by Jaymin Eve
As Daniel’s head snapped back, Fraizer shouted, “This is all your fault. You let our goddamn family fall apart. You should be the one trapped in Laous’ web of lies, not Rao.”
Callie stepped forward, putting herself between the two of them. That was the first time Daniel had showed a strong emotion, his arms coming out to cage his mate as he pulled her away from Fraizer.
“You’re right,” Daniel admitted, fire in his eyes. “I have failed our family. I’m sorry I blamed you for what happened to Mom. I’m sorry that this all went to hell. But right now all the sorrys in the world don’t mean shit. You don’t trust me. I don’t trust you. And none of us have time to try and deal with it.”
“You’re not going to Hawaii without me,” Fraizer muttered. “Not now I know I have a brother to save. Rao is a good Daelighter who has had to do some really fucked-up things for Laous. And with his abilities, there’s no way Laous will ever let him go.”
“What can he do?” Emma asked, trying to sneak in under Lexen’s arm to see better.
Daniel shrugged. “No idea.”
Fraizer, who still had his fists clenched, chest heaving, snarled. “He’s a soothsayer. He can see events before they happen. He has dreams. This has allowed Laous to be a step ahead of the rest of you morons. If you’d rescued Rao early on, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“We didn’t know he was alive,” Daniel retorted harshly, losing whatever control he had on his temper. “I only just found out.”
That took some of the fire out of Fraizer. “Rao was the one who told him how to become Overlord by killing our father.” His voice was quieter now. “He also told him how to find the first secret keeper. He saw it all before it happened.”
After Fraizer said this, Emma stiffened, her face pale. Her parents had been killed by Laous.
“Did he really kill my mom?” Callie interrupted, sounding like she wasn’t sure she actually wanted to know.
Fraizer hesitated. “It was a heart attack, I think. He burned her body after. To hide the evidence.”
Callie’s face didn’t change; there was no grief in her expression, but she did seem to shrink in on herself.
Xander, who had barely spoken since we came out of the network, said, “I know this timing is not good, but the plane is ready. The pilot is waiting for us at the private airfield near Astoria.”
“You guys have a private plane?” I blurted out. How rich were they?
“I have three,” Lexen said with a shrug.
“Same,” Xander added.
Daniel just smirked. “Imperial Exports has dozens, but I have three for my personal use.”
Blinking slowly, I turned to look at Chase. “Please don’t tell me you have three planes as well.”
The other overlords laughed then, and I let out a low sigh of relief. I should have known that he wouldn’t be like the others. He cared about nature and trees and things that stayed on the ground.
Chase’s smile was a little crooked as he reached out and brushed his thumb against my cheek. “My family has hundreds of planes,” he told me. “We own one of the largest commercial airlines in the world. You might have heard of Air Starleight, the one which runs almost completely without emissions. We put a lot of money back into the environment so technology doesn’t completely destroy Earth.”
“Hundreds…” I trailed off. “How much money do you four have?”
That might have been a rude question. I had no idea if they were secretive about money here like a lot of humans were.
Chase didn’t hesitate to reply: “On Earth, our net worth is in the billions. Both individually and collectively. Our families own a lot of the major industries, companies, banking, and oil. We use the money to make sure that things run smoothly for Daelighters on Earth.”
Before I could freak the hell out, Lexen added, “In Overworld, we don’t use money, not in the same way humans do. The overlord families are supposed to provide for our people, and in return the people keep our communities running smoothly. There are some barter systems. The overlord families obviously have help to run their homes and such, but we are expected to keep our people safe, fed, and somewhat happy. That’s how our world works.”
If Earth focused more on keeping people happy rather than making money, I think things would be very different there. Meanwhile … I’d just learned I was bonded to a billionaire who owned more private planes than I owned socks. When did this become my life?
“I’m still the same guy,” Chase reminded me. My expression was not doing a good job of hiding my shock. A grin split his face. “I think you took it better when you found out about aliens.”
