Page 32 of Bound


  two husbands who’d just come into their legendary powers and were

  now at risk because a fucking demon had carted her off the plane,

  again.

  Meg walked for what felt like an hour in a daze. She had nothing.

  She had no way to get home. She didn’t even have a coat, and while

  she’d been gone, it had gotten cold on the Earth plane.

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  She walked until the crowds were gone. She walked through the

  quiet streets of downtown in abject misery. She would have to accept

  the fact that there was no way to get home. She couldn’t find the door

  to the Faery plane. Even if she could, how would she open it?

  A great wave of sadness rolled over her as she finally had to face

  the fact that Beck and Cian were gone. They were separated from her

  by that door as surely as death could ever force them apart.

  Would they think she’d run? Meg couldn’t stand that. She loved

  them.

  Meg stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and leaned against the

  brick of the building. The tears would be held off no longer, and she

  sobbed into her hands. How could she be here, so far from them? She

  still felt them. They were in her heart. How could the distance be so

  great? The demon had been right. She was a nothing on this plane.

  She had been someone on the Faery plane, and not because she had

  been queen. It wasn’t that Beck and Cian had loved her, either. Their

  love hadn’t made her into the woman she had become. Her love had.

  Loving them had made her a better person. Love had made her

  heart into a huge thing with the capacity to forgive even herself.

  She would hold on to it. She would hold on to the love she had for

  them. If there was any way to get back to them, she would find it.

  There were vampires on this plane. She would find them. The

  vampires would help her, if they didn’t eat her first.

  Meg felt better now that she had a plan. It was an insane plan, but

  it was a plan. She felt the satchel on her hip and sighed in relief. The

  vampire computer was still in it. Its shape and weight were a joy to

  her. She wouldn’t be able to connect to the vampire version of the

  internet, but there were thousands of DLs on every subject imaginable

  that she could read. Dante had shown her some anthropological

  articles from a scientist who had spent years on the Earth plane

  studying the vampires here before his contract with the demon had

  come up and he’d been dragged to hell.

  Vampires were serious about science.

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  She stood. It was getting really late. She had to deal with the fact

  that she didn’t have a home anymore. She needed to find a place to

  stay. Where had the lady said the homeless shelter was?

  Turning back to the sidewalk, a neon sign caught Meg’s eye. Her

  mouth dropped open as she realized that her salvation might not lie

  with a bunch of vamps.

  She stood before a small store. The neon sign proudly proclaimed

  its name.

  Dellacourt Electronics

  If it’s broke, we’ll fix it

  And it looked like someone was still home. There was a light on

  in back of the store, and someone was moving around.

  Meg banged on the door with all her might. She pounded and

  pounded, not caring that she sounded completely insane.

  “Dante!” she yelled with a mad sort of glee. “Open the door,

  Dante!”

  After a long moment, she saw a very familiar face peek out the

  window. His eyes were narrow with suspicion.

  “We’re closed, crazy lady,” Dante said. He pointed to the little

  sign in the window that had been turned to “closed.” He obviously

  thought she was insane, but he was still Dante. His eyes had moved

  straight to her chest, and he was boldly checking her out.

  “I’m here for sex, Dante,” Meg said plainly.

  Dante opened the door immediately.

  “Really?” he asked. He was slightly thinner than his vampire

  counterpart and was dressed like a nerd, but he was Dante all the

  same.

  “No, idiot,” Meg said with a tearful smile as she pushed her way

  in. She couldn’t help it. She threw her arms around him. “But I am so

  glad to see you.”

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  He hesitated only a second before letting his hands find her waist.

  “I’m glad to see you, too. How do we know each other? If I owe you

  money, I’m really sorry. I don’t have any. Did my sister send you?”

  “No, Susan didn’t send me,” Meg said. “You don’t owe me

  money, and get your hand off my ass, Dante. I’m a married lady. And

  you’re going to help me get home.”

  Dante stepped back. “You want me to call you a cab?”

  “If only it were that easy. I need a hell of a lot more from you, but

  I know you’re up to the task. It’s fate, Dante. Do you believe in fate?”

  “Not for a minute,” he said with a shrug. “Although, if it gets me

  something, I’ll believe in fate, sweetheart. I can believe in anything

  you like.”

  Meg grinned as she reached into her satchel and pulled out the

  unassuming computer Vampire Dante had given her. “How about

  vampires?”

  Human Dante made a couple of vomiting sounds. “Oh god, no.

  Not one of those. Please go away, Twihard. Do you know how many

  comments I’ve gotten since Twilight came out? I know I look a little like him, but seriously, not even for tits like yours will I put in plastic fangs and act like I can sparkle.”

