“I agree.” Tony frowned. “We should have discussed the situation while we were away but…”
“But there’s only so much a person can take in at one time,” Cheri said. It was time for her to take her eyes off her feelings of insecurity and think about what Max and Tony were going through. She, of all people, should understand what it was like to have her reality make a sudden course change. The first few months she’d spent here, in this world, had been stressful, to say the least. And she’d chosen to walk this path.
She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have such life-altering changes thrust on her without warning.
“That’s true. But we let ourselves forget what we felt from those two, and that, we shouldn’t have done.” Max sighed.
“They meant to harm you, sweetheart.” Tony, standing in front of the mirror, straightened his tie.
She met the reflection of his gaze. “What kind of harm?”
“I don’t know, exactly,” Tony said. “Max?”
“It was sexual in nature.” He shook his head. “I think they were trying to seduce you.”
“You mean they wanted to rape me.” A cold shiver worked its way down her back. She didn’t think she so much as flinched, but both men read her unease.
“That is not going to happen,” Max said.
“We won’t let them touch you.” Tony nodded then turned from the mirror. “I know there’s not much room in here, but we’ll feel better if you stayed in here with us for the rest of the cruise.”
“To keep me safe?” She tilted her head to the side. A need to protect her would hint at deeper feelings. She knew she was already more than halfway in love with them both, but she honestly had no idea how they felt about her.
From what she knew of the male of the species, she imagined that some would resist what they might feel for her, just on principle alone. Some men believed themselves in complete control of their fate and would thumb their noses at anything that hinted differently.
“To keep you safe, certainly. And because we don’t want to be without you.”
Max stroked his hand down her arm. He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “I imagine we can conjure a bed large enough once the door is closed for the night. There’ll be room enough for us here, just by willing it to be so.”
“I’ll stay, but not for the protection.” She tilted her head to the side. “I’m not without power myself.”
“We know that.” Tony squatted down in front of her. Sitting on one lover, with the other one so close, reaching for her hands and holding them—the emotions they stirred in her were undeniable.
She knew they cared about her, but she was afraid to hope they could really love her and afraid to hope they’d want to stay with her.
Mating, Gifted-style, was a commitment made for life. And, apparently, beyond.
“It doesn’t matter to us that you’re Gifted, Cheri, and that you can take care of yourself. They threatened you. What kind of men would we be if we walked away from you, if we didn’t do all we could to protect you from them?”
“What if it turns out they’re stronger than we think?” Cheri looked from Max to Tony. “I don’t know if there was a reason the Concilium didn’t warn us that someone might try and prevent us from being together. Maybe it’s because they didn’t think there were enough people of power here to do anything to stop the prophecy. Maybe it was a test for us, though, really, that’s not how things work in the homeland.” Cheri shook her head. “Maybe I was just naïve to think that things would be the way the elders said they would be, naïve to think that the course of events would run smoothly.” She’d almost said love but had switched it to events at the last moment. “It has been a transition for me, living in this world. Nothing is the way I thought it would be.”
“In the end, none of that matters, not one bit.” Max kissed her ear. “We’re here, with you, and we’re going to see to it that those two…whatever they are…don’t hurt you. Now come on, woman. Let’s go to dinner.”
“All right. But…” She held out her hands. First Max and then Tony took hold. “I’m not going to hide my power any more. I’m going to open my senses. That’s the only way for me to know how strong the two of them are. It will also tell me if there are more than just the two of them on board. But the downside of that is they should be able to sense my power in the same way.”
“All right.” Max met Tony’s gaze. He nodded. “In that case, show us how to do that.”
All Cheri could do was open her mind and let the two of them in. They looked at her for a long moment. She saw the instant they understood what she’d done and how to do it themselves. The three of them were joined together in the ship’s cabin but in a place just outside of what most people would call reality. The sensation was like being in an echo chamber. A slight mist, pale orange in color, formed a wall that surrounded them on all sides. Then Cheri reached inside herself and showed them her power.
The men immediately copied her maneuver.
“It’s like taking the lid off the box they’ve been stored in.” Max’s eyes almost glowed. “And I know what it is I’m looking for. I see it in you and in Tony…and your powers are different colors and textures. That’s incredible!”
She could see the power in them, too. And, for just a moment, she drew comfort from that because, for just a moment, it was like being home again.
* * * *
Dinner had been the kind of five-star cuisine Max had hungered for when he’d been a starving med student. The scallops he’d just eaten had been succulent, the asparagus had just the right amount of crisp left in them, and the angel hair pasta tasted as if it had, indeed, been spun by the angels themselves. He’d ordered the featured dessert, an impressive-looking baked Alaska, which the master chef and all his sous chefs had made a grand-parade-like entrance with moments earlier.
Max lifted his glass of wine, intent on taking a final sip, one last savoring of the excellent Chablis. A sense of something other settled on him. His first instinct was to look around the room, searching for whoever it was looking at him. Instead, he focused, and he looked for the disturbance through the lens of his power.
