by Salem Cross
I glanced at where Jasmine had sunk. I had to save her before she drowned. I squeezed my eyes shut as the pain in my chest began to make me dizzy. My legs gave out from under me, and I collapsed onto my back. Something was wrong. My heart felt hot, too hot. I tried gasping for air, but I couldn’t seem to get enough to draw into my lungs.
Rylan
If I had not seen the beast with my own eyes, I would have never believed it was possible that not only did a Kraken still exist, but that it lived in a freshwater lake in Canada. The questions of how it got there and what it was eating to survive would come later. My priority was Mae. The trees near the bank of the lake where Mae had collapsed were ablaze with violet flames. The flames blazed so hot that even the rocks on the shore were scorched
Rylan, Jasmine is unconscious in the water, Mae’s voice whispered in my head.
The fiery pain she was enduring did not stop her from trying to save the Guardian who had put her at risk in the first place. I could feel her pain as if it were my own. My anger from earlier dissolved as terror began to mount. I passed Mae’s information along to Arthur, who was following behind me. He could deal with Jasmine. Mae was my first priority.
I landed next to Mae, who was eerily still. Her face was pale and pulled taut with pain. My heartbeat quickened as I crouched down next to her. The sound of her heart struggling was a thing of horror. Her shallow breathing terrified me. Her body was going to shut down if I did not do something quickly. I picked her up and held her against my chest hoping the contact would help. The previous two times Mae had lost control her body was able to use the power that she stored within me. But this time nothing happened. My soul panicked while my mind raced with different solutions.
I looked up towards the violet blaze that was destroying the woods around us and immediately found my answer. I focused on the blaze and called it to me. The blaze died down and retreated as I drew her power from the woods and into me. Before it had a chance to settle within me, I redirected it back into Mae’s body. Almost instantly, I could feel the pain lessen. When the flames had all but gone out, I turned my attention to the lake and pulled what power was left in the water. I cycled it through me and back into Mae. She drew in a deep breath. By the time I had absorbed all of Mae’s power in the vicinity, she was breathing steadily, and her pain was all but gone. I heaved a sigh of relief.
Behind me, Arthur dropped from the sky, diving into the lake and disappearing under the surface. After what we had just witnessed, I hesitated to leave him here to possibly face another Kraken, so I waited. A minute went by before I felt Arthur reach out.
Rylan, mermaids have feasted on Jasmine, and the left half of her body is crushed. I need to get her back to the house, he said.
Mermaids? I repeated, shocked at his revelation.
Arthur resurfaced and shot up into the sky. He landed just a few feet away from me with Jasmine hanging limp in his arms. I could see chunks of muscle missing from her arms and legs.
“Mermaids,” Arthur confirmed out loud, his expression grim.
“Jasmine?” Mae groaned.
Her eyelids fluttered open, but her gaze was unfocused. My heart clenched painfully in my chest. Her body could not continue with this cycle of near depletion. She was weak and scarily pale.
“She will live,” I answered grimly, knowing that if I did not Mae would panic and it would slow down her recovery. A quick glance at Jasmine had me second guessing her condition. The blood pooling at Arthur’s feet was alarming and who knows how long she had been under water. There was no time to waste. We needed to get the women home.
I took to the sky and headed back to the house. During the jounery, Mae went limp in my arms. I looked down to see she had fainted. I held her tighter to my chest as sped across the sky.
Chapter Eleven
Rylan
If I had not seen the beast with my own eyes, I would have never believed it was possible that not only did a Kraken still exist, but that it lived in a freshwater lake in Canada. The questions of how it got there and what it was eating to survive would come later. My priority was Mae. The trees near the bank of the lake where Mae had collapsed were ablaze with violet flames. The flames blazed so hot that even the rocks on the shore were scorched
Rylan, Jasmine is unconscious in the water, Mae’s voice whispered in my head.
