Page 38 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)

Chapter Nineteen

A Finding

“What’s the most dangerous sort of adversary for you?”

“A wounded one.”

“Ah. Because he’ll turn at bay and be twice as vicious?”

“Nay. Because a sorely wounded foe can pierce my heart deeper and more swiftly than any spear.”

—Interview with Faolchú Earthshaker on Good Morning America

“ F inn’s in the den, sulking,” Minky told Zack when he got back. That was about the only accurate word for his having retired with an ice pack for his head to slump on the sofa, watch My Little Pony and refuse to speak to anyone.

Zack stood in the doorway a moment, sipping his water, blinking at the ultra-cute cartoon characters. Watching ponies, with his long body curled into a tight ball in one corner of the sofa, Finn somehow managed to project the image of someone who was six rather than several thousand years old.

“Hey, bud. Why isn’t C-Span on?”

“I no longer wish to watch it. I wish to see if Applejack will return to Ponyville.”

“Hmm. Yeah. I get the whole checking out from reality for a bit thing, especially when you’re not feeling gr—”

“I was completely useless. Again. And did not even see him this time.”

“Not how everyone else is telling it, bud. The useless part. But if you’ve decided you wanna give up so you can feel sorry for yourself, I guess th—”

“I’m exhausted and in pain!” Finn snapped. “If you have only come to scold me like everyone else, you should go away.”

“Actually, if you’d let me finish a whole sentence, I came to tell you we have one of his vampires.”

Finn sat up slowly and placed the icepack on the table with exaggerated care. “Have? Captured?”

“Well, see, ‘captured’ isn’t really accurate here. He was injured and out cold and Nate picked him up off the street.”

“He is here somewhere? Danu and Balor have allowed this?”

“There was some hard negotiating, but yeah. He’s down in the cavern the boys were getting ready for my next change.

” Zack waited until Finn switched off the cartoon.

“Silver alloy manacles and everything in there. Works out pretty good for vamps too, I’m told.

And this kid…broken arm, broken ribs, cracked collarbone—he’s not exactly a big threat right now. ”

“You have questioned him?”

“Not yet, bud. He wasn’t awake. And I thought you should be there.”

Finn stared at his hands. “Why must they all be children?”

“Something about unsettled kelan patterns, Lord Hssetassk said. I don’t understand it, but the kids are more…susceptible to magic disease and twisted kelan latching on.”

Finn’s headshake seemed to indicate that Zack hadn’t grasped his meaning, but he didn’t contradict or explain. Pookas and kids…as he understood it, there was an old relationship there. A pooka might mess with human grown-ups, but he’d never hurt a child. God, how much harder can this get for him?

Not that any of the young people involved were really children, but the fae still saw them that way. Finn levered himself up from the sofa, wincing. He did have a multi-hued bruise spreading from right cheek to temple. Werewolf girl knew how to hit.

“Caverns?”

“Yep.” Zack watched in concern as Finn continued to move slowly. “Need help?”

“A mite stiff. I’ll manage.” They made their way down the stairs to the fae caverns, through the hidden door pretending to be nothing but rock wall.

It wasn’t too long ago that the sight of his friend disappearing through solid granite would have left him flatfooted and staring open-mouthed.

Now? Just a part of normal, everyday life at the embassy.

Normal, everyday life that should have Lugh in it… damn it.

A heavy, silver alloy door had been fitted to the opening of one of the sleeping chambers with brass hinges. Moss-stuffed sacks lined the walls and floor, in anticipation of a trapped, raging were-beast, to keep him from injuring himself too badly.

The fae healers had made a moss and grass bed for their captive patient as well, and had set the broken bones using wrappings of their own manufacture rather than casts.

The kid’s unbroken wrist and one of his ankles were manacled to the wall but the chains were long enough so he could lie comfortably. Not a bad prison, as these things went.

From his spot next to the head of the mattress, Nate looked up when the door opened, chewing on his bottom lip. “Hey, Sarge.”

“How’s he doing?”

“He’s all right, I guess. Mostly awake. Whimpers sometimes.” He moved an inch closer to the vamp. “You won’t hurt him, will you? You won’t use CIA interrogation tactics or anything? Geneva Conventions and all that?”

Zack settled on the floor with a sigh. “Tell me you do something with your time besides watch bad movies?”

“There’s another kind?”

“Right.” Zack recognized Nate’s need to make jokes as stress-induced. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.”

“I’m staying. You need an observer for these things. The UN says so.”

“Funny guy.” He reached out and patted the vamp’s ankle. “Hey, there. You know where you are?”

