Stained Minds

by Helen Scott

  I had never seen Darius scared or even remotely concerned.

  Now?

  There was something going on here.

  To us, Darius was ancient. But the way these males seemed to turbocharge the air around us? I could feel their antiquity seep into the atmosphere, almost as though it was rejecting their supernatural natures.

  How old were they?

  For once in my life, I didn’t run before I walked. Every single part of me wanted to protect Marcella who was nuzzling at Cade’s vein in a playful manner, waiting for bubbles of blood to surface before sucking it down in a way that was far too reminiscent of the way she sucked our dicks. But I also, more than I wanted my next breath, wanted to slip into one of the Ancients’ minds.

  Could I?

  Was I capable?

  At Eastbrook, I’d been one of the best mind walkers in my class. Okay, modesty wasn’t my strong suit. I was the best in the school. What I could do at fourteen had far surpassed some of the males who’d graduated into brotherhoods.

  But these were Ancients, dammit.

  They’d have shields up. Except… their focus was on Jasper, whose interest was on the beasts patiently waiting, while Barclay snarled at their side, not actively stopping Jasper from approaching, but discouraging him no matter what Darius demanded.

  I missed my brother then, and was ashamed I hadn’t realized he’d been stuck in wolf form for over a fucking week.

  Mentally, I sent him a soft touch which was my equivalent of a hug. Barc jolted and twisted around to stare at me for a second. He ceased growling but nuzzled up to the bear in a way that made Marcella pause. Her attention shifted to the beasts a few feet away, and the eagle, as though obeying an order, soared into the sky, circled us like a vulture, then swooped down. Just as it seemed as though the creature’s intent was to pluck out Jasper’s eyes, I took my chance.

  Slipping into Rhys’s mind, I was astonished when I found my way into his hippocampus—the part of the brain that helped transfer short-term memory into long-term ones.

  I saw Elizabeth.

  I saw her chained downstairs like the animal she wasn’t, and I saw Rhys standing there, gaping at her as the two males drifted into being as though they were made of shadows themselves.

  Were they real?

  Were they illusions cast by another shadow weaver?

  I tried to slip deeper into the memory, tried to discern exactly why Jasper and Alexander joined Rhys, but before I could, the Ancient’s head sliced to the side and he pinned me in his stare.

  I couldn’t look away even though, in my peripheral, I saw the eagle had settled onto Jasper’s shoulder. When Marcella nuzzled back into Cade’s throat once more, I realized she’d distracted them for me.

  What in the Maker?

  Rhys smirked. “Confusing, isn’t it?”

  “What?” I rasped, not even bothering to waste my time and energy on hiding my perplexity.

  “Only one fellow weaver to another can cause a disturbance.” He rubbed his hands together. “She is strong, is she not, Alexander?”

  The blond male dipped his chin. “Incredibly. I held her captive even as she controlled the bird, even as she attempted to allow you access to Jasper’s mind.”

  My mouth worked. “You planned this?”

  Darius grated out, “Raven, these are the Cavalry. They are not school boys at Eastbrook.”

  I didn’t appreciate being spoken to like that and I snarled, “Fuck off, Darius. You’re not the Enforcer here. Just because you’re older than fucking Tutankhamen doesn’t mean your shit’s made of gold.”

  He frowned at me. “We don’t shit.”

  I sniffed. “So? I knew that. I was being metaphorical.”

  “And sucking at it.”

  Gideon’s voice was how I’d imagine it felt when angels sang hosannas.

  Those four words had Marcella tearing free of whatever hold Alexander had on her, a move that stunned the ancient and had him dropping to his knees with a cry of pain as she rushed forward, hurling herself at Gideon in a way that took us all aback.

  Before we knew what the fuck was going on, he was pinned to the sand, laying in the black blood that had held him in a coma for all this time, with Marcella above him, her hair flying around her hair in a wind that seemed to exist only for her—because it was boiling out here and so fucking still that I wanted a bit of that breeze coming my way.

  Fuck, I hated the desert.

  “Mate?”

