by Unknown
When he was finally satiated and draped across me languidly, I stroked his hair back and asked him, “Are you really this upset over the moth dust?”
He sighed and rolled onto his back beside me, staring up at the canopy before closing his eyes briefly.
“I shouldn't have to explain this to you, Vervain,” he finally said. “You're a dragon-sidhe, you know what it's like to have the beast within.”
“I do indeed. I have three of them,” I turned to my side, propping myself up on an elbow so I could look at him better.
“Then you know how the beast reacts to someone marking its mate. I need to satisfy the heat of that anger or it will burn me from within.”
“Even if you now know the anger was unjustified?”
“I don't know that,” he settled glowing eyes on me.
“Come on, Arach,” I shook my head. “Craigor has hated me from the beginning. There's no way he's into me, not even after me bringing him his daughter.”
“You're speaking reasonably but you know that reason has nothing to do with the instincts of an animal,” he rolled onto his side and mimicked my pose, then slid a hand over my hip before continuing. “Think back to when you saw me with Laise and thought I'd been having an affair with her.”
Immediately, the anger and fear came rushing back, hot on my skin, and even though I knew her to be innocent of any kind of sexual involvement with Arach, I wanted to hurt her. I gasped and pulled back on my dragon, reminding her that Arach was ours, heart and body. There was no need for this.
“Okay,” I finally whispered, “I get your point but now you've done it.”
“Done what?”
“Unleashed the Kraken,” I laughed and attacked him. “Now it's my turn.”
“I think I like this even more,” he growled as we set ourselves to the task of appeasing our dragons. It's a hard job but someone's gotta do it.
Chapter Eleven
Lorna wasn't too happy to be banished from not only her kingdom but the Faerie Realm entirely. She had a sour look on her face when Guirmean showed up with her and her one loyal friend, a kelpie I'd met only once before, back when Lorna was having problems controlling the baby.
I was drowned by a killer kelpie once(I got better) so I kind of had an aversion to them. It was totally unfair of course and I didn't do it consciously. It was just a gut reaction I had to the species now. So that was my excuse for not learning the woman's name back then.
Her name, I soon found out, was Casair and it turns out that she was very sweet. Hell, she was going to live in the Human Realm with Lorna, she had to have been patient at the very least. She fawned on Lorna, helping her out of the carriage and then carrying both of their bags until I sent Fearghal to go and grab them and put them into our carriage. We still had to go to the End of the Road to leave Faerie.
“Lorna,” Guirmean tried to speak to her but she turned away so quickly, she hit him with her long, white hair.
Guirmean pulled back automatically but with a more resigned air than a surprised one. Lorna might be just a little thing, coming barely to mid-chest on him, but she had a huge attitude. She went straight to our carriage and climbed in, a light blue hand shooting out to ward off Casair's efforts to help her. She cast one last angry look over her shoulders at Guirmean, her silver eyes flashing, and then disappeared into the coach.
“She's just so distraught over leaving her home during such a trying time, my King,” Casair apologized for Lorna. “She knows you're trying your best to help her.”
“Thank you, Casair,” Guirmean leaned down and kissed the kelpie's cheek. “For your kindness to both me and Lorna. I won't forget it.”
Casair blushed, nodded her head, and hurried into the carriage after Lorna.
“Thank you again, Queen Vervain,” Guirmean cast a worried glance at the coach before looking back at me.
“She'll be fine,” I gave his shoulder a pat. “Don't worry about her or the baby.”
“I'd go with her but the kingdom's a bit unsettled at the moment,” he frowned.
“You can't leave,” I shook my head. “Go and take care of your people. I'll watch out for Lorna.”
“Alright,” he nodded, kissed my cheek, and cast one last look at the castle, not the carriage, before he left.
My heart hurt to see that forlorn look and my stomach churned with anxiety over him and Nora. There had to be a way to fix things, to get them back together again. Why did it seem like all of Faerie was conspiring against those two?
I have nothing against Guirmean or Nora, Faerie herself spoke into my head.
