by Lexi Blake
Myrddin’s reasoning was something I’d been trying to tackle for hours. “I don’t know. I wonder if he didn’t mean to cause a problem and then rush in to save the day. It would give him even more leverage when it came to Danny and Dev. I think he wants to make sure I don’t have any influence.”
“He wouldn’t have to do that,” Dean said. “After all, he planted that spell inside the Green Man. How did he do it? I wasn’t sure what it was when I saw it the first time, but listening to you now I get it. It’s subtle, but he couldn’t have done it without the Green Man knowing what was going on. I mean, the god thing is pretty powerful.”
“What are you talking about?”
Dean stared at me for a moment like he couldn’t quite believe I didn’t understand. “Uh, the thrall stone in the Green Man. When he said he was the partner to a king, I figured it was like a bonding mechanism. Kings do some weird shit to ensure loyalty. But like I said, he would have known when it was inserted. You can’t exactly shove a stone into someone and not have them know. The way the thrall stone works, it’s not like you wouldn’t wake up if someone shoved it in while you’re sleeping.”
“What’s a thrall stone?” Kelsey had finished the second sandwich, but it was easy to see Dean had her full attention now.
He had mine, too. “Yes, I’d like to know as well. And how did you see it inside of Dev?”
Dean sat forward, turning my way. “I took a quick tour when he first got here. It’s this thing I do to read a person’s intentions. And let me tell you that other vampire’s intentions were not pure. Not when it came to Summer. I’m pretty sure the mercenaries would have knocked them out for transport, and I for one am really happy about that. Summer was making a huge mistake.”
I wasn’t about to tell him that being unconscious likely wouldn’t stop Marcus from going to town. He could pull a person into his head, and it was an interesting experience to say the least. “So you looked into Dev’s head and found a stone? I assume it’s not an actual rock.”
“Not a stone exactly. They’re made from the bones of a type of demon with incredible influential powers. You can get it on the black market on the witch plane. Usually the goblins have a couple. But like I said, you have to accept it. I mean I guess he could have been held down and had it shoved into him, but it doesn’t work unless the person it’s being used on is conscious,” Dean explained. “Erna knows all about them. There are planes where thrall stones are used to keep people loyal to the leader.”
“It can’t be that stone because there’s zero way Donovan lets anyone put a stone in his head,” Kelsey said.
“What do you mean by conscious?” Something tickled at the back of my head. Daniel had a connection to the wizard from the moment they’d met, but the real influence hadn’t kicked in until later. I’d chalked it up to him being tied to the sword at first. Now I had to wonder.
“Awake,” Dean said. “It’s usually the way we describe it here.”
“So he couldn’t put it in there magically?” My mind was going back to those days we’d spent in the pocket world with Myrddin. “When we first met the wizard, we were there to get him to take a device off Daniel’s heart. He used a magical form of surgery that included a stasis chamber.”
“What’s that?” Kelsey asked.
“A magical one?” Dean continued after I nodded his way. “It’s something Erna’s used. Only very powerful witches can hold one.”
“Nimue held it,” I said. “She’s…”
Dean had sat back up. “I know who she is. Everyone knows who she is, but she hasn’t walked these planes in…well, not since anyone alive can remember. She’s a myth on the witch plane. There are whole covens who worship her. Are you telling me you actually know her?”
“I’m starting to wonder. She’s spent the last ten years with Myrddin, and she acts an awful lot like Dev and Daniel now.” I’d known Nim as a free spirit. She’d left her long-time lover behind because she’d wanted to have a child. Somehow I didn’t see her setting up a nursery with Myrddin. “That was the day they all changed.”
“You think he slipped these stone things inside them when he was doing the surgery?” Kelsey asked. “Weren’t you and my uncle there?”
