by Lexi Blake
Lang pulled Sarah out, and I turned to look at her. She looked like I felt, sad and scared. I gave her a half-hearted smile. “I told them they should gag you.”
Her face broke into a genuine grin, and she laughed. “Bitch.”
I started to stand, but Haweigh held her hand up and I stopped. She looked at the child and arched an eyebrow. “Do what you think you must.”
The child held her hand, and I felt something pass through me. I looked down, and the hole in my midsection closed while I watched. It closed as though it were sewing itself back together. Unfortunately, it also felt like someone was sewing me back together. I didn’t even try to stop the scream.
I fell to the floor, shaking after the pain passed. Lang came in close and stared down at me. “See, if she’d been a cat, that wouldn’t have hurt.”
I held my stomach and vowed that the next time I made a magical creature, it would definitely be a cat.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I felt infinitely better by the time we reached the elevator. I was sore, but the hole in my middle was closed. That meant my day was looking up. Haweigh and her compatriots were definitely not used to the way things worked on this plane. I personally would have insisted my blood-soaked prisoner change clothes so as not to attract unwelcome attention.
I got several stares, but I smiled brightly and winked and no one said a word.
And I wondered if it was dark yet. I wondered if Daniel was awake and searching for me. I wondered if he would miss me.
Haweigh pushed the button for the parking garage, and the doors closed. Sarah and I were alone with our captors. The only bright spot was the baby and her toothless grin.
“I like her,” the smaller faery said. When I describe him as smaller, I just mean not as large as Lang. He still had a good six inches on me.
“What a surprise,” Lang said sarcastically. “Craigen likes the pretty female.”
“She’s not just pretty,” Craigen replied. “She’s crazy. I like that in a female. The crazy ones are always the best.”
I smiled at the attractive, funny Fae. I could use allies, and I was not above using my feminine wiles to acquire them. The longer I managed to stay alive, the more of a chance I had to see Daniel one last time. He would search for me. And Dev would tell him where they’d taken me. “What gave me away? Was it the arrowdectomy? That was nothing. I jumped off the roof of the hotel last night. Now that was crazy. Let’s see, this month alone I’ve tried to kill my own father, fought off a big snake, destroyed a nightclub, and summoned a fully-functional demon. That was a mistake. I’d been hoping for the Ken-doll version.”
Craigen laughed. “See, I have no idea what the girl is saying, but I like the way she says it. I think she can stay with me when we get home. She’ll need an advocate.”
Yeah, I could bet just what that horny faery would be advocating for me. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the “stay alive and hope Daniel made it to Faeryland” plan. Dev had connections. Daniel had pure willpower.
If they didn’t kill each other, they might make a good team.
The doors to the lowest level of the garage opened, and I was escorted into the low light of the enormous space.
“Can you feel that, Z?” Sarah walked, following our captors, but her head swung around as though searching for something.
I felt scared because we were about to be taken to another plane, but I didn’t feel anything supernatural. I prayed it wasn’t Halfer. “What is it?”
“It’s the veil.” Sarah breathed in the air reverently. “It’s here and it’s going to open. Wow, that is some really impressive magic. Do you do it?”
She pointed the question to Haweigh. “This I cannot take credit for. It is an Earth magic, but finding the veil and getting through it, that is our magic. We passed from this plane long ago, and we passed in just this way.”
She led us down the long aisles and turned. There were few cars this far down. We were alone. I wondered what time it was. When the doors opened to the lobby, I’d noted it was close to full dark. There had been only a sliver of sunlight illuminating the lobby. Daniel would be awake soon. And I prayed Neil awakened as well.
“Why here?” Sarah asked as we stopped.
Lang shrugged. “It shifts all the time. We entered the plane in a place called St. Louis and made our way here to get back. The fact that the veil opens underground explains a lot to us. We wondered why the times between the opening of the veils varied so widely. Sometimes they open one after another, and other times it takes months to get back. Apparently the veil opens where it will. Before this structure was built, this place of passing would have been impossible to access.”
