Page 32 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)

Chapter Sixteen

Bullheaded

To love a warrior is to resign oneself to waiting.

Waiting for the battle to be over. Waiting to hear if your love is unscathed.

But when shield companions find love with one another?

Which one of the pair is consigned to waiting then?

—Nathair Greenhands, from A Social History of the Fae Courts , Appoquinimink Jones

L ugh listened as patiently as he could as the humans explained what the press conference had truly meant.

Certainly, he understood the words but not the implications.

Horror took hold when the young humans told him about Nazis and all the terrors they had visited upon the world.

Surely Diego, even in his changed form, would never resort to such things?

But amidst all the reasonable sounding proposals about education and assistance, he had used words such as ‘cleansing’ the human race of dark magic and ‘suppressing’ the tide of magical disasters. These did not have the sound of innocuous, benign things.

“I need to go to Washington,” he said softly, distracted by visions of witch-hunts.

“Don’t you even think about popping down there alone, Highness.” Zack stared at the television, his voice a dangerous growl. It sent an unexpected shiver down Lugh’s back.

“But I must go. The news people include fae in all this talk of registration. I must speak for us.”

Zack jerked his head around. “It’s not safe, damn it! Not alone!”

“Zachary…” Lugh put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. “I am the appointed ambassador for all fae. I cannot cower here when my obligations are clear. He speaks to the human government. I must be there as well.”

“What if that’s what he’s looking for? Did you think of that? Get you off the island? Separate you from anyone who might protect you?”

“You’re simply being overprotective. There would be people, large numbers of people, around us at all times. And truly, what could he possibly want with me?”

“Damn right I’m overprotective! Fuck! How hard is it to accept some help?” Zack tore himself away with a strangled cry and stalked out of the room. His boots rang through the halls, each anger-driven footstep threatening to crack floorboards as he stomped up the stairs.

“Good one, Highness,” Kara said from his left. “Epic fail.”

“Indeed.” Finn nodded to the hall. “This might be one of those times to go after an angry lover, eh?”

Lugh glared from Finn to the young humans, all of them watching him expectantly. “The last time you went after an angry lover, Fionnachd, he nearly killed you.”

“Ah, well.” Finn gave an airy wave. “Zack has no lightning. The worst he would do is strike you. Rather hard, mind you, but still…”

“Your words are most inspiring,” Lugh said in a dry tone. “Perhaps I will have you give speeches before battles.”

“I live to please, Shining One.” Finn swept an elaborate bow and more than one human child snickered.

“He worries with good reason. As much as I wish to rush to where my beloved is, my feet are ice considering it. That man in Washington is still Diego, with his sharp mind. There will be turns within turns in his plans.”

The prettiest human male, Will, touched Lugh’s arm hesitantly. “The sergeant loves you, sir. Or he wouldn’t be so mad.”

Lugh cut short the angry words he had mustered, struck by that simple statement. If it was so obvious to human children… He patted the youngster’s hand and hurried from the room, following the trail of Zack’s passage, trying to shove his own temper down.

He found Zack in his bedroom, pacing, arms folded tight over his chest. The sergeant gave him one quick glare before he looked away again, eyes fastened on his boots as he strode from one corner of the room to the other.

“Zack…love…”

“You’re just gonna do whatever the hell you please, anyway. I don’t know why I waste my time. Goddamn royal egos.”

The anger he’d tried to banish boiled to the surface again. “I cannot simply stand by and watch while decisions are made regarding my people. Perhaps humans can, but ego or not, I am a sidhe prince, my queen’s Champion as well as the Ambassador—”

Zack suddenly turned and leaped at him with a bone-rattling growl. He slammed into Lugh, furniture and hanging pictures rattling as his back hit the wall hard. Forearm shoved against Lugh’s throat, Zack held him pinned, fury-driven strength shocking the fight from him.

