Page 51 of Against the Veil (Endangered Fae #3)
“Grandfather helped me.” Lugh’s voice dropped a few notes down the scale, rumbling through Zack’s core and warming him through to his bones. “And now, as I have so often, I will rely on you.”
“So where to?”
“Down to the containment room, please. I must speak with Theo.”
There the boy was again. Like some pop star, his name on everyone’s lips. “Yeah? What about?”
“That depends on him.”
Halfway down the stairs, Zack was seriously considering carrying his prince.
His powerful legs trembled more with each step, his breaths hissing with his efforts.
But a sidhe prince’s pride was a large and unwieldy burden, easily bruised, and this one’s had been banged up an awful lot already that month.
Zack simply tightened his grip around Lugh’s waist and took as much of his weight as he could without actually hauling him down the stairs.
At the door of battle silver with its oversized handle and magic-reinforced locks, Lugh paused to catch his breath, leaning against the wall and pulling in huge, shuddering lungs full of air.
“Need me to run and get you some water first?”
Lugh shook his head, still gasping, and held up a hand for patience. “Perhaps…I should…have…waited.”
“Yeah, well, closing the barn door when the horses have run off and all that. Slower breaths, babe. If you can’t catch yourself, I’m throwing you over my shoulder and lugging you back to bed.”
Lugh had the balls to grin at him. “Perhaps I would enjoy that.”
“Not if I leave you there and tell you to go the hell to sleep.”
“Ah.” Lugh rubbed a hand over his chest, the black T-shirt not stretched as tight as it would have been a few weeks ago. “If you’ll lend me an arm, Sergeant, I believe I’m ready.”
Lugh called a little trickle of magic to unlock the door and let Zack push the heavy portal open.
On the mattress that Jasper had so recently occupied, Theo lay under a pile of blankets.
Only his ankle had been manacled, as a precaution, since he hadn’t been able to move anything but his head with his back broken.
His head, as it so often had been, was turned toward the wall.
“Theo? Doing all right, there?”
The head of tousled dark hair turned slowly, eyes widening a fraction. “ Su alteza? ”
“What’s that?” Zack asked as he helped Lugh down to sit cross-legged beside the mattress.
“It means ‘your highness’,” Lugh answered softly, though all his attention was on Theo now. “How do you feel?”
Dark eyes, chill and emotionless as the vacuum of space, regarded him steadily. “I can move my arms again. Maybe even my toes. Why are you here, Prince Lugh? Have you come to pass sentence?”
“No. My place is not to judge a human boy, newly changed, who acted out of confusion and maddening hunger. Nor can I judge a young man who believed in the promises of a powerful mage who swore he would right all that was wrong with the world.”
“Oh. What then?”
“I have only come to ask questions, ones to which I must have honest answers. You know you cannot lie to the sidhe .”
“I’ve heard that, alteza . I don’t lie, anyway.”
“Good. What would you do if I sent you home to Los Angeles?”
Zack didn’t think it was possible, but Theo’s parchment skin paled even further. “I can’t leave him. I swore to him, like knights used to do.”
Dear God… the kid might have killed but there couldn’t possibly have been anything more tragic in the universe than the grand, romantic na?veté of that statement.
“Let us, for the moment, keep this hypothetical, then. If he were to release you from your oaths and you returned home, what would you do?”
Theo’s left hand, the one that hadn’t been broken, twisted the blankets. “Go back to living on the rooftops, I guess. Watching the night.”
“Playing vigilante, you mean,” Zack broke in, and immediately regretted it when those cold-fire eyes turned to him. It was like looking into an abyss. There might have been something at the bottom, but he couldn’t be sure what.
“Yes.”
Lugh patted Zack’s thigh, a small signal he took to mean he should probably shut up. “Just so. I would not have you foresworn either.”
“Thank you, alteza .”
“Diego cannot resume his work because he is so ill. Perhaps he may be for some time to come. But you do know that he works for the Collective, yes?”
A little crease formed on Theo’s forehead. “Yes.”
“We truly do aspire to the same things, he and I. The safety and welfare of magical creatures. Continued improvements in relations between the magical and non-magical. So to work for the Collective would still be to work for him. For his interests.”
“If…if he says so, yes.”
What are you doing, Lugh? Oh, holy hells…
“You must take my word that he would say so. Can you do that?”
