by Lisa Ladew
“That’s good, Promised. Stay just like that and I’ll put all the young you want inside your belly.”
Ella shot straight up and ran six or seven paces at a full sprint before she realized there was nowhere to go. She slowed, then stopped, as awful laughter surrounded her from everywhere.
She looked around hesitantly as she turned to face him. The terrain was bleak, unforgiving, like a desert made of fire. He stood in the center of it like a paragon of the landscape and his true form made her cower in spite of himself.
He scoffed. “Little girl, this is not what I look like.” He clucked his tongue. “It’s sad that I cannot be myself, even in my home, but your brain cannot conceive of the reality of my appearance. It would melt, just like it would if you actually saw your father, and we can’t have that, can we?”
“My sister.” Ella hated hearing her voice shake. She shouldn’t have spoken at all.
“Ah yes, your sister. Regrettably, I must hold on to her for just a little longer. Just long enough─ well, we’ll discuss that in a bit. For now, we walk.”
He pointed a finger at her and Ella felt herself be lifted into the air in some sort of a bubble. It skimmed along the ground, just high enough that most of the flames shooting out of the cracks in the ground only grazed the bottom of her feet. Ella didn’t even try to get out. She scanned the landscape, caught in a crazy, deadly world that hadn’t even existed to her a week before, and tried to think of her next move.
In reality, all she really wanted to do was have a very noisy breakdown and insist there was no way this could be happening.
Chapter 40
Trevor awoke with a jerk, scrambling out of bed and falling into a defensive stance, the sheet wrapped around his legs, the remnants of his dream of The Destroyer taking Ella falling away. He stood and rubbed his hand over his face, shaking his head. It had been a bad one.
He padded into the bathroom, took care of business, then pulled on some shorts and headed downstairs. “Ella?”
The kitchen was empty and only the wolves were on the couch. Trent hopped to the floor immediately.
She never came down.
She’s not upstairs. Panic filled him as he struggled to hold on to anything that was left of the dream.
Trent and Troy pushed past him up the stairs, their noses to the ground. Trevor let himself feel weak for just a moment, then he pulled it together and followed them.
They were in the bedroom at the far end of the hall, looking out the window at the screen that was punched out and laying discarded on the roof.
She went out this way.
“But why,” Trevor almost whispered.
Does it matter? Get dressed. We’re gone.
The wolves pushed past him again, down the stairs and out the door. Trevor pulled on his clothes, a silent prayer on his lips. He ran out the front door to find Graeme already marshaling Mac and the rest of the team, trying to explain to them that the One True Mate was gone.
Trevor barreled into him without thought, grabbing him around the neck. “How do you know? Tell me before I kill you.”
Graeme’s face remained neutral. Troy told me as he ran around the house to the back.
Trevor shook his head and let go. So help him, if the dragen was lying Trevor would carve him up into little pieces.
Trent’s voice, from far away, but still clear in his head: We’ve got the scent. Head out to the main road.
“We’ve got the scent. Head out to the main road,” Graeme repeated. Trevor stared at him for only an instant, then ran for his truck.
Trevor reversed to the end of his driveway, cars scattering in front of him, but Mac’s flashy little car was in front of him. Trevor put the gas all the way to the floor, gaining on and then passing Mac and Graeme, only able to do so because the dirt road was rutted and potholed and Mac couldn’t gain any real speed while he had to swerve around them. Trevor sailed right over them.
On the main but quiet farm road, he took a left, pressing his truck to ninety mph in a few seconds, and still Mac overtook him, passing him on the left like he was sitting still, whooping like he was at a drag race and not facing the worst event to happen to wolven, and Trevor especially, since their females had all been killed.
Trevor growled in the empty cab as he pushed his truck faster. Light help him, he was not a weak pup anymore. If Khain hurt Ella, Trevor would kill him, whether it was possible or not.
A half-mile ahead of him, Mac’s brake lights flared and his car spun out as he tried to stop. Trevor slowed down, his eyes searching the side.
