by Scott, Helen
“What? Every thirty seconds isn’t enough for you?” I countered.
“Nope,” he said, making a popping sound with the ‘p’ before smirking at me.
Shooting him an eye roll, I darted my gaze around the creatures who were wandering around the two thousand pound a night suite as though I’d just dropped them straight into Wonderland.
I sensed their confusion, something that came from the fact that I wasn’t actually scared, and I usually called on my creatures during times of high stress. Sure, I was stressed now, but it was definitely low-level.
And yeah, I now had a means of differentiating between the two.
Anything Sire, Lady, or Maker related was enough to trigger palpitations.
As it stood, I could handle what I was currently feeling. This was nothing by comparison.
Rapping my knuckles against the table, I asked, “I wonder why their presence settles my equilibrium.”
“Because they are the manifestations of your power.”
I gritted my teeth at the Maker’s intrusion. “Didn’t anyone tell you it’s rude to eavesdrop?” I snapped, uncaring that he could knock me down with a lightning bolt.
Rude was just rude sometimes.
“After more lifetimes than you can count with nothing more to do than eavesdrop, child, you can bet your bottom dollar it’s a habit I’ll never be able to break.”
With a huff, I folded my arms across my chest and demanded, “What do you mean, anyway?”
“They’re your power in the flesh,” he answered, totally at ease with the question, and totally uncaring I was irritated with him.
“That’s literally just reworking what you already said,” I grumbled.
Merlin grunted and tugged on his beard as he slinked into the room. I wasn’t sure where he’d gone exploring, but I could scent lady’s perfume on him, so I figured he’d gone hunting for pussy and, having made his shot, had gone in for the kill. Shame considering I’d hoped he’d be gone for longer—having him in the air was just a reminder of the ticking time bomb that was waiting to explode in our faces.
When he settled at the table, taking Cade’s place, I saw my mate’s irritation as Merlin picked up his fork and began dragging it through the bacon and pancakes that were slowly growing cold thanks to my little meltdown.
Of course, Merlin being Merlin, he pressed his finger to the gold pattern on the dish, and those lines gleamed bright with light, then steam surged from the food.
Huh.
That was fucking cool.
He blinked at me. “Want me to do the same with your breakfast?”
I nodded. “Please.” When he complied, I mumbled my thanks before asking something that had always intrigued me. “The creatures…”
He hummed. “What about them?”
“Can I make them invisible to humans?”
That had him tilting his head to the side. “Yes.”
The simplicity of his answer had me cocking a brow at him. “Truly?”
“Yes. Of course.” Merlin huffed. “I don’t make a habit of wasting words.”
As far as I was concerned, that was bullshit.
I didn’t say that, not when I wanted answers and he was being, for once, cagey. It hadn’t escaped my attention that he hadn’t answered my earlier question, and I was thinking he’d pulled that magic on the plate and food to distract me.
Wanting to snort but refraining, I thought to myself, Not going to happen. Well aware that he could hear that without me having to open my damn mouth to utter the words.
“Okay, so what do I do?”
“Just will it into happening.”
The words may have seemed trite, but I thought about my intention, thought about my desire for the beasts to be visible only to those of our kind while being invisible to those who weren’t.
“You’re on the right track,” Merlin assured me, while I concentrated.
“I am?” Which track was he referring to? And how was he able to see my ‘will?’
He pursed his lips and scraped his fork across the plate. The sharp sound had us all cringing before he replied, “The Lady uses the light and the shadow for her gain. You are not the first Descendant who should have ascended to the role of Mother. Nor are you the first she has tried to overpower. But, you were the only one with a time walker to save you. Cade was the difference between your life as you know it now, and your life being virtually over.” He shot me a beatific grin. “However, now she’s meddled, it has opened your reserves and lowered your shields. The change has begun, and those creatures? They’re your spirit guides.”
That had me scowling at him. “Spirit guides? Like in Native American lore?”
He shook his head. “No. They’re like your version of a wand.” Merlin turned to look at the creatures, then hummed. “Long time since I’ve seen a dragon.”
The dragon made a sound that was between a snort, a grunt, and a neigh.
Whatever the hell it was, it had fire spouting out of its nostrils, and the most terrifying part?
The fire was fucking real.
The instant it set fire to the sofa, I released a shriek, and thanked fuck when Gideon called on his runes—I felt him tap into them like he was calling on one from my own body—and had water drifting in from the open window to dowse it.
Merlin grinned at me. “Your power is charging. This is good. When you form the triangle, this will come to your aid.” He pointed to the animals. “For now, you mustn’t let them retreat inside you. They’re unaccustomed to being out in the open for long, but they must adapt. Soon, you’ll need them around you all the time.”
I blinked at him, unsure what astonished me the most.
That a creature forged of light, who I’d always believed to be a kind of illusion, had just set fire to the fucking furniture, or that Merlin looked damn happy about said fire.
Reaching up, I rubbed my temple again and mumbled, “This really is Wonderland.”
Without the tea.
“Wonderland?” Merlin questioned.