“So what’s it like?” I found myself curious. “Is it ‘beam me up, Scotty’?”
All three looked at me blankly. Sarah rolled her eyes in an affectionate manner. My pop culture references were going to be so lost on the Faery plane.
“It is a door,” Haweigh explained patiently. “But one you must be trained to see.” She turned her attention to the child, who was suddenly staring at the ceiling, her fat little baby arms pumping up and down. “No, child, it is this way. It is not here yet, but if you try, you can see it.”
Baby Girl wasn’t interested. Her head turned up, watching the ceiling, a big grin on her face. She suddenly let loose a squeal and clapped her hands.
There was a distant rumble humming through the air and accompanied by a little shake of the pavement. It sounded like a car was moving through the garage above us. I didn’t think much of it because it was only logical cars would be moving around a parking garage. Hopefully said car didn’t barrel through at the wrong time and drive right through the door that was about to open.
The baby jumped up and down in Haweigh’s arms almost as though the sounds made her dance. The car seemed to be getting closer, and the closer it got, the more it sounded less like a car than a really big truck. The rumble grew. The shaking continued until the ceiling above us began to quiver.
Halfer. It had to be Halfer. He was coming for me. He’d found out I couldn’t make our late-night meeting and moved the timeline up. My stomach twisted. I locked eyes with Sarah.
“I’ll try to protect you any way I can,” she said, sniffling a little. “I’m so sorry, Z.”
Craigen pulled me close to him, and at first I thought he was trying to protect me. Then he put a gun against my head. To clarify, he put Sarah’s gun against my head. It was nice to know we helped them upgrade.
The ground beneath my feet seemed to vibrate. I gave up on the vehicular metaphors in favor of power tools. This was a jack hammer, and it was coming our way.
The faeries were speaking to each other in rapid-fire Elvish. I don’t know precisely what they said, but I guessed the recriminations were flying around. Words weren’t the only things flying. I ducked as chunks of concrete began to rain down, small at first and then larger as a hole began to form.
Lang pushed Sarah onto her knees and slightly behind him. It seemed a better protected position than what Craigen had me in. She looked up at me with wide eyes, and we were both just waiting. Halfer was making his entrance, and we were all screwed. Who else could punch his way through six levels of concrete?
“So sorry,” she said again.
I nodded because I was beyond being pissed at her. I tried to shift in Craigen’s arms, but he held me fast.
“Can we go through?” I tried to gesture to the vague place where I thought the veil would be.
“No.” He kept his eyes trained on the hole in the ceiling. It had started out small, but suddenly it was man-sized. His every muscle was tense and prepared for something bad to happen. “It’s too early.”
“You should let me and Sarah go. A demon is coming through that hole and I don’t know that he’ll let you live.” I looked at Haweigh, desperate to make her understand. “He wants the child. Please. Please. Run. Hide her. I’ll lie. I’ll give you time.”
If Halfer
took the child, everything I had sacrificed would be wasted.
But it was too late. Too late to bargain. Too late to pray. Too late for everything because he was here.
A dark figure fell through the hole, though I shouldn’t use the word fell. Fell implies some loss of control. This was intensely deliberate. He landed on one knee, catching himself on those hands that had finished clearing the way to his target. Me.
My whole spirit soared because it wasn’t Halfer on the floor.
Daniel looked up, and I finally understood what he’d been trying to tell me for the last five years. He wasn’t human. He was a monster, and he was capable of killing everyone in that room and never feeling a moment of regret. He would enjoy the ripping and tearing, and he would no doubt revel in the blood. He was Vampire, and there was no going back.
And I still loved him.
“All right, vampire,” Craigen said, trying really hard to keep his voice steady. “Stay back. I know you’re fast, but this is right against her brain. I don’t want to hurt her.”