Trent and Troy waited, tails out, ears high. Trevor slammed on his brakes and skidded past them, then pulled to the side and got out, running back to his brothers.
The trail stops right here.
Stops?
It’s just gone. And we smell him. Khain.
Trevor moaned deep in his throat. How long ago?
Thirty, maybe forty minutes.
Mac’s car pulled up and Graeme and Mac got out, coming toward them. Trevor faced Graeme. “You have to open a hole to the Pravus. Just like you did before. I’m going over.”
Graeme looked positively sick as he said, “I can’t. Not for at least a day. It’s not something that comes easy to one dragen alone, and once I do it, I need a week to recover, get my strength back.”
Trevor launched himself at Graeme and fastened his fingers around the male’s neck for the second time that day.
“You do it now. I’m not asking and I don’t give a shit if you’re tired or not.”
The skin under Trevor’s hands changed, grew hot, then scaly, then he was in the air holding on to a dragon’s great, burning neck. One he couldn’t even get his arms completely around, much less his hands. His brothers and Mac jumped back and Trevor dropped to the ground.
So much for ordering a dragen around.
***
Wade held up his hands. “Enough. Everyone calm down. Stop talking.” The outroar and arguing in the room didn’t quiet at all.
He sighed. He was not a yeller. He bound everyone in the room, except Trevor and Trent, for just a moment, binding the dragen too, just to see if he could. He could, but only for a moment. Trevor realized he was the only one still yelling and he stopped, looking around, then sank onto the couch, his head in his hands.
Wade let everyone go, one at a time. Troy first, who’d been barking and howling, just to be in the fray, Beckett second, their transplant from Mississippi, Harlan, the only member of the KSRT to have ever had a mate, Crew, his own personal failing, Canyon and Timber, the computer geniuses who rarely came out of the tunnels, Jaggar, the half-wolven, half-felen mystery, Sebastian, their ruined half-breed, and Mac last, the resident hothead and playboy. Graeme had already wriggled free and was staring at him, offended. Wade gave him a supplicatory nod.
“Everyone listen to me. Graeme says he can’t get us over there for twenty-four hours. I say we use that time to plan our offensive. Nothing like this has ever been done before, and we need to have a strategy.”
“She’ll be dead in twenty-four hours,” Trevor said from the couch, his voice shaking in a way Wade had never heard before.
“She won’t,” Wade said. “He─” He didn’t finish that sentence. Trevor didn’t need to hear the rest of it.
Trevor stood up. “Crew, can you get a message to Khain for me.”
Wade swallowed as he watched Crew, afraid he knew where this was going. Crew stared at Trevor for a long time, his eyes turbulent. Finally, he nodded.
“Tell him he can have me. Tell him if he lets her go, I’ll give myself to him. I’ll hold my head up so he can cut my throat. Be sure to tell him of the two prophecies that involve me.”
The room exploded again, while Trent and Troy forced their way into all the minds in the room who could hear them.
No!
Absolutely not!
“You can’t do that!”
“You can’t trust him!”
As the voices heightened
and overlapped, even Mac chimed in. “We can fight him, boss. You don’t have to do that.”
Trevor only stared until they all stopped and fell silent, a single tear falling down his cheek. “You don’t understand. I love her. I can’t wait for twenty-four hours. I’ll never make it.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You don’t even need me, just her. She is already kindled with my young.”
He held his hands up and out and stared at them each in turn, Crew last. “You are a good team. The best of the best. I know you’ll find a way to take Khain down without me. Mac will lead you there. Listen to him, listen to your instincts, run with the moon every chance you get, and never give up.” He nodded at Crew. “Please.”
Crew nodded back solemnly, then slipped out of the room. The KSRT murmured among themselves.
“Wolven, could I have a few minutes alone with Trevor,” Wade said, nodding at Trent and Troy and telling them to come back in ten minutes.
Don’t let him, Troy said, while Trent only seemed resigned.
The males filed out of the room.
Wade sat down next to Trevor.
