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“Not cool, dude. Your daughter is a warrior. Treat her like one or she’s going to shove that bow up your ass,” I explained before following the kids, who I probably will always refer to as kids. Even when they’re older than I am now, they’ll still be kids to me. But they were exactly what I said they were—warriors. Every one of them battle tested. Shy had a small pistol in her hand and a knife strapped to her thigh. Did Dev think they were there for looks?
“I’m sorry. She’s my daughter, and Shy is practically my daughter-in-law. It’s my nature to protect them.” Dev’s long legs easily kept up with me.
“And it’s not Donovan’s? Your wife and daughter are companions. It’s literally written into his DNA to hide them away,” Trent pointed out. “And you should watch out for Zoey because she won’t take the whole stay-inside thing well, either.”
“You want to protect me, too, Quinn?” I asked, knowing damn well I was using my “I will kill you and eat you” voice.
We stopped at the entrance to the portal. Evan, Fen, and Shy were already standing around the door, weapons at the ready.
“No, I’m perfectly comfortable with you saving my ass, Hunter,” Quinn offered. There was a semi in his hand, and I happened to know he could use it.
The queen was out of breath when she joined us. “It’s good to know he trusts at least one of us.”
Quinn frowned his wife’s way. “Well you, my goddess, are pregnant.”
“So is Kelsey,” she pointed out.
“Kelsey is carrying a Hell lord. Her child will likely fight from inside the womb,” Quinn said, his eyes on the door.
So much hypocrisy today. “Uh, I’m not the one carrying… What did Myrddin call her?”
Zoey sighed. “A destroyer of worlds, but it’s Myrddin and he lies. Baby girl is going to be every bit as sweet as my other daughters.”
Sure. One of them currently powered the outer planes with her unique magic and ruled as a goddess, and the other one liked to shoot arrows into her enemies and impale herself on swords, so I didn’t have high hopes that baby Harriet would be some shy, retiring girl.
Donovan landed on the ground in front of the kids, taking the lead position. I noted that unlike what they’d done with Dev, the kids did not argue with Donovan. But then he was the King of all Vampire, whether or not Myrddin had physical possession of his crown.
I moved in next to him because if he was the king, I was the sheriff.
Fenrir and Trent still moved to my side, and Evan to her father’s. Puff was already growling at the door.
Quinn moved in right beside her.
He was a stubborn man.
But I didn’t have time to deal with their damage as the door began to open and adrenaline flooded my system.
If the door was opening, then either one of the kids was coming through or someone had one of the kids because the portal was warded.
“If it was Myrddin, the witches who run the book shop would have alerted us,” Donovan said calmly. “They have a couple of devices in the shop that they can easily get to.”
Then Rhys was pushing through the door, opening it for Lee, who held a young man in his big arms.
Dean.
“What happened?” Donovan moved in.
“He needs to get to a healer. Dad, I can’t fly yet. I don’t know how much time he has.” Lee had lost his normal swagger. He looked scared, and that scared me.
“Your dad will take him to Lily, but what happened?” I asked, wanting Donovan to know what to say because it didn’t look like Dean would be saying anything.
“We were outside town visiting the Hidden Ones.” Rhys looked exactly like Lee, but normally it was easy to tell them apart. Rhys was the serious one, the Green Man who had been born with the knowledge that he was important to the Fae world. It had been Rhys’s power that brought the legendary Hidden Ones to our side. “A group of witches were waiting for us when we left the pocket world. It’s my fault.”
He was also the one with the most defined sense of guilt. I didn’t have time for that now. “What did they hit him with?”
Donovan took Dean into his arms, the young wizard looking so pale I worried it was too late.
“I don’t know,” Lee admitted, his face even paler than normal. Lee was a vampire but like Donovan, he was classified as a king. In this case it didn’t mean he had a crown, merely that his physical and mental powers were far above other vampires. He was a super predator. The alpha of alphas. But he was also a twenty-three-year-old who’d seen too much tragedy in his time. “I don’t think they were trying to kill him.”
