Stealing Summer, Hunter

by Lexi Blake

  Here I was, promising this young man that I would take care of him when I wasn’t sure what we were going into. Did I have the right to do that?

  There was a sheen of tears that glistened in his eyes, and he took a shaky breath and sat back again. He was solemn as he looked to me. “Will you let me in? I know I said I wouldn’t, and I don’t need it to know you’re telling me the truth.”

  I realized why Dean wanted a glimpse inside my head. I reached for his hand. “Of course.”

  He needed to feel cared for, and for Dean my thoughts would be a warm blanket, a hug he could hold on to.

  I felt him brush my mind, so much gentler than he’d been before. His eyes closed as if he wanted to concentrate on what he was feeling, and mine watered when I saw a tear slip from his eyes.

  When they opened, he stood up. “Thank you. I needed that.”

  I nodded. “I think I did, too.”

  “I’m going to check the wards,” he said. “Sometimes the tech can use a magical boost.” He started to walk away but stopped and turned. “And Kelsey, your sons are lucky. They have a mom who will fight for them, who will fight beside them. My mom is amazing, but she’s not a warrior. Her sacrifice was being strong enough to let me go. But you’re never going to be safe and that’s okay because your sons have to live in the world, and you make that possible for them. For us. You told me to follow my instincts. Follow yours. You’re already a good mom.”

  Now the tears flowed freely. “I thought you couldn’t read minds.”

  “I can’t exactly, but sometimes an emotion is so loud and clear I can’t help but understand it. I think you’re an amazing female, Kelsey, and I will be proud to learn from you. One day your kids will, too.”

  He walked off and his step was lighter than before.

  I let my head fall back and stared at the darkening sky and opened my heart, willing Gray and Trent and Fen to feel my love the way Dean had. Wherever they were, I was still with them in this way, still thinking of them, loving them.

  “What the fuck?” Feminine cursing had me nearly jumping out of my skin as Charlotte Taggart woke up and found herself in an entirely different place than she’d last been in. The redhead was on her feet, sunglasses knocked off and eyes wild. “Where is he? I’ll kill him if he hurt my puppies…” She stopped and looked around. “Huh.”

  I thought I would help a sister out. “You’re in a faery forest and your husband and a dude named Adam are patrolling. We’re on our way to Tír na nÓg. Also, your pets turned out to be a werewolf named Kaja and her daughter. Kaja killed the asshole who shot you. I’m Kelsey.”

  Charlotte seemed to take it all in. “Did the witches get Summer?”

  I shook my head.

  She sighed in obvious relief. “Thank the goddess.” She frowned my way. “Ian better stop giving Sweetie belly rubs. I’m pretty sure she’s married.” She yawned. “I hope he brought the good food.”

  I perked up. “There’s food?”

  I was so stinking hungry. Maybe that was why I was all kinds of emotional. Hormones and lack of sustenance.

  Charlotte Taggart sniffled and stretched and generally looked like a chick who didn’t let anything faze her. “Yep. I mean it’s not as good as real food, but there’s usually a lot of it. Where are the hoverbikes? He’ll keep them in storage there.”

  I started to lead her to the bikes because if I could fill my belly, I would be ready for the next fight.

  * * * *

  Summer

  I couldn’t quite believe the words coming out of Dean’s mouth.

  “She did it, Summer. Erna placed me in thrall.” Dean was sitting on one of the benches that had been placed around the fire. While Marcus had held me close, the others had set up the high-tech campsite. There were several large tents laid out, and when we’d joined the group again, Charlotte Taggart had been awake and preparing meals for anyone who ate actual food.

  I hadn’t missed the hollow look in my dad’s eyes when she’d passed him one.

  How my dad had turned again was one more mystery in a day full of them.

