Steal the Light (Thieves) (34 page)

“Yeah, I got that.” If there was one thing I was damn certain of, it was my death. One way or another, that would happen, and sooner than I’d imagined.

Her mouth turned down, a deeply regal look. “You stole something sacred to us.”

There was no talking my way out of that one. “Yes, I did.”

The man came back and whispered something into his mistress’s ear. She nodded and turned her attention back to me. “Your friends are still there. It is going to be a very short trial if you just admit to everything.”

But that was kind of my plan. “I did it. It was me.”

A light went on in her eyes. “Ahh, you seek to take the blame on yourself and save your friends.”

“Except for the other girl. She was totally in on the plot. You should definitely torture her.” She shot me, and I wouldn’t mind having a cell mate. “As a matter of fact, you should force us to work for you for a really long time before our execution.” I didn’t know how much pull Halfer had on other planes, but if it bought me time not being raped, I would take it.

“You’re an odd girl.” She ran her hands soothingly across the baby’s head. “She likes you.”

“I like her, too.” I hated the tears that sprang to my eyes. “You have to get her out of here. I know you won’t believe me, but I really didn’t know what I was stealing. I was trying to bring her back when you found us.”

“You shot us,” the larger male said with a frown.

“Dude, I shot you with a tranquilizer dart. You put an arrow through me. The point goes to you. I think I can read a newspaper though my torso.”

“I did not like being shot,” he replied.

“Eh, I’ve had worse,” the other male said. “I, personally, am impressed with any woman who can shove an arrow through her belly and still walk out here to negotiate.”

“A good reason not to kill me,” I pointed out. “Think of the party tricks I can come up with.”

“I am impressed with any woman who can prime a transference box.” The female gestured to the box on the table. “My name is Haweigh of the Tuatha Dé Danann. I am a priestess of the realm. Had the Light of Alhorra made it to our tribe intact, it would have fallen to me to prepare our people to prime the box. Do you understand what I mean by a transference box?”

“Dev explained it to me. He knows about this stuff, but he didn’t see the box until we took it.” I was impressed with the fact that the Tuatha Dé Danann still existed. If I ever saw my father again, I would have to give him the news. “He said you usually turn the magic into a tree or something.”

“Yes,” the large man said sarcastically. “A tree is best because a tree has no learning curve. Sometimes we turn it into a cat or a dog because they reach maturity quickly. In six months to a year, the magical animal will have the emotional maturity to do things properly. Do you have any idea how hard her childhood will be?”

“What my husband is trying to say is we prefer that the magic be contained to something easily controllable,” Haweigh explained. “The child will be somewhat unpredictable.”

“Tell me you won’t hurt her.” I’d screwed up her whole life.

Haweigh chuckled a bit, pulling her hair from the baby’s hand. “She belongs to us. We would never hurt her. She will bless our tribe with her unique magic, and we will be grateful to her. We are thankful you did not damage the box. It could have been much worse. Now, the truth of the matter is, I am inclined to allow the faery to live. He was not involved in the actual taking of our box. In truth, I am inclined to allow you to live. I find you unique, and I prefer to leave the unique things of the worlds whole. But you must return to our plane to face justice.”

“I’m grateful.” I figured that groveling was the best course of action. I decided to be brave. There was one thing I needed to know before I left this plane. “I have to ask you a question.”

“I await it eagerly.” Haweigh seemed amused by me. I could make that work to my advantage later, but for now I just had to know.

“Is he dead?” I meant for it to be a steady almost academic question, but I stumbled through it and gave away far too much.

She looked up at her husband. “I told you it was the vampire. He is your lover?”

I nodded since there was no reason I could think of to cover it up.

“Lang believed you were involved with the faery, but I rather thought it was the vampire. I spent many years on this plane, and you have the look of a companion. As to your question, he continues to exist,” she confirmed, watching me closely.

I nodded to let her know I’d heard, but I couldn’t suppress the small sob that escaped. I wiped the tears away and tried to contain my emotion. “Thank you.”

I wouldn’t see Daniel again. My heart ached. I didn’t think about everything Dev had told me. None of it mattered in that moment. I only knew that I loved Daniel and he was lost again.

“Thank the child,” Haweigh said. “I was inclined to kill him because of the danger he represents. Was he the one you were with when the box was primed?”

“Yes.”

Haweigh contemplated this. “As you are an odd girl, he is not a normal vampire, is he? The box can only be primed through pure magic. We would have used a type of community magic, all of us working together for the good of our tribe. The two of you used sex magic, and while that is powerful, it requires an enormous amount of feeling between the two of you. The box would not have reacted to mere lust. I’m afraid vampires are more associated with obsession than genuine love.”

“We have quite the history.”

“Speaking of the vampire.” The husband pointed to the window, which showed a spectacular sunset. “Shouldn’t we be going? We’ve taken his mate. He will not let this go. We should pass through the veil now.”

“Lang is right,” the other male said. “I would rather wait until midnight, but I would also like to leave with my neck intact. Vampires are not known for their tolerance, which is why we should have killed it.”

Haweigh looked at me. “Men. They believe violence is the answer to everything. We women know differently. Are you ready?”

I would never be ready, but Daniel was alive. Dev would live. I had to call this a win. “I’m ready, and so is Sarah. You can leave Dev here. Daniel will find him eventually. We won’t cause any more trouble. Well, I won’t. Sarah’s a different story. You might want to gag her.”

The priestess stood with the child in her arms. She was a beautiful woman and everything one would think a faery queen would be. She was tall with golden hair that brushed her waist and eyes that looked like jewels. She carried the child with no hesitation, and I was sure this was not the first baby she’d held. I guess you think a lot about all the crap you’re never going to do when you know the world is changing. I wouldn’t hold a baby again. I wouldn’t see Daniel again. I wouldn’t…well, I could go on forever about what I wouldn’t do.

