Protector of the Light (Champion of the Sidhe urban fantasy series) (2 page)

Selena's deep, purring laughter chilled him with the delight of a predator. With an amused snarl, she pushed back from his embrace even as she tore open his shirt, scattering the buttons that popped free and baring the definition of his muscled chest for all to see. Abandoning the whisper of their conversation, she demanded, "And why shouldn't I just take what I want, Sidhe? Take you for my own and bleed you whenever I choose?"

Although Lugh's gaze never departed from her face, the awareness of the vampires that now blocked the front entry and the back hall with the 'exit' sign above it was not lost upon him. No one spoke now. The vampires watched with hungry eagerness, edging closer like beta dogs wanting access to the kill. Undoubtedly, they believed him a brazen fool to stride into the vampire's lair with any expectation to leave it. Selena already proved her aggression and intent, challenging him to deny her. Lugh's easy smirk lost none of its flirtation. "You shall not harm me, nor allow any other to do so. My offer is fair. My friendship and good humor are prizes not to be squandered. Think carefully before discarding them."

Wisely, the vampire mistress hesitated. "What don't I know?"

"My name." Lugh relaxed back against the bar once more, propped easily on his elbows, hands hanging relaxed. Not at all bothered by the damage to his clothing, nor the covetous leers.

"Which is?" Selena's fingertip trailed down the line of his breastbone. A tease. More so a symbolic demonstration that she might take from him anything she wished. Such a small gesture, though, proved her trepidation. She was no more a fool than he.

"Lugh."

He chuckled as nearly a third of the vampires fled the establishment, leaving nothing but a brief blur of movement in their wake. Those that remained were either brave or ignorant. He categorized Selena among the brave, even though her hand snatched back from him.

"Sun god." The whisper escaped her as if unbidden. With that clarification, the ignorant departed in a second wave. The humans, abandoned by their companions, slipped away in silent retreat. Only the stalwart of Selena's coven remained, refusing to abandon their mistress, though none stepped forward to test conclusions with him.

"Have we an accord, then?" Presumptuously, Lugh gathered Selena against him once more, his arms easily wrapping about her narrow waist. Her cool form softened against the solid wall of his chest. No longer challenging or resisting him. "I have use for a vampire ally of your proclivities."

Though the glint of distrust flickered in her eyes, she played his Seelie game with aplomb. With true feminine prowess, Selena curled about him, yielding to his touches. One of her thighs slipped between his legs, so that each tiny sway of her body caused her to rub intimately against him. The tactic could distract a less determined man. As could the press of her breasts. Or the inviting caresses of her hands over his bum, drawing them closer still. "An ally? In what war would you have me enlist?"

"The war to save the Sidhe." Lugh's gaze purposefully lowered to her lips with a hunger that was not wholly feigned. "A connoisseur of your refined tastes surely can appreciate such a quest."

"I can indeed." She tilted back her head, offering her mouth to him. "We have a deal."

Which they sealed with a kiss both deep and salacious.

Chapter Two

Lugh knew when the sun rose even more so than the vampire with whom he shared the bed. For the first hour of their copulation Lugh kept her wrists bound fast to the headboard. Once Selena proved herself capable of self discipline, he freed her for the balance of the terms to which they'd agreed. Once they'd spent themselves, and slaked the knife edge of her thirst, the remainder of the night of his obligation passed in peaceable companionship and lazy caresses.

In truth, the expenditure of sexual energy did him much good. Selena was a skilled and considerate lover, matching his own investment into the evening's performance. The need for such a joining of bodies was as essential as the Touch and any other nourishment. Though, not since before the Collapse had he felt the Touch of another Sidhe. Part of him once feared that no Sidhe yet survived, save for himself. Although he'd found the artifact that the magicraft guided him here to reclaim, a dwarven battle axe which now awaited him to retrieve it from the dressing table, the hope of finding other Sidhe occupied his mind as he reposed in naked embrace with the vampire.

