Sleeper_Google, page 28
part #3 of Hunter Series
“But so were you because I never ran alone. I ran with this huge brown wolf. I don’t remember a time he wasn’t in my dreams. He would run beside me and I knew I was safe. He would show me all the beauty of the forest and all the best places to see. I knew he was my father. My real father.”
Lee reached out for my hand, squeezing it. “Don’t sign that contract. Baby girl, you have to know that I don’t care what happens to me. I don’t fully understand what went on between you and that demon, but you can’t go with him. I’ll figure something out.”
“Daddy, you’re nine.” It was probably the strangest sentence I would ever say, but it was true. “You can barely put yourself to bed. Have some faith. I’ll find a way to make this work. Somehow I always do.”
He twitched, his body shuddering, and he put a hand to his head.
“It’s wearing off. Come here and let me hold you.” He opened his arms.
I sat beside him and wrapped my arms around him. This time with him had been brief and possibly the most precious of my life. I’d gotten to meet my dad and he’d loved me. Now I got to protect him. I got to ensure that he grew up and had a happy life.
“I don’t want to leave you.” His head rested on my shoulder.
“You’ll still be here.” I would know he was somewhere deep inside his new body. I would know my father loved me. It was something no one could ever take from me.
“But I won’t be able to protect you.”
I had to laugh a bit at that statement. “Then it’s a damn good thing that you made it so I can protect myself. Dad, I’m strong because your blood runs through my veins. I’m a warrior because I’m your daughter. Not his. Never his. Always yours. Even when I didn’t know you existed.”
“Love you, baby girl,” he said, his voice oddly rough. “Tell those men if they don’t take care of you I’ll kick their asses. Yeah, I know about Sloane. Tell him to get along with Trent and take care of you.”
“I love you, Dad.” I wasn’t going to let something silly like embarrassment hold me back. And when I thought about it, I wasn’t embarrassed about my new ménage.
“Kelsey?”
“Yes?”
He hesitated for a moment. “If something happens to me, promise me one thing.”
“Nothing is going to happen to you.” I was going to make sure of it.
“But if it does, I need you to promise me,” he said insistently.
“What?”
He was quiet for a moment and I worried he was gone. Finally he spoke, his voice a low whisper. “Don’t leave my body behind. No matter what. No matter where it is. If I die, bring my body home.”
A chill went through me, like I’d heard some prophecy I didn’t want to acknowledge. “Dad, that is not going to happen.”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.” I fought back the urge to shudder as I had a vision of my father’s body still and broken. Would it be the wizard who killed him? Because I hadn’t been strong enough to go through with the contract? Or because Nemcox would find a way to have his cake and kill my father, too?
He laid his head back down and was quiet for a moment. When he looked back up, it was with confused eyes. “Kelsey? What’s going on?”
Not my dad. That voice was young and tremulous. My heart ached, but it was all right. This was how it was supposed to be. “Hey, buddy. You’ve been fighting a fever. You feeling okay now? Should I get your mom?”
He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. “I had a weird dream.”
I sat up. “It must have been the fever, but it seems to have broken so you’ll be fine.”
The queen must have been hovering outside the door, not that I blamed her. She stepped inside, an anxious look on her face. “Lee?”
He perked up. “I’m totally feeling better, Mom, but I could use a Dr Pepper.”
Zoey rushed over to him, wrapping her baby boy up in a hug as Quinn strode into the room. “You know what, screw the sugar rule. Tomorrow you can have Dr Pepper and we’ll have Albert make cupcakes.”
Quinn stood over them both. “Chocolate, your favorite.”
I stood up, my heart both heavy and light. Heavy because I knew I wouldn’t see my dad again and light because he was happy. So happy. He was happy and loved and unburdened with the weight of his previous responsibilities.
Donovan was waiting outside the door. “Kelsey, thank you for everything you’re doing for him.”
“He’s my dad.” I sniffled and swore to myself I wasn’t going to blubber all over the king.