  The word was a hiss. The sibilant tone had my ears pricking, and my Vampire stirred as I recognized that hers was close to the surface.

  “I am well,” Gideon said hoarsely, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he was weak and still feeling the after-effects of being unconscious for so long or, to be frank, because his cock was about to explode.

  The signature fact that no one had told us about having a Sixth?

  When she went nutso on us, it was hotter than hell itself.

  “You lie,” she growled, and the voice was so unlike Marcella’s, I shot Darius a look. He was rubbing his forearm which Gid had been munching on as though it were an apple. The skin was torn and bloody, a bit like ground meat pre-burger patty.

  “I don’t,” he retorted. “I am well.”

  “Prove it,” she snarled, and I saw Gid’s eyes flare at the challenge.

  Oh, fuck.

  I didn’t even have it in me to come between them, just let them at it. Gid, of us all, had the most powerful Vampire, but she’d stirred his druid.

  Was I surprised when the blood that had seeped into the sand suddenly burst upright?

  Hell yeah, I was.

  Was I shocked when it began to swirl around them like a dark curtain on a circular rail?

  Fuck yeah.

  What stunned me the most was when the swirl turned into a miniature tornado that seemed to gather momentum, spinning faster and faster, churning harder, making the sand around us all begin to gather in a dance of its own. The wind battered us, dragging all of us, even the Ancients, to their knees. I mean, I’d asked for a little breeze, not this fucking whirlwind. Maker.

  It might have been amusing if it wasn’t freaky as shit. I was used to Gid doing weird stuff. Touching a rune here, flooding a room there. Activating a tattoo one moment, setting fire to a house the next. What the boy could do with the elements? It would impress Frodo.

  But this?

  The tornado swirled for what felt like an endless time, and when the sand eventually dropped, it was no longer black. Gideon was no longer covered in blood, his body stained with obsidian and ruby rivulets. His muscles, his frame, was no longer emaciated. Nor was Marcella on the cusp of slenderness as she’d been all week—our erratic timetables having disturbed all our eating habits.

  Instead, where before there’d been a wreck that would have made any CSI blanch, there was cleanliness.

  And where once there had been a weak brother and his Sixth, now?

  They were recharged. The druid in Gid having nourished him, and through the bond, Marcella too.

  “You were right, Rhys,” Jasper rasped, his voice breaking the silence that fell in the quiet aftermath. “They are entertaining.”

  Chapter Five

  Marcella

  “Entertaining?” I half-snarled at the stranger, anger making me hiss at him. When he shot me a smirk, I narrowed my eyes at him. I could sense how ancient he was, but could I give a fuck?

  Nope.

  But even as I felt outraged, Gideon moved beneath me, and my thoughts returned exactly where they should be.

  Him.

  Gid was awake. At last. Even better, he was healed, as much as I could tell anyway. The tornado that he had swirled around us was like something from another world. Dirt and tainted blood had spun around us before being absorbed by the earth.

  His druid side had flared to life as soon as my Vampire had challenged him. It had called to me like the ocean calls to a surfer, but instead of riding a wave, the only thing I wa
nted to ride was Gid. My soul felt soothed as it realized how far he had come from the precipice of death.

  I hadn’t realized how ragged I had become, how hungry. Not only had I lost weight, but I’d lost power as well. Summoning my creatures didn’t stress me since I was so familiar with them, but I knew if I tried to work a large scale illusion, it wouldn’t go well. It might work well enough, but it would collapse under any kind of scrutiny.

  As the dirt had surrounded us, blocking everything else from view, I’d stared into Gid’s eyes, letting my love for him, my worry, my need, all show on my face. “I love you,” I’d whispered to him.

  His hands reached up, caressing my face as though I was a priceless jewel before he pulled me down in a scorching kiss that I was sure was one for the history books. It was like he was kissing my very soul. All the tears and emotional wounds that had accumulated while he was unconscious, while I’d tried to heal him and failed, everything that had frayed my nerves was kissed away until nothing but pure bliss remained.