  Meg snorted and rolled her eyes. “First, you do not look like him.

  Not even close. Second, I told you, I’m married. Third, please sparkle

  for me. I think it would be funny. Now, shut up and listen. I think

  you’ll find this very interesting.” She handed the computer to him.

  Dante took the tablet. “This is an iPad. I think it’s nice that you

  have one. Can I go to bed now?”

  Meg saw her mistake. “Let me turn it on.” She flipped a switch

  and the menu came up. The menu in this case was a holographic

  female. As she’d been programmed by Dante, she was gorgeous and

  wore very little clothing.

  “How may I help you, Dante love?” She also had a very sexy

  voice.

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  “Holy shit,” Human Dante swore. “Where the hell did you get

  this?”

  Meg smiled. Now she had him.

  * * * *

  Dante Dellacourt shoved a hand through his red-gold hair. It was

  long, hanging past his earlobes. Normally it didn’t bother him, but he

  was pretty sure it made him look grungy in front of the pretty woman

  sitting in his store. Not that perfectly combed hair would have helped.

  He smoothed his hands over his slightly wrinkled Lex Luthor for

  President T-shirt. Why couldn’t he have done some laundry? And

  why did it matter? The chick hadn’t come to try to date him.

  He’d been listening to the craziest story he’d ever heard for the

  last hour and a half. The redhead was hot, but completely insane.

  She thought vampires were real. She also believed in faeries and

  dem
ons and hags, though Dante was getting that this wasn’t the kind

  of hag who dressed up nice to hang around gay bars. She was sure

  she’d been to another plane of existence. According to her, there were

  many planes, some easily accessible, some not. She was bonkers.

  Except he’d been playing around with the computer she’d given

  him. It was far more advanced than anything he’d ever seen before.

  No one in the industry was even talking about a system that could do

  the things this one could. It was a supercomputer. It held so much

  information that Dante couldn’t even think of a name for the storage

  capacity. It blew past terabytes. It had a connection to an internet but

  claimed there was no connectivity here. Dante had played around and

  gotten the system to acknowledge his wireless connection. The

  superhot hostess had been unimpressed. She’d asked him why he’d

  connected her to such a primitive system and promptly downloaded

  the whole of the global internet. The whole fucking thing.

  “Where did you get this?” Dante asked.

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  The girl named Meg rolled her eyes. “I told you. Your vampire

  counterpart gave it to me.”

  Dante remembered that part. There was a Vampire plane. He was

  a royal there. He worked for Dellacorp, and it was huge corporation.

  His vampire counterpart obviously had it better than he did. He ran

  this shitty two-bit store and was going nowhere fast. The other Dante

  sounded like a guy who got an enormous amount of tail.

  “As far as I can tell, this thing is nuclear powered,” Dante said in

  amazement. “How can that be possible? And I think it took my blood

  a couple of minutes ago. It thinks I’m not edible. What’s up with

  that?”

  “Dante, well, the other Dante, he goes to a lot of different planes.”

  Meg sipped the coffee he’d made and continued. “The computer is set

  to test potential food sources. I’m afraid it’s decided you’re toxic.”

  She looked at the screen. “Too much pollution, and wow, apparently

  you have a lot of sugar in your system.”

  Dante unselfconsciously ate the second half of the Twinkie he’d

  been downing. It didn’t bother him that vampires wouldn’t consider

  him proper food. In his mind, it was a plus.

  “The vamps here would probably love you, though,” Meg said

  with a bright smile. “According to what I’ve read, they’re not as picky

  here.”

  “Good to know,” Dante said, chugging a Dr Pepper. “So, let’s say

  I buy this whole crazy story of yours.” He looked around again for the

  hidden cameras. If he had any friends, he’d think they were punking

  him. “What exactly is it you want me to do?”

  She chewed on her lower lip nervously. “I need you to help me

  get back.”

  “And how am I supposed to do that, sweetheart?” Dante asked.

  “I’m not exactly a Planeswalker demon.” That was what she’d called

  them. “How am I supposed to find this door?”

  Her hazel eyes filled with tears. She really believed the story. “I

  don’t know. I just know that you’re here, and you’re going to help

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  me. I believe it. It wasn’t random coincidence that I found myself

  here. It was fate.”

  Dante wasn’t so sure about that, but there was no denying that

  technology. He wanted it. If he had to do some internet searches to

  placate the girl, he would do it. Besides, she really was hot. Maybe

  when she realized there was nowhere else to go, she would turn to

  him. He could comfort her. It was a nice prospect. His brain started

  working overtime.

  “Okay, so no one knows where these doors are, right?”