Daniel stood, turning toward me, those alien eyes fastening right on mine. He spoke to Craigen, but never took those eyes off me. His voice seemed to fill the room with his will. “You have my mate. Give her to me, and I’ll kill you quickly.”
Haweigh held her hand up, and the pressure left the room. Of all the faeries, she was the only who seemed calm. The men were tense and the baby practically jumped with glee, squirming to try to get to Daniel. But Haweigh was patient. “Impressive, vampire, but you are misreading the situation.”
“My mate is covered in blood, and you say I’m misreading the situation,” Daniel growled. “I may sleep during the day, but don’t assume that I can’t hear what goes on around me. I know what you did. Now, I’m going to give this warning once and only once. Give me my companion, or I’ll kill you all. It will give me pleasure to rip you apart, and I will keep you alive as long as possible. You’ll die knowing that I will find a way to your precious Faery plane, and I will kill your tribe and everything they love. When I’m done with it, your plane will make Hell look pleasant. It will be a dumping ground for the bodies of my victims. Now give me my mate.”
Craigen swore in Gaelic, but that wasn’t hard to translate. I also think he might have peed a little bit.
“I believe the vampire is serious, Craigen,” Haweigh said slowly. “Perhaps you should allow Miss Wharton to go.”
“If I do, he’ll kill us.” Craigen’s hands were shaking, and I prayed the trigger on that gun was steady.
“I think Miss Wharton might be able to sway him if you’ll let her go,” Haweigh reasoned. “If you keep her much longer, I believe the bloodlust will take over and not even her reason will be able to sway him then.”
Then Craigen was pushing me forward, and I was in Daniel’s arms. He ran his hands across my body, looking for the source of the blood he smelled. He pulled up my shirt, and I let him because he needed to see that I was alive and whole. The faeries couldn’t conceive how lucky they’d been that the magic child had been able to heal me so completely that my skin was smooth. Had Daniel been able to get even a hint of the damage that had been done, I doubted I would have been able to stop him from killing the faeries.
I wrapped my arms around him, telling myself that everything Dev had said was bullshit. It didn’t matter. Dev didn’t understand. Daniel loved me. He wasn’t addicted to me. After a moment, Daniel brought his arms around me and enfolded me. I felt him sigh against my hair. I looked up and gave him a smile. “What are you, too good for the elevator now?”
It took a moment, but he planted a quick kiss on my lips. “Too slow.” He pushed me away gently. “Go back upstairs and wait for me, Zoey. I have some things I need to take care of.”
Yeah, I was pretty sure the things he needed to take care of would end in a whole bunch of blood. We didn’t have time for that. "I'm not going anywhere, and don’t you even try that whole ‘do my will’ bit because it won’t work.”
“They shot you,” he replied stubbornly.
“So did Sarah, and you’re not going to kill her.”
“Now that you mention it.” Daniel turned his eyes toward Sarah.
“You’re not killing anyone, Daniel Donovan,” I said with as much finality as I could muster.
Lang laughed long and hard. He was still chuckling when everyone turned to him. “I am sorry, but it’s good to know it’s not only me. Give it up, vampire. She has you by the balls. Wives, they always have us by the balls.”
Something about the word “wife” made Daniel stop. The tension seemed to leave the room, and he pulled me back into his arms, allowing his relief to finally overcome his rage.
“I couldn’t help you.” His hands sank into my hair. “I was trapped, and I couldn’t save you.”
I kissed his cheek. “But you did. Your blood kept me alive.”
“Miss Wharton,” Haweigh said, clearly not wanting to interrupt the moment. “The veil is open, but the child is insistent. She wants to meet the vampire.”
Daniel swallowed audibly, and he stared at the baby who was practically vibrating with excitement.
“Did you hear what Dev said?” It only made sense if he knew what had happened to me that he’d listened in on my conversation with Dev.