“Then it would be safe for them to marry?” I asked her hopefully.
Oh no, not at all. Cian was right about that. It would be disastrous.
“Oh,” I sighed.
“Faerie?” Arach asked and I nodded.
Be careful with that water-sidhe, she warned. The water fey were right about her being unstable. Until that babe is born, that woman is a ticking bomb.
“Great,” I sighed. “Do you think my house will survive this pregnancy?”
Your house should be fine, she laughed. But I'd keep my loved ones far away from her if I were you.
“Noted,” I said grimly. “So no idea yet on what's up with this baby?”
It's the first royal sidhe to be born in thousands of years, that's what's up with it. It's powerful.
“Yeah, okay,” I huffed. “No need to get snippy.”
Take care of her, Vervain, she was suddenly sober. I'm uneasy over her leaving me.
“Oh great,” I groaned. “Don't you go prophesying on me now too.”
It's just a bad feeling, not a vision, she huffed. I'm a realm not an oracle.
“Oh, okay then,” I started towards the carriage.
But you'd be an idiot to ignore the warnings of a being as powerful as I.
“Dammit!” I swore but Faerie was gone already.
Chapter Twelve
It took me over two hours to go through the house with Lorna and Casair, explaining how all the modern conveniences worked. There was a lot of gasping, wide eyes, and even a few screeches. Like when I showed them how the microwave worked. Surprisingly, they were okay with the television since I'd given Guirmean his own laptop and he'd evidently used it to keep Lorna entertained. They seemed to like the possibility of watching all the movies they wanted to but the only thing they were truly comfortable with was the koi pound in the backyard and that was where I left them.
I hoped that they wouldn't sleep in it but who was I to judge? Sleeping with the fishes was a completely normal thing for them and not at all in the mobster sort of way. I just wasn't sure it would be deep enough.
I used my ring to go back to when I'd left Pride Palace for the Faerie Realm, telling myself that if I wasn't able to go, I'd send someone else down to check on the women every day. I must have looked pretty worried when I reappeared at the palace because Trevor immediately came over and took my hands.
“Is everything alright?” He searched my face.
“I hope so,” I sighed. “I have some visitors using my Kaneohe house for awhile. Lorna and Casair, two water fey who've been banished from Faerie temporarily.”
“What?” He gaped at me.
“It's Guirmean's baby mama,” I huffed and went to take a seat on the couch in our little TV area. “Remember the maelstroms?”
“Of course,” he nodded.
“Well, the water fey are worried there might be more problems as the pregnancy progresses.”
“So zey kicked her out of entire realm?” Kirill was standing in the bathroom doorway. “Zat's a little extreme.”
“No other kingdom wanted to risk hosting her,” I rolled my eyes. “Including Fire.”
“So you brought her to Hawaii?” Trevor laughed. “Sure, put paradise in danger, that's a much better option.”
“I was thinking that the baby would have less power to draw on in the Human Realm,” I huffed. “I'll keep an eye on them.”
&nbs
p; “That's probably a good idea,” Trevor nodded. “I don't know if I agree with your theory. Fey used to go over to the Human Realm all the time and I don't think they were any less powerful there.”
“Being in Faerie gives the baby a direct line to his element,” I explained. “The Human Realm won't be as tempting for it.”
“Vervain,” Trevor sighed, “it's a water fey and you took it to Hawaii. You couldn't at least have chosen a land-locked state?”
“I don't own a house in a land-locked state,” I grumbled.
Then we were interrupted by a beep. The intercom. We all looked over to where it hung on the wall next to the bedroom door. Fallon's voice came through the little speaker.
“Ganza, are you there?”
Kirill went over to the intercom to respond, “Da.”
“Is Tima back yet?”
“She just returned,” Kirill glanced over at me. “Vhat is it?”
“Ull is here,” Fallon said. “His father sent him to fetch her. Teharon and Estsanatlehi have returned and are ready to address the Squad.”
I got up and headed for the elevator, Trevor in tow.
“On our vay,” Kirill said and followed us.
