Stealing Summer, Hunter

by Lexi Blake

  Or Kelsey would have opened it anyway because she was pretty stubborn. “This is what you’re studying instead of your homework?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay.” It was past time for me to accept that Lee was never going to be a normal kid. I didn’t even know what normal was. “But you have to put some effort in. I’ll ease up on the after-school activities and get you a Latin tutor.”

  “Cool.” He turned his head slightly so he could look up at me. “He’s got a lot of books. Will it say grimoire on the spine?”

  I doubted that mightily. It wouldn’t simply announce Myrddin’s grimoire, Please Steal Me.

  “Mom, why does the wizard have Gladys?”

  My skin went cold as I looked to where Lee was staring. There was a second desk, one that sat close to the big windows. It was taller than a normal desk and there was no chair. There was a lamp and another pile of books. A notepad laid open and it looked as if Myrddin had walked away while in the middle of studying the sword that lay on the tabletop.

  This was what Jacob had meant. Gladys. Kelsey’s sword. For the last few thousand years the vampires had claimed it as their own, letting the history of the sword die. It had become the traditional weapon of the Nex Apparatus—the ultimate enforcer of the vamp world. Daniel had held the title at one point. In one of those crazy twists the universe sends us from time to time, Kelsey Owens had taken up the sword a few years back, the first non-vampire Nex Apparatus ever. Kelsey had also been the reason we got that part of our history back. Kelsey had led us to discover that the sword had once been given to the Amazon tribe by the prophet Jacob. Those women would later come to be known by another name, by my name. Companion.

  We had been warriors once, and Kelsey was leading us back.

  They damn straight weren’t taking our weapon again.

  “I’m going to suspect that he asked your father if he could study it while Kelsey was on her honeymoon.” I could see exactly how he would have convinced Danny to open the armory and let him take a look at the Sword of Light. I didn’t like thinking about what he would do with it. The Sword of Light had some properties that the wizard would be interested in. It soaked up the blood of whoever it cut and saved it for later. All the victim’s power could be held in the sword and shared with Kelsey when she needed it. Naturally I had to bleed for it to happen, but I was willing to take one for the team from time to time.

  “But the prophet guy said we should take it.” I could hear the will in my son’s voice. “I don’t think Kelsey would like the wizard playing around with Gladys. She would say something about consent and then take it back. I’m just going to steal it.”

  I was with baby boy on this one. “Yes, we are. But first you’re going to look at those books and see if you can translate any of them. This feels like a project to me, and I don’t like not knowing what Myrddin’s doing.”

  We eased over to the table and Gladys’s blade shone in the lamp light. Pure silver forged on the Heaven plane. I found it interesting that there was a pair of gloves sitting beside the sword. Myrddin couldn’t touch her without getting burned. His demonic side apparently held more sway than he liked to discuss.

  “These are almost all in Latin,” Lee said, studying the spines of the books. “And they all refer to one thing. Caelum.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to need a translation.” It was weird, but my son was proving how capable he was once again.

  “Heaven, Mom. These are all books about the Heaven plane. And angels. Except that one. It doesn’t have a title. It looks different from the others.”

  “Which one?” I tried not to think about the fact that Myrddin was studying up on Heaven and angels.

  “The black leather one.”

  I stared at the tall desk, trying to figure out what I wasn’t seeing. All of the books were old, each one with a leather cover and carefully made binding. “They’re all brown to me, and from what I can tell they’re all leather.”

  I would have questioned if my eyesight was going, but it really couldn’t go. I was full up on king’s blood. I was kind of in top condition.

  “The one that’s open by the sword.”

  I should have worn a sweater because another chill went through me. There was nothing sitting particularly close to the sword with the exception of the gloves. “I don’t see it. Lee, I need you to describe it to me.”

  I wasn’t about to argue with him. He wouldn’t pull some prank on me in the middle of a job. He’d been taught by my father, and even at his age, he would be professional. If he said something was there it was there. I just couldn’t see it, and boy that made me wonder.