“Yes, but it got a little crazy.” I remembered what had happened after Nimue had first taken control of the stasis chamber. “I watched him but I can’t say he couldn’t have slipped something by me. Nimue took control of the stasis chamber and she went into this weird fugue state. Myrddin said he could do anything to her. He stared at her but I’m pretty sure she had no idea what he was doing.”
“Yeah, I’ve seen something similar. Witches use them like operating rooms on the Vampire plane,” Dean explained. “Basically they carve out this piece of an alternate dimension where the rules of physics are different.”
“And if the rules of physics are different then maybe the rules with the thrall stone are, too,” Kelsey said. “You think you took your eyes off them for any period of time?”
“Your uncle got zapped. He tried to go into the chamber to take Dev’s place. He touched the wall of the chamber and I was worried he’d died.” It had been seconds, but I’d been distracted and Myrddin had probably put someone under thrall before. I’d been told he was tied to the sword and that was why he was the mentor. Had the real influence been brought about by a spell?
Dean seemed to consider the situation. “In a stasis chamber, you’re not really aware of reality. Like I said, the laws of physics are different. It’s entirely possible.”
“He could have gotten all three of them,” I mused. It made sense. So much more sense than my husbands hero-worshipping someone they barely knew. “Can you take it out?”
The door came open and Erna stood there. “Why didn’t someone tell me the human is in thrall? He’s going to die if I don’t take it out. Are you the one who put it there? I understand that men are sometimes difficult to manage, but you should have either found another way or let him go. It’s reckless of you to do.”
“She didn’t do it,” Dean said, getting to his feet. “It’s someone who wanted to influence him.”
“Well, that’s not a spell you use on humans unless you want to kill them.” Erna frowned down at me. “You have some enemies, young lady.”
I didn’t point out that I wasn’t all that young. Nor did I point out that Danny hadn’t been human when he’d gotten that stone shoved in his head. “Yes, I do. How do we get that thing out of my husband’s head? I think you’ll find Devinshea has one, too.”
“It won’t kill the Green Man.” Erna crossed her arms over her chest and seemed thoughtful for a moment. “Depending on how the spell was created, you wouldn’t notice a difference except around the spellcaster.”
That made sense.
“If we could get the spell removed, you realize we might actually be able to talk to them about our problems,” Kelsey said.
We might be able to convince my husbands that Myrddin was a real threat.
If we could get the spell off him and get home.
A keening wail split the air and I realized our night was far from over.
Chapter Twenty
Kelsey
I put my hands to my ears. “What is that?”
Dean was on his feet in a heartbeat. “It’s a warning. Something’s close. It didn’t go off before because Erna knew I was coming. She set the alarm for the night after we came in.”
Erna waved a hand and the alarm went silent. I still picked up the sword I’d laid on the table.
I wished I hadn’t left Gladys behind. Fuck the TSA. I was taking my sword everywhere from now on.
“What’s happening?” Daniel walked through the doorway, Quinn hard on his heels.
“We’ve got an intruder,” Dean explained. “And it’s not a bunny. It’s something dangerous. The protection spell we cast doesn’t worry about happy shiny things. Don’t worry. Whatever it is, it can’t see us.”
“We’ve got wards that shou
ld keep the intruder from coming too close.” Erna stepped out into the yard, proving she wasn’t too worried. “Are you feeling any better, human?”
“I’m not human,” Daniel insisted. “But yes, my head is far clearer than it was. The tonic you gave me was disgusting and very helpful. My stomach is better too.”
“See, talking about your stomach feeling better is something I’ve never heard a vampire say.” Erna stared out into the dark yard, looking for whatever had tripped the alarm.
“Yeah, well, those vampires never had a connection to a pregnant companion,” Daniel muttered under his breath. “I don’t see anything.”
“That’s good.” Zoey had taken a place beside her husband, Dev on the other side. They were surrounding Daniel as if he was vulnerable. Which he was. And that was going to kill him. “Maybe it went away.”
