Blood Kin (15 page)

I looked over at Tucker, Niko and Rhys. Each of them had the same expression on his face—probably a mirror of my own confusion and full of “what do we do next?” questions. I didn’t have experience talking with someone in this state. Rhys had talked to a social worker earlier, and we could probably track her down, but I didn’t want to bring any humans into this mix. How to explain that I was trying to find someone who was not only missing, but vanished into thin air, and oh, by the way, not legally in the country because he was technically invisible to the customs agent when we landed in the plane? Oh yeah, that would go over like a thousand lead balloons.

“Look, guys,” I said, trying to keep my voice down. “Why don’t I take one of you and keep searching and the other two can stay here with Les. Maybe he will sober up some. We’ll do another hour and then, if we don’t find Daffyd, call it off for the night. We need to make it back to the condo by dawn.”

Tucker nodded. “Yeah, sounds like a plan. Niko, go with Keira, and Rhys and I will stay here. Be back here in an hour. Maybe we’ll get lucky, I mean, how hard can it be to find a shiny white blond guy in Johnny Cash colors?”

“True, but we’ve—”

Les’s grumbly mutter interrupted me. “He wasn’t blond,” he said in disgust. “Did you people not listen to
what I said?” He stood and held out his hands to me, as if in supplication. “Oh, I am so very sorry, m’lady,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean you.”

“Accepted,” I said. “But what did you mean, not blond?”

“The shining man,” Les answered. “He had dark hair.”

“D
ARK?” I SAID
. “Are you sure?”

Les gave me a look of disgust, then dropped his eyes and pulled off his toque, clenching his hands around the red material. “My apologies, but yes. He was dark-haired, dressed all in black.” A dreamy smile appeared on Les’ face again. “So very beautiful. A dark angel. He took Sam’s soul, he did … inside the dream.”

I threw my hands up in exasperation and walked away toward the street, enough so that Les couldn’t hear me. Tucker, who probably knew me well enough to see the signs of a full-fledged Keira Kelly frustration rant coming, followed me. I stopped by a boarded-up store window with a poster advertising some sort of video game glued to the pressboard. A flyer for the folk music festival hung next to it.

“Damn it, Tucker, he’s still rambling.” I said. “He didn’t see Daffyd. He could be talking about some alcohol-fueled dream.”

“You’re probably right, Keira,” Tucker agreed. “Let’s wrap up and go on back to the condo. It’s too close to dawn to dawdle much longer.”

I looked at the horizon. The sky had started to lighten perceptibly. “We’d best get back, then. Round up the troops, would you? I’m afraid if I have to listen to old Les there anymore, I might totally lose it.”

Tucker waved the others over. Rhys said something
to Les that I couldn’t hear. Les gave him a nod, then said something in return. He turned to leave, then stopped, faced me and gave me a deep bow, hand over his heart. I nodded back at him and he turned and left.

“Why is he calling you m’lady?” Liz asked as we began the trek back to the condo.

“Beats me,” I said. “He started that earlier. Then said something about me being a queen.”

Niko’s eyes narrowed. “He also knew of our natures, Keira,” he said. “Still think he is nothing more than a dream-ridden old man?”

“Perhaps he is one who is touched with Sight,” Rhys said. “It happens.”

“It does?” Niko sounded surprised. “How so? I had thought humans and your Clan did not intermix—could not.”

I stepped around a large cement plant pot set outside a store. We’d taken the most direct route back, down Water Street, the heart of the tourist-focused area. “We can’t,” I confirmed.

“But he could have fey blood in his background,” Rhys explained. “I’ve known people in the past who were mixed race.”

Niko looked thoughtful as he walked beside Tucker, evidently digesting this scrap of news. Our Clan was biologically incompatible with humans but, as Rhys said, several friends of Clan were part fey, part human. “I was not aware the Sidhe could interbreed with humans,” he said.

“They can’t,” Tucker said, his voice patient. “It’s complicated as hell, but high court Sidhe are as unable to breed with humans as we are. It’s the lesser fey who can.” At Niko’s continued puzzled look, he continued.
“Brownies, selkies, phoukas and the like. They have always been closer to human evolution.”

“Hmm.” Niko’s brow furrowed. “This is rather complex. I had thought …”

“Thought,
cariad
?” Tucker asked.

Niko shook his head, red hair gleaming in the light of a nearby shop window. We were nearly to our building. About time, too, as I noticed that the sky was definitely lighter.