  Her pretty hair shook around her shoulders. “No, most of them are

  well-defined. People move easily through them. The door to this

  plane is hard to find, and I think there’s more than one. I don’t know

  why. Some people have gotten through. That’s why we have vampires

  on this plane. And, according to the computer, werewolves and

  shapeshifters and the Loch Ness monster. She comes from a

  waterworld. It’s very sad.”

  “Nice,” Dante said. She was taking loony to a whole different

  place. “So we have to suspect that this door is here in the city. Is it

  open all the time?”

  “More than likely not,” Meg explained. “The other doors aren’t

  always open. I read that some people can open them at will, but others

  have to wait. The door from my village’s plane to the Vampire plane

  opens three times a day. I think we can assume the door here is

  something like that. It’s somewhere in the city. I don’t think I was out

  very long.”

  “So there’s a door to a different plane right here in Fort Worth,”

  Dante mused. “It can’t be in an office building. Someone would

  probably notice something like that. I bet weird stuff happens around

  it. It’s a long shot, but this baby is pretty cool.” He pushed the button

  that brought up the menu. “I need to run a search.”

  “Of course, master,” the computer said with an inviting smile.

  “Which pornographic material should I seek out today?”

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  Dante grinned. “Really? You can do that?” He felt Meg’s stare.

  “Nothing like that. I want you to run a search on all strange

  happenings in the city of Fort Worth, Texas. Use the human internet,

  the primitive, sucky one. Check things like police reports and news

  articles and even blogs. I need a list of locations around the city where

  strange things happen.”

  The hostess bowed her head and winked out of existence to start

  her search.

  “There,” Dante said to Meg. She was looking at a photograph he

  kept on his desk. “We’ll have someplace to start soon.”

  Meg’s face had gone soft as she looked at the picture of four men

  in tuxedoes. They were all smiling, with their arms around each

  others’ shoulders. Dante knew the photograph well. He’d taken it

  himself. “The twins are my cousins. They’re from Ireland.”

  Meg nodded and almost reverently touched the picture. “Their

  hair is short. It looks good, though. Why are they wearing tuxedoes?

  And who are the other men? Do they have other brothers here?”

  Dante was used to women drooling over his very attractive

  cousins. No one paid him a bit of attention when Beck and Ci were

  around. It gave him great pleasure to tell her where the picture had

  been taken. “Nope. Just a sister. Those men are Beck and Cian’s

  husbands. I took that picture at their commitment ceremony.”

  Meg’s eyes widened, and she dragged him forward by the neck of

  his T-shirt. Her teeth were clenched and she shook him lightly. “You

  have to get me out of here. This isn’t my home. I don’t like it here.

  Everything is wrong here.”

  “Jeez,” Dante said, holding his hands up in submission. “I’m

  working on it, babe. Why don’t you go upstairs? I have an apartment

  up there. You can take the bed. I’m going to stay up and play with this
br />   a little more. I don’t sleep much at night, anyway.”

  Meg nodded. She looked exhausted. Crazy or not, she’d obviously

  had an emotional day. “Thank you, Dante. I really appreciate this. I

  know it will work. It has to.”

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  Meg started up the stairs. He wasn’t so sure it would work, but he

  was starting to believe her story. He knew one thing, though, as he

  stared at the magnificent machine in front of him. His life had just

  changed forever.

  * * * *

  The forest was filled with her laughter.

  “You can run, Cian,” the hag’s voice said. It seemed to echo

  through the trees. “But you can’t hide.”

  She was wrong, Cian realized as he struggled along the river. He

  could hide. The trees themselves would aid him. He just had to get

  deep enough into the forest. It was hard because he carried his

  brother’s weight as well as his own. Only the traps he’d been able to

  set as he ran had saved him from suffering Beck’s fate so far.

  In the distance, he could hear the hag’s frustration at another wall

  of green she couldn’t get around.

  They should have known, Cian cursed himself. They should never

  have left Megan alone. One of them should have been with her at all

  times. Now she was gone. The thought made Cian’s heart hurt. If

  what the hag had told them was true, Meg was lost to them.

  Trying to find Meg was what had led them to Liadan. When he

  and Beck had discovered their wife missing, they panicked. She

  wouldn’t have left them, so they knew something had happened.

  Finding Niall’s body had been a terrifying moment, but they knew she

  wasn’t dead. They would have felt her death deep in their souls. One

  thing was certain, though. She was very far away.

  It had been rumored in the village that Liadan used to know a little

  something of witchcraft. Cian and Beck had been desperate enough to

  ask if she knew of any way to seek out their wife. Cian had been wary

  of the woman, but he was so desperate to find Meg that he’d allowed

  himself and Beck to walk into a trap.

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  She’d been smart to strike at Beck first. The arrow had slammed