Stealing Summer, Hunter

by Lexi Blake

  Kelsey gasped and I knew this was the first time she’d heard that particular fact. But then she hung out with fertility gods, so she shouldn’t be so surprised. It was a good thing the male I admired was incapable of procreating. I’d figured out that he was more than likely an earthbound vamp and therefore perfectly safe to have sex with.

  Not that I would. Because I wouldn’t.

  And all of these people were lying to me because I couldn’t possibly have a brother. After all, when your father is a vampire, you shouldn’t expect siblings. They had started talking amongst themselves. Marcus had finally turned his attention off me.

  It was time to go.

  I started walking because none of this mattered to me. Maybe that man truly was Dev Quinn, but it was apparent that my parents had moved on. It was time for me to do the same.

  * * * *

  Zoey

  “Do you honestly believe that prophecy of Gray’s has something to do with my granddaughter?” My father watched the door Lee had disappeared behind. We’d retreated to the penthouse to discuss our plan of action. When Lee had gone to the bathroom, I’d told my father about the prophecy I’d read, the one about Summer almost being here. My father knew about the daughter I’d unwittingly sent to a Fae plane. He knew how I longed to know anything about what had happened to her.

  It said something about my father’s tolerance of weird shit that he hadn’t even questioned that the odd piece of magic Danny and I had created all those years ago was his granddaughter. I’d told him after the first time I’d come back from Devinshea’s home plane and he’d immediately used his every resource to try to find her.

  Like everyone we’d talked to, he’d come up with nothing.

  He sat back and sighed, his eyes still on the door. Like me, he didn’t want Lee to know anything about his big sister because Lee could be reckless at the best of times. I did not need him trying to open doors to other planes. “I think we should consider what the demon said.”

  I leaned over. “You are not selling your soul to a Planeswalker.”

  There are a couple types of specialized demons who do specific jobs. Like Kelsey’s new butler, Eddie. He’s a satan, one of the underworld’s lawyers. They are the arbiters of contracts, though Eddie greatly prefers running a household and trying to wrangle Fenrir into pants. Planeswalker demons are exactly what they sound like. They spend their time walking the various planes of existence. I like to think of them as bees, except they pollinate planes instead of flowers. From what we’ve gathered, the Planeswalkers get their energy from crossing the planes. The planes get something from this too since the rumors are the walls that separate us would collapse without the demons doing their daily walkabouts.

  A Planeswalker could take a person to another plane of existence. There was only one problem. The price of the ticket was pretty hefty. It cost a person their soul.

  “We don’t know that I’m not already going there, girl.” My father’s jaw had gone tight. “I’ve done things in my life I’m not proud of.”

  Oddly, I was pretty sure he wasn’t talking about the times he’d stolen stuff. He was proud of that. “I’m not going to allow you to sell your soul, and I doubt any demon would sign a contract with you. Daniel has made things pretty plain since Abbas Hiberna used Lee to get him to sign one. Any member of our family is off limits.”

  Some asshole elemental demon had decided to start a civil war among the Earth plane’s supernatural creatures by killing my husband. As he couldn’t do it without Daniel’s own consent, because that went against our contracts, he threatened our human child who wasn’t covered by them.

  Like I said, I worry a lot about Lee.

  “I could make it happen if I wanted to,” my father replied with his trademark stubbornness.

  But I had an argument for him. “We don’t know what plane she’s on. Haweigh and the faeries took her to one of the outer Faery planes. We have no idea which one. From what I understand, they’re kind of endless.”

  I’d certainly told my father the story of Haweigh. She was the faery priestess who’d been moving a transference box across the plane when I might or might not have stolen it. Then Daniel and I might or…okay, we totally primed it and then a baby came out. Haweigh had taken that baby—our Summer—with her when she’d left the Earth plane.

  “I’ll start with Tír na nÓg. My research has found that it’s far easier to move around in the outer planes than it is here.”