“Don’t try to talk me out of it.”
“I’m not. I won’t. But what makes you believe he’ll honor his word, if he agrees to such a thing.”
“If he doesn’t then I’ll fight.”
“Let us offer two males. Two have a better chance than one.”
Trevor shook his head. “He won’t take two. He’s not stupid. He’ll take me though. I know he is aware of the prophecies.”
“Maybe he won’t. Maybe he’ll be afraid that you could fulfill them both if he lets you into his home.”
Trevor didn’t say anything for a long time. “All we can do is ask,” he finally said.
Trent and Troy pushed their heads back into the room. “Come, come,” Wade said, and the two wolves swarmed Trevor pushing their heads under his big hands, climbing up onto the couch with him. Trevor put his arms around both his brothers and buried his face in Troy’s fur. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I love you both so much.”
The wolves whined deep in their throats and hung their heads as Trevor’s tears bathed their fur. Wade walked across the room, leaving the family alone.
Thirty minutes later, Crew returned, his short hair standing straight up in tufts, his skin yellow and his eyes blazing. He leaned against the doorway, a bit of quiet desperation apparent in his face. His voice was quiet. “It’s done. Be at the red wolf statue, alone, in an hour. He says Ella will be returned to the statue an hour after that. Says he’s got her sister and we can have her too.”
“Sister?” Trevor looked up, his face red, but his eyes dry. He shook his head and stood, the two wolves jumping to the floor.
Trevor walked across the room to Wade, holding out his hand. Wade pulled him into a wolf hug. “The Light will keep you.”
Trevor stepped back and nodded, his face constricted. “You have someone take care of Ella. I can’t pick. Crew maybe. Or Beckett. Anyone but Mac.”
“You come back to us and I won’t have to.”
Trevor squeezed Wade’s arm. “We’ll see. Have Trent or Troy send me a message when she’s safe. Have Crew send it if they can’t reach me. If I’m still─”
Wade could see in his face that Trevor was fully prepared to give his life for his mate.
He only wished it didn’t seem to be the only possible way to get her back.
Chapter 41
Trevor stared into the eyes of the statue of the red wolf on the side of the street and wondered what it thought of what he was doing. He’d driven out, alone, not knowing what Khain could or couldn’t track from his world. Trevor would not be playing games with Ella’s life. He’d made Wade swear no shiften would come within ten miles of the statue until they knew he was gone. He’d left his keys on the front seat of his truck. It would be Ella’s when he was dead.
A car raced by on its way to somewhere else, leaving the scent of exhaust in the air. Trevor ignored it.
The eyes of the red wolf sucked him in to some sort of a communion with it, and Trevor imagined he heard its words in his mind.
Your young will carry your line. You will fulfill your destiny through them.
Trevor tore his eyes away and looked to the sky. His young. He wished that he could see them. Wished that he could be around and teach them to shift, to hunt, to fight, to live, to love. But that was not to be his fate. He wondered if he would be able to see them from the Haven. Watch them grow.
A shimmer in the air to his left, behind the sign that read Welcome to Serenity caught his attention and he turned that way slowly.
A perfect oval, as tall as he was, had opened in the air itself. The edges of the oval were green with the forest that was visible behind the sign, but when his eye traveled inward, all he saw was the yellow dust and red fire of Khain’s world. This opening between the dimensions was nothing like the one Graeme had forced open. It was controlled. Easy. Simple.
He wondered if Khain would bring his body back to this world for Ella to bury. It didn’t matter. He walked toward the hole, lifted his right foot, and stepped inside.
***
Wade watched the felen in the chair opposite him arch her back and close her eyes. That meant something, he was sure of it. He fiddled with the pens on his desk, feeling impotent as hell since Trevor was alone, Ella was taken, and nobody could do a thing about it.
“Khain did not come over. He opened a portal only,” Kalista said, her eyes still closed. After a moment, she lifted her head and looked at him. “It is shut now.”
“Is Trevor through it?”
Kalista shook her head. “I cannot tell that.”
