by Kristie Cook
“So you landed in a swamp?” I asked Jax and Blossom to make conversation as I eyed them. “You don’t look or smell like it.”
“Don’t you love magic? These enchanted clothes are great! Of course, I had to clean up the rest of us.” Blossom waved a French fry around her head, indicating her clean hair, and grinned. “But yeah, we did, right in the middle of a mucky old swamp. Jax gave me a ride to land. Thank the Angels he was there!”
“Thank the Angels you helped me flash,” Jax said to Blossom. Something in the way they looked at each other gave me pause. Did Blossom feel the same attraction Jax had made loud and clear to Rina?
“And Bree helped you get here?” I asked, still trying to make sense of Blossom’s earlier deluge of words.
“She gave us a message from Tristan,” the witch said. “I guess the fae felt bad for us or something, since we had no way to contact each other. They allowed her to come to our world and help out.”
“Hmm . . .” I wasn’t sure what to think about that. Bree, a fae, had done us a favor. Would we have to pay her back now, too? Or did we get a free ride with her, considering Tristan’s her son? Thinking about faeries brought Lisa and Jessica to mind, and I pulled my backpack onto my lap and felt around it. The jar they’d given me for Kali’s soul remained tucked away inside, seemingly intact. Good. Because Kali was going to pay for this. All of it.
We still hadn’t heard from Tristan by the time we finished eating, so I asked Sundae if she had a quiet place Blossom and I could go to try her spell once again. We followed the werewolf through the kitchen and into a small office with a window that looked toward the side of the property. I thought there’d been a lot of bikes out front, but there were dozens more out here, perhaps over a hundred. Several mind signatures floated in the rear building, which apparently wasn’t part of the bar, but not enough for all of those motorcycles.
The desk in the office overflowed with paperwork, but a small couch against the wall provided the space Blossom and I needed. She pulled out her scrap of Dorian’s blanket, and I reached into the backpack and pulled out my own, just to smell it. To inhale his scent, which, admittedly, wasn’t that of a little boy anymore and normally not the best smell in the world. But it brought me closer to him somehow.
“Let’s begin,” Blossom whispered, her voice thick with sadness. I chose to hold on to the wrath instead. If I didn’t—if I let the grief take me—I’d break. And a Broken Alexis would be useless. Even Psycho Alexis was better.
I closed my eyes and opened my mind to Blossom’s. Once we had a connection, I took my mind farther out as she chanted her spell under her breath. Nothing nudged us north or in any other direction. My mind expanded more, reaching out as far as I could go, skipping over the thousands of mind signatures in all directions. Blossom’s chanting became more urgent as I pushed even farther. I thought I felt another slight nudge north, but I couldn’t be sure, so I tried expanding my whole radius, stretching my mental boundaries as far as they would go. Blossom’s voice fell quiet. I squeezed my eyes tight with concentration, and all sound, all senses—the whole world—ceased to exist around me as I reached as far as I possibly could.
And there.
A pull.
I strained for the distant mind signature. Forced myself to follow it. Almost touched it. And—
“AAAAAAHHHHHH!” A scream. A voice I couldn’t distinguish as either male, female, or even human. Cold pain knifed into my head, like an ice pick stabbing into my brain.
All mind signatures disappeared. My mind went completely blank. And so did the world.
I came back to reality with my eyes still squeezed shut, my hands over my ears, and my body curled into a ball on the couch in Sundae’s office. A soft moan came from my own throat, though I didn’t realize it was me at first.
“Alexis.” Blossom’s voice, a soft whisper near my ear. I opened my eyes to find her on her knees on the floor in front of me, her hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Slowly I pulled my hands from my ears, only to find blood on them. Blossom reached for some tissues from a box on the desk and handed me a couple. I pressed them against my ears, and they came away with more blood. There must have been a small trickle from each one. Blossom used another tissue to dab at my lip—more blood, from my nose. My brain still felt like an ice pick was lodged into it.
“What happened?” the witch asked, her voice shaky and her eyes wide. I tried to sit up, but she held me down. “Take it easy. Something . . . wrong just went down, I think.”
“Did you hear it?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
Blossom shook her head. “I couldn’t get anything this time. I think my swim in the swamps may have washed too much of Dorian out of my blanket scrap.”
“You didn’t hear it through me?”
“I think you blocked me out somehow,” she said quietly.
“I don’t think it was me. I think . . .” I sat up, ignoring her insistence that I stay down. My nose and ears had stopped bleeding, though the pain in my head remained. “Someone felt me in their mind, and they didn’t like it. They were really powerful and tried to push me out . . . or something. That’s the only way I can explain it.”
“Who? A guy? A woman?”
“I don’t know. The mind signature felt so far away, I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman or even if it was human.”
Blossom’s forehead creased as she studied my face, her eyes still filled with concern. “I don’t like what it’s done to you. Maybe doing this spell isn’t a good idea.”
I grabbed her wrist with my hand as near panic rose in me. “We can’t give up, Blossom. This could be our only way to find Dorian.”
She studied my face for a long moment as I silently pleaded with her.
“Okay, but if it happens again . . .”