  From what we’d learned, the Earth plane, Hell, and Heaven planes were considered the inner planes, and they were the most difficult to get to. Over the years I’d consulted with everyone from Marcus to some angels I knew, to a few of the more friendly demons. They agreed that all creatures flowed from either Heaven or Hell, with Earth as the in-between. From the Earth plane others had been created. I’d heard reports that there were some planes where the citizens had open doors and welcomed commerce and trade with neighboring planes and others who zealously guarded their doors. Some had advanced far past the Earth plane, while others were barbaric and war torn. But I’d gotten that intel from a demon, and sometimes they lie. “Dad, give me a little time. Gray’s prophecy says she’s coming, so maybe we won’t need to do anything but get another bedroom ready.”

  “And come up with a way to protect our girl because if she’s pure magic, that wizard will want her. He’ll want to use her.”

  I sighed in relief. “I never told you how I felt about Myrddin because I thought you would side with Dev and Danny. They think I’m paranoid.”

  He shook his head, his ever-intelligent eyes on me. “They’re starstruck and not thinking straight. The man’s last name is Satanspawn. I don’t trust him any farther than I could throw his demonic arse. I didn’t say anything because he seemed to want to stay away. Now we have a prophecy that might bring my magical grandbaby back to us and he shows up. No. He’s not touching my girls. I’ll fight him and anyone else who comes after me family, and I won’t fight fair.”

  That was my father in a nutshell. He was in his late sixties and he was ready to go to war for me. I reached out and squeezed his hand. “I won’t either, Dad. That’s why I’m going to get that damn grimoire and find out what he’s been doing.”

  “He’ll come after that book. He’ll have a way to track it. It’s got all his secrets.” My father’s lips ticked up. “Ah, you’re going to use the bag of holding. Excellent choice. Did you tell your husbands about that gift of mine?”

  I shook my head. “No. I did exactly what you told me to do. It’s in a chest in my closet. I put objects in it from time to time.”

  He nodded sagely. “To keep it primed.”

  I’d followed his instructions to a T. Sometimes I’d put in innocuous things like a shirt I no longer wore or receipts that might have made Danny’s brain bleed. Other times I tossed in Danny’s old ratty T-shirts he refused to get rid of and that no man who wore a crown should wear. I did not feel bad about that at all.

  “Excellent. You know you’ll have to read it either in the bag or with that invisibility cloak around you.”

  “I can fit in the bag?”

  It was a nice-sized bag, but certainly not human sized.

  “It’s called a bag of holding for a reason,” Dad explained. “As far as I know there are only four on the Earth plane. They were fashioned by angels to aid in fighting demons back when the great wars were held before humans even came into existence. The fact that it’s magic is the purest white is why Myrddin won’t be able to find it. It’s tuned to its owner.”

  “That’s why you needed the blood.” The day he’d given it to me, he’d pricked my finger and had me drip a few drops into the bag.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “No one else can find it. It was used originally to carry weapons from Heaven, so the angels wanted them protected from all other creatures. It’s far bigger on the inside than the outside. You’ll see. Let’s get the book, shove it in the bag, and then let the fallout happen. You have to be patient
with a theft like this.”

  He was right about the fact that I wouldn’t want to be patient. I wanted to get the book and immediately open it and read that sucker. Or rather have Sarah read it since I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.

  My father shook his head like he knew exactly what I was thinking. “You need to give it a bit of time. He’ll know it’s gone. He’ll know who to blame. You have to look innocent as pie for a few days. Maybe even weeks. If this was any other job, I would make a copy and try to buy us some time.”

  “He would still know.” What my father was talking about was making a copy of the book that looked pretty much like the one we wanted to steal and hope Myrddin didn’t need to read it for a few days. We were dealing with the wizard of wizards. The only reason we might pull it off was he was in the dark temple, and I’d found out that sucker was warded against a whole lot of things. Apparently the dark ones need their space to be free of all distractions. I wasn’t completely certain, but I didn’t think Myrddin’s warning wards would be able to get through while he was essentially on the Hell plane.

