Page 41 of Beyond the Veil (Endangered Fae #4)

Chapter Fifteen

Ghoul – Classification: magically altered human

For ghouls, physiological changes take place much as they do for vampires—in a hibernative coma that slows metabolism to a point mimicking death.

Because of this, ghouls were long labeled as ‘undead,’ a misconception exacerbated by their tendency to procure the carrion they require as food from graveyards.

T he procession of feeders seemed endless, always another fae and another, but none of them Limpet.

Theo drifted on Princess Eithne’s soothing voice, telling him the bullet was out, that it had pierced the top of his heart.

All his trouble breathing was because of the blood pooled in his chest. It seemed counterintuitive to drink more blood to take care of this problem, but she said since his body was good at healing itself, he needed to help it do so.

So he drank when she told him to and drifted off into his red-stained twilight in between, holding out some foolish hope that the next time he would catch Limpet’s scent and taste his skin. Even his voice would have been some relief, something to clutch tight in the restless sea of pain.

Hours, days or years later—he had no way of knowing—he finally opened his eyes to blink stupidly at the walls of his own room in the fae caverns. He lay propped up on a mound of pillows in bed, his chest wrapped in bandages. Alone.

Stupid to become attached. Even stupider to have ridiculous fantasies that Limpet was sitting by his bedside all that time.

He had heard the word love and misinterpreted it, willfully, wanting something he could never have.

No matter how sensible he told himself to be, though, it still hurt in a terrible, hollow way that he hadn’t felt since his mother had told him to get out of her house and never come back.

But the kid who’d cried and begged on his mother’s doorstep was gone.

He’d seen too much and done too much since then.

Stoic, calm, nothing could shake him anymore.

It might hurt, but it wouldn’t rattle him.

In a few days’ time, he would be up and back on duty and the world would keep turning.

Too bad his pack had been abandoned in the desert.

He couldn’t possibly care any less about the pack itself, but his stitching had been in there, the dragon scene.

Irritating, to have all that work wasted, and he wasn’t sure he had the heart to start over now. Limpet had loved that piece.

A drop of water ran down the side of his face to his ear, followed by another.

I can’t cry over him. I can’t. It’s ridiculous and I’m going to shatter into tiny, jagged bits of darkness and the pieces will be too sharp for anyone to pick up to help put me together again.

I didn’t even like him. At first. Damn it.

Once the healers had seen to Finn and they were both clean again, Diego had tucked Finn in, curled up beside him and slept for over twenty-six hours.

It hadn’t been his intention. There was far too much to do.

But Eithne reassured him that he had been dangerously exhausted and if he hadn’t slept, she would have put him under herself.

Without an office of his own, he took the empty desk in the administrative office, happy to be around busy people.

Carol told him that a small addition was being built on the back of the consulate, a special office just for him overlooking the garden.

He tried to tell them it wasn’t necessary. Everyone ignored him.

With painstaking care, he entered Tarek’s handwritten information on each prisoner into the computer files—name, gender, age, family, occupation and education.

Work had already begun to find placement for all the humans, with the Fae Collective scrambling hard behind the scenes to have families transplanted as well.

Diego smiled as he finished typing Tarek’s own file, his case already close to complete.

Placement: Sweden, Stockholm

émigré employment: Resident, Karolinska University Hospital

Host family: Drs. Emma and Henrik Magnusson

“One of us could do all that for you, Mr. S., if you want,” Dan said for the third time that morning, his forehead creased in concern, as if Diego might break something by doing clerical work.

“I’m almost finished, thank you. It’s helped me get refocused.”

Carol swooped in to set a fresh mug of coffee on his desk. “I can’t even imagine what you and Finn went through. He tries to make jokes now, but it’s been hard on you both.” She put an arm around him for a quick hug. “Do you think he’s having flashbacks to the time before?”

“I don’t think so,” Diego said carefully. “Nothing yet, at any rate. It was…different this time. I knew where he was. We could talk when we needed to. It was hard and there were bad moments, but the horrible despair from that first incarceration wasn’t there.”

He saved his work and shut down his computer. “I have to make some phone calls about our nonhumans this morning, but I need to see Theo first. Eithne said he woke up, really woke up, for a few minutes this morning.”

“Go on. I think we can hold down the fort without you for a few minutes.”