A snort of laughter left me. Emma and Callie joined in. It almost felt cathartic after all of the tension. Fraizer even smiled, while still looking uncomfortable, standing off to the side of the main group. “I’ve never lacked for money,” I said, still chuckling. “But it never occurred to me even once that you all would have so much … Earth currency. I guess I should have realized. After all, you’ve entrenched your lives in our world deeply. The bigger picture is starting to come together.”
Chase wrapped an arm around me and my body went willingly to him. As did my heart.
“You’ll never want for anything that cold hard cash can buy,” Chase said, low in my ear. “What’s mine is yours. If you have any charities you want to donate to, just tell me. Properties you want to purchase for us to live in, I can do that.”
I loved that he’d mentioned charities first. I went up on tiptoes and he lowered himself down so I could reach his lips. “Thank you,” I said as I pulled back. “I have a ton of charities I love supporting, and … I’d really love if we could set up a little center near where I used to live. There are so many kids and single moms there trying to escape domestic abuse. They’re homeless, living in their cars. I talked to my parents about trying to do something, but there was never time.”
Gracie, my nanny, had come from a domestic abuse situation. Luckily, she reached out to my father, an old friend of hers from school. He gave her a job and place to live. She said if it wasn’t for us, she would have ended up on the streets. Her husband took everything from her. I had a special place in my heart for women and children who were in that situation.
“As soon as Laous becomes nothing more than a bad memory, we will set up your shelter,” Chase promised.
Thank you, I mouthed to him, too overcome to speak out loud.
I pulled myself together then as Lexen started moving toward the transporter. Looked like it was time to go. Everyone followed, except for Fraizer, who didn’t seem to know what to do. “Come on,” Daniel told him, not sounding happy about it.
“Wait,” Callie called from the back of the group. “What about the tracker? We need to get it out of me immediately. On the off chance that Laous doesn’t know where the fourth is yet, we can’t lead him to her.”
I’d temporarily forgotten about that uncomfortable little fact. Callie clearly hadn’t, and I could not blame her. The thought of someone putting something inside her body while she was unconscious … the vulnerability of someone taking advantage of that … made me really angry on her behalf.
Daniel reached out to her, his hand wrapping around her face as he probed behind her ear. It took him about a minute to find the device.
“Get it out,” she said without hesitation. “Just cut the damn thing out, Dan.”
His nostrils flared slightly, and I saw his hands flinch. “I don’t think I can cut you. But I also don’t trust anyone else to do it.”
She reached forward and grabbed onto his face, pulling his head down to hers. “Daniel Imperial, you will cut this thing out of me immediately. I know you can do this, and I trust you with my life.” She whispered, but I still heard her say, “You’ve saved my life already, more than once. You will not hurt me.”
Daniel pressed his lips to hers once, hard, and then pulled back with a harsh breath. He released Callie’s face and took a step back, reaching down to lift up the leg of
his pants. He pulled a small blade from a sheath. It was dagger-shaped, looking razor sharp as it glinted in the light.
He glanced toward Lexen and Chase, who were closest. “Can you hold her still? If she flinches, I might cut deeper than I intend to.”
The pair stepped up on either side of the blond girl, who remained calm, even though she was about to be operated on without any pain relief.
Daniel brushed her hair to the side. “I’m going to need you to tilt your head as far as you can.” He demonstrated what he wanted, and when she immediately followed his instructions, he leaned closer.
“I will tell you when I’m about to cut.” His voice was very graveled. “Try not to move.”
From my angle, it looked like Callie rolled her eyes. “I’ve been cut before, Daniel. I’ll be able to handle it, don’t you worry.”
Her assurance did not lessen the worry he wore. His hand remained steady, though, as he brought the deadly blade to her neck. “Cutting now,” he said.
It seemed like he’d only lowered the knife for a split second before he was lifting it again, blood noticeable on the tip. Callie did not move, but she had closed her eyes. Daniel handed the dagger to Xander, before he ushered Emma and me forward.
