Primal Bonds

CHAPTER NINE

Sean woke, knowing Andrea was gone. It wasn’t only the empty bed that gave him the clue; it was the absence of warmth, of the feel of her, the scent of her.

Not only that, she’d left the house. The glow of the clock next to the bed told him it was a little before three in the morning, and the tingle that had announced the presence of the Fae was back in a big way.

Sean stripped out of his underwear on the way down the stairs and shifted as soon as he unlocked and opened the back door. Andrea’s scent was clear as soon as he was a wildcat, her scent trail glowing like moonlight.

He tracked her to the precise spot where he’d found the Fae earlier today. The Fae warrior was back, and Andrea stood in front of him. She’d dressed in jeans and a sweater—looking very human—and she was reaching out to touch the Fae man’s hand.

A snarl left Sean’s throat as he leapt at Andrea and knocked her away. She yelled as she went down, and she started fighting. Sean shifted back to human form so he could lock his hands around her wrists.

“Get off me, Sean.”

“What the hell is the matter with you? If you touch him, he can cross. He’s a fucking Fae.”

“He’s my father.”

Sean stopped, staring openmouthed. Andrea glowered up at him, gray eyes beautiful and enraged.

“That’s right,” she said. “The man who sired me.”

Sean snapped his head up to look at the Fae, but he was gone, the clearing empty. Sean softened his hold on Andrea. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me that before?”

“I didn’t know before. He’d just revealed it before you came blundering in. Now, will you please let me up?”

Sean got lithely to his feet and pulled her up beside him. “Why the bloody hell did you run out here to see him alone?”

“I wanted to know why a Fae wanted to talk to me so bad. I knew you’d never let me out if I woke you.”

“Damn right I wouldn’t have. What else did he tell you?”

“Nothing. You interrupted.”

Her anger was strong, but so was Sean’s. “Just because a Fae says he’s your dad doesn’t make it true. You can’t trust the bastards.”

Andrea jerked from his grasp. “Watch it. I’m one of those bastards.”

“Not what I meant, and you know it. I don’t think of you as Fae anyway.”

Now her gray eyes became chips of ice. “Well, I am Fae. You want to mate with me and sleep with me, but you’ve only seen the Shifter side of me. There’s another side, and it’s as much a part of me as the Shifter is. You don’t get one part or the other; you get the whole package.”

Sean gentled his voice. “I know that, love.”

“Are you going to run to Liam now, tell him everything?”

“He’ll need to know.”

“Go on then.” She spun around and marched back to the house without waiting for him.

“Damn it, Andrea.”

Andrea heard the frustration in Sean’s voice but didn’t look back. She couldn’t. If she stayed near Sean, he’d see the worry in her, which had sprung there the moment her father—if he was her father—had spoken to her. The Fae had not only claimed to be her father, but he’d asked Andrea to bring him the Sword of the Guardian.

Under roiling clouds and cold the next day, Andrea studied her ley line maps with renewed intensity.

She was alone to do it. Sean had left as soon as it was light, kissing her good-bye but not bothering to tell her what he was off to do. Glory had appeared after breakfast, but she’d been moody and unhappy, Dylan nowhere in sight. After lunch, Glory had reemerged from her bedroom in tight black leather pants, a lacy blouse, mile-high shoes, and perfectly coiffed hair, her body doused with perfume. She told Andrea with a sweet smile not to wait up and drove off in her small car.

The day was full of clouds and wind and rain, which matched Andrea’s mood. Andrea’s ley line maps weren’t helping—she had traced the line through the river valley that wound through Austin but not the offshoots of that line. Since she didn’t have the transportation to do it herself, the next best thing would be to see whether someone else had mapped them, but she’d need a computer to find that out. Though Glory had an old PC, not all Shifters were approved for Internet access, and then they were only allowed dial-up. But if Andrea used Sean’s computer, she’d have to tell him why she wanted to and get into explanations that made her uncomfortable.

Then again, Sean wasn’t home. Liam had ridden off to do whatever Shiftertown leaders did, and Connor was at school. Andrea put everything back into her folder and went next door.

Kim was home by herself, working in the kitchen. She’d started a law firm to represent Shifters and also to study human-Shifter law and try to change some of the inequities Shifters had gotten stuck with. It was a slow process, but Kim and her friends were trying. Kim had an office, but some days Kim found it easier to work from home.

Kim was happy to lead Andrea upstairs to Sean’s bedroom and his computer. Sean’s room was small, compact, and neat, except for a pile of clothes crumpled near the bed. Andrea felt a tingle of Fae magic from the polished wooden sword case on his dresser, but she knew without looking that the sword wasn’t in it. Sean had taken it with him wherever he’d gone.

