by Susan Illene
“It’s not as easy as I thought.”
He ran his thumb over my bottom lip. “The best things never are.”
“I don’t think I can do this.”
“Why?”
I closed my eyes, wanting nothing more than to wrap my arms around him. “Because I don’t think I can survive it when I finally go home to my family and I have to leave you.”
“I’ve told you before that it doesn’t have to be one or the other,” he whispered into my ear.
“Visiting once every few months won’t be enough,” I argued.
The water stirred as he swam around me. Like a mare caught in the lustful gaze of a stallion, I couldn’t move. He came up from behind and wrapped his arms around my waist. The feeling of his hot skin against mine, contrasting with the cool water, was almost more than I could take. When the hard length of him brushed against my back, I jerked. It was all too easy to remember how he felt inside me.
“Don’t end this before it’s had a chance to begin, Bailey.”
His deep voice ran over me like the water surrounding us. There was nothing more in this world I wanted than to give into him—to give us a chance. “This can never work, and you know it.”
“Then perhaps one more night.” He nibbled at my neck.
My thighs clenched. He was going to take over my body, and I’d never be able to find myself again afterward. “If we do that, it won’t end there.”
He was like a drug that I could easily get addicted to. I knew it, and he knew it. Peeling his arms from around my waist, I swam away. It was one of the hardest things I ever did.
Chapter 16
Bailey
The next morning I woke up sore and stiff. My sleeping bag had some cushioning, but it could only do so much with a hard floor underneath, and I’d tossed and turned a lot. It hadn’t been easy walking away from Aidan the previous night—or rather, swimming away from him. There was a part of me that wanted nothing more than to give in to my feelings. Sure, I’d been the one to push for us to take a chance on each other a couple of months ago, but that was before I realized the full power of our attraction. Aidan could break the Richter scale when it came to the devastating impact he had on me.
Searching around the area we’d set aside for sleeping, I found the sleeping bags for Miles and Danae empty. All three shifters were fast asleep, though, and so was Conrad. A glance at my watch told me it was nine in the morning. Kade had said he wouldn’t be able to wake up before ten, and he’d need an hour after that before his aging body would be ready to do anything useful. I needed to ask Aidan exactly how old his uncle was since he appeared to be not much more than fifty. With shifters, appearances could be rather deceiving, though. Aidan looked like he was mid-twenties rather than two-hundred and fifteen. That was enough to make a girl feel young.
Being as quiet as possible, I slipped out of the room, carrying my boots to put them on at the main door. There was no point in disturbing the others when we wouldn’t be leaving for a while yet. I headed outside and found Danae and Miles sitting on a picnic bench. They had an array of snacks spread out on the table. I took a seat across from them, grabbed a granola bar, and started crunching on it.
“Hungry?” Danae asked, lifting a brow.
“Ever since I became a slayer, I have to eat something right away in the mornings, or I get cranky.” I shrugged.
Her expression turned thoughtful. “Probably your metabolism. Gotta feed all the strength and energy somehow.”
Miles pushed a thermos across the table toward me. “Coffee?”
“Where did you get this?” I asked, grabbing it like it was gold.
“Found some in the supplies and decided to make a pot.” He gestured toward the grill about five feet away. Now that I was paying attention, I noticed there was still a bit of smoke wafting from the wood he’d burned inside, and the pot he’d used to heat the coffee remained on top. My hunger must have gotten the better of me that I didn’t notice before.
I poured some coffee into the thermos cup and took a moment to revel in the taste. Earl made it about once a week, but I didn’t always make it over to his place to drink some. The damn man wouldn’t give me any to take back to Aidan’s lair, and whenever people offered gifts in exchange for me saving them from dragons, I never got coffee. Not even a near-death experience could make them give up the goods. I needed to see if I could work out a deal with Javier to get some because if anyone had a supply, it would be him.
“We are taking all of the coffee with us, even if we can’t squeeze anything else into the trucks,” I said, setting my empty cup down. “And I get half. You two can split the other half.”
“I don’t think so.” Danae whipped her arm across the table, taking the thermos away. I’d never seen her move that fast. Who knew she could be greedier about coffee than me?
I glowered at her. “Since I’m the one who has to fight any dragons we run into on this trip, I think that’s more than fair.”
“Two points.” She ticked off her fingers. “One, I’m the person who heals you guys when you get injured or sick, which can be just as rough on me to do. Two, you’ve got the shifters to help you. Who do I have?”
Damn, she did have a point, and I could hardly cut Miles out of the deal since he’d just given me some of his freshly-brewed coffee. “Fine, we can split it three ways.”
“Agreed.” She nodded.
I drank one more cup before heading off to brush my teeth and wash my face. Conrad got up soon after that, and the shifters a short while after him. We packed all our things—and the coffee—into the trucks, barely fitting everything inside the storage boxes. We weren’t going far so all three shifters rode with me. I was glad Aidan didn’t appear to be mad about last night, but another part of me wished he would get angry because then he’d keep his distance. Instead, he gave me a look that said the war wasn’t over yet. This was going to be a long day, and it had just started.