He nodded, not taking his eyes off the child. Haweigh walked forward and held the child out. Daniel hesitated.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Haweigh said. “You won’t hurt the child. You don’t understand what you are, Daniel Donovan, but she does, and she has no fear of you.”
He slowly held his arms out and took the baby against his chest. The child calmed and slowly explored his face with her tiny hands.
“She has things to say to you. You are not Fae, so you cannot hear her. I will translate,” Haweigh explained. “She says you think you have but one path, and this is not the truth. Trust yourself and trust her. I believe she is talking about your companion. There is much going through her mind, and I can’t possibly say all of it. She wants you to think about the fact that when your will, your need, and your soul were put in the box, she is what came out. She was born from your deepest desire. There is nothing evil about her. She wishes you to think on this.”
Then Haweigh took the baby out of Daniel’s arms. “We really must go now.”
Daniel’s hand found its way into mine, and I squeezed it tight as we watched the faeries pull open the veil. There was a tear in the air in front of us, and I glimpsed sunlight and green hills. I could smell a sweetness and hear the sound of a waterfall. Daniel moved away from that streak of light like it was a laser beam he needed to avoid.
Haweigh was the last to go. She turned before entering the veil. “The child wishes one last thing of you, Daniel Donovan. She would like a name from you.”
Daniel pulled me close, and I knew what he was thinking. He was back in my father’s house, and we were eighteen and about to head off to college. We’d made love and sat up and argued about what we would name our babies. I knew what he was going to say.
“Summer. Her name is Summer.”
And then she was gone, and that piece of daylight and magic closed behind her and Daniel, Sarah, and I were alone.
We didn’t say anything for several moments, allowing the enormity of the day to wash over us. We clung to each other. Finally I looked up at him and asked the question I really didn’t want to know the answer to.
“How long do we have?”
“A couple of hours.” He brushed back my hair.
“Ummm, I was hoping someone could, maybe, untie me,” Sarah said haltingly.
Daniel turned to her, and she shrank back. “Sarah, the less I remember you exist, the more chance you have of making it to the Hell plane in one piece. I assure you that Halfer will have no problem dragging you there in two pieces, but you will find the experience unpleasant. Know that you live on her sufferance and her mercy because I have none.”
Sarah’s eyes went wide, and she nodded slowly.
I walked over to Sarah against Daniel’s protests and untied her hands. “He’s suddenly big into the overdrama. I think he watched too many Clint Eastwood films. Go, Sarah. Find some Joe and enjoy these last few hours.”
She hugged me and then with a glance at Daniel, she began to walk toward the elevators. She never turned her back, and I knew what she was feeling. She was thinking she’d never really known him.
I took his hand and watched as the last of that volcanic rage left him, and he looked like my Daniel again. “So you can listen in while you sleep. Good to know. If you piss me off, I’ll put on some Broadway CDs.”
“Remind me not to piss you off. I don’t usually listen in, you know. I can ignore most of it, but there are certain conversations that catch my interest.”
There was a low growl and then a big white wolf fell from the hole in the ceiling. Unlike Daniel’s graceful, deliberate descent, this was one big pratfall. When the wolf hit the ground, it only took him a moment to change back into human form, and when he came up, he was one righteous werewolf.
“Keys? Did you think about leaving the keys? The car doesn’t work without the keys, and big surprise—I can’t fly. But no, Superman here just wakes me and takes off like a superhot speeding bullet. I had to run twenty miles on an empty stomach. Twenty miles. Do you know what it was like trying to get across I-35? It was like playing Frogger, and I was the poor little frog. And I think animal control is hunting for me.” Neil paused briefly to take a breath and then started in again. “And then when my sad, starved body finally manages to make it to the place where my thoughtless boss has told me to go, I fall through a bunch of holes in the concrete. Who has sink holes in a parking garage? This hotel sucks. That said, I’m going upstairs to order room service. Did I mention I’m hungry?”