Wade took a deep breath. “Ok. We wait thirty minutes, then we head out there. Thank you for your help.” Light help them if they found only Trevor’s body and no Ella.
Kalista nodded to him and stood to go. Wade kept his eyes on his desk. As she slid out his door a knock sounded on the doorjamb.
He looked up. “Graeme, come in.”
Graeme did so, sitting in the chair Kalista had just vacated. His skin was sallow and his cheeks sunken. “I needed to talk to you.”
Wade nodded. “I can feel your confliction. It is not your fault. You cannot work outside the confines of your own biology.”
Graeme shook his head. “It’s nae that. I wanted to try something.”
“What?”
Graeme took a long shuddering breath. “Dragen work best in pairs or triplets. When my brothers were around, if we worked together we could open a portal to Khain’s world, to any world actually, with ease and precision, and none of us needed to rest for more than an hour after.”
Wade tapped his fingers against his chin. “There are other worlds than these?”
Graeme nodded grimly. “There are many, but all are different. Shiften do not belong in most.”
“Your brothers, they are─?”
Graeme waved a hand and the scent of hot cinnamon filtered over to Wade. He grimaced. He hated cinnamon, but he liked Graeme.
“They are gone. But perhaps I could utilize the help of some of your crew. It won’t be easy or pretty, but there are many who hold the glimmer of the ability. I would open the portal. I would like to try to find two others to help me strengthen my powers with their minds.”
Wade looked out the window, his mind turning it over. “And if you fail?”
“Then we have to wait longer until I can try again.”
Wade shifted in his seat. He knew what Graeme wanted to try. A rescue mission. A dangerous one. “How many could you get over there?”
“Six maximum, and that includes me.”
“How confident are you that you can do it?”
“It depends on who I have working with me. If I can test a few of your pack first, see what the landscape of their minds looks like, it would help me answer that question. It’s risky no matter what, working with someone new to me, new to the concept of crossing over, but I think we have to try
. That Lieutenant of yours needs bringing back.”
Wade knew it. “Do you have any suggestions?”
Graeme nodded and a smile spread over his face as if he was thinking of a shiften he liked. “Troy.”
“Troy?” Wade chuckled, surprised. That was the last name he expected to hear.
“He’s quick. He’s fluent in Ruhi, which is a dragen’s native tongue. He and I get along and affinity always helps. I think he can do it.”
“Good, anyone else?”
Graeme looked less sure about his next suggestion. “Crew?”
Wade put his hands on the desk in front of him. “Crew is strong, but possibly not completely stable after contacting Khain the way he did earlier. He might not be your best choice.”
Graeme nodded. “I was already thinking that.”
“What about me?”
Graeme shook his head quickly. “Citlali are always a bad idea. They have a hard time not taking over, and if you take over, the portal will be destroyed. I have tried before. No offense to you, it’s just never worked before and I don’t think we should risk it this time.”
Wade pressed his lips together, his mind running over everyone he could possibly offer. “Then may I suggest Trent.”
“The other brother?”
“Yes. He may not know you, but he and Troy have great affinity for each other. He is also strong in ruhi, and smart.”
Graeme stood. “Do you know where I can find them?”
Wade stood also. “I’ll take you there.”
Doing something, even a long shot, was far better than sitting in his chair and waiting to hear that his friend had been killed.
Chapter 42
Trevor looked around slowly, expecting an ambush that he would not defend against. But nothing. The entire place reeked of Khain, or maybe Khain reeked of the Pravus, but he was nowhere in sight. Trevor turned around, back to the portal he had stepped through, but it was gone. The only way now was forward.
The landscape weighed on him. Not one tree in sight. The dirt under his feet felt hard-packed and dead, nothing like the soft, springy earth of his world. Above him, a flat, sand-tan ceiling that looked so different from the gorgeous blue of his world, that Trevor felt like crying. Khain didn’t have to kill him. Just leave him in this empty world for too long and he would take his own life. Shiften were not meant to live in a place like the Pravus.