The computer was old, and Andrea expected it to be of limited use, but the connection went through quickly and the Internet was open for business. Andrea blinked in surprise at the speed. Shifters were only allowed dial-up connections, no cable, no DSL.

Kim smiled at her confusion. “Last year I helped out a Shifter who is very good at computers. He and Sean ‘enhanced’ this one.”

“That’s Shifters for you,” Andrea said, typing in her search strings. “They won’t break laws, but they’ll bend them into all kinds of weird shapes.”

Kim laughed. “A good way of putting it.” She patted Andrea’s shoulders and left her to it.

Some local Wiccans had mapped ley lines in the Austin area. The lines veined out from the riverbed, one running straight down Lamar, one snaking under the university’s main campus. Long ago, another had followed what was now Mopac, but that one had withered and died when the railroad with its iron rails that had been laid there.

Andrea enlarged and printed out maps, tucking them into her file folder.

“Don’t forget to delete your search history,” Kim said from the door, as Andrea finished up.

“Sorry?” Andrea stared at the computer. She’d used the Internet before, but her access to computers had been limited to the two at the community center in her Shiftertown, a place she hadn’t visited often.

“If you don’t, Sean will know what you were looking up. I take it you don’t want him to?”

“I can erase that?”

“Yes, but if you simply erase the whole thing, he’ll know you were looking for stuff you don’t want him to know about. And then he’ll bug you to tell him.”

“No kidding.” Andrea glared at the plastic box. “Where is Sean, anyway?”

Kim looked surprised as she slid into the chair and started clicking things. “He left early this morning, I supposed on Shifter business. He didn’t tell you?”

“He sleeps with me, but he’s not exactly verbose. He expects full disclosure from me but doesn’t return the favor.”

“That’s a Shifter for you. Liam talks and talks and talks, and tells you nothing at all. The gift of Blarney, he calls it.” Kim smiled at the computer, her eyes filled with love for her talkative mate. “This will be fun. I’ll delete your trail and load it with legal questions. Sean’s eyes glaze over when I talk about legal issues. Or I can fill in with searches for shoes. Or baby furniture.”

“You’re a treasure, Kim.”

“So they tell me. I won’t ask you what you’re trying to keep from Sean, but take some advice.” Kim looked up at Andrea with dark blue eyes that had seen and accepted much. “Trust Sean. He’s an amazing man, and there’s much more to him than he lets anyone see. He feels things, deeply.”

Andrea had seen that already. “I know his brother’s death hit him hard and that Sean blames himself for it.”

“It didn’t so much hit him hard as change his life. Sean was close to Kenny, and having to watch him die makes Sean doubly protective of everyone he cares about. Sean’s never said all this to me; but you live in the same house with someone a while, and you notice things.”

And now Sean was trying to move in with Andrea. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

Kim and Andrea shared a hug, and Andrea departed with her maps.

The most interesting thing she’d found, she thought as she descended, was that a ley line streaked right through the heart of Shiftertown.

Not surprising, really. This entire area had fallen into disuse and urban decay long before it had become a Shiftertown. The Shifters had been put here precisely because no one wanted the real estate. In the twenty years since then, real estate a mile away had shot sky high, then dived again when the market crashed. But Shiftertown remained unchanged.

A half-Fae human had worked with human governments to devise the Collars that kept Shifters tamed. Had he also advised humans where to put the Shiftertowns? Maybe he thought a bit of Fae magic running through it would keep Shifters quiet?

It also could open a gate to Faerie.

Andrea stashed her file in her room and then went back out to the place where she’d seen the Fae.

The ley line, according to the maps, ran in a more or less straight line behind the houses on this street. Walnut trees, which caught the mists on still, wet days, towered overhead.

Gates to Faerie were rare. There were places in the world, Andrea had learned, where the gates could always be found—in stone circles in northern Europe, near temples and other sacred places in South America, in deep canyons of the American Southwest, in the soaring mountains of Asia. Fae who knew the spells could cross between standing stones and other thin places in the fabric of the universe, but this ley line wasn’t that strong.

But gates could be created with a burst of very strong magic along a ley line, or possibly through the dreams of someone loaded with Fae magic. The link to this Fae was Andrea and her nightmares.

Andrea stood on the very spot the Fae man had appeared, closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing. If there had been a gate here last night, it wasn’t here now.

What had the Fae wanted? Was he really her father, and had he, after so many years, had a sudden jones to see his daughter?

Not likely. He’d wanted the sword, and now Andrea was in a position to steal it for him.

