by Jaymin Eve
“Tenni clearly planned for this, but Josian is not gone.” Lallielle wasn’t falling apart. “I can’t contact him but the bond still exists.”
My eyes darted across her features, trying to ferret out whatever thoughts she was concealing. I felt a glimmer of hope shoot through me.
“So where could he be then? You’re his mate. Is there anywhere he could be hidden that you wouldn’t feel?”
“Like the dome on Nephilius,” Brace suggested.
Colton straightened. “Yes, the lalunas planned for this, probably knowing we would fight them. They stashed Josian somewhere and made sure the power containing him didn’t come from them.”
So where the hell was my father and how could we possibly find him?
Lallielle pulled her hand from mine. “The rest of you don’t have time. We have to beat the Seventine or there’s no point to all of this. I’ll find him. I’ll search the universe.”
Grantham stepped up to her side. “You’ll need me to open doorways. I think maybe we can use some of the power from the new Doreen princeps to try and find him. Princeps receive a distinct sort of energy from their people. Josian will have remnants of this.”
“I want to help.” My voice was a growl. “I promised Dad that we wouldn’t reform the melding bond, that he wouldn’t be a prisoner of those crazy lalunas.”
Brace and I had not had much choice. It had been reform the bond or die. But still, Josian had suffered from that decision. Sometimes you don’t have any good choices, but you still had a choice. And I had made the choice to reform that bond, so now I needed to clean it up.
Lucy hugged me. “You can’t, Abbs. The Seventine and lalunas can’t win. We need to find that last girl. We have to go to Earth like now.”
I huffed in hard, my lungs burning as if the very air was toxic. Which, considering all of the ash floating around, wasn’t farfetched.
“Okay, but I want to know everything you find,” I said to Grantham and Lallielle. “Check in with me or Brace. If there’s anything serious you might need the half-Walker power for, you have to let me know.”
Please don’t risk yourselves unnecessarily, I was mentally begging them, but didn’t say the words out loud. I swayed a little on my feet.
All of a sudden the blood loss, lack of sleep, stress over Josian and never ending emotionally trying moments were starting to take their toll.
Warmth draped across my shoulders. I blinked a few times, my thick lashes concealing the view for a moment. Brace had removed his long-sleeved ribbed shirt and draped the massive lengths around me. Leaving him in just a simple black shirt. I tried not to swoon or drool. The man was perfection, every single hard plane of him. Sigh, I was blessed to have him as my mate. He’d never had to give me a coat or anything before. This world just wasn’t cold, but right then he was as selfless and observant as ever. I had actually been feeling a little cold.
“We’ll start with the Doreen camp, and move on from there.” Grantham, in his warrior mode, drew my scattered attention. “We’ll find him, Aribella.”
“I’ll come to the Doreen camp.” I straightened, my hands reaching up to keep Brace’s shirt from falling free.
“No.”
The word was not loud or angry, but there was an unmovable strength to it which told me how serious Brace was.
“You need to rest. I could count on one hand the amount of sleep you’ve had in the past few days, and you have to go to Earth. Grantham and Lalli can handle this. The fighting hasn’t started yet.” He waved his hand across to the regimented chaos which surrounded us. “Take your rest while you can.”
I wrinkled my nose at him; our stare-off continued, neither of us bending, each wanting to control this situation. I knew Brace was right, but still … never hurt to push back. Give a man an inch and he would run a mile.
He grinned, reading my thoughts. “Please, baby.” He softened his words and I knew he’d spoken out loud so that everyone would know he had caved first. He was giving me the power.
I closed my eyes briefly, before sucking in a ragged breath. “Okay, I’ll rest for now.” I strode across to hug my mother hard. “Please let me know the moment you find anything. If I’m asleep, come into my dreams.”
She gave me an extra squeeze before pulling away. She ran a hand down my mass of curls. “Get some rest, sweetheart. I need to know that you and Sammy are okay. That lets me focus on finding Jos.”
