by Lexi Blake
“I’m coming,” a deep voice said. “You don’t have to push me and you don’t have to point that thing at me.”
“I don’t have to.” Lee growled as Zack continued to point his gun at the faery. “I’m just enjoying it. If you’ve killed the vampire, I think I’ll enjoy taking you apart piece by piece.”
“It wasn’t me, idiot.” Roarke’s tone was harsh, a little gravelly. “All you’ll do is kill me and it won’t hurt Arawn at all. He’ll just find a new imbecile to inhabit and he and Nim will go their own way.”
“Roarke,” Nim reached out for him.
“Shut up, Nim. You’re just the same as Arawn. You both want to use me to your own ends. I don’t want to talk to either of you.” Roarke was pushed into the room, all three wolves surrounding him.
“Guys,” I said to the wolves. “I don’t think Roarke is going to do anything to hurt Daniel. It’s the other one’s fault.”
Lee shook his head in annoyance. “I hate this whole sharing bodies thing. There should be a one person per body rule. I never know who I should beat the crap out of.”
“Well, it isn’t me,” Roarke insisted. “How can I help you, Your Grace?”
I had a feeling the question had been directed at Dev. Roarke bowed his head to the priest with the greatest respect.
“This man is my partner,” Dev said with quiet determination. “How has the death lord injured him?”
Nim stepped forward. I was a little sad to see her former light had dimmed. “Arawn can feed off the energy that comes from the reanimated dead. Usually there is little even from a vampire. Daniel’s unique DNA makes him different. Arawn told me last night that he has an enormous amount of energy pouring off of him.”
“Well, there doesn’t seem to be much now, does there?” Dev stood and walked to Nim. He towered over her but he didn’t seem to mind intimidating the small woman. “We’ve been friends, Nim. I’ve aided you at times. I know that you and Arawn have been lovers for at least a thousand years, so I understand how important he is to you. If Daniel dies, know that I will make it my goal in life to discover a way to destroy him.”
“He didn’t mean any harm, Devinshea,” Nim insisted, her violet eyes pleading.
Dev shook his head, not moved a bit. This was a side few people saw of Dev. For the most part, Dev was calm and friendly. He appeared to be a rather soft, caring man while Daniel was the ruthless killer, but Dev was every bit as merciless as Daniel could be. He just hid it better. “I don’t care whether harm was meant or not. If he dies, I will pursue my course and I won’t stop until I’ve achieved it.”
“I know what happened,” Roarke said. “You don’t have to scare Nim.”
Nim tried to hug Roarke, but he pushed her away gently. “Not now, Nim. Arawn will be back soon and he’ll be happy to hold you.”
I frowned as Nim sank into a chair and looked pretty damn miserable. Roarke turned back to Dev.
“Explain this to me, Roarke,” Dev demanded. “My goddess tells me he was tired but fine last night when they went to bed. Daniel should have been able to rouse himself when our wife was in danger. I have seen him do amazing things, take more damage than any being should be able to when her life is at stake.”
Roarke listened for a moment to a voice in his head. “He was fine last night. Arawn had ceased his slow feed on the vampire. It was the danger he was placed in when the red caps caught up with us that caused him to drain the vampire.”
“Drain him?” I didn’t like the sound of that. Anytime the word drain is used in the same sentence as vampire, something has gone wrong.
Roarke nodded. “When Arawn is in danger, he tends to pull energy from anything he can feed from that happens to be within range. It’s an instinct. This time he pulled so much energy from the vampire trying to fight off the red caps that it put the vampire in a comatose state.”
“How do we get him out of it?” I asked.
Black eyes rolled forward and Arawn finally made an appearance. “You do not, Your Grace. I’m afraid I pulled far too much energy from the vampire. He won’t come back from it.”
My heart beat against my ribs. “What the hell do you mean?”
The death god had the good grace to look ashamed. “I thought we all were going to die. I reached out without thinking and by the time I realized what I’d done, it was too late. It didn’t matter anyway. The goblins were prepared for death magic. They easily fought back against everything I tried. They had charms and spells prepared for me. They apparently hadn’t planned on the fertility god showing up.”
