Moonlit Wishes

Chapter 21- The Gift of Three

     As Siobhan awoke her mind was clear as a bell. Though it was a nice change from her usual muddled awakenings she didn't give it a second thought, only focused on processing all she had seen. Not even the feel of Lucian's warm arms could dissuade her from facing what she had learned. The time for running was over. She wanted answers and she wanted them now.

     Eyes flashing open, her gray gaze caught Apollo's golden one and narrowed warningly.

     "You!" She snarled.

     Without thought, she slipped from Lucian's grasp, leapt over a still groggy Briarius and Brennalyn, and launched herself at Apollo.

     In the blink of an eye she was crouched over him, pinning him effectively to his seat while she pulled a dagger from her hair, placing it at his throat. His gaze widened but he stayed still, doing nothing to provoke her further.

     The sounds of her companions barely reached her, a constant buzzing noise that she found annoying as a horsefly whirling around her head.

     "Shut up!" She snarled, almost growling. "This is between him and me. Don't touch me!"

     The hands that had been reaching for her retreated. The buzzing stopped like a switch had been flipped.

     "Hriso mou," Lucian's tone was gentle and close behind her. She tensed, so he backpedaled. "Siobhan, what has happened?"

     Gritting her teeth but keeping her attention on her target, she opened her mind and flung everything she had learned into his with the same force of a pitcher going for a third strike with a fastball.

     Lucian staggered, paling as the strength of her memories hit him smack dab between the eyes. Now he understood, but he wanted to damn himself for not telling her sooner. While he knew she hadn't been ready it still would have been better than her finding out as she did.

     Slowly bringing himself around to study her face, he was stuck again by the piercing look in her eyes when she turned that sharp gaze on him. No anger, no heat, just cold purpose simmered in her eyes as her hair fell haphazardly around her poised shoulders. He had never seen anything quite so beautiful, or quite so deadly.

     "Lucian," her voice was cool, filled with that same icy purpose. "Back. Off."

      Her biting command rang through him and before he could stop himself, he moved away a couple of feet. It wasn't that the curse that made him do so, he knew, but gut instinct that told him to trust that she knew what she was doing.

     He couldn't stop her without a fight, which he wasn't willing to do so he stayed close, showing his support. He knew that she appreciated that from the slight flitting pleasure that speared through him in the back of his consciousness before it faded as quickly as it had come.

     "Everybody stand down." Lucian's curt order rang throughout the plane, not to be dismissed.

     Siobhan turned her attention back to her biological father and she let the disgust and utter despise she felt for him show plainly on her face. His gaze widened another fraction, the only indication that he wasn't quite as comfortable with this situation as he appeared to be.

     "How could you, Apollo? Just answer me that. How could you do it?" Siobhan spoke calmly, each word measured, watchful.

     Apollo looked into her eyes, seeing as Lucian did that to press her would mean a fight. It wasn't the way he would have his relationship with his daughter start if he could help it. He wasn't sure what set her off, but he knew he would have to tread carefully. After all, he'd had plenty of practice handling irate females before.