by Lexi Blake
At least he believed me about Dean. And that was a little confusing. “Just like that?”
“Of course. I told you. I am yours, bella. That means I will aid you in any way I can.”
I couldn’t quite believe he was real. “I just told you I killed all the people I loved.”
He sighed, a deeply content sound. “Well, I’ve likely killed far more than you. I murdered many at my turn. It took Louis hours to get to me. I ate everyone who came into contact with me. It was a bloodbath. I wasn’t neat back then. Trust me. Your ashes were far cleaner than my piles of bodies. I killed three lions as well. Tore them apart. So, no I’m not shocked. We don’t live in the human world. Our world can be brutal. Did you intend to kill them?”
“Of course not.”
“Then lie back down with me. I still have some questions.”
I settled back in, cuddling against his body. The minute I touched him, I felt better. Calmer. Settled. I let my hand roam across his chest and felt him sigh. “What kind of questions? I told you I don’t remember a lot.”
“Yes, I find that interesting,” he remarked. “Your mentor could not tell you what happened? I assume she was there at the time. Did you keep your experiments from her as well?”
“No.” I’d needed Erna and she’d believed in me. The fact that she was still standing by me meant something. She wasn’t the kindest of souls. She could be harsh, but she was loyal. I could count on her. I’d clung to her those first few months when I’d taken the collar and cut myself off from the magic I’d relied on all of my life. “She helped me. She thought Haweigh was being too cautious and that I needed more time to get better. I showed great promise in being able to travel across planes without using a doorway. It’s a rare talent and highly prized.”
“So she betrayed Haweigh’s trust.”
He didn’t understand. “She was trying to help me. She couldn’t have known what would happen. I’d never shown signs of being violent. I’d lost control from time to time, but the worst that would happen is I would break the dishes when I tried to float them.”
Marcus was quiet for a moment. “I’m surprised she was able to save herself.”
“She realized what was going on quickly. Apparently it happens sometimes with witches. Witches who have power but not control. They can burn out. Literally.”
“Was she the one who suggested binding your powers and taking a permanent human form?”
I hated to think about that time. “Yes, she came up with the idea of the charm. We needed something physical to hold the spell. It’s difficult magic, but it only failed once. The barbarian king who keeps coming after me caught me a year ago. I’m not sure how it happened, but the charm came off. I suspect he used magic. He won’t do it again since I killed two hundred of his men without even thinking about it.”
“But not him?”
“He wasn’t close enough to me. When I get like that I don’t think logically. I had Erna make a more powerful charm and it’s worked ever since.”
He toyed with the collar around my neck. “It simply dropped off?”
I didn’t like to think about that day. “Yes. They had come to take me to Turi. All I remember is they were pulling me out of the cell and I knew I was going to be forced to marry him.”
“Why would he want to marry you? Forgive me for asking, but what were his specific reasons. As a man who intends to marry you, I absolutely understand the impulse.”
I thought about pushing away from him, but it felt too nice to be in his arms. “I’m not marrying you, Marcus. I’m not marrying anyone.”
“I have ancient prophecy that says otherwise, but we’ll see.” His lips brushed my forehead. “You were going to tell me why this Turi is obsessed with you.”
I tilted my head up so I could wrinkle my nose as I gave him the irony of it all. “A prophecy.”
Marcus frowned and rolled over, covering my body with his. “He’s wrong. I’m right. I will show you, bella. When we’re back on my plane I will take care of you in ways that will make you forget all of your troubles, and one day you’ll know that you can take that off and be yourself.”
He stared at the collar.
“I don’t think that will ever happen. And Turi’s reasoning is not so much a prophecy as a legend. His people have this story they’ve handed down about a great warrior leading his people to the promised land, but only after he finds the Day Queen and marries her. The Day Queen is made of magic, and that is how they open the door to their version of what you would call Heaven. He heard the story of how I came to be and decided I was the legendary bride his people had been waiting for. He plans to force me to marry him and he thinks that our wedding night will open the door. I’m pretty sure he plans to conquer it. I don’t think he’s looking for eternal peace.”
