see it which was the only reason I wasn’t looking for a knife to take to Erna’s throat at that moment. Bris wouldn’t have been able to hold him off forever. He wouldn’t have been able to calm him down, and I was worried Danny would be the same. “I understand. The stone was going to protect itself at all costs.”
It would have killed me because I had kind of been a dumbass about it and lost my temper.
Erna’s eyes met mine. “Good because I should take it out of the human while he’s unconscious, too.”
I was about to shout my disapproval when she held out a hand and Daniel’s body jerked, his head coming up and down and something flying across the yard.
Now Erna had two stones and Daniel was groaning.
“It was easier once I knew where the wizard had placed the stone,” Erna remarked as she studied them. “And I prepared the human last night. The Fae was much more difficult. You should find them both out of thrall now, Your Highness. I expect a favor from you. I expect you to bring Summer home.”
“I will do that.” I didn’t mention which home I would be bringing her to. Mine. Her true home on the Earth plane.
“Wow that hurt.” Dean had managed to get to his feet, but he seemed woozy. “My brain feels like it’s going to explode. Between getting inside the demon’s head and catching the edge of that magic, I think I need a nap.”
Erna moved to him, finally showing some concern for someone beyond herself. She pocketed the stones and examined Dean. “Are you all right? Tell me where it hurts. I’m sorry, Dean. I didn’t mean to hit you with it. Come inside and let me examine your head.”
“I think I’m fine,” Dean said, seeming to regain his balance.
“What did you mean about looking inside a demon’s head?” Erna asked, sending a pointed look toward Kelsey. “I thought you were going to milk the cow and keep it safe from that one.”
“I’m not going to eat your cow,” Kelsey replied with a roll of her eyes.
Oh, she would if she got hungry enough, but I let that worry go as I moved to Danny and put a hand on his chest. It was obvious Kelsey had been making some moves this morning, and I wanted to hear about them, but only after I made sure my husbands were all right. I looked down at Daniel as his eyes fluttered open.
“Hey, baby, what happened?” He blinked against the morning light. “Am I having a weird dream? My head feels funny.”
But he was all right. I squeezed his hand. “That’s what happens when you have some very odd brain surgery.”
His jaw tightened. “The thrall stone. The witch got it out.” He sat up and immediately looked for Devinshea. “Dev?”
“Is stone free, too,” I assured him. “It was rougher on him. He needs a nap but he’s going to be okay. Do you remember what happened?”
I kind of hoped he didn’t remember the few moments before the stone had been removed.
“I remember I tried to kill you.”
There would be a whole lot of guilt around that, and I would have to deal with it. Danny could get mopey when he was guilt ridden. I needed to minimize that. “The stone tried to kill me. The stone protected its mission above anything else.”
“And its mission was to keep me loyal to Myrddin.” Even though he was human now, I could hear the vampire king in his tone. It was the same tone he used before he eviscerated someone.
“Yes.” I was going to let him draw the proper conclusions and come to the right course of action.
“I’m going to kill him.”
See, I knew he could do it. “First we need to find our daughter.”
“We might have bigger problems, Your Highness.” Kelsey loomed over us, her lean figure blocking out the sun. “Like end of the world problems.”
Of course we did. “Help me get Devinshea inside and you can tell me all about the new apocalypse we’re facing.”
Kelsey frowned. “I bet he’s heavy.”
Daniel got to his feet. “You have no idea. And I’m human. This is going to hurt. When we’ve got him comfortable, we need to talk about how we get to the door to the Vampire plane.”
“Dev did a real number on this lawn,” Kelsey said, studying the overturned dirt where my husband had nearly taken Dean down. She seemed to be looking for something.