chapter twenty-one
I couldn’t sleep. I felt exhausted from today’s ordeals, but my mind refused to shut down and let me escape for a few hours. Tonight, the futon felt as hard as I expected a futon to feel, and I tossed and turned restlessly. I had come to Avalon in part to get away from my mom and her drama, but I think in part I’d also hoped that I would find in Dad the parental care and guidance I was missing in Mom. I had wanted someone older and wiser to help me make sense of my life and plan for the future.
You know that old Chinese proverb about being careful what you wish for? Man, did I ever understand it now.
I shoved the tangled covers away from me, sitting up and turning on the light. If I wasn’t going to sleep, then I had to find something else to do, or else I’d be lying there making myself into a nervous wreck until morning. I glanced at the clock and saw it was almost one A.M. Which was prime time in the United States. Maybe I’d get lucky this time and my mom would answer the phone. You know what they say about the third time being the charm.
I held my breath as I dialed, hardly believing how badly I wanted to hear my mother’s voice, even if it was all drunk and sloppy. Even if she screamed and yelled and then burst into tears, which I would usually try to avoid at all costs.
I almost gasped when I heard the click of the call connecting. But the voice that greeted me was not my mother’s.
“Hathaway residence, may I help you?” the woman said, like I was calling a business or something.
My heart gave a nasty thud in my chest. Oh my God! What did it mean that someone other than my mom was answering? Was she hurt? Sick? Dead?
My whole body was one aching knot of tension, and I could barely manage a whisper, my throat was so tight. “Where’s my mom? Is she all right?” Oh, please, please, please let her be all right! I couldn’t bear it if something had happened to her because I’d run away.
“Dana?” the woman asked. I still didn’t recognize her voice.
“Yes.”
“This is Frances, your neighbor?”
I recognized her now. Frances, who made a point of looking down her nose at my mom and made everything she said sound like a question.
“What are you doing answering our phone?” I demanded. “Where’s my mom?”
“Don’t you worry, Dana honey. Your mom’s just fine. You gave her a nasty fright, you know?”
The last thing I was in the mood for right now was being lectured by our nosy, snotty neighbor. I wanted to crawl through the phone and shake her.
“Please tell me where she is,” I begged, and I guess I sounded pathetic enough that Frances decided not to continue the lecture.
“I imagine she’s somewhere over the Atlantic right about now.”
“What?”
“She’s going to Avalon to find you. I’m watering the plants while she’s gone.”
My mind reeled, though not so much that I couldn’t entertain the cynical thought that Frances was in our house to snoop. If Mom was on a plane right now, then she’d only been gone a few hours, and the plants would hardly need watering yet.
“Mom is coming to Avalon,” I repeated, though I knew I’d heard correctly.
“Yes. She’ll be there tomorrow. She’s real worried about you, sweetie.”
Ugh. I didn’t know Frances anywhere near well enough for her to call me “sweetie.” Hell, I didn’t know anyone well enough for that. But if I tried to correct her, I’d just be on the phone with her longer.
“Thanks for taking care of the plants,” I said. “And if my mom checks in with you, please tell her to call me at my dad’s house.”
I hung up before Frances could answer. To hell with social niceties. My mom was coming to Avalon!
I could hardly believe it. First off, I could hardly believe she’d been sober enough to plan a trip like this at the last moment. Second, I could hardly believe she was just planning to show up out of nowhere. Shouldn’t she have called before taking such a drastic action? I hadn’t had any trouble finding Dad’s number, so she shouldn’t have, either.
Of course, if she’d called before yesterday, she wouldn’t have found me here. It made me wonder if my dad had spoken with her and neglected to tell me about it.
I turned off the light and lay down again, though I was no closer to sleep now than I had been before. I stared at the ceiling and wondered how badly I’d underestimated my mom. I’d fully expected her to get depressed and mopey because I’d left. I’d expected her to feel even more sorry for herself than she had before. Never in a million years would I have expected her to come after me.
Maybe a miracle was actually going to happen. Maybe my running away had finally been the splash of cold water in the face that made her realize what a mess she was making of her life. Maybe it would be the push she needed to get help and stop drinking.