“Lee is special.”
“I know.”
Donovan shook his head. “You can’t know. I’m struggling. I don’t want to allow you to sign that damn contract. I talked to Nemcox, offered him other options, but he will only take you.”
He’d talked to Nemcox? As far as I knew he hadn’t said a word to the demon in years before today. Now he was negotiating with him. “I don’t want anyone else to take my place.”
“I understand that you have your reasons for not talking to me about this and I’m not going to force you. I trust you, Kelsey. Lee cannot fall into anyone else’s hands.” Donovan seemed to be speaking carefully, as though he was worried to say too much. “It’s very important.”
“I don’t intend to allow it to happen.”
He scrubbed a hand over his head, a weary gesture. “I’m trying to figure out how to deal with Nemcox. He’s a full blood, Kelsey. If I thought I could kill him, I would, but he’s immortal. I would only hasten a war. I would ask one of the angels, but they aren’t known for assassination attempts. Well, most of them aren’t. I don’t even understand what’s happening with Felix.”
I held up a hand. The king needed to stay out of this. “I’ll handle it. Gray is working on the problem. In the meantime, I need you to help Henri find any way at all to get Felix Day awake and talking. The angels are going to figure out we have that sword soon. Have you tried your blood?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. I’ve been too busy with Lee, but I promise I will. I can’t believe that Felix would do this. He gave up Heaven for Sarah. He wouldn’t risk it. Felix is the least violent being I’ve ever met. Someone was controlling him.”
“Well, we need to figure out who it was because the demons are going to find out that Felix was there and they’ll want blood. Unless you intend to make sure our young demon friend doesn’t talk.”
“I can’t. I’m flanked on all sides and I’m not sure how to wiggle out of this trap.”
“That’s what you’ve got me for. I’m a wiggler. Buy me some time.” I saw Liv move in the living room. I needed to talk to her. “Now go and be with your son.”
He briefly touched my shoulder and disappeared into Lee’s room. I moved down the hallway. Liv was the answer to at least one of my problems. I needed Neil Roberts to remember his past. If he remembered his past, pulled the veil aside on his memory, he might know something about who had been controlling him. He could tell me once and for all whether it was Felix Day or if the fallen angel had been nothing but one more pawn in a game I didn’t know the rules to. Now that Neil was more willing to remember, a white spell could work.
I just needed to make sure Lee was far, far away.
I started walking down the hall, thinking about my plans for the day. I noticed someone had left the game room door open and realized those kids were not asleep.
I got a brief glimpse of Rhys before he slipped back into the room.
“They’re all in my room. I think Lee’s okay,” he whispered.
The rest of the house was quiet so when I went still and concentrated, I could hear him.
“I don’t think he was sick,” Rhys was saying. “I think it was something magical. He wasn’t himself. He told me I needed to change my underwear or I would get crotch rot. Why would he say that? Like he remembers to shower.”
“Do you think it’s the same thing as my dad?” A young girl’s voice broke through the silence.
I saw Liv stop her pacing at the end of the hallway. She stared at me, but I held up a hand. I wanted to know what the kids were thinking. Unlike the queen, I knew damn well they weren’t fooled by some story of a cold.
“Maybe,” Rhys replied. “Be quieter. You’ll wake up Evan and she can cry real loud.”
I had to lean in to hear the rest.
“Do you really think your friend is the one who hurt your dad?”
A chill went up my spine.
“Mom told me he was imaginary, but I saw him, Rhys. He glowed super bright and he called me his cousin.”
“Tell me again what he told you to do,” Rhys said. “I won’t tell if you don’t want me to, but once Lee is Lee again, we’ll figure this out. I promise.”
“Lee is good at figuring stuff out,” another voice said. Sean Quinn. He was Dev Quinn’s nephew and the son of the future king of the Fae. A bit on the arrogant side, but he was more open than his father and hyper loyal to the small group of kids he was growing up with. “I believe you. Your mother is wrong and this person exists. Once we find out who he is, I will take him down with my bow.”
