Free The Keeper by Elena Long

cabinets.  He turned the key and removed the fake back.  He pulled the book out, handed it down to Jed, and returned the door and the cookware.  Donovan spun the chair around and sat straddling it while Jed thumbed through the book.
    Jed skimmed over the beginning of the book.  He had read it before.  It warns of the possibility of death if the Keeper is not properly prepared.  Silas assured him that he had taken every measure to prepare Lex.  She was strong and fair-t wo of the most important traits in a Keeper.  Jed flipped to the pictures in the book.  He knew the reference to the sleep was after that, but once he made it to the pictures, Donovan grabbed the book. 
    “What the fuck?”  Donovan spun the book upside down and tilted his head.  He looked at Jed and asked, “Is that even possible?”
    Jed shrugged his shoulders.  That particular picture had inspired more than a few of his dreams, but right now the sleep was more important.  Something was really bothering him.  Lex, he was sure, was in danger.
    He stopped at the first page after the pictures.  After the Mating, the Keeper will fall into a deep sleep.  Her body must be protected at all costs or she will be lost forever-trapped in the Fae Realm.  Once she has absorbed all she can, she shall be returned to the Mortal Realm.  For each Keeper the time is different.  If she is deemed unworthy of her Protectors she shall remain in the Fae Realm until the End of Time.
    “I think this may be bad.”  Jed looked at Donovan, knowing he was able to hear him reading. 
    “What does it mean by unworthy of her Protectors?”  Donovan stood and started pacing, his hand rubbing the back of his neck.  “She is more prepared that any Keeper has ever been.  She was chosen as the Keeper.  How could she be found unworthy of us?”
    Jed pondered that for a minute and was unable to come up with anything that made since.  “I think we need Grady.  As a kindred, he’s half Fae.”
    There was a knock at the door.  “You know that’s Grady.  Don’t you find that just a little creepy?”  Donovan walked to the door shaking his head.
    Donovan had called Jed more than once about something Grady had done.  For a vampire-a blood-sucking creature of the night-Donovan was sure ‘creeped out’ easily.
     
    They both hovered over Grady as he read the text then closed the book .  “Do you love her?”
    They both looked at Grady like he had lost his mind.  “How could we not?” Jed responded as Donovan said, “Hell, yes!”
    Grady looked from the Shifter to the Vampire.  “Then there is only one thing to do, but you have to trust me.  Come.”  Grady stood and looked at the pair again.  There was no doubt in his mind or his heart that these two loved Lex more than anything.  If they were not telling the truth he would have known and Lex would forever be stuck in the other realm.
     
    It was a quarter until midnight when they arrived at the dam.  Silas was back in Lex’s apartment, guarding her body.  Grady had explained on the way that it was the door between the realms.  The only way through the door without a Fae of great power was one’s love on the other side.  All they had to do was jump. 
     
    Lex was surprised at everything Elpis had taught her in such a short period of time.  And Elpis explained that there was only one other test Lex had to pass to be returned to her realm, but would not divulge any further information before she disappeared, leaving Lex in the company of her mother. 
    “Mom, what happened to you?”  Lex had asked her father numerous times about her mother, but he always gave some cryptic answer.  Saying only that she would find out when the time came. 
    “You were just a baby when the first of the hunters came.  I was young and scared-terrified of losing you.  A woman came just before the hunters found us.  She took my hand and yours and said that she knew of a man who could keep you safe-a man who