  “It’s a big book. It probably has like a thousand pages in it. It looks heavy. It’s open to a page that’s written in some language I don’t even know. It’s weird and has a lot of squiggles.”

  “It’s probably Demonish. We can have your Aunt Sarah confirm it for us.” Sarah had grown up in a dark magic family. She had some demon in her DNA, and it gave her spells quite the kick. She should be able to read whatever was written on the page.

  If she could see it.

  “It’s bound in something, but now that I really look at it, I don’t know that it’s leather, Mom. And I’m going to be honest. I’m afraid that the spells are written in something that’s not ink. It’s red but it doesn’t look like ink.”

  Blood. My son was looking at a blood spell written in a language so old the damn demons didn’t use it anymore.

  “It’s got a picture of a door,” Lee continued. “I think that was painted in blood, too. I think that book is bad.”

  That book had been written by the man who’d killed Lee the first time around. Oh, I was sure Daniel would argue, but I knew what the wizard had done. It had been the wizard who sent us all out that night knowing full well the Council had come for us. I even remember that he’d warned me he was doing it. He’d told me I would have to look past my grief to get the job of handing Daniel his crown done. He’d known Lee would die. He’d wanted Lee to die.

  “I can’t see it,” I admitted. “And that means he’s got it warded against me.”

  I had to hope I was the one he’d specifically warded it against and not Sarah. It would be hard to have Lee describe each spell to her. But that was a problem for another day.

  “I can get it, Mom. There aren’t any cameras in here. Grandad and I studied the plans.”

  “Because you hacked into the Council records?”

  He gave me a grin. “Aren’t you happy I did?”

  I groaned. It did make perfect sense that Myrddin wouldn’t have cameras in here. He wouldn’t want anyone to see what he was doing. I glanced around and I couldn’t see anything in the normal places where a camera would be, but I still wasn’t sending him out in the open. “I’ll hold the cloak against the table just in case. And I’ll handle Gladys. I don’t know how it reacts to humans, but I do know she doesn’t particularly like men handling her.”

  “That’s not fair,” Lee groused. “Gladys is cool. She was Dad’s for a long time.”

  “Well, she should have been mine,” I shot back. “Be careful with the book. Don’t touch it any more than you have to.”

  I didn’t want to think about all the blood that had been spilled for Myrddin’s grimoire. I definitely didn’t want my son touching it. I pressed the sides of the cloak against the table, drawing them together when Lee told me to. He had the bag of holding in one hand and I watched as he moved his other. It looked like he was miming closing a book and then shoving it into the bag.

  He grinned up at me. “It’s in there.”

  I glanced inside and sure enough, there was a damn book in there. I couldn’t see it in the real world, but this pocket world had been primed with my blood. It was a tiny kingdom that was mine and my father’s, and apparently wards didn’t work here. If we had to, Sarah and I could climb in that sucker and read that book while Albert served us tea. Or vodka.

  I would outsmart that fucker if it was the last
thing I did. I scooped up Gladys and placed her in there, too. She hummed briefly in my hand and I could have sworn I felt satisfaction come off that sword. She hadn’t liked being handled by the wizard.

  There was another bang and I realized we really needed to get the hell out of here. “Let’s go.”

  When we got back to the living room I winced because Dannan and the cat had battled mightily, and it looked like the pixie was victorious.

  The cat had a flowerpot stuck to its head. It looked like Dannan had tricked kitty in and then flown out the tiny hole for draining. The cat was howling its displeasure as it swerved around the somewhat destroyed space.

  “Cool,” Lee said.

  “Dannan, stop gloating. Let’s go,” I commanded.

  The pixie swept inside the cloak, taking his place on Lee’s shoulder.