For a moment, they stared at each other, Zack’s breaths coming through gritted teeth. Without easing the pressure on Lugh’s windpipe, he grated out, “I can’t lose you. Not now.”

“You won’t,” Lugh managed in a strangled whisper.

He was about to take hold of Zack’s arm to push him off when the pressure suddenly eased. Zack grabbed his head in both hands with bruising force, and yanked Lugh’s head down, their lips colliding with ferocious desperation.

Lugh stumbled as Zack spun him away from the wall.

His flailing hands latched on to hard biceps as they wrestled for control, a strange, jerking dance that brought them nearer to the bed with each hard-won step and turn.

Zack’s moan vibrated over his tongue. His hands seized the neck of Lugh’s T-shirt and tore the fabric from his shoulders.

He clawed the shirttails from Zack’s jeans and yanked the shirt over his head, trapping Zack’s wrists behind his back in the cuffs.

“Leggo,” Zack snarled.

The bull inside Lugh pawed the floorboards and snorted. “Not until you calm down.”

“Fuck that.”

Zack yanked his arm up so violently, Lugh feared he would dislocate the shoulder. Luckily, the cuff button ripped off first, flying across the room to hit the mirror with a delicate ping. Lugh found himself seized again and flung down on the bed on his back with Zack sprawled on top.

The cold fury in Zack’s eyes had given way to animal heat. He licked his lips as they halted again, skin scorching skin where their bare chests pressed together.

“Pants,” he growled.

“Yours, too,” Lugh shot back, shocked at the rasping growl of his own voice.

After a bit of clumsy groping, accompanied by snarls and a couple of kicked shins, jeans and briefs joined the ruined shirts on the floor.

Zack fastened his lips to the side of Lugh’s throat with bruising force.

Already aroused to the point of discomfort, Lugh groaned and thrust his hips up, grinding his aching erection against Zack’s.

Again, Zack surprised him, hooking an arm under his knee and shoving his leg up to his chest. Fingers probed at his entrance, insistent and rough.

Lugh rolled his hips, arching into the intrusion in invitation.

The fingers withdrew, replaced by the head of Zack’s erection.

Lugh braced, waiting for the pain, craving it.

Zack stilled, doubt shadowing the hunger in his eyes. “Lugh?”

“Yes…now.” Lugh reached down to clamp his fingers on Zack’s hips. He lay beneath his sergeant, panting, a distant part of him frightened he had lost control and ceded control all at once. “Please…”

On a heavy grunt, Zack thrust in, his moan mixing with Lugh’s cry as the sharp pain lanced through him.

He snapped his hips up, meeting Zack’s ferocious assault, welcoming the burn, lacing his fingers with Zack’s free hand as they pounded at each other.

Zack’s mouth returned to his, his kiss hungry but oddly tender in counterpoint to his wild thrusts.

Lugh fisted his cock, hurtling to completion faster than any time in his long life.

“My braveheart…faster,” he gasped out against Zack’s lips.

Zack complied with a strangled cry, his head flung back and eyes squeezed shut.

Pain melted into sharp pleasure as Lugh increased the pressure on his shaft, pumping in hard frenetic strokes.

The white heat of orgasm gathered at the base of his spine and rushed in on him before he was ready, pulling a sobbing gasp from him.

A few more hard thrusts that banged Lugh’s skull against the headboard, and Zack bellowed his release, hips snapping in fierce, short strokes, his cries echoing off the walls. Zack collapsed on top of him, trembling. His breaths came in shivering gulps and Lugh wrapped him in a strong embrace.

“Are you all right?” Zack finally whispered.

“Quite well. That was glorious, love.”

“Did I hurt you?” Zack’s voice shook so badly, Lugh tightened his arms. He wouldn’t mind at all if his love wept on his chest, but he knew it would embarrass Zack.

“Only as much as I wished to be.” Lugh turned to kiss the blond head on his shoulder. “Are we all right? You and I?”

“Yeah. I think. Maybe. You gonna listen to me?”

