Steal the Light (Thieves #1)(84)

Lang pulled Sarah out, and I turned to look at her. She looked like I felt, sad and scared. I gave her a half-hearted smile. “I told them they should gag you.”

Her face broke into a genuine grin, and she laughed. “Bitch.”

I started to stand, but Haweigh held her hand up and I stopped. She looked at the child and arched an eyebrow. “Do what you think you must.”

The child held her hand, and I felt something pass through me. I looked down, and the hole in my midsection closed while I watched. It closed as though it were sewing itself back together. Unfortunately, it also felt like someone was sewing me back together. I didn’t even try to stop the scream.

I fell to the floor, shaking after the pain passed. Lang came in close and stared down at me. “See, if she’d been a cat, that wouldn’t have hurt.”

I held my stomach and vowed that the next time I made a magical creature, it would definitely be a cat.





Chapter Twenty-Three





I felt infinitely better by the time we reached the elevator. I was sore, but the hole in my middle was closed. That meant my day was looking up. Haweigh and her compatriots were definitely not used to the way things worked on this plane. I personally would have insisted my blood-soaked prisoner change clothes so as not to attract unwelcome attention.

I got several stares, but I smiled brightly and winked and no one said a word.

And I wondered if it was dark yet. I wondered if Daniel was awake and searching for me. I wondered if he would miss me.

Haweigh pushed the button for the parking garage, and the doors closed. Sarah and I were alone with our captors. The only bright spot was the baby and her toothless grin.

“I like her,” the smaller faery said. When I describe him as smaller, I just mean not as large as Lang. He still had a good six inches on me.

“What a surprise,” Lang said sarcastically. “Craigen likes the pretty female.”

“She’s not just pretty,” Craigen replied. “She’s crazy. I like that in a female. The crazy ones are always the best.”

I smiled at the attractive, funny Fae. I could use allies, and I was not above using my feminine wiles to acquire them. The longer I managed to stay alive, the more of a chance I had to see Daniel one last time. He would search for me. And Dev would tell him where they’d taken me. “What gave me away? Was it the arrowdectomy? That was nothing. I jumped off the roof of the hotel last night. Now that was crazy. Let’s see, this month alone I’ve tried to kill my own father, fought off a big snake, destroyed a nightclub, and summoned a fully-functional demon. That was a mistake. I’d been hoping for the Ken-doll version.”

Craigen laughed. “See, I have no idea what the girl is saying, but I like the way she says it. I think she can stay with me when we get home. She’ll need an advocate.”

Yeah, I could bet just what that horny faery would be advocating for me. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the “stay alive and hope Daniel made it to Faeryland” plan. Dev had connections. Daniel had pure willpower.

If they didn’t kill each other, they might make a good team.

The doors to the lowest level of the garage opened, and I was escorted into the low light of the enormous space.

“Can you feel that, Z?” Sarah walked, following our captors, but her head swung around as though searching for something.

I felt scared because we were about to be taken to another plane, but I didn’t feel anything supernatural. I prayed it wasn’t Halfer. “What is it?”

“It’s the veil.” Sarah breathed in the air reverently. “It’s here and it’s going to open. Wow, that is some really impressive magic. Do you do it?”

She pointed the question to Haweigh. “This I cannot take credit for. It is an Earth magic, but finding the veil and getting through it, that is our magic. We passed from this plane long ago, and we passed in just this way.”

She led us down the long aisles and turned. There were few cars this far down. We were alone. I wondered what time it was. When the doors opened to the lobby, I’d noted it was close to full dark. There had been only a sliver of sunlight illuminating the lobby. Daniel would be awake soon. And I prayed Neil awakened as well.

“Why here?” Sarah asked as we stopped.

Lang shrugged. “It shifts all the time. We entered the plane in a place called St. Louis and made our way here to get back. The fact that the veil opens underground explains a lot to us. We wondered why the times between the opening of the veils varied so widely. Sometimes they open one after another, and other times it takes months to get back. Apparently the veil opens where it will. Before this structure was built, this place of passing would have been impossible to access.”

“So what’s it like?” I found myself curious. “Is it ‘beam me up, Scotty’?”

All three looked at me blankly. Sarah rolled her eyes in an affectionate manner. My pop culture references were going to be so lost on the Faery plane.

“It is a door,” Haweigh explained patiently. “But one you must be trained to see.” She turned her attention to the child, who was suddenly staring at the ceiling, her fat little baby arms pumping up and down. “No, child, it is this way. It is not here yet, but if you try, you can see it.”

Baby Girl wasn’t interested. Her head turned up, watching the ceiling, a big grin on her face. She suddenly let loose a squeal and clapped her hands.