Steal the Sun (20 page)

“And I wanted to be loved for my good looks,” Daniel muttered. “Fine. Lee hasn’t gotten back yet. I expected him back before now. How far could a kid get? Anyway, Neil can stay with you.”

“Of course,” Neil said, sitting down beside me. “We’ll pop some corn and watch some
E
. Oh, yeah, we’re in ‘medieval world’ where they don’t have TVs. Trust me. It will be so easy to watch Z since I don’t have anything else to do.”

“See that you do,” Daniel said, his voice a low rumble. Neil turned his eyes away, and I could see his mouth was tight. I decided that after I saved Dev, I was going to go to Felix and set up some family therapy because the cold war between Danny and Neil was starting to get to me.

I patted Neil’s hand and tried to look pathetic. “I just want to go to bed, sweetie. I need some alone time. I need to process, if you know what I mean.”

“You need to cry,” Neil replied quietly. “You know my shoulder is always there for you. I’ll stay out here. Do you want to know a secret, Z? I smuggled in a battery operated DVD player. If you need something to take your mind off things, I brought along some movies.”

I wanted to kiss him because Neil being out here and involved in some flick watching was perfect. He would still be able to hear me if I yelled, but his senses weren’t what they used to be. Since he stopped taking Daniel’s blood, he’d become more of a regular wolf than the superpower he had been. I wondered if it hurt him. I knew he’d been proud to be so strong. Now Zack was the one taking the vampire blood and reaping the benefits. As for Lee, he was a freak of nature and didn’t need anything to help him out. I bet it bothered Neil to be the weakest in his pack.

Danny knelt down. “Sarah says she needs me. God, I hate the magic crap. Give me something to behead any day of the week. I love you, Z. I’m going to fix this. I’m not going to let Dev die on us. You get some rest. I’ll tell you what we find out in the morning.”

I nodded and let my arms wind around his broad shoulders while he kissed me soundly. Dev was right behind him. When Danny left to join Sarah, Dev scooped me up and started to carry me toward the bedroom. “I’ll be right with you,” he said to the group. “I want to tuck my goddess in and say good night.”

Declan snorted. “I will bet that is what you want to do. Take your time, brother. I will do your part while you say good night.”

Dev pushed through the door and carried me to the bed. He crawled in with me. His eyes practically ate me up. “I love you, Zoey. I will fight this. You know I will, don’t you?”

Those stupid tears were back, clouding my vision. “I know. I love you, too.”

“But if anything should go wrong…”

“Don’t.” I didn’t want to hear any of it.

He put a finger on my lips to silence me. “You should know this. If anything goes wrong, I have a will filed on our plane. Albert has all the information on the attorney. It leaves everything to you. Daniel knows where all the money is. He knows how to run the businesses or he knows who to call. He can handle everything, but you will be well provided for.”

“I just want you.” I didn’t care about the damn money or the club or any of it. It wouldn’t mean anything if he was gone.

He pushed me back onto the bed. “I know. But I want you to be happy, Zoey. I want you to go on with Daniel and I want the two of you to raise this baby if anything should happen to me. Now get some sleep and before you know it we will be crawling into your bed and begging you to do all manner of dirty things with us.”

He kissed me and pushed himself up. I was suddenly in the presence of Bris. His eyes and demeanor changed faster than I had ever seen it.

“Goddess, I have only a moment while my host is disoriented,” he explained. “I am not foolish. I know you plan something with the Hunter. I know him well and he would not have spoken with you had he not intended to use you. I won’t tell my host. I know you seek to help him, but be careful with the Hunter. He isn’t evil but he is a predator.”

“I have his oath that he won’t harm me,” I said.

Bris nodded. “Excellent. He won’t break an oath. Good luck, goddess.” He went still for a moment and then his smile was sweet. I knew that Dev was aware now. “I have no intention of leaving you either, goddess. I will do whatever I can to keep my host healthy. You have my vow.” He leaned over and kissed me, running his hands over my nipples and making me wish we had more time. “Sleep well,” he said before walking out.