“I’m sure it was nothing,” I said a little too quickly. “I mean, my mind can only reach maybe eight or ten miles out, so it probably won’t happen again once we’re out of here. We’ll be far away from them, whoever it was. And really, it could have been my own mind doing it because I tried to push too hard. I’ll be more careful. So don’t worry, okay?”
I didn’t tell her that with her spell, I was able to reach farther. Probably more like forty or fifty miles out. If she worried too much and thought she was making it worse, she might not try again, and we had to keep trying.
“Fine, but we don’t do it again until we’re far away from here,” she said as she pulled her arm free from my grip.
“Deal,” I agreed.
A knock on the door was followed by Sundae entering her own office.
“You have a phone call,” she said to me, and she pointed at the phone on the desk. “You can take it right here.”
Blossom discreetly took the bloody tissues from my hand and followed Sundae out of the office.
“What happened to your phone?” Tristan demanded as soon as I picked up. “It went straight to voicemail. I’ve been worried as hell about you.”
Chapter 12
Hearing Tristan’s lovely voice again sent a thrill through me, though the furious tone of it should have made me pee myself. It probably would have scared anyone else, but I knew the worry behind it. We’d been separated before. Our son was missing. We couldn’t help but worry about losing each other again.
“Sorry. It, um, broke.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him I broke it myself during a minor temper-tantrum. “I’m glad you found me, though, and everyone’s okay. I was worried, too, you know.”
“I know, ma lykita,” he said, his voice softer now. “You’re right—we’re all okay, and that’s what matters. We’ll see each other in a few hours—”
“You’re still so far?” My heart sank. I didn’t think they’d started that far away, and I’d hoped he’d been calling to say they were almost here. We seriously needed to talk. And I seriously needed to feel his arms around me.
“We’re headed for the Atlanta safe house with this new convert. You’l
l have to meet us there.”
“Okay,” I said, trying to hide the disappointment I felt. “You have Sasha, right?”
“Erm, no. I thought she was with you.”
My heart plummeted again and formed a pit in my stomach. “I haven’t seen her since the midair fight with the Daemoni.”
“She’s tough, Lex. I’m sure she’ll show up soon.”
“How will she know to find us in Atlanta, though? Maybe we shouldn’t go so far away.”
“We don’t know where she flew to. She could be in Atlanta. She’ll sense the Amadis out wherever she is.”
I blew out a sigh of resignation. I had a hard time picturing the sweet little dog we usually knew as being able to fend for herself for so long. To be able to travel so far. But, of course, she was more than the sweet little dog we usually knew, and I had to keep that in mind.
“So any ideas on how we get to Atlanta?”
I could have probably figured it out on my own, but when you have someone who could see the best solution, why take the time and brain power? Especially after what my poor brain had just been through.
“Trevor will set you up,” he answered. “Just be careful, my love.”
“Of course. I can take care of myself, but I have others here, too.”
“I won’t stop worrying about you until you’re in my arms again.”
“Well, that goes for both of us.”
“See you soon.”
Not soon enough, I thought as I hung up. A knock sounded on the door, and I waved my hand to open it.
“So you need some transportation,” Trevor said as he strode into the office, wiping his hands on a greasy rag. He chuckled at the look on my face. “I spoke with Tristan before we sent the call back here. How ’bout I give you something so you don’t have to steal this time? Get your group and come ’round to the rear of the building.”
I returned to the bar to retrieve everyone, and we went outside and out back, passing all of the motorcycles.
“Can you ride one yourself?” Trevor asked me. My eyes widened. This was what Tristan meant by the shifter hooking us up?
“Don’t you have a car or something?” I asked.
“Ha!” He laughed as though I’d made a hysterical joke, and then gave a shake of his head. “We’re bikers. Cages are for pussies. Someone might have a truck or somethin’ somewhere, but it could take a few hours to track one down.”
“We don’t have that kind of time,” I muttered with a sigh. “Tristan’s given me a few lessons, but I haven’t really ridden by myself.”
“The rest of y’all?” Trevor asked as his eyes scanned the others.
“No worries here, mate,” Jax said.
“I’ll, uh, ride with Jax,” Blossom answered, taking a step closer to the were-croc. She looked up at him. “If that’s okay with you?”
His face broke into a grin as he gave her a nod.
“I think you know my answer,” Vanessa said.
Trevor’s gaze came back to me. “Do you want to ride with her again or on your own?”
I cocked my head as I considered his question, grateful my headache had faded.
“On my own,” I finally said with assurance. As Vanessa would say, I needed to pull on my big girl panties, and this was one of only a few ways I could be independent. I already relied on others for so much. “As long as Blossom can handle the extra shield?”
“You have to have your own shield anyway,” she said. I opened my mouth to protest, but she stopped me. “Council’s orders, direct from the matriarch.”
Trevor gave me a refresher course, and then I made a few circles of the property as practice. Afterwards, the pack leader led us to a group of bikes at the far end of the parking lot.
“These are the ones I can spare. Take your pick.”
He helped me choose the best one for me—a Harley Softail he’d customized into a bobber with flat black paint and purple trim. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
“You were kind of my inspiration on this one, so it’s fittin’,” he admitted.
