Shadowstorm (The Shadow World Book 6) (36 page)

“You’ll have a chance,” David told him with a kiss to his forehead. “I give you my word.”

A slight smile. “Well, if I have the word of David Solomon, fate had better watch its back.”

“Damn right.”

“Can you forgive me for how I’ve behaved?” Deven asked, shifting back to look in his face. “I know you were avoiding me this whole year, and I’m rather glad you did, given how I treated everyone.”

David smiled. “I forgive you. I’ll always forgive you. There are things that I’ve come to accept about us in these few years. I wasn’t ready to own up to most of it until Miranda made it clear it was okay, that she wasn’t going to get angry at whatever I felt.”

“And…what do you feel?”

“I should think it would be perfectly obvious,” David said wryly. “I love you, never stopped, can’t stop, won’t. That’s just how it is, and I’m finally okay with that. I need you to be, too, if you can.”

Pale eyes lifted up to his. “I think I can now.”

“Good.”

He felt Deven’s body gradually go slack, and lay in the warm darkness for a while, listening to him breathe. He could feel Miranda’s presence drawing closer, and once she had arrived at the Haven, it was only a matter of minutes before there was movement at the door.

The Queen swept in in full Miranda Grey the Celebrity regalia, carrying her guitar case but still armed to the teeth. She paused just inside to remove some of her gear and hang it near the door, but stopped when she saw Deven was asleep; she caught David’s gaze and raised an eyebrow.

He wasn’t quite sure how to convey the situation in a gesture, but luckily he didn’t have to; she could see it on his face. He’d told her what happened in a quiet phone call while waiting for the guards to finish chaining up Nico. He wasn’t sure how to classify her reaction to learning Morningstar had Kai, Nico had just killed Deven’s grandmother, and their timetable had accelerated drastically, but she had been, and was still, calm and in command.

To think once upon a time he’d been unsure if she could handle bearing a Signet. In a lot of ways she was better at it than he’d ever been.

She nodded, then said quietly, “How are you?”

“I’ve been better,” he replied. “Everything settled out there?”

“I think so. Having Maguire and Myers there was a good idea. I could sense a lot of hostility toward the police but I think seeing all of us up there together helped. If nothing else I made it clear that anyone harassing the detectives will answer to me.”

David smiled. “That should do it, then.”

She paused by the bed and looked down at its occupants, sadness edging the satisfaction from her eyes. “Are you keeping him under?”

“No. He’s just that tired.”

“Poor kitten,” she said, very lightly touching Deven’s sleeping face. “You’re right…we can’t wait any longer.”

“Do you think you can do it?”

“I have to, don’t I?” She stepped back and went to remove her boots. “If we’re going to find Kai, stop Morningstar, get that ritual from the Codex done, move forward at all…we can’t do it like this. We need our Weaver back, and we need everyone at full strength. No matter how you look at it the first step is to get that barrier down.” She looked at him. “Did you talk it over?”

“Not yet. I thought it best if you were here.”

Another nod. “I’m going to take a shower…let’s let him sleep a little longer. If he’s going to do his part he needs to be at least somewhat alert.”

She definitely had a point. Left alone again in the comfortable quiet with someone he’d long, long missed having in his arms, David let himself drift off too, trying to pretend for a moment that nothing existed beyond the suite door.

*****

She could feel her Prime falling asleep as she stripped off her clothes and waited for the shower spray to heat up. After the night he’d had, she was thankful he could catch even a few moments’ rest…and she needed a moment as well.

She’d been holding it together pretty well, she thought, for most of the last hour. She’d felt what David would describe as a “great disturbance in the Force” but couldn’t figure out exactly who or what it was about until her phone rang and he unloaded, as gently as possible, the night’s events.

Kai missing, presumably in the hands of Morningstar. Deven’s grandmother here, then gone, but gone forever, at Nico’s hand. Nico chained in a cell with his neck broken. It was a lot to process…too much, it turned out.

Miranda sagged against the shower wall and let herself cry for a while. She could have let it out in front of the boys—they’d hardly judge her for it—but she wanted to be careful about the atmosphere in the bedroom for the next few hours. She knew Deven was dangerously close to another breakdown, and this time they probably wouldn’t get him back.