Marcus didn’t seem too worried. He was studying me, brushing my hair back and then dropping affectionate kisses on my forehead and nose and cheeks. “He will have to find another magical creature. And my prophecy, it wasn’t about power. All I ever wanted from my fated bride was love, a life spent wrapped up in her. There is no grand destiny here. There is you and me and however many years we have to love each other. I know you do not love me, but you will. I will make sure of it.”
I already felt too much for him. I wasn’t sure I wanted to feel more, but there was no denying the connection between us. He had far more trust in fate than I did. I had lost my chance at fate a long time ago and I knew how the next few days would go. Marcus would try to save me.
Marcus would fail.
Still, when he kissed me again, I wrapped myself around him and let myself forget about anything but him.
* * * *
Zoey
I stared out over the ruins of the village and wondered what battles had been fought here. It was obvious it hadn’t been the villagers who’d won. I was facing my own personal Waterloo, and I wasn’t sure I could win.
Morning had come and Erna was preparing her spell to take out the thrall stones. I was trying to decide if I was actually going to let her do it. I didn’t know this woman. It would be far smarter to wait and let Sarah handle the situation, but did I dare take my husbands back to the Earth plane with those things in their heads? They would go straight to Myrddin and give him the lowdown on everything that happened here. Hell, they would likely introduce him to Dean and explain that the boy was here to kill him.
“Hey, baby.” Strong arms went around me, pulling me back against my husband’s chest. “I missed you in bed. I woke stroking Dev’s chest looking for boobs.”
A chuckle came from behind me, letting me know Daniel wasn’t alone. “He does that more often than you would think.”
I sighed and let my head rest back. I had to do right by these men. They were my whole world. I loved my children, but they had come from my love for these men. Danny and Dev were the foundation of my life, and I wasn’t sure what I would do if I lost either of them. “How are you feeling?”
He rubbed his cheek against mine. “Hungry. It’s the oddest thing. I want to sink my fangs in. I want blood, but my stomach needs food. I forced myself to drink water. It’s not sitting well. I’m human again and there’s no pizza, Z. And that’s probably a good thing.”
“You have to go slow,” Dev said. “Hopefully when we get to this Vampire plane there will be more options. From what I’ve learned the vampires are much like ours in that they only get nourishment from blood, but there are many companions. They call them consorts. The consorts eat, so we should be able to find food there. We might have to steal it though.”
Finally something I was good at. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get Summer and then try to find our way home.”
Where I would have to face Myrddin, and there would be no way he didn’t suspect I took his grimoire. He would come after me, and if I didn’t get the thrall stones out of my husbands’ heads, they might be convinced to come after me, too.
“Do you think she’s all right?” I asked,
turning from the dark thoughts toward…well, they weren’t light thoughts. My daughter was under arrest.
“I think she’s alive and hasn’t been transported anywhere else yet. I spoke to Dean and he said he’s been monitoring the news on the Vampire plane.” Dev sank down onto the rocker to my left. He set a mug down on the table between two of the rockers. “He’s got a tablet that connects to their version of the Internet, despite the fact that there’s obviously no Wi-Fi here. This place we’re going is far more technologically advanced than we are. If we weren’t about to commit a crime there, I would say we should take a look around.”
“And smuggle back some tech your company can reverse engineer?” Daniel asked with a chuckle.
Dev shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past me, but no, I was thinking we might be able to talk to a doctor about your condition.”
“It’s got to be magical.” Danny let his hands drop and went to sit beside Dev. “Is that for me?”
Dev nodded. “It’s an herbal tea. It shouldn’t upset your stomach. I grew the herbs and brewed it myself. I know this Erna and Dean seem helpful, but I’m not taking any chances.”
