“What’s the plan?” I separated myself from Rand, and he let me go. Although he stayed so close to me, his front pressed into my back. The seal had been broken, and now it felt like Rand couldn’t let me out of his reach.
“That is actually pretty easy. If I remember correctly, Nato has told you that he can always find you because you share the bond.” Yunez raised his eyebrows, waiting for his comment to set in.
Then it clicked. “Of course.” I did a facepalm. “So it should work the other way. But I haven’t felt any of my powers since we’ve been here. Can one of the guys do it since we’re all bonded?” I glanced up hopefully.
My LL all had various degrees of hope and doubt stamped across their faces, but Yunez gave a sharp shake of the head.
“They can find you. You can find them. But they cannot find each other. That is not the way the bond works. Honestly, I am surprised you came into any powers at all yet. Some Mazzas in history took months for their powers to fully manifest. I have a theory… Your powers make themselves known when you are in danger. Or you need them. Let’s head out, and hopefully, your ability to track the members of your Lusty Legion will kick in.”
My jaw dropped. That was his plan? That sucked ass.
“What’s plan B?” I sputtered.
Rand ghosted the back of my neck with his fingertips, and I looked up at him. His jaw was clenched so tight, I was afraid it might snap at any moment. “We’ll head back to the place where Egan was taken, work our way backward.”
I nodded jerkily and tossed out an arm for him to lead the way. Unsurprisingly, Yunez took the front. Rand followed directly behind him while my Lusty Legion fanned out around me. Sage was my back sentinel, while Jari and Nato stuck close to my sides. Did they do this subconsciously? It was kind of weird how they always took up some kind of formation around me. It made me feel like I was a precious state secret they were trying to protect. I mean, I couldn’t exactly deny it, or the fact that the precaution was needed.
Egan, we’re coming.
This place was not the same as the Rusty Nail. One, it actually looked clean, and two, it was frequented by a significantly higher class of clientele. Soft lantern light lit the walkway, and fairy lights decorated the outside. Delicate shrubbery lined the building with beautiful little flowers blooming every few inches. Their sweet scent perfumed the air. Now, this was something I would expect to see in a fairy realm.
Before we reached the front entrance, Nato pulled me to the side. “Feel anything?”
I shook my head. “What am I supposed to be feeling?”
These guys took for granted sometimes that I was completely new to their world; realm, or whatever they wanted to call it.
The guys created a complete circle around me, standing shoulder to shoulder. Anyone walking by might think it was some kind of weird orgy with all the guys facing me. At least they were dressed. I shook the thought from my head and focused on Egan.
Nato pulled me into him with hands on my arms. “For me, it feels like this thread that constantly ties us together. Almost like it goes directly from my heart to yours.” He touched his chest and then mine.
I closed my eyes and searched my inner being for anything remotely similar.
Nada.
Damn it.
I snapped my eyes back open in frustration. “Nothing.”
Jari reached out and tangled his fingers with mine. “It feels different to me. When I think about you, this knowing accompanies it, like a homing beacon.”
I squeezed his fingers. My love for these two swelled with each caress and attempt to help me find Egan. We were a family, and we weren’t complete unless we were all together. Okay, so the experience could be different for each person, and I just had to find how the power would work for me. Easy peasy. This time I pictured Egan in my head when he laughed. My chest warmed, but I wasn’t pulled a certain way.
“If I may, I think I know what will work,” Yunez caught my free hand and tugged me around until I faced him. He linked his fingers through mine, and used his other hand to cup my face. “I am certain you can do this, my love, but you have to completely clear your mind. Your worries and fears are all on the surface, any of us can see that. I want you to listen to my voice and do exactly as I say, yes?” His voice took on a mesmerizing quality, lulling me into a sense of peace. Was he a mesmerizer too?
“No thinking,” he chided in a low murmur. His thumb started rubbing easy circles on the back of my hand, at the same time his cool fingers slid up and down the side of my neck.
I sighed in delight.
