Blood Kin (27 page)

“S
O THIS IS
your vampire?” My cousin Raine scrutinized Niko, who stood next to me, obviously appreciating what she saw. Adam was still in the airport’s private aircraft terminal, having received a phone call as we’d arrived. Tucker had stopped in the small café to buy coffees for us all.

“He’s quite the pretty one, isn’t he?” she continued, licking her lips as she studied Niko.

Déjà vu, much? Was every female pilot on my double-great-granny’s payroll going to eyefuck the vampires? True, they were amazing to look at, but damn, it wasn’t as if the Kellys weren’t. We had plenty of gorgeous men and women in our family. Hell, at least Liz had leered with a grin. Raine was a complete opposite in demeanor from the cheery Liz. In fact, Raine Kelly was a snake. A seductive snake, but a snake. I’d never figured out how old she was, but I’d known her all my life. She’d drifted in and out of Texas, of London, always on the move. Raine had always said that after the first couple of centuries, who cares about age or where one lives?

The two of us looked a lot alike at first gander, both tall women, and—viewed from a short distance—we were similar enough to be twins. Not identical, mind, unless you allowed that at least one twin dyed her hair. Up close and side-by-side, Raine was a hell of a lot more exotic version of me. Her hair was the deep auburn of autumn leaves and
fall sunsets. Her eyes, a changeable light amber; in some lights yellow, a hint of Asia in their shape. Raine’s skin had always been a shade darker than my own Sidhe-pale, but with a sheen about it, reminiscent of a snake’s scales. My cousin was a lamia, supernaturally seductive, and with the ability to speak to her reptilian pets.

Niko frowned and began to speak.

“Raine!” Tucker’s voiced boomed from behind us. He pushed two cups of coffee into my hands and grabbed Raine into a bear hug. A low growl sounded next to me as Raine directed the hug into a deep snog, her hands sliding down to caress Tucker’s ass. The subharmonics of the growl intensified as Raine’s hands gave Tucker a squeeze. I didn’t look over at Niko, figuring his fangs were probably out at this point.

I took a sip of my coffee, enjoying the spectacle just a wee bit. Raine had always had some rather interesting interpretations of personal space. Mostly because of her nature, but some of it was due to the sheer love of stirring shit up. She and Tucker had been together once or twice, simply for the hell of it. The last time had been years ago, when I was in my teens and she’d totally intimidated me while, at the same time, I’d been fascinated by her.

Tucker smacked Raine on the ass, stepped back and turned to Niko, hauling him in for an even deeper kiss. “You are mine, little vampire.” Niko stepped back and looked at Tucker, eyes full of possession, cupping Tucker’s face with his hands.

“And you are mine, wolf.”

Raine laughed, a deep, throaty laugh that spoke to her love of chaos. She was like that—enjoyed messing with people. I hated that part of her. When I was in my early twenties—by then, she was less intimidating to me, but
still as fascinating—I’d spent some time around her and her snakes. She taught me to like them. Tried to teach me their language, but I’d not managed to master a single meaningful hiss. I smiled, though, remembering some fun times we’d had.

“They are gorgeous, aren’t they, cousin?” Raine smirked at the two men, then stepped over to me, and, before I could stop her, hauled me into a deep embrace and kiss. Surprised, I let myself sink into the kiss, sparks igniting between us. We’d never been lovers, mostly because I’d been with Gideon during the time I knew her and I tended to be a one-at-a-time person. I also was into the opposite sex more than my own, but—damn, she was good at this … a moment, then a gasp from Raine. She let me go, did a double take and dropped to her knees, offering the back of her neck.

Without thinking, I reached out and touched her nape with the tips of my first two fingers, stroking the skin. I snatched my hand back with a jerk. What did I just do? I’d as good as accepted my cousin as my sworn vassal.

“I’m sorry. Raine, please, get up,” I urged her. “I didn’t—”

“You are my liege, cousin.” Raine’s formal words chilled me.

I took another step back, shaking. “No, absolutely—” I hauled Raine up. “Don’t fuck with me, Raine.”

My cousin cocked her head, narrowed amber eyes studying me, then with a smirk and a smile, she tossed her hair back over her shoulder. “Well, I could take you up on the fucking part, but I think you’re spoken for, wee cuz.”

“That she is.” Adam’s voice came from behind me as he wrapped an arm around my waist. “You are her cousin?”