I don’t know how long I lay there like that, wishing, hoping, praying, begging the universe to let it be true, but eventually I managed to fall asleep, and I didn’t wake up until after ten in the morning.
Finn looked almost back to normal the next morning when I came down for breakfast only to find my father already gone for the day. Even the shadows of the bruises were gone from his face, and he didn’t move like a man in pain anymore. I was glad the Fae heal so fast. It helped me feel a little less guilty about what had happened to him yesterday.
I did a double-take when I saw the stranger slumped in the love seat next to Finn. I knew on first sight that he was related to Finn somehow, because they both had the same amazing green eyes, but that was where the obvious resemblance ended. Where Finn’s hair was golden-blond, the stranger’s was dyed jet black, and where Finn was built like a Mack truck, the stranger was lean and wiry. He was also a lot younger than Finn, and he did not have Finn’s conservative taste in clothing. A faded black T-shirt clung to his chest, and his legs were poured into tight black jeans. Unlaced black combat boots spilled out from under those jeans, and the short sleeves of the T-shirt showed off the Celtic armband tattooed on his biceps. To top it all off, he had about fifty earrings in his left ear, and his hair swept across his brow, dangling almost in his eye.
I’d never been a big fan of the bad boys I’d met at school. They were always so full of themselves, and they thought acting like jerks made them cool. However, from a distance, they sure were nice to look at. And a Fae bad boy … Totally drool-worthy.
Finn smiled at me as I stood gaping in the doorway. “Your father gave the okay for your self-defense lessons,” he said. “This is Keane.” He gestured toward tall, dark, and surly. “He’ll be your teacher.”
Keane didn’t straighten up from his slouch, and the look he gave me was … unfriendly.
Finn smiled even more broadly, obviously enjoying himself. “If you can overlook the attitude,” he said, “Keane is an excellent teacher.”
Keane stared up at the ceiling like he was praying for strength. Call me crazy, but I had the feeling he wasn’t overly enthusiastic about this gig.
“Oh, stop sulking,” Finn said to him, but there was obvious affection in his voice. “Teaching her some basic self-defense won’t turn you into a conformist Knight clone like me.”
Keane snarled at him, but Finn was unimpressed.
“Are you two related?” I asked, though I’d already worked out for myself that they were. It wasn’t just the eyes, either, though I couldn’t put my finger on it.
Finn nodded. “Keane is my son.”
“Oh,” I blurted. “I didn’t know you were married.” I wanted to smack myself for the naive assumption even before Finn shook his head.
“Knights don’t marry,” Keane said before Finn had a chance.
“It’s traditional for Knights to remain single,” Finn confirmed. “Our loyalty is meant to belong only to those we serve. Of course, it’s also traditional for Knights not to raise their children.” He gave Keane a significant look.
Keane rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you’re a real loose cannon.”
Finn didn’t seem to mind his son talking back to him, smiling in what I would swear was genuine amusement. “Keane has never been very fond of the institution of Knighthood. He has broken with family tradition and declined to enter training as a Knight. I think he’s afraid the condition is contagious, and if he works with a principle I’ve been hired to protect, he will somehow’”
“Knock it off,” Keane grumbled, and despite the tough-guy thing he had going on, he looked embarrassed. Obviously, he had some problem with the idea of teaching me, but I had no idea what. Maybe he just didn’t like the idea of fighting with a girl?
Keane pushed to his feet, shoving his hands in his pockets and not quite meeting my eyes. I remembered Finn telling me my teacher’s attitude would inspire me to violence, and I was beginning to see why. The attitude was going to get very old, very fast.
“Let’s go,” he said curtly, then headed for the front door.
I didn’t budge. “Go where?” I asked.
Keane took his hands out of his pockets, but only so he could cross his arms over his chest and glare at me. “I’m the teacher, you’re the student. You do as I say, no questions.”
Geez, what an a*shole. As far as I was concerned, bad boys should be seen, not heard. Behind me, I heard Finn swallow a laugh.