The fiery pain she was enduring did not stop her from trying to save the Guardian who had put her at risk in the first place. I could feel her pain as if it were my own. My anger from earlier dissolved as terror began to mount. I passed Mae’s information along to Arthur, who was following behind me. He could deal with Jasmine. Mae was my first priority.
I landed next to Mae, who was eerily still. Her face was pale and pulled taut with pain. My heartbeat quickened as I crouched down next to her. The sound of her heart struggling was a thing of horror. Her shallow breathing terrified me. Her body was going to shut down if I did not do something quickly. I picked her up and held her against my chest hoping the contact would help. The previous two times Mae had lost control her body was able to use the power that she stored within me. But this time nothing happened. My soul panicked while my mind raced with different solutions.
I looked up towards the violet blaze that was destroying the woods around us and immediately found my answer. I focused on the blaze and called it to me. The blaze died down and retreated as I drew her power from the woods and into me. Before it had a chance to settle within me, I redirected it back into Mae’s body. Almost instantly, I could feel the pain lessen. When the flames had all but gone out, I turned my attention to the lake and pulled what power was left in the water. I cycled it through me and back into Mae. She drew in a deep breath. By the time I had absorbed all of Mae’s power in the vicinity, she was breathing steadily, and her pain was all but gone. I heaved a sigh of relief.
Behind me, Arthur dropped from the sky, diving into the lake and disappearing under the surface. After what we had just witnessed, I hesitated to leave him here to possibly face another Kraken, so I waited. A minute went by before I felt Arthur reach out.
Rylan, mermaids have feasted on Jasmine, and the left half of her body is crushed. I need to get her back to the house, he said.
Mermaids? I repeated, shocked at his revelation.
Arthur resurfaced and shot up into the sky. He landed just a few feet away from me with Jasmine hanging limp in his arms. I could see chunks of muscle missing from her arms and legs.
“Mermaids,” Arthur confirmed out loud, his expression grim.
“Jasmine?” Mae groaned.
Her eyelids fluttered open, but her gaze was unfocused. My heart clenched painfully in my chest. Her body could not continue with this cycle of near depletion. She was weak and scarily pale.
“She will live,” I answered grimly, knowing that if I did not Mae would panic and it would slow down her recovery. A quick glance at Jasmine had me second guessing her condition. The blood pooling at Arthur’s feet was alarming and who knows how long she had been under water. There was no time to waste. We needed to get the women home.
I took to the sky and headed back to the house. During the jounery, Mae went limp in my arms. I looked down to see she had fainted. I held her tighter to my chest as sped across the sky.
***
Jasmine’s recovery was not an easy one. After I had wrapped bandages over the wounds that were too deep to heal instantly, Arthur had to rebreak bones that had already begun to heal to set them properly. I wanted to hate her. She had put my mate in danger again. But seeing a fellow warrior in this much pain mellowed my dark mood significantly. So instead of hating Jasmine, I put space between us.
I checked on Mae regularly. She lay unmoving in our bed. Her breathing and heart rate were normal, but her body remained cold and still. The day turned to night. When the next morning came and went and Mae had still not moved, panic began to set in. I warred with myself, wondering if I should wake her to make sure she was well. Her body needed t
o recover, but how long should I let her rest until I conceded that something was very wrong? The anxiety and fear in my chest turned to anger towards both women.
Jasmine knew I had not wanted them to go far. She knew the dangers that were present in the area and yet she’d still taken Mae deep into the woods. It did not matter if Jasmine’s theory had been proven correct. What was the cost of that information now? My mate lay unresponsive in bed while Jasmine’s injuries were so severe that it would take days for her to recover properly.
And Mae… She knew how I would feel about her leaving and yet she had gone off with Jasmine without a second thought. Once again, she had defied me despite our talk. Mae’s mounting terror had alerted me to the danger they were in. When I had left the house to find them both long gone, my heart had stopped. What if I had been too late?
Things were horribly wrong in Jasper National Park. There was no doubting that now. What made the situation worse was that my mate was somehow an important piece to correcting the wrong in the area. Mae was stuck right in the center of all of this mystery. She was in danger, and she failed to see it.