And would they ever see their Nico again? And even if they did, how would he live with himself? Lesela had been his friend, once his lover. It was her prophetic gift that had sent him to the Shadow World. Not to mention she was his Prime’s only living relative, the only one who could answer the questions Miranda knew Deven had about his history. Now they would never get to know each other; she would never have a chance to see beneath the angry exterior to the wonderful creature in which it turned out her family line had ended.

And Kai…Miranda wept into the shower spray as she imagined him being torn apart as Nico had been…cut open, violated in such intimate and agonizing ways…stripped of every defense, including sanity, and left with…what? What would be left of Kai? Would he end up like his brother? She pictured him that way, his confidence and that stubborn will broken into shards…Elves healed quickly, but not always completely. They could scar. Kai didn’t have Nico’s vampiric regenerative ability. If they did to him what the Inquisition had done to Deven all those years ago, broke his hands…he would never play again…assuming he would even want to.

She shut her eyes and leaned sideways against the tiled wall, praying silently to anyone out there that Kai wouldn’t have to face what Nico had, wouldn’t be tortured, and wouldn’t lose his life’s work because of them. It was bad enough that their war had swallowed Nico—at least he’d come here and gotten involved willingly. Kai had only left Avilon for his brother, not to join the fight against Morningstar and certainly not to become a pawn for either side.

The bathroom was dense with clouds of steam when she reached for her towel. If they failed tonight…if she failed…she shuddered at the thought and wished she could do something like crossing herself or knocking on wood that would actually help.

The Queen pulled on her bathrobe, holding her breath steady. She had to stay grounded. She closed her eyes and groped after the image of the Web she’d managed to find at her piano, just to be sure it was still there.

It took a minute, but once she relaxed her mind’s eye enough there it was, hovering quietly around the edges of her awareness. She wasn’t able to See very far—she could follow the threads from her own part over to David and See him pretty clearly, and she could feel the tangled knot that represented Deven, but to do anything to help she would have to get close, get her hands dirty.

“Okay,” she said into the empty room, trying to inject confidence into her slightly shaky voice. “Here we go.”

Both Primes were still asleep when she returned to the bedroom. She stood at the foot of the bed for a moment, one hand on the bedpost, both getting a better look at the energetic situation and admiring the scene.

They had, in the time she’d been in the shower, shifted so that both lay on their sides, David acting as the big spoon with one arm around Deven’s middle, their fingers entwined. She had to smile: David’s hand was so much bigger than either hers or Deven’s, though they didn’t seem terribly large in and of themselves.

Dev’s other hand had wrapped itself around David’s other wrist—David had told her about the heartbeat thing. Where did that come from, she wondered? She was glad David didn’t seem to need that kind of reassurance with her; if she’d woken with his hand around her neck she probably would have broken his arm.

Such an odd pair, her boys. Standing over them she felt a surge of affection and protectiveness…and maybe just a little possessiveness, if she let herself admit it. Life had already taken enough from them both…from them all. She was going to find a way that they could all be happy, even just for a year or two, and if she had to move Heaven and Earth to do it, she would do so gladly.

The situation in the Web was pretty straightforward, though it looked like it might be even direr than they’d expected. She could see herself and her Pair bond with David, as well as Deven’s connection that led off to Nico. She turned her attention very slowly toward Nico until the barrier came into view.

It was closer to Deven’s end than the Elf’s, and the sight of it made her stomach clench.

She couldn’t See the level of detail that Stella could; Stella said she Saw the Web in full color, where what Miranda was looking at was mostly threads made of blue-white light. It made her think of the stars: what looked to ordinary eyes like white dots of light were, on closer inspection with the right equipment, a nocturnal rainbow.

She could See it well enough to be intimidated. The barrier was such a small thing, just a shadow that had wrapped itself around the bond and twisted it almost totally shut, but the imbalance building up on either side was inches from disastrous. This was going to take an enormous amount of power…power she could only hope they had. Without any real experience she couldn’t say for sure if they were strong enough…they had to be. They were out of options and out of time.

She shook herself out of the vision; if she kept staring at it she was just going to second-guess herself into paralysis. She didn’t have to keep the vision “up” the whole time as long as she could visualize it clearly when it was needed—she’d gotten that much from Stella, though now she wished she’d found the time to sit the Witch down and grill her about technique.