  He was arrogant, and that played in my favor. He wouldn’t know his grimoire was gone until he stepped out of the temple, and he wouldn’t know when it had been stolen. I would be joining Daniel as soon as I could.

  “What’s a bag of holding?” Lee’s head suddenly popped into existence. He was a floating head and a really good pair of ears.

  “It’s something I might put you in if you eavesdrop on me again.” He was incorrigible. How much had he heard? I thought it wasn’t much since if he’d heard what we’d said about Summer, he would have asked me immediately. Lee didn’t tend to sit on things.

  His hand came up and he pulled the hood back over. “Sorry, Mama.”

  My father laughed. “Well, you didn’t want him to be vulnerable. You kind of taught the lad how to work around us all.”

  “Oh, you had a hand in that, too.” I stood up because time was wasting. “Come on, baby boy. I need to get going.”

  His head appeared again. “You know how to use it?”

  Of course I did. It wasn’t rocket science. “You throw it over your shoulders and no one can see you. I then break into Myrddin’s apartment, find the book, and leave again.”

  It was disconcerting to have my son float around the room as a bodyless head, but he seemed to be enjoying it.

  “And hopefully no one sees a pair of hands working that lock,” Lee said. “I mean that would be weird. Someone might call security. Unless you had a partner who could press the cloak to the door and make sure no one sees you picking the lock. Same thing with stealing the book. It would probably be way easier if you had two sets of hands. Otherwise, if he’s got cameras in there, he might pick up a feminine hand taking something.”

  Oh, he was good. Unfortunately, he was also right.

  “That’s a good point, my boy,” Dad said with an approving nod. “It would be infinitely better if there’s absolutely no proof the book was taken by a physical presence. If he’s got cameras in there, and we know Devinshea would have offered them to him, the book will simply pop out of existence if you can get the cloak around it. If you have to reach for it, he’ll see a hand.”

  “It’s probably in a bookshelf,” Lee mused. “All you have to do is have someone press the sides against it and no one can see.”

  “I am not taking my eleven-year-old on a heist.” I had to have some standards as a parent.

  Even without being able to see his shoulders, I knew he was shrugging. “I’ve been on a couple with Grandad.”

  I turned on my father. “What?”

  He waved me off. “You were far younger when I started taking you with me.”

  “I thought you were retired.”

  “Retirement is boring, and it wasn’t anything truly dangerous,” he replied.

  “It was cool, and I totally got away from that werepanther.” Lee had a light in his eyes that scared the crap out of me. Probably because I remembered it in my own at his age. He suddenly shifted the cape off his shoulders and turned it inside out. It was nothing but a plain cape now, and that proved to me he really knew how to use the sucker. He stepped in front of me and his expression had turned distinctly serious. “Momma, I think that wizard doesn’t like me. Kelsey told me to stay away from him. You get upset when he’s around me. I know you don’t like him, but you really don’t like him being around me. Does he not like humans?”

  “I don’t think he does.”

  “But he really doesn’t like me.”

  I didn’t want to get into this with him. I didn’t want him to know that he was one of two beings in all the planes who could take down Myrddin Emrys. “He doesn’t know you and I would like to keep it that way.”

  “He killed the old Lee.”

  God, how much did he know? “I swear if I find out you’ve been listening in on private conversations…”

  “I haven’t been eavesdropping. Well, not on you, but Kelsey said some things while we were in Wyoming.” He touched his chest. “He’s inside me. Old Lee. He’s in my soul. It’s okay. I’m not scared of him. He is me, and that’s the part that the wizard doesn’t like. Or wouldn’t if he really knew.”

  No one said my kid was dumb. “Yes, baby. That’s why we need you to stay away from him.”

  “That’s why I need to help you,” he said solemnly. “I’m the only one who knows exactly how this cape works. I know you think it’s easy, but there are tricks to it. And no one sees me anyway. If they ask where I was, I’ll tell them I was up in my room. No one will question it. They’ll ask about Neil and Sarah. Not me.”