“Nothing, really,” Niko said. “Just something Adam once said.”

“Oh, bloody everlasting hell,” I exclaimed and dug my phone out. “Adam.”

Four pairs of eyes stared at me as I stopped walking and began pressing numbers. “I forgot to call him,” I said. “In all the hubbub of Daffyd disappearing.”

The phone rang several times and went to voice mail. “Damn it, Adam, I’m sorry,” I said into the speaker. “Daffyd’s gone and pulled a Claude Rains on us and I totally lost track of time. If you’re still up or when you get up, please call?” I ended the connection and slipped the phone back into my pocket.

“Claude Rains?” Tucker questioned.

“It seemed apt.”

“So what’s the plan?” Liz asked. “We going to keep on looking?” She waved a hand, indicating that she meant those of us not of the vampire persuasion.

“I think we need to regroup,” I said. “Let’s get some sleep and meet again in the early afternoon and see if we can figure something out. If we’re lucky, the weather up north will have cleared and we can consult with Gigi.”

“Or Dad,” Rhys reminded me. “If he’s done in Seattle,
he and Isabel can be here pretty quickly. It’s only about a three hour drive.”

“If the wait at the bridge isn’t horribly long,” Liz said.

“True.”

“Would be great if we had more eyes to search,” I said as we reached the front door of the building. “Liz, you going to stay over or head home?”

She eyed Rhys, who gave her a broad grin and a slight nod. “I think I’ll stay,” she said with a smile.

I placed my palm on the access plate. The doors swung open.

R
HYS
, L
IZ
and I all slept for hours, until late afternoon, and woke up to a gray, overcast day. In the quiet of the afternoon before the others woke, I’d tried calling Bea again. All this running around with family looking for Daffyd was making me crazy—and Bea had always been a great grounding force in my life. Even now, with her so freaked out about seeing who I was underneath all this façade of humanity, I trusted that, eventually, we’d repair the relationship. I had to believe that. Anything else wasn’t acceptable.

The phone rang four times and went to voice mail. I left a brief message, telling her of the delay and that I was still at the condo. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be willing to call when it was over a long distance—far enough away to have an uncomfortable conversation. I flipped the phone shut, shoved it in my jeans pocket and went out to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

“I
T’S STILL
craptastic weather up north,” Liz announced over a steaming mug I’d poured for her. “I tried to call up there but no dice.” She took a long sip. “I’m afraid I’ve got
to run, too. I’ve gotten a call about a job out in the Fraser Valley. Some new TV show. They need a stunt pilot for at least a few days.”

“You’re leaving?”

“I don’t know if there’s anything else I can do, Keira,” she said. “I’m happy to help, but to just sit around or go back out and do the same thing we’ve been doing all over again?” She shrugged. “I think I’d rather take this job. I’ll have my phone. Call me if you need me.”

Liz finished her coffee and Rhys said he’d walk her down to her car in the garage. (
Riight
. Like she’d get lost? At least my brothers were gentlemen … when they wanted to be.) I poured myself another mug and went to the window wall. Pulling back the blackout drapes revealed a multimillion (Canadian) dollar view for me to contemplate. Not that I felt too contemplative. My mind was spinning faster than a Texas tornado.

“Is there any way to provide a magical trace?” I asked Rhys when he returned. “Cast some sort of spell?”

“There’s no dowsing rod for fey, Keira,” Rhys said. “The best we can do is keep trying.”

“Damn it. How the hell are we supposed to find Daffyd, then?”

“We can call Dad,” Rhys said, “and see if he has any suggestions.”

I pulled out my phone. “Perfect idea.” I dialed Dad’s number.

“Hey, honey, what’s shaking?”

“Weather better, Dad?” I asked. “Phone sounds better.”

“Yeah, cleared up a bit ago. ’Bout time, too. So what can I do for you? I don’t imagine you called to ask about the weather.”

“I wish it was that simple,” I muttered.

“What was that?”

I shook my head. “Nothing, Dad. Where are you? We’ve got something of a situation here.” I filled him in.

“Damn, Keira,” he said, his voice amused. “You do manage to get yourself into some situations. We’re still in Seattle, but we’re heading to Van in a few hours. Hang tight; we’ll come help look.” My dad paused a moment. “Keira, did you ever think maybe your old man—Les?—actually did see another Sidhe?”