Raine’s expression went from lusty to lewd in less than two seconds. “This one’s yours?”

“I am,” Adam answered. “And she is mine.” He smiled, but behind the smile was a very clear warning.

Raine gave a slight bow. “My apologies, Sir Vampire,” she said, then raised her head and smiled again. “You are very lucky, cousin … and like it or not, you are what you are.”

She was suddenly right next to me, body scant inches from mine. Her nostrils flared, eyes gleamed. A hand came up between us, a long finger tracing down my cheek, across my chin and down the center of my neck. I shivered and grabbed her wrist as Adam’s arm tightened around my waist. He held still, letting me handle it.

“Enough, Raine.”

She laughed, leaned in to give me a quick peck and stepped away. “This visit is going to be a right treat. Our darling double-great-granny didn’t …” She laughed again. “Yeah, a treat. Come along then, children,” she said, motioning to the plane. “I think we’d best get moving.”

“She didn’t tell you?” I followed Raine onto the plane. This one was marked “Kelly 1” on the side. It was larger and better appointed than the one we’d arrived in. My granny’s private plane. The Kelly version of Air Force One. Go figure.

“She was totally mum,” Raine said. “All she told me was to get my ass to Vancouver airport and to pick up Keira, Tucker and the vampires.”

Niko grumbled behind me. “The vampires, the vampires. Why does your family insist on not calling us by name?”

“Because,
cariad
,” Tucker explained, “I didn’t tell them your name.”

“Whyever not?” Niko settled into a plush leather seat.

Tucker plopped down beside him. Adam settled into one across the aisle and I sat next to him.

Raine leaned close to Niko. “Because, little vampire,” she breathed, “knowing your name gives us power.”

Niko pushed her away. “The name I go by is not my true name, witch.”

“Lamia,” Raine snapped. “At least get your species right.”

“Lamia, is it?”

“It is.”

“And you fly planes for the family?”

“I like traveling,” Raine said with nonchalance. “I get bored.” She reached with her right hand and touched Tucker’s arm. “I do miss this sometimes, though.”

Niko batted her arm away. “Do not.”

Tucker intervened. “Raine, don’t. He doesn’t understand.”

“Understand what?” Niko asked, a hint of anger in his tone. “That she likes to paw you?”

“It’s not that,” Tucker said. “She’s a lamia. There’s a certain need to be around snakes, to curl up together in the sun and … to touch.”

“You’re not a snake.”

“No, but I am family. We often need to be physically among our kind. There’s an underlying energy that connects us. Some more than others.” Tucker glanced over at me. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you start seeing some of this need yourself, Keira.”

“What do you mean?”

“Those with more advanced or the more physical Talents—even before they Change—need to recharge with other Clan. You’re still too young to have had much need of this, I reckon. Plus, when you were younger, I think some
of this was masked because of your Sidhe heritage. You’ve never really been all that touchy-feely.”

“Unlike you and my other brothers,” I said, remembering how much the boys would often throw themselves down into big piles, sleeping together after a hunt.

“I hadn’t thought about this until now, but it might be something that manifests now that you’re—”

“The heir.” I finished his sentence for him. “Bloody hells. Is there anything else I don’t know that I should?”

“Beats me, cousin.” Raine smirked. “But I do know that we need to get up in the air, so buckle up, kids.”

Raine went forward to the cockpit. As the engines were already running, I expected her to start taxiing almost immediately. We didn’t move. Raine’s voice, puzzled and angry, came over the speakers. “Sorry, but we aren’t being allowed to take off … by order of the Royal Canadian Mounted—”

Before Raine could finish we were surprised to hear the thud of the rolling stairs as they were put back in place by the ground crew. The thud was quickly followed by a pounding on the plane’s door.

“Open up, it’s Gareth.”

Raine growled but strode over to the door and worked the complicated controls. It swung open slowly, breaking the airtight seal.

Gareth pushed past her. “Don’t go.”

“What?” Raine’s eyes flashed red as her growl grew louder. Fangs began to emerge from her gums. “No one, but no one …” she said as she approached Gareth and took his lapel in her hand. “No one fucks with my plane.”

“Damn it, there’s no time for this,” Gareth blurted out. He didn’t look afraid. “Stop it, Raine.”

She pushed him back, head whipping from side to side,
the growl now turning subsonic, rattling the windows of the plane. The air thickened as the tension grew. With a shimmer, her body began to transform, scales slipping onto her skin, nose flattening, broadening, eyes changing shape, pupils narrowing to slits.