Lang pulled Sarah out, and I turned to look at her. She looked like I felt, sad and scared. I gave her a half-hearted smile. “I told them they should gag you.”

Her face broke into a genuine grin, and she laughed. “Bitch.”

I started to stand, but Haweigh held her hand up and I stopped. She looked at the child and arched an eyebrow. “Do what you think you must.”

The child held her hand, and I felt something pass through me. I looked down, and the hole in my midsection closed while I watched. It closed as though it were sewing itself back together. Unfortunately, it also felt like someone was sewing me back together. I didn’t even try to stop the scream.

I fell to the floor, shaking after the pain passed. Lang came in close and stared down at me. “See, if she’d been a cat, that wouldn’t have hurt.”

I held my stomach and vowed that the next time I made a magical creature, it would definitely be a cat.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I felt infinitely better by the time we reached the elevator. I was sore, but the hole in my middle was closed. That meant my day was looking up. Haweigh and her compatriots were definitely not used to the way things worked on this plane. I personally would have insisted my blood-soaked prisoner change clothes so as not to attract unwelcome attention.

I got several stares, but I smiled brightly and winked and no one said a word.

And I wondered if it was dark yet. I wondered if Daniel was awake and searching for me. I wondered if he would miss me.

Haweigh pushed the button for the parking garage, and the doors closed. Sarah and I were alone with our captors. The only bright spot was the baby and her toothless grin.

“I like her,” the smaller faery said. When I describe him as smaller, I just mean not as large as Lang. He still had a good six inches on me.

“What a surprise,” Lang said sarcastically. “Craigen likes the pretty female.”

“She’s not just pretty,” Craigen replied. “She’s crazy. I like that in a female. The crazy ones are always the best.”

I smiled at the attractive, funny Fae. I could use allies, and I was not above using my feminine wiles to acquire them. The longer I managed to stay alive, the more of a chance I had to see Daniel one last time. He would search for me. And Dev would tell him where they’d taken me. “What gave me away? Was it the arrowdectomy? That was nothing. I jumped off the roof of the hotel last night. Now that was crazy. Let’s see, this month alone I’ve tried to kill my own father, fought off a big snake, destroyed a nightclub, and summoned a fully-functional demon. That was a mistake. I’d been hoping for the Ken-doll version.”

Craigen laughed. “See, I have no idea what the girl is saying, but I like the way she says it. I think she can stay with me when we get home. She’ll need an advocate.”

Yeah, I could bet just what that horny faery would be advocating for me. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the “stay alive and hope Daniel made it to Faeryland” plan. Dev had connections. Daniel had pure willpower.

If they didn’t kill each other, they might make a good team.

The doors to the lowest level of the garage opened, and I was escorted into the low light of the enormous space.

“Can you feel that, Z?” Sarah walked, following our captors, but her head swung around as though searching for something.

I felt scared because we were about to be taken to another plane, but I didn’t feel anything supernatural. I prayed it wasn’t Halfer. “What is it?”

“It’s the veil.” Sarah breathed in the air reverently. “It’s here and it’s going to open. Wow, that is some really impressive magic. Do you do it?”

She pointed the question to Haweigh. “This I cannot take credit for. It is an Earth magic, but finding the veil and getting through it, that is our magic. We passed from this plane long ago, and we passed in just this way.”

She led us down the long aisles and turned. There were few cars this far down. We were alone. I wondered what time it was. When the doors opened to the lobby, I’d noted it was close to full dark. There had been only a sliver of sunlight illuminating the lobby. Daniel would be awake soon. And I prayed Neil awakened as well.

“Why here?” Sarah asked as we stopped.

Lang shrugged. “It shifts all the time. We entered the plane in a place called St. Louis and made our way here to get back. The fact that the veil opens underground explains a lot to us. We wondered why the times between the opening of the veils varied so widely. Sometimes they open one after another, and other times it takes months to get back. Apparently the veil opens where it will. Before this structure was built, this place of passing would have been impossible to access.”

“So what’s it like?” I found myself curious. “Is it ‘beam me up, Scotty’?”

All three looked at me blankly. Sarah rolled her eyes in an affectionate manner. My pop culture references were going to be so lost on the Faery plane.

“It is a door,” Haweigh explained patiently. “But one you must be trained to see.” She turned her attention to the child, who was suddenly staring at the ceiling, her fat little baby arms pumping up and down. “No, child, it is this way. It is not here yet, but if you try, you can see it.”

Baby Girl wasn’t interested. Her head turned up, watching the ceiling, a big grin on her face. She suddenly let loose a squeal and clapped her hands.

There was a distant rumble humming through the air and accompanied by a little shake of the pavement. It sounded like a car was moving through the garage above us. I didn’t think much of it because it was only logical cars would be moving around a parking garage. Hopefully said car didn’t barrel through at the wrong time and drive right through the door that was about to open.

The baby jumped up and down in Haweigh’s arms almost as though the sounds made her dance. The car seemed to be getting closer, and the closer it got, the more it sounded less like a car than a really big truck. The rumble grew. The shaking continued until the ceiling above us began to quiver.

Halfer. It had to be Halfer. He was coming for me. He’d found out I couldn’t make our late-night meeting and moved the timeline up. My stomach twisted. I locked eyes with Sarah.

“I’ll try to protect you any way I can,” she said, sniffling a little. “I’m so sorry, Z.”

Craigen pulled me close to him, and at first I thought he was trying to protect me. Then he put a gun against my head. To clarify, he put Sarah’s gun against my head. It was nice to know we helped them upgrade.