“You built all of these?” I asked, not sure what to make of his admission and not wanting to embarrass him.
“I mostly repair. The packs keep me pretty damn busy with all their fuck-ups, especially when they go Daemoni hunting, but I build when I can.”
“Wait—Daemoni hunting?” I asked, my stomach knotting. The Amadis had rules, and hunting down the enemy as I imagined a wolf pack would do did not fall under those rules.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Trevor said. “We run the woods, and when we find them too close to norms, we run them off, is all. Protect the innocents. It’s the most fun we can have during the full moon.”
I nodded as an idea occurred to me. “Instead of running them off, you think you can trap them somehow? Capture them without hurting them?”
He eyed me with bemusement. “Maybe the newly turned.”
“Perfect.” I gave him Tristan’s and Charlotte’s cell phone numbers so he could call us when his pack captured any young Daemoni—or others who wanted to be converted. “If we can get here, we will. Otherwise, we’ll send someone else to take them to a safe house. You’ll be helping us build our army.”
I tried to make myself sound authoritative so my order came out that way—as an order. Because I knew Trevor and how he put his pack before all else.
“Anythin’ for you and the Amadis,” he said dutifully, although I didn’t miss the reluctant grunt that followed.
Well, it was better than nothing. At least I felt like we’d accomplished something for our mission.
When we arrived at the Atlanta safe house after a maze of backcountry roads to avoid checkpoints and Daemoni hunters, I hadn’t expected to see two more motorcycles there. After a long hello kiss and embrace, Tristan explained that he’d bought them in Jacksonville. They were the first vehicles they found for sale where they’d appeared.
“They bought them,” I emphasized to Vanessa.
She shrugged. “I didn’t see a wad of cash or a stack of credit cards in that backpack of yours.” She lifted her chest and gave her breasts a shake. “Unless you’re talking about using other ‘currency’.”
I rolled my eyes, but she was right—Tristan had had all of our cash on him when we’d had to bail off the plane.
I’d thought he’d been speaking to me while they were on the road, but I hadn’t heard the loud Harley engines in the background. Charlotte explained she’d magically muffled the sounds.
“Wouldn’t a car or van be easier?” I asked. “Especially now with all of us?”
Charlotte shrugged. “With Blossom’s help to shield and cloak, the bikes aren’t difficult. A lot easier to squeeze into tight spots when other drivers can’t see you. Or to sneak past a checkpoint.”
“Huh,” I said with a nod of understanding. “We managed to avoid any checkpoints. Did you pass a lot?”
“Three, which are three too many, considering this is the United States of America.” She shook her head slowly. “Not normal at all.”
So apparently we’d be riding motorcycles for our mission, but for now we only rode from the safe house to my old home in Atlanta, which served as a secondary safe house and wasn’t occupied at the moment. Although the Amadis had made it appear to have burnt down a couple of years ago, A.K. Emerson’s “heirs” rebuilt it, making it look exactly like it had before. Because it was exactly like it had been before—the fire and resulting rubble had all been an illusion.
An odd mix of emotions slammed over me when we walked in through the back door by the garage and I flipped on the lights for the family room. Tristan had never lived here with us, and, at the time, I hadn’t known the rest of the people here whom I called friends and even family now. Sheesh. I’d been nearly Norman then, nothing like the person I’d become. So having them all here felt a little weird, even if my own memories of the place were practically nonexistent. I did know that Mom, Dorian, and Owen had been the people in my li
fe at the time, and one was gone by choice and the other against his will, and Mom was halfway around the world. My heart squeezed as I suddenly wished she were here, telling me everything I was doing wrong but loving and supporting me anyway. I bit my lip as I thought about how much I needed my mom.
Ridiculous. I had to hold on to the anger. I couldn’t let this place get to me.
When Tristan and I passed Dorian’s old bedroom on our way to my former suite, I nearly broke down. The Amadis had changed it, though, into more of a generic guest room rather than a little boy’s room. It’s not his anymore, I reminded myself. It’s just a place.
Climbing into my old king bed in the master suite with Tristan on the other side felt weirder than any of the rest, though. But in a good way, because I hadn’t forgotten the loneliness of my soul while I lived here. I snuggled into his arms, which he wrapped around me tightly. Finally, for the first time since several nights ago when Blossom had magicked me to sleep, I relaxed a bit. And I caught him up on all of my events and experiences, down to what happened in Sundae’s office.
“You don’t know who it was or where they were?” Tristan asked when I finished. His heart pounded into my ear as I lay on his chest and drew random shapes with my finger over the ridges of his hard stomach.
“I was pushing really hard and completely lost track. They could have been five miles from where we were or fifty. Maybe more. But I’m sure it’s nothing. No one to worry about.”
“Probably. Unless you think it could be Kali?”
My finger stopped by his belly button, and my brows pushed together. I hadn’t considered that possibility. “I don’t think so. I think I’d recognize her signature by now, even from that far away. On the other hand, whoever it was became enraged when I found them. I’d never felt anything like it before, not even when Vanessa used to push me out.”
