Page 74 of Sidhe (The Incubus Saga #3)

After a somewhat forced and awkward—as far as Nathan was concerned—gathering of everyone, which had him a little wary of knives flying toward his head again, the masses were assuaged enough to go about their business and let Nathan have a few minutes to breathe.

He just wanted two minutes to jump through the shower and wake himself up.

He was still feeling a little sluggish being human again, not that he was about to complain.

He had habitually left the main door open a crack as he walked through his and Sasha’s room to fish out a clean outfit from his duffle, really looking forward to that shower, when he heard someone enter and shut the ajar door.

“Hey, babe, figured you’d join me?” Nathan said as he turned around, only to be met by the sobering sight of someone other than Sasha. Nathan dropped his armful of clothes and grabbed the gun off the nightstand, aiming it swiftly at Danny , Ula’s shapeshifter friend.

“Was that an offer, coz I don’t think you’re quite my type, Nathan,” Danny grinned.

“Please tell me you’re not another god damn enemy in disguise,” Nathan grit out.

“Me? Oh no,” he said as he walked confidently into the room, nonplussed by having a gun pointed at him, apparently.

“I just figured this was a good way to keep an eye on how my gift turned out for you. Not too shabby, huh?” He winked and, in that same moment, shifted, but not the way a shapeshifter normally would, ripping off skin for a new form; he shifted the way Sasha shifted between human and incubus until the man Nathan was looking at wasn’t Danny anymore but Puck .

Nathan dropped the gun. “You gotta be fucking kidding me. How? Jim looked right at you and said he saw a shapeshifter.”

“Please,” Puck huffed, “you think I can’t fool a changeling’s senses? Give me more credit than that.”

“So…what? Were you just pretending to be this Danny guy or did Ula make the wrong kinda friend way back when?”

Puck continued to grin as he stood before Nathan, utterly at ease.

“Don’t blame Ula. She’s a sweet girl. Figured she could use the camaraderie.

You remember she got caught up with that family in Maine because seals and others of her kind were after her, right?

Well,” his grin went crooked as he looked to the side, “they were all being such poor sports, I figured they could use a good lesson . How do you think she managed to remain undetected for so long?”

Nathan couldn’t rightly be angry if Puck was being honest; Ula deserved the rescue.

“Fine, fine, so you’re an upstanding guy when you feel like it.

But now you’re trying to boast about that gift of yours like you’re the reason things turned out okay?

Switching me and Sasha almost cost us everything. ”

“And yet,” Puck paced the room, clearly pleased with himself, “here you are now, human like they need you to be, actually confident for a change, Sasha’s out of his deal, and all your followers want to follow you. I see why you’re angry with me, Nathan.”

Every comeback that sprang to mind went dry on Nathan’s tongue. “You…planned all that?” he asked skeptically.

Puck leaned against the wall by the closet, leaving the bed between them.

“Amazing really how the simplest things can help a man see what he’s worth.

I told you I didn’t want to see this world fall to Malak and I meant it, but you were bound to screw it all up, kiddo, going about it as you were.

Now you know better. Now you know you can do this.

And ya know,” he smirked a little, “I’m happy to stick around as Danny if you want the extra help.

Their royal pains in my highness will expect me to anyway. ”

Nathan knew it would be stupid to hold grudges right now. He didn’t really have any ill feelings toward Puck, though he doubted the guy would ever be honest from the get-go about anything .

“You wanna help,” Nathan said, “I’m not gonna tell you to leave.”

Why this meant so much to Puck, Nathan had no idea, but the guy grinned wide as ever at his admission.

“I’ll stay incognito, if you don’t mind.

Don’t want to disappoint Ula, sweet thing that she is.

But when the time comes, I’ll do what I can.

” He pushed from the wall and moved around the bed toward Nathan.

“Oh, and I almost forgot. This came for you.” He reached behind his back and pulled a package seemingly out of thin air.

Nathan worried it was another ‘gift’ from Puck, but when he accepted the package he saw that the return address said Leslie Schuester. “Schu? Why do you have this?” Nathan asked as he tore into it.

“Oh, I…may have intercepted it to avoid any complications before now.”

