by Jaymin Eve
Lexen stepped to her, both of his hands cupping her face. She calmed as she stared up into his eyes. “She’s fine. Daniel will get her there in time. He will not let his mate go without a massive fight. Don’t forget he controls the underworld.”
Emma nodded as she swallowed roughly. “I know. But … he can’t control everything. Marsil still died. There is only so much Daniel can do.”
Lexen’s jaw tightened, his eyes almost glowing at the mention of his brother. “He could have saved Marsil, but nothing like that comes without a price. The same way he had to tie his soul to Callie’s to save her life, there would have been a price for Marsil as well. I know, without any doubt, my brother would not have wanted anyone to pay that for him.”
Lexen’s thumbs wiped away the tears trailing down Emma’s cheeks. I had to turn away because that moment was so intimate and sad. Holy shit. I actually felt like I might cry myself, and I never knew Marsil. Drifting a little further from them, I examined the beautiful street we were on. Surprisingly enough, I could still smell the ocean, so we had to be near water. It was probably behind all the mega mansions that lined one side of the street. Huge blocks of land. High privacy fences. This was definitely a street for rich aliens.
I walked along the asphalt until I reached the path. On the opposite side to the mansions, it looked like there were some small houses, and I was curious to see what they were like. It took me longer than I expected to reach their little section. They were grouped close together, their land a fraction of the size of the homes across the street from them.
I didn’t realize that the others had caught up to me until Emma startled me. “That’s mine.” She pointed toward one of the little houses in the middle. She then paused for a beat, her brow furrowing. “It kind of looks different,” she murmured, moving closer. “They all look different.”
The bright red door of her place flew open then and two people stepped out, a dark-haired African-American woman, and a red-headed, very fair-skinned man.
“Emma!” the woman exclaimed, racing down the stairs and throwing her arms around Emma. “We haven’t seen you for days,” she scolded as she pulled back. “You need to keep us updated.”
Joy replaced the sadness that had been etched across Emma’s face. “Sorry, Sara. We ended up in a safe house and it wasn’t that easy to call out in case it was traced.”
“But you’re all fine?”
Emma nodded. “Yes, we did have a run in with Laous, but we found Ava and got the stone back, so I’d say we came out in front.”
Sara’s eyes were on me then. She released Emma and took a step closer to me. “Ava … oh my, you’re absolutely stunning.” She flicked a glance at Xander. “Lucky guy, Xander.”
He just crossed his arms and shook his head, but he didn’t say anything. I expected him to deny it, but he didn’t. Which, of course, immediately had Maya and Emma shooting him knowing grins.
The red-headed man distracted everyone when he took a few steps forward and wrapped his arms around Emma. “Missed you, sweetheart.”
“I missed you too, Michael,” Emma said, her voice muffled.
When they pulled apart, Michael moved to stand beside Sara, draping one of his arms around her. “So, what is the next part of your plan?” he asked, looking between all of us.
Lexen answered. “We’re heading to Overworld. First step is to uncover the map Ava holds, so we can figure out where the starslight stone is.”
“We have to get the stone before Laous and give it back to the humans,” Chase added. “They’re going to figure out a better way to hide it this time.”
Michael nodded, face serious. “Yes, we’ve been in touch with Maya’s parents. They said there is a new agreement all ready now—they’re just waiting on Daniel’s signature as the last overlord. They’re not going to let something like this happen again.”
Maya cleared her throat, drawing our attention. “Clearly someone is going to have to break the bond between us and the stone. Will that also break the connection the eight of us have?”
There were a few beats of uncomfortable silence.
“We have no idea,” Michael admitted, shrugging.
“I don’t think it can,” Lexen told her. “There are multiple bonds between all of us. This would just be one specific one that connects you all to the stone.”
Emma nodded, turning back to examine her house again. “Did you paint our door?” she asked suddenly. “Actually, are all of the doors painted now?”
Sara clapped her hands, her face transforming into one of delight. Michael just shook his head, watching his wife with a soft stare.
“We’ve been overseeing the renovations of the street,” Sara said with a chuckle. “It has been so much fun.”
Emma turned back to her family. “Renovations?”
Sara nodded. “Yep, my job for the past few weeks. You haven’t noticed because you’ve barely been here.”
“Lexen, Daniel, Chase, and Xander organized it all,” Michael added. ‘We’ve just been overseeing the work.”
Emma let out a low breath of air, turning to the man at her side. “You … you did this?”
Lexen laughed. “You don’t have to sound so surprised. I can, on occasion, think about helping others.”
Emma shook her head, sniffling. “It’s not that. You are very involved when it comes to Daelighters. You’re an amazing leader. But humans … you don’t often think about humans.”
He wrapped her up before she could blink, hauling her into his body so her feet were dangling off the ground. Emma didn’t seem to mind; she flung her arms around his neck and clung tightly to him. “I think about you every second of every day,” he said softly. “I know it bothered you that these shacks were for humans.”
“So we fixed them up,” Chase added. Maya let out a little sound of happiness, and then she was throwing herself into his arms.
I wrinkled my nose at Xander. “While I think this is a nice gesture, don’t expect a hug from me.”
