Page 10 of Outside the Veil
Chapter four
Not a Leprechaun
Diego jerked awake. He’d dozed off after returning heartsick and exhausted from one last, futile search.
The knock sounded again. The door?
A nightmare-white face stared through his window. He shot from the bed. “Holy shit!”
Finn. How the hell?
He must have climbed the fire escape. Diego’s heart leaped, and then the fear returned. Finn’s last words to him, that feral snarl. What if he’d come back with murder in mind?
Finn pawed at the glass like a cat, and now that the sleep-muddled moment of nightmare retreated, Diego could observe his actual expression. Pain. Uncertainty.
He flicked on the light and threw open the window to half-support, half-drag Finn over the sill.
“Damn it, where have you been?”
“I tried…” Finn blinked and swallowed hard. “I tried to leave this cursed city. It goes on into eternity. There’s no end to it. I’ve nowhere else to go.”
Diego shoved the wild hair from Finn’s face. “You’re burning up. What happened? At the clinic? What was all that?”
“They stabbed me with iron.” Finn held out his arm, the collection site an angry red, his arm swollen from wrist to elbow. “Iron, Diego. It still hurts.”
He sat Finn down on the edge of the bed. “Good God. She must have used a dirty needle or something.”
Finn let out a short bark of laughter. “You are the kindest man I’ve ever met. But also the blindest. Now I know you’ve no idea. I’m so sorry, Diego. I accused you falsely. Your heart shines in you like a sunbeam through diamonds. You still think I’m human, don’t you?”
No idea of what?“Of course you’re human. You’re not taking what Rodney said seriously, are you? Lie down. Crawl under the blankets. I’ll get some ice for your arm.”
When Diego came back, Finn had curled up on top of the blankets. He shivered so hard the bed rattled, though the heat radiating from him could have baked a soufflé.
“I should get you to the ER. A doctor should—”
“No!” Finn grabbed his arm and yanked him down on the bed beside him. “No more human doctors. Sit still, boyo. It’s time you heard the truth. I owe you that much.”
“If you’re an escaped murderer or something, I don’t think I want to hear it.”
“I’m from Eire. Ireland now, I hear.”
“I knew that much.”
“Just listen…” Finn clenched his teeth, his eyes squeezed shut. “Cursed, nasty, vicious…Dagda’s balls, it hurts!”
Diego covered him with the comforter and stroked his back until he could speak again.
“Somewhere close to seven hundred years ago, I was betrayed. Wounded. Heartsore. I retreated into the Dreaming and slept away the centuries, my body cradled by my beloved Shannon.” Finn stopped and seized Diego’s wrist in a painful grip. “You don’t believe me.”
“It’s a little hard to swallow,” Diego admitted softly. “You don’t look much over twenty-five, and sleeping underwater?”
“I’m not human. You have to get that through your skull before any of this will make sense. I’m one of the fae. The people who inhabited Ireland before humans came.”
Diego couldn’t help a nervous laugh. “Are you telling me you’re a leprechaun?”
Finn shoved him so hard he fell off the bed. “No, I’m not a bleeding leprechaun! Are you completely daft? Everyone knows they don’t exist.”
“Sorry. Well, what are you then?” Diego muttered as he picked himself up.
