Stealing Summer, Hunter

by Lexi Blake

  So the tablet really worked better. Score one for the vamps. I pulled out the tablet and swiped my finger across the screen. Erna’s face popped into view.

  “Are you all right?” She was standing in the small living area of our brugh, in front of the row of three rocking chairs where we often spent our evenings. Dean was behind her. In the short time he’d been with us, Dean had gone from being a bit shorter than Erna to towering over the woman.

  “Hey, that was a rough one,” Dean said, staring through the screen with his crystal blue eyes. He normally wore his hair in a queue, but it fell down around his shoulders now, an icy-colored waterfall. “You make it through okay? The last time we talked you thought someone was following you.”

  “We were worried they might use the convergence against you.” Erna held the tablet up, staring through as if she could see what lay behind me.

  “I got away from Turi’s men before the shifting occurred. But it appears there’s another doorway on this plane, one I hadn’t found before. I thought it might lead to the Earth plane, but now I’m not certain. I met a man I knew from my childhood. Well, it’s not actually him, but someone obviously wants me to think it is. He pretended like he knew me.” Well, he’d called me the queen. So had the vampire. I wasn’t sure why they were referring to my mother as a royal. My mother had been far from royal. She’d been a thief.

  How many years had passed on the Earth plane? Time could be tricky on different planes, especially ones as remote as the Earth plane. My mother could be an old woman by now, though no amount of time could have aged my father, the earthbound vampire. He could have kept her young, but she would die eventually and he would be alone.

  I hated to think of him being alone.

  “Is he a dupe?” Dean asked. “You know you can meet yourself on different planes. I’m still deeply disturbed by the Erna who runs a house of ill repute on that plane where everything’s underwater.”

  Like I said, sometimes you can run into yourself. Running into Busty Erna had been a shock. My mentor is a woman of great intellect and restraint. She’d seen how she would have turned out with different forces shaping her world.

  But I didn’t think that was what was happening. “It’s too much of a coincidence that I would find this particular dupe on this plane. The Devinshea Quinn I briefly met was only half Fae, and his father was a human. This man is a Green Man in the bloom of his power. Why was he traveling with a vampire? And they both knew the woman with the red arm.”

  Erna’s head shook. “I don’t understand half of what you’re saying, child. But if there’s a Green Man walking the plane, I think you should come home and lay low for a while. Do you have the book?”

  “I do.” I’d risked a lot to get the book Erna decided we needed. “I’ll bring it to you and perhaps we can find a way out of this situation.”

  “Is the Green Man following you?” Dean asked, his young face serious for once. “I can meet you halfway. I can be at the edge of the forest in no time at all. I’m working on a teleportation spell.”

  “And more than half the time you screw it all up,” Erna said sternly. “One day you’re going to wind up teleporting yourself into a tree, and then where will you be?”

  “Apparently I’ll be in a tree,” Dean replied with a shrug.

  “I’m fine. I’ll be home in a few hours.” The last thing I needed was Dean to get all brotherly on me and decide I needed saving. He was barely twenty-three and he should have been having fun on the Earth plane, but his mother had been taken from her original plane. She’d found a happy life on the Vampire plane, but Dean had been human in a world that wasn’t built for him. “And I ditched the Green Man. Make sure our wards are all in place. I don’t want any of them following me.”

  “Like they could follow you,” Dean said with a grin. “You’re a badass.”

  I held my own, but I got the feeling I’d met a real badass in Kelsey, and I might not want to meet up with her again. For all I knew she was an assassin sent to deal with me. It had happened before and I’d handled it. I wasn’t sure I could handle the woman I’d seen fighting in the forest. Still, I gave the young man I truly did consider a little brother what I hoped was an arrogant grin. “You know it. Don’t eat everything Erna cooks. I’ll be hungry when I get home.”

  “No promises since we have almost no food,” Dean replied with a frown. “Hey, if you happen to find a couple of bunnies who are done with the whole life thing, pick them up so I can shove them in my belly.”

  “See you soon.” I wasn’t going to listen to him complain about the fact that I got too attached to the sweeter creatures of the forest. They seem to find their way to me as if they know I’ll look into those adorable eyes and protect them. But not chickens. I’ll eat chickens every day. They’re quite mean. Also, I can’t cuddle fish, so they’re fair game.

  “Be careful, Summer.” Erna had stepped away from Dean. Her eyes seemed to glow in the lengthening afternoon light. “I don’t like this development. You know I’ve been reading the signs and they point toward change.”

  I was counting on it since I couldn’t keep going the way I had. However, I wasn’t about to tell Erna that. I certainly didn’t want her to think me ungrateful. She’d been the one to save me that terrible day when I’d learned the horrors of my own power. “I will be.”

  She nodded and I shut down the tablet. I would have to visit the Vampire plane again soon to recharge the two we had. If I dared show my face there again.

  I took a deep breath and tried not to the think about the fact that we were running out of time. And food. And everything we could need. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold out. Turi had come close this time. If he managed to convince the other allied planes that I was behind the convergence problems…well, I would be dealing with more than one assassin.