He quirked an eyebrow in my direction. “Bad form not to show your gratitude.”
“I said it was a nice gesture.” I shrugged. “That’s as much as I’m giving you.”
Oh, and me, naked beneath you. Because we were going to do that.
Turning away, I pretended to be very interested in the scenery. “That’s my house there,” Xander said. I jumped when his voice was much closer than I expected. I glared at him.
“Back up, dude. You’re way too close.”
He actually laughed at me, and somehow I managed not to throat punch him. “You definitely embrace the surfer vibe. I like it.”
Placing one hand against his chest, I attempted to shove him back. He barely moved, which was freaking annoying. Why were men always so much bigger and stronger? Okay, human men usually weren’t. I held my own with a lot of them, but Xander was built like a fucking tank.
“Stop flirting with me,” I said. “This is not what we’re doing, okay?”
His gaze flicked down to my hand, to where my fingers were almost bunching in his shirt. I yanked it back quickly, realizing what I was doing, and hurried away from him to stand with Maya and Emma. I didn’t even care that I’d have to put up with the PDA.
Emma was saying goodbye to her family. “…see you all really soon,” she said as she pulled back. “We have to go now though.”
Sara and Michael’s faces fell. “Please be careful,” Sara begged, hurrying in for one more hug. “We love you so much.”
“I love you, too.” Emma blew them a kiss, straightening. “I’ll be back before you know it.”
She sucked in a deep breath, turning to walk along the street. The rest of us hurried to follow. Emma was on a mission. I tried not to look Xander’s way, but I was far too aware of him to be able to completely ignore him. It didn’t help that I had a million questions I wanted to ask. Not just about us, but also about his world.
Deciding it was better not to get too friendly with him, lest we blur these
lines we were trying to establish, I asked Maya, “How are we getting to Overworld?” The word spaceship had been floating around in the back of my mind, but it just seemed so far-fetched.
“A transporter,” she said with a soft smile. “It’s like this … ball of light that Daelighters created using their network.”
Ah, yes, they had mentioned that to me before. “The permanent transporter set up in the treaty…?” I confirmed.
“Yep,” she said.
“The lights connect our worlds,” Chase added. “So, if we hold on to a beam here, we can use it to bring us to Overworld. It takes a little while to get used to it—”
“Especially if you get lost inside of one,” Maya interrupted. “But you’ll be fine. Xander won’t let you go.”
I tripped, startled enough that I almost hit the deck. I recovered easily, but it was odd for me to be clumsy. Freaking Xander, he was impacting me in more ways than one.
“Why will Xander be helping me?” I asked, ignoring the snort from the man himself.
“You need a Daelighter to guide you through,” Maya said, her eyes sparkling as her lips half-tilted up like she was trying not to smile. She looked between Xander and me. “It’s safer if it’s one Daelighter per human. That way you have no chance of getting lost inside the transporter.”
The annoyance I was feeling must have shown on my face. She let out a laugh. “If you want to go with Chase, I’m happy to go with Xander. I can share my mate for the trip back.”
For a split second, I considered taking her up on that offer, even though I felt like an absolute fucking moron making a big deal about this. The problem, I was coming to realize, was that I hadn’t thought this “sexual relationship only” thing through. It was a great idea in theory, but Xander and I were not like most casual hookups. We were stuck together in a situation that required a lot of “helping” and “togetherness.” Which, as far as I could tell, was only going to create problems.
Maya was still waiting for my answer. I had just opened my mouth to tell her I’d go with Xander, when he reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me to a halt. “I’m more than capable of getting you there safely, Avalon.” His grip wasn’t tight, but his expression had drawn into hard lines, eyes flashing at me. “Do not doubt my ability to keep you safe.”
I resisted the urge to step into him, because there was something about the concept of “safe” that I craved. Instead, I gently shook his hand off me. “You’re right,” I said, and his eyes widened. “But be aware, I don’t generally rely on others to protect me. I’m out of my depth here with all the alien stuff, and that is the only reason I will concede to your help.”
Turning, I found that the others had kept walking, disappearing past the parked cars. Xander made no move to hurry after them; he just stood there, watching me.
He did at least look a little less angry.
Before I could ask him if we were cool now—I had agreed to his help—he stepped forward and wrapped his arm around the middle of my back. My body bent to his will, curving into Xander, pressing against his hard lines.
When his lips landed on mine, my breath whooshed out of me in a rush and I had to swallow down the moan that wanted to follow. I lost all control of myself, my lips parting so our tongues could move together.
The taste of Xander just about dropped me to my knees. He even tasted like the ocean.
It was too much. My heart was thundering in my chest. It was only his hold on my body that kept me from dissolving into a puddle at his feet. His kiss was hard … demanding … and I loved every second of it. He was taking what he wanted, and I did the same right back. Bubbles tingled in my blood, the way they did when I was swimming at top speed through the ocean.
“You taste like home,” he said as our lips parted. His eyes looked troubled, but there was no doubt he was into it. I could feel the evidence of that pressed against my body, and I actually wished we weren’t right in the middle of the street.