  When he pulled away, his blue eyes filled with tenderness found mine, and he said, “I love you too, my little hellcat.”

  Words bubbled out of me like a waterfall. “I’m so sorry if I hadn’t—” Gid’s mouth closed over mine again.

  This time when he pulled away and looked at me, his gaze was soft but firm, as he said, “You should have done what you did. It was the tactical choice. It’s what I would have done. Now, let me repay some of the effort you have spent trying to heal me.”

  Without waiting for another second, Gid’s druid had pulled on the energy from the earth, letting it fill both of us until we were buzzing with vitality. I leaned in and kissed him, feeling the energy and magic flow easily between us, as though we were two sides of the same coin instead of two different beings. Our lips clashed and our tongues intertwined with one another until we had to come up for air.

  He’d broken the kiss again, and this time we were both breathing heavily as he’d asked, “Do you really want to do this with an audience, and an audience of Ancients no less?”

  The man had a point.

  I sighed and leaned back from him, the black blood that had once stained his skin as well as my own was no longer present, but in my mind’s eye, I still saw it. Not to mention some of the sand had seemed to crystallize with the ruby of our blood trapped in the center, making it look like jewels waiting to be unearthed. The way it was crusted onto his skin made him look like a king or a god of some kind, one that was willing to employ the wrath and vengeance of nature, as well as the gentleness.

  As the tornado slowly lowered, revealing us to the rest of the world once more, it felt like we’d stepped out of a private, magical bubble, and reality came crashing back down. My eyes traveled over the crowd that was watching us, identifying everyone I knew, as well as those I didn’t, based on what I had gleaned from one of them being inside my head trying to control me.

  Then the dude just had to piss me off by calling us ‘entertaining.’

  Only Gideon kept me from wanting to tear the bastard’s head off.

  “Mate,” Darius stated, his tone severe as he looked at me with a hint of reprimand in his eyes. The idea of him scolding me as though I was an employee of his made me want to laugh, but equally, I enjoyed that he read me well enough to know where my thoughts truly lay.

  On death.

  “Yes, Mate?” I knew there was an edge to my tone. One that spoke of my strength and unwillingness to back down.

  “I like this one,” the one that I was fairly sure was Alexander commented. “She’s feisty.”

  “Someone willing to put Darius in his place? That’s got to be a good thing,” Jasper added.

  “Gideon, the Earth may have cleansed you, but you look like an extra from The Walking Dead. Go and shower,” Darius said in his ‘Enforcer’ voice.

  “Right now if he leaves, I go with him, so think carefully about your request.” I squared my shoulders and waited for Darius to come back with a witty retort that would get under my skin but he didn’t.

  “As you wish,” the Enforcer said, dipping his head in deference, which surprised the hell out of me.

  “Can we at least get out of this blasted sun?” Rhys requested, reaching up and rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand. The move as well as the request surprised me—a weakness? I jotted that down for further exploration at a later time.

  “There’s some shaded seating over this way,” I offered, and Rhys blew out a relieved breath.

  As I turned to reach for Gideon, Darius was there all of a sudden. Straight in my face.

  Jerking back in surprise, I stared up at him and frowned. “What is it?”

  “This is the second time you’ve countermanded my orders.”

  If he’d said it sulkily, I’d have laughed it off. If he’d said it angrily, I’d have gotten in his face. But he did neither. Instead, he said it in a tone that could only be considered crooning, and that put me on edge. Why? Because he was warning me, and I knew I wouldn’t like the repercussions of defying him a third time.

  I licked my lips. “I had to act on Gideon’s behalf.”

  “And that’s why you’re not over my knee right this minute. But next time?” He cocked a brow at me, and while I should have been angry as hell, I wasn’t. I was hot.

  Did he mean what I think he did?

  Would he spank me?

  Fuck. That really shouldn’t make me melt.

  He tapped my nose with his index finger and walked off without a backward’s glance. My pursang, who’d appreciated being in the full spotlight of her mate’s focus, sulked at his lack of attention, and I huffed out a breath as I took Gid’s hand and led the rest of us through the yard and over the patio to the side of the house, which had something akin to a pergola built into it.