The humans in our group couldn’t sense the orb fragment, but the rest of us worked out that it had to be around Robbers Cave down the road. Miles led the way with the RV hauler since he knew the best way to get there, but Danae stayed with him to make sure we were on the right track. The road we took led us through campgrounds along the way, then narrowed toward the end of our journey. After about ten minutes, we arrived. The dark sensation from the orb felt stronger than ever, beating against my skull.
We left the trucks in a nearby visitor parking lot. I wanted to station someone with the vehicles, but Kade said not to worry about them for now, which was the same thing he’d told us last night when Miles suggested rotating guard shifts outside. I hoped he was right because we couldn’t afford to lose our stuff or the vehicles. It wasn’t easy trusting the shifter’s random predictions, but he had gotten us this far.
We hiked up the hill toward the cave. Since it had been a tourist spot, sidewalks and ramps had been built to reach it, but we bypassed those in favor of the direct route. Nearer the cave, there was a high wall of rocky outcroppings that went up at least a hundred feet by my estimates. A set of crude steps had been carved to get up there, but Miles waved me off from those. I couldn’t figure out why, considering I felt the orb was somewhere deep inside all the rock and much farther back.
He pointed at a small opening at the bottom of the rocky outcropping. “This is the cave.”
After the others peered inside, I took my turn and frowned. “That’s tiny. It can’t fit all of us even if we crouch down and scoot close together.”
“I thought it was kind of strange, too.” Miles shrugged. “This isn’t a big cave.”
Kade moved to the mouth of the opening. “This is the place. We must trust that the answers we are searching for will be inside.”
He ducked down and made his way into the interior. Unsure what else to do, I followed with Aidan close behind me. It only took the three of us to fill up most of the space, and I had to straddle a tiny stream running through the middle.
&nbs
p; “What now?” I asked.
“Check the walls,” Kade ordered.
I began feeling along them, though nothing screamed “touch this to open a secret passageway.”
“What about us?” Danae poked her head inside.
Kade held a hand up. “Wait there.”
I was glad he told her not to join us because the air was becoming too thick inside the cave, and it was becoming difficult to breathe. Another person would suck what was left of the oxygen out. I began to get light-headed as I scooted along, checking the walls. Stars appeared in front of my eyes and my body grew tingly.
“Is anyone else feeling strange?” My voice came out slurred.
“Yes,” Aidan hissed.
The next thing I knew everything went black.
***
My skull felt like someone had smashed something hard into it. For a moment, all I could do was lie on the cool stone and take deep breaths. It took a minute for the pain to subside to a dull ache. I opened my eyes and realized I wasn’t in the tiny cave I’d been in before. I shot up into a sitting position, wincing when a sharp jolt ran through my head. After it faded, I scanned the cavern and found everyone in our group except Miles and Kade. We’d somehow been transported into a large cave that was about forty-feet by fifty-feet and twenty feet high.
Aidan rose to his feet and looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. What happened?” I asked.
“I do not know.” He walked over and gave me a hand getting up. I ignored the way the touch of his palm felt against mine, letting go of him as soon as I could stand on my own.
“It’s like something knocked us out and moved us here,” I said, studying the gray stone that emitted a strange glow. At least the illumination allowed us to see without using flashlights.
“It was magic from the spell on this place.” He narrowed his gaze as he continued to look around. “I can feel we are even closer to the fragment now, but it’s still not quite…here.”
“That’s the same impression I’m getting,” I admitted. The longer I stood in the cavern, the less the orb fragment’s presence bothered me, and yet I still knew it was close—as in almost right there.
“Whoa,” Conrad said, sitting up. “What the hell just happened?”
Danae and Phoebe rose to their feet, looking around with bewildered expressions.
“You have each been chosen to be tested,” a voice said from across the room.
An older man, wearing a light beige robe and sandals appeared. He had short, gray hair, haggard skin, and tired eyes. I was ninety-nine percent certain he had not been standing there a minute ago.
“Who are you?” I demanded.
His dark eyes narrowed on me. “Perhaps, the better question is who are you, and do you have the right to be here?”
“I was asked to come,” I said. This situation was getting more confusing by the moment.
“That does not make you welcome,” the imperious man said. He would have fit right in during the ancient Roman Empire as a senator. There was so much power lurking in his gaze, and he held himself regally. Of course, the robe added to the effect.
“Then why bring me and my friends into this cave?” I gestured at the others.
“As I said before—to test you.”
“This guy is a real fountain of knowledge,” Conrad muttered.
“You!” The old man pointed at him. “Have the least reason of all to be here. I can sense your displeasure at being given this task.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Conrad took a few steps closer toward the man, clenching his fists. “And you still didn’t say who you are.”
“I am Savion, and all will be revealed in time.”
“What sort of test would you have us take?” Aidan asked, coming to stand in front of our group. We’d steadily been inching closer together, though I hadn’t realized it until now.
“Your worthiness,” Savion answered.