I knew Keane was trying to intimidate me with that glare of his, but with Spriggans and Faerie Queens trying to kill me, even the most intense glare just wasn’t that scary. I took a few steps toward him and returned his glare with one of my own.
“I don’t know what your problem is,” I said, poking him in the chest, “but’”
It happened so quickly, I barely even saw him move. One moment, I was poking him in the chest; the next, I was lying facedown on the floor, one arm twisted up behind my back, Keane’s weight keeping me pinned to the carpet. Somehow, he’d managed to do it without hurting me, but the shock left me dazed and breathless.
“My problem,” he hissed in my ear, “is I don’t like the kind of clientele my father whores himself out to.”
Okay, a*shole was too nice a word for him. I struggled a bit, but he just pushed my arm up until it hurt. I gasped, and he let up.
“If you had the guts,” he continued, still whispering in my ear, “you could get me off you any time you wanted. But you’re not going to do it just by squirming.”
I raised my head as much as I could from that position, glancing over to Finn. He was looking out the window, acting as if he couldn’t see what was going on right in front of him. I guessed that meant he wasn’t coming to my rescue.
“Come on, Dana,” Keane said, no longer whispering, but still talking into my ear. “Think about what parts of your body you can move in this position. What can you reach me with?”
“So this is all part of the lesson?” I asked. Apparently, he was serious about the “no questions” bit, because he gave my arm another push. “Ow!” I protested, but this time he didn’t let up.
“Concentrate,” he said. “What can you move?”
I really hated to give in, but my arm was starting to throb. I’d humor him and his delusions of grandeur until I was free. Then I’d tell Finn what I thought about him for siccing this psycho on me.
I wriggled around a bit, trying to figure out how to move, but I was thoroughly pinned. Keane might not be as meaty as Finn, but he was no lightweight, either. The only thing I could move much was my head.
“So I’m supposed to head-butt you?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“If that’s the only thing you can move, then it’s the only weapon you have.”
I’d kind of hoped he’d let go after I gave him the answer he was looking for, but he didn’t. “Well?” I prompted. “Can I get up now?”
“I think you’ll have trouble doing that until you get me off you,” he said, sounding drily amused.
“You mean you actually want me to head-butt you?” I asked incredulously.
“Unless you’d like to spend the rest of the day getting up close and personal with the carpet.”
I hesitated. I’d never deliberately hurt anyone before in my life—even when I’d kneed Ethan in the cave, I obviously hadn’t done it hard enough to slow him down for more than a second—and I was pretty sure that if I head-butted Keane, I was going to hurt him, since the only thing I could hit was his face. But apparently, Keane wasn’t big on patience. He pushed my arm even higher up my back, and the pain was going to go from annoying to torturous any moment now.
Gritting my teeth and hoping he knew what he was doing, I jerked my head backward. The back of my skull smacked into his face, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to do it very hard.
Keane laughed at me. “Is that the best you can do?”
A growl of frustration rose from my chest. Okay, fine. If he wanted me to hit him with my best shot, I would, and I wouldn’t feel guilty about it afterward.
This time, I jerked my head backward with all the strength I could muster, which, considering how pissed I was, was a lot. There was a loud bang and a cracking noise as my head hit against something hard. Keane howled in pain and let go of me, leaping to his feet.
I scrambled to stand up, my heart suddenly in my throat. Pain reverberated through my head, but I knew my skull hadn’t taken as much damage as Keane’s face. All well and good to tell myself he’d been asking for it, but he was now bent over double, his hands clasped to his nose. Had I broken it? I winced in sympathy and reached out to him.
“I’m so sorry!” I said. “Are you okay?”
I should have remembered that Keane’s dad was in the room, and that if I’d really hurt him, Finn would have come running. Keane dropped his hands back to his sides and stood up, smirking at me.
“I’m fine,” he said. “You hit my shield spell, not my face.”
My jaw dropped open, and right that moment I’d really have liked another shot at him.
“Lesson One,” Keane continued. “If you’re going to fight someone, you have to be willing to hurt them, or you might as well not bother. Now come down to the garage. I’ve got some mats set up down there, since you don’t have a shield spell yourself.”