Ull was leaning against the doorway to the tracing chamber when we all got out of the elevator. Fallon was standing with his arms crossed over his chest beside Ull. They looked like the picture of authority and rebelliousness. I shook my head and went to hug Ull. It was kind of ironic that Ull was the rebellious looking one when he was actually the God of Justice.
“How are you?” I asked him, flicking a long lock of his blonde hair out of his eyes.
“Good,” he nodded and grabbed my hand to put a kiss on it. “You look lovely, though a little stressed. Is something wrong?”
“Just faerie stuff,” I shrugged.
“What's up, Oathmaker,” Trevor shook Ull's hand. It was a personal joke between them that was kind of at Odin's expense. Ull was a god of oaths, if he oversaw an oath made, that oath would be binding. Odin, however, was called the Oathbreaker for obvious reasons. So Trevor had taken to calling Ull the Oathmaker.
“Hey, Packmaster,” Ull had his own nickname for Trevor evidently.
“How many times do I gotta tell you? I don't lead the pack,” Trevor laughed.
“Yeah, whatever,” Ull rolled his eyes. “It's better than Wolf Prince. That sounds so fairy tale.”
“And what's wrong with fairytales?” I lifted a brow.
“Oh, I stepped right into that one, didn't I?” Ull laughed. “Alright, I give up, he can be a wolf prince if you want. Sheesh.”
“Both titles are meaningless here,” Kirill gave Trevor a cocky grin. “Here ze only master he'll be is a masturbator if he don't respect ze Queen.”
“Oh, good one,” I gave Kirill a fist pound as Trevor growled. “Alright, alright, let's go already. They're probably waiting on us.”
“As usual,” Ull laughed.
“It's good to be Queen,” I wagged my brows at Ull.
“Oh, by the way, we're heading to Blue's place,” Ull said.
“What?” I pulled back a little. “Why?”
“You'll see,” Ull just grinned and traced away.
Chapter Thirteen
I stood frozen in the doorway to Blue's gilded marshmallow dining room, staring at the trio of Indians(feather not dot) seated casually at the long table.
They looked a bit odd there but to be fair, most of the gods looked a little out of place in Blue's elegant, cream and gold, Baroque room. It wasn't a room to get comfortable in, it was a room to look beautiful in, and although the gods were all up to par in the beauty department, they were also a little under-dressed. Pan especially looked like he'd party crashed, with his torn jeans and faded T-shirt which read; Horny God. He was lounging in one of the ornate, golden chairs, one arm up over the back of it, staring at me around the massive crystal candelabra in front of him. He gave me a cocky wink.
“Vervain,” Blue said with just the barest hint of a smile. “Are you going to stand there the entire time or come in and take a seat?”
“I, uh, what are they doing here?” I pointed accusingly at the invaders, uh, Indians.
“We brought them here to meet with everyone,” Mrs. E said. “I promised that they would be safe.”
“Oh, uh,” I was staring at the two Indians I didn't know. Tawiskaron, Teharon's twin brother, I'd met before and his sharply arranged mohawk hadn't changed one bit. Neither had his penchant for tailored suits. The two men flanking him however, I'd only seen from a distance. When they were saving Tawiskaron's butt... from us.
They were twins and it was obvious in their similar features but there were distinct differences to them, just as with Teharon and Tawiskaron. One of the twins had his black hair slicked back into a thick braid and he looked fresh out of a shower, hair still wet and dark eyes liquid. The other, the one my eyes kept returning to, wore his hair loose except for a single braid at his left temple. The braid had a dazzling white feather laced into it and the brightness seemed to mimic the markings on the right side of his face. Five lightning bolts zig-zagged their way down his cheek, standing out starkly against his dark skin, but that wasn't what held my attention. It was his eyes and how they were focused on me.
“Vervain?” Trevor's hand was on my arm and he shook me just a little. “Vervain, are you alright?”
“Yeah,” I blinked, trying to let go of the unsettling feeling those dark eyes were giving me. Then the man stood and walked over to us.