  “Why would she do it?” I didn’t understand why she’d done any of it. She’d been with me for nearly a decade, and while she’d always been irritable and cranky, she’d supported me. When I’d met Dean and wanted to help train him, she’d…

  She’d tried to talk me out of it and then given in after I’d refused to stop. Had she thought bringing a male into our group would be too hard? She claimed she no longer followed the teachings of her coven, but she’d grown up surrounded by misandry. “Maybe she was afraid. She wasn’t used to being around men.”

  “Or she found a way to control everyone around her,” Charlotte said, sinking down beside Kelsey. Her husband and Adam were working on the bikes while my fathers “patrolled” together.

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  Marcus sat to my left, our shoulders brushing. “I believe she’s talking about the fact that she controlled you through that charm around your neck.”

  I pulled away a bit, though not as much as I would have liked to because my mother sat to my right. “That’s not true. I made the choice to bind my power.”

  “Did you?” My mother had a mug of tea in her hand. She didn’t seem to be at all harmed by her encounter with Erna. “Who suggested that you do it? Did you research it, or did she convince you to let her handle all the magic?”

  I turned her way. “You don’t understand. I’d killed my whole tribe.”

  A gasp escaped Charlotte. “You know what happened to the lost tribe? I’d heard rumors that they’d had a magical child, but I hadn’t made the connection until now.”

  “Yes.” I hated that I had to think about this. I wanted to be inside that tent with Marcus, wrapping my body around his and letting him take me in the real world. Or sitting around the fire with my parents hearing stories of my brothers and sister. “A spell went wrong and I caused a great fire. No one survived.”

  “Then why do I see Haweigh when the convergences come?” my mother asked softly.

  “What?”

  My mother’s gaze was steady on me. “I’ve seen her twice now. First, yesterday. She was in some sort of palace, and she seemed to recognize me.”

  “Or she thought she was seeing Summer,” Dean pointed out. “You look shockingly alike.”

  “Haweigh died.” My heart always ached when I thought of my foster mother. She’d believed in me, and I’d proven her wrong. “You must be mistaken. You only saw her once many years ago.”

  “Trust me,” my mother said, her lips a stubborn line. “Haweigh’s face is imprinted on my mind. Beyond her people shooting me with an arrow, she took my daughter away. Summer, look in my mind. You can do it. You could as a baby. Simply reach in and you’ll see what I saw.”

  I’d done that as a baby because I hadn’t known better. As I’d grown I’d learned to control myself and to honor another’s privacy. But I couldn’t do it at all now. “Obviously the charm stops me from doing that. Erna told me you were the one who’d put Dean in thrall. Could she be confused?”

  “Where would Earth plane beings get thrall stones?” Charlotte asked. “Do you guys spend a lot of time on the Hell plane?”

  “No,” my mother said with a sigh. “The reason we found out about Dean’s stone was Erna took two stones out of my husband’s heads. They were placed there by the wizard Myrddin, who also goes by the name Merlin.”

  Charlotte nodded. “Yes, he’s legendary on several planes. I could understand where he would get the stone and know how to use it.”

  I stood and started to pace in front of the fire because my frustration was growing. “We don’t have to go there. I know my mother didn’t do this. Neither did my dads or Kelsey. I was just wondering if Erna was confused. She seemed to think Momma isn’t who she says she is and she’s trying to use me. That’s not true.”

  “My darling, I know this is hard on you.” Marcus’s eyes were steady on me. “It’s a horribl
e thing to be betrayed by someone you trusted, but it’s my experience that when someone of ill intention accuses others, they are usually guilty of the very crimes they speak of.”

  “How would she use me? My power is bound,” I replied.

  “I’d like to examine the charm.” Charlotte’s gaze was on my neck.

  “She won’t take it off.” Marcus looked grimly Charlotte’s way. “She doesn’t even like it to be off in her fantasies.”

  “I can’t take it off.” They didn’t understand. “It can only come off if my human body dies.”

  “It didn’t come off when you drowned,” Marcus pointed out.

  “I wasn’t really dead.” It wasn’t like I’d seen a light or a doorway. I’d passed out. That was all.