I frowned after him. Every nerve ending in my body was ready for more of his touch and he told me to sleep well. I was suddenly glad I had somewhere to be because I would never be able to sleep now.

Lying back on the big bed, I waited for the sounds in the outer room to die down. After a long while I heard Sarah say good night to Neil and the outer doors close. When I was certain Neil had time to retrieve his bit of home, I climbed carefully out of the bed and made my way to the small backpack I’d stored in the closet. I pulled out my cut-off denims and black tank top and, more importantly, my Nikes. I’d brought along a couple of articles of clothing from home strictly for comfort. I knew the denim would be an odd sight in this world, but it was better than running around in a dress I’d already tripped in once tonight. I wasn’t going gallivanting through the woods looking like a refuge from Shakespeare in the Park.

After getting comfy, I opened the chest at the end of the bed. It was stuffed full of Dev’s two favorite things—sex toys and weapons. I ignored the vibrators despite the awful state that mean old fertility god left me in and went straight for the guns. After I retrieved my Ruger, I found the cold iron rounds and loaded up, shoving an extra clip in my pocket. I didn’t care who knew I was carrying here since they didn’t exactly have a concealed handgun law, so I slipped a shoulder holster over my tank top. Never one to rely on merely one weapon, I strapped on two thigh sheaths for the knives I selected. One was cold iron because it worked like magic on faeries and the other silver because that worked on just about anything else. Once I pulled my hair into a ponytail, I was ready to go.

I was pulling the curtains shut in case Neil looked in on me when Barghest and Shuck popped their heads over the window sill. I put a hand to my lips and the dogs stayed silent. As quietly as I could, I threw a leg over the opening and suddenly found myself in Herne’s strong arms. He lifted me to the ground and had a smile on his face as he steadied me. “This is an interesting costume. It will make it much easier to move than your dress. Are you ready then, Your Grace?”

I took a deep breath and nodded because I was as ready as I was going to get.

Herne the Hunter took my hand and we ran off into the night.

Chapter Twelve

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked once we got past the palace walls. We had to be quiet as the whole palace was guarded. We’d waited in some bushes while the guards made their rounds. The minute they went past us, we leapt over the high white walls that separated the queen’s abode from the valley. Well, Herne leapt. I kind of tried to rock climb. Finally Shuck took pity on me and let me climb on his back and then over the high wall. If Herne had wanted Spider Girl then he’d come to the wrong place.

He motioned to the woods in the distance. “There. We’re going to a place deep in that forest.”

“And what, exactly, are we looking for?” I probably didn’t want to know, but I asked the question anyway.

“An ogre.”

Nope, I didn’t want to know. An ogre is a big, nasty creature that likes to gnaw on human flesh. Oh, it would pretty much eat any flesh it came across, but it was particularly attracted to flesh that talked back to it. Its pet peeves included anyone walking into its territory and anyone thinking about walking into its territory. The ogre’s likes included eviscerating those foolish enough to walk into its territory. It’s important to stay out of the big dude’s space or he will polish you off with a nice side salad.

I’m joking about that last part. He would never eat salad.

“Are you insane?” I stopped my forward progress since every step brought me closer to the
No Trespassing
sign.

Herne turned and the dogs sat back on their haunches. “Look, Your Grace…”

“Call me Zoey.” I wanted to be on a first name basis with the last person I would probably see.

“All right then, Zoey,” he said with a satisfied smile before continuing his explanation. “As far as I can tell, to this point the ogre has remained undetected. It has probably eaten anyone who might have reported its presence. The ogre shouldn’t be in these woods. It’s not a Seelie creature.”

“So, there are a lot of non-Seelies in this
sithein
.”

Herne nodded. “But they have the queen’s permission to live here. For the most part, they’re fairly helpful creatures. The ogre is neither helpful nor would it be welcome.”