“I feel it too,” Tony said. He tilted his head. “That’s odd. And damned rude, I think.”
“They’re checking you both out, but not me.” Cheri frowned.
“I wonder if I can…” Max let the thought go and instead concentrated on getting an answer to his question from within. He wanted to know what the men wanted and what they planned to do. He didn’t know if he could do what he planned…and then he had his answer.
He set his wine down and reached for Cheri’s hand—and Tony’s. In an instant he realized the two men watching them were communicating with each other using telepathy and that the three of them were now tuned into that conversation—through Max’s power.
They must already have taken her. They’re stronger than they were, but not too much so, not too strong for us, I think.
So if the fat broad can no longer bestow any more power on us with the gift of her virginity, which she obviously no longer has, then there is no reason for us to use her?
No, we’ll simply kill her after we dispose of the two Latents. I will take the darker of the two. We’ll lure them out onto the deck. A sudden feeling of claustrophobia, I think. Right after we have our dessert.
Excellent, my brother. An excellent plan.
“What the hell….” Tony looked as though he was ready to punch someone, or something.
Max opened his mouth then closed it again. The air around them had shifted, just slightly. He turned to Cheri. “Did you just enclose us in some kind of bubble?”
“Yes. They’re stronger than they’re showing. I think they’re testing you both, trying to see if you could do what you just did. And yet, for some reason, they didn’t realize we were listening in. Also, for some reason, they can’t, or perhaps won’t, sense my power.”
“So if we don’t react, they�
�ll think we’re not that powerful at all.”
“Exactly.”
Max tilted his head to the side. “And while they were intent on baiting us, you were having a look inside their minds, weren’t you?”
“I was, and now I feel as if I need a very hot shower, with lots of soap. But we need to talk, the three of us. Privately, and away from them. What I saw changes things for us all.”
“Damn it, I really wanted some of that baked Alaska.” Max sighed.
“No problem.”
In his peripheral vision, he noticed several people getting up from their seats, walking in a close line between where they were sitting and where their observers sat. That was enough of a warning. Max didn’t even blink this time. One moment they were sitting at a table for three in the main dining room aboard the Carstairs’ cruise ship, the Eugenia, and the next they were at a private—very private—candlelit table for three. An entire baked Alaska sat before them, a silver carafe held what he assumed was coffee, and the evening breeze, fresh clean Colorado air, played in Cheri’s hair.
Nothing was unexpected, except for the two women, one a pixie-like blonde and one a black-haired Valkyrie, striding toward them from the porch of the cabin.
Chapter 13
Cheri squealed as she spotted her best friends—her sisters—making a beeline for her. She pushed back her chair, letting her magic catch it from falling as she ran into their open arms.
“Mother! How did you know I needed you?”
“I think Mother is the right word.” Diana’s droll delivery and the tight hugs from both women were the elixir she needed.
Then she stepped back and offered her hands. They formed a circle, as they always did the first moment they were together. The magic flowed between them, soothing, and bolstering, and, in this case, informing.
“First Mother sent you. I didn’t know they were tuned into us.”
“Neither did we, not until just a few minutes ago. I was frightened at first that something horrible had happened to you.” Meghan’s blue eyes had widened to reflect her emotions.
Aren’t you going to introduce us, love?
She felt both Max and Tony there, just there at the edge of the circle. She stepped back, releasing her sisters’ hands, and turned to face them.
They’d enlarged the table and added two chairs. Both men stood, waiting. In that moment, Cheri fell all the way in love with Maxwell Tanner and Anthony Delvecchio.
She turned back to her friends. “Come and meet…”
Your mates. Her sisters had sent that thought to her together.
“Not quite yet.”
Meghan blushed, but Diana just raised one eyebrow. Then she stepped around her and headed straight for the men.
“I’m Diana Reynolds. Cheri is very special to me. Hurt her and you’ll be very sorry.”
Cheri cringed. She’d almost forgotten about Diana’s take-charge, take-no-prisoners attitude.
Max nodded. “Yes we will be careful of her because she’s very special to us, too.” Then he tilted his head to the side. He grinned at the same time Diana’s eyes widened. “Don’t be rude, little sister.”
“Well.”
“I’m Meghan Clark.”
Cheri introduced the men, even though she realized that everyone already knew everyone’s name. Six years of living outside of her magic for the most part had left an impression.
“Let’s sit and share this wonderful dessert, have some coffee, and then make some plans.” Tony looked at Cheri and then her friends. “I’ll assume you’re here because of those two…” He paused and met Cheri’s gaze.
She hadn’t had a chance to share what she’d gleaned from that mental foray. “They call themselves Warlocks.”
“Warlocks, is it? How…trite.” Diana took the chair beside Tony.
Cheri resumed her seat between her men, and Meghan sat on the other side of Max.
While Max served the confection and Tony poured the coffee, Cheri’s thoughts were filled with the smattering of knowledge she’d taken in.
