Behind the Veil: 3 (Temptation Unveiled)

by Alexander, R. G.

  She pushed aside the instinctual anxiety when Meru’s arms wrapped around her, embracing her in return. Her nerves stemmed from Meru’s gift. True sight, they’d called it. Once she’d received it, she could see energy around ordinary people, as well as seeing beyond the illusions the Others wore to walk around unnoticed. She was also the only one able to interact with Áine’s spelled book, which made her a target. Could Meru see anything different about her? The darkness around her?

  Sheridan gasped as Meru held her more tightly and she felt something new. Was that the baby’s heartbeat? How could she sense it through their clothes? As though it were inside her. A part of her.

  A baby.

  A new member of her family. An innocent. Vulnerable. She sighed in defeat. Kyle had known exactly what to say to drag her kicking and screaming back into the fold and Meru’s unborn child did the rest. Family. It wasn’t just Meru and her mother she had to protect. This baby needed her. She couldn’t allow her own doubts and fears to push that out of her mind.

  There was no way she could completely trust the otherworldly beings impatiently pacing downstairs to do what needed to be done to protect the people under her care. That had always been her job and it always would be, whether she had powers or not.

  Was that why she’d become so withdrawn? Not just because of what had happened, but because it had clarified her new role in the family dynamic as an afterthought? As someone who was no longer necessary?

  You might believe you’re important, but I don’t think they agree. They’ve gotten along just fine without you, and once they realize you’re of no use to them at all, you’ll be alone.

  Fuck that. She tightened her arms around her cousin. She’d show them all just how necessary she was. Show that arrogant Nyctimus that she was still a fighter. Show Finn that she wasn’t afraid to fulfill the prophecy. No matter how impossible it seemed to be or how uncomfortable it was to be around him.

  Meru’s sigh was watery and filled with emotion as she whispered against Sheridan’s neck, “I’ve missed you, Harridan. You have no idea.”

  Sheridan leaned her cheek on the top of her cousin’s silken curls. “I’m here, Meru. Ready or not. Is Mom downstairs?”

  “We decided that the two of us at once might be too much for you. She’s with Myrddin.”

  “Of course she is,” Sheridan chuckled. “Still stuck to his side with supernatural glue then? Good. I’d love to see her, but I’m not sure I’m ready to face him yet. So…just you, Damon, Kyle and that other guy, huh?”

  Meru pulled back and grinned hesitantly. “Just us and the other guy. Is that okay?”

  Now it was Sheridan’s turn to sigh. “You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me, hon. I’m sorry for being out of pocket. But I’m ready, and I won’t let you down again.”

  Meru pinched her arm like she used to when they were kids. “Are you kidding me? You may be my favorite cousin, but sometimes I think you’re a few cards short of a deck. You’ve never let us down, Sher. Never.”

  She knew this bit. “I’m your only cousin. And yes, I have. But I promise I won’t make a habit of it. Now, when are you going to tell me about your genius plan to fulfill my portion of Áine’s prophecy and save the world from the vile and creepy yet again?”

  Meru glanced down and bit her lip. “I have a lot to tell you…but I was hoping we could discuss this in Raj’s den.” She caressed her stomach unconsciously. “That couch looks really comfortable.”

  Sheridan cursed herself and slid her arm around Meru’s waist, starting carefully down the stairs. “I’m sorry, doll. Let’s get you off your feet.”

  Her cousin snorted. “I’m not made of glass, you know. I’m just pregnant.”

  Damon’s voice greeted them at the foot of the stairs. “And the difference is?”

  “Damon, baby? Get the others to join you in the kitchen to get Sheridan and me something to eat.” Sheridan watched Meru’s soft smile melt the large, dark-haired Lycan with its power. She was good. “If they argue, tell them the pregnant lady and the woman who I hear was dodging fireballs all day need a few minutes to talk. And food.”

  “Fireballs?” Finn’s snarl from the other room sent an unexpected ripple of pleasure through Sheridan.

  “Don’t start,” she heard Raj grumble back. “I mean it, Finn. Don’t even start.”