  I would have to make the decision whether or not it was worth it to risk Erna and Dean. I’d honestly already made the decision, but I was holding on to them because I had no one else in all the worlds who cared about me.

  I settled the tablet back in place and felt for the small book I’d stolen from a library on a plane where witches ruled. It was a surprisingly nice plane. Lots of coffee shops and art everywhere. It sucked to be a male on that plane, but it was feminine paradise. It was Erna’s home plane and she often talked about settling down there one day. If we survived.

  Of course there was probably a warrant out for my arrest now. I was certain they’d worked some justice mojo and figured out the quiet redhead who’d wanted to read up on love spells had stolen their ancient book of prophecies, and there would be all kinds of witchy bounty hunters after me.

  I’d only taken a couple of steps when I realized I wasn’t alone. I went perfectly still and listened. When I’d been forced to reject my magic, I’d had to learn all new skills, and one of them was to open my senses. They were suppressed, too, but I could still call upon the echo of them.

  There was someone coming up on my left.

  He was running up the path I’d made when I’d fled Kelsey, the false Dev, and the vampire. I felt that power of the vampire’s brush against my brain and I quickly shut him out and moved away from the water. There wasn’t cover here. I needed to hide. He was moving quickly. He had a vampire’s senses, though this man wasn’t wearing the normal protective clothing a vampire wore whenever they left their home plane. Vampires evolved on a plane where the ultraviolet light is different, and they don’t react to it particularly well. I’d been told the Earth plane’s vampires were ones who’d gotten lost in their travels, but that was Vampire lore. They tend to think they’re the be-all, end-all of existence and that they must have been the first.

  I wasn’t so sure. My father’s power had come from someplace ancient, and it had been tied to the Earth plane.

  But I was sure this vampire was coming for me and I didn’t have a weapon. Luckily I was in a forest, and everyone knew how to handle a vampire. I pulled at one of the low-hanging branch
es and had a nice-sized stake in no time at all.

  I was ready to take him on.

  * * * *

  Zoey

  The sun had gone down, and I stood on the balcony that overlooked Ether’s dance floor which pulsed with light as they ran a technical check. In a few hours the floor would be covered in patrons dancing the night away. They would dance and drink and pretend like they didn’t have a care in the world.

  I used to be one of them.

  The door behind me opened directly into Dev’s office. I could remember so vividly the first time I’d walked into this club. In many ways it had been the night my life had turned for the better. It had been the night that set me on the path to happiness and family.

  What would yesterday lead me to? Would I look back on Kelsey’s wedding day as the day it all unraveled and everything we’d worked for had been undone?

  I gripped the bannister as I watched Dev’s assistant manager getting the team ready to open up for the night.

  That should have been Dev, but he ran a polished ship. When Dev hadn’t shown up, the assistant had simply taken over. Sometimes Dev was so good at what he did no one noticed he wasn’t the one doing it.

  The door behind me opened and since the only other way into the office was directly from our apartments, I knew Daniel had come looking for me.

  “Hey, we’ve got about an hour before Myrddin does his ritual.” Big hands came down on my shoulders and Danny pulled me back against his chest. Years of travel and ruling the supernatural world had eroded some of his Texas twang, but it always showed right back up when we were alone. Dev often joked he didn’t need a Green Man’s powers to tell when Danny was horny. He only had to hear him revert to his natural accent.

  He also sounded more Texan when he was emotional.

  I loathed the distance that had opened between us. Since the wizard had joined our retinue, I spent less and less time with Daniel. He was always in a meeting, preparing for the negotiations to come. In a month or so we would host the demons and negotiate new contracts with them. I would have to smile and play the queen, but they would all know where the real power behind the king lay.

  Another problem for another day. I leaned back, allowing Daniel to surround me. “Good. I’d like to get that over with.”

  “I’m sure he can find Dev and we can get back to normal.”

  I wasn’t about to start a fight with him. “Yes. He’ll find Dev.”

  I felt Daniel’s body tense and then he was tugging on my hand, pulling me back into the office. The door closed behind us and the world was quiet again. Dev’s office was coated in soft light from the lamp he almost always kept on. His desk was covered in framed pictures of our family. This office was very much like our lives. It had changed over the years, but the comfort I found in it had always remained the same.

  Daniel put his hands on my shoulders, his blue eyes staring down at me. “Please tell me what’s wrong. Beyond Dev being missing. You’re angry with me. I can feel it. Do you blame me for what’s happened with Dev? You have to know how torn up I am about this.”

  It was the most vulnerable I’d heard him sound in years. We’d gotten so comfortable that we didn’t feel vulnerable anymore. We weren’t overly confident. We knew there were always factions plotting against us, but in our private lives, I’d come to take for granted that we were solid. It hadn’t been until Myrddin walked back in that I’d been reminded the world could change on a dime. I couldn’t tell my husband why I was angry. God, I hadn’t even thought I was angry, but I was. I shook my head and tried to reassure him. “I’m just worried about Dev.”

