I was confused. “I thought my father protected the plane. He is the king.”
She snorted. “As if. I mean sure he’s the king, but there’s a lot of political crap that goes into wearing that crown. He can’t always make the right choice. That’s why he’s got me. I’m the Nex Apparatus. Do you know what that means?”
“Death Machine.” I knew it because it was what my father had been when I was born. He’d been the Council’s Death Machine and it had weighed heavily on him. He’d hated the things he’d been forced to do to survive, to keep my mother safe. Now that I thought about it, my father had dealt with politics for a long time. “I’m surprised my father would appoint another one.”
Kelsey’s expression went serious. “It’s not the same. I’m going to admit, I wasn’t happy about it in the beginning, but King Daniel was right. I am needed, and I think part of my job just became protecting that kid because if he is who I think he is, the Earth plane needs him. You said something about a prophecy.”
I hesitated.
“Tell her,” Dean murmured with a low groan. “Damn vampire. He did a number on me. Is this really what it feels like when I take a trip through a person’s intentions?”
Thank the goddess. If he was complaining, he was alive. “Are you okay?”
Kelsey’s brown eyes had widened. “He’s more than okay. He’s freaking strong as hell. If Marcus said he should be out for an hour or so, he should be out for an hour. Maybe more. Marcus can downplay a situation.”
Dean put a hand to his head but made no move to sit up. “I had to fight my way out. I didn’t actually go to sleep. At least my brain didn’t. My body pretty much shut down, but I could hear everything you were saying. Don’t ever try to get between me and a sword again, but I do thank you in this case.”
Kelsey whistled. “Dayum. I got a couple of witches you need to meet on the Earth plane. They’re going to teach you so much because while you are strong, yes, what you did hurt like hell, and also you should probably veil your thoughts more when you’re playing around.”
Dean frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means if you were looking for our intentions, we kind of got a feel for yours, too,” Kelsey said. “Hence Marcus’s whammy on your old brain pan.”
Dean forced himself up, and he’d gone paler than usual. “My intentions were to find out if you were lying. But I take your meaning. I need to veil my thoughts better. You’re an odd female. I’ve only met one other werewolf. You’re different from her. Your wolf wasn’t always so integrated. Also, your wolf is scary. She growls inside your head. When you change is she coming after me? Because I would like to apologize to her profusely and maybe offer her some raw meat. I don’t have any but I’ll find some.”
The smile was back on Kelsey’s face. “I’m not that bad. And she-wolfy will be perfectly satisfied with something cooked. I don’t change my form. Except my hand, which is actually a demon hand. That’s your dad’s fault, too, Summer. So this prophecy, let’s talk about that.”
I looked at Dean to make sure. It wasn’t like we went around talking about the possibility of Dean killing an evil magician with random strangers. I’d only mentioned it to try to get Kelsey to convince Marcus to let Dean live.
“She’s solid,” Dean assured me. “None of them tried to get here. It was all a mistake, though I felt like Kelsey had purpose.”
“I was looking for Marcus and Dev,” Kelsey offered. “I was sent after them.”
Dean nodded. “Yes, that explains it. I can’t exactly read minds. It’s more like an overview of intentions. I can tell if someone wants to do harm. None of them wishes you ill. Kelsey is curious about you. The Green Man is genuinely worried about your welfare. And the vampire, well, you should know that vampire has plans for you, and they are not to take you to tea. He doesn’t want to hurt you, but he does want you.”
I glanced back where Marcus was talking to Dev. He was already overly possessive, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wasn’t interested in me. He was interested in my glow. It wasn’t the first time some vamp had found out I was single and started in on the “you’re mine” spiel. I wouldn’t take it too seriously.
Of course he was the first vamp I’d thought about playing around with. He was the first vamp I’d met with ridiculously dark hair that looked like it would be soft when I ran my hands through it, the only one with eyes that seemed to pierce through me.
Like I said, it had been a long time.
I turned back to Kelsey because if I could find an ally as strong as this one, perhaps the trip had been more successful than I’d thought. “When Dean was young, his parents took him to a fair.”
Dean’s lips curled up with the memory. “I wasn’t that young. I was thirteen, and it was one of the few times we went to Tír na nÓg. It was after Torin the Pretender was dethroned.”
“It’s always good to dethrone pretenders.” Kelsey obviously didn’t want a lesson in Tuatha Dé Danann history. “What happened at this fair?”
Dean put a hand to his head but he continued. “Mom and Dad went to see a play the Fae were doing about how peace came to the plane, but I went with my Uncle Mike. He’s cool. He’s a royal but he went into the military despite his wealth. He wanted to play some of the games. There were lots of vendors there that day and they came from many different planes. We met a woman who read palms. When she touched me, her eyes rolled back and she said I was out of time and space and to beware the spawn. Uncle Mike told me she was obviously drunk and he hustled me out. I didn’t think she was drunk.”
“What color were her eyes when they rolled back?” Kelsey asked. “Did they change at all?”
“They were white, but not like when eyes rolled. They kind of glowed,” he said. “And her voice got deeper and she said a bunch of weird stuff.”
“So she was a true prophet, or she was channeling one,” Kelsey said. “I don’t suppose you wrote it all down.”
If only he had, but then of course he’d been thirteen. I was surprised he remembered as much as he had. “I’ve spent the last two years trying to track the woman down. I finally managed to figure out her name and that she was a witch, the daughter of a powerful coven mistress on a plane the locals call Arete.”
“Is it like the Vampire plane? Did witches evolve there?” Kelsey’s eyes were lit with curiosity.
“Yes, and they’re quite fierce.” I could still remember how they’d almost caught me and what they would likely do if they did. “They’re Dianic witches.”
“Which means they view men as nothing more than manual labor and sperm,” Dean grumbled. “They’re not friendly at all to my gender. It’s why Summer had to go find the book. I couldn’t have gotten close to that library because on that plane, men don’t read. They like men doing magic even less.”
There had been plenty of reasons I’d gone instead of Dean, partly because of the self-defense training he needed. Kelsey was right about that. I got to my feet because I’d left the satchel where Dev had laid it after retrieving it from the lake. I had to pray it wasn’t ruined by the water. It wasn’t like the book had been typeset and laminated. If the ink on the pages had run, I was going to throw myself back in the lake. “I discovered the witches have several books where they document the words of their prophets. They’re imbued with magic so every time there’s a prophecy, no matter how far away the prophet happens to be, it shows up in the book. But you should understand their prophecy isn’t like some other planes.”