“That is better, now close your eyes.” The whole time he never stopped with the soothing motions. “Your mind is an empty room; it is completely white. So white, you cannot even see the corners of the room or where the floor meets the walls,” he paused, and I pictured it exactly. Behind my closed lids was a completely white wall of static; nothingness.
“Now picture Egan standing before you. He is the only thing important right now.”
Egan appeared right in front of me. He seemed so real, that if I reached out, I was sure my fingers would graze the muscles in his stomach. They would contract under my touch.
“He needs you, he is backing away from you. Every second he is getting farther and farther away.”
He was. Right before my eyes, he was leaving me. He smiled sadly but still kept stepping backward. A heavy frown turned down the corners of my mouth. I didn’t like this at all.
“Where is he going? Can you reach for him?”
Suddenly, he wasn’t in front of me anymore, he was off to my side. His presence, which had been so real, was now a residual glow of warmth, and the warmth hit my side as if it was radiating off of his body. I reached toward him.
“There. You know the way. Keep your eyes closed; we’ll help you follow him.”
The Egan in my head turned around, shoving his hands in his pockets and strolled through the white oasis. He never faded, never disappeared.
So, I followed him.
Hands landed on my waist occasionally, moving me a step this way, or a foot that way. I kept my eyes closed and kept following. We walked like this for forever.
My legs started to tire, and the heels of my feet ached. Eventually, Egan stopped trying to get away from me. He turned around and waited. I stopped and hands reached out to touch me from all directions.
“Here?” Nato whispered in my ear.
“Here?” I repeated and waited for Egan to respond.
He didn’t say anything, but he nodded and pointed to the ground behind him.
I gasped. Fear skittered over my body, afraid that he was dead.
But no. I didn’t believe that. Not really.
It didn’t feel right.
“Basement. Egan’s in a basement.” I opened my eyes and was met with a sand colored wall. Light was everywhere, blaring from hanging lanterns every few feet.
“What the fuck guys? We aren’t sneaking up on anyone like this,” I whisper-shouted.
“You’re right; you aren’t.” The stones in the wall broke away to reveal an opening as a man walked through. Tall and lean, sporting pasty white skin, I would have thought he was a vampire if he wasn’t a Fennin. And he was dressed exactly the same as the men from the chapel.
Fuck.
Startled, I stepped back and bumped into Sage. I frantically turned to make sure all of my LL was with me, as well as Rand and Yunez. They were, but so were about ten other people that blocked both ends of the street we were on.
Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was that bad feeling Yunez was talking about. Fear was a potent thing clouding my vision as I watched cloaked men surround us tighter, and tighter until they were herding us toward the entrance and the man that had greeted us.
Yunez cleared his throat as he edged in behind me. “I realize this is a bad time, but I believe this is what my instincts were trying to avoid.”
“If you say I told you so, so help me, I will nut punch you,” Sage said under his breat
h. But we were all clustered close enough together, that we could hear him.
“Oh, I would never dream.” The derision in his voice almost made me laugh. But, there was nothing funny about this. Nothing funny about seeing the reality of going against Yunez’s orders to rescue Egan. Even as we put our faith and blind trust into Yunez’s sight, I had really, really hoped this one time he would be wrong.
Someone shoved one of the guys and, as a classic snowball effect, we all tumbled into the man standing in the doorway. He was absolutely ordinary in appearance; dull brown hair, lackluster brown eyes. He wasn’t unattractive per se, but compared to the Fennin I was used to dealing with? This guy just couldn’t compete.
“Greetings, Mazza. If you would please follow me.” He tapped his fingers on the sandstone and waited for us to step forward before he started walking down the secret passage.
Should we really be following this guy? It couldn’t possibly get any worse if we fought them. My steps faltered, and Jari nudged me forward. I glanced up, but he shook his head.
Okay, apparently the guys thought we should go.
And why didn’t my instincts work? Because I was trapped in my head? All questions that were absolutely pointless right now. No way could I just start a discussion about the ins and outs of being a Mazza in front of this cunt nugget.