Theo’s eyes narrowed, his gaze boring into Lugh as if he could see into the deepest pockets of his heart. “Yes. I believe you are honest, alteza .”
Lugh gave him a regal nod, all sidhe prince and then some. “Thank you. My Zachary will no longer be able to serve as head of my security—”
“You said I could think about it,” Zack blurted out.
“I did and I do mean that.” Lugh went on unperturbed, “But what lies between us has become too complex, too distracting. I cannot put you in that position any longer. Certainly, if you wish to still head the island’s security, I cannot refuse you, but my own security? You are no longer objective.”
“Oh. Yeah. There’s that.” Heat crept up his face. He should have thought of that himself, proof that he really wasn’t thinking straight anymore where the prince was concerned.
“All that aside, Theo, this means there will be openings in my security team. Would this interest you?”
Theo was silent for a long moment. “Why would you even ask me?”
Lugh put his hand over the one twitching at the blankets. “In a dark moment of despair, in a moment when I was certain I would soon breathe my last, a young man came to me with soft, respectful words and gentle hands. His act of kindness is one for which I will be forever grateful.”
The dark, expressionless eyes widened. “I couldn’t let you die.”
“Even so. You kept me safe then. Would you like to take that on as a profession? To keep me safe?”
Zack spoke up, despite his misgivings, “The pay’s damn good. The hours aren’t bad so long as you keep him out of the clubs and away from the catnip.”
Lugh snorted but they both watched Theo, whose lips worked but apparently struggled to form words.
“I…would be honored, alteza .”
Just like that—because Lugh was who he was, because he could use that majestic voice without any spell behind it and people still trusted him and wanted to fall at his feet—a vigilante, fledgling vampire was brought to heel and given a constructive outlet for his considerable energies.
“Good.” Lugh leaned back and fished the cell phone out of his jeans pocket.
He turned it on and handed the phone to Theo, who stared at it with a puzzled frown.
“My first requirement as your new employer,” Lugh said gently. “Call your mother.”
Theo’s mask slipped as his thumb flew over the touchpad. The hard glint of his eyes melted into confusion and pain. He suddenly looked vulnerable and oh, so damn young.
“ Mamá? Sí, es Theo .” His voice was a spare, cracked whisper as he spoke into the phone. “No, not at the police station. I’m fine. I…got a job…”
“Yes, Madame Flores. We deeply regret Mr. Sandoval’s illness.” Zack tugged at the stiff cuffs of his dress uniform jacket as he leaned forward to speak into the microphone. “But the Collective has asked me to take his place for now.”
Lugh sat beside him, pride swelling his chest. This was not natural or comfortable for his Zachary, neither dealing with diplomats in an official capacity nor being the center of attention, but he faced it bravely, as he did most things.
The meeting with the UN General Assembly had been set and while Zack had asked in a small voice whether it couldn’t be rescheduled, they both had known the answer.
Zack read the prepared statement about the recent magical crises in a clear, steady voice.
He had such a beautiful voice, one that could be both commanding and gentle at the same time.
But once he’d finished the plea for the nations of the world to recognize the need for a calm, compassionate response, he put the papers down.
“Secretary General, honored delegates, I know many of you have seen the recent footage from Washington regarding hearings on the magical crisis and the proposed Defense of Magical Beings Act. While the Collective is in large part supportive of the spirit of these proposals, the royal family has debated and discussed the particulars and has concluded that certain passages are dangerous to the magical community and to the world’s human population. ”
Zack folded his hands on the table, the cameras focusing on his face and the sincerity pouring from those dove-gray eyes.
“Registration of minorities is a dangerous business.
History has too many examples where ‘registration’ for whatever reason has led to segregation, persecution, pogrom and even genocide.
From a human rights—a sentient being rights perspective, we plead with the members of this assembly to take this warning back to your respective countries.
“Yes, we need magical education and funding for our young people. Yes, the world’s nations need to decide how they will legislate magical issues.
How to deal with magical assault, whether physical or in matters of compulsion.
How to support and encourage the research and treatment of magical diseases.
But mandatory registration will only further the stigma attached to wild human magic and its associated illnesses. ”
Zack took a deep breath and placed his hands flat on the table. Lugh was certain only he could see them trembling. “Prince Lugh mac Ethnenn has joined us here today so that he can share an offer the Fae Collective would like to make to the nations of the world.”