Page 86 of Fae Devoted
“Or is it whom?” Jeremiah frowned, the creases around his mouth and eyes far deeper than the last time Tucker saw him. “Never could keep it straight.”
“Where is she?” Tucker’s emotions swung wildly between joy and agony. The uncertainty that his brother might be involved in Jo’s disappearance tore at his soul. It felt somehow disloyal to suspect Jeremiah would hurt a female—anyfemale—regardless of his past betrayals.
“Well, hello to you too, brother.” He tilted his head, nostrils flaring. “The she-wolf is yours then.”
It was a statement, not a question.
“Do you know where she is or not?” Ethan asked, white electricity forming a ball in his hand. He snaked the visible current between his fingers, then rolled it over his knuckles like a slick coin trick.
“Your female can track.” Jeremiah didn’t flinch at the battle witch’s flagrant threat. Instead, he shook his head and chuckled. “I didn’t realize she was following me until it was too late. I tried to warn her—”
Jeremiah barely had time to lower his hands before Tucker placed him flat on his back and rammed his forearm beneath his brother’s chin. He dug his knees into the forest floor, thighs clamped on either side of Jeremiah’s waist as he used his strength and weight to hold his brother down.
“Too late for what?” he roared in his face, canines exploding from his gums, claws completely extended.
Jeremiah didn’t struggle, his mirror image showing zero fear. Eyes identical to his own clouded with abject sorrow, then dulled to acceptance. His skin flushed a dusky hue from lack of oxygen, yet his arms remained placid at his sides, his powerful body limp.
“Let him go, lieutenant.” Ethan’s hand squeezed his shoulder, his voice level, pitched low to soothe. “He can’t breathe.”
Tucker forced his fingers to open, his blind rage dissipating in slow degrees, replaced quickly by horror. He scrambled to his feet, backing away from his wheezing brother. Tucker’s teeth retracted, followed by his claws as he ran his palms over his skull. “Shit, Jeremiah. I didn’t—”
“Brother,” Jeremiah coughed, struggling to sit up, “Do not.” He rubbed at his bruised throat. “I deserve your anger. I deserve far worse.”
“Tell me what happened.” Tucker kneaded at the ache in his sternum. Butting against the suffocated bond provided a modicum of comfort, the proof of life the thin cord keeping him tied to his human skin.
“I didn’t touch your female. I do not harm…” The color of his brother’s eyes flickered to gold, his stare going blind. One heartbeat passed, then two before Ferwyn brown resurfaced. Jeremiah’s jaw bunched, and the scar on his cheek puckered. “I do not harm females, but Lord Daimhín is not so discriminatory. And neither is the facility.”
Tucker’s blood went cold, the small hope there was another explanation for Jo’s disappearance and the near loss of their bond died at the declaration.
“Is the Fae there now?” Ethan’s tattoos lit up like the night sky on the Fourth of July as though expecting the pureblood to appear from the trees at any moment.
“No.” Jeremiah scrubbed at the brand Daimhín burned into his nape, the deep red marks Tucker left on the front of his brother’s throat already healed. “I would know.”
“He still controls you then?” Besides losing Jo, it was his worst fear.
Tucker attempted to focus on the bond he held with his littermate, searching for evidence of Daimhín’s magic in the connection forged in their mother’s womb. There was a taint in the link, but one Tucker couldn’t define. It felt more like an illness than Fae corruption.
“No. I don’t know. My wolf is…confused.” Jeremiah sat among the dead leaves and lifted his hands in front of his face. Thin streaks of sunlight wove through his spread fingers as he rotated his palms over and back, over and back. “His blood still runs in my veins. Sometimes I hear a voice in my head, but…” Without warning, he jumped to his feet, a wide grin splitting his face. “I can resist it. Iwillresist it, brother. At least until we rescue your she-wolf and my vow of honor is fulfilled.”
The startling reversal put Tucker’s wolf on edge, his fur bristling beneath his skin.
“What vow?” Ethan asked with a wariness that matched his own.
Jeremiah tilted his head as if puzzled by the Anwyll’s question. “To save the child, of course. What else?”
Chapter 26
The wide, metalbracelets pinched, but it wasn’t the discomfort of over-tight bands or the sickening burn of a high concentration of pure iron touching Johnnie’s skin that made her scream when the soldiers clamped them on her wrists. It was the unnatural sundering of her connection with Jacob. For several horrifying moments, she thought he was dead.
After confiscating Johnnie’s rifle and phone, removing her jacket, ammo, and the pistol from her waistband, the Untouched soldiers dragged her in a devastated daze to the big farmhouse. Her brain told her it was the wrought iron messing with a half-finished Dance, but her heart wasn’t listening.
They entered the pristine living room, the contemporary style in stark contrast to the rickety porch steps and the home’s peeling paint outside. The men led her into a modern kitchen and through a door that should have been the walk-in pantry but instead was a long, unpadded elevator. A soldier pressed the pad of his thumb to a small panel. The doors closed, and they began to descend.
Shaken to her core by the abrupt rendering of the bond, Johnnie searched her soul. The loss wasn’t the same as when Jacob blocked the bond. That was more like turning down a radio’s volume to a sub-vocal level.Thiswas dampening the music to an almost nonexistent state. She had to listen hard to hear the slightest vibration of sound, but it was there.
Johnnie exhaled a pent-up breath as the doors slid open.
“Get moving,” the Untouched soldier at her back ordered, shoving her between the shoulder blades.