“You aren’t very bright, are you Mazza?” Cunt Nugget said conversationally.
Well, fuck you.
“I’m sure some are of that opinion, but why are you?”
“The Shadow Society took your Caen mate, right before the eyes of two of your other mates. We knew you would attempt to rescue him, which was the point. I didn’t expect you this early. This is the absolute definition of falling into enemy hands,” he glanced over his shoulder then faced forward again. Wow, what an asshole.
I wasn’t even going to address the fact that he called Rand my mate. Where were they getting their intel? Maybe they assumed since we always seemed to travel in a group.
I snuck a quick peek at Rand to see if he reacted at all to his comment; he didn’t. If anything, he was staring angry hate holes into the back of his head. If I were a betting woman, I’d say this was one of the men that took Egan.
“Why do you think Egan is my Caen mate?” Stalling sounded like a good idea. As long as he was chatting us up, they wouldn’t put us in a torture chamber. And, I was curious.
“We did our research. Did we one hundred percent know he was your Caen mate? No, but now we do. All signs pointed to the men you’ve been running with.” As we neared a dead end, the stone blocks once again rearranged themselves. This time we entered a large throne room?
I mean, it looked like what I would imagine a throne room to look like: rich tapestries hung from the walls and an elaborate chair was toward the back. Swords and other shiny weapons decorated the wall behind it. The room was completely empty, except for us. And, of course, the dozen guards that followed behind.
“What is even more interesting, is why you’re in the company of the House of Zien leader. We are certain Nato is your Zien mate.” He turned around and raised his eyebrows as if he were simply curious, not like they hadn’t set a trap to lure us here and caught us.
Shit, I completely forgot about that. We were currently in the presence of Phin, Yunez’s alter ego. Well, not really in the presence of. Yunez was a master of illusion and created different personas for himself all willy nilly. More than one sideways glance was cast his way. He must have let us all see his real self, even as he disguised himself for the rest of the world.
Did anyone besides us know the real Yunez? Again, regret pelted me for not spending these last weeks getting answers. This was it, once we were free, I didn’t care what secrets surfaced; there would be no more pouting and hiding. Rand and Yunez were mine and my Lusty Legion’s new best friends. If I had to tie them down and tickle their best and worst memories out of them, I would get to know them.
“What can I say? I’m a sympathizer.” Yunez tilted his head but otherwise remained still.
“Hmm.” The man stared at Yunez as if to determine how truthful his statement was. Which was not truthful at all.
“What’s the plan now that you have us here?” Sometimes, I wished I could keep my mouth shut, but when I was nervous, I was chatty, damn it.
“As you know, we offered you a chance to work with us before; that ended poorly. Now we’re talking the next road.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I threw up my hands and nervously glanced at the guys. Jari and Rand looked just as nervous as I was, Sage looked sick, and Nato and Yunez were stoic. I hadn’t asked, but did this mean that one or more of their people from the temple survived? That gave me a different kind of chills. Not that I was pro death, but I had this pesky affliction where I wanted our enemies taken out of the game. “When I had my last run in with your people, they said I could join or die. You’re saying my only option is death? You’re not even going to try and sway my mind with a little wooing or blackmail?”
Rand elbowed me in the side. “Please don’t give him ideas.”
Sure, it was probably bad to toss out the blackmailing thing. But I stood behind wooing; he should definitely try to woo me to his cause. I swallowed over the lump in my throat and sealed my lips together before I made this any worse.
“Pall, is the room ready?” Our gracious host motioned to a new guard that entered the room.
He nodded.
“Perfect. In an effort not to be rude, my name is Vidal, and if you need anything during your short stay, you may ask for me.” He was going to leave. Without answering any of my rambling questions. Which said everything I needed to know. These fuckers were going to try and take us out of the equation.
“Wait.” I stepped forward, but someone stopped me by pulling on the back of my shirt.