  Luckily, Meru was just as stubborn as she remembered. “Please, baby?”

  Damon smiled at her cousin intimately, then he nodded and gestured toward the men just out of her line of sight. “Between the three of us, we should be able to make something edible.”

  They reached the last step and she set her chin. Damn it. Finn wasn’t moving. His violet eyes narrowed, studying her from her woolen socks to her still-damp hair. Her heart thundered in her ears and she shifted self-consciously, but she kept her face as expressionless as possible. She couldn’t let him know how his presence was affecting her. She wouldn’t blush. There was no way he could know what she’d been up to.

  He may not be able to smell your sins or read your thoughts but he can see how you’ve changed. He can see the darkness in you. He is a tracker. He’ll know I’m here.

  “Finn.” Damon’s voice held a note of command.

  Sheridan noticed a slight tick at Finn’s temple, his only outward sign of resistance, before he turned and left the room. She released a shaky breath. Another small reprieve. She would take it.

  “Sher?”

  Meru took her hand and tugged her down onto the wide cushions of the comfortable couch. How many times had she lounged here, staring into the oversized fireplace and watching the flames dance? How many times had she wished she could stay here long enough to become as strong as the Fianna? Until she was magically strong enough to slay the Horde or—at least—long enough to avoid her part of the prophecy?

  Such a coward.

  She ran her free hand through her hair and leaned back heavily. “I like Damon, but I have to know. Is he responsible for Nyctimus and Kyle becoming hetero life partners? Was he that sick of his half-brother hanging around the house?”

  She glanced over in time to watch Meru’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise and laughed. “You didn’t know I’d been replaced? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I feel better knowing it took a demi-god to do it, I just don’t want Kyle getting hurt. He’s already feeling abandoned by us. What if Nyctimus gets tired of playing good cop and hanging out in corner bars with a lowly human? Or worse, gets Kyle into something he can’t get out of?”

  Meru seemed as unhappy about the news as she was. “I’ll look into it. Damon and Myrddin have been hesitant about Nyc joining the Fianna. Something about Archon blood and a conflict of interest. Maybe Nyc’s just trying to show them whose side he’s on. That he’s a good guy.”

  Sheridan shrugged. “Or he’s bored. Who knows why any of them do the things they do? Maybe simply because they can.”

  “Them. Them meaning Damon?” Meru adjusted a few smaller, colorful pillows behind her and faced Sheridan. “Them meaning my child?”

  “Of course not!” Sheridan’s growl of frustration was aimed at herself. “That is my family in there. Your baby.”

  Her cousin nodded. “And you and I have Druid blood and I’m married to a Lycan. She won’t be a regular child.”

  “She?”

  Meru laughed softly, her lightly freckled face glowing. “I’m hoping. We women are seriously outnumbered around here, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  No kidding. “Are you going to tell me what you and that chatty book of yours have decided I’m supposed to do? Any clues as to what I’m looking for or where I’ll have to go?”

  “Sher, you’re trying to change the subject. Do you still hate them, all of them, that much? If you do, we’ll find another way. You know you’re more important to me than anything else in the world. No one will be allowed to pressure you. I won’t lose you aga—”

  Sheridan pressed her fingers to Meru’s lips, cutting her off. “There is
no other way or you wouldn’t be here. Do you think I don’t know that? That I don’t know you’ve always had my back?” She paused and forced herself to breathe. “I know what this means. It’s time. Just tell me, please. I need to know what to expect. And I need you to be the one doing the explaining, so I can prepare without an audience.”

  “You’re not going to like it.”

  You will let her down again. Let your family down and all the people they love. And when you do, everyone will die.

  Sheridan nodded. “What else is new?”

  Chapter Three

  He shouldn’t be here. He knew that. Raj reminded him before he went to bed that he expected Finn to respect the privacy of his other guests. His thoughts were not as polite and far more specific.

  Leave Sheridan alone.

  Fire-breathing bastard. Unfortunately, Dragon Boy didn’t know him very well, since his command only made the temptation of being this close to her more impossible to resist.