“That's close enough,” Trevor growled and suddenly the tension in the room skyrocketed.
“You have a piece of the Universe inside you,” lightning-face whispered, as if he hadn't even heard Trevor. “Is it the Moon?”
I saw Estsanatlehi move out of the corner of my eye but I couldn't look away from his eyes. That close I could see that they weren't completely brown. There was a dark brown ring around the iris but within that ring was a sunburst of yellow.
“No,” I finally answered him. “It's a star.”
“A star,” he smiled, white teeth flashing against his full lips. “One heavenly body knows another.”
“This is my son,” Mrs E was suddenly beside me. Her hand was on the man's arm in a way that looked almost restraining. “Nayenezgani is a war god but he also inherited Tsohaonai's sun attributes and is considered a god of light.”
“A sun god,” I nodded, finally seeing the sense in his words. “Like your father. How wonderful.”
“If you have your moon it is,” he said softly and looked at his mother. Mrs E frowned, narrowing her eyes on her son.
“And my other son is Tobadzistsini,” Mrs E turned her body so that I could pass by her, with her between me and Nayenezgani. Trevor and Kirill each took one of my arms as Mrs E led us to the other stranger in the room. “God of Water and Lord of Darkness.”
“Bwahahaha,” the slick haired one said dramatically.
“Excuse me?” I blinked at him.
“Don't you think that called for an evil laugh?” He grinned and stood up. “I always feel like saying bwahahaha after someone calls me the Lord of Darkness.”
“Oh damn it,” I whined. “Why'd you have to go and make me like you? That's not fair. I already kind of like Tawiskaron because of that amazing coffee he made me.”
“I'm glad you liked it,” Tawiskaron chuckled.
“You can call me Toby,” Tobadzistsini offered me his hand with a small laugh and I shook it. As he did so, the long length of his hair swung forward and I saw a shining black feather tucked into the end of it.
“I don't know if it's appropriate to call the Lord of Darkness; Toby,” I teased.
“I think it's okay if the Godhunter allows me to call her Vervain,” Toby's eyes were different from his brother's. He had the same dark brown ring around his iris but its center was deep blue.
“Of course you can,” I agreed. “I'll even let you call me V if you want.”
“You can call me, Naye,�
� Nayenezgani had slid around his mother and was standing beside his twin. You could really see the resemblance when they stood together.
“Okay,” I backed away from him.
“Shall we get started,” Thor was looking as concerned as my men, his eyes starting to spark a little as they darted back and forth between Mrs E's twins.
“Vervain,” Odin stepped forward and indicated some chairs he'd been saving for us. “Is there something we need to know?” He asked in a low tone.
“Uh,” I shook my head and sat. “I don't think so,” I chanced a glance across the table at Nayenezgani and saw him still staring. It was starting to get creepy.
“Are they all your lovers?” Naye asked, startling pretty much everyone.
“Blunt, isn't he?” Finn said into the silence.
“Yes, they're all mine,” I said, aspects of my dragon creeping into my voice. She'd had enough of this weirdo. “And I have two more who aren't here.”
“Five men?” He blinked, clearly shocked.
“Nayenezgani! That is enough.” Mrs E said in the tone that all mothers had when they got angry.
“Sorry, Mother,” he looked away from me and I saw his eyes settle on Teharon briefly.
“So,” Thor cleared his throat. “Why did you want to meet with us?”
“We wanted to explain what we're working towards,” Tawiskaron took over after a confused glance at Nayenezgani. “We thought that if you could see what the Native Americans are suffering, you would at least understand and possibly even sympathize with us enough to join our cause.”
“What exactly are you working towards?” Odin asked.
“A new Native American Nation,” Tawiskaron smiled. “We're done watching our people get the short end of the stick. They've been persecuted and abused so long that they've turned on each other. We plan on taking over the largest Indian reservation in America and then working our way out towards the adjoining states.”
“I'm sorry,” Pan held up a hand as he sat forward in his chair, “are you saying you're going to wage war on the United States?”