What complications there might have been became apparent as soon as Nathan revealed the contents inside. It was the goggles, the very goggles they had traded to Schu, from Wade, when they first saw the collector back in Minnesota. The goggles that allowed the wearer to see through any glamour.

Nathan scowled at Puck.

“Hey, I’m giving them to you now, aren’t I?” Puck crossed his arms with a pout.

Nathan lifted the goggles from the box to discover a note inside. It read:

Nathan,

Wade informed me that you might need these in the coming days.

Consider them on loan. You can return them to me once all of this is over.

Stay safe. Kitty misses you. We both miss you all.

Come visit once you’ve saved the world. I’m sure you’ll have great stories to tell me.

It’ll be my pleasure to see Jim again, having proven me wrong.

Schu

A smile crept onto Nathan’s face. They’d do that for sure.

Puck caught his attention as the sidhe walked back to the door, shifting into Danny just as his hand grabbed the knob.

He glanced at Nathan with a smile. “You’re welcome.

And hey, maybe you can keep my true identity just between us.

Help me keep low-profile. I love getting to make an entrance. ” He waggled an eyebrow.

That was understatement. But Nathan was grateful for the goggles; they would no doubt come in handy once the final battle was upon them, especially since the pheromone detector was no longer of use.

He managed to take his shower after Puck left, feeling supremely grateful to the trickster in all honesty, for more than just the goggles, even though he hadn’t actually thanked him outright, and probably never would.

It had been a bold and harsh way to prove a point, Puck’s gift, but then that was sort of the light sidhe’s MO, and besides, Nathan couldn’t deny that at the moment everything had turned out for the better.

After a solid week of preparing the troops—stopping at both Sasha’s and their Veil Slips to gather every iron weapon and stash of iron bullets they had, as well as extra antidote for their fae companions—and making sure the Gatehouse was so damn solid, there was no way any new spies could slip through, the researchers amongst the crew started to pick up on strange signs and occurrences happening nearby.

Then further out too. Then all over the country.

And by day ten, oceans weren’t much of a border anymore either.

Some of the signs were almost expected: mischief, theft, strange deaths, even lightning storms. But then there was the phone lines starting to flicker and fail, television and radio signals getting lost, cars just plain stopping in the middle of highways, cutting people off from each other and making travel almost impossible.

Those in the Gatehouse didn’t have plans to leave, but it was a concern, the chaos happening out there where they couldn’t really help.

Soon the only thing keeping the Gatehouse’s electricity going was that pixie friend of Ula’s.

When the sun set one evening only to not rise the next morning, they knew time was short and growing shorter by the day, and Nathan was still waiting to hear from Oberon and Gwen about more backup before the storm hit.

The sex demon High Council had stayed true to their word, but volunteers from their side trickled in and out; few had opted to stay until the real battle struck.

They didn’t have enough help, and Nathan feared that even the king and queen of light fae weren’t enough to sway the majority of their people who thought humans were none of their business.

To top all of that off, everything wasn’t fine and dandy internally either.

Fights would break out between seals and their non-human help without the wards to keep everyone in line; fights Nathan usually had to break up, ensuring both sides that they could trust each other, damn it, they had to.

Nathan was certain it was getting worse because of the general unease in the air as the world kept changing around them.

When the phones went down for good, all landlines and all cell phone towers, Nathan started to worry about Wade and Leven, as well as Schu and Kitty.

He started to wonder if they should have told them all to come to the Gatehouse, but then he couldn’t be sure it would be safer here when the final battle was meant to take place in the backyard.

He was getting antsy, and struggling hard not to show it. Jim started getting on his case fairly quickly.

“Nathan, you need to take a breath one of these days, sit down and let everyone do their jobs without you hovering around like the dark fae are suddenly going to start laying siege without warning,” Jim said, finally cornering Nathan in the main hall upstairs.

“I’m fine, Jim. I’ve been sleeping and eating just like I’m supposed to, and even taking the time to shit on occasion. Besides, I’m not…hovering.” At least not all the time, and certainly not intentionally.

Jim eyed Nathan skeptically though, which soon had Nathan sighing in defeat.

“I suppose…I could use a drink,” Nathan said, which was a luxury he hadn’t been allowing himself nearly as often as he had the right to.