As a child, Andrea had envisioned her Fae father as a great prince, a beautiful man who would one day reach out from Faerie and take Andrea into his kingdom. There, she’d become a princess at his side. She’d wear gossamer robes and ride a beautiful white horse and be loved by one and all.

As Andrea had grown older and learned more about the Fae, her childish dreams had died. As poorly as the other Shifters treated her, the Fae likely would be even more vicious to a half breed. Fae apparently didn’t like diluted blood, being very snobbish about breeding with “lesser” beings. Besides, Andrea had grown to love her stepfather deeply and couldn’t imagine him not being part of her life.

So here she was, standing in a grove of trees in a Shiftertown far away from her beloved stepfather, trying to figure out whether the man she’d seen last night was her true father.

Not likely. And damned if she would simply hand the Sword of the Guardian to a complete stranger because he claimed to be her long-lost papa.

“Hey, Fae-girl.”

Andrea snapped her eyes open to see four male Shifters drifting her way. One of them was a guy called Nate, who had a military haircut and build. He worked for Liam as a bodyguard and tracker or in situations when Liam needed extra muscle. Nate didn’t have much in the way of brains, but he was fiercely loyal to his clan leader, whoever it might be.

He was also a shit who shared Jared’s idea that females should be kept shut away to be screwed as often as the male Shifter wanted, plus he thought half breeds should be neutered. He let his opinions be known to Andrea, though never in Sean’s hearing. Nate was at least that smart.

Andrea hadn’t mentioned his shit-ness to Sean, because she refused to go running to him every time someone said something mean to her. Nate couldn’t do anything to her, because the mate-claim made Andrea off limits, and Nate knew it.

Andrea folded her arms and stood her ground. She had a perfect right to wander back here, no need to scramble home because Nate and his bully-boys showed up.

Nate didn’t like her blatant eye contact, but she refused to look away. “I heard you brought Ely Barry back from the dead,” he said.

“He wasn’t dead,” Andrea said coolly. “He was almost dead. Big difference.”

“I heard you stuck your hand above his crotch, and wham, he was all better.” Nate held up his finger. “I cut myself this morning. Want to touch my crotch and see if you can heal me?”

Yuck. “Sorry. Not interested.”

“Why not, sweetheart? Because the healing magic thing is all bullshit?”

“No,” Andrea said. “Because you’re a dickhead.”

Nate’s friends guffawed, and Nate’s look turned ugly. “You need to learn your place, Fae-bitch.”

His eyes went white blue, but Andrea held her ground. If she broke gaze first, he’d establish his dominance over her, and then she’d never have any peace from him.

“This is my place,” she said.

Nate’s Collar emitted tiny sparks in his fury. “Morrissey only made the mate-claim to make himself look generous. The minute he dumps your ass, you are so screwed. Once he cuts you loose, I’ll fuck you until you remember you’re nothing but a submissive Lupine Fae-get.”

Don’t look away. Glory wouldn’t look away. “A Lupine Fae-get whose healing ability might be your only hope for fixing your very small penis.”

More snickers from his friends. They were enjoying the show, but Andrea had no illusion that they wouldn’t help him beat her if they thought they needed to.

Nate’s Feline fangs extended. “I don’t care if you are the Guardian’s. You need to be taught who’s in charge, bitch.”

Andrea still didn’t step back. In her old Shiftertown, if a dominant smacked a submissive, it was considered the submissive’s fault for provoking one higher in the food chain. So Andrea’s pack leader would say while Andrea’s ears rang with his hit. Andrea had never had learned to respect the hierarchy. But this was the Morrisseys’ Shiftertown, and she already knew the rules were a little different here. If Nate tried to discipline her, he’d be toast.

That didn’t mean him starting for her, his eyes white, didn’t scare the crap out of her. She got ready to run.

But Nate’s snarls abruptly broke off, and his friends moved a few paces back, sudden fear shining in their eyes. Released from Nate’s glare, Andrea whirled to see what had scared them.

Dylan watched from a few yards behind her, the man doing nothing but standing there with his hands in his jacket pockets. The breeze ruffled his hair, but Dylan didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to.

Nate swallowed. Without defiance, without offering words of explanation, he and his friends quietly turned around and walked back the way they came, the smell of their fear sharp.

Of course, this left Andrea alone with the most frightening Shifter in Shiftertown, the man who could rip Andrea to pieces and walk away without breaking a sweat. She knew deep in her bones that if Dylan ever wanted to kill her, he would, never mind the Collar, never mind the rules, never mind his own son having claimed her. No piece of Fae technology or Shifter custom could stop Dylan Morrissey from doing whatever he damn-well pleased.

Before she could speak, Dylan said to her, “I was looking for Glory. Have you seen her?”