  He dropped his forehead to mine and groaned. “I’m not stupid, baby. You’re angry about Myrddin being here. I’ll ask him to leave.”

  “What?”

  He kissed my forehead and took a step back. “You think I didn’t hear what Gray said? Choose her. There are only two hers I’m able to choose. I don’t think he was talking about Evan. I will always choose you. You’re uncomfortable with Myrddin so I’ll find other accommodations for him.”

  But he would still be around, still advising my husband. Of course I was planning on stealing his precious, so he might not have to move at all. If he caught me, he might kill me, and then I wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore. “I’ll get used to him.”

  “You blame him for Lee’s death.”

  I took a step back. “How can you know that?”

  Had Kelsey talked to him? She’d been so sure we should keep it all quiet around the men.

  “He feels it. He’s talked to me about it.” Daniel looked like he wanted to reach for me again, but he made the decision to give me some space. He moved to the desk, leaning against it. “He’s spent a long time contemplating what happened that day, and he doesn’t blame you for thinking ill of him. He was the one who sent us out that night. He convinced us I needed to be directly on the Earth plane to finish my healing. If he hadn’t, we likely would have stayed in the pocket universe for another couple of days. We might have avoided Marini. We might have been able to contact the Order, and you wouldn’t have suffered at all. You would have been safe.”

  “I doubt that.” It was nice to know that Myrddin was busy cutting me off from any argument I could make. It was a good tactic. If he acknowledged everything I might be able to say about him and agreed with me, I looked petty for nursing the grudge. He was excellent at this kind of politics.

  What if the grimoire held more than the secret of how Myrddin had managed to banish Dev, Marcus, and Kelsey? What if it explained his hold on Danny and how I could break that unnatural bond?

  Now wasn’t the time to have this argument with Danny. Now wasn’t the time to point out to him that not only had Myrddin selected the time when we would leave, but he’d made sure Zack had the very item in his hand that would save Daniel from being taken into custody. He’d been the one to place the Mantle of Arthur into Zack’s hands. The Mantle was basically a cloak of invisibility, and it had been used that night to save Daniel.

  It wasn’t the time to point out that Myrddin had spent the days before Lee died with the demon Nemcox—the same demon who somehow managed to tell Marini when and where we would emerge from shelter.

  Until I knew whether or not his influence over Daniel was magical, I needed to keep this whole conversation at bay.

  “I doubt it, too,” Daniel said quietly. “Marini would have found a way. I know what you went through, Z. You have to know I would have done anything to have spared you.”

  Spared me from being assaulted by Marini, from being forced to act as my enemy’s companion, and all the nasty stuff that came with the job. God, I thought I’d left that behind, but somehow it was still here between us. I didn’t want it to be. I loved Danny with all of my heart. I moved to him and when I touched him, I made sure I was doing it to comfort my husband, not to distract him. There would be time enough for that later, but with Devinshea in danger, I needed to let Danny know how I felt. “I don’t blame you for that. Not in any way. We all did what we had to to survive, and I wouldn’t take it back for anything. We’re alive and our family is safe. Had it happened any other way, Marini would have had his advantage, and the loss of life would have been far greater. I miss Lee every single day, but I wouldn’t change a thing, and I know he wouldn’t either.”

  Daniel’s blue eyes burned through me. “I miss you, Zoey.”

  “I’m right here.”

  “But you’re not. You’re far from me. You’re as far away from me as Dev is right now and I don’t understand it. I’ll do anything to fix it.”

  I believed him in that moment. I had to believe that the hold Myrddin had on Danny could be broken. All I knew in that moment was that my husband needed me.

  I moved into his space, letting my hands find his chest. Sometimes we got so mired in the everyday parts of life that we forgot we needed to be more than parents, more than a king and a queen. We needed to find a place to be Daniel and Zoey, too. “We’re both feel
ing helpless right now.”

  His hands found my hips and he dropped his head to mine again. “I miss him. He hasn’t even been gone for a full day and I feel lonely without him. What the hell do we do if…”

  I stopped him because I couldn’t stand the thought of going there. “Myrddin’s going to find him. Between Myrddin and Nimue, we can’t fail.”

  I rather believed that but for different reasons than Daniel would understand. In this case I believed Myrddin had caused a problem so he could be the one to solve it, and I would have to agree that he was helpful. It served him in no way to kill Devinshea. Dev was on his side, but I would have to be grateful to him for snatching my husband from what was sure to be described as the jaws of death.

  I was going to prove he’d been the one to endanger Devinshea in the first place.

  I felt the moment Daniel’s intentions changed. He needed physical affection, needed to be close to me.

  “Zoey, I don’t want to bother you, but I haven’t fed.”

  I went up on my toes and brushed my lips against his. Maybe I needed some affection, too. It had been a long time since I’d practiced my trade, and longer still since I’d stolen anything close to this dangerous. If I got caught…

  Daniel took over the kiss, his mouth mastering mine. No matter how many times he made love to me I was always overwhelmed by him. His fingers tangled in my hair and he tugged my head back, giving himself full access. His tongue invaded, sliding alongside mine.