“Stop.” Without thinking, I flipped open the seat belt buckle and stepped toward them, one hand raised in warning. “Now, Raine.” Subharmonics in my voice that I’d never heard before echoed in the cabin and wrapped around the tension, pulling it away.

Raine shuddered and hissed, but nodded in my direction, without a word. She slid back and shifted, the scales that had begun to appear on her skin absorbed into its usual sheen.

“My liege,” Raine said, her voice still rough. She turned, went through the cockpit door and shut it behind her.

“Keira, what was …?” Niko’s voice shook. Great, I’d not only freaked myself out, but the vampire, too.

Adam sat still, watching me, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Tucker unbuckled his seat belt and came toward me. “Sis, you okay?”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said. “What the hell was that in my voice?”

“Command voice,” he said.

“Well, crap.” I went back to my seat and plopped down. Adam placed a hand on my arm. “I never expected that.” I looked at Gareth. “Or you. Gareth, what’s going on? Why didn’t you call?”

“Couldn’t take the chance I’d miss you. Calling Air Traffic Control was the surest way to keep you all here until I could talk to you.” Gareth sat down across from me. “It’s the dead Sidhe. I went over to the morgue to see what
else I could find out. Look what I found.” He pulled out his cell phone and browsed to a photo and handed it to me. Niko and Tucker rose and crossed to stand behind our seats, trying to get a look. It was impossible for all four of us to see the small screen at the same time.

“Is that—?” I looked at Gareth, who nodded. I passed the phone back to Tucker. “That Sidhe had our Clan symbol tattooed on his arm?”

“It is the symbol,” Tucker conceded.

“Has everybody taken stupid pills? This is impossible,” I said. “Even if Gideon is part Sidhe, they are not kin like we are. This Sidhe had to have copied the symbol. He couldn’t have—”

“It’s the symbol, Keira,” Gareth said flatly. “This isn’t a copycat tattoo.”

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely. It resonates.”

“How?”

“Only a true Kelly can bestow the symbol.”

“But I thought that only a Kelly can receive it. Tucker?”

“That was my understanding, Keira. Gareth, do you have any ideas how this happened?”

My phone buzzed. I grabbed it and read the display, answering as soon as I saw who was calling.

“Rhys, what’s up?”

“Have you all left yet?”

“No, Gareth came by before we took off. What is it?”

“You guys need to come back to the condo. Daffyd’s returned. He’s found something.”

The four men in the plane looked at me as they listened to Rhys speak. “Found something? Where the hell has he been?” I asked.

“He said he needs to talk to you, Keira. He won’t say anything to me.”

How had Daffyd found the condo? We’d not gone there before he vanished.

“Put him on the phone, Rhys.”

“No, he insists on speaking to you in person, Keira.”

“We’d best go back and talk to him,” Adam said.

“Yeah, I guess we won’t get answers by sitting here.” I turned my attention back to the phone. “Okay, we’ll come back,” I said to Rhys. “Let me fill you in on what Gareth found.”

I told Rhys about the tattoo.

“That’s not possible,” Rhys said.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell them.”

“Who?”

“Everyone in the plane.”

“Explain this to me, Keira,” Adam said, interrupting.

“Hold on, Rhys … Remember I spoke of the Mark earlier? This is one—a ritual Mark,” I said. “Given only to Kelly blood, to Protectors, those chosen as bodyguards. After a complex ritual of bonding—usually to your liege/ ruler, you’re given the Mark. It’s imbued with your liege’s magick. Every ruler has a specific Mark. Gigi’s is a wolf’s head.”

Rhys broke in sarcastically. “So maybe he saw one and got it done. It’s not like Vancouver has a lack of tattoo parlors. And wolves are pretty prevalent as images.”

“I know, Rhys, but this one is different,” I said. “It’s not quite Gigi’s standard wolf’s head symbol. It’s more stylized, with fangs, red eyes, still in a circle like the moon. Yet Gareth says it’s a true Mark. It resonates. I have to believe him.”

Gareth spoke up. “I’m not normally good at detecting
magickal signatures, Rhys—” I pressed the speakerphone button. Supernatural hearing was adequate, but the plain old natural phone needed help to pick up his voice. “But that’s the point of the Mark. Its magick was meant to be recognized by all Kellys, no matter their own particular abilities.”