She looked back at me and I got what she was asking for. I closed my eyes and opened my every sense like Trent had taught me. Sure enough, it was like Dean had said. My senses could easily go past the barrier from this direction. Scent is my strongest sense when I let my wolf hold sway. I could smell bread baking and whatever nasty thing Daniel had been forced to drink. Medicine never tastes or smells good. I catalogued the people around me. Erna had recently bathed and used a soap with a rosy smell to it. Someone had hung laundry up to dry, and it had the same scent combined with the sunshine that seems to cling to line-dried clothes. Beyond that I smelled the clean scent of pine and…
“Shit, it’s a demon.” I moved in front of the royals.
“A demon?” Dean moved next to me, and I would give the kid props for not running the other way. “How can you tell?”
His education started now. “The scent of brimstone and caffeine always gives them away. I’m pretty sure the coffee breath is a vain attempt to cover up the brimstone. The question is what kind of demon are we dealing with.”
“We don’t have demons here.” Erna sounded shaken. “They can’t access the outer planes. It’s one of the reasons my kind left the Earth plane. Or so the history books claim. Any demon who comes here is merely passing through. The Planeswalker clans cause no trouble here.”
“Apparently they kidnap companions, so I would say that’s trouble,” the queen pointed out. “Can whoever is out there get through the barrier?”
“They should walk right past it,” Dean explained. “Don’t get me wrong. If it can find the barrier it’s possible to push through it, but I doubt it’s going to find the wall. It’s nothing to worry about.”
But then I saw it. Red eyes glowing in the gloom of the night. Whatever it was, that sucker was tall. It moved from the trees to the field, and I started to get the outline of a reed-slender body moving with no grace. It jerked this way and that, as though it couldn’t quite make its muscles move the way they should.
Arwyna floated in the air next to me, her wings moving in a slow beat. The pixie hadn’t strayed far from us. She’d clung to Zoey’s hair or Dev’s, but she seemed to have gotten some of her strength back. “Bad. Bad.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s pretty bad.”
“What is it?” Daniel asked.
“I think it’s a demon.” Quinn moved slightly in front of him.
“It’s not a demon,” Erna argued. “Like I said, the only demons around here are Planeswalkers, and they don’t come out this far. They stick close to the doors.”
“Could we follow one back to the Earth plane?” Daniel asked.
“I don’t think we want to follow that demon.” Something was wrong with it. Even from a distance I could tell. I felt the weight of the sword in my hand.
“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Dean replied. “They don’t like it when you follow them. They will take you somewhere, but like I said before, the price is your soul.”
“But if we laid in wait,” Daniel began.
“You could end up on a plane of existence where there’s no oxygen.” Erna had moved closer. “He should be turning away. You’re right. That’s a Planeswalker. What is it doing so far from a door? This is not the path it normally takes.”
The path it was taking was about to lead it right to us. Though the demon swayed and generally wouldn’t pass a field sobriety test, it was still making its way to the cottage.
It was closer now, and I could see that it wore dark robes. The hood had fallen back, and I could see those red eyes and stark features. It looked like the demon had been given too little skin to stretch over its body. Everything about it was lean to the point of miserliness.
Still, what was coming our way was a demon, and that meant no matter what it looked like, it was dangerous.
“I should talk to it.” Daniel’s shoulders squared and he got that kingly vibe.
Unfortunately he didn’t have the kingly strength and invulnerability to go with it.
“Talk to it?” Zoey had stepped in front of Dan. “You’re not going out there.”
“I’m still the king,” Dan said.
“I’ll go with him.” It would kill the king to take a back seat. Zoey was his wife and Quinn his partner. They wanted to coddle and protect him, but I knew that man and what it would mean to him. It would mean he wasn’t enough if he wasn’t a vampire. It was a lesson he wouldn’t forget, and it could hurt him long after I’d stabbed him and made him turn again, which quite frankly couldn’t happen fast enough for me. “He’s the king. All the demons know that.”