I waved a hand. “A book.” One I’d always hated.
He blinked at me, head tilting to the side as he processed both my thoughts and conversation, then he murmured, “I have learned of the Cavalry’s base.”
It was a change of topic, but I wasn’t about to complain.
“Really?” Darius questioned with a frown.
“Yes,” Merlin replied, then he beckoned Darius forward. My pursang mate didn’t hesitate like I would have done, instead, he strode forward then, as Merlin reached up, Darius bent over slightly. The tip of Merlin’s pointer finger traced a shape over Darius’s temple.
My mate blinked and, like he was a robot or something, mumbled, “I know where we have to go.”
Gideon cleared his throat, apparently as weirded out by what he’d just seen as much as I was. What the hell had just happened? “Okay,” he said slowly, his eyes on Darius all the time he extended the syllables in the word, “if we’re flying into the same place as we departed, we need to have a car waiting on us.”
Darius reached up and rubbed his forehead. “Don’t worry about that. I’ll handle the details now.”
Raven stared at him, his brow furrowed. “Are you all right?”
His smile was tight. “Yeah. I’m going to get started on the arrangements. We need to leave soon.”
And with that, he was gone, leaving us all—save for Merlin who was still eating—staring after him.
❖
Marcella
After everything Merlin had said, before he’d turned my mate into a cyborg for a few moments, I was still left feeling overwhelmed and confused. I needed my animals out all the time now? So that it could help me charge my magic?
Just… What?
This was so far above my pay grade that it wasn’t even funny. I hadn’t asked for this type of responsibility, but it had fallen on my shoulders anyway, and there was only one thing left to do, woman up and handle business. It didn’t help that Merlin
had disappeared again. It made me all kinds of uneasy that he just kept going off and doing his own thing without telling us anything about it.
We had everything packed and were about to head out when doubt set in. “He said I just have to will it to be and it would be, but how can I be sure of that?” I mumbled, biting my lip as the guys all stood by the door to the hotel suite, waiting for me to grow some metaphorical balls. Hell, maybe I needed to be careful considering Merlin’s words—maybe if I willed a pair of balls into being, they’d appear.
And if that wasn’t a disturbing image, I wasn’t sure what was.
“If anyone can see them, then I’ll just go for a little walk,” Raven replied with a wink, as though it was no big deal. Only it was a big deal. It was a massive one.
We were all still touchy about our powers since I had tainted almost everyone with the shadows. Now, I wondered if I could do the same thing with the light. How would I even go about doing that though? I swear, bringing Merlin back had only doubled the number of questions we needed answering instead of decreasing them.
“We need to go, Chella. The pilot isn’t going to wait forever,” Cade urged as gently as he could, which wasn’t all that gentle considering who he was.
“Okay, okay,” I muttered, as I strode forward and yanked open the door. My animals all trailed behind me like I was the Pied Piper or something. “I don’t even know why we have a pilot this time,” I grumbled.
“Because the flight gives us an opportunity to discuss our next moves once we land,” Darius slotted in smoothly.
Because he wasn’t wrong, I kept my trap shut as we made it out of the hotel. As we traveled all the way to the airport without a single person noticing the beasts, some of my edginess definitely dispersed.
When we finally boarded the private jet, which made me feel oh, so fancy, I felt like I could finally let out the breath I’d been holding. I settled into my seat and mentally commanded my animals to behave for the long flight home. I had no idea if they would pay attention, but the last thing I wanted was the dragon setting fire to something in the cabin.
As I sat there, excited to go home, I realized I didn’t have one to go to. Sure, the guys had places here and there, but they were just that—places, houses, and apartments. None of them were homes. I’d never felt so detached from the world before, and yet, I was more invested in it than ever. Not just in making it safe again, but because the men I loved were a part of it and I wouldn’t let anything happen to them come hell or high water.
I was so entrenched in my thoughts that the plane took off and was in the air by the time I glanced around the plane and found most of them were asleep with the exception of Darius and Cade.
My brain raced with the idea that we needed to convince the two women who probably hated me the most in the world to work with us once we landed. It was enough to send me into a spiral of panic, which my shadow, and I guess my light now too, animals picked up on. They started pacing back and forth throughout the cabin, well, except for the eagle, which was fluttering its wings and almost taking off from its perch on the back of a chair, but not quite.
“What’s got you feeling agitated, love?” Darius asked, coming over to sit with me.
I raised my eyebrow at him and he just smiled knowingly, nodding to my pacing animals and touching his heart. The man was always paying attention to our mate bond, and I loved that. In some ways, he was more attuned to me than the other guys, but in others, not so much. They all completed me in different ways, and I knew that I didn’t have to change to be with any of them, they accepted me for who I was.
“Trying to imagine a world in which Lily and Elizabeth agree to work with us,” I answered with a huff.
“We’ll convince them, don’t worry,” Darius soothed, running his hand through my hair in the way he knew I liked. Suddenly, my mind filled with images of the two women surrounded by a circle of fire that my dragon was feeding and my eagle was fanning, while my hellcat and the black bear roared at them from the sidelines.