Not slighting her even a second of his promise, Lugh lingered in her bed until dawn fully broke. Then he gave her one last hug and an unhurried press of lips before disentangling himself from her and the bed sheets. As he donned his clothing, Selena rolled over to watch him. Amusement gave her voice a musical quality. "I don't suppose there is anything else in my home you desire enough to trade for a second night?"

One corner of his mouth quirked up. "You've yet to fulfill the terms of this contract. Once I have satisfaction, then might we discuss another exchange of pleasantries."

Rolling over, she reached for a small device the size of her palm on the bedside table. Selena's quick fingers performed some pattern of movement over the shiny surface of the device, causing it to light up and utter soft chimes. After a moment she placed it aside and offered him an easy smile. "She'll be along shortly."

"She?" Lugh fastened his slacks. He left unsecured the tails of the shirt Selena denuded of buttons, allowing it to hang open freely.

"Her name is London. She knows where the Unseelie youths have holed up. You'll have to negotiate with her to lead you to them." Selena rose to her elbows on the bed, uncovered save the drape of the sheet over her feet. "What did you mean when you spoke of a war to save the Sidhe?"

"Seeking to alter the topic of discussion?" Lugh ignored the attempt to distract him with her nudity, focusing on her pale blue eyes. "Or the terms to which we agreed?"

"London won't trust me with the location of the Unseelie, or believe me, they would no longer be there." The glint of the predator she was shone through the friendly facade. "Now what did you mean about saving the Sidhe?"

Hefting the battle axe in one hand, testing its weight, Lugh examined the artifact more closely than he had the evening before. Leather twined about the handle in a woven pattern that created an ornate twist of knotwork designs. Though the blade had dulled, a recent sharpening left crude tool marks on the edge that would have infuriated a dwarf. It mattered not. The weapon was forged in the first realm of fey, and within its magic it bore but one more piece to the puzzle that might recreate the Mounds. "Have you heard of the fate of the Mounds?" Lugh asked, not raising his gaze to meet hers. She need not see the burden of grief sequestered within his heart.

"I know of the Collapse," she admitted. "It is common knowledge to those who are aware of the fey."

"I haven't the time to mince words or weave stories, Selena." He placed the axe aside. His fingers stroked over the handle, imagining the blacksmith who cast the metal ingots into the fire to create something that might last over ten thousand years. "What fey survive the cataclysm are yet doomed to perish. But one chance remains. One slim breath of a hope. If I fail in my quest, all the fey will Fade forever from existence."

"That would be a shame." Selena rose from the bed, gathered a shimmering red silk bathrobe from the bureau, and belted it around her waist. She flipped her blond hair free of the fabric, and though mildly disheveled, her locks still gleamed as brightly as the silk. With a feline sway she crossed to him on pale, bare feet across the plush carpet. Boldly, she encircled his neck with her lithe arms, leaning against him with familiarity. "I fancy your sexy Sidhe body in my bed."

"Then I might rely upon your aid in this matter?" His arms wrapped easily around her thin waist. Each caress and murmured compliment throughout the night had served as more than merely the payment of his side of the trade. Carefully, he'd cultivated this very moment. Guiding her with a lover's hand to the conclusions he desired. Enlisting her interest and concern. Forging an alliance based on emotional investment. Lugh's hands glided up her back until he cupped Selena's head, tilting it back so that he might gaze with deliberate longing upon her upturned mouth. "So that I might not perish and never again share such a glorious night in your bed, worshiping your body?"

Though he kissed her soundly, Lugh avoided her fangs, careful not to prick himself. Selena did not press the point, as it were, satisfying herself with the passion of the kiss without feeding her vampire lusts. And when the kiss subsided and their mouths parted, she paused not longer than the span of a sigh before agreeing. "To win you as a lover, in as much as any fey can be relied upon as such, I will help you." Her bright blue eyes searched his, and he wondered how much she played him, and if it matched his own guile. How much she lured him, using his own penchant toward lasciviousness to allow him to weave the web of his own entrapment. It was a Seelie game, and she played it well, cloaking her true predatory desires behind this performance. In the end, assuming his quest succeeded and he did not Fade from this life, time alone would tell if today they sowed the seeds of a friendship or of animosity. For truly, if she sought more from him than the occasional tumble in the sheets and a friendship born of mutual advantage, she would surely come to despise him.

