Primal Bonds (27 page)

“Thank you.” Eric’s face softened in his gratitude. “She’d appreciate that. It hit her hard.”

“Which is part of the reason you’re here,” Dylan said. “Sean knows, and Andrea ... well, she’ll know sooner or later.”

Eric nodded silently. He remained just as silent as Dylan rose to fetch the coffee that had finished brewing. Without complaint, Dylan poured four cups and brought them to the table. He didn’t offer cream or sugar since most Shifters drank it black, and Eric didn’t ask for anything.

“The Collars,” Dylan said. “That’s why Eric’s here. He heard about our ability to override the Collars, and he wants to learn it.”

“Andrea knows about it already.” Sean sent Andrea a quick glance.

“I saw a vivid demonstration by Sean,” Andrea said.

Dylan shot Sean a concerned look. “You all right?”

“Fine. I didn’t mind beating on Callum a little.”

Eric listened, brows raised. “You got a war going on?”

“Trying to prevent one,” Sean said.

“Using your half-Fae warrior princess?”

Sean gave him a little grin. “If necessary.”

Andrea took a gulp of coffee and got to her feet. “Obviously you all don’t need me here. I’ll just be going.” She took up the sword, which hummed in a muted way when she touched it, like a child singing under its breath. “Back to pancakes.”

Sean, of course, followed her out. Ronan remained in place on the porch, giving them another salute from the porch swing. He’d stay, Andrea knew. Ronan was still distrustful of this stranger.

Sean didn’t reach for the sword as they walked back to Glory’s house, but let her carry it, as though she had every right to. “Should you leave your dad alone in there with him?” Andrea asked as they mounted the porch.

“Dad seems to have it under control.” Sean opened the door and went in first, checking for danger.

“You’re trusting.”

“I know Dad. He wouldn’t invite another Shiftertown leader out here if he wasn’t certain about him. Plus Eric has to know that if he makes a wrong move, Ronan will be on him, and if he gets past Ronan, he’ll have to deal with me.”

Sean’s quiet confidence always amazed her. Unlike Liam, who joked and charmed, Sean simply looked at a person with calm blue eyes, and that person fell all over himself to do whatever Sean wanted. He had power in his silences.

“Now, Andy-love, what’s this about you being Xena, Warrior Princess?”

Andrea laid the sword in the case Sean had left on the table. “Fionn told me a lot of things. Some of them might even be true.”

“At least he gave you his name.”

“Fionn Cillian. So he said. But what good does that do?” Andrea sighed, spreading her hands. “What do I know about warrior lords of Faerie?”

“You don’t have to know anything. You just need a name. Now we can look him up.”

G
lory’s computer wasn’t very sophisticated, but Sean didn’t seem bothered by that as he sat at the desk in the living room and fired it up.

Andrea pulled a chair next to his. “If you plan to Google Fionn Cillian, you can’t do it from here. Glory hasn’t been given Internet clearance.”

“I don’t need the Internet.” Sean frowned at the screen as he typed in letters. “I have my own database.”

“A database bigger than the Internet?”

“No, but one much deeper and more precise.” On a black screen with a blinking cursor, Sean typed in five letters. They came out as runes, the same kind of curlicues that were on the Sword of the Guardian.

“Those are Fae runes.”

Sean leaned to study the screen in surprise. “Are they now? How about that.” As Andrea rolled her eyes, the screen blanked out. Sean typed in another set of runes. “There we go.”

The screen went blank for a few seconds before words shone out at the top: Welcome, Guardian.

“What on earth is this?” Andrea asked.

“The Guardian Network. That’s the half-assed name we gave it. It’s information that Guardians have collected over the centuries—about the Fae, the sword, Guardians, about Shifters in general. It used to be written down in a book, but when computers got practical, a Guardian in New Orleans built a database for it and input all the information. Made it searchable. Now we can add information to it when we need to or contact other Guardians through it.”

“But how do you access it without Internet?”

He smiled. “Andy-love, just because not all Shifters are allowed on the great human Internet, doesn’t mean we haven’t created our own network. You just need a server and the ability to tap into the lines. Wireless has made it even simpler. All those remote connections out there just waiting to be used.”

Andrea raised her brows. “You’re a hacker.”

“A good hacker. I can get into all kinds of places.”

“I see. That’s handy.”

“And geeky, according to Connor.”

Andrea knew she’d never explain how attractive she found geeky Sean, so she didn’t mention it. “Aren’t you worried someone will hack into
your
network and steal all the Guardian’s secrets?”

“Most of it isn’t secret. But only Guardians know how to use this thing, and the codes are pretty intense.”

Andrea looked at the runes that appeared in response to his tapping, the program obviously translating the standard Roman letters on the keyboard. “Okay. I believe you.”

Sean hit the Enter key, and the screen blossomed into colorful pictures, links, and columns of text. “This is everything Guardians know about Fionn Cillian.”

Andrea leaned against him to peer at the information, which was at least in English. Sean slid his arm around her waist as she read it.

Fionn Cillian was several hundred years old, the text told her. Born somewhere in Faerie in a place whose name was unpronounceable, he’d became leader of his clan when he hit his ninetieth year, fairly young for a Fae. Next came a list of what Sean said were battles won by Fionn as a general. The list was quite lengthy. By age one hundred and fifty, he’d been instrumental in winning a war that put him and his clan in control of the emperor of Faerie.