I bolted upright in my seat and looked over at my dragon, who I could swear was smiling, and then at the other three, who were looking much too pleased with themselves while also seeming a lot calmer.
Did you imagine that? I questioned, mentally reaching out to the creatures. I had no idea if they could understand me or respond, but the hiss that came from the dragon a second later sounded almost like he or she was laughing.
You think this is funny? I addressed them, hoping for another response so that I knew whether or not I was going crazy.
This time, the eagle bobbed its head up and down.
So am I to conclude that the four of you can understand me when I direct thoughts to you?
All four of them moved to sit and look at me. I wasn’t quite sure what exactly they could understand, but I knew this type of thing could come in handy. Maybe that was why Merlin wanted me to leave them out more, magic or no, this had to be good bonding time for all of us. I’d never expected to be able to communicate with them, just like I couldn’t communicate with regular animals.
A thought occurred to me and I looked over at Gid. There were no runes glowing as he slumped against the window, using a balled-up hoodie he’d been wearing as a pillow. Being as gentle as I could so I didn’t wake him, I pulled on the rune that allowed him to see through an animal’s eyes—one I only knew about because he’d joked about going on a run with Barclay one time without leaving the house.
At first, I found myself soaring through the air, a bird of some kind that was under the plane. I refocused on my creatures, and felt a weird loop form as I looked at myself with my eagle’s eyes.
I pushed again and the focus shifted, switching to the dragon, then the black bear, and finally the hellcat. Not only could I communicate with them, but I could also use Gideon’s runes and talents as a druid to see through their eyes.
I called on that rune again and merged it with Raven’s talents, allowing me to be part of the animal’s mind, and not just use its sense of sight. I couldn’t control the animal, but I could see how it was interpreting the world around it.
My hellcat wanted to be off the plane, but it was learning about the guys and the environment we were in every second it was out and about in the real world, as were my other creatures. It was fascinating. One thing that stuck out in its mind, though, was the hunger that Darius and the others were feeling—my hellcat could scent it on the air like a coming storm.
After a moment’s thought, I realized it had been much too long since Darius, at the very least, had fed, although the rest of them needed to as well. Guilt nipped at my heels, and I knew the only way to stop it from pulling me down was to take care of the problem right then and there.
I stood and took Darius’s hand, before I led us both back to the small bedroom at the end of the plane, while asking my creatures to stay put. The last thing I wanted was for them to see Darius or me feeding and get scared of us or something.
With that taken care of, I closed the door to the bedroom, catching Cade’s eyebrow lift just before the door shut. He knew he could always join if he wanted, and I sent that vibe to him, or tried to, through our bond.
“You need to feed,” I stated, my tone leaving little room for discussion, which made him snort with amusement.
“I’m fine, Mate. Nothing to worry about.”
“I want you to feed, to feel full of my love and devotion to you, preferably before we land.” I tacked the last bit on, because I knew the insufferable man would just postpone it if I didn’t force him to meet a deadline. I’d come to learn that he hated being an imposition on me, asking me for what he needed, and sometimes that pissed me off.
Now was one of those times.
I pushed him over to the bed until he had to sit down or topple over. Once his ass had connected with the mattress, I climbed on his lap, looping my arms behind his neck. Just his scent was enough for me to feel my body come alive with needs, ones that only he could satisfy. I dropped
a quick kiss on his delectable lips before I told him, “I want you to feed, because I want to feed.” I knew he would never deny me what I wanted, so if I conveniently forgot to feed after he was done, then that was no big loss in my mind.
Darius drew in a sharp breath, as though I had said the magic words, and I extended my neck under his gaze until my left ear was almost touching my shoulder. I watched him, and for a moment, I saw the internal struggle he felt between taking what he wanted and giving me what I wanted, while also keeping an iron grip on his hunger.
The man never really let loose and that was all I really wanted. Just for one day, I wanted him to take what he needed, as much as he needed, without apology or concern for someone else.
When he still didn’t strike, I rolled my hips over his and made the most pathetic sound I could, one that spoke of need and submission, something I would only ever do for my men. It pushed him far enough that I felt his body come alive under me a second before his fangs were in my neck. The sound of pleasure that escaped me was purely primal, not one I could control at all.
He fit me like a piece of a puzzle and I wanted to bathe in that connection, to shout my joy of it to the skies, and make the whole world tremble before us as we put our love for one another on display. Darius was my pursang’s mate, and he drew her to the surface, just as I drew his.
“Feed, take as much as you want, Mate. You can’t hurt me,” I encouraged, but my voice was different. It was still my voice but with a gravelly, hoarse undertone to it, one that belonged to my Vampire.
As soon as the words left my mouth, it was like a lock had been opened and Darius gave in. His fangs drove even deeper into my neck as he flipped us so he was mounting me and I was pressed into the mattress. Pull after long pull, he took from me and I gave it all freely. I’d give him everything I had if that was what he needed.
6
Darius
The second her blood filled my mouth, oozing into the bone-dry flesh there, I knew I was going to overfeed.