I grinned. “Don’t you worry; I have my guard dog.” Cerberus shifted on my shoulder. “And my guard mate to keep me safe.”
As soon as I stepped away from Lallielle, Brace swept me into his arms, his shirt soft beneath me. Cerberus gave a barking growl before readjusting himself in the crook of my neck.
“I can walk,” I protested, but I wasn’t struggling very hard. It was too damn nice being in his arms.
“Indulge me,” he drawled. “I like to carry you.”
Colton stepped up next to us, Lucy’s hand firmly clutched in his much larger one. “Are you going to Abernath?”
Brace nodded. “I’m taking Abby to our home.”
I still got trills of tingles up and down my body, my actual blood heating at those words. Brace’s arms tightened as he felt my joy.
“Lucy needs sleep too. We might as well come with you and rest at our home.”
Lucy blinked a few times and then her beautiful blue eyes welled up. Colton’s expression was almost comical as he struggled to figure out what was wrong with his mate. If he stopped panicking for a moment I’m sure he’d read it in her mind.
“What’s wrong, pretty girl? What happened? Did you have a vision?”
Eventually Lucy pulled her hands free and fluttered up. When she and Colton were face to face, she kissed him. It shocked the words right out of his mouth. They both seemed lost in the moment, and the rest of us exchanged smiling glances. Except for Fury, who was still glaring at Crete, and Dune, who was watching his mate with an amused expression.
Finally they pulled apart.
“I’ve never had a home.” Lucy’s voice was soft, but we all had excellent hearing. “Abby and you are my home, but to have a place that’s ours …”
She trailed off as tears trickled down her porcelain skin. A tender half-smile crossed Colton’s lips.
He gathered his pixie into his arms. “I’ll give you anything you want, pretty girl. Everything is yours.”
Some of her tears dried up, and a scary grin crossed her features. “So you’re saying I have free rein to decorate?”
I snorted. Colton was in for it. But I had to give it to him. He never showed an ounce of apprehension.
“If you want me to, I’ll rebuild the entire damn thing for you.”
Lucy kissed him again.
I sighed. “This could go on for hours.”
My best friend managed to flip me off as well as continue kissing the love of her life.
Everyone dispersed. Fury and Dune took off to find the other half-Walkers – I promised I’d check in with everyone before taking off to Earth. Grantham and Lallielle went to the Doreen princeps, and the four of us – my very bestest friends – were heading to Abernath.
I was still in Brace’s arms. It always amazed me that he showed no strain despite the fact he’d been holding my weight for at least twenty minutes. We all entered the doorway, Lucy’s wings shimmering as she fluttered through.
As we exited on to the other side, the gravity hit me immediately. The strain was all encompassing, but thankfully my body seemed to adjust far quicker than the last time I had been there. It sort of felt as if my body contained a memory cell of that world.
Colton had coated Lucy in a thin layer of energy, even though they hoped that with her pixie and faerie genetics she would be able to cope now. But no one wanted to risk it.
I closed my eyes for the journey across the green cardboard copy mountains, under the stream and into the town of Abernath.
The noise was immediate and jarring on the other side. There see
med to be celebrations going on in the streets.
I was awake enough now to glance around. “Put me down. I want to see.” I struggled a little in Brace’s arms.
With a kiss on my nose, he dropped me to my feet. His long-sleeved shirt fell down, and I quickly scooped it up, one of my hands keeping a hold on Cerberus so he wouldn’t fall from my shoulder. The tiny hellhound had amazing balance.
Lucy danced a little as we continued to wander through. “What’s all this for?”
Colton laughed. “We’ve had celebrations galore ever since Caty and Lasandra returned. And, well, the return of our princeps’ melded mate tipped them right over the edge.”
I continued to look left and right. “Aren’t they worried with most of their men and warriors on First World to fight battles?”
“No, Que always had the men off on missions. The Abernaths are used to it,” Brace said, and I could feel his overriding need to change things on this world.
