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Still another pounded against the ladies’ room door, trying to break through, and we could hear screaming from inside. The fourth was headed toward the kitchen, where Anadey was wielding a huge cleaver.
“Stop him!” I shouted, but Peyton was two steps ahead, leaping on the Vampiric Fae and knocking him to the floor. I motioned for the others to stand back and swept my fan three times.
Winds don’t fail me now. Gale force.
A gust howled through the diner, raging more than one hundred miles per hour, catching everyone off guard, toppling everything not nailed down. Plates went whipping like Frisbees, glasses smashed against the walls, the hurricaneforce winds caught up the chairs from the front tables and sent them sailing through the windows. The lights flickered as screams erupted—the Shadow Hunters were not happy with me.
As soon as the winds died, Kaylin rushed in, aiming his shurikens with deadly accuracy toward the head of the creature who was feasting on the woman. She had passed out—or died—and was a bloody mess of torn flesh. The Shadow Hunter screamed again and rushed toward the dreamwalker.
As Leo aimed and fired off a half dozen rounds, Rhiannon held her hands out and sent a blast of flame through the air. Both the bullet and the flame caught hold of the Indigo Fae and he fell to the floor, transforming as he did so. As he shifted back into his normal form, he jumped up, blackened from the fire and bleeding slightly from the bullet, which had gone directly through his shoulder. But the bullet hadn’t seemed to slow him down any, and he aimed himself directly for Rhiannon.>“Then I guess we’d better be ready for the shit to hit the fan. Because I don’t think we can pull this off without everybody in this house knowing what’s up.” She began to set the table as I checked on the pizza.
“Fifteen more minutes.” I stared out the window. We were all in the midst of personal crises. And things didn’t seem to be lightening up any. “Have you decided what to do about your father?” I finally asked, pushing the matter of the antidote to the side.
Peyton nodded. “I’m going to see him, but do you mind if he visits me here? I can’t ask him to come to my house, not with my mother there. And I’d rather chat someplace where we’ll have more privacy than a coffee shop.”
I nodded, absently wishing my only problem were meeting my father for the first time, then immediately felt guilty for thinking that. Peyton had a lot riding on getting to know her father.
“Sure,” I said, glancing over at the door. Leo was scuffing the snow off his boots out on the back porch. “Well, I guess we’re about to find out which way the cookie crumbles.” I flashed Peyton a strained grin. “Let’s just hope the crumbs all fall close to home. Hansel and Gretel had it easy compared to me.”
“Yeah.” She gave me a thumbs-up. “Because if Lannan so much as gets a whiff of the gingerbread house, he’s going to be on your tail like white on rice.”
“Or snow on snow,” I added softly, staring out the window at the drifting banks that continued to grow ever taller.
Chapter 14
Leo was grumbling as he came through the door. “Damned snow. I wish it would give it a rest.” He looked up and saw Rhiannon entering the kitchen, with Kaylin and Chatter right behind her, and the frown turned into a smile as his face lit up. “Hey, honey, I’m home!”
As he enfolded her in his arms for a long kiss, I hoped to hell that I wasn’t going to be a wedge between them. I also hoped that Peyton was wrong about Leo—and that my own secret suspicions were off.
I sliced the pizza and slid the pie on the table while Peyton poured drinks all the way around and set out the pudding and cookies. Kaylin and Chatter slid into their places and I stared at Kaylin, wondering what he’d say. He’d been against my dreamwalking with him the first time, but a lot had happened since then. He glanced up to meet my gaze, unblinking. A dark smile fell across his lips as he lifted his beer and slowly saluted me with it.
As we all fell to eating, I glanced over at Rhiannon. She nodded. No time like the present. I leaned back and licked the melted cheese off my fingers.
“Guys, I need to talk to you about something. I need your help.”
“Peyton and I have already agreed to help her in this, and we’re not changing our minds, so I suggest you think twice about turning her down.” Rhiannon swallowed her pizza and blinked. “Kaylin, we especially need your help.”
“Why do I think I’m not going to like this?” Leo frowned, pushing his food around on his plate.
“Because you feel it’s your duty to protect us even when it’s not. But we’re here to help each other, and no single one of us is strong enough to protect the others.” Rhia gave him a playful kiss, but he scowled at her.
“What’s up? I can feel something coming.” He reached for another slice of pizza.
I took a deep breath. “I’m planning something. I need your help, Kaylin, but if you aren’t comfortable then I’ll find another way. No matter what, I’m going through with this.” In a rush, I spilled out, “I’m going to steal some of the antidote and give it to Grieve.”
Leo choked on his pizza, coughing so loud I thought we were going to have to thump him on the back. I glanced over at Kaylin, who raised his eyebrows but didn’t say a word. Chatter looked at me like I was crazy.
After a moment, Leo pushed his plate back and stood up. “This is insane. You’re going to get all of us killed.”
“I’m not asking you to help. I’m not asking Rhia and Peyton to go in with me. I’m just asking you to keep your mouth shut about it. As far as you’re concerned, you don’t know anything.”
“If Geoffrey finds out that I’m keeping this quiet, he’ll rip my throat out—and yours, too!” Leo slammed his hand on the table. “You can’t do this! I know you’re hot for Grieve, but face the fucking facts: He belongs to Myst now. You lost him, he’s gone. Buh-bye!”
I slid out of my chair, staring at him, unable to believe the extent of his anger. Leo seemed mild-mannered on the surface, but he’d shown a nasty temper more than once now.
“Excuse me, but you don’t own this house and you don’t own me. You’re not my brother or my keeper. Grieve means more to me than you can ever comprehend. If you can’t accept the fact that he and I have been bound for lifetimes, then you never will.”
“We don’t always get what we want.” He turned a cold eye at Chatter, then back at me. “We don’t always get who we want.”