“Dad, that’s ridiculous,” I said. “It’s not like this is the heart and soul of ye olde country. Why would any Sidhe be here—in Vancouver?”

“Daffyd is there.”

“Point taken, Dad, but he came with us.”

Dead silence on the other end of the phone. “Oh, duh, you mean someone else could’ve come here just like Daffyd.”

“It’s not outside the bounds of believability, sweetheart.”

“No, but … why would another Sidhe be in Vancouver?”

“Keira, perhaps this other Sidhe came for the same reason Daffyd did.”

“For me?” Evidently, however slow I was in first getting on this clue bus, once I got on, I got up to speed fast.

“Brilliant, sweetheart. You’ve got it,” Dad said. “I’m sure Minerva’s lost no time in announcing the fact that she has a new heir. I expect there to be an influx of visitors over the new few days.”

“Visitors who are stuck here in Vancouver, like we are,” I said. “Damnation, Dad, did she have to go throw open the doors before I even got there?”

My dad laughed. “Honey, since when did our leader ever do things the simple way?”

“True. Hey, Dad, that old guy who died … Les said he
went with the angel. Do you think the Sidhe, if there is one, is draining humans here?”

“Hmm. I don’t know. It’s a possibility. Sidhe rarely go for humans unless they’re desperate. If they didn’t realize the distance … which is very possible … some of the older ones are still unlikely to understand the great distances in the new world … they may not have come prepared. If this Sidhe is loose in the city, the metal, the modernity could be hurting him, draining reserves. Then again, your old man may have seen someone else. Can’t rule out the possibility, though.”

“Dad, you’re the closest thing I have to an expert on that part of my bloodline,” I said. “Do you know anything about them having the ability to vanish?”

“I don’t know about the vanishing, although I did see something odd a few times when visiting your mother’s relatives. Things Underhill in Faery aren’t necessarily what they seem, and they weren’t good at answering questions. Besides, I was actually only there for one thing.”

Egads, was my dad going to share his lust for my not-lamented and, as far as I knew, still much-alive mother? Not something I really wanted to hear about.

“So you never saw anyone vanish?” I asked, trying to keep to the subject we’d been discussing.

“Not as such,” he said. “But if memory serves, that’s not a Talent I’d cross off the list.”

“Okay, one more question, Dad. Do you know if there’s any way we can do some sort of tracking spell?”

“A tracking spell …” His voice trailed off. “Perhaps. Do you have anything of his?”

“No.” I shook my head automatically. “He had nothing but the clothes Niko lent him.”

“That could work,” Dad said. “Have you tried tracking
Niko’s scent? The boys can help you out since you’ve not done a tracking spell before. It’s fairly simple.”

I slapped my own forehead. How could we have overlooked that? Daffyd may not have a traceable scent, but Niko’s clothing did. “I can’t believe we didn’t think about that.”

“You’re tired, honey,” Dad said. “Talk to your brothers and I bet the three of you can come up with a way to cast the tracking. You may be new at this, but the ability’s within you … and the boys are great trackers as wolves.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Anytime, Keira. You all do what you need to. Isabel and I will give you a ring when we’ve crossed the bridge. I expect that’ll be somewhere around eleven or so. We should be leaving Seattle right around sunset—say eightish.”

“Why wait so long? Can’t you all come now?”

“Wish I could, sweetheart,” he said. “But I’ve got something on and it’s difficult for us to leave any sooner. No worries, we’ll be there before you know it. Hopefully, you’ll have located that missing cousin of yours by then.”

“Yeah, hopefully,” I said.

“Take care, Keira. See you soon.”

“Bye, Dad.”

“T
HIS SHOULD
work,” Rhys mumbled around a strip of cloth he was ripping from a shirt. Tucker had fetched it for us after we’d awakened him from his blissful slumbers with his vampire boyfriend. It was the shirt Niko had worn on the trip and while we were roaming around Vancouver. We’d dug up a locator-type tracking spell that Tucker thought might work. It worked more like an enhancement,
not a real tracker, per se. I was hoping that Rhys’ and Tucker’s natural tracking ability would help compensate.

“What the hell are you doing with my shirt?” Niko strode in the living room, yawning. “It’s custom tailored … or, rather, was.”

“We’re using it to help locate Daffyd,
cariad.
” Tucker rose and pecked Niko on the cheek. “Don’t be angry. It’s for a good cause.”