  We made our way out of the apartment and I could breathe again.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kelsey

  My head ached from whatever the hell that little shit had done to me, but I couldn’t let him gut himself. Well, I couldn’t let Marcus convince him to gut himself. It was kind of my former honey’s go-to move when he got annoyed with someone. Luckily, for the most part, Marcus is a pretty even-tempered guy. But do not touch his shit. And by shit I mean whatever female he was involved with. I’d been that female for a while and the man could be super protective. He still was.

  But I wondered if this wasn’t more about Summer than the fact that the Harry Potter wannabe had managed to give me a headache. Either way, the kid was about to take one to the gut, and that meant I had to fix the situation.

  “Dean, don’t.” Summer was moving toward the young man with a shock of blond hair that could almost be considered white. His body hadn’t completely filled out yet, but his shoulders were broad and he was tall, showing every evidence that he was going to be superhot one day.

  I glanced down and Marcus had that look on his face. It was the predatory look of perfect focus he got when he was inside someone’s brain doing nasty things. Marcus wasn’t the strongest vampire in the physical sense, but no one matched him mentally.

  Dean had the sword I’d taken from the soldiers in his hand and was about to push it through his gut when I gripped his wrist.

  “Marcus, come on, man,” I said. “You know you’ll have to turn right around and heal him if you do this.”

  I vowed to apologize to Trent when I saw him next because I remembered teasing him about not being able to hold back a weak-assed shifter who’d been trying to do the same thing to himself a few years before in Ether. This guy had less physical strength than that one had and I was struggling. Like I said, Marcus was strong.

  Summer was on the other side of the kid. “Dean, please don’t do this. Fight it. Fight it.”

  I looked over to where Dev Quinn was still holding his forehead.

  “You want to help me out here, buddy?” I asked, my arms starting to ache.

  Quinn frowned my way. “Not particularly. My head feels like it’s going to explode. Play with him before you kill him, Marcus.”

  Freaking men. The kid was close. So close to getting that sword in his gut. I decided to appeal to Marcus’s logic. “Summer likes this guy. Not going to help the whole courtship thing if you murder him. Summer, you need to understand that the hot vampire guy is totally making this happen. You tell him he won’t get any honey at all if he doesn’t fall in line and not kill people you like. Make that a hard limit. You have to take control, sister.”

  I needed someone to take control because I was losing this fight. Every time I managed to move the kid an inch, he gained it back. The sword had started to press against the linen of his tunic, and it wouldn’t be long before the blood started to flow.

  My head ached, but the truth was I’d been able to feel a bit of the soul that had invaded my brain. He hadn’t meant to hurt me. He was clumsy. He was a toddler and I’d been a puppy he held too tight. When he’d been inside my mind, I’d felt what I can only describe as a glow coming from him, and it hadn’t been bad. He wanted to do good. He wanted to be a hero. He wanted to make the world around him proud.

  He also wanted Summer. And that, I believe, is what Marcus truly took exception to.

  Summer looked to me, her hands on the kid’s other arm, trying to pull it away. “Please. Don’t let this happen. He’s like my brother. He’s got a great destiny. According to the prophecies I’ve read, one day Dean will return to his home plane and save it from the great magician.”

  Wait. What? I was really glad I was good at multitasking or I would have lost the battle then and there because those words shocked the hell out of me.

  “Marcus Vorenus, you shut this shit down right this fucking second,” I screamed, digging my heels in for leverage because that sword was getting closer and closer. Summer’s words swirled through my head and I realized I might be here for a very big reason that would die if this kid did. I could be wrong, but I had to know. “I swear if he dies, I’ll stake you myself. I might cry while I do it, but I will.”

  Marcus seemed incapable of listening to me.

  I had to try something else. He might not mind hurting the kid, but I had a bet he would think twice about hurting someone else. “Summer, when I get the sword up this time, put yourself in its way. If he’s going to gut your little brother, he’ll have to get through you to do it.”

  Summer’s eyes widened, but she immediately started moving into position. “Yes. Yes, I’ll do it.”