But again, arrogant like his father Declan Quinn.
Mia sniffled. Mia Day was the daughter of Felix and Sarah and I’d been told she was quite a bright companion. Bright enough to compare to Zoey and Evan, but in my mind she was simply a little girl who wanted her father to be well again. “I know you would try, but I think he’s dangerous. I didn’t at first. I thought he was my friend. He glowed so beautifully and he only wanted to talk. But then he asked me to go into my dad’s office and break something.”
What? That was the question I wanted to ask. Still, I stood there, unwilling to give them a reason to stop talking amongst themselves.
“I thought he told you to steal something,” Rhys said.
“I was supposed to steal it and then break it,” Mia acknowledged. “He said he couldn’t help me until I broke the seal. He said my dad was afraid of him but he shouldn’t be. I think I killed my dad.”
I heard her start to weep and I couldn’t hold back. It didn’t matter that they might clam up. It didn’t matter that they weren’t my kids. I was the Nex Apparatus. Sure some people will say that’s a term for the warrior who protects the king, but I tend to make things my own. I worked for the king as long as he worked and fought for what was right. If he stopped, then he would find his death machine turning on his ass. But I knew one thing. Those babies were innocent and I wasn’t about to let sweet Mia Day, who was all of nine and three quarters years old, believe that she’d willfully hurt her father.
And if I let it go, my dad in his nine-year-old body would try to solve the case and we’d all be in trouble.
Oh, god. I shook my head as I stood outside that door and realized what it meant to love me. I vowed to go a bit easier on Gray and Trent and my brothers and Liv. Even Casey, since he had to deal with me. I was stubborn and difficult and I wasn’t changing any time soon.
I opened the door and was faced with three shocked preteens and a peacefully sleeping four-year-old who might grow up to be the woman who took my place with Marcus. For now she was a sweet baby, sleeping in a My Little Pony sleeping bag and looking as cherubic as her ancestry would have her be.
“Kelsey?” Rhys stood up, obviously taking the leadership role. “We were about to go to sleep.”
“No, you weren’t. You were about to tell me what’s going on so I can take out the bad guy.” I moved into the room and sat down with them, getting on their level. “Mia, what’s been happening?”
Even in the low light, I could see the way she paled. “It wasn’t my dad.”
My every instinct told me she was right and that she had the answers I needed, but I had to be gentle with her. The key to successfully interrogating anyone is knowing what they want and how to properly give or withhold the desired outcome. Mia felt guilty, likely terrified that she’d done something wrong. I needed to be on her side. “I know that, but I have to figure out how to prove it. That’s my job. I figure out who the bad guys are and I save the good guys.”
It was a gross oversimplification of what I did, but it would serve for now.
Mia hesitated and I realized how scared she was.
“You haven’t told your mother what happened, did you?”
Tears rolled from her eyes and she shook her head.
Rhys moved, sitting down beside her. “I think we should tell Kelsey. You know how she always helps Lee and she never tells on us.”
Oh, I would have to break that promise because this wasn’t catching them sneaking sodas from behind the bar or feeding visiting hellhounds under the table. “Mia, your father’s life is at stake. He’s being accused of something serious.”
“Of killing demons,” she said quietly. “My father would never kill anyone.”
“You know that and I know that, but there are witnesses who saw him at the scene. And Mia, he did nearly kill Trent. The question is was he in control of his body when he did it or was something else controlling him.” It made me wonder when he’d made those wards. Felicity had seemed so shocked that he had them. How recent was his distrust of his former family? “Do you remember your father acting weird recently?”
Mia’s mouth closed.
“Mia, you can trust her.”
I turned and Lee was standing in the doorway. I caught a brief glimpse of the queen but when I shook my head she seemed to understand and she moved out of the line of sight. I was sure the whole royal triad was listening but they were allowing me to control the encounter.
Lee walked in and sat down beside Mia.