He held out a hand, and a spark of energy shot from it. I followed the burst of light to the far side of the room where a pedestal appeared. On it, there were five red stones about the size of marbles. Savion didn’t have to instruct us. Instinctively, we all went over and took a stone into our hands before turning around to face him.
“And now, the test will begin,” he announced.
Chapter 17
Aidan
Savion lifted his hands and the air thickened. With a twitch of his fingers, an invisible force swept through the room, dragging the five of them across the stone floor. Aidan dug in his heals, but it was no use. They stopped in a circle facing each other. A second later a weight came down, pushing them to the floor. Each of them sat with pained expressions on their faces.
The beast within Aidan growled. He did not like the way the old man controlled them so easily, but they had no choice. This was part of the journey. Kade had said their patience and willingness to complete the quest would be tested. Aidan needed to remember that—no matter how uncomfortable these trials made him. He only regretted that Bailey must suffer through this as well. Glancing over at her, he could see the strain on her face. Was it not enough that he’d caused her to stay in a dungeon cell for several days? It was no wonder she rejected his advances. Aidan had only made her life more difficult since the moment she met him, but he could also make it easier if she allowed it. He knew that he could.
“The five of you have been chosen to recover the orb and make it whole again, assuming you pass the trials,” Savion said, meeting each of their gazes. “It must be all of you. If even one individual fails, you all fail.”
Aidan found his voice. “We heard there is a chance someone else could get to it first.”
“That is true.” Savion nodded. “There are dark forces out there scheming to circumvent the orb’s safeguards, but they are not strong enough yet. This is why you must do so quickly before it is too late—if you can.”
“Alright, man, we get it. Quit beating around the bush and just tell us what to do with these stones,” Conrad said, holding his up. “And do we get to keep them afterward? My girl likes red ones.”
Savion gave Conrad an annoyed look. “They are not for decorative purposes. You must speak your truth into them, for that is the only thing that will free you from this place.”
Aidan tensed. “Do you mean to say if we do not pass the test then we cannot leave?”
The old man nodded. “Precisely.”
Everyone tensed, glancing worriedly at each other. Kade had not mentioned anything about these trials having permanent consequences if they failed—other than the obvious problem of the orb getting into the wrong hands. Had he intentionally left that part out? And had he known all along he wouldn’t be selected? If Aidan survived this, he and his uncle would be having a long talk.
Phoebe spoke up, “What truth do we need to tell?”
“The one you do not wish the others to know.” Savion’s figure faded a degree, becoming ghostly. “Only when your stone has turned clear have you said all you need to say. After they are all clear, the next phase will begin.”
“The next phase?” Phoebe asked, but it was too late. The old man had disappeared.
“Man, this is like a drinking game without the drinking,” Conrad said, giving his stone a disgusted look.
“Perhaps you should go first and get it over with,” Aidan suggested.
Conrad drew his brows together. “I ain’t got nothin’ secret to tell. What you see is what you get.”
“I know I would like to hear why you stay by Bailey’s side the way you do.” Aidan leaned forward. “No man stays that close to a woman he doesn’t have some feelings for.”
Bailey made a noise of frustration. “I told you there’s nothing between us.”
“She’s got that right.” Conrad nodded. “I got me a nice girl already. I ain’t sayin’ I’m an angel in disguise, but I’m not no player, either.”
“Player?” Phoebe asked.
“A guy who goes
around sleeping with a lot of different women,” Bailey explained.
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Shifters play around a lot when they are young and only commit when they find the one they truly love. What is the harm in that?”
“Um.” Bailey frowned, glancing at Aidan with a question in her eyes. “That’s…interesting.”
“Tell us why,” Aidan demanded of Conrad. The last thing they needed was to get into a conversation about shifter mating habits. That could be discussed another time.
Conrad opened his mouth and closed it. “It’s kinda hard to explain. I guess it started when she offered to take me home to my grandma. Here was this girl I hardly knew at all willin’ to ride with me across the state border, no questions asked. All my life, I’ve been moving back and forth from my parents—wherever they were stationed—to my grandma’s house, but never really found any…” He paused and swallowed. “…good friends. She’s had my back from day one, and I try to do the same for her. That’s all there is to it.”
His stone was still red.
Phoebe gestured at it. “There has to be more you aren’t saying. Savion told us that we have to reveal something we don’t want anyone else to know.”
“Well, there’s something else, but it ain’t what Aidan asked.” Conrad rubbed at a smudge on his boot.
Bailey frowned. “What is it?”
A full minute passed before he looked up. “It’s about Christine.”
“Okay, and…” she prompted.
“Well, we’ve been gettin’ serious these past couple of months, and she doesn’t like me being around you. I think she’s either worried I’ll get hurt, or she’s jealous like Aidan.”
“I’m not jealous,” he said, even though he knew it was a lie.
Phoebe let out a snort. “Even I can see how you get around the slayer, brother. Don’t try to deny it.”
Bailey held a hand up, still staring at Conrad. “You mean Christine wants you to stop going out hunting with me?”
