I pressed the stake to his chest. “You should take your hands off me.”
“Is that truly what you wish from me, Summer?”
“How did you know my name?” I shook my head as I answered my own question. I’d foolishly introduced myself to Kelsey. “You talked to your friends.”
“I know exactly who you are, Summer Donovan.”
I stilled because no one knew that name. No one who was living and walking the outer planes. My foster mother had known it. Some of the tribe had heard the story, but not even Erna knew my secret name. My father’s name. “Who the hell are you?”
“I am the man who will bring you back to your true parents,” he vowed. “But I am more than that to you. Or rather you are more to me. You are everything I was ever promised. You are mine. Hear that now, companion. You are mine. So if you are going to kill me, do it now. Put me out of my misery.”
His? Yeah, I’d heard that before. I’d been chased across the planes because one man decided I belonged to him. I didn’t belong to anyone. I certainly wasn’t about to give up my hard-fought freedom to become some vampire’s plaything. I raised the stake and watched as the vampire’s eyes flared the minute he realized I was going to do it. I was going to kill him because the last thing I needed was another man who decided he owned me. I didn’t even care in that second that he seemed to know something he shouldn’t. All I could do was remember how small Turi made me feel when he promised to “control” me, when he said I belonged to him and that I would do his will.
No matter what I’ve done, I will do my own will. The only thing more dangerous than my magic is my magic in the hands of someone else.
I started to bring the stake down and he suddenly moved, flipping us so my back was on the ground and he loomed over me. I lost my grip on the stake and I suddenly had no weapon at all. His hands gripped my wrists and he pinned them over my head.
“No, bella. I’m sorry. I’m coming on far too strong. It’s not like that,” he said, all of the arrogance gone from his face. “Whatever he did, I will make it right. I will do anything to make things right for you. I am not him.”
I pushed against the vampire, but I was no match for his strength. “Get out of my head.”
I felt him retreat and realized he’d slipped past my defenses when I’d gotten emotional. I brought my walls down again and tried to control my feelings.
Dark eyes stared down at me but the predator behind them seemed still for the moment. “I didn’t say it right, Summer. I saw you and realized who you were, and suddenly the universe wasn’t so cruel. I was far too excited to find you. I should have gotten to my knees and told you something else entirely.”
I shouldn’t have cared about anything he could say to me, but I felt a need to understand him. “What is that?”
His voice was soft, and not in a sensual way, though everything about the man was sensual. The words, however, felt tender. “I should have told you that I am yours, bella. I have been yours since long before you were born. I’ve walked the Earth plane for almost two thousand years and only now do I know what I was born to do.”
Tears clouded my eyes because he wasn’t pushing lust at me. Wonder. He was feeling wonder and tenderness, and I didn’t understand it at all. I didn’t know who he was or why he was here, and I definitely didn’t understand why I wanted so badly to soften beneath him and believe what he was saying.
I did not know why I did what I did next.
I let him kiss me.
* * * *
Zoey
I stared at the door in front of me, but I wasn’t terribly close. If anyone walked by, I was simply standing in front of my friend’s apartment, talking like we would every day.
But we weren’t talking about how our kiddos were doing in school or exchanging recipes. We were wondering how quickly I would get killed if Myrddin had the apartment secured.
“There’s no ward on the doors. But then the whole place feels like a void to me. I don’t trust my own instincts.” Sarah had her arms crossed over her chest as we stood outside her door and stared at the one that led to Myrddin Emrys’s three-bedroom apartment.
We’d spent much of the early evening with Henri Jacobs and Hugo Wells, two of the three academics who lived in Council headquarters. They were making a study of Gray’s prophecies, and one of them had made me sit up and pay attention.
Summer is coming. That was what Gray had said. I’d never read that particular prophecy or I might have known what he meant. The academics had assumed he was talking about the season. But he wasn’t and I knew it in my bones. Summer was coming.
Summer. My daughter.
I had to pray that she’d forgiven me.
“I don’t smell anything different.” Neil had joined us when the academics had shown up. He’d kind of slept through the lecture portion of the evening, but he’d been determined to do whatever he could once he realized I was going to run a job. It had been a long time since I’d done it. Neil and Sarah and Daniel and I had once been a crew. Dev had helped us out at the end, but then we’d become something else. Kings and queens and courtiers.
Today I needed to be a thief.
I needed to get into that room without the owner knowing.
“Who is his housekeeper?” No one on this floor did their own cleaning. We all had housekeepers and cooks and bodyguards.
“It’s Nina.” Neil leaned against the wall. “She takes care of cleaning for all of the apartments on this floor. She’s got a key and doesn’t have to do anything special to get in, so I think Sarah’s right about the front doors. Nina says it’s really creepy in there, and that was before Myrddin actually moved in. But she’s a shifter. Some of them find the witchy stuff worrisome. It’s not that they don’t like witches. They don’t understand the whole magic thing. Nina’s brother dated a witch and he was an asshole who cheated and got his dick twisted into a pretzel. So she has her reasons.”
Sarah shrugged. “Felix knows better.” She turned to me. “Are you going to try to mask yourself as Nina?”
I shook my head. “No. I can’t do that to her. He might not have a ward to keep people out, but we don’t know what else he’s got security-wise. If he’s got a spell that can identify anyone coming or going into his apartment, I won’t risk sending his anger someone else’s way.”
I needed more time, but this was really the only chance I had. Myrddin didn’t leave the Council building much these days. He preferred to stay close to Daniel, and I worried if he carried out his plan to save Dev, Daniel would be even further in debt to the man. I knew exactly where Myrddin and Nimue were going to be for the next few hours. I might have to risk it.
“Let me do it.” Neil nodded, looking toward the door. “I’ll say I forgot which room I live in and I was drunk and oops… What’s he going to do to me?”
Sarah stared at him. “You have a penis, babe. You want to ask Nina’s brother? I know Myrddin’s a dude, but I bet he can twist a penis, too.”
Neil winced. “Damn it. I need my penis, Z. I don’t think they can do anything to a vagina.”