Page 23 of Beyond the Veil (Endangered Fae #4)

Chapter Nine

Dragon – Classification: Elemental fae

Living in highly structured, gender-segregated social groups, dragons strictly limit their contact with outsiders. When exceptions are made, they are made with the approval and sometimes instigation of the current Dragon Lord.

T he sun was lounging atop the nearest sand hill when Limpet woke alone. Theo had abandoned the shelter of his arms and, by the furrows in the sand, had slid out from under the truck, taking his clothes with him.

Ah, not really alone . Black boots paced along the edge of the truck, Theo’s scent drifting down in their wake.

Limpet closed his eyes, pulling in the memory with the lingering traces of Theo on his body.

The Nightwalker had fed deeply, but only so much that Limpet felt a bit sleepy still.

He had held Limpet tenderly. He had laughed , most glorious of all.

With his heart lighter than it had been since he left home, Limpet wriggled out of their truck cave stark naked. He shot Theo a bright smile, which faltered and collapsed when Theo frowned at him, his eyes once again guarded and cold.

“Better get dressed. We need to get moving.” Theo reached under the truck and pulled out the water bottle. “Make sure you drink. Replace the fluids I took from you. And here. Found these. You need to eat.”

He tossed a shiny rectangle at Limpet that he caught out of reflex. “Theo?”

Theo fussed with something in the truck, slamming the cover on a heavy compartment with a metallic clang. “Thank you. For what you did. It was a kind thing to do and I’m sorry I behaved so badly.”

Behaved badly? “Oh.” What else was there to say? Limpet hurried to dress in the horrid human clothes, drank the tepid, odd-tasting water from the bottle he could scarcely lift, and tried to bite the shiny thing. “I don’t think I can eat this.”

Theo let out the sort of sigh that meant he was trying to be patient.

With quick, efficient movements, he ripped into the shiny and Limpet realized it was just a covering.

The food was inside. It didn’t taste much better but at least it seemed to be edible.

Theo lifted the water bottle in one hand and took it to the back of the truck to secure it while Limpet scrambled into his seat.

They drove on in silence, Theo staring straight ahead, ignoring the inquiring glances Limpet threw his way. It was a puzzle he couldn’t unravel, why Theo seemed…what? Angry over the sex? Ashamed? Disgusted? They had fit so well together and Theo had been so pleased, so relaxed afterward.

“Are you angry with me?” Limpet ventured softly.

“No.”

“Are you certain?”

“I’m not mad at you.”

“You’re upset about something. Your eye is twitching. If I’ve done something I shouldn’t, I wish you’d tell me. We had such a lovely time earlier—”

“Look, it shouldn’t have happened. I’m so damn sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Limpet stared at him, completely baffled. “I thought we both enjoyed it.”

“Have you looked at the bruise on your thigh?” Theo snapped.

He banged his head on the steering wheel several times, something that concerned Limpet enough that he nearly reached over to intervene.

When Theo spoke again, his words were soft and artificially calm.

“I lost control. I can’t do that. It could’ve been awful. ”

But it wasn’t. It was wonderful . Limpet clamped his lips together to stop more words escaping.

All he did was seem to upset Theo more. They drove in silence as the sun sank, darkness covering the landscape like a sudden flood.

Something that wasn’t wolf or fox yipped in the distance and Limpet shivered, vowing never to come to such a strange, waterless place again.

He didn’t feel terribly well, but it was likely the heat of the day and the dreadful thing he’d just consumed that the humans thought was food.

Theo taking a little blood so he could recover certainly hadn’t done any harm.

After the second hour, Limpet decided to try another subject.

The quiet was making him squirm. “What work would you have done as a human? Before the change. Humans usually have some work they do, don’t they?

Fisherman. Boatwright. That sort of thing.

Before your change. Did you have a thing you did? ”

“An occupation. A job, you mean?”

“Yes, those, I suppose. If those are the proper words. Or did you always wish to be a warrior?”

Theo sighed and for a long moment, Limpet thought he wouldn’t answer. But his voice was calmer, more normal again when he finally said, “No. I was going to go to school. To be an engineer.”

Thank you, goddesses! We’re speaking again! “Oh, yes? What’s that? Isn’t an engine the thing that makes this truck move?”

“Yes, but it means other things. An engineer designs things. Invents useful things.”

“What sorts of things would you have created?”

Theo fell silent again, staring out into the dark. It wasn’t anger rolling off him any longer, though, but terrible sorrow. All of Limpet’s questions dried and shriveled up in shame. Instead of distracting Theo from his anguish, he had made it worse.

