Chapter Twenty-One
Meg took aim and slowly squeezed the trigger. She watched as the bullet tore through the target. Even at a distance, she knew it was a solid hit. She’d bought the Ruger .357 after trying every handgun they let her rent at the range. Well, she amended, Dante had bought the .357 with his credit card. Meg didn’t actually have much money of her own. She helped him around the store. She had been doing his nightly books for the last three weeks, but she wasn’t letting him pay her much. She wouldn’t be here long enough to do the paperwork, so everything he gave her was under the table.
Meg checked her watch. It was almost time to meet him. He was picking her up to look at another spot.
It had been the longest three weeks of her life. The computer had found an astonishing number of potential sites, and each one had been a bust. It was frustrating, but Meg had no other choice. She couldn’t give up.
Dante had been a godsend. He’d quickly figured out how to use the computer to their best advantage. He’d learned through trial and error that the computer had settings to detect everything from atmospheric content to the pH of the soil. Dante had hypothesized that the door to the Faery plane could potentially be found by taking careful readings and comparing it to the rest of the area. Dante had been busy taking measurements and putting them into his program. So far, they’d had no luck.
“Hey, Meg.” A familiar voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
Meg carefully put the weapon away as she greeted him. “Dante, I thought I was meeting you outside.”
He shrugged and offered to carry her case. “I have Gina watching the store. It’s no big deal. I wanted to get a chance to run by this one address I found. I think we have a shot there.”
Meg eyed the young man. It was odd how different he was from his vampire counterpart. They looked almost identical, but the differences in their lives had taken a toll on this Dante. He hadn’t grown up with the privileges of the vampire. He had been raised middle class after his father sold his family’s cattle ranch to a corporation. From what Meg had learned, Dante’s parents had split, with his mom returning to her Irish home with his sister Susan. Dante had remained behind and been forced to drop out of college to take care of his dad.
This Dante lacked the confidence his doppelganger had. He was still funny and bright, but there was an aloofness to him that wasn’t present in her Dante. Meg got the feeling this Dante would be loyal to very few people. He would keep his circle small.
He smiled. It was something Meg had noted he rarely did. “Let’s go check it out, and then we can get burgers.”
“Okay,” Meg said, pulling one of his old jackets over her T-shirt and jeans. Dante had tried to be generous, but Meg had only allowed him to buy her a couple of pairs of jeans, some T-shirts, and two sweaters. It was all she would need, she promised herself as she followed him.
Meg got into his beat-up SUV and buckled her seat belt. Dante was going on about how his newest program had found this spot. He said something about a number of police reports and how often the property had been sold, but Meg was thinking about other things.
She had been on the Faery plane for about a month, but three had passed here. Time moved differently on different planes. How long had Beck and Cian been wondering about her? Had they managed to stop the hag’s plans? Her hands clenched with anger when she thought about someone in the village pretending to be their friend. All the while, this hag was waiting to pounce the instant the twins showed vulnerability. The hag wouldn’t look different from a normal villager as she could take different shapes.
Meg had been reading up on hags and knew it could be any of the females of the village. Meg had her suspicions, hence the .357 she intended to take back with her. If Liadan gave her even a hint that she wasn’t what she said she was, Meg intended to put a couple of rounds in her. Meg felt a wicked smile crease her face. She really hoped it was Liadan.
“That’s a scary look,” Dante said with a grimace.
“Sorry,” Meg apologized and schooled her face into something less bloodthirsty.
It had been hard to readjust to this plane. She had thought she would immediately fall back into patterns of working and watching TV, but something intrinsic had changed within her. When she finished with work for the day, she prepared for the day she would go back to her men. She had spent hours and hours making lists and gathering items she wanted to take with her.
She had a large duffel bag filled with small items that would be helpful. She had bought her ten favorite books at a half-priced store, along with five DVDs she loved. She was sure Vampire Dante could make them work on the computer. She had a disc filled with music she’d downloaded. She’d bought a couple of first aid kits and essentials. Her bags were packed. Now she just needed that ticket home.