  “And how did you get a human body? I know of very few ways to truly transform something from its natural state.” Charlotte had been studying me since the moment Marcus and I returned to camp. The only time I hadn’t felt her eyes on me were when she’d stepped away to talk to her husband and Adam, likely getting updated on what had happened.

  “Yes, I’d like to understand that magic,” my mother said.

  “Erna used blood magic to bind me.” I didn’t remember the incantations. I had been far too busy concentrating on making it work, on putting all my will into making it so I couldn’t hurt anyone again.

  “Or she put on a show and let you bind yourself,” Marcus countered. “Summer, I believe that if you choose, that collar will fall off your body.”

  “You think she’s holding the spell together herself?” Dean asked.

  Marcus sighed. “I don’t think there’s a spell at all that can hold my Summer. But she can hold herself back.”

  “I don’t think she holds herself back nearly enough,” a deep voice said, and I realized Taggart was leaning against a large tree at the edge of the fire’s illumination. He had a sonic weapon slung over one muscular shoulder. “I think if she held back, we would be almost to Tír na nÓg by now.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” My mom looked the mercenary’s way.

  “It means those bikes were in tip-top shape, and I’m supposed to believe that all four of them had their electrical systems fried at once?” Taggart swaggered in, standing beside his wife.

  Mom held up a hand. “Uh, I happen to know that the witch can fry a system and fast. If I hadn’t taken vamp blood for the last fifteen or so years, I would have stayed as dead as those bikes.”

  Taggart didn’t look convinced. “It’s too coincidental. I get that the witch had likely been following the group and that’s how she found us. But I saw what she did to you. The power she used blew you back. She would have had to use even more power to stop us. It’s simple physics. There should have been a hard-core reactive motion. We should have been flung off those bikes, or they should have swung around. I stayed in control. The only thing that happened was the bikes went dead and there was a little inertia. One minute we were going. The next we were stopped. It was kind of like magic.”

  The sarcasm was thick with him.

  “I didn’t do anything to stop the bikes. I asked you to stop. That was all I did. I saw my mom and I wanted to meet her.”

  “Yes,” Taggart said. “You asked me to stop. I didn’t, and when I didn’t the bikes did.”

  “What exactly are you accusing my companion of?” Marcus’s hands tightened into fists and he stood. “Pardon me. I promised I wouldn’t call you that.”

  If there was one good thing that had come from all of this, it was Marcus. He didn’t understand my situation and he was proving stubborn about it, but I couldn’t let him think I didn’t want him, or I only wanted him in a brief, physical way. I wasn’t sure what would happen, but I wasn’t willing to let him go.

  I went up on my toes and brushed my lips over his. “You promised me we weren’t married, not that I wasn’t your companion.”

  And I wasn’t so sure about the not married part. I think in my heart I married him that day, in that moment when I took his blood into my body.

  He laid his forehead against mine. “In my heart, you are all things.”

  “That is absolutely the most romantic thing anyone’s ever said to me,” I whispered back.

  Marcus’s head came up. “You understood me?”

  “How do you speak Italian?” My mother was sending me the oddest look.

  “He wasn’t speaking Italian.” I’d heard him loud and clear.

  “Summer, look at me. Watch my mouth,” Marcus commanded. “Nel mio cuore tu sei tutto.”

  I pointed his way. “Yes, see that’s not a language I know.”

  “But it’s what he said.” Dean had gotten to his feet. “He said the words in his language, and you heard them in yours.”

  I was starting to get nervous. I didn’t like the implications.

  “And then there was the fact that the convergence stopped right as Miss Sunshine was getting to the fun stuff,” Taggart added. “Sorry. My back was turned, but my hearing’s pretty good.”

  “You think she stopped the convergence?” my mother asked. “How would she do that?”

  Charlotte took that one. “The same way she stopped the bikes. Because magic like hers cannot be contained forever. I believe it will get worse or better because she’s found her natural mate. I’ve been thinking about this for hours. I told you about the legend of the Day Queen.”

  “She lives in the Summerlands and emits the magic that controls all the energy of the planes.” I’d heard the story as a child.