  Never had he expected to feel jealousy toward Myrddin’s sidekick, but the easy way Sheridan seemed to have with Raj, the bond they’d forged here, ate at him. She trusted the bookish dragon prince. A man who could change at will into a fierce beast that could rip her to shreds, as far removed from the humanity she clung to as any of them, had earned her friendship. Finn knew he should be glad she’d felt some measure of safety here, that she could look at any of them without disgust. It should give him hope. It should…but it didn’t.

  He had to see her. The starlight drifted through her balcony doors to kiss her bare skin, tempting him to do the same. She was tangled in her sheets, her lean, beautiful body sideways across the bed as though tossed there and her fists curled tightly in her pillow as she fought her nighttime demons. Still.

  Finn felt a twinge of guilt that he’d come here to comfort himself with the sight of her while she suffered. But he didn’t turn away. He didn’t leave. He was too selfish, too edgy, his mind racing after tonight’s events. If he woke her from her nightmare he’d be forced to leave and wait until the sun rose to catch a glimpse of her again.

  He was a bastard.

  He’d known the plan before they arrived, and he would have bet all the moons in the Realm that she wasn’t going to take it well. He’d warned Meru to give her time to adjust to their presence before she scared her away with the details. He’d braced himself for Sheridan Kelly’s unique brand of stubborn resistance when the banflaith decided to tell her anyway.

  There had been none.

  Not when Meru had told her that she—along with the rest of them—had been invited to join the Tuatha for a very special Imbolg celebration that would include a royally sanctioned commitment ceremony between Hawk, Linnea and Val.

  Not when Sheridan was brought up to date with the little they’d learned about what the prophecy might mean, and the sect of Fae secretly in league with the Dark. Fae who apparently had enough mastery over their minds and hearts to keep their true allegiances hidden, something Finn hadn’t believed was possible. If that was true, the situation was beyond dangerous.

  Danu had put precautions in place to prevent such treachery. The Horde was proof of that. A Fae whose soul turned to darkness found that their bodies soon followed, making it impossible for them to live among their own kind. The Dark had found a loophole.

  That anyone of his people could or would work with the Dark without changingbaffled him. Shamed him. That they might do so under his family’s banners—the intelligence indicated the suspects came from multiple houses—only enhanced the humiliation. Danu forgive them, because he never would.

  Archons were another matter entirely. He expected deceit from them. Since they’d arrived in this world not long after his own people, Myrddin, who had been known by many names—Enki, Merlin, Professor White—was the only Archon Finn had ever trusted completely. The rest were power-hungry, petty monsters, with too much reliance on their advanced gadgetry to understand natural magic and no desire to evolve. Danu had been right to keep the two peoples as separate as possible. Though even that hadn’t been enough.

  He made another mental correction. Damon’s “brother” Nyctimus had resisted his genetics the same way Myrddin had. Perhaps it was because he was half human. He wanted to join the fight alongside them, and despite his arrogance, Finn saw potential in the son of Zeus. It was too bad Damon didn’t agree.

  A moan drew him back to the darkened room. Sheridan. She was more like her ancestor than any of them knew. Strength and sacrifice were Áine’s defining characteristics. Few knew what she suffered for the people she loved. Sheridan had the same courage, and she’d shown it tonight.

  By the time the men had returned from Raj’s opulent kitchen with sandwiches and hot tea, she’d been prepared. She’d stood with her back to the fire, and when she was sure they were all listening, made her demands. He’d tried not to be offended that none of them were directed at the only being in the room who was actually Fae and had a chance of fulfilling them.

  He saw hints of the feisty spirit he’d been drawn to in her requests. She wanted detailed information about those Fae that Linnea and “The Brads” viewed as the most likely suspects, she wanted Badger, in addition to Damon, to be in charge of protecting Meru while they were in the Realm…

  And Kyle. Most of all she wanted to work with her old partner Kyle.

  Finn felt the telltale pulse at his temple as he studied the perfect curve of Sheridan’s hip. Even encased as it was in her favorite pair of faded plaid boxers, the sight made him…hungry.