She turned toward him, her eyes wide. “Are you better?”
He nodded and opened his arms. Mia practically fell on him, sobbing as though she’d lost everything, and when I thought about it, she nearly had. For Mia, that loss was mere moments away. This was the first time the perfection of her world had been challenged, and I couldn’t help but tear up because she was a lucky girl. She had no siblings of her own, but she had this group. Watching Rhys and even Sean move in and surround her reminded me that I hadn’t been alone. When John Atwood would make me feel like less than dirt, my brothers would sneak into my room and poke and prod me until I felt better.
And now I had two men who loved me, two men who I could count on, and I had Marcus to thank for that.
I glanced over at Evangeline, promising myself I would shield that child as fiercely as I would Lee because she could be the key to Marcus’s happiness.
I let Mia cry, allowed her all the time she needed because I knew where she was. I hadn’t been the kid to cry, again a gift Marcus had given me. I’d been the kid who shoved it all down and pretended it wasn’t there. Mia didn’t need that.
She finally looked up at me and leaned into Lee as though she found some comfort from merely being close to him. “A couple of weeks ago I met someone. Something, really. I thought it was all a dream at first, but it wasn’t.”
“What did it look like?” I asked.
“Light,” she replied quietly. “It was this beautiful light and I felt good. I’d had a bad day at school and I thought I was stupid, but the light made me feel better. It wasn’t very big. It fit under my bed and it whispered to me.”
A shiver went up my spine because I was going to have to deal with that light. “What did it say?”
She hesitated again, but Lee reached for her hand. She nodded and turned back to me. “At first it just wanted to know how my day was and it told me that it was a secret, a present from my cousins. It didn’t feel wrong.”
“Of course it didn’t, sweetheart.” If “it” was who I thought it was, he was supposed to be all that was right and good in the world. “This isn’t your fault. It tricked you, but I’m here to make sure it can’t trick anyone else. Tell me what happened. You’re not going to get into trouble. I promise.”
“But my mom will be so mad at me.” Her tears started again.
“She won’t. I know your mom and all she wants is for you to be safe.” I would have to be careful because Sarah Day would want her child to be safe, but she would want some serious vengeance, too. Unlike her husband, the former dark arts witch wasn’t a pacifist. “She won’t be angry. She’ll be thrilled that you’re brave enough to save your dad.”
That seemed to mean something to her. Her spine straightened and she took a deep breath. “It wanted me to hide something in our house.”
I could guess. “Was it a sword?”
Mia nodded. “Yes, a big one. It was heavy, but I managed to get it inside the closet where we keep our Christmas decorations. No one goes in there.”
He’d used a child because she was a companion and she could touch the sword without burning herself. Son of a bitch. Well, not literally, since angels weren’t born in that fashion. Maybe if the fucker had a mom he wouldn’t have turned into an evil piece of shit. “Did you see your dad with the sword?”
Mia leaned against Lee. “Only once. It was a couple of days ago. I saw him putting it back but his eyes were weird. He told me never to mention it again and he went to his office.”
“Did the light ask you to do anything else?”
She nodded slowly and sighed. “It asked me to find Daddy’s necklace and showed me how to scratch off a piece of it.”
The ward. Felix had made a ward and his daughter had rendered it useless. A ward had to be intact for the magic to work. I was sure she’d scratched off some tiny piece that Felix wouldn’t have noticed. He thought it was still working.
I stood up and put a hand on Mia’s head. “It’s going to be okay. I’m going to fix this. Get some sleep because everything is going to be back to normal soon and you’ll have schoolwork to do. Don’t you ever think you’re stupid, baby girl. And if someone says that to you, you remind them that you’re friends with the Nex Apparatus and she doesn’t take kindly to anyone saying nasty things to her friends. You tell them I’ll be on their doorstep if they mess with you. Any of you.”
Donovan was grinning as I walked out of the room. “You’re going to make a whole bunch of school bullies shit themselves, you know.”