But she'd voiced her agreement to aid him further, so Lugh pressed onward. "In my experience, vampires have a tendency to collect all manner of relics, just as you had this axe." From the pocket of his slacks, he produced the glass vial of enchanted gold dust. "This simple magicraft can be used to locate the items I require to save the fey." He demonstrated its use, allowing her to see how the dust spiraled and pointed toward the axe. "I've no doubts that you have vast connections among your kind, and that finding and procuring these relics for me would constitute only a light thing."

Selena examined the vial that he'd pressed into her palm, and then glanced up at him with playfully narrowed eyes. "I don't normally do the bidding of others. They do my bidding. You're lucky that I like you, even with your evil sun magic."

"I am a lucky man indeed." He soothed her ruffled pride with a brief kiss, for indeed it would be fortunate if he needn't battle and barter with all the vampires in Ireland for such artifacts as could be found among their collections. "And grateful."

A rap upon the door detained any further play or discussion. Lugh released the vampire mistress, who languidly reclined once more on the bed as though reluctant to face the day, as likely she was, given her nocturnal nature. He cast a playfully lustful glance upon her as he accepted the role of doorman and opened it for the visitor.

The dark-haired woman bore a serving tray with both a chalice of blood and a tall glass of orange juice. Her focus hit upon his partially bared chest, and the bite marks upon it, before traveling up the length of his body, as if drinking in the mere sight of him. The expression of shock was not unattractive as she spotted his undisguised ears with their elfish points. Lugh easily caught the tray as she dropped it, for she was so stunned as to not even have noticed its fall, collecting it before it unbalanced the glasses or sloshed their contents.

Lugh presented the tray to Selena, who accepted her glass with a smile that was at once both satisfied and amused. Taking the juice for himself, he deposited the tray on the side table. With a casual grace that was as much a part of his Seelie attributes as his diplomatic turn of phrase, he leaned back against the vanity. He neither encouraged nor discouraged the human's bold stare, but rather waited with the appearance of patience for the woman to collect her wits as he partook of his drink. Since the extracting of nectar from fruit became a fashion, the vampires he'd known, and he'd known many of them, insisted on foisting the drink upon him, proclaiming the medicinal virtues of the plant for a swift recovery after blood loss.

The vampire purred in her seductive way, "London, my dear friend, I believe I have found you a client." And then she returned the hungry sweep of her gaze to Lugh as she toyed with the enchantment he'd given her. "Have you a number where I can reach you if I find anything useful?"

As he knew not of what she spoke, Lugh assumed he lacked the thing about which she inquired. "I have not. If you discover anything, send an emissary to Sneem and give word to the one called Jonathan, and your message will find me."

"If your quest is as dire as all that, then you can't rely on such antiquated methods," she chided him. "If all I have been told of the Mounds is true, then you'll require an aide to help you navigate the necessary technologies and make arrangements for you." With a queenly bearing, she addressed the woman, "Set him up with a cell phone. He'll also need your investigative talents to find a number of items of interest."

Before Lugh could protest, Selena rose once more from the bed and crossed to him as if she were a spirit whose feet touched not the ground, but rather glided effortlessly through the air. Her tapered fingers brushed over his lips before he could voice an objection. "Do this for me. Allow London to assist you. Pay the price she must exact. She is well worth it, I assure you."

Her fingertips departed from his mouth, her gaze falling upon his lips in their stead. She moved closer even as his hand cradled her low back. "And as for the final item of our agreement, if you protect her from them, she will lead you to the Unseelie."