  “And the Summerlands are the Fae version of Heaven.” My mom gestured to her left, a wave that called someone to her. “Dev, weren’t you telling Evan a story about the Summerlands a few nights ago?”

  My Fae father stepped into the circle, my vamp…human father joining him. “Yes. She likes stories of the old ones.”

  Charlotte wrinkled her nose. “I’m not so old.”

  Taggart slapped her on her backside. “You’re the most gorgeous eighty-year-old female ever, babe.”

  She winked his way. “All I’m saying is everyone on Tír na nÓg is Tuatha Dé Danann. It’s good to know those left behind remember us. What do they say about the Summerlands in the old country?”

  I looked at my dad. He’d taken a seat next to my mother, but he wasn’t paying much attention to the conversation. He had what he’d always wanted. He was human again and yet he seemed sadder than ever.

  For the first time we were the same, and I worried he was still so far from me.

  “The term Summerlands is used in many ways on the Earth plane, but growing up in our sithein, my mother always told me it was part of our afterlife, a place of love and light,” Papa said. “As a child she told me stories of how wonderful it is. Are you telling me it exists?”

  “Like all myths, I believe it is rooted in something tangible,” Charlotte began. “My sister and I have always been interested in why things work the way they do. We studied at one of the Vampire universities. She studied physics and chemistry and I specialized in philosophy and mythology across the planes. Every civilization has a version of the Summerlands.”

  “Everyone wants to believe there’s something beyond this life,” Marcus agreed.

  “In many versions they talk about energy and balance. I found an account of a vampire scientist who claimed to have followed a Planeswalker demon through a door he’d never seen on any map. He talked about spending a few days on this plane that at first he thought was merely an uncharted Fae plane. But none of his tech worked. In fact, all the electric circuits fried the minute he tried to turn them on. He wrote about how beautiful it was and that he found a gorgeous palace where the court of the queen and king took care of him. He met the queen, who was interested in what had happened in the worlds since she’d taken her throne. She told him she could not leave the plane until her time was done and another took her place. He asked why. She said because the energy that kept the planes aligned came from her. It flowed from her body because
her body was made of the magic of the original planes. The Heaven plane, the Hell plane, and the Earth plane. When it was clear that more planes were needed, they were built, but they required energy to keep the walls up and save them from falling into chaos. So the Heaven plane gave up a box of its magic, the Hell plane created a whole class of demons to spread the magic, and Earth gave a daughter, one woman from which the magic could flow.”

  Now my dad stood. “The transference box. The Planeswalkers. Summer was made from the box. She’s not of the Earth plane.”

  “That’s what I can’t figure out,” Charlotte admitted. “The scientist called her the Day Queen and she claimed her king was beginning to fade. She told him no one form is truly immortal. Only the soul is forever, and it transforms many times. Her king’s body was failing after millennia, and she intended to go with him. So another Day Queen must be created.”

  “Can we all remember that this dude spent the last hundred years of his life in an insane asylum?” Taggart pointed out.

  Charlotte gave her husband a nasty look. “Sometimes brilliance looks like madness, and your people are not known for their tolerance of anything that doesn’t fuel profits.”

  “But Summer came to be on the Earth plane.” Papa paced as he spoke. “Summer was born from sex magic, from the union between a vampire and his companion. At the time Daniel was a vampire. But for years he believed he was human. He lived a human life before he walked the night. As we’ve discovered, companions are part angel. All three planes were represented that night. And let’s not forget that consequential things tend to happen around a nexus point.”

  Charlotte’s eyes widened. “There was a nexus point there? Are you kidding me?”

  Mom held up her hand. “Yeah, I didn’t know it at the time. The way it was explained to me by the bean si, I have no written fate.”

  “You are fate,” Charlotte breathed. “Walking, talking fate.” She turned my way. “And you are the only one who can save all the planes. Summer, you have to find a way to the Summerlands. You have to take your place, and you have to take that damn charm off.”