“Are you trying to tell us Daniel is dead?” Lee asked the question Dev and I could not.
“He isn’t,” Zack insisted. “I still feel him, Zoey. He’s in there. He’s just trapped and he’s getting weaker by the second. Try giving him blood.”
I turned to try because I would open all my veins if it would wake him up.
Arawn’s hand came out to stop me. “It won’t help. You’ll merely weaken yourself. He won’t be able to take the blood. You, wolf, try to feed your master. Your mistress won’t believe until she sees it for herself.”
Zack got a stubborn look on his face. He pulled the knife from his boot. “I’ll feed my master. Once he has some blood in him, you’ll see that he’s still with us. I would know if he was gone.”
Neil watched Zack with a compassionate look on his face. Zack quickly, and without a single grimace to show the pain he caused, drew the knife across his wrist. Blood welled, rich and thick and it spilled over Daniel’s mouth. Even if Daniel had been in his sleep state, he should have reacted to that blood. His mouth should have opened and let the blood work its way down his throat. Daniel was perfectly still and Zack’s blood ran across his closed lips and down his face. Zack cursed as his wrist closed and he tried again.
“Zack, it’s no use.” Lee said, his gravelly voice filled with sympathy for his only brother.
Zack frowned. “I have to try.”
“No, Zack,” I said quietly, feeling tears start to run down my cheeks. “We need to find another way.” I wasn’t willing to give up.
“He won’t be able to feed,” Arawn stated relentlessly. “He’s only alive now because of what he is. Had he not been a king, he would be dead. As it stands, he will fade. It will not be painful for him.”
“It will be goddamn painful for me.” I hated him in that moment. I looked to Dev. “We have to get him home. Maybe Marcus knows something. Maybe Sarah knows something. There has to be a way to save him.”
“Perhaps I can be of assistance, goddess,” Bris’s gentle voice offered. He stared down at me.
“You can’t be serious,” Arawn said, looking at the fertility god inhabiting Dev’s body. “That’s insane.”
I ignored him. Nothing mattered except our little family. I looked into Bris’s emerald eyes. “Can you help him?’
“I believe I can.” He brushed the tears from my cheeks. There was the saddest look on his face as though he wasn’t sure it would work and he feared what would happen if it didn’t.
“Why?” Arawn asked, genuinely shocked at Bris’s offer. “Why would you do this for them? You’re an immortal god. They’re nothing compared to what you have seen and done. Why risk it?”
Bris considered the death god with a sad shake of his head. “You have walked the planes of existence for millennia, Arawn, and yet you still have no comprehension of what it means to be alive. There is no point to life without love. Love, at times, requires risk. It would not be worth having if you never had to sacrifice for it.”
“What are you going to do?” The way Arawn was talking made me think that whatever Bris was going to do would be hard on him.
“Make you smile again, sweet goddess.” He bent down and planted a simple kiss on my forehead, then his hand shot out and he covered Daniel’s chest with his palm.
Daniel’s body jumped like it had been struck with electricity. Dev’s body kind of crumpled to the floor as if all the life had gone ou
t of it. I heard my little scream as I tried to figure out which one to touch first.
I dropped to my knees as Daniel’s eyes flew open.
“Zoey,” he said before he could see anything.
“I’m here.” I put my hand over his heart. He was warmer now, so much warmer than he’d been before. Life had been rushed into his body, a warm wave that brought him back to me. Bris had done this. Bris had saved me and then brought Daniel back.
“What happened?” he asked, trying to sit up. “Why am I covered in blood?” He wiped his hand across his mouth and then drew his fingers onto his lips. He tried to focus, but I could tell it was hard. “Zack, are you all right?”
Zack smiled. “Yes, sir. I was just trying to prove a point.”
Whatever Daniel would have said to that was lost as he realized Dev was with us. “Dev?” He forced himself to sit up. “Jesus, Z, what the hell is wrong with Dev?”