Many stopped their revelry to bow and greet us. We had more than one offer to join them, but sleep was what we needed most. I was dead on my feet.
“Where’s your home, Colt?” I found the energy to shift my chin up and to the right to meet his gaze. I wondered when they’d be leaving us. I didn’t want Lucy far away.
“Right next door,” he said, flashing me all those flawless white teeth.
Lucy and I exchanged delighted grins. That was perfect.
The pair had to leave us at the start of Brace’s spectacular home. Their residence was a slightly smaller but still opulent double-story home to the left of Brace’s. We made plans to have breakfast in the town in the morning. For a brief moment as we chatted in front of our houses, our lives felt so normal, as if this was how we would live if the destruction of this star-system weren’t imminent.
Brace stepped into my side. “Come on, Red, I’m failing as a mate at the moment. I’m not looking after you.”
I knew he wanted to sweep me into his arms again, so to make it easier on him I snuggled closer. Gave him a sense of supporting me. Plus there was nowhere in any of the worlds I’d rather be. Cerberus took that moment to jump off my shoulder. He lumbered off to frolic in the garden, having shifted back to horse-size.
“Do you think Josian is okay?” I asked Brace. My father had not been far from my thoughts. I was stressed and missing him like crazy.
He dropped a kiss onto the top of my head, his scent and warmth surrounding me. “Josian is one of the strongest Walkers I know. If he didn’t let his laluna beat him through all of these years, I doubt he has now.”
Slivers of hope threaded the dark thoughts in my mind. As we made it onto the front porch, I lingered for a few moments, just enjoying the familiar scent of the flowers.
Brace must have had similar thoughts. “I really loved that date we had on First World. Even though I didn’t remember our melding, it was still one of the best nights of my very long life.”
I sighed. “It was one of the best nights I’ve had too, despite how heartbreaking it was to know you couldn’t remember us.”
Brace’s eyes darkened, unspoken thoughts crossing the depths. “I wanted to kiss you all night. It took every ounce of my strength to hold back.”
Desire tingled its way from the tip of my head down to my toes, and suddenly I wasn’t that tired. “I hope that strength of will isn’t working at the moment, because you have exactly eight seconds to kiss me or shit will be getting real.”
Brace and I hadn’t been properly together since the melding bond had been broken, and right then the need was slamming into me with the force of a freight train. He must have read that desire blazing through my eyes, or my thoughts were giving it away, because he groaned and placed both hands under my arms.
Bringing us up to the same height, he slammed his lips into mine. It was firm, uncontrolled, and full of passion. My back hit the front door and for a few endless moments I was floating in ecstasy. My Walker could kiss like no one else, full lips moving, tongues dancing, tastes and scents flooding every sense.
Brace shifted his hands. One went under my butt to support my weight and the other tangled into my masses of curls.
Somehow he managed to open the door behind us. Considering both hands were busy, he had to have used energy.
I wrenched my lips from his, my breath huffing in and out. “Bedroom now.”
“Your wish, my command.” His serious chocolate eyes stared into mine. They were soft and shimmery in the dim light.
“Ahem.”
The clearing of a throat had my boiling blood go immediately to freezing. I bit my lip before burying my head into Brace’s chest.
“It’s your mother, isn’t it?” In my impassioned state I’d forgotten about Lasandra and Caty.
I’d had no time to ask Brace if his mother and sister were living with him. I knew that this had been Lasandra’s house, so there was every chance she still lived here.
Brace chuckled. “I’ll protect you.” He dropped me to my feet.
I was forced to turn and meet the icy eyes of my mate’s beautiful mother. She had her slender arms crossed over her chest as she stared me down. Of course, her gaze softened on her son.
“I’m sorry to intrude on your privacy, Brace, but I need to speak with you … alone.”
Tension filtered through Brace’s body and mind. He was upset that his mother was treating me so coldly, but I understood. He was her only son. She loved him more than life, and right then she didn’t know or trust me. I got it.