I’d been poisoned on a Faery plane before, so I got his reluctance to trust them fully. I sank down to the third rocker and leaned back, thinking about my daughter.
“Dean says this Taggart fellow will have to file paperwork to transport a prisoner off the plane. It’s a good thing because according to Dean the vampires here are big on paperwork, and it will take some time to push all of it through. Until then she should be held in a cell and safe,” Dev explained. “He hasn’t turned her over to the authorities, so Dean thinks he’s planning on collecting a bounty from one of the other planes, most likely the witch plane.”
Danny shook his head. “It’s a weird world, man. He was telling me there are planes of existence with dinosaurs. I’d kind of like to see that.”
I was sure he was planning a family vacay Jurassic Park style, but it wasn’t happening. “You’re not going anywhere, Danny. I know you’re going to be upset with me, but I think you should stay here. According to Dean we leave in two hours, but you’ll stay here with Kelsey.”
He sat forward. “I am not staying here. I’m going with you and that’s the end of it.”
Dev was frowning. “I think we should take Kelsey with us. Have you told her she’s babysitting?”
“I don’t need a fucking babysitter,” Daniel ground out. “You know I had a life before superpowers.”
“That was a long time ago,” I pointed out. “Decades. It’s been decades since you fought without vampire strength.”
“I wasn’t planning on fighting,” Daniel replied. “I was planning on getting in and out as quietly as possible. I was a thief once, too. Fighting meant we failed. You planning on failing? Maybe you’re the one who’s depended on vampiric strength for too long.”
Dev frowned my way. “Kelsey won’t stay here either. Or the boy. If you leave without them, they’ll follow.”
“If Daniel…”
“I won’t let him die,” Dev promised. “I won’t let anything happen to Summer either. Well, anything else since I’m the reason she got caught in the first place. I shouldn’t have allowed her to go after Marcus. I should have kept her safe.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Daniel said. “I’m honestly surprised someone managed to get through Marcus. I didn’t even think to ask. Tell me Marcus didn’t turn human.”
Dev shook his head. “No. That was the problem. He needed to feed and he was being stubborn about it. Summer went to feed him. I offered to do it myself but he turned me down.”
Marcus could be picky. And he and Dev had their problems over the years. “You know why he did that. You have to step back and let things play out the way they will.”
Dev’s jaw clenched and he stared out over the yard.
Daniel put a hand on his arm. “I understood about Evan, but Summer is an adult. She has to be allowed to make her own choices. If Marcus is truly her fate, would you have her miss it because of something he did years ago? He’s tried to put his prejudice away. I need you to do the same, Devinshea.”
Dev’s whole being seemed to soften in the wake of Daniel’s words. “I don’t want to lose her when we’ve only just found her. Their relationship will be intense, and it could be years before she’s got room for anyone else.”
“Then that’s how it will be, and we’ll patiently wait for our time with her,” I replied. “We can’t change the past. We can only deal with the present we’ve been given, and how we handle this situation will define our relationship with her. She’s not a child. She was never a child for us so our relationship will be different than with Lee and Rhys and Evan. If we don’t accept that, we could lose her all over again.”
Dev stroked a hand over my hair. “I’ll support her in whatever she chooses and try to find a way to have a relationship she is comfortable with.” He was quiet for a moment. “Do you think we’re done?”
I knew what he was asking about. If there was one thing Devinshea loved, it was being a father. He adored our children from the moment of their conception. Dev would spend hours holding me while I was pregnant, rubbing his hand over my growing belly and whispering to the baby cradled there. “Probably not.”
I’d put up a stop sign after Evan was born. It wasn’t that I minded being pregnant. When you’re on vampire blood, the normal issues of discomfort don’t really come into play. Yes, I get big, but it’s super easy to bounce back when you’ve got an elixir of health fed to you once a day. But I wanted to be able to focus on the children we had, to give them everything they could need, and I didn’t mean materially. They needed my time, and three is a lot.