Vidal pivoted on a heel and waited silently.
“How short of a stay?”
An evil smirk twisted his lips, and I knew I wasn’t going to like his answer. “You really would love to know, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately for you, I’ll let you find out for yourself.”
I absolutely did not like this guy. Usually it was a sweet, sweet feeling when I was right. This time, not so much.
Our entire entourage followed as Pall led us to the room. It happened to be at the end of a corridor, and there was an absence of light inside. Everything inside of me was rebelling at stepping through the doorway.
Call me crazy, but nothing good could lie on the other side.
“In you go,” Pall shooed us toward the door.
Sage sent his famous RDF his way, but it did no good. We were all pushed through before I could count to five.
Like in the secret passage, lanterns lit as soon as we crossed the threshold. They must be motion censored. There were no torture devices or anything that looked remotely dangerous.
The room was empty of everything; no furniture or artwork. Not even a lonely bonsai tree. Even the lanterns looked weird. They were more of flat glowing disks attached to the wall. A sterile scent permeated the air as if they’d recently bleached this place.
Pall slammed the door shut behind us, a distinct click of a lock turning. Great, we were locked into the empty room. Did this mean they would come back and give us answers at some point? I could only hope.
“Fuck. This was brilliant. Not only do we not have Egan, but now we’re all trapped.” Sage pulled at his hair as he walked the perimeter of the small room. “What were we thinking? I hate to say this, but we should have listened to Yunez.”
Yunez could have been smug and rubbed our faces in the fact that this ended so bad. Instead, he was so solemn, it hurt my eyes to look at him. So I didn’t, turning around I chose to watch Sage instead.
Sage continued pacing, getting more agitated by the second. “Why did we listen to Isolde? Fuck. We’re idiots.” He mumbled.
“Hey,” I protested, but it was weak. Why did they listen to me? I knew nothing about their world still. This was a
classic case of following your heart and not your head. And, I sorely regretted it. If I was honest with myself, there was a teeny tiny kernel of irritation with the guys in my heart. They should not have listened to the newcomer who had absolutely no idea how their world worked. The smart thing would have been to lock me in a room until Yunez came up with a plan that didn’t give him the heebie jeebies.
“Man,” Jari planted a hand in Sage’s chest and gave him a shove. “Not cool. Just because you’re feeling guilty because your actions got Egan taken in the first place, is no reason to take it out on Iss. We all made the choice to come after Egan.”
“No, he’s right,” I said. It killed to admit I was wrong, but it killed worse that we were stuck here, and Egan was still somewhere else. “We didn’t trust Yunez.” I met his gaze and put all of my remorse in my eyes. “I’m sorry, we should have trusted you.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgement. That was it. Tears threatened, and it took everything I had not to bury myself in Yunez’s arms and cry. His grace in accepting my apology only made the lump in my throat stronger.
The others bowed their heads as Sage blew out a hard breath and approached Yunez. At first, I thought he was going to pull him into a hug, but he stopped just out of reach, clamping a hand on his shoulder.
“Iss is right. We should have listened to you. I shouldn’t have been a little shit and stormed out. I’ve always felt things much more deeply than the others.” A wry smirk tilted the corner of his mouth as he glanced over at the guys. “I’m still pissed as hell at you, but now I can honestly look back and see what a bad idea it was to separate.”
Yunez grinned, the tips of his canines peeking out and caught Sage in a hug. “I accept your apology, I never begrudged your feelings. I understood and wanted to give you that time. I thought we had it to spare, and that was my failure.”
“Group hug.” I blurted and rushed to join Sage and Yunez. It was a very kumbaya moment, and even though we were still prisoners of the Shadow Society, I wanted it. Needed it actually.
The others almost reluctantly joined us, but with my arms around both Sage and Yunez, and my nose buried in the sides of their chests, all was momentarily right in the world. I could pretend it was, anyway.
Secrets of the Mazza: A Paranormal Romance (Mazza Series Book 3) Page 7
