Steal the Sun (49 page)

He laughed, a sound that was somewhere between a guffaw and a rasping cough. “Unfortunately, I can’t take you up on that generous offer. It’s a shame because I would love to know what it is about you the sex god found so amusing he was willing to give up all those other women.”

“Sounds like a damn good reason to keep me alive.” I meant what I told the Hunter. I don’t believe in death before dishonor. I believed in staying alive for just another hour and a half so Danny could wake up and kill this asshole.

“Tempting, but no.” Con turned me down as he pulled me to my knees. His hand wrapped in my hair, holding me in place. I was going to have to rethink my hairdo. Too many times some asshole used it against me. “The war is about to start and I do want your head on my pike. Your husband will be the first to see it as I march across the field of battle. He’ll sound the horn of war before Miria or Angus can even think to talk.”

Con held my head at a rough angle as the red caps began to chant. I wasn’t sure what they were chanting, but I was pretty certain it wasn’t anything I wanted to hear. The hold Con had on my head hurt, but my throat was vulnerable and completely exposed. I could vaguely see Con hold up a hand to bring forward one of the goblins. He moved forward with a broad sword. It looked too heavy for the squat, fierce creature but he wielded it like it was nothing. All in all I was certain he’d been well trained as an executioner.

“I am merciful, Your Grace. I grant you a painless death. Your blood will stain their caps for our glorious battle,” Con said with flourish as the goblin raised the sword to swing it in an arc that would separate my head from my body.

I let the small but sharp knife fall into my hand and as hard as I could, shoved it behind me, my aim finding that soft sac that all men carry at the center of their universe. I sank the knife in deep even as Con screamed and let me go. I felt the sword swing above my head as I hit the ground.

I was on my feet as quickly as possible while I still had the confusion of my actions and Con’s girlie screams to give me a few seconds. I ran for the house, thinking to find a place to hide, but a strong wind forced me back to my knees even as I could see the door that might mean my freedom.

The goblins were regrouping, and Con was shouting my name. I didn’t think he would be so merciful the next time he got his hands on me. I was being called everything a man could think of to call a woman he truly detested.

I fought to get up, but that wind was too strong. My heart sank as I realized it was another one of those blasted eddy winds that seemed to plague me. The goblins had sent for reinforcements. They had excellent timing as they had managed to neatly block my escape.

Bodies fell to the ground around me.

“Damn it,” I heard a familiar voice growl. “That’s the worst ride I’ve ever had. Who the hell taught you to drive? I think I’m going to be sick. Why don’t you people just use cars?”

Even as he complained bitterly, Lee bounced up, ready to take down anything that came his way.

“I agree, brother.” Declan’s voice came next. “You are terrible at that. I am going to learn how to catch an eddy wind just so I never have to allow you to drive again.”

“I didn’t have any problem with it, boss. It was fine.” I had never been so happy to hear Zack suck up.

I looked up and my husband smiled down at me, his hand held out to help me stand. “Hello, my wife. It looks like you could use some help.”

Chapter Thirty

I launched myself off the ground and into his arms, sighing with pleasure as they wrapped around me. “You came for me.”

“I will always come for you,” Dev promised as he hugged me fiercely. “Even when I prove myself to be a stupid ass, I will always wake up and come for you. I realized that everything I loved was over here, wife. My future was here and I couldn’t give it up for revenge. Please forgive me.”

“Zoey, please forgive my brother later as we have an army of red caps ready to slaughter us, and I don’t think they will wait for your tender reunion,” Declan said even as he notched an arrow. He pulled the bowstring back to an impossible spread. I’d seen Declan use his weapon before and I believed his boast that he was the greatest archer in all of Faery.

“Zachary, Lee,” a deep, soothing voice said. I looked up and saw Bris had taken over. He looked…angrier than I had ever seen him. Bris was gentle and kind. He was patient, but there was nothing of that Bris in his face now. “Please protect my goddess. Where is Daniel?” He directed his question at me.