I turned to glare over my shoulder at Finn. He was rubbing one hand across his mouth, trying to hide a smile.
“Thanks a lot,” I growled at him. Maybe later, I’d see the humor in the situation, but not right now. I considered changing my mind about learning self-defense, but that would be too much like letting Keane win.
Finn shrugged. He was no longer smiling, but there was still a twinkle in his eyes. “His methods are, shall we say, unorthodox, but he’s a good teacher. He’d have made a great Knight, if he’d wished.” There was no missing the pride in Finn’s voice.
“So, are we going to have a lesson?” Keane asked, “or are we going to shoot the shit?”
Turning my back on Finn, I met Keane’s challenging gaze. “Next time, I won’t hesitate,” I promised him.
He nodded his approval. “Glad to hear it. Now move your ass.”
Man, I wished I hadn’t asked for this. Made it hard to complain about it, even if I wanted to. Figuring this was going to be one hell of a long morning, I followed Keane down into the garage.
I was right about it being a long morning. Keane would make the stereotypical drill sergeant seem like a gentle soul. He was arrogant. He was condescending. He was insulting. But damn it, he was good. He showed me all the places on the human body that were most vulnerable to attack, and what parts of my own body made the best weapons. Then he made me use those weapons, and if I didn’t hit hard enough, he made me pay for it.
By lunchtime, I was so exhausted I could barely move, and I ached all over. One problem with hitting hard—it hurts. But there was no way I would admit that to Keane, so I stifled all my complaints. I’d be lucky if I could get out of bed tomorrow once all the bruises and muscle aches really had a chance to set in.
I expected Keane to leave now that our lesson was over, but apparently Finn couldn’t let him out without breaking the extra wards my dad had put on the house after yesterday’s attack. Oh joy, we were stuck with him all day.
Shortly after lunch, the doorbell rang. It was the first time anyone other than Kimber had visited this house since I’d taken up residence. My nerves tingled, and my pulse raced. Did I dare hope this was my mom?
I started toward the spiral staircase, but even though Finn was all the way across the room from me, he made it there first.
“Stay here!” he ordered, and my eyes widened when I saw that he’d drawn a gun. Keane was sitting in the living room, looking bored and put upon. He showed not the slightest interest in Finn’s defensive measures.
The electric sensation of Finn’s magic prickled across my skin, even though I wasn’t wearing the cameo. He was in full bodyguard mode now, ready for anyone, human or Fae. He made his way down the stairs and into the empty garage with predatory grace. I crept down the first couple of steps, ready to bolt if Finn’s defensive preparations turned out to be necessary.
Finn peered through a peephole, and his posture didn’t relax any. “Can I help you?” he asked, without opening the door.
I didn’t have to hear more than “I’m Cathy” before I let out a choked scream and started hurtling down the steps.
“Mom!” I practically fell over myself I was so eager, and my quick descent of the spiral staircase made me dizzy.
“Dana!” I heard my mom shout.
I was flying toward the door, ready to jerk it open and throw myself into my mom’s arms. But there was a wall between me and the door, and its name was Finn.
If he’d been human and I’d barreled into him like that, we probably both would have gone down. But he wasn’t human, and the impact didn’t even seem to rattle him, though I bounced backward and he had to grab me to keep me from falling.
“Let go of me!” I tried to pull free, not with any real expectation that he’d let me go. “That’s my mom!”
“Dana? Dana, are you all right?” My mom was pounding frantically on the door now.
“She’s fine,” Finn said. “Everybody calm down a minute.”
“I don’t know who you are,” my mom shouted, “but if you lay hands on my daughter you’ll wish you were never born!”
Yeah, my mom can spout clichés with the best of them. Usually, I would roll my eyes when she did that, but right now I was too desperate to see her with my own eyes.
“I am your daughter’s bodyguard,” Finn said. I tried one of the kicks Keane had taught me, and my foot made solid contact with Finn’s shin. He winced, but I hadn’t been cold-blooded enough to kick with the kind of force I’d need to really hurt him. He wasn’t the enemy, after all. “And if I open the door for you, it will break some of the protective spells Seamus has put on the house. That would be inadvisable at the moment.”