  I took a deep breath. Was there any way out of this?

  “The boy’s right,” my father said. “He’s the best one for this job. He’s used it more than anyone. Take him with you. I’ll be your lookout in the hall and Neil is going to inform us if the wizard leaves the temple. I suggest you decide now because they’ll be done soon and I don’t think you’ve spent much time in those apartments.”

  But Sarah had. She’d spent time with Nimue discussing how the covens worked on this plane. She’d told me exactly where to find the grimoire. “It’s in his office.”

  “Take the bag of holding with you,” my father advised. “If it all goes to hell, stash Lee there with the book. No one will know where he is, and they won’t be able to hurt him. If anything happens, I’ll get the boy out when it’s safe.”

  I stared at my father but there was a grin on my face. He always had his backup plans. “I thought I was the only one who could find it.”

  “You and me, my darling girl. I’m not foolish. I always knew it might be you who had to be stashed in the damn thing,” he replied. “I wasn’t about to let you be lost.”

  My father would always be there for me. I leaned over and hugged him, so happy to have his strength and wisdom and yes, his deviousness, supporting me. “I love you, Dad.”

  “Love you,” he replied. “Now let’s get this job moving.”

  Lee was holding up his hand. “Uhm, if I’m going into a bag, can I bring some snacks?”

  I promised to shove some snacks and a six pack of Dr Pepper in.

  I also promised I wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt my son. It was a promise I intended to keep.

  Chapter Nine

  Kelsey

  What had he said?

  I stood there in the middle of a faery forest and stared at the ancient god who’d made an announcement that nearly set me on my ass.

  Marcus’s lips had turned up in the sweetest smile and he stepped in front of me. The tension I’d seen in him before seemed to have evaporated in the face of my complete and utter shock. “Are you all right? I have to admit, I never thought I would see a time when you had absolutely nothing to say.”

  I wasn’t known for not having an opinion and expressing it fully. But now it was hard to even get a breath in. “He said I’m…”

  I couldn’t say it. I’d done everything I could to make it happen
, but now I couldn’t say the word.

  “Pregnant,” Bris confirmed. “I believe Devinshea explained to you that pregnancies brought about with strong fertility magic can happen quickly. In a normal human pregnancy, even a supernatural one, it might take days for the fertilized egg to implant, but I assure you, your son is already safely inside his mother’s womb. My magic ensured it. He’s tucked away and growing properly.”

  “But that is a problem for us if this is a place where wights convene,” Marcus continued. “The undead will sense the child growing in your womb and you would be their target. We must move away from here if only for the night. We need to find shelter and protect you.”

  I was pregnant. Was that morning sickness? It was definitely my gut turning because somehow I hadn’t thought it would work. Except I’d known it would work. I had. Even as I’d lain there after Devinshea had left the honeymoon suite, I’d thought about the fact that I could be having Gray’s baby. My demon boy. I’d seen him once. His and his sister’s faces were the pictures I’d held on to the night I helped my husband transition to his dark prophet status. I’d seen many of the possible futures of the people close to me. Most were nothing more than obscure thoughts now, but those two children—a demon boy and a she-wolf—were clear in my head. My children with Gray and Trent, and one of them was on his way.

  Panic threatened in a way it never had before. I’m cool under pressure. No shit. I can handle the apocalypse coming down on my head and I don’t break a sweat. I was sweating now because there was something infinitely precious inside me, and I could break him. I hadn’t considered how easily I could break him. I broke lots of things. I often said the wrong things. God, I wasn’t ready to be someone’s mom.

  Except I was Fen’s mom. I hadn’t counted on that tiny, one-day-would-be-king-of-the-wolves boy. I hadn’t realized how quickly I would come to love him. “I’m not on the same plane as my son. I can’t even call him. I was supposed to call Fen when we got to Hawaii. What the hell is he going to think when I don’t call him?”