“I don’t know.” I panicked a little. I couldn’t save one husband just to lose the other. I felt Dev’s neck, trying to find a pulse. My hands shook.
“Zoey,” Daniel said, taking my hand in his. “He’s alive. I hear his heart beating. Why is he unconscious? He came for us?”
I nodded. “Lee led him here to save us. The red caps are gone, thanks to Bris.”
“Really?” Daniel asked, not quite believing me.
“You’re alive because of Bris, vampire,” Arawn said, his voice almost accusatory. “He sacrificed everything for you.”
Dev’s eyes came open slowly. “Zoey, is Daniel…”
“I’m here,” Daniel said.
Dev smiled weakly. “Thank the goddess, it worked.”
“What exactly worked, Dev?” I asked.
Dev took a long breath, his chest rising and falling in a beautiful life-giving pattern. “Daniel had been drained by death magic. It put him into a comatose state, but it hadn’t killed him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t feel, couldn’t feed. Bris thought he could jump-start his system.”
“With what?” I was afraid I knew the answer.
“With his essence,” Dev said sadly. “I don’t feel him anymore.”
“He’s gone?” I’d always felt odd around Bris, and now I wept his loss. Tears blurred my vision as I thought about the consequences of what Bris had done for me. For us. He was part of our family. He’d done this for us.
“Yes, Your Grace,” Arawn said bitterly. “All that power, all that magic is gone because he couldn’t stand to see you cry. He might never be able to reintegrate with the priest.”
Dev shook his head. “I don’t know. He’s strong and Zoey moves him. I believe he’ll try again. He certainly intends to. He hopes that with the magnification the temple can provide that we’ll be able to bond again, though it will be a while before he is back at his full power.”
I suddenly felt a warm breeze flutter around me and I knew it was him. “He’s still here. I feel him. He’s surrounding me.”
And it was about more than me. Bris knew how Dev felt about Daniel, too. There was a connection between them. I would have called it a brotherhood at one point, but I couldn’t anymore. There was more to it. There was love between them. Bris understood that. Bris had sacrificed himself for that love.
Arawn huffed a little. “Yes, he’s here. He is immortal but he is without a body. He’s weakened and it will take a lot of magic to allow his taking of another host.”
“Shut up, Arawn,” Nim said suddenly. “You don’t know him. You’re judging him by your standards. He loves them. He will be determined to get back to them. Just because you’re a coward doesn’t mean he is.”
“Nim!” Arawn looked at his lover, shocked at her outburst.
She stood up and looked strangely determined. “It’s not that I don’t love you. I do. I love you so much it hurts, and I have since the day I saw you so many years ago it would shock the people in this room. The fertility god was right. We have forgotten why we live in the first place. I used to have a job. I used to be important. Now I follow after you hoping that one day you’ll let me try to have a baby.”
“You know why I think that is a bad idea,” Arawn argued.
“Yes, the child would more than likely be mortal.” This seemed like an argument Nim probably had made many times. “I’m not afraid of loss. I’m afraid of never having anything. I didn’t regret the child I adopted before. I had to watch him die and I loved him. I was richer for being his mother. He knew how to love, Arawn, even when it cost him.”
“He committed treason against his king,” Arawn muttered.
“For love.” Nim took a deep breath and looked at me. “I know I have no right to ask anything of you, Zoey, but if you wouldn’t mind, I would like to go back to the Earth plane with you. I think I know someone who can help your vampire with his heart trouble.”
Arawn’s face flushed. “Not him. He is out of our lives, Nim.”
“He was never truly out of our lives. He can’t be,” Nim returned with a little fire. “He’s the only one who can help, and I’m the only one who knows where I stashed him.”
“Stashed him?” I asked, eyes wide. I couldn’t help but stare at Dev and wonder if Bris would ever reintegrate. He’d given us everything. I wanted him back. I wanted him close. He’d proven himself to me. I could love and trust Bris, and now he’d possibly given us a chance to heal Daniel’s heart.
Nim’s button nose wrinkled. “He was an old mentor of mine. He was a handsy old goat. I kind of cursed him. He should be willing to help if I let him out. He’s had twelve hundred years or so to think about bad touching and why he shouldn’t do it.”