She hadn’t completely ignored this plane. Meg found herself looking her own name up on the internet. There had only been a single article on her as a missing person. Her mother had commented that she believed Meg had run off with some man and would get in touch when the relationship soured. It was odd, given that Meg had never exactly run off before, but if it gave her mother comfort, she would go along with it. Besides her mother wouldn’t recognize her anymore.
Meg wore her hair down now all the time. She’d given up on makeup and looked younger for it. She moved with an ease and grace that came with being comfortable in one’s skin. The awkward, shy girl was gone. In her place was a wife who had one job to do, get back to her husbands.
“That’s it,” Dante said as he pulled into the small parking lot.
They were on the outer edges of downtown and parking was more plentiful. Meg stared at the warehouse. It was dilapidated and hadn’t seen better days in years. The door hung haphazardly from its frame. Meg noted the staircase was missing some steps.
Dante opened his door and slid out. “The last two owners sold it at a loss. It’s had fifteen owners since it was built twenty years ago. It was a warehouse for one of the big department stores. They had so many accidents the chain closed it down. I came out here yesterday morning and installed a couple of cameras. I thought I would cover some of the big spaces and see if anything came up.”
There was something about the space that pulled at her. “I think you may be on to something,” she said with the first real enthusiasm she’d felt in weeks. “Let’s get those cameras.”
Four hours and a half-eaten burger later, Meg thought her eyes were going to burst out of her head if she had to watch one more minute of nothing.
It was like watching paint peel. She wasn’t going through frame by frame, but she couldn’t speed it up much, either, for fear of missing something. Dante had covered as much of the space as he could with four cameras. So far, there had been nothing but the eerie green glow of the night vision.
“Anything?” Dante walked into the office from the store. He walked past the long table cluttered with laptops and desktops, their inner workings open to the air.
“The place has rats. Other than that, nothing except a few pigeons that flew by the camera. This is the second camera I’ve sat through.”
“Whoa, what the fuck was that?” There was real alarm in Dante’s eyes. He had gone a little pale.
“What?” Meg queried as she moved the mouse to back up the feed. Her heart seized with joy at the sight of a long, thin man walking past the camera. He was in a hooded cape, but there was the briefest glimpse of his eyes. Meg wanted to jump and shout her happiness to the world. She settled for announcing triumphantly, “That’s a Planeswalker demon.”
Dante slumped into the seat behind her. “You aren’t crazy.”
Meg slid him a bemused glance. “I thought we’d settled that a few weeks back.”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “I was still certain you were loony.”
“Then why have you been helping me?”
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, sweetheart, but you have fabulous tits,” Dante said with a sigh. “I figured once you gave up on the whole idea of being queen of the faery world, you might consider sleeping with me. Now I see that demons are real. I’m going to church tomorrow.”
Meg didn’t think she wanted to get into how to save his soul. She chose to concentrate on the question at hand. “What was the time? Did you see which way he came from?”
Dante backed up the tape and checked the time log. “It was three minutes after midnight last night.”
“That makes sense. It’s an in-between time. I read about it. The veil between worlds is thinnest then. That’s when the door opens.” She looked at the clock. It wasn’t even ten yet. There was still time. “We can make it.”
Dante took a moment and shoved his hair back, running his long fingers over his scalp. “You’re really leaving.”
She turned to him. She had noticed that he didn’t have a lot of friends. He seemed content to spend his free time working on computers or helping her. “I have to go back, Dante. On my plane, I’m married to your cousins. I love them very much, and they need me. I hope you understand.”
He smiled slightly. “And I’m a vampire? What am I like there, Meggie? Am I lonely?”
Meg laughed at the thought. “As if. Dante Dellacourt doesn’t lack for anything except tact.”
“Tact is overrated,” Dante pointed out.
“Spoken like your vampire self.” Meg let her hand drift over his. “Dante Dellacourt doesn’t let anything stop him. He once told me that if he was going to do something, he would do it big. There was no point in anything less. Of course, he was discussing lying through his fangs at the time.”
“I sound like a character there.”
“You could come with me, you know,” Meg offered. He reminded her a little of herself before fate had changed her life completely.