  He shook his head. The Druid he understood. She and her counterpart, Bear, were both strong. Gifted. Not Fae. But Kyle was only human. A full-blooded human, with no scent or trace of any Other ancestry—more of a rarity than most knew. Once Sheridan had gone to bed, he’d felt compelled to tell Meru of the difficulty of that particular demand.

  “Linnea is human, isn’t she?” she’d said, clearly confused. “They don’t seem to mind her presence. I never got the impression that they would turn someone away for being human.”

  Finn sighed. “The Guardian Mother carried a Fae child in her womb. Crystal left her mark on her mother before she was born, cloaking her instinctively for protection and diminishing her inherent attractiveness to my people.” He looked over their shoulders and out the window into the darkening night sky, trying to find the words to explain. “The human will is not usually strong enough to survive that kind of mingling. And my people, as well, would be unable to resist the temptation Kyle represented…unless he were claimed first.”

  He could see she didn’t understand. Truthfully, he wasn’t sure he wanted her to. He had been a Fianna warrior long enough to know that Tuatha ways were unique. Their desires were unusual, different from the Archons. They had never longed for power or wealth, never longed to rule…but life, in all its forms, was irresistible. They craved it, sometimes to excess. Danu’s people were peaceful in their way. But it had been so long since they’d walked freely among humans, so long since they’d tasted pure, untainted mortal life. They would be irresistibly attracted to Kyle and, being human, he would be easily enchanted. It was unavoidable. Dangerous.

  Up to this point, Kyle had been protected. Finn had shielded him from the full force of his own Fae nature out of habit. It was something that came instinctively to him now. If he didn’t camouflage himself, he would never be able to do his job. Kyle and any other human he came across would be far more than agreeable, but it would take away their free will. That defining trait valued above all others.

  The options were distasteful. Deny Kyle access or watch him give his will over to the Tuatha—either choice ensured Sheridan’s wrath.

  Meru had been adamant. “I don’t need to know what you’re talking about, but, Finn? I don’t care. Make it happen. Sheridan gets what she wants for this. She’s doing it for me. For us. Voluntarily going to a place where everyone is Fae. Where everyone looks like…”

  Like Eonis. Like Finn. It all came down to that. Even wi
th Kyle and the others beside her, would she be able to work with him? Would she be able to endure a weeklong celebration of decadence surrounded by his kind? Finn had fooled himself into believing that if she never forgave him, he would find a way to survive, if only she would give him a sign that her spirit hadn’t been completely broken by her capture. Give him hope that he would someday be able to face himself again after his failure to protect her.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  “No more. Please.”

  Hell. He couldn’t leave her like this. He refused to allow her to suffer, even in her dreams. He should wake her now and bring her back from whatever terrifying place her subconscious had taken her.

  Bring her back…or join her?

  Finn moved closer to the bed, not letting his boots touch the floor, knowing the others would hear him if they did. Using his gifts as a Fae tracker to sneak into a woman’s bedroom was not something he was proud of, but that didn’t stop him from recalling another ability his kind was born with. He hadn’t thought of it before because it hadn’t been sanctioned for ages. Because Finn, for all his bluster, followed the rules. But it was a way inside the one mind barred to him. Her mind. A way in.

  His body betrayed his excitement at the prospect—cock hardening, muscles flexing even as he tried to calm his mind. For her. He was doing this for her, giving her the gift of distraction and guiding her to a different kind of dream. This had nothing to do with what he wanted.

  Liar.

  Centuries ago, his people had walked freely through humanity’s dreams, sharing in their darkest desires and most longed-for fantasies as they slept unaware. Sheridan’s mother would call it the astral plane. For Finn, it might be the only place he could go to show Sheridan how he felt. To help her.

  To touch her.

  He may not be able to read her conscious thoughts, but her spirit? Her unconscious? Well, that was another matter entirely. First, of course, he would have to find her. For that he needed concentration and focus, a serene state of mind he would never accomplish this close to her tempting bare flesh.