  I liked the chick. I like any chick who puts her ass on the line for the people she loves. Or in this case, it would be her torso. I would try like hell to make sure I didn’t hit her heart. She could function with one lung for a while. Then Marcus could clean up his own mess and I could figure out exactly who Dean was.

  Suddenly I really needed to know who Dean was.

  I was about to make my move and braced myself to put all my strength into pulling Dean’s arm back enough to let Summer settle in when Dean went completely limp and passed out on the ground.

  Summer immediately dropped to her knees beside him. I picked up the sword because I wasn’t about to let Marcus play eviscerator again. I turned to my old mentor. “This is why we can’t have nice things.”

  His eyes came up and I noted his fangs were out. His words came out on a low growl. “He was in my head.”

  I stared at him. “Are you fucking kidding me? Hypocrite much?”

  Dev snorted. “He’s not as self-aware as I thought he was. Will the boy live? Or did Marcus shut his brain off? I hope Summer didn’t care too much for him. It could cause her to think ill of the man who harmed him.”

  Yeah, that was why Dev wouldn’t help. Asshole. Why couldn’t I be stuck here with the queen? She would be reasonable. Give me the queen over a couple of dudes with their mansies any day of the damn week. This was way more boy drama than I could handle without killing something.

  I looked at Summer. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s breathing.” Tears shimmered in her eyes. “But I don’t know what Marcus did to him. He was only trying to figure out if you were telling me the truth. He wasn’t trying to hurt you.”

  Marcus’s mouth turned down in a frown. “I asked him politely to leave my head.”

  “You slip into mine whenever you can,” Summer shot back.

  They were going to be such a fun couple. I stared down at Marcus and lowered my voice. I was sure the Green Man could likely hear us, but Summer was back to looking after the kid she considered a brother but who totally didn’t consider her a sister. “You are not handling this well.”

  “I thought I handled it perfectly,” he snarled back. “You’re the one who screwed things up.”

  The look in his dark eyes was incredibly intimidating, and given what the man could do probably should have made me take a step back, but I could never be afraid of Marcus. “This is not how you should behave around your fated wife.”

  “And you would know how to behave?”
/>
  I did know a little about it. “I was perfectly pleasant to Trent.”

  Quinn snorted. “Yeah, you didn’t even realize he was your mate. You were way too busy fucking Marcus.”

  That hadn’t been my fault.

  “Kelsey is Marcus’s lover? I thought earthbound vampires couldn’t procreate.”

  I winced because that had come from Summer. Yeah. We could have never told her that one. “He’s not my baby daddy. And he’s not my lover. We’re no longer involved. It was really more of a training relationship.”

  “He was training you to fornicate?” Summer suddenly shook her head and her chin came up. “I don’t care about your relationships, past or present. All I care about is whether or not Dean is going to wake up.”

  Marcus stood, the elegant movement of a natural predator. He was still wet, his dress shirt opaque and clinging to his chest, showing off the fact that vampires come complete with sexy six-packs they don’t have to work for. “He’ll be fine. My taking over his body left him unsettled. He will have a bad headache for an hour or so. I told him to sleep so he will avoid the worst of it. Unlike what he did with us. Would you like me to wake him?”

  “Yes,” I said quickly.

  “No,” Summer replied at the same time.

  I could bet who was going to win that war. “Look, we all need to calm down.”

  “I’m perfectly calm,” Marcus said.

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I can see that. Can we take five minutes to talk about what we’re going to do now that all the bad guys have been either murdered or sucked into some hell dimension and all the yucky horse things are dead and…did you kill the horny chicks?”

  Quinn looked slightly affronted. “I wouldn’t do that. It’s perfectly normal for the Gwragedd Annwn to seek a husband in such a fashion. They’re simply being held at the bottom of the lake by reeds and will be released when we leave. Marcus didn’t have to kill the each-uisge. I could have handled him. I could have set the Gwragedd Annwn on him and they would have had an excellent time, but no. Vampires never think that a problem can be solved with anything but their fangs in another creatures neck.”