Dante shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. One of me is probably more than any plane should have to handle. I think I’ll have to try to make a go of it here. Besides, I have my shop, you know.”
He was scared, and Meg didn’t blame him. She might have spent a little more time trying to convince him, but she only had two hours before that door opened. “If you change your mind, you know where the gate is.”
As she turned toward the stairs that led to the apartment, she saw Dante sitting very still, obviously deep in thought.
* * * *
Meg hefted the duffel bag in one hand. It was heavy, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Her heart was racing as Dante slammed his door shut and turned on his halogen flashlight. Her boots crunched the gravel beneath her feet as they quietly made their way to the door of the warehouse. The air was cool around her, and she pulled her sweater closer.
Dante went first, pushing the heavy door aside and holding it open for her. He held his free hand out. “Let me carry that for you, Meg. Come on, it’s my last chance to be a gentleman.”
Holding the bag out, she allowed Dante to take it. She took the flashlight. He slung the bag over his shoulder and followed her into the darkened recesses of the warehouse. It was very different from when they visited earlier in the afternoon. There was a gloom over the whole place that seemed very foreboding. Meg took a deep breath and had to force herself to continue moving forward.
“Wow, I really don’t like this place,” Dante said.
She looked back at him. His face was pinched and tight with fear. She sympathized. If she didn’t have to be here, she would probably be running right now. “Dante, I’ll be fine. You don’t have to come in with me. I can make it on my own.”
His eyes narrowed, and even in the shadows, she could see she’d pissed him off. “Just lead the way, sister. I might not be a vampire, but I can handle it.”
“Of course you can, Mr. Dellacourt,” a silky voice said from the outer reaches of the light. Meg nearly jumped out of her skin as the light revealed that they were not alone. A Planeswalker was standing on the steps leading to the second floor. He turned his head from the light. “If you please, Your Highness, that light is intrusive.”
Meg directed the light out away from his face. Her hands were shaking as she faced the demon. Was this the same demon who had taken her here? She thought she recognized the voice. “Are you here to stop me?”
The demon’s laugh filled the space. “No, Your Highness. I am here to use the door. I walk these planes on a daily basis. I gain strength from crossing through the veil. I also take contracts and receive payment to access the doors from those less intelligent than yourself and the great Mr. Dellacourt.”
Dante snorted. “Yeah, I’m great. I almost peed myself when you started talking. Is he going to kill us?”
“As I haven’t been paid to do so, I will forego any murders this evening,” the demon promised. “I was looking forward to a very dull passage. Now I have a bit of excitement. It was very clever of you to find the door, Your Highness. The hag is going to be somewhat upset to discover you’ve found your way back to your kingdom. I believe her employer will be upset as well.”
“Torin,” Meg surmised.
The demon smiled, showing his jagged teeth. “Yes, the pretender is terrified of the warrior king. He should be even more frightened now. The philosopher king has a bit of the warrior’s rage since the bonding. He could prove even more formidable than his twin.”
“Beck isn’t sure he even wants the throne anymore,” Meg said, remembering the bond they shared. Her warrior husband was tired of fighting.
The demon studied her shrewdly. “I doubt he’ll have a choice when the time comes. As for you, Mr. Dellacourt, your choices are just beginning. There’s a whole world open and ripe for the plucking. I think you’ve made the first choice that will take you on the road to greatness.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dante said. There was an odd look on his face. If Meg hadn’t known better, she would have sworn he looked guilty.
“Don’t listen to him, Dante,” Meg said, grasping his hand in her own. He was shaking slightly. “He’s a demon. I don’t think they’re known for their honesty.”
“On the contrary, Your Highness,” the Planeswalker said with an offended air. “I never lie when the truth is so deliciously awful. But Mr. Dellacourt’s future is neither here nor there. It is your future that is at risk. I am looking forward to seeing if you can save those boys of yours.”
“They’re in danger?” Meg asked the question, but she knew the answer. They would have been weakened without her to bridge their minds. They had been in danger the minute she was taken from them.
