But not chickens. I’ll eat chickens every day. They’re quite mean. Also, I can’t cuddle fish, so they’re fair game.
“Be careful, Summer.” Erna had stepped away from Dean. Her eyes seemed to glow in the lengthening afternoon light. “I don’t like this development. You know I’ve been reading the signs and they point toward change.”
I was counting on it since I couldn’t keep going the way I had. However, I wasn’t about to tell Erna that. I certainly didn’t want her to think me ungrateful. She’d been the one to save me that terrible day when I’d learned the horrors of my own power. “I will be.”
She nodded and I shut down the tablet. I would have to visit the Vampire plane again soon to recharge the two we had. If I dared show my face there again.
I took a deep breath and tried not to the think about the fact that we were running out of time. And food. And everything we could need. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold out. Turi had come close this time. If he managed to convince the other allied planes that I was behind the convergence problems…well, I would be dealing with more than one assassin.
I would have to make the decision whether or not it was worth it to risk Erna and Dean. I’d honestly already made the decision, but I was holding on to them because I had no one else in all the worlds who cared about me.
I settled the tablet back in place and felt for the small book I’d stolen from a library on a plane where witches ruled. It was a surprisingly nice plane. Lots of coffee shops and art everywhere. It sucked to be a male on that plane, but it was feminine paradise. It was Erna’s home plane and she often talked about settling down there one day. If we survived.
Of course there was probably a warrant out for my arrest now. I was certain they’d worked some justice mojo and figured out the quiet redhead who’d wanted to read up on love spells had stolen their ancient book of prophecies, and there would be all kinds of witchy bounty hunters after me.
I’d only taken a couple of steps when I realized I wasn’t alone. I went perfectly still and listened. When I’d been forced to reject my magic, I’d had to learn all new skills, and one of them was to open my senses. They were suppressed, too, but I could still call upon the echo of them.
There was someone coming up on my left.
He was running up the path I’d made when I’d fled Kelsey, the false Dev, and the vampire. I felt that power of the vampire’s brush against my brain and I quickly shut him out and moved away from the water. There wasn’t cover here. I needed to hide. He was moving quickly. He had a vampire’s senses, though this man wasn’t wearing the normal protective clothing a vampire wore whenever they left their home plane. Vampires evolved on a plane where the ultraviolet light is different, and they don’t react to it particularly well. I’d been told the Earth plane’s vampires were ones who’d gotten lost in their travels, but that was Vampire lore. They tend to think they’re the be-all, end-all of existence and that they must have been the first.
I wasn’t so sure. My father’s power had come from someplace ancient, and it had been tied to the Earth plane.
But I was sure this vampire was coming for me and I didn’t have a weapon. Luckily I was in a forest, and everyone knew how to handle a vampire. I pulled at one of the low-hanging branches and had a nice-sized stake in no time at all.
I was ready to take him on.
* * * *
Zoey
The sun had gone down, and I stood on the balcony that overlooked Ether’s dance floor which pulsed with light as they ran a technical check. In a few hours the floor would be covered in patrons dancing the night away. They would dance and drink and pretend like they didn’t have a care in the world.
I used to be one of them.
The door behind me opened directly into Dev’s office. I could remember so vividly the first time I’d walked into this club. In many ways it had been the night my life had turned for the better. It had been the night that set me on the