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

Chapter Three

Fairy Prince

There are more things in heaven and earth, one of your bards once wrote, referring to those realms outside of normal human awareness. We are some, though assuredly not all, of those things… —Prince Lugh mac Ethnenn, initial address to the U.N. General Assembly

L ugh blinked back the sting invading his eyes. It would not do to weep here, among strangers, in the cold, forbidding world of sharp chemicals and steel that was a human hospital. He drew a deep breath, fighting for calm, trying to banish the image of Zack bleeding on the ground.

“You’re that fairy prince, aren’t you?”

He lifted his head out of his hands. A human woman sat across from him in the waiting room. Her voice had been wary but her eyes held curiosity.

“Yes.” He forced a little smile for her. “Are you waiting for news, too?”

She shrugged. “My brother. Car accident. He was drunk again. Probably won’t pull through this time.”

Lugh blinked at her. “You don’t seem…upset by this.”

“After it happens enough times, you kinda get numb, right?”

“I am sorry.”

“Yeah. Me too.” She stared into the middle distance for a long moment, then turned weary eyes to him. “What about you, Your Highness? What’re you doing hanging out by the ICU all by your lonesome? Don’t you usually have, like, an entourage? Security or something?”

“I am here with my security.” Lugh nodded to the swinging doors which led to the treatment rooms. “He’s in there. He saved two young humans from being attacked by…an animal. A mad dog, perhaps. I was not with him.”

“Oh, man. That’s rough. He gonna make it?”

Lugh stared at his hands. Zack’s blood still stained his fingers . My brave Zachary… “I am not certain.”

They sat in silence, the distant sounds of machines pinging and soft shoes hurrying down corridors accompanying their thoughts.

“Pastor says you’re a demon.”

The pastor is a puddinghead . Lugh fought against a sigh. “Does he?”

“Yeah. ’Cause you’ve got cloven hooves.”

“There must be many demons in the world, then.”

“Why?”

“Every goat and pig and cow has cloven hooves.”

She laughed, a choking, unhappy sound, but still a laugh. Then her curiosity won out over her bitterness again. “Why do you have hooves?”

Hearts and minds, Zack always said. If he had to win over the human race one at a time, he would. “My father was sidhe , a particular kind of fairy. Sidhe always have two shapes, one fae and one animal.”

Her forehead wrinkled. “So you’re a cow?”

“Bull,” he corrected gently.

Another short laugh erupted from her. “Oh, duh. Right. You’d look pretty silly with cow titties, huh?”

“I would think so.”

She regarded him steadily, her eyes still sharp despite her weariness, her human soul still shining in a warm glow despite what must have been a hard life. “They wouldn’t let you back to see him, huh?”

“No. Only family. His parents are with him.” Lugh rubbed at his temples, fighting a growing headache. “They are… They blame themselves. They argued. He left the house, and was wounded then.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what good parents do,” she said softly. “They blame themselves. Those kids, they’d probably be dead, though, if your man hadn’t come along, right?”

My man … He turned that over a moment and decided she only meant it in the employer sense. “True enough. I hope they will see it. Perhaps it will help them if…” He trailed off, shaking his head against the thickening of his voice.

“He won’t die, Your Highness,” she said with a crooked smile. “He’s the hero here. Not supposed to work that way, right?”

Comfort came in the strangest forms sometimes. He managed to return her smile. “Right.” He startled as a bumblebee hum tickled his thigh. Cell phone. Damnable thing, but Diego did insist he have one. He wrestled it from the tight front pocket of his jeans and flipped it open. “Yes?”

“Don’t ‘yes’ me, damn it! I got your message, where the hell are you?”

“It warms my heart that you are worried for me, little man. I am in…the city where Zachary’s parents live.”

“I know you’re in St. Louis.” On the other end of the line, Diego took a deep breath. “Where in St. Louis? Specifically? It’s a good-sized city.”

He held the phone away and asked his waiting room companion the name of the hospital. “Thank you,” he mouthed to her before he relayed it to Diego.

“You had no idea where you were.” Diego sounded weary and aggrieved. “You had to ask someone. Dios , how did you even get there?”

“One of the handsome police officers brought me.”

“Okay…all right.” Lugh could picture Diego’s hand running back through his black curls in frustration. “How’s our Zack?”