“Oh, yes,” the demon said smoothly, as though he were discussing some juicy gossip. “The hag managed to catch one of them with her spell, but the intellectual half evaded her. I’m afraid she didn’t ask the right questions. She asked for a spell that would shift the warrior’s magic. She assumed it would shift into her. That was a mistake.”
“Cian absorbed it,” Meg realized. “Then he was strong enough to run with Beck?”
“Oh, yes, Your Highness, King Cian was able to flee with his brother on his back. His own poor body, however, could not handle the strain of both their powers. He had to find safe haven. Both he and the warrior are currently in a fugue state. They sleep, waiting for the one who can set them to rights.”
Tears pooled in Meg’s eyes. “I have to get to them.”
The demon nodded sagely. “Yes, I suspect you do. The hag was getting close to breaking through the barriers to their haven when I moved through yesterday. If you could kill her, Your Highness, I would be grateful. She signed her soul over to me, you see. As she should live a very long time, I doubt she was worried she would have to pay up. I could use her skills on the Hell plane.”
Meg wouldn’t do it to help the demon. She had her own reasons for killing the hag. And she wouldn’t feel an ounce of regret when the demon dragged the bitch to hell. “I promise I’ll kill her the minute I get the chance. I have a plan, you see.”
Her plan was currently in a shoulder holster under the sweater she wore.
“Excellent,” the demon said.
There was the slightest feeling of air moving through the warehouse, followed by a quiet pop. The demon’s eyes widened. His body seemed to swell. “Ah, the veil is open. It’s time to go, Your Highness. Now, now, I see the suspicion in your eyes. You found this place yourself. I am merely offering to travel with you. The door is in an unusual space. It might take you a moment to find it, and then it would be closed again. You would have to come back tomorrow night.”
“I’m not signing a contract,” Meg stated firmly.
“And I am not asking for one,” the demon replied. “I believe you will kill the hag. I am helping you entirely for my own selfish purposes, dear.”
Meg turned to Dante, who handed her the duffel bag. She settled it on her back and hugged him. “Good luck, Dante.”
“You, too, Meggie.” His hands tightened around her waist, and then he backed away. “I hope everything works out for you. Look me up if you ever come back this way.”
Meg leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. She would miss this version of Dante, but it was time to go home. She followed the demon up the stairs, aware that Dante watched her the entire way. The stairs creaked and shook under her weight.
“Hurry, dear,” the demon called from the darkness above. “You don’t want to miss it.”
Meg braced herself and took the final step. The demon looked out over the railing. He pointed to a spot just below them. “There it is.”
No wonder it was so hard to find. It was in the middle of the air. She would have to jump. If she missed, she would break her legs at best and her neck at worst. The demon gracefully leapt onto the railing. “Just follow me.”
He jumped from the railing, feet first, and disappeared completely.
“It’ll be all right, Meg,” Dante said from below her. “It’s fate, right?”
“Yes.” She climbed on the railing. It shook and rattled under her weight. There was nothing stable about it. Moonlight filtered in from a window above, illuminating the ragged warehouse. Her hands were shaking as she made the mistake of looking down.
There was another popping sound, and Meg knew her time was running out. The door would close, and she would have to wait another full day before it opened again. She couldn’t risk it.
Meg closed her eyes and took a leap of faith.
* * * *
Dante watched Meg disappear through the veil. A piece of him was very sorry to see her go. She had been lovely, and he had liked her spirit. If she had stayed, he might have been able to love her.
Still, as he pulled the vampire computer from his jacket, she hadn’t left him with nothing to show for his efforts. He stared down at the computer. He’d slipped it out of the duffel bag when he’d gallantly taken it from Meg. He just hadn’t been able to let her take it with her. It was his because he’d been smart enough to steal it. And she would find another one. He had plans for this one.
When Meg had suggested he go with her, Dante hadn’t told her no because he was afraid of going to another plane. He wasn’t afraid of visiting other places. It just seemed silly to waste time when this plane was so ripe for the conquering.
Why, Dante asked himself, should he settle for being a little fish on a bunch of planes when he could be a shark on this one?
The computer in his hands was his ticket to the big time.