Taking a deep breath, Miranda sat down on the edge of the bed where she could reach over and run her fingers lightly through David’s hair.

He stirred, eyes opening halfway, still dazed with sleep, sharpening when he saw her.

She wasn’t sure how to wake Deven in a way that wouldn’t get her stabbed, but David was way ahead of her; she felt him reach over and tap lightly on Deven’s mind.

Dev started and woke, gaze fixing on Miranda.

Once when she was a kid Miranda had visited the Houston Zoo, and amid crying about how sad the animals must be, she had caught the eye of a wolf as he woke from a nap in the sun. In the space of about two seconds she saw the analysis:
Not a threat, not food, all is well.

The exact same thing passed over Deven’s face, his eyes flashing from lavender to silver to deeper violet and back to lavender. Again, it was almost instantaneous, but it was the sort of thing one predator would always notice in another.

Given the situation she decided not to overanalyze how attractive it was.

“Hey,” she said softly. “You okay, more or less?”

He dropped his head back into the pillow and said, voice muffled, “Not especially.” After a moment he looked back up at her. “I’m told you have a plan?”

David and Miranda exchanged a look. “Okay,” she began, groping for words for a second, “Like you said before, just knocking the barrier over would overwhelm you both, and assuming it didn’t kill you, that much energy isn’t something we need in Nico’s hands right now—which is why now is the best time to act, while he’s out. In the state you’re in, with you two all unbalanced and on emotional hair triggers, even if you wanted to do it by yourself, it’d be dangerous. This isn’t just a shield, it’s a strangled Signet bond.”

“Yes, and?”

“For us to help you, we have to get in past your shields to a much deeper level than anyone’s probably ever gone besides Jonathan. David thought of a way to make it easier for you to let us in, and to let us take control of your energy and hold the balance.”

Miranda couldn’t help but enjoy the expression on Deven’s face as once again he looked from Prime to Queen, a lot of things began to come together, and, slowly, understanding dawned. “You are out of your goddamned minds.”

“Are we?” Miranda asked. “Fine, then—try and open your shielding on your own right now. As scared and freaked out and grieving as you are, go ahead, let us in and we’ll go from there. Go ahead. We’ll wait.”

She sensed Deven trying—the stubborn bastard would scarcely even admit he needed help, let alone with such basic energy work. But just as emotional burnout could cause someone’s shields to fail, they could do the opposite and turn them to stone. Neither situation was easy to fix. The best and sometimes only way to deal with either was to find a skilled psychic to help the way David had once shielded Miranda. It was the same problem, just the opposite manifestation. Too much pain, too much fear, too long alone—and years of hiding and running.

Deven’s hands clenched, and he bent all his considerable will toward opening his shields, but every time he got close to them he started shaking harder, until a sound very like a sob escaped him and he gave up, putting his hands over his eyes.

“I can’t,” he whispered helplessly. “I didn’t realize it was that bad…I avoided looking so I could avoid feeling the guilt…you’re right, I can’t.”

“It’s okay,” Miranda told him gently, stroking his forehead. “We can help you. Plus, let’s face it…didn’t you think we were going to end up here eventually anyway?”

That at least earned a weary, but genuine, chuckle. “I suppose I did.”

“And, just in case it turns out seven hundred years of history outweigh a mostly untested attraction to one’s best friend, we’ve got a ringer.” She tilted her head toward David.

A hint of uncertainty—of a different sort than before—entered Deven’s voice as he said, “So…how exactly is this supposed to work?”

Miranda grinned. “Do we need to draw you a picture?”

“I mean the magic.”

David picked up the thread. “There’s something that Nico does—Stella apparently calls it ‘Elf Tantra’—a way of taking the energy generated by sex and directing it. It’s almost exactly the same as what we do when we shag our prey—we use their own arousal to heighten the power in their blood so we don’t need to take as much. Nico said that it wasn’t unheard of for his people to actually Weave with that energy—and that the results could be nothing short of miraculous.” David looked over at Miranda and added, “I have enough experience with that end of things that even without Sight I can feed Miranda whatever power we raise, and she can funnel it into the Web.”