I got that. Creatures who liked to eat people were not welcome. “So Miria doesn’t know there’s an ogre currently laying down roots in her forest?”

“No, and I intend to make it so she never knows.” Herne seemed to think that was enough of an explanation so he and the dogs started back up the hill.

I rolled my eyes and gathered my patience. I had to run to catch up. “So how did Shrek get here?”

He looked at me curiously.

My extensive pop culture knowledge was lost on these people. “The ogre. How did he get here?”

“Oh,” he said, finally understanding. He nodded and began walking again. “That remains a mystery.”

Yeah, I bet it was. I was pretty damn sure there was more to the story. “I doubt it just popped into existence in the middle of a Seelie
sithein
.”

“Fine. The ogre was ours,” he conceded. “It’s lived in the woods outside of Angus’s stronghold for as long as anyone can remember. It served a purpose there as a sort of defense mechanism. We’ve always made sure he was properly taken care of. We fed him regularly and even treated him with condemned prisoners to feast upon. He had a good life.”

“Nice,” I said, but my sarcasm was wasted on him. “So ogre boy is living the high life but he just up and leaves one day? Maybe he got lonely and went looking for an ogress to call his own.”

“It doesn’t work that way. He wouldn’t think to seek a mate. He would take a female if we managed to produce one, but he wouldn’t leave to look for one. You must understand that the ogre is first and foremost a stupid creature. It’s a miracle that it ever learned how to wield a club as a weapon. It doesn’t think beyond eating and taking a nice long nap.”

I kept my mouth closed because he could easily be talking about Lee, too.

“It does nothing on its own.” Herne’s long legs ate up the distance, and I jogged to keep up. He was dressed in brown pants made from some sort of animal skin and a linen shirt. He had tall leather boots on and a cape with a hood over his shoulders though it was a warm evening.

“So it probably wouldn’t have gone for a long walk and crossed into the Seelie sithein?”

“No, Zoey,” Herne said with a frown. “It wouldn’t leave its territory on its own. It must have had help from someone.”

Things started to fall into place. There was only one real reason to smuggle in an ogre. “It had help from someone who wanted to start something with the Seelie.”

“If by something, you mean the war to end all wars, then yes, they wished to start something.”

“Yeah,” I commented. “We had one of those wars to end all wars on the Earth plane. Didn’t live up to the name. We’re still fighting.”

“Well, you did not do it right, then. I assure you, when the fighting starts this time, we will kill them all and they intend to do the same to us,” Herne said bitterly. “We Fae tend to be thorough.”

“Why?” Not even Dev had been able to explain the real animosity between the two tribes. Declan had personal reasons, but there were Seelies who had never even met an Unseelie yet they called for their blood at the merest provocation. “I know you’re different but you come from the same place. Why do you hate each other so much?”

He stopped. We’d reached the start of the forest. We’d been walking for thirty or forty minutes and now he pulled out a flask and settled down on the ground. “Sit for a moment, Your Grace. We still have much ground to cover.” I dropped down beside him, and after a moment he began to speak. He took a long drink but didn’t offer it to me. I was betting it wasn’t water. “I think it’s a lot of things that cause our hatred. My people are straightforward. They say what they mean and mean what they say. The Seelie are anything but. They play with a person mentally. They compliment, but their words have two meanings. They skirt the definition of a lie. We don’t understand them so we keep ourselves apart in a way we didn’t when we were all on the Earth plane.”

“A couple of years back I met a group of faeries who claimed to be Tuatha Dé Danann.” The Tuatha Dé Danann were a legendary group of Fae who led the second settling of Ireland and who, if you believed the legends, left the Earth plane altogether when they were defeated in battle. Well, most of them left. The ones who stayed behind built the mounds attached to the Earth plane, like the one I was sitting in. The Tuatha Dé Danann had traveled by passing through the veil between worlds. It was a talent that had been lost to this plane.