I paced through the house, too worked up to stay still. I could have lost Mae. The thought caused my heart to squeeze in agony. I could have lost her, and the last time we had spoken I had threatened and terrorized her. I had felt her shame, confusion, and anger, and still, I had walked away, leaving her there to teach her a lesson. The horrible, gut-churning guilt I felt slowly began to outweigh the anger that burned in me.
These emotions: anger, guilt, love, fear, they were too much. All of this was too new, too raw, too all-consuming. Separately, they were each hard to control, but the combination of all of them was suffocating. How did the other Guardians who had mates handle this? How did they manage to keep sane? Every decision before Mae had once seemed so cut and dry. Now, it was a struggle to think straight without always second-guessing myself.
I was on the other side of the house when I heard movement upstairs. The relief that rushed through me eased the tension in my body. I was up the stairs and in our bedroom in no time. I heard the shower running, and I walked automatically towards the sound. I reached for the doorknob to the bathroom only to find it locked. I paused, surprised by the small boundary she had placed between us. Even back in Salisbury, when we’d hardly known each other, she had never locked her doors.
Please, just leave me alone. The bleakness in her voice and the ghostly splash of fear doused the flames of my anger immediately. Was she… was she scared of me? The thought was sickening, and I recoiled from the door. No, that could not be right. Maybe she was feeling scared after the ordeal she’d gone through. Mae knew she could trust me to take care of her… Right?
I took a step back, away from the bathroom door trying to figure out what to do or what to say to ease the discomfort radiating from Mae. After a minute, I decided the best course of action was to wait until she got out of the shower. I could give her a moment to find her bearings. With a shaky sigh, I forced myself to leave the bedroom.
In the kitchen, I placed a salmon fillet in the oven and diced up some vegetables. Fifteen minutes passed before I heard Mae’s soft footsteps pad down the stairs. I found myself anxious to see her. Her health and well-being were more important than a lecture. I could scold her later. Right now, all I wanted was to wrap my arms around her and hold her to me.
A moment later, Mae rounded the corner and came to a stop just before entering the kitchen. She had donned a beautiful, loose white knitted sweater and leggings. She had kept her hair down to dry naturally, and her dark locks cascaded over her shoulder. Her face was pale which made the red in her eyes stand out. Had she been crying? Her expression was utterly neutral. I tried to figure out her emotions as they whirled around inside of me, but they were all muddled together and undistinguishable.
Instead of trying to figure it out on my own, I walked over to her with the intent of asking her how she felt. But as I reached out to touch her face, her whole body recoiled from me. The flash of fear in my gut that mirrored the expression on her face caused me to freeze. My hand hovered between us as surprise paralyzed me. Mae’s posture relaxed, but her beautiful, large brown eyes were cloaked with suspicion. My hand dropped to my side. My heart ached to connect with her.
“What is this Mae?” I had to figure this out. I could not allow whatever barrier Mae was building to solidify between us.
“The last time you touched me I was left feeling like shit.” Her tone held no infliction.
Anger I could handle. A passionate, heated discussion that would eventually lead to making up was something I looked forward to. That way we could both blow off steam. But this… this distance was not something I expected or knew how to handle. I floundered, trying to make her understand,
“I was disciplining you, Mae. Now you know—,”
“Now I know we are not equals,” she interrupted with a contemptuous wave of her hand. “Will you be dishing out my punishment before or after lunch today? I’d like to know so I can prepare myself.”
“Of course, we are equals,” I corrected immediately. “But your safety is the most important thing to me. You needed to learn that in order for me to keep you safe you must listen to me.”
Everything Mae was feeling intensified in my gut. Her brown eyes flashed with indignation, but her expression remained impassive. This coolness from Mae was alarming. I hated the thought that our last moment together could have been filled with strife, but I didn’t regret punishing her. It was for her own good.
