I kissed Lee’s forehead. “’Night, baby boy.”
“See you tomorrow,” he whispered and I could hear a bit of fear, as if those words were a question.
“Of course you will. Bright and early,” I promised quietly. “Don’t worry, darling. I’m going to make sure everything is perfect. And know that Papa is thinking about you. Always. Go to sleep. I’ll take care of everything.”
He nodded and settled in. Dannan and a few other of the pixies were hanging out as they usually did. Normally I thought nothing of it, but this night I was grateful. They were watching over my boys, and I’d already seen the contingent in Evan’s room. I realized how much I’d come to count on them. Sometimes I thought I was alone, but these loyal creatures were my own army, and they could move mountains when they wanted to.
“Good night,” I said quietly to them.
I turned off the light and left the room. This was my favorite time of the day. Because of our natures, we didn’t put the kids down until after eleven. School didn’t start until noon. We were on a different schedule than the human world. But I was like any mom. I loved that moment at the end of the day when I settled in my little ones, when I knew they were safe and cared for.
Where was Dev? What was he doing? Was he safe? I prayed Kelsey had found him and they had Marcus. The three of them together could handle almost anything.
“Hey, are they asleep?” Daniel stood in the hallway. He looked beyond tired, and I wondered what Myrddin had required of him.
No matter how irritated I was, I couldn’t help but go to him. I wrapped my arms around him and let my head settle on his chest. “Evan and Fen are, but the twins are probably still awake if you want to go in.”
His arms wrapped around me. “I’ll let them sleep. I’m worried if I see them I’ll break down. God, Z, I can’t stand the fact that he’s not here.”
“We’re going to get him back.” I missed Dev, but Daniel spent most of his time with him. We were like many families. We all worked. My work often had me with Sarah or Neil meeting with committees or school officials. Danny and Dev worked together much of the time.
“Yes. We will. I’ll never stop looking for him.” Daniel rubbed his cheek against my head. “I won’t get caught up in life. I won’t let time go by the way I did with…”
I tilted my chin up, knowing exactly where his thoughts had gone. I also knew the well of guilt he could dive into. “It’s okay to say her name.”
“Summer. I won’t be weak the way I was with Summer.”
“You weren’t weak, Danny.” I’d gone over this a thousand times in my head. I had that same deep well when it came to our oldest daughter. “We didn’t know she was ours in the beginning, and honestly, even if we had we weren’t ready to raise a magical child. We weren’t in any position to protect her, and she would have been hunted here. I assure you Halfer would have taken her if he could have.”
She’d been part of the contract I’d signed with the demon. Oh, the Light of Alhorra had all been a distraction for what Halfer had truly wanted, which was to force Daniel to work for him, but he’d been a demon who knew a deal when he saw it. That child of light would have been gobbled up if he could have managed it. Or she would have become one more way to control her father.
“I’ll give you that, but we’ve stopped looking in the last few years.”
“We’ve exhausted the possibilities,” I argued. We’d searched and searched and found no real options that didn’t involve a wild-goose chase ticket paid for with one of our souls. “Have you thought about the fact that she would know how to get here? The faeries knew. They would have taught her. She was made of powerful magic. She could have found us, and that tells me something.”
“That she hates us?”
I never said he was the most positive of souls. “That she’s happy. That she feels complete. I still want to find her, but I have some faith. Or time moves weird on whatever plane she’s on and she’s still a baby. Maybe one day when we’re old she’ll show up on our doorstep and we’ll have to deal with a teenager who can shape reality around her. That’s going to be fun.”
“I can only pray that will happen, but in the meantime…”
“We’re not giving up on anyone.” I stepped back and took his hand. “Do we need to go down to the temple now?”
I had to hope Myrddin wasn’t refreshing himself at his place. He would have a whole lot of questions, and I was sure many of them would be directed my way. I had to hope that doing the ritual and pleasing Daniel would be more important than berating me.
“In about twenty minutes. We’re meeting Myrddin and Nim in my office and then we’ll go down to the temple. But I needed something first. Baby, I hate to ask you but Myrddin needed blood. Quite a bit of it.”
I rested my head against his chest and barely managed to not curse. Fucker had taken quite a bit if Daniel’s heart rate was any indication, and it almost certainly was. A vampire’s heart beats fine as long as his blood volume was up. Danny’s was slow this evening, and I imagined he was feeling pretty sluggish. He was worried and his body was weak and tired, something that would set him on edge.
At least I could help in this case. I could ensure he was strong and ready to go if anything dangerous happened.
I took his hand and led him down the hallway back to our bedroom. I closed the door behind us. “You need to feed, Danny.”
“I need you. I need to be close to you.” The words came out low and rumbling from his throat. “God, Z, I know how upset you are with me for letting Myrddin come here. I know you don’t understand, and I don’t have any right to ask you.”
I went up on my toes and brushed my lips against his. I was upset, but he certainly had the right. I was his wife. Just because he was a dumbass who couldn’t see the truth didn’t mean I wasn’t going to love him. I fully expected him to forgive me when he inevitably discovered I’d stolen from his mentor. I could give him this. I needed this, too.
He leaned over and lifted me up into his arms, holding me to his chest. “God, I love you. All these years later and it’s still you.”
“Dev’s in there, too.” One of the best things about our ménage was getting to watch my two hot guys go at it from time to time.
“He is, but that doesn’t make me love you less. You taught me that. It just makes my heart that much bigger.”
“I’m glad because I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that guy on the TV show Dart. He’s really hot,” I said with a grin. Neil and I had watched that show religiously. Sure it was about a dude who took down bad guys by throwing darts, but his abs were perfect. I was married. Not dead.
Danny growled, but I got a grin out of him. “I’ll kill him first, and you won’t even want to know what Devinshea would do to the man. You get two of us and that’s it.” He strode into the bedroom the three of us shared and dropped me on the big bed. “Take off that shirt.”
I pulled it over my head and tossed it aside as I could feel his magic begin to cover my senses. I shoved my slacks, too, because there was no way this didn’t end with me naked. He needed more than blood. His eyes were bleeding to sapphire blue as the vampire part of him took over. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring up at him. He was right. All these years later and he still took my breath away.