“Kelsey, I know what you’re trying to do, but that demon will be able to tell Daniel is not…himself.” Quinn spoke in quiet tones as though trying to soften the blow his words would create. “If demonkind knows the king is…”
“Weak.” The king spat the word like it was bile in his mouth. “If demonkind thinks something is wrong with me it could hurt negotiations.”
“Oh, god. Is that the reason Myrddin did it?” The queen covered her mouth as though the question had escaped.
Daniel turned to her. “What? Why would he do this to me?”
“Myrddin wants the negotiations to go well.” Quinn looked a little exasperated.
Zoey’s hands came down and went to her hips, and I knew she was getting ready to fight. “Is that why he put a thrall stone in the back of your skulls?”
“Well, it’s really more in the front,” Dean explained. “You see there’s this part of the brain…”
“There’s no stone in my brain,” Daniel argued.
“I would know if there was something wrong with my mind.” Quinn was shaking his head. “Hello, ancient god inside. He knows when things go wrong.”
“He wouldn’t know about this if it was done properly. I would use a stasis chamber. I would convince you there was something wrong with you and naturally you would need someone to stabilize you. Once I had you in stasis I could easily inject the thrall stone. Did your wife convince you to do it?” Erna crossed her arms over her chest and seemed not so concerned that there was a demon halfheartedly making his way to us. “She must have paid a powerful witch.”
“I told you it wasn’t me,” Zoey insisted.
I moved toward the barrier. The demon had fallen, but it looked like he knew how to get up.
“Myrddin would never have done something like that…what are we talking about?” Daniel asked.
“Someone got stoned,” Dev replied as though it was perfectly natural to forget an important argument. “Or something like it. I can’t wait for Myrddin to find us. I want to get home. Do you think he’ll help us break Summer out?”
“It gets worse when the thrall stone realizes someone knows about it.” Dean had moved to stand beside me.
“It thinks?” I didn’t like the idea. Of course there wasn’t a lot I liked about the situation, including the fact that the demon kept coming.
“Daniel, Myrddin set you up,” Zoey was insisting.
“I think the Planeswalker knows we’re here,” Dean said quietly beside me. “Are you going to talk to it? Erna was right. They typically don’t cause trouble, but t
his doesn’t look like a typical Planeswalker.”
“Myrddin set me up to succeed,” Daniel said.
Oh, I was going to stay out of this particular situation altogether. Like even when we eventually got back to the Earth plane, I was hiding away. I did not want to be the one to tell the most powerful witch in the world that she likely had spent the last decade of her life humping a guy because he’d given her the ultimate roofie. That’s what the queen was going to have to do. As for me, I was going to do what I did best. Go and deal with something weird and creepy that might try to kill me.
It wasn’t like my boss would notice. He was way too busy arguing with his wife about being stoned.
“Hey, uhm, I don’t know that you should do this.” Dean jogged to keep up with me. “Like Erna said, it probably won’t get in.”
“Nah, it knows we’re here. It’s trying to find us.” I knew when something was coming for me. You say paranoid. I say I’m not dead yet. I stopped at the edge of the barrier. From this side I could see it. It was a shimmer that let me know where safety stopped and danger began.
The demon fell, knees hitting the ground.
Even on its damn knees it was likely the same height I was.
“Your mom met one of these things?” I asked Dean.
“Yeah. Going to be honest, I always kind of thought she was exaggerating. Turns out that really is scary as hell.” Dean turned to me. “It looks like it’s done.”
The demon had slumped down as though it could no longer function.
Dean sighed. “But you’re going to talk to it, aren’t you?”
It was good the kid was getting to know me. “Oh, yeah.”
I stepped through the protection of the barrier as I heard Quinn call out my name. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to stop. I had some questions, and a tired demon might want to talk. We were stuck on this plane, and here was a demon who knew where all the doors were. Nah, I wasn’t going to play it safe.