“I’m here, love. I’m listening.” He stroked Zack’s hair, gratified when the trembling eased and Zack relaxed with a sigh.

“Look, I’m not saying don’t go. I’m saying we have Carol make some calls in the morning. Have them delay the hearings until you can get there with a security detail and maybe some company. Faolchú and maybe even your grandmother. You know, some backup?”

“Grandmother has the island shielded. She cannot leave or the shield falls.”

“Someone else then. You know what I’m saying.”

“I do.” He did. He knew that to take anyone else with him was to endanger them. They would appear to Diego as a threat and there would be violence. Innocents might be injured in the fray.

He shifted Zack to let his sergeant curl up against his side, deeply regretting what he had to do. There was no other choice. With a kiss to Zack’s forehead, he gathered a bit of magic to him and sent the compulsion out with his words, “Sleep, my dear Zachary. Sleep deeply. Know that I love you.”

Sunbeams were well across the room when Zack woke, groggy and irritable. He ran a hand over his face before he realized two things. The damn clock said it was going on eleven a.m. and Lugh’s side of the bed was empty.

“Shit!”

He rolled out of bed, scrambling to get his jeans on. Barefoot and shirtless, he barreled down the stairs, nearly slamming into Eithne at the bottom. He took her by the shoulders, managing to stop short of shaking her.

“How long has he been gone? Your son?”

Cat ears twitched before she answered him. “No one knows. Finn knocked on your door this morning and no one answered. He looked inside and you were alone. We were unable to wake you. I was bringing an elixir.” She held up the bottle in her clawed hand.

He closed his eyes, fighting back the anguish. Everything he’d said the night before, everything they’d done. “Where is he now?”

“In Washington. Zack, something is…amiss. Come see. We have it on the television to play again for you.”

She took his hand and led him to the den where worried fae had gathered. Angus nodded to them and hit the remote to play whatever they had recorded on the DVR.

“We saw him arrive on the news, apparently ready to speak against this registration act. Then the news people said he was in meetings with officials. An hour later, we saw this.”

Zack let her pull him down to sit beside her on the sofa, a hard knot in his stomach as the recording of a press conference started. Lugh strode out to the podium in his regal best, dress uniform pressed and polished. Diego walked beside him.

Oh, damn. This can’t be good.

The prince hesitated until Diego whispered in his ear. Then he leaned toward the microphones and began. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have a short prepared statement. I will not be taking questions at this time.”

A buzz went up from the reporters but Lugh kept talking, as if he couldn’t hear them.

A chill shot through Zack. Or maybe he can’t stop.

“The Fae Collective would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Sandoval for his quick action during the current crisis. I have been instructed to inform Mr. Sandoval that he has our full support, mine and the governing bodies of the Collective, regarding the proposal he wishes to present to Congress this morning. It is imperative that Congress take action on the Defense of…”

Lugh stopped, jaw tight, his fists clenched on the podium. His eyes appeared to search for something until Diego leaned in and whispered in his ear again. Zack was watching for it and still almost missed it, the moment when Lugh’s eyes went blank again, his expression a mask of stone.

“The Defense of Magical Beings Act as quickly as possible. For the safety and security of your nation as well as all the nations of the world and the Otherworld. We stand united in this and hope that your Congress will as well. Thank you.”

With a twitch of his shoulders, Lugh stepped back and walked out of sight of the cameras.

“What the hell was that?” Zack asked the room in general, though he had a terrible feeling he already knew. “That wasn’t Lugh. Was it someone he made look like him?”

Angus shook his head. “That was our prince. Physically.”

Zack ran a hand back through his hair, trying to quell his frustration in the face of everything that needed to be done. “All right. Okay. He’s under some kind of magical duress. Even I could see that. So first priority is getting down there and rescuing him and then—”

Every fae in the room regarded him with sorrow and concern.

“What? What now?”

“Faolchú went to look for him. He is no longer in Washington.”