“You know, my parents used to ground me for the same reason: to keep me safe and to teach me a lesson. I was not their equal, which is how they had the power over me to punish me. But you know what? I kept doing it. Yesterday, you asked me where I would escape to when I snuck out of the house, and I didn’t tell you.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “I’ve changed my mind. I’ll let you in on a little secret. In high school, a group of us from my MMA gym would sneak out to go help people who were in trouble that lived in the city. I didn’t care how beat up or bloodied I got. I was helping people, and that’s all that mattered.”
She paused, allowing what she had told me to process. Horror gripped my heart as her words seeped into my soul. I opened then shut my mouth.
Finally, when I found my voice, I asked in a strained whisper, “Are you telling me you went around trying to be some sort of vigilante?”
I recalled our conversation before boarding the plane to Salisbury about how she would lay hands on us if we tried to drink her blood. Then, on the plane she had shared with us her love of MMA and how she had trained throughout high school and college. There had also been that morning I had found her in my gym fighting the punching bag like an expert. It was all clicking into place.
“Call it whatever you want,” she replied with a shrug.
“You never told me about this before,” I accused.
I did not doubt that Mae had gone gallivanting around at night in a city full of crime to help others. She had spellbound herself to keep the general population around her safe. The agony she had endured and extreme lengths to which she had gone to make sure no one was harmed was beyond reasonable. I had seen her sacrifice herself to protect one of my employees back in Salisbury from being mauled to death by spider demons. I had watched in horror as she rushed to save Darla when Autumn had broken through the witch’s summoning circle. Mae was utterly selfless. The fact that she ran around with others to make sure where she lived was safe was not even in question, but how long had it gone on for?
“Of course, I haven’t told you yet! There’s probably a lot you don’t know about me. We’ve only known each other for what? Two and a half weeks now?” Mae exclaimed with exasperation. “I would still probably be doing it if my powers hadn’t emerged.”
A dark shadow passed over her face, and suddenly, a cool chill ran through our bond. She shook her head, and her expression shifted back to contempt. Something told me there was more to her story than she was
willing to share.
I opened my mouth to say something but shut it. Once again, I was at a loss for words. Mae was right. We had only known each other a few weeks. We were both learning how to navigate this relationship. I had my frustrations with my mate, and I had been daft to think my frustration was one-sided. Not only was Mae learning the workings of the supernatural world, but she was also learning how to be Mae again. Only a few weeks ago, this young woman used to hang her head in despair. She was used to a life of isolation and pain. But now I could see her gaining her confidence back. In our brief time together, she had gone from leaning on me for support to suddenly finding that she could stand on her own. As Mae’s confidence returned, as she learned how to harness her powers, I was beginning to see the real Mae.
“In any case,” Mae continued, “my parents thought they were keeping me safe by forcing me to stay home. But I kept going out because I did what I thought was right. The other day, I didn’t run and hide inside the house because there was no way I was going to let you face that thing by yourself. Even though I wasn’t much help, at least I never have to look back and wonder what would have been different if I hadn’t stepped in. Did I defy your command? Yeah, but I don’t regret trying to help you.
“Then yesterday I left with Jasmine knowing that it could be potentially dangerous and knowing that it would piss you off. But I went anyway because Jasmine had a theory about what’s going on in this park. This was the whole reason we came here, right? To see if there was any real threat? Well, there is and it goes beyond weirdly-behaving werewolves running around. I left to do some digging with Jasmine because I thought it was the right thing to do.
“So discipline me if you think that will help me listen to you, but I can assure you, it won’t. And know that each time you decide I need to be punished, I will despise you for it. I cannot and will not love someone who thinks I should be an obedient pet. If you want me to be your equal, to be your partner in all things, we can talk through our issues like a normal couple. You will not force me to bend to your will. In the meantime, while you decide what you want from me as your mate, we have something else we need to discuss. Not only am I staying here to help figure out what is going on, I also think it’s time we alert the other Guardians to what is going on here.”