“I have no more news yet.” Lugh cleared his throat to steady his voice. “Diego, I wish to bring him home. We could—”

“Let’s get him stable first.” Diego’s tone dropped to a gentle murmur, a caress over Lugh’s frayed nerves. “Probably not a good idea to move him yet. Listen, I’ll put two of the boys on a plane. They’ll be on their way out to you soon so you’re not alone. Please stay put, okay?”

“Why not you?”

“Finn’s very sick. He needs me here.” Diego hesitated. “I wish I could just make a door and come to you, but we’ve talked about unexpected magical doors in human places. And I can’t translocate like you do. Don’t cry, big guy. Oh, damn. It’ll be all right. Shh, hush. Carajo . I’m sorry…”

Hardly aware he was until Diego said not to, Lugh bit on his knuckle to stifle the sobs. “He’s dying, Diego.” He barely felt the hand on his shoulder, had missed the moment when the woman moved across the room to him. “I can feel it. Feel him slipping away moment by moment.”

He hoped the long pause was Diego thinking. Please, please, I will beg if I must.

“Stay on the phone.” Diego’s voice was still gentle but bolstered now by hard-forged resolve. “I’m going to get your mother. And Faolchú for backup. Don’t hang up. Clear your mind. You’re going to need to help me with this. Oh, and warn anyone around you what’s going to happen.”

Lugh accepted the tissue the woman handed him.

He dried his face while he explained to her, “There will be several people coming through a hole in the air in a few moments. Please don’t be frightened.

One of them may have a wolf’s head if he doesn’t think to cast a glamour.

That would be my cousin. He thinks himself fierce but it’s all bravado. ”

“All bark and no bite, huh?” Her hand trembled as she gave him a second tissue.

“You needn’t stay if you’re frightened.”

“I’m not scared of nothin’. Just a little nervous. But if they’re your relatives, they’re probably okay.”

He heard the magic gather before the doorway manifested, a dense wind shrieking through his heart. The power, the raw, white gold glory that was Diego, announced itself to any who were not enchantment blind. He reached for it, guiding Diego’s hand so he would find the right place to punch through.

“Here they come.” He put an arm around the woman to shield her since Diego’s haste might make him careless.

Through all his past lives, Diego’s potential had been at his fingertips.

In some of his earlier forms, he had realized it in spectacular ways, calling uniquely human magic to him, though Diego didn’t recall.

In his current life, Diego was far more powerful than ever before.

If not for his tender, compassionate heart, he could have been a dangerous and frightening man.

Wind sang through the waiting room, eddies swirling magazines from the tables and sliding the unoccupied chairs across the floor. A shriek and a loud crack split the air. The doorway blossomed in the middle of the waiting room with Diego at its center.

“Step through, please.” His soft voice held more authority than most men did with a shout. “I’m not leaving this open while we do search and retrieval.”

Eithne came through in her favorite human glamour of a lovely, graceful woman with raven-black hair, her healer’s satchel slung over her shoulder.

She rushed over to Lugh as a huge man in the official green and gold dress uniform of the fae stepped through after her.

Lugh let go a sigh of relief. Faolchú had remembered to alter his appearance to one of a handsome man with thick black and silver hair rather than wearing his normal lupine visage.

“My Lugh.” Eithne took his face between her hands. “You are so pale.”

“I will be well enough, Mother. Once we take Zack home.”

His human companion gaped. “That’s your mom? She’s so…”

“Beautiful? Yes, she is.” Lugh gave the woman’s hand a squeeze. “Not every royal mother looks like Queen Elizabeth.”

Diego stepped through the magical doorway and the momentary view of his office at the embassy vanished as the hole in reality snapped shut behind him.

“Got it.” She gave him a little shove. “Go get your boy, Your Highness. All this magic, you’ve gotta be able to come up with the happy ending thing.”

“Will you be all right alone?”

“It’s okay. I’m used to being alone.” She touched his arm when he stood, drawing his attention. “And, Prince Lugh? Don’t let nobody tell you you’re a demon. Just ’cause you have cow feet.”

“Thank you, I won’t.” He smiled for her as he let himself be led away. Hearts and minds. Zack would be proud.

Diego took his arm, speaking softly. “If it’s possible, I’d like to do this without causing too much disturbance and without upsetting Zack’s parents.”

Faolchú broke in. “What are you afraid we’ll do? Draw steel and begin making threats?”

“Yes. Exactly. Which is why I made you leave the sword in my office.” Diego shook his head. “This isn’t the same as rescuing prisoners from some secret government base. We have diplomatic clout on our side, but it’s best if we’re patient and charming.”

“I can be charming,” Faolchú said with a hand on his chest.