Lach had not needed them before, but the sunlight in Tir na nÓg was taking a toll. He could stand outside, but his eyes ached. Shim, it seemed, couldn’t even stand to be in the sunlight at all.
“I should have known. Stay inside, Shim. You’ve had first blood, haven’t you? It’s why you’re stronger. I saw it the minute you walked downstairs. You feel it, don’t you?” Roan asked.
Shim put a hand over his eyes, staring out at the vampire. “I’ve never felt so damn healthy. Well, not since I was a child.”
“Consort blood. I’ve heard there’s nothing like it, but almost every royal taking consort blood knows that the ultraviolet effects get worse. Shim, you’ve had blood, but Lach hasn’t yet, has he?”
“No. I didn’t think we should both bite her,” Lach replied. His brother did look healthier, a fine flush to his skin where he’d been a pale white for years. After that terrible day so long ago when the connection had been cut between them and Bronwyn, and Shim had slipped into his long coma, he’d worried that Shim would never fully recover. He’d gotten healthier, but he’d never regained his full strength until this morning.
And now she was gone.
Dellacourt jogged up. “I can’t find Kaja. I’m worried she’s out there eating crap she shouldn’t be eating.”
Roan smiled. “I bet she’s run with our princess. Your Kaja is a smart woman, and she has a definite nose for trouble.”
Duffy stood beside Shim, his axe at his side. “I checked out the window. It looks like she used the sheets to climb down the side of the house. Why do you think she would do that?”
“Because she’s probably scared,” Dellacourt said, his irritation obvious. He pulled out his tablet and punched in some numbers. “You should have let me talk to her first. But no, you two had to jump in. I would assume at this point that the marriage has been consummated.”
“It wasn’t properly witnessed, but she is our wife and I’ll kill the man who tries to take her from us,” Lach snarled.
The vampire made a gagging sound. “Who thought it was a good idea for an Unseelie king and a royal vampire to get it on and create symbiotic twins? They should have known damn well it would produce a ridiculously over-the-top asshole. You don’t have to kill me, Lachlan. Bronwyn already got away. You might have taken a little time to talk to her. Introduce yourselves.”
“The mating fever did not allow for much talk,” Shim admitted.
The vampire’s head shook. “Well naturally. Are you part troll, too? I’ve heard they sometimes go insane and start eating brains.”
Lach felt himself flush. His cousin was a troll.
“I should have known. The Unseelie are not known for their pickiness when it comes to mates,” Roan said with a laugh. “Most Unseelie Fae have a little bit of everything in their family tree, unlike your Seelie brethren where there is a stigma attached to having mixed blood.”
“Do you think she ran because she was disturbed that we are Unseelie?” She would have been raised to think less of the Unseelie and their acceptance of the dark things of the planes.
Dante shook his head. “I think she ran because she woke up and found herself married to two strange men with very little explanation. Also her parents always thought she was a little touched in the head. She spoke of boys who played in her dreams. I suppose she meant the two of you.”
“Yes.”
“What would you think if you had spent the majority of your life believing in one thing and you wake up and find out you were completely wrong and what you believed was imaginary is real and has two penises and two sets of hungry fangs? I think Bronwyn can be forgiven for running.” He turned as the tablet beeped. “My Kaj, on the other hand, is going to get her sweet ass spanked. She’s to the northwest. What’s up that way?”
“Our land,” Gillian said, her face deeply sober as she stood under the awning. “She’s gone back to the tower. She wouldn’t leave without her knife.”
“She has her father’s knife?” Dante asked. “The one that matches his sword?”
Gillian nodded, taking a moment as she looked on the edge of some unnamed emotion. “She does. It was next to her body. I recognized it. I took it with me because I thought it would prove her identity. She’s protected it ever since. She would never leave it behind. She intends to kill Torin with that knife.”
Lach stared at his sister. “Gillian, why would she have that thought in her head? Bronwyn is a princess. She doesn’t know how to fight.”
Gillian snorted. “I assure you, she does, and so do I. What was I supposed to do, Lach? Was I supposed to hire servants and continue to live as a royal? We were on the run and we had nothing but the jewels I managed to smuggle out. We worked for our food, and I wasn’t about to be at the mercy of any man. Before Torin started killing non-sidhe, I paid a couple of goblins to train us how to fight. They were the first. Wherever we would go, we would find someone to teach us. She’s quite good with a staff and knives and a bow. She needs work with a sword.”
“She needs to get to a place where she doesn’t have to defend herself,” Lach said. He turned back to his brother. “Why didn’t we know any of this?”
They had been in her dreams for years, and she’d never given a hint of the horrors she was facing.
“They were her dreams, Lach. She was exactly who she wanted to be in those dreams. You should know that.”
In his dreams, he was whole. Bron had never seen the real him until earlier this day. She’d seemed all right with his lack of beauty, but it couldn’t have helped.
Bron had been on her own with only Gillian to help her survive. And now she didn’t even have Gillian with her. How much had she heard of his sister’s little speech? “Do you think she heard you, Gilly?”
Tears squeezed from her eyes. “I do. I think she’ll never trust me again, and it’s my own damn fault. If she dies out there, it will be on my head because I’m so bloody arrogant.”
“You’re a princess, Your Highness. You are everything you need to be, including arrogant. If you didn’t believe in yourself and your mission, you and Bronwyn would be dead. You did everything right.” Roan watched her intently. “Now let us do our job and get you all to safety. We need to get to Aoibhneas, and then we can have all the fights and recriminations you like. And we can all decide what to do from there.”
Gillian watched him warily. “I thought you’re being paid to get Bron and me back to the Dark Palace?”
“I’m being paid to take care of you and to do what’s in your best interest. Your father hired me to find a child. I’m in the presence of a woman with a mind I admire. You and Princess Bronwyn have survived here for a very long time. I will listen to any plan the two of you have so long as you allow me to listen to it from a safe location. I don’t intend to drag either of you kicking and screaming off the plane. You’re smart women. You have a say in your future. That’s something Princess Bronwyn’s husbands should remember when they’re dealing with her.”
“You’re a dangerous man, Roan.” Gillian said the words with a small sniffle, but it was plain to Lach that his sister was taking the vampire seriously.
“Don’t you forget it for a second, Princess.”
Gillian stared at him for a moment. “Don’t think flattery will work with me.”
A smile tugged that vampire’s lips up, revealing just a hint of fangs. “I wouldn’t imagine it. I suspect rope and long days of training will work on you.”
“Roan, you go too far.” Lach wasn’t about to let his sister be abused. Though he was thinking about tanning his mate’s ass red. It made him a horrible hypocrite, but it felt odd to listen to the vampire talk about his sister in such a fashion. She was his sister. She wasn’t supposed to do things like get tied up. That was sexual, and he just didn’t see it happening.