Diego laughed, since Carol meant it as a joke, but it wasn’t a comfortable one for him.

They’d managed just fine without him for over three years now.

He took the coffee with him and made his way slowly down the stairs to the fae caverns.

His legs still shook with the slightest exertion, nothing good food and sleep wouldn’t cure.

“Theo?” He knocked softly on Theo’s open door. “Are you awake?”

“ Sí, jefe, ven, ven. Cómo está ?”

“Recovering. How are you doing?”

Theo grunted as he tried to shift higher on his pillows. “Not bad for being shot through the heart.”

“Very true.” Diego turned his coffee mug in his hands, watching the little wavelets. “I’m so sorry, Theo. There should have been a better way to handle this mess. Better than nearly getting you killed.”

“I had a job to do.” Theo took a slow, shallow breath. “They wouldn’t listen. So I had to go after you.”

“I know. Limpet told me. Kevin’s had a long talk with Kurt about that, believe me. And, please don’t think I want to diminish what you did in any way. I’m so grateful that you came for us and that you were there when it counted.”

Theo nodded, though something anxious lurked in his dark eyes. “Has Limpet…?”

Diego wasn’t certain if those two hesitant words were meant to ask if Limpet had been there or if he had gone but the little crack in Theo’s voice told him everything about how close they had become during their days in the desert.

“He was here, mijo . When you were still failing. When they weren’t sure you would make it. He sat by you and held your hand. The healers wouldn’t let him feed you since he’d already given you quite a bit before we got you through the doorway. But he was here.”

“Oh.” Theo turned his head away, obviously struggling as his chest hitched. Finally, he whispered, “Where is he now?”

Why hasn’t anyone told you this already? Diego reached over and put his hand atop Theo’s on the blanket. “His family was waiting. They were very upset that he was missing. I’m afraid they took him home.”

“Family. His pod. That’s good.” Theo wasn’t quite managing his usual stoic calm, his voice wavering.

“I know, as they say, where they live. I can always take you there to see him when you’re better.”

Theo wiped a hand over his face. “It’s nice of you to say. But I don’t think his family would want that.”

The unspoken words because his family took him away from me and doesn’t want their nice boy in love with a vampire lay heavy and cold between them. “I’m sorry, Theo. I’m so sorry. Maybe someday—”

“Sí, jefe, tal vez. I think I need to rest.”

“Of course.” Diego’s heart ached at all the little fictions in those last few sentences, but he wasn’t going to shame Theo and become a witness to his silent tears. “I’ll be back later to see how you’re doing.”

He wished he could have talked to Cerith and Lyonsia before they left. Maybe he could have delayed their departure, reasoned with them about wresting Limpet away. But the pod had been gone by the time he woke and Eithne had implied there was subterfuge involved in Limpet’s going with them.

When things calmed down and Finn was feeling better, they would go for a visit and have a serious talk with the overprotective selkie parents. Diego stopped on a thought on his way up the stairs. At least Theo was talking to him again.

The waves of the home shore rolled toward him, speaking in voices both achingly familiar and suddenly alien.

I wanted so badly to come back here …

Limpet struggled to pin down the strange disconnection, as if everything were smaller somehow, duller, less tangible, but his mind couldn’t wade through its storm of anger, hurt and worry.

He was here, at home, where he had said he did not want to go.

Theo was back through the doorway to the human world and Limpet didn’t even know if his Nightwalker had survived.

“Don’t you want to join us for a swim?”

His mother’s voice jarred Limpet from his thoughts. He wanted to whirl around and scream at her, but he managed to sit still and quiet, jaw aching from how tightly he clamped his teeth.

“Limpet?” Now his father’s voice joined hers, even worse. “Are you stone now, pup? Going to sit there for all eternity?”

He closed his eyes and thought of Theo, of his soft voice and how he always considered every word. Screaming and weeping would only make things worse. He needed Theo’s strength right now, his calm in the face of every storm, large and small, even when his heart was breaking.

“Ma? Da? I need to talk to you,” he forced out, still staring at the waves.

They settled on either side of him, his father with his broad-shouldered bulk and his mother with her beautiful sea foam hair.

Cerith ruffled his hair. “What is it, pup? Surely you’re not still sulking about having to leave the island?”