emotion and he stared me straight in the eyes. “Yes, you can. You can breathe. Breathe with me.”
“It’s a spell. Someone’s attacking me.” I could feel it in my chest.
“No, baby. It’s definitely an attack, but it’s not one from the outside,” Danny insisted. His hands stroked down my hair before he pulled me into his arms. “It’s an anxiety attack. Breathe with me.”
I didn’t have anxiety attacks. I had stared down some of the worst moments a person could survive and not flinched.
Except for that one moment. That moment when they’d told me Danny was dead the first time. When the police officer had knocked on my door and I’d thought it was Danny coming home late with our takeout and…
“Breathe with me,” Danny whispered. “I can really feel my breath for the first time in almost twenty years. Breathe with me, Z. We can get through this.”
“Breathe with us.” Dev was at my back, surrounding me and completing our circle. “The kids are going to be okay and we will get back to them. We’re going to be all right, my goddess.”
“Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together,” Danny promised.
I hadn’t realized I was shaking until they’d put their arms around me. I held on to them as I took that first long breath, tears clouding my eyes.
I had so much to lose. So fucking much. But I also had so much love and loyalty around me. I wasn’t alone.
“It’s all right.” Danny’s lips caressed my forehead. “It’s going to be all right.”
I clung to them for a moment, needing to feel them all around me. “I’m sorry. We don’t need me to break down right now.”
“Don’t you dare apologize,” Dev replied, nestling his head next to mine. “We’re all worried, and none of us has wanted to talk about it. None of us wants to deal with the fact that we’re facing an unknown future. We have no idea the plans Myrddin has made, and Daniel and I will be walking a tightrope when we return. But we will return. We will fight.”
“And we will win,” Danny vowed.
I felt my heart rate tick down slightly. I wanted to apologize again. I hated that I’d lost my cool, but I had the feeling Dev would take exception, and Dean didn’t need to see how spanky my Fae hubby could get.
“Uhm, Your Highness, Kelsey hears something coming,” Dean said quietly.
“It’s high pitched.” Kelsey was standing closer to the path we’d been on before we’d stopped for this break. Dean had walked us down a narrow path that he’d promised led to the door to the Vampire plane. “It’s definitely not natural.”
I looked to Danny out of pure habit.
“Sorry, baby.” He stepped back, my hand in his. “My ears, unfortunately, are perfectly human, and all I hear is insects humming.”
“I can hear it.” Dev went to join Kelsey. “She’s right about the high pitch. It sounds mechanical. I would say it’s man made.”
Dean started to jog toward the path. “It’s vampire made. I think you’re hearing hoverbikes coming this way. They can’t use cars off plane because they work with gravity and for some reason it’s slightly different on each plane, but the bikes work. I’m going to see if I get anything off them.”
“You can do that from a distance?” Kelsey asked. “Though they are getting closer every second. Those suckers are fast.”
“I don’t want Dean to put himself in danger.” My hands were still shaking a bit, but Daniel and Dev had done their job. They’d brought me back to them. I was calmer, though apparently we were in danger again.
“I’ll be with him.” Dev crossed the ground between them and followed as Dean got closer to the path. “I can hide us all very quickly if we need to.”
Dean went still. “Oww. Someone’s wearing shields.” Dean turned toward us. “But someone doesn’t have to. I know that brain. It’s the earthbound vampire guy who tried to get me to gut myself. Can we not do that again?”
Marcus? Marcus was coming? But Marcus…the last time anyone had seen Marcus, he’d been with Summer. He’d gotten hauled off with my baby.
Danny’s hand squeezed in mine, and I could see he was thinking the same thing.
Summer might be here. She might be on one of those bikes. She was on one of those bikes. I suddenly knew it. I don’t know why. Maybe it was desperate hope. Maybe it was a prayer to the universe that one thing went right