“You have no right to keep my daughter from me!”
“It is for her own protection. There have been attempts made on her life. I’m sure you’d prefer she be as well defended as possible.”
Oh, yeah. Telling my mom people were trying to kill me was guaranteed to improve her state of mind. Not!
“I’m okay, Mom,” I said before she could throw a fit. “Between Dad’s spells and Finn, I’m as safe as if I were packed in with cotton. Please don’t worry.”
I winced at my mom’s wrenching sob. Usually, her tears don’t have much effect on me anymore, but there was no denying she had a legitimate reason to be upset. Worse, I couldn’t think of anything to say that would make her feel any better. I thought the knowledge that both Queens of Faerie were on my enemies list would drive her completely around the bend.
“Seamus will be home around five,” Finn said. “Come back then and he’ll be able to put the defensive spells back up once he lets you in. Meanwhile, why don’t you go get some rest?”
Mom didn’t answer, just kept sobbing.
“Mom, I’m fine,” I said in my most reassuring voice. “Why don’t you go back to your hotel and call me so we can talk before Dad gets home?”
If we’d been playing out this scene at home, with my mom sitting on a doorstep bawling and otherwise making a public spectacle out of herself, I’d have been so embarrassed I’d want to sink into the floor. But my short stay in Avalon had already changed me. Of all the problems in my life, being embarrassed by my mom ranked somewhere around five million and one.
“Please, Mom,” I continued in the same voice, though I sounded more like I was talking to a frightened child than to my mother. “You’re here, and I’m safe, and I want to talk to you. Please hold it together and call me. So much has happened since I got here…”
I was kind of glad Finn was there, big, solid, and unmoved by my mother’s hysteria. If it had been just me, I’m not sure I could have stopped myself from opening the door and breaking my dad’s spells. Maybe nothing would have come of it and it would be perfectly safe. But I didn’t want to risk both my life and hers testing the idea.
Eventually, she cried herself out. At least for now.
“I’ll wait here until Seamus comes home,” she said between sniffles, and I couldn’t help rolling my eyes. Luckily, she couldn’t see me.
“What would be the point in that?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t completely past seeing logic.
“We can talk here.”
Obviously, more logic was needed. “If we talk here, we’ll both get hoarse from shouting through the door. And we’ll have an audience. Just go back to your hotel and call me. I’ll catch you up on everything that’s been going on.” I crossed my fingers when I said that, because I knew I was going to have to edit some of the details to keep Mom from completely wigging out. “Then you can come back and see me in person when Dad comes home.” And wouldn’t that be the cheerful little family reunion?
“Okay?” I prompted when she didn’t say anything for a while.
She sniffed again. “I just hate letting you out of my sight for even a moment now that I’ve found you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I promise.”
There was another agonizingly long pause. Then she heaved an enormous sigh.
“All right. I’ll go back to the hotel. I’ll call you as soon as I get there.”
“I’ll be here,” I reassured her again.
I didn’t have super-hearing, so I couldn’t tell when she finally dragged herself away except by the fact that Finn’s posture relaxed.
“I’m sorry about kicking you,” I told him, realizing that had been completely petty of me.
Finn gave me a droll look. “Run through with swords, shot, et cetera, et cetera. Remember?”
I heard a loud snort and turned to find Keane, leaning in the doorway upstairs, looking down with disdain.
“That kick wouldn’t have dislodged a five-year-old, much less a Knight,” he said. “One wonders if you learned anything this morning.”
I glared up at him through narrowed eyes. I knew he was goading me, knew I should take the high road and ignore his crack. But I could already tell he was having a bad influence on me.
“One also wonders why you’d want me to break your own father’s leg,” I said through gritted teeth.
Keane opened his mouth for what was no doubt going to be an unpleasant response, but Finn cut him off.
“Enough, children,” he said, but he didn’t sound like he was really mad or anything. “Try to confine the hostilities to the practice mat.”
Keane didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who gave a crap about parental instructions, but to my surprise, he shut up. I had no interest in figuring out why that left me strangely disappointed.