Page 28 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)

Carol had booked them in first class, something the Collective could easily afford, to give Finn more room for his long legs.

The flight attendants, male and female, fussed over him and normally Finn would have devoured the attention.

Now he just clutched the pillow they’d brought him to his chest and stared out of the window, rocking.

When the seatbelt light winked out, Zack put the middle armrest up, pulled Finn into his arms and glared once around the cabin to dare anyone to make nasty remarks.

The couple across from them seemed uncomfortable, but no one said a word.

“Zack?” Finn finally whispered after the first hour of flight.

“What’s up? Hungry?”

“No…I wondered…if he’s gone, my Taliesin, my Diego…”

“He’s not gone. We know where he is.”

Finn shook his head. “I can’t feel him any longer. What if that boy’s careless spell has destroyed my Diego? Ripped his very essence asunder? What if all that remains is some heartless, hollow shell? Would you be able to destroy him, Zack? If it comes to that?”

“He’s too strong. You know that. He might be lost right now but I can’t believe someone could change who he is so easily. Not who he is at, you know, the center of himself.”

“But what if it’s so? Zack, I have a terrible feeling gnawing at me, a darkness that threatens to consume me. If innocents suffer…”

Zack hugged Finn tighter. He didn’t want to think about it, but if he had to, he knew he would make a soldier’s choice.

If he had to take Diego down to save lives, if he ran out of options?

Yeah, he would do it in the heat of the moment.

He knew himself well enough. “It won’t come to that. We’re gonna find a way through this.”

Finn shivered, clearly too upset to argue. He sniffled and muffled a little sneeze against his forearm. Zack twitched, ready to throw a blanket over Finn’s next bizarre shift, but only Finn’s hands changed into glossy black wingtips. He sneezed again and his hands returned.

At least he’s getting better. I’ll take something good today.

After they had finally arrived at LAX, Zack stood with Finn at the car rental counter.

He had planned to wrap Finn up in the silk blanket he had in his bag, drive up into the Hollywood Hills where Diego had made his door and see if Finn could pick up a trace from there.

The television was on in the little waiting area, the news airing some story about a riot in East L.A.

He ignored it, until Finn tugged on his sleeve.

“He is there,” Finn whispered, nodding to the screen.

Zack twisted around, trying to see whatever Finn had, but all he saw was a bunch of teenagers smashing the window of an electronics store. “Did you see him?”

“No. I saw his magic.”

“You…Finn, what did you see?”

“His lance.”

Zack whipped back around to the car rental employees, pointing at the TV screen with the scenes of rioting. “Where is that? What street?”

The girl squinted. “Can’t be sure. I don’t go down that way too much.”

“It’s on Cesar Chavez, sir,” the young man beside her said with a jaundiced look her way. “You don’t wanna go anywhere near there now, though.”

“Right.” He glanced down at the screen the girl was trying to get him to sign and barked out, “No insurance, no gas purchase, need a GPS, whatever vehicle you have first available. Can we get a rush on that?”

He’d rolled into sergeant mode without thinking, polite conversation be damned. The girl’s eyes grew as big as dessert plates, but she moved all right. Within three minutes, they were in an Explorer, with a GPS, and a direction.

“All right, deep breath, bud.” Zack patted Finn’s knee as they took a sharp left. “Tell me exactly what you saw on the TV.”

Finn shivered under the silk blanket that protected him from the iron content of the SUV.

“The lightning lance. His weapon. I’ve never seen another summon one.

It flashed by, into a narrow corridor between buildings, behind the humans smashing windows.

I did not see him but he had to have been there. ”

“Did you see what he was aiming for?”

Finn shook his head, curling up under the blanket until only his shoes stuck out.

Vague notions of somehow spotting Diego while they drove through the streets or maybe letting Finn get out and walk once they reached the neighborhood ping-ponged through Zack’s overloaded brain. One of them should feel something .

Any search for recognizable magical flows became a moot point when they reached the corner of Cesar Chavez and Figueroa.

A hulking monstrosity of an apartment building dominated the block, one of those mixed-use buildings that should have had stores on the street level and apartments above, though both retail and living space appeared largely vacant.

On the roof nearest the corner stood a familiar figure, calmly surveying the police activity and now-fleeing rioters farther down the street.

“Finn…”

“I see him. Oh, I see him, Zachary, and my heart cracks.”

Zack hauled the SUV over to the curb, never taking his eyes off their quarry. “He looks okay to me.”

“It’s him, my Diego,” Finn whispered. “And not him.”

“Well, we’re here to start getting that fixed. Don’t fall apart on me now.”

Finn slid from the passenger side, pale and trembling but with a tight set to his jaw. “Shall I fly?”

“Rather you stay with me. Let’s find a way up there.” He flipped open his cell and made the call he’d promised. Lugh picked up halfway through the first ring as if he’d been holding the phone, staring at it, waiting for the call.

“Zachary?”

“We’ve found him. You got a fix on me?”

“I’ll be with you in a matter of moments, never fear.”

Zack had envisioned breaking a window or slipping in behind a resident but a broken security door served just as well.