  As we walked into the shade, I let my animals drift back into the shadows, and I smiled as I heard the Ancients breathe a sigh of relief at escaping the intense heat. They were all as old as sin itself, and yet still not accustomed to the heat of the Nevada sun, although, even I was willing to admit that it was punishing being under it for too long. I had to wonder if their age made the sun sap at them more… Was Darius equally afflicted?

  Speaking of, my pursang mate, in his most irritating of diplomatic tones, asked, “Not that I am questioning your judgment, Rhys, but why are two of your brothers here?”

  “You can ask us yourself, Enforcer,” Jasper retorted, folding his arms across his chest.

  Darius’s mouth twitched in irritation. “Why are you here, Jasper? Alexander?”

  “Because our brother asked us to come,” Jasper divulged simply.

  Darius sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment before saying, “Did you ask them to come for a reason, Rhys?”

  “Obviously. Come now, Darius, you’re smarter than you are acting. This is disappointing,” Rhys murmured.

  A fourth man suddenly appeared from around the corner, carrying a tray of drinks. “Mimosas anyone?”

  “Drake, we didn’t realize you were here already,” Jasper commented before getting up to greet the man, who I assumed was a member of his brotherhood, with a hug. Alexander and Rhys followed suit.

  “I went down to investigate what you found in the basement first, and then I heard you all griping about the weather, so thought that I could surprise everyone with a tasty beverage,” Drake explained. He was tall and fair, as though he’d been a Viking in a previous life, or hell, with how old these guys were, maybe he had literally been a Viking, who the fuck knew?

  “And did you find what you were looking for?” Darius inquired. My mate sounded like a petulant child when he spoke with the members of the Cavalry, and I ached to know why. What did they have on him, or what had happened between them to create such animosity?

  “I did, thank you,” Drake answered, as he set the tray of drinks down and took a seat himself, crossing his legs at the knee as he sipped on one like he was at a party and not a gatherin
g of misfits.

  “Does anyone want to fill the rest of us in? Or would you rather we just leave so you can talk about whatever it is privately?” I asked, before taking a long, luxurious pull of the bubbly orange juice.

  Rhys sighed and took his time with his drink, before he wrinkled his nose and said, “I tell you this only because she is your prisoner… The woman in the basement is our mate, or rather the reincarnation of her.”

  Silence descended as we all took in his statement. My jaw had dropped as I searched for some way to respond, but I found nothing in my head that seemed appropriate for the disdain he showed toward the woman that most people would be excited about finding. All of them looked rather unhappy at the prospect of finding their mate, in fact, and it brought all my old worries and fears back to the surface. It didn’t matter that I knew the guys cared for me, that Gideon had professed his love for me, and that Darius had been horrified when he found out what happened to my mother. All of that fell by the wayside as I watched these four males be disappointed in having found the creature who was supposed to be their ‘other half.’

  Without saying a word, and as though they all sensed I was fretting, Cade moved from his seat and came to me, as did Raven, Gideon, and Barclay’s wolf, who I was still concerned about since he hadn’t shifted back when Gid woke up. They surrounded me with their love, their loyalty, and devotion. I felt it flowing through their bonds to me, as they tried to ease my distress.

  “Reincarnation is real?” Keir questioned, rubbing his coal-dark hair as his unnatural ice-blue eyes rounded with shock.

  Jasper nodded, his mouth pursed with an anger that was aimed inwardly.

  “As real as the blood pumping through your veins,” Alexander added.

  “How do you know she’s your mate? She could be anyone, couldn’t she?” Raven asked as he squeezed my shoulder.

  “We have met our mate many times over the years, in many different forms, each time she has come to us as human, we spend a lifetime together, watch her grow old and die, and then wait for her to be reborn, as we have done so since the time of our king.” Rhys’s eyes had unfocused as though he was reliving each one of those past lives in that moment, and I saw the grief on his face at having lost her over and over again, at having to watch age ravage her body, or illness claiming her.