“Their family name is Fortuna. I sensed a father, a man these two brothers—twins by the name of Vincent and Emilio—fear and respect.”
“But not love?” Max framed his comment to sound like a question.
“I only saw darkness,” Cheri said. “Dark magic, dark desires.”
“And love is a pure kind of magic.” Tony met her gaze. “Don’t be so surprised, sweetheart. We understand quite a bit more than we did.”
“Love is the purest magic.” Cheri met Tony’s gaze again and then Max’s. “It’s the one magic that can’t be corrupted. Those who turn to the dark, they’re out of love’s realm.”
“So there’s only those three?” Max asked.
“No. Two more sets of twins. And…something else. But I couldn’t quite figure it out. I couldn’t go too deep.”
“Hmm. I wonder if whatever else it is could be something to use against them?” Tony asked.
“I don’t know. What I learned was the Fortunas have prided themselves on amassing as much power as they could, but jealousy divides them.”
“The descendants of both the Gifted and the Spurned, in this world, have evolved beyond the racial knowledge that we take for granted.” Diana sat forward. “They think that what they know is all there is. Except the First Mother said there was an element in play that no one anticipated.”
“She seemed angry that any here would try to stop the first stage of the prophecy since it was an agreed-upon event at the time of the Great Separation.” Meghan shrugged. “It unsettled me, the fact that the Concilium had been taken unawares.”
Not unawares, child. Unconvinced. There is a difference.
They all five heard the voice. The air turned warmer, more fragrant. Before them, a column of pure white smoke laced with rainbow-like sparkles grew out of nothing. It swirled and danced, as if to music only it could hear.
Cheri’s response was to reach for the hands of her men. Feeling their grip, their heat, steadied her.
“What do we do, First Mother?”
Trust in yourselves, all of you, and in the purest magic. Trust and believe.
Then the apparition was gone and the air returned to normal.
“Why is it that words of advice are always so darn ambiguous?” Meghan huffed out a breath that bounced her blonde curls.
“I’m new to all this,” Max said, “but my answer to your question is that we have to choose. We have to decide.” He looked at Cheri. “You were right, love. Nothing is etched in stone.”
“We can’t come with you.” Diana looked as if she wanted to punch someone. “I really don’t like having my options limited this way. But that apparently is one of them.”
“Huh.” Meghan sat forward. “We can’t! Darn it, I thought we were supposed to be here for each other!”
“We are. Here for each other. But you can’t help, and you can’t make our choices for us.”
“What are you going to do?” Diana directed her question at Max and Tony.
“You said the fact the men called themselves Warlocks was trite. Maybe we’ll be trite, too. We’ll turn to that age-old adage, how do you win a knife fight?”
Cheri knew she was as confused as her sisters. “I don’t know. How do you win a knife fight?”
“You bring a bazooka and blow the enemy to Kingdom Come.”
Meghan shook her head. “I don’t know what that means, but it does sound effective.”
“This is the only contact we’re allowed until it’s done.” Cheri looked around the table. For the first time she understood how dangerous this journey she’d embarked upon could be.
“Then let’s make this moment count.” Diana held out her hands. Meghan and Tony took hers, and Cheri and Max reciprocated until they were all joined as one.
“Bless this circle, strengthen her members, and unite her thoughts.”
Not more magic, no. But all that her sisters were—heart and mind, spirit and will—they op
enly shared with not only Cheri but also her men.
This was not forbidden, for this was just one more vestige of the purest of all magic. This, at its heart, was nothing more or less than sharing love.
* * * *
They’d decided upon a plan, and he was as ready as he would ever be.
As they made their way toward the deck on the fantail of the ship, Tony’s mind wandered. The situation had the potential to turn out to be more dangerous than any of them could contemplate. They had no real idea what the two men they hoped to face tonight—the Fortuna twins from Chicago—were capable of. His thoughts took a turn toward the macabre, and he wondered, for a moment, how his headstone would read.
Anthony Adam Delvecchio was many things—a son, a brother, and a good friend. He was a surgeon, damn it, not a warrior. What the hell was he thinking, about to go into battle with Warlocks, for crying out loud!
But haven’t you been fighting battles all your life? Wasn’t that you who faced the handful of bullies picking on little Edna May Prescott in first grade? And wasn’t that you coming to the aid of that elderly woman being mugged when you were just a freshman in college? And what about all the times you’ve walked into the operating room determined that your patient would not die? You’ve battled death itself and won!
His inner voice could always be counted on to stir up shit.
Then he turned and looked at Cheri. He’d left one thing off his mental list of relational connections. He was a lover. And he knew without question he would fight whoever and whatever he had to fight to keep his woman safe. He’d lay down his life, if that was what it took, to protect her.
Oh God, I’m in love with her.
“You too, huh?”
He snapped his attention to his best friend. Max shrugged. “Sorry. I guess I need to work on my control. I didn’t mean to poke my nose into your thoughts.”
The Gifted 1: Passions Awakening (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 12