“Anything you need to say to me, Mom, can be said in front of Abby. She’s my melded mate. Even if I could keep anything from her, I don’t want to. We’re equal partners.”
Lasandra’s words cracked back at him like a whip. “She should have thought of that before breaking your heart and a sacred bond. If trust is so important between you two, why did she break yours so thoroughly?”
Ouch. I was way too tired to deal with this tonight. Angry mothers-in-law were really far down my list of priorities.
I reached up and gently rubbed my hand across Brace’s lower back. “It’s okay, I’m pretty exhausted. I’ll just let you two chat.”
His lips possessed mine again. It was not a show of dominance or an ‘eff you’ to his mother. I could feel that he simply needed to kiss me.
“Same room?” I asked.
He nodded and with one last soft kiss on the lips I turned to leave. “Goodnight, it was nice seeing you again.” I was polite to Lasandra. I knew and accepted that I deserved some of her ire.
“Good night.” Her reply was stiff, but still she replied.
Cerberus followed me into Brace’s room. He explored for a minute before finally curling up in the corner. He was asleep in an instant. My faithful puppy.
I stripped off my clothes and, too tired for a shower, just washed my face and brushed my teeth in the bathroom. I slipped on one of Brace’s shirts. It fell to mid-thigh and was soft and cozy.
Unconsciously I tuned into my mate for a brief moment. Brace had most of his thoughts open to me, but I didn’t pry any further. If it was important, he’d tell me later.
Crawling across the soft sheets, I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the fact that Josian was missing. Not to mention that the next day we were going to Earth, and war was about to erupt on First World.
Instead I called on Brace to help and, with a whisper of his energy and warmth surrounding me, I drifted off to my first peaceful sleep since the bond had been broken. The thought which calmed me the most was knowing that very soon Brace would be in this bed with me. I was no longer alone.
This realization gave me the sweetest dreams ever, something to get me through the coming dark days, because I had no doubt things were going to get worse before they got better.
Chapter 15
Brace
Lasandra relaxed the second Abigail disappeared from sight. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Brace, drawing her precious son closer.
Brace
pulled back.
“She’s not going anywhere.” His low tone was harsher than he’d normally use with Lasandra.
He loved his mother but would not tolerate her mistreatment of Abigail. Despite the fact his mate had been calm and polite, he’d seen the hurt in her jewel eyes. No one hurt Red on his watch.
“I don’t want to talk about your mate.” Lasandra’s full lips curled as she said the last word. “I need your help. I’ve been trying to figure out what happened to Que. I know the evil bastard didn’t die. I can still feel him.”
Brace straightened. He’d always had doubts that the Seventine could have actually destroyed his father, but as the months had moved past and Que failed to return, he’d started to accept this as truth. Now his mother had just reinstated all his original doubts with a single sentence. His parents had been mated, but it had never been a true Walker match. They’d not had the proper bond, although connections had existed between them.
“So what do you think happened to Que? Is he out there just biding his time until the convergence?”
Lasandra pushed back her blond hair. “There’s this chamber in his monstrosity of a house. He spoke of it, but never took me there. I know we’ll find our answers there, answers to so many things.”
Brace felt the hot ebb of anger flickering at the ends of his veins. “The experiment labs?”
For many years Que had talked about this room and the different creations he’d been trying to achieve. The evils he’d been prepared to unleash if anyone disobeyed him. But Brace had also never seen it. He’d had his men searching the glass monstrosity, but so far they’d turned up nothing.
Lasandra paled out. Even her lips barely held color. “Yes, and I think I’ve figured out how to get in there.”
Brace examined her. She looked determined, and he would take the time to see if her knowledge had uncovered what his men could not.
“Give me an hour. I want to check on Abbs and clean up a bit.” He needed to shower off the grime from the ash-filled dark mountain.
And, more importantly, he needed a few uninterrupted moments with his girl.