But I also didn’t have to worry about fertility and age. I was married to a fertility god and that elixir kept me young. Dev and I could have more children down the line.
It struck me suddenly that eating wasn’t the only thing that had changed when Daniel’s body had.
I turned to Dev. “Is Danny… Can he…”
I couldn’t say it out loud for fear that this was all some kind of mistake. Turning Daniel human had been a trick to make him vulnerable, but I might be able to find some joy in it.
Dev’s eyes widened as he figured out what I was talking about.
“Can Danny what?” Daniel asked, far slower to catch on than Dev.
Dev’s eyes rolled and Bris’s suddenly stared back at me, a grin curling up his lips as he placed a hand on Daniel’s chest. “The king is fertile, my goddess. I promise if you choose, there is nothing my host and I would love more than to aid you in bringing a child of his into the world. A child born of our love.”
Our love. Mine and Daniel’s and Dev’s and yes, Bris’s. The gentle god had more than proved himself to us over the years. We’d learned how large a capacity our hearts could hold, and not for the simple love we’d been promised as children. It had been difficult to open ourselves for this odd love, but it had been worth it. So worth it.
Danny was staring right at me. “I have working sperm?”
I felt a smile of infinite joy cross my face. “I think you do. You know what that means?”
Danny lowered his head to mine, rubbing our foreheads together. “I want to try, Z. Don’t get me wrong. I have to find out if I can become a vampire again, but that might have to wait until we’re on the Earth plane. If there’s any chance we could have…” He lifted his head and turned to Dev. “I love our children.”
Bris released the body and Dev’s eyes stared back. “I would never question that. And I will love this one. I would love to see a child with sandy hair and your eyes, Daniel. We can make it happen. Should we try for twins again? Or triplets? I think I can focus the magic in a way…”
I was so putting a stop to that line of thought. “One, Devinshea. One baby.” But we could have a baby. Danny and I could have a child all of us would love. But first things first. “After you get the thrall stones out.”
&nb
sp; Dev frowned. “What is a thrall stone?”
A deep weariness hit me. “Something Myrddin is using to control your ass. Something I’m going to make sure never bothers us again.”
“Why would Myrddin do that?” Dev asked.
I would have answered him, but there were suddenly hands around my throat.
Daniel’s eyes had gone blank and he tightened his hold as the stone took over.
I tried to scream but couldn’t. Tried to breathe, to fight, to live.
But it looked like the stone would win.
* * * *
Kelsey
I stared at the barn door and wondered what I would be letting out if I went through with this.
“You didn’t tell Erna anything?” I asked Dean, who stood beside me looking every bit as reluctant as I was, but we were running out of options.
“I told her I was going out to milk the cow and gather some eggs for breakfast,” Dean said, his lips turned down in a frown.
He had my whole attention. “You have a cow? You do know that’s beef, right?”
That flat expression became coy, and I could see the gorgeous man he would become one day. “Of course, but I agree with Erna on this one. We have to protect Jassie from the hungry wolf. Don’t eat the chickens either. We need them.”
That was a little insulting. “I’m not going to walk over and start in on her flank or anything.”
Although flank steak…
He turned back to the barn, and more importantly what was in the barn. “Maybe it’s dead. Do you eat demon? Not that there’s much meat on his bones.”
“First off, might I give you a hearty ewww. No, I don’t eat demons,” I said. “I don’t eat things that talk back.” Although I will admit that I knew a couple of wolves who did not discriminate against the talkative. I fully intended to teach my Fenrir our family values when it came to diet. “And I don’t think it died. I can still sense it. It’s weird.”
Dean held a hand out. “Like the air is a bit denser. Right about here.”
That was an excellent description. It wasn’t much, but because we were calm and not rushing, I could feel the difference in the air. It must be unique to this particular type of demon because I’d never felt it before. “How many Planeswalkers have you met?”