“Sex only,” I reminded him. He tasted like home to me as well, but we had to ignore that for now. “Otherwise it’s going to get complicated.”
That seemed to knock some sense into him. His arm loosened and I wobbled, my knees still weak. He did keep a hand on me for an extra moment, making sure I was stable, before he stepped back. “I don’t do complicated,” he said, a tinge of surprise in his voice. “I can’t.” He shook his head then. “We should go, the others will be waiting for us.”
No more words were spoken as we hurried to follow the path to the transporter, but something had shifted between us. Things felt … different. Charged. Intense.
I could not wait to get to the sex part. Holy hell.
Chapter 11
A transporter, it turned out, was literally a ball of light. It also turned out that Xander was able to reach out and grab hold of one of those strands, after which we were jerked into a weird, soundless wormhole. It felt like the sort of situation that would cause me to freak out again—there was probably no place further removed from my ocean—but instead I was fascinated.
This was a once in a lifetime experience.
Xander kept a tight hold on me, and at no point was I worried that I would slip out of his hand. When the light got brighter at the end, I did close my eyes, stumbling forward. Xander used his strength to keep me standing. The moment I felt reality and gravity return, I opened my eyes and pulled my hands from his. I wanted to see everything at once.
“Oh my God,” I gasped, turning in a circle to take it all in. “This is Overworld?”
Xander chuckled. “Well, this is one part of Overworld. There are lots of sectors, but we don’t interact with each other.”
That was interesting. Everyone on Earth traveled between countries. “Why don’t you interact?” I decided to ask.
He shrugged. “There’s no easy way to travel to other sectors. It’s actually easier and less dangerous for us to travel to Earth. Some of the other lands have creatures that are not compatible to us. Very dangerous creatures. The Draygo people are thought to be originally from another land.”
It was all so fascinating. I wanted to know everything. Hopefully I’d have years to learn it all.
The large disc we had landed on had a light transporter right in the center, and there were three lands surrounding it. “What is that place called?” I pointed to the section that was packed full of trees.
“House of Leights,” Chase said, wandering over to us. “That’s Maya’s and my land.”
House of Leights … tree people. I remembered from their explanations, but it was still hard to imagine what it all truly meant. How did a tree and a person combine? Like … how?
“And that one?” I moved on to the land of mountains and green valleys.
“House of Darken,” Lexen told me, staring out across his land.
I’d saved the best for last of course, turning my eyes to the vast stretch of water. There were no waves like in Hawaii, but it still called to me in a way that made it difficult not to just run over and throw myself at it. “House of Royale,” I whispered.
Xander made a low rumbling noise at my side. It sounded like it came from deep in his chest. “Yes, that’s our home.”
He said our so causally. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Our home.
To stop myself from crying all the happy tears, I quickly searched for a distraction. “Where is House of Imperial? Has anyone heard from Daniel and Callie?”
“She’s fine,” Emma said immediately. “Daniel contacted Lexen a minute ago. Callie just needs a few more hours of rest—they’ll meet us at Lexen’s soon.”
Relief hit me hard. I’d been stressing about her health the entire time. “That’s such good news, but … you still didn’t tell me where their land is?”
Xander answered this time. “They’re the underworld, so it’s…” He trailed off and pointed down to the disc. “Under the main land.”
Right. Okay. Really hoping I didn’t end up going there for any reason.
“How are we getting to House of Darken?” Emma asked Lexen.
“Transporter,” he replied immediately. “It will save us time. Father wants me to hurry back. He said he has something important to discuss with us all.”
Emma lurched forward. “It’s not about Jero or Star, right? Or Ambra?”
I didn’t know who these people were, but they were clearly important to Emma. Which then, for some stupid reason, made them feel important to me.
“Or my parents?” Maya added, her voice rising in pitch.
Lexen shook his head, hands reaching out to steady Emma and Maya. “No, it’s not about my siblings or Mother. Or your parents, Maya. I’m almost certain nothing is wrong. Father said not to panic, but he might have some information to help us.”
Emma and Maya both relaxed. As did I.
“Okay, well, we should hurry, then,” Emma added. “It’s not like Roland to call us back unless it’s something important.”
Lexen didn’t say anything more.
The next transporter was shorter, taking us directly into Lexen’s home. Or … a small dark room in his home. When we entered the main part of the house, I got the whole “prince” thing. Everything was light and open, with lots of very expensive, handmade-looking furnishings. We passed so many rooms, I knew I’d be completely lost if I had to navigate this place on my own.
“Father is waiting in the main dining room,” Lexen explained as we took a set of stairs up to the next level. “It’s just through here.”
The first thing I noticed through the double set of doors was the table. It could easily seat fifty people, maybe more. Made from what looked like one long sheet of wood, it was stained dark with carved legs, the chairs all matching and high-backed with carved wood accents.
This looked like the sort of room I’d expect in the Queen of England’s home. I immediately felt intimidated, my feet slowing as we all entered. I felt out of place everywhere except the ocean, but this was mammoth out of place.
Xander, who had entered a little ahead of me, noticed me hovering in the doorway. He backtracked in my direction, his expression unreadable. “Everything okay?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.