“I’ve trampled all over things. We can talk about something else. I’d gladly tell you another story.”

“Of course you would,” Theo said in a dry-as-dust tone. “It’s okay. Nothing anyone can do about it. I loved robotics…hmm, machines that act like humans. At least mimic some things we do.”

Limpet squinted at the scattered stars peeping out from the purpled evening sky. “These are useful things?”

“Yes.”

Again, Theo stopped and Limpet wriggled around on his seat to watch his face, beginning to understand that this was part of Theo’s normal speech pattern. He considered. He weighed words, probably throwing some back that he felt were unsuitable before fishing for more.

“Sometimes, humans lose pieces of their bodies. In accidents. Wars. From illness. They can’t grow them back like fae.”

“Like adult fae,” Limpet murmured, fingering his scarred ear.

“Sorry. Right.” With a quick glance over, Theo cleared his throat but forged on, “I wanted to build better prosthetics. Mechanical replacement limbs. Ones that worked like real ones.”

“Please don’t be angry with me if I ask this. Human cities and groups are complicated and strange. But I see the hunger in your eyes. I feel it from you. This was something you truly wish to do. Why did you become something else?”

“ Pequenas ironías de la vida. Funny thing. The university wouldn’t let me attend after I’d been declared dead.”

“But you’re not dead. Most definitely not.”

“I’m not. But when vampirism hits, you get sick. You feel like you’re dying. I was in the hospital. Doctors thought it was some kind of leukemia. When the change happened it looked like my heart stopped beating and that my brain had shut down.”

“But your heart had simply slowed. Like a sea turtle hibernating in the mud.”

Theo snorted a little laugh. “ Lo mismo . Exactly like. It was early. Before they knew about vamps. So the doctors said I was dead.”

“So they wouldn’t let you go to school because someone had thought you were dead?”

“Yes.”

“But…that’s stupid! You could just go there and show them you aren’t dead. Did they think you were a shade or spirit?”

“It’s complicated.” Theo let out a slow breath, not quite a sigh. “Human legal things. Worse was I lost the scholarship, the way to pay for the school, by being dead. And then my mother tossed me out of the house so I didn’t have an address… Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“Your mother exiled you? From your family?” Surely, he must have misunderstood. How could a mother do such a thing? How could the rest of Theo’s pod…family accept it? No wonder he was so prickly and silent.

Theo nodded, the tight misery back in his eyes, and Limpet couldn’t stand it another moment. He hurled himself across the seat and wrapped his arms around Theo’s neck, careful not to jostle him as he drove.

“ Qué madres? What are you doing?”

“Hugging you.”

“You’re making it hard to drive.” Theo snarled, then asked quietly, “Why?”

“Because you need someone to. Because you carry your hurt around like a knife, just waiting for someone who deserves it to come along so you can slice them into little strips.”

“I’m sorry I hurt you.”

Limpet swatted Theo’s shoulder. “You didn’t hurt me, you barnacled lout!

You made me feel like everything inside was tail dancing, like waves were leaping and singing in my belly.

It was wonderful. It was glorious.” He squirmed around on his knees on the seat to murmur right in Theo’s ear.

“You didn’t hurt me. But I hate how your family hurt you. ”

Theo’s shoulders relaxed a hair. “Thank you. I think. Don’t you ever say anything bad about my mother, though. Hear me?”

“Promise.” I have plenty of things I will make an effort not to say about your mother.

But it’s good to know where the sharp edges are .

Limpet slid down onto the seat and rested his head on Theo’s shoulder.

For his part, Theo didn’t tense up and didn’t ask him to move away.

Small gains against a strong current were still gains.

While the night spent with Finn in his arms couldn’t have been classified as relaxing, Diego still woke with the sun, resolve firmly in place, feeling stronger than he had since their imprisonment.

With his head nestled on Diego’s shoulder, Finn stirred, grunting and hiding his face from the light. “Good morning, my hero.”

Diego kissed the top of his head, stroking Finn’s back to settle him. “You do know you’ve been the one to save me the last few times, right?”

“I’d rather not think about some of those things.”

“But you are my hero. For so many reasons.”

“Hmm. I rather like that. Finn the hero.” He tried to slide an arm over Diego’s chest and pulled it back with a hiss of pain. “Finn the bloody useless hero right this moment.”

“We’ll try to fix that today. If this works, I’ll be asking a lot of you.”