The database showed lists of various heroic deeds Fionn had performed since then, battles fought and won in the name of the emperor, honors awarded him. It listed a wife, a highborn woman from a rival clan, Sean said, but no children. Doubtless it had been a political marriage, he speculated, undertaken to end a dispute. The wife had died about a hundred years ago, leaving Fionn alone and childless.

Andrea took in the information in amazement. She’d always pictured Faerie as a misty place of white trees and mountains, with Fae hanging out in gauzy robes, riding unicorns, hunting with hawks, and doing other Fae-like activities. The database was showing her a real place full of intrigue and power shifts, alliances and relationships, reminding her of what she’d read about shoguns in historic Japan. The land of the Fae stretched back thousands of years, and she was seeing history as complex and intricate as that of Shifters or humans.

Sean clicked on a link that revealed pictures of Fionn Cillian—line drawings and paintings, because Fae didn’t have photography.

“That’s our guy,” Sean said, looking at the haughty face and dark eyes that were like windows to eternity.

“See any resemblance to me?” Andrea asked.

“Hard to say. He’s very much a Fae, and you, love, are a hell of a lot sexier than he is.”

“Hmm, maybe you should check his underwear.”

“I’m thinking I shouldn’t be getting within a hundred miles of his underwear. If he wears any.”

Andrea’s smile faded. “All right, so we know he’s who he says he is. But how do I know that he’s my father? I don’t see any record of me in here.”

“There wouldn’t be, would there, if he wanted to keep you secret?”

Andrea pointed at the computer. “Where does that info come from?”

“Various sources, but it’s all official records or personal observation by Guardians over the centuries. If this Fae didn’t want anyone to know about you and your mother, there won’t be any record of you.”

“How does he expect me to believe him, then?”

Sean gave her a quiet look, no teasing or anger. “You want to believe him, don’t you?”

“I want to
know
.”

“Don’t worry, love. We’ll find out.”

“I don’t see how.”

“We’ll wrap his ponytail around his neck and threaten to strangle him with it unless he tells us what we want to know.”

Andrea started laughing. “I’d like to see you doing that to a Fae warrior. He looks pretty tough.”

“Then I’ll pull him into this world. He’d be weaker here, what with all the iron around. I could stuff him into Dad’s pickup and drive him around until he talks.”

“I think I’d pay to see that.” Andrea leaned against him, wishing her anger and confusion would drain away. “Why are you helping me, Sean?”

With one touch of a key, Sean shut off the database. “I’m curious too, love. I want to know what this Fionn is up to.”

“I mean with everything. You admitted last night that you first claimed me because you thought it would be your only chance to have a mate, and there I was all helpless.”

Sean chuckled, eyes warming. “The day you are helpless, love, is the day the moon falls out of the sky.”

“Very funny.”

Sean nuzzled Andrea’s hair, his breath hot on her scalp. “Maybe it was the reason why I jumped at the chance for the mate-claim before I met you, but not after. Love, I want you for my mate because you have eyes the color of smoke. Because you are wicked sexy, because you’re fearless and have a smart-ass mouth, and because you kiss like fire. Why wouldn’t I want a woman like you around me the rest of my life?”

He could melt stone, this one. He smelled good too, musk and heat and the soap from his shower.

“You could charm a girl,” she said. “You and your Irish accent and beguiling flattery.”

“It’s not flattery, Andrea. I want
you
. I want to touch and hold you. I want to keep you safe. I’m wanting you in my life.”

“In that case ....” Andrea stopped, her heart beating so hard she could barely get the words out. “In that case, Sean, let’s have the mate blessing and get it over with.”

Sean’s blue eyes blazed with his sudden smile. “Andrea, love, you like to ask for trouble.” He stood up so suddenly she nearly fell, but he caught her hands, lifting her to her feet. “But all right. The sun is high, and Dad is here.” His smile went positively sinful. “I say we go have us a mate blessing.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“
Y
ou sure about this, Sean?” Liam asked.

“Just get on with it.”

Liam had arrived home in record time after Dylan had called him with the news. The rest of the family had materialized as well, as though they’d all been hanging on their cell phones, waiting for the call.

“It’s always best to make certain.” Liam was grinning at Sean, an excited light in his eyes. A few feet away, Kim fixed a garland of flowers to Andrea’s hair, the two young women chattering animatedly about whatever women liked to chatter about at these times.

“He’s sure,” Connor said. He wrapped lanky arms around Sean from behind and squeezed hard. “We’ll have more and more cubs, and it will be a grand thing. Is she already pregnant, Sean?”

“None of your bloody business,” Sean said, but he gentled his voice and returned his nephew’s hug.

“Well, if she’s not, get a move on, man.” Connor let Sean go, spun around to Andrea and gave her an equally hard hug that lifted her off her feet. “Welcome to the family, Andrea. You and Sean can have my room—it’s the biggest one in the house. I’ll take Sean’s. It’s like a closet. No room for cubs there.”

“I thought I’d move myself in with Andrea and Glory,” Sean said as Connor set a flushed Andrea down. “Kim and Liam will be needing all the space they can get.”

“Aye, that’s true,” Connor said. “And Glory needs a man about the place.” He glanced meaningfully at Dylan, who waited a little way away for the ceremony to start. “Now that Grandda’ has moved out.”

“Exactly.” Glory walked toward them, dressed from head to toe in silver lamé, her silver platform shoes shining in the sunlight. Her finger- and toenails and been painted to match her outfit and decorated with thin-lined Celtic designs. “We ladies need protection.”