirred and whispered in her mind in an urgent voice, "Don't do it," Zane told her. "A Dedanaan male died so he could tell me to make sure you did swear allegiance to the Fae, although at the time, I didn't understand what he was talking about."
"Don't worry, I wasn't planning on it." She lifted her chin and answered Grian. "No. Above all, despite my father’s blood, I am human. Earth is all I’ve known. My mother was human. My sister, my husband, my children are human. It is they whom I serve and swear fealty to, not you."
Grian’s face darkened with fury. "I demand--"
"--Nothing," a masculine voice finished for her.
Torin crossed the room to stand beside Grian. Grian scowled at Torin and opened her mouth to say something, but Torin shook his head. "No. We will not compel her to do our bidding. She is right. It is humanity she serves." He looked at Katarina. One corner of his lips twitched in what might be a shadow of a smile. "I am pleased to see you took my advice."
Katarina snorted in a rude, but truthful display of what she thought of his advice. From their previous encounter she knew he wouldn’t take offense if she said what she thought. "Advice? A magic eight ball is more helpful than you."
The queen gasped and turned to Torin with a gleam of anticipation, as if she expected Torin to turn her into a mushroom or something. Torin’s mouth curved into a full smile. He gave a faint shrug of his shoulders. "Perhaps I came for another reason then."
Katarina’s eyes locked on his ever-changing luminescent gaze and she understood. Torin’s blocked his emotions and thoughts well, and Katarina respected him too much to pry, but the warm look in his eyes told her he shared at least a portion of the love her father felt. She almost missed it, but his right eye closed for an instant in a wink. Katarina found she was smiling back at her uncle. She felt it then, an opening of the link between them. His fondness for her, his desperation for her to discover her heritage, pride for what she'd accomplished, humor that she didn't hesitate to tell him what she thought, his pleasure that she did not acquiesce Grian’s demands; she felt it all.
"Finn did say you liked to play oracle," she said to keep the mood light, despite the emotions bubbling within her. Her uncle was another unexpected gift of fate.
Torin’s eyes danced with merriment. "Messing with his mind is the highlight of my existence."
"I thought I was the highlight of your existence," Grian said. She sported a pout worthy of a two-year old in full tantrum mode.
Right before he turned to Grian, Katarina caught him roll his eyes in very human exasperation. It took all of her effort not to laugh. Torin kissed Grian’s hand. "You are, dearest. I was jesting with the girl. She is my niece."
Katarina caught the fleeting frown on Grian’s face before she dipped her head in a hint of a nod, as if loathed to admitting kinship. She hooked an arm through Torin’s. "I believe our discussion is finished."
A faint ripple of magic warned Katarina in time to block Grian’s attempt to send her off to who knew where on Earth. Every faerie in the room felt the exchange, and Grian's thunderous expression when she failed earned a mark of respect from the others. Torin, well aware of Grian’s failed maneuver, nodded to Katarina. "You are always welcome here, Kat. If you have need of me, just call." Then he and Grian vanished.
Katarina relaxed against Zane as they waited for Finn to return and ignored the curious stares of the other Fae. The room emptied within minutes, as if her humanity might be contagious. The last faerie remaining turned out to be her rival from earlier. Katarina wondered when Ariel returned from sulking. Was she here to challenge her again without the queen to run interference? Katarina tensed for another encounter, as the woman approached.
"I wish to apologize."
Katarina leveled a look, assessing the blond faerie before her. Ariel fidgeted under Katarina's unwavering gaze. "Your brother and I are friends. I do not wish him to be angry with me."
Katarina probed the nature of Ariel's thoughts and checked the urge to roll her eyes. The female was still thinking about sex, only instead of Zane, she was worrying over the possibility Kieran might refuse her. Zane started coughing, but Katarina wasn't fooled. The female faerie couldn't shield worth a damn. Katarina dug her elbow into his side again. It wasn’t that funny.
Ariel continued, "I didn’t know who you were. And really, around here most don’t care if you share or not. I mean you saw some of them. More than half do nothing but the group thing." She paused, and Katarina watched, fascinated, as the faerie blushed and stammered. "N-n-not that I’m saying I do, or you do, or that Kieran does…oh dear," she trailed off.
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 o
f 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?"
Chapter 20
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 po
ssess 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.
She offered a smile. "I believe General Westing is expecting me."
Just then, Naia shouted her name and came charging past the soldiers. Naia threw her arms around Katarina. She hugged Naia’s tiny frame to her. She returned Naia's intense hug and took a moment to enjoy that moment of normality.
"Stand down."
The soldiers backed off and the intruder alarm shut off. Naia moved from Katarina and embraced Zane in a fierce hug. Zane looked down at Naia’s head, and then back at Katarina, surprised bewilderment written in his quirked eyebrow and tilted smile. Naia then grabbed Zane's and her hand and tugged them over to the man in charge.
Finn barely had a chance to lean over her shoulder and whisper, "You take point. Kieran and I should probably hang back."
Kieran…oops. She released him and glanced over her shoulder. She contemplated apologizing, but her father had a hand on the nape of Kieran's neck as he whispered into his ear. She left her brother to Finn's care as Naia led her to a tall, thin man with a gray buzz cut.