Lee and Zachary began to lead me away from the fertility god as Declan started letting his arrows fly faster than any human would have been able to manage. “He’s safe as far as I know. He’s with Neil.”

The red caps stopped advancing as Con held his hands up. He looked over our small party and let out a hearty laugh. “Welcome, Prince Declan. I couldn’t ask for a better guest to join us in these proceedings. And the priest was stupid enough to come after his bride.”

“He isn’t alone,” Bris said solemnly. He stepped forward, his big body a target, but he stood in front of the group as though we were his to defend.

Con smiled, showing small, curved goblin fangs. “Yes, I heard you had ascended. Your time in the priest will be short lived, My Lord. So Prince Declan, you brought along a fertility god to fight a war. I’m afraid you’re outgunned, unless you intend that we all fuck each other to death.”

“Con,” Declan acknowledged with a frown. It was obvious he knew the half
sidhe
and didn’t care for him, but there was nothing new on that front. “I suppose Angus does not know about your treason.” A terrible thought hit Declan and he blanched. “Please tell me you were not working with the Duke of Ain. Say it was anybody but him because you have to know that my sister-in-law will never stop saying she told me so. I will hear it as long as she has a voice to speak.”

“I told you so,” I yelled from behind my wolf guards. Declan was right about one thing. I would be saying those words a whole lot in his near future. If we made it out of this alive.

“Damn it. I hate it when she’s right.” Declan turned back to Con. “You will pay for your crimes. Tell me something before we kill you, Con. Where is the woman who owns this house? Was she in residence? Has she been taken prisoner as well?”

“She got away,” I told Declan, who nodded and turned back to his task.

“How exactly do you intend to make me pay for my crimes?” Con asked arrogantly. He held his arms wide, indicating his men. “I have an army of killers willing to do my bidding. You have a fertility god, two men, and a helpless girl.”

“I wasn’t so helpless when I carved up your balls, Con,” I pointed out.

Zack laughed out loud and seemed far too relaxed for a man who was facing down an army.

“Lee.” Anxiety made my stomach churn because that nasty old Con was making sense. We were horribly outnumbered. “Shouldn’t we get up there and help Dev? Tell me you brought guns and maybe a tank.”

“We have everything we need, Zoey.” Lee didn’t take his eyes off the scene in front of him. “You stayed alive and you castrated a son of a bitch. You did your job, darlin’. Now let your husband do his.”

“I’m going to kill you, bitch,” Con promised. “And I’ll make your husband watch when I take your head.”

“You arrogant fool,” Bris said darkly. “Those who deal in death always forget how powerful life can be.”

There was a mighty rumble as the earth beneath us began to shake. I could see plainly that it wasn’t an earthquake. Earthquakes don’t just happen in a small area leaving everything else untouched. The house behind us was still, completely unaffected by the cracks that began to form in the ground beneath the army. I started to fall, but Lee held me up. The sound of all that dirt moving seemed to fill the yard as I had a sense of something big coming.

“It’s all right, Zoey,” Lee said.

The ground spat up a thicket of rope-like vines that came from seemingly every inch of the yard where a red cap stood. I watched as their red eyes popped open in surprise as they lost their footing. They tried to move away. They tried to run, but there was nowhere to go as the ground drank them up, hungrily pulling them under.

The goblins fought and tried to claw their way out, but the vines just pulled harder until there was no one left on the field. I was struck by the sudden quiet and how the ground shifted easily back to its formerly perfect state. It was like nothing had happened. No one who had not seen the deed could believe an entire army was now held in hard dirt.

“Damn,” Zack said beside me, respect plain in his voice. “I’m totally not pissing Bris off.”

Bris, however, was not through. He looked back at me. “Are there more, my goddess?”

I nodded silently before finding my voice. I was with Zack. I was impressed, too. “There were several in the house. Six, I think.”