“Are either of you okay with blood?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I’ve never had a noticeable problem with it, but I’ve also never performed surgery on someone.”
Emma grimaced. “Honestly, I’m not great, but for Callie I’ll do whatever.”
“I’ve cut just over the top of the device,” he explained. “But it’s not coming out easily with the blade and I don’t want to cut her any more. I need someone with long nails to lift it and then pull it out.”
Emma waved her fingers at him. “My nails are always short. Long nails annoy me. So I can’t help.”
Her relief was very obvious. Meanwhile, I had a nicely manicured set of teal nails, so I did not have the same argument. Daniel pulled a small cloth from his pocket, which he used to dab at Callie’s neck, and then gestured for me to step forward. I was too short to see, so Chase wrapped an arm around my center, lifting me up higher. Which, of course, had my concentration at about minus fifty, until I remembered that Callie could be bleeding to death.
The cut was about an inch long, and not very deep. Blood seeped slowly out of it; Daniel mopped it up every second or so. “Can you see the tip of the tracker there?” He pointed toward a glint of dark metal.
I nodded.
“Can you get your nail under it and flick it out?”
My initial response was no. I was totally not equipped to deal with this, but … I knew I had to woman up. For Callie. And for the rest of us.
After giving myself a very quick pep talk, I tilted my head back to Chase. “You okay holding me a little longer?”
He just grinned, and I shook my head at him before turning back to Callie. This time I did not hesitate. “I’m going to get it out now, okay…” I told her. Daniel had stepped around to take Chase’s place, holding her to make sure she didn’t flinch. Pretending that this was not someone’s neck, I gently slid my finger across her skin, and when I reached the cut, twisted my hand around so my nail was in a scooping position. It was difficult to get under the device without embedding it further into her skin. I dug deeper, knowing I was hurting her, because she made one low whimper.
Hurry up, Maya. Screwing around was making it worse, so I sucked in a huge breath, and then flicked my nail down and under in one movement, closing my thumb on top. She made another noise, but I was blocking most of that out, focused on using the two nails as tweezers, to pull out the small tracker.
It came with only a little resistance and I managed not to vomit on her, even though I sort of wanted to. As soon as it was out, Callie wilted, and Daniel supported her while he pressed the cloth to her neck.
“You’re going to have to hold it on there,” he said, eyes locked on his mate with intensity. “The plane has a medical kit. I’ll bandage you up once we’re on board.”
“I’m fine,” she said, trying to laugh but failing. Her head turned to me. “Thanks, Maya.”
I shrugged. “No problem, I’ve been dissecting my dolls for years. Plenty of experience.”
Chase lowered me to the ground – I had completely forgotten he still held me. They were strong, these Daelighters. Lexen took the bloody device from me, incinerating it with a flame that appeared in his hand. I wiped my fingers on my already filthy and bloodstained jeans.
“Time to go,” Lexen said. “Jero, can you wait for us back home? Make sure that everything stays in order while I’m gone.”
The brothers exchanged an extended look, and I was betting there was a lot being “said” in that stare. Eventually though, Jero just nodded his head and turned to walk toward the mouth of the cave. Lexen continued watching him for an extra beat before he refocused on us and directed everyone toward the transporter.
One by one we stepped into the ball of light. We were on our way to the land of sand and sun. And possibly the end of the world.
Chapter 20
It turned out that Xander’s plane had four bedrooms, a lounge and bar, plus three or four bathrooms. Basically, his plane was the size of most people’s houses, or bigger, actually. It also turned out that flying private was much faster than commercial. On my last commercial flight, boarding had been delayed by twenty minutes, then we sat on the runway for two hours, and then they lost half the luggage.
Nothing like that for the billionaire boys. They got the red-carpet treatment. Chase and I buckled into two squishy armchairs, preparing for takeoff. My hands were clenched tightly on the side of the chair, because I might be in more comfortable seats, but that didn’t mean I was any less scared of the process.