This time he purposefully matched strides with Finn as they raced up the stairs, unwilling to let the distraught pooka out of his sight for an instant.

He wasn’t sure why the growing feeling of dread was reaching suffocating, but his newer senses had been reliable so far.

They reached a locked door with a sign indicating roof access.

Zack pulled in a breath and kicked the door, trying to adjust for his new strength.

He failed miserably. The door exploded outward and ended up hanging on one broken, twisted hinge.

Finn regarded the door with an arched eyebrow. “Did it insult you out of my hearing?”

“Sorry,” Zack muttered, though it was good to see Finn manage a bit of humor.

The amused glint in Finn’s eyes lasted only until they stepped out onto the roof. He gripped Zack’s arm hard, seemingly frozen in place.

Diego stood at the edge of the roof, his expression recovering from the shock of the door being kicked open.

Diego’s smile greeted them. His hands, so familiar, opened, reaching out to welcome them.

The man before them was still their Diego…

and he wasn’t. Something chill and flat filmed his eyes.

An odd twist had crept into his once warm smile.

“ Mi vida! You’ve come! And Zack, too!” Diego beamed and motioned toward his feet where a young man lay sprawled.

Tangled black hair tumbled over paper white skin, the arrangement of his limbs making it appear as if he had been dumped onto the roof from several feet up.

“Do you see what I have here, Sergeant? It’s our vampire! ”

Zack put his hand over Finn’s trying to calm him. “Is it? Did you kill him, Mr. S.?”

A puzzled frown creased Diego’s forehead. “No, no. It wasn’t necessary. Odd, really. I had thought a vampire would be more powerful. But he was easy to take down. Fast, strong, yes, but such unfocused power. More of a nutritionally challenged pitbull.”

“Will you kill him, beloved?” Finn took a step forward, his voice trembling.

“We shall see, I suppose.” Diego met Finn’s gaze with a bright smile. “He will submit to me, agree to become something useful to me, or he will be destroyed. The same for any being of dark magic. They will obey me, call me jefe, or I take them out.”

“Diego…love…” Finn stretched a hand out. “This doesn’t sound like you. It’s as—”

A shriek of wind interrupted him, followed by a thunderclap of misplaced air as Lugh appeared near the edge of the roof.

“Ah, the hero arrives,” Diego said, his smile sliding toward frigid. “I see. My darling husband and my friend aren’t here to help me. They’re here to take custody of me.”

Zack locked eyes with Lugh for a second, reassurance and silent signal. “Finn misses you, Mr. S. We all do. We’re worried about you.”

“You’re not well, my friend.” Lugh spoke softly, hands spread wide as he stepped toward Diego. “You must come home with us. We only wish to help you.”

Diego heaved a sigh, shaking his head. “I know. I know you think something’s wrong with me. God knows I’m different. I realize that. But I’m fine. I’m better than I’ve ever been. And I have important work to do. If you won’t help me, you need to stay out of my way.”

The hunter’s instinct in all three of them had kicked in.

Without communication, they had formed a half circle around Diego with Finn in the middle.

“My heart, my own.” The pooka’s deep voice cracked and wavered.

“We made a promise, you and I, never to shut each other out again. To answer when the other calls. To never again allow one of us to feel abandoned.”

“I haven’t abandoned you, carino. You can’t believe that.” Something uncertain crept into Diego’s eyes.

“What am I to think? You have shut me out.” Finn heaved a shuddering breath. “I no longer hear you. I’ve called and called…”

“It’s only until I have things in hand. I need to know you’re safe.”

With Diego’s attention fixed on Finn, Zack only needed a spare hint of a nod to Lugh. Both of them moved faster than any human could, lunging for Diego in the same moment, one from either side.

Diego never took his eyes off Finn. He held up a hand toward Zack and suddenly, Zack’s joints locked.

He toppled to the rooftop, unable to rise.

For Lugh, Diego simply lifted a hand and flicked his fingers.

A sphere of ball lightning shot from his fingers, struck Lugh square in the chest and hurled him across the roof.

He slammed into the access door with a clang, sliding slowly to the rooftop, out cold.

“Try to betray me again, mi vida , and I may rethink some of my promises.” Diego’s smile had twisted into something bitter and chill.

Finn dropped to his knees, arms out flung. “Don’t leave me again! Diego, please! Take me with you!”

“Hush, shh. I can’t trust you right now, my darling husband.” Diego crouched and heaved the vampire’s unconscious frame over his shoulders. “But soon you’ll understand. I’m saving the world. You just don’t see it yet. When you do, I’ll send for you.”

“Diego!” Finn wailed. He struggled to rise, apparently unable to get up off his knees.

“Don’t fuss. It won’t be long.” Diego opened a portal as if it were as easy as drawing breath. The doorway showed dark woods. “Be safe, carino. You’ll hear from me.”

Diego strode through, shouldering his vampire burden without a glance back. The portal closed behind him with a thunderous crack.

Zack’s limbs unlocked as suddenly as they had frozen. He rolled onto his back. “Lugh?”

Muttered cursing came from a few feet away, so he decided his prince was all right. Their retrieval mission, however, was in tatters.

Well, hell. What now?