Bris held his hand up and a dozen thick vines with wicked thorns appeared from the ground around him.

“Bring them,” he commanded, and I watched as they sank back into the dirt, their movement visible as the ground swelled above them. They raced toward the house to do their master’s bidding. It wasn’t long before the goblins in the house were pulled screaming into the yard to join their brethren in an earthy grave.

“Goddess,” Bris commanded me, and Lee allowed me to go to him. “Was the man named Con the one who tried to harm you?”

“Yes,” I replied, still coming to terms with what I had seen. “He thought if he killed me, he could make sure Dev wouldn’t back down.”

Bris arched an eyebrow as he walked out into the now perfectly kept yard. He moved methodically, as though he was looking for something. My attention was taken away from him as the Hunter and Arawn entered the yard at a run. They pulled to a stop as they saw our party.

“Zoey, what’s happening?” Arawn asked. “The goblins guarding us were taken away by vegetation.”

“Well, I didn’t get beheaded, asshole,” I said, looking at him with a frown.

Arawn wasn’t taking my shit. He took me by the shoulders and shook me. “Answer me, Your Grace.”

Lee and Zack growled and Bris looked up from what he was doing.

“I suggest you take your hands off my goddess, Death Lord, unless you wish to discover firsthand what I did with the red caps,” Bris warned.

Arawn immediately let me go and took a healthy step back. “I apologize, Bris. I didn’t realize you had joined us. It’s been a trying afternoon.” He looked back at me and I saw some emotion in those dark eyes. “Do you know where Nim is?”

“She took your advice,” I told him shortly. “She’s probably halfway to the Earth plane by now. I’m sure she will wait for you there.”

He nodded and seemed satisfied. Bris stopped over a spot and seemed to have found what he was looking for. He held his hand low to the ground and then pulled it up in a sudden motion.

Con was spat from the ground and came up coughing. Before he could clear his lungs of the dirt, he found himself suspended in midair by thick vines. Bris looked up at him.

“What did you intend to do to my goddess?” Bris asked, his voice terse.

Con glared down at the fertility god. He wasn’t one for begging or pleading. As the Hunter had explained to me the night before, the Unseelie were a direct lot. “I intended to have that bitch’s head on my pike when I marched into war.”

“Did you believe she was undefended? Did you think because my power is fertility and sex that I could not defend my own goddess?” Bris bit out the questions with barely contained rage. “Do you think a god like me is soft and will let what he loves go because he would rather not fight?”

“I don’t give a shit.” Con took a deep breath and seemed to ready himself. “Put me back in the ground. I’m immortal. I am Unseelie
sidhe
, and a few years in the dirt will do nothing but harden my resolve.”

“Then you leave me no choice,” Bris said evenly. “Though the truth is you sealed your fate the moment you laid hands on her.”

The fertility god’s hands twisted and a new vine popped up and wrapped itself around Con’s throat. The
sidhe
struggled but he was held tightly and after a horrifying moment, I realized that vine wasn’t attempting to strangle him. Bris was proving he didn’t need a piece of steel to accomplish what Con had failed at. That vine squeezed until blood began to flow.

Con’s head popped off with a sickening click and fell to the ground.

“Damn.” Lee breathed beside me, his brown eyes wide with awe. He actually took my hand and pulled me back.

Bris looked down as Con’s body disappeared into the ground once more, never to rise again.

“So much for your immortality,” he said to the man who would never answer. Bris turned toward me, and I saw his face fall as he noted my wolf’s protective stance.

“My violence has frightened you,” Bris said in a quiet voice that made me worry he was ashamed.

I wasn’t having that. My head was on my body and that was a win. Wins should be celebrated. I pulled free from Lee and launched myself bodily at my savior. Bris braced himself for impact and allowed me to wrap my legs around his waist as my arms found his neck and I kissed him with a laugh of great joy. I pressed my lips to his as I stroked his face.