Chase, noticing my white knuckles, held his hand out to me, palm up. We were just taxiing down the runway, and I wasn’t sure I could loosen my grip yet, but the thought of touching him was enough for me to try.
“Not a fan of planes?” he joked as I grabbed onto him with a death grip. “Want me to sell the family business?”
That part didn’t sound like he was joking at all. “What?” I forgot for a moment what was happening, swinging my head toward him. “Definitely not. Your family is doing a good thing trying to provide aircraft that don’t horribly pollute the air. Do they crash less as well? Because that would be doubly awesome.”
It looked like he was trying not to laugh at me. “Planes rarely crash. You’re safe. And even if, by some extremely rare occurrence, we have trouble with this one, then I will save you. We’re hard to kill, and I have more than a few skills to keep us alive.”
That did make me feel a little better. But my reflex reactions were still there, so the moment the plane surged forward I had to close my eyes and think happy thoughts. Usually if I was flying with my parents, I’d be dosed up on the Xanax my doctor prescribed me before vacations. Right now, though, I only had Chase.
Surprisingly enough, he worked almost as well, because by the time the seatbelts sign disappeared, I was barely even thinking about the fact that we were thousands of feet in the air. As everyone started to move around, Xander came by our seats. “It’s about six hours to Hawaii with the headwind, so I suggest everyone gets some sleep while you can.”
“Sounds good,” Daniel told him.
Xander didn’t sound angry anymore, just normal. He looked tired, though; fatigue lined his blue eyes. “Couples can take the bedrooms,” he added, just before he left. “The rest of us will use the lounger beds.”
He walked off and I had a moment of panic. This thing with Chase, I wanted it, badly. But I wasn’t sure I was ready for us to share a bed yet. We were only just getting to know each other … and, I’d never done that with anyone before. Except Brad, and he totally didn’t count.
“You need rest.” Chase was watching me closely. “I’ll stay out here if it makes you feel more comfortable. But you should definitely grab one of the beds.”
I sh
ook my head. I was an idiot. We were only sleeping, nothing else. Chase would never push me, and possibly it would be me making the first move, because he was a total gentleman. I didn’t have anything to worry about except my own stupid nerves.
I grabbed his hand. “Come on, we both need the sleep. It’s been a long day.”
He didn’t argue, he just squeezed my hand and followed me through the plane. The first door was closed, so we went into the second. The room was small, fitting a king-sized bed and a single side table. There was a television on the wall, but neither of us turned it on. “I really need a shower,” I said, staring down at the pristine white sheets.
Chase reached out and pulled the thick blanket back. “You can shower, but I don’t think we have anything to change into. All of our bags were left at the car.” When I hesitated again, he added, “Don’t worry about making the sheets dirty, they’ll change all of the bedding as soon as we leave the plane.”
“I might just wash my face and hands,” I decided.
Chase nodded, and I quietly left. I went to the closest bathroom, but it was occupied, so I walked on to the next one. There was a shower inside the small stall, but I ignored it. After I used the toilet, I quickly washed my hands and face. The soft white towel came away streaked with dirt and blood, and I ended up stripping half my clothes off in an attempt to get all the blood off me. My eyes lingered on the two-inch cut on my shoulder, surprised by how healed it already looked. It was half scabbed over. Insane.
Once I was eighty percent clean, I made my way back to the bedroom to find it empty. Chase must have gone to use the bathroom, too, which gave me a second to shuck off my shoes, jeans, sweater – despite Chase’s assurances, they were way too gross to sleep in – and crawl in under the sheets. My eyes grew heavy almost instantly, and while I registered the door opening and closing again, I didn’t move. As his warm weight settled in behind me, I instinctively turned toward him and he wrapped me up in his arms. Once my head was on his bare chest, everything inside of me calmed … and grew excited at the same time.