The mop of red hair had fallen across the kid’s forehead, giving him a feral look as blue eyes stared back out from beneath the curtain of hair with wary bravado. “Not in Kansas anymore.”

“Great. Stuck with a bunch of comedians. What’s your name, kid?”

Odd that the kid glanced up at Nate first before answering. Nate gave him a little nod, one Zack might have missed if he wasn’t looking for it, and the kid answered, “Jasper.”

“Thanks. I didn’t really want to keep calling you ‘the vamp kid in the basement’. I’m gonna ask again, just for medical reasons, since you did have a wall land on you. Know where you are?”

“Yeah.” Jasper’s voice shook. For a prince of the night, he wasn’t doing too well with the menacing part. “At the Fae Embassy.”

“You got it. Look, no one here wants to hurt you. I want that clear. You got clobbered, your friends panicked and left you behind. Nate picked you up ’cause he didn’t think it was nice to just leave you in the middle of the street.”

“He did?” Jasper’s gaze wandered back to Nate again.

Way to focus, kid. “He did. How’re you feeling?”

“Kinda crappy. The kitty doc said things are broken. The silver hurts like hell.” Jasper swallowed hard. “And I think…um, I think I need food.”

“We have some bags of blood in the med supplies. But first we need—”

“No.” Jasper shook his head frantically. “I can’t have bag stuff. Tried that. Makes me puke.”

“Can you…” Zack wasn’t sure how to ask the question. “Can you feed without, ah, hurting your food?”

“I can. I do. I mean I don’t!” The soft voice trembled with emotions besides fear now. “I’ve never hurt anyone feeding. Never.”

“All right. We’ll see what we can do. But first you need to answer some questions, all right?”

“Sarge! You can’t do that!” Nate sputtered, obviously horrified.

Zack fought not to roll his eyes. “I’m not threatening starvation. I just want a few answers before we make arrangements. Acceptable, Mr. Observer?”

“I guess.”

Finn had stationed himself near the door, silent and watchful. His knees pulled up and his arms wrapped around them, he rocked fitfully. Now he decided to speak up, “Where is he, Jasper?”

Jasper tried to lift his head to see who spoke, gave up with a gasp, and, yeah, he really did whimper. “Who?”

“My husband. Where does he take all the children?”

“Nate? Help me out here, man. Not getting it.”

“That’s Finn over there by the door. Mr. Sandoval’s Finn, that is.” Nate actually put a hand on Jasper’s shoulder. “And I think he calls anyone under, like, twenty-five ‘children’. That clear things?”

“Yeah. Kinda.” Jasper started to heave a sigh, aborted by his broken ribs.

“If all y’all wanna torture me, whatever.

Not like I can tell you much of anything.

One day I’m at work, the next I’m at the hospital being declared dead.

Only I’m not dead and I wake up in the morgue, hungry as all get out.

So crazy hungry I bite the woman who comes to check out the noise.

Thought I was a goddamn zombie. Didn’t want the flesh, though.

Just the blood. Got so freaked I didn’t take more than a couple mouthfuls. ”

“I understand the freaked part. Hell, yeah,” Zack said gently. “How long ago was this?”

“Couple months. I…did what I had to. Couldn’t go home to my parents.

Not like this. Mr. Sandoval, he found me living in an old warehouse.

Said he was there to help. That he was gonna make sure it would get better for people like me.

It all sounded so good. I didn’t fight him.

I went with him on my own. Not like some of the others.

But I didn’t know we were aiming to cause riots and stuff. ”

“What did you think you’d be doing?”

“Saving the world.”

Zack wanted to shake the information out of the kid, but he kept his voice patient and soft. “Where did he take you?”

“To his compound.”

“Which is where?”

Jasper turned his head to look at Nate again, the hair falling back to fully reveal one brilliant blue eye. “Nate…”

“I told you. No one here’s gonna hurt you.” He smoothed the hair back from Jasper’s forehead and Zack struggled not to gape.

“They will… When I can’t tell them, they will.”

“Just tell the truth. It’ll be okay.”

The husky-blue eyes shut tight and Jasper whispered, “I don’t know where it is. He always made one of those cussed magic doors. It’s this abandoned asylum in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know where.”

Damn it. Should’ve guessed he wouldn’t tell his recruits. “You remember anything? A sign? A landmark? Something that might place it?”

Jasper shifted, tugging on the silver cuff. “I can’t…think…” He broke off with a sound between a hiss and a growl. “Please. I have to eat. Or I’ll go all psycho. Please don’t do this.”

“He’s injured, Zack.” Finn’s voice was muffled where he’d buried his head against his knees. “The blood stalkers…the vampires, the drive to feed becomes desperation for them when they’re badly hurt.”