“Okay. If you think he can help then you’re welcome to come with us.” I prayed Bris would come as well.
She bowed her head, a solemn gesture. “Thank you.”
“What if I don’t want to go to the Earth plane and look up your old flame?” Arawn asked.
“I didn’t ask you, Arawn,” Nim said sadly. “I’m leaving you. I need some me time.”
The death god shook his head. “But I love you, Nim.”
She walked to him and went up on tiptoes to kiss him softly. “Then understand that I need a little time. I love you, Arawn, but I don’t like me much anymore.”
Roarke’s dark eyes looked down at her and he smiled. “We’ll still be here, Nim. Go do whatever you need to do and I’ll work on him. Love you, Nim.”
Dev helped Daniel stand up. They both looked weak, as if they had halved their energy between them.
“Let’s get you dressed, Dan,” Dev said. “Unless you intend to stop a war in Superman boxers.”
Daniel grinned. “They were a present from our wife.”
“Yeah, you would never buy those on your own,” Dev teased. He was suddenly serious, his mouth turning down. “Zoey, do you really think he’s still here?”
Daniel reached out and Dev put his hand in his. There was no self-consciousness about it. Their hands melded together in a union I wouldn’t have thought possible a year before.
And then my nipples went hard. Warmth enveloped me like a hug and a… “Yep, it’s Bris. I think he just felt me up.”
“That’s him,” Danny and Dev said at the same time. I watched as their hands squeezed together. There was heat and longing between them. Daniel understood his sacrifice. He pulled Dev close, though they didn’t embrace. Still, there was no distance between them. They were so close, their heads together in peace, in stillness, in prayer.
“Thank you,” Daniel let his cheek rest against Dev’s. “Please let him know. Let him know we want him back. We need him.”
I reached out to them. “Bris, don’t leave us.”
It didn’t matter how long it took. We wanted him back. We needed him. He completed our little family.
A warm wind surrounded me again. It played on my skin. He was here. He would follow until he could join us again. He had no intention of leaving us.
“Help me.”
I turned and was startled to see the Hu
nter standing in the hallway. Sean was asleep on his shoulder, his little mouth wide open and drooling all over the ascended god. The Hunter looked at me pleadingly.
“I do not know what to do with it,” the Hunter said. “Its parents are still yelling at each other. They’re circling each other and questioning each other’s parentage. I tried to point out that both King Angus and Queen Miria were married at the time of their births but it didn’t help.”
I shook my head and took the child from him. Dev and Danny started up the stairs to get Daniel dressed. I sat back in the chair and let Sean sleep on as his parents proved they knew some dirty words.
“Don’t get comfy, boys,” I told the wolves. I still felt Bris close by. He gave me great comfort. “We have to head out ASAP. We need to get to the palace and stop Angus from meeting my mother-in-law.”
Lee put a hand on his belly. “I’ll skip lunch then. If we’re riding that wind again, I don’t want anything on my stomach.”
I sighed. If Lee was willing to give up lunch, I was in for one wild ride.
Chapter Thirty-Two
I held on to Daniel, my arms wrapped around him and not simply because of the way the eddy wind banged through the sky, tossing us all around. I held on to him because I could still see him lying there. The cloud moved violently, but Daniel’s hands were gentle as he twisted this way and that way to take the brunt of the other bodies hitting us as Dev made wild turns.
“This is the spot.” Dev had to scream over the winds and I could still barely hear him.
Daniel had no such trouble. He simply nodded and then kissed my forehead before stepping out of the mist that surrounded us and disappearing.
“You’re next, Zoey.” Dev gave me a little push. “Let Daniel catch you.”
I fell from the wind, the outer edges roaring past my ears like a hurricane. I sped ruthlessly toward the ground and scrambled to get into a good position to hit the dirt because the way Dev had pushed me, I was going to land flat on my ass. I kind of screamed as I hit free-fall speed, and then I landed on Daniel with a resounding thud. He didn’t catch me exactly but his body did stop my fall.