I heard the gun go off again, saw another soldier fall out of the corner of my eye. Kelsey was fighting hand to hand when all the attackers had swords.
My heart beat hard in my chest. Despite how magnificently she fought, Kelsey and I were still going to be overwhelmed. I could see it so easily. She would die fighting for me, and she didn’t even know who I was.
Or I could die. I think about death far too much for a creature who wasn’t supposed to be able to die. I saw the big sword coming my way, felt the air swooshing around me, and knew it would make contact. It was as though time slowed and I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless to watch that sharp edge coming for me. It would strike my shoulder, where it made a curve to my neck. Given the strength that was behind it, I would likely be partially decapitated. I prayed to Danu that the charm held. I wasn’t sure what would happen if the spell that held my magic in was suddenly unleashed. I would rather die than be the cause of another unmaking.
Then the sword simply stopped. Or rather it was stopped. A thick vine popped up from the ground and wound itself around the sword.
And the man. The soldier who’d been ready to take off my head was suddenly wrapped in thick, green vines that hadn’t been there before. The forest floor had spotty grass and patches of moss, but nothing like the vibrant green vines that tangled around the soldier’s body. I turned to face my second attacker, but he was already on the ground, nestled in the same vines.
“Don’t use all those bullets, bella,” a deep voice to my right said. “If we’re going to defend the queen, we’re probably going to need them since neither Devinshea nor myself can figure out how to open that door again.”
Kelsey blocked Kor’s next parry with her arm. Her arm. She shoved it up and let the red skin of her forearm take what should have been a blow to separate her from the limb. I heard Kor curse in Gaelic and then he grunted as she tried to pull the sword from his grasp.
Something hard smacked my backside and I yelped, turning only to find one of those crazy vines waving at me.
“It’s not the queen, Marcus.” Kelsey didn’t break a sweat. She merely tossed the gun toward the dark-haired man who was to my left. “The queen is back at Council headquarters. And hold that for me unless you want to do that thing where you make everyone gut themselves.”
“And spoil your fun?” the man asked. “I would never. Besides, I can feel your anxiety from here and I haven’t felt anything from you in months. You need to blow off steam. It’s going to be all right, Kelsey.”
“What do you mean she’s not the queen?” a deep voice asked. His accent reminded me of the people who’d raised me, lyrical and soothing. “I think I know the queen when I see her.”
I caught sight of a man dressed in all white, and a chill went up my spine. He was the one who’d sent the plants. I knew him immediately, but when I’d met him long before, he hadn’t spoken with that accent. He was powerful and he had a familiar face, but the soul was different.
It was exactly what I would do if I wanted to capture someone like me. I would send in someone I know, someone I might trust. I would save the person I wanted to capture, befriending her and letting her know she could trust me.
The man in white had been there on my first day. He’d helped me save my mother. He’d understood what I was and he’d been a patient voice whispering in my head, telling me how the world worked and what I could do. He hadn’t liked my father, but he’d been interested in Mom.
Why was he here?
Come to me. Let me protect you. Kelsey will handle the bad guys. There’s no need for you to be in the middle of battle. You could get hurt, bella.
My stomach turned because the words hadn’t been spoken aloud. They’d been placed directly in my mind. They’d whispered across my brain in an accent that was foreign to me. It was a rich voice calling to me, telling me everything would be all right. All I had to do was let him take care of me. He was willing to do it. He would protect me while Kelsey finished the task of dealing with the men who’d attacked. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me.
Do you have any idea how many times I’ve had someone promise to protect me? I’ve been on the run for years. I’ve been offered any manner of protection, and it almost always ends in someone trying to take my power. In some cases, they tried to end my existence out of fear.
It’s what happens when you’re the Fae equivalent of the boogey man.
I clutched the sword and wondered what he was. It was obvious the woman was a shifter of some kind, and the man in white had Green Man powers and the ability to take on another’s face. He wasn’t the man I’d trusted. That man, the one my mom had called Dev, he hadn’t had an accent like that, and he’d had no real power beyond a Fae’s usual touch of magic. I’d seen his soul and this wasn’t it.
I was being set up. I’d thought Kor was the threat but now I was surrounded by three of them.
I looked at the Green Man. His eyes were pure emerald orbs and I knew that whatever he’d done to the men wrapped in vines was the least of what he was capable of. This went beyond a mere Green Man. I’d lived on various Faery planes and met several beings with agricultural powers. He was something different. Something powerful and frightening.
He was a god.
Don’t be afraid. Come to me, bella. I will take care of you.
I turned and looked at the man who whispered across my mind. He stared at me, his eyes burning even in the light of day, and I caught a hint of fangs.
Vampire.
I let the sword drop because it would do nothing against these creatures, as Kelsey was proving. I couldn’t access my magic even if I’d wanted to, and I knew exactly what a vampire who wasn’t on his plane was looking for.
I turned and I ran.
* * * *
Kelsey
I’d had a hell of a day already and it wasn’t even noon.
Well it might be where I was now, but back at home it definitely wasn’t noon, and as I punched an asshole in the face, I wondered if Gray and Trent were already worried about me. Maybe they didn’t know I’d fallen through a painting and found myself in Faeryville.
There’s a reason I wasn’t big into art. First of all, it can be pretentious, and I don’t understand how a bunch of squiggly lines represent man’s struggle in the industrial world. It mostly gives me a headache. Second, now I know it can suck me off my happy plane of existence where I should be getting ready to head to the beach with my superhot husbands and spend a few weeks soaking up the sun and having a mega shit ton of great, freaky sex.
But no. I had to fall into a painting and find a chick who looks exactly like the Queen of all Vampire, but she can’t be because I’d left the queen back in Dallas.
How was there another Zoey Donovan-Quinn in the universe? It was far too weird to be coincidence.
But I couldn’t think about that right now because the butt-faced asshole who’d shot me with an arrow was swinging a sword my way.
“Don’t use all those bullets, bella. If we’re going to defend the queen, we’re probably going to need them since neither Devinshea nor myself can figure out how to open that door again.” Marcus had come running up a few seconds before. I’d seen him out of the corner of my eye and though I no longer could feel him pushing his calm toward me, soothing and easing my way, the fact that he was here gave me great strength.