by Lina Jubilee
These two were portal creators. And Xerxes had not only not locked the door, he’d let them walk right into our room.
The air crackled between them as their lips went thin, their eyes focused on the shifting light.
“Come on,” said Alarik, tugging on us both. He stopped right before charging through, causing both Roulette and me to stumble against his back. He didn’t flinch, though. “Thank you,” he said to both of the servants.
They nodded.
“Go,” Normak whispered.
Alarik tugged on us again and we went through, the air sizzling as we stepped from one dimension to another.
Chapter Fourteen
It took me a minute to recombobulate myself to my surroundings. Someone screamed and I turned to find a few people running through the parking lot we’d found ourselves in. One guy was pointing a phone in our direction and a girl beside him was typing furiously on her own.
We were in a grocery store parking lot. I blinked. We weren’t too far from Veras headquarters. I could even pick up some milk before we headed back.
I laughed out loud.
Roulette looked at me like I had a screw loose. “Right, so…” She patted her waist, but there weren’t pockets in these elven dresses. She stared at me. “Do your brain bond thing,” she said, glancing out over the crowd. “Before things get hairy and our own teams descend upon this place ready to blast us into oblivion.”
Right. The Nelian tracking apps. Wade must have been watching, must have been alerted to us by now.
Zander? I thought over the bond.
Alarik stood stock still beside me, clenching his fist at his side, as if struggling to stop himself from shooting his vines out as usual.
Roulette grabbed his arm and yanked him toward the sidewalk, and I followed suit. She looked much more herself now, less hopeless and more at home.
“Darlin’?” came Zander’s voice in my head. “Thank God. How? No, never mind—where? Where are you?”
Save ’n Buy, I told him, referring to the grocery store.
“Wade is—right. He caught that on his computers. Did you sneak along with elves on a Nelian attack?”
We are the attack—well, Roulette and I are back. We could use a ride.
“That’s my girl! Let me relay the news—”
“It’s fine,” shouted Roulette to a crowd of onlookers. “Nothing to see here.” She gestured like an air traffic controller. “Go about your business. Thanks.”
Alarik’s forehead wrinkled as he watched her.
Zander, I thought again, waiting for the update.
“We’re on our way,” he said. “Hang on, darlin’.” He sent a picture of me splayed before him on Jayden’s bed, my hands in embarrassing places. “Can’t stop thinking about you,” he added.
Blinking rapidly, I meant to explain the situation with Alarik as best I could when Zander projected himself right in front of Rou.
“Damn!” she said, a hand to her breast. “You scared me, Renegade.” She shifted into a fighting stance, though the form-hugging elvish dress gave her less room to stretch than usual. “What’s on the menu today, huh?”
“Relax,” said Zander’s projected form, smirking. “We’re on a temporary truce while we scrambled to find a way to bring the both of you back. We’re all on our way.”
His gaze fell on me—and Alarik beside me. His brow wrinkled. “You brought a prisoner? No… You brought him, didn’t you? The one you…”
“The elvish king,” I said, tossing my hair over my shoulder. “Or the former one…?” I looked to Alarik for confirmation.
He scowled a moment and nodded, cradling one elbow with his hand. “For the time being.”
Zander’s projected form laughed. “That’s a story that needs telling.” He turned over his shoulder. “But perhaps we should wait until we return to your headquarters.” He nodded at Roulette. “Ice-Blast is insisting I tell you he’s relieved you’re safe.”
She beamed, clasping her hands behind her back. “Tell him I can’t wait to squeeze those fine-ass butt cheeks.”
Zander’s lips clamped together as he gave a slight shake of his head. In the time it took him to zone out—probably communicating Roulette’s message—I grabbed Alarik’s hand.
“Darlin’,” said projection Zander. “We’re just around the corner. I—” His eyes darted to my hand in Alarik’s, then with a frown, he was gone.
The Veras van pulled up a moment later and Roulette didn’t hesitate to run toward the sliding door, jumping up into Darien’s arms before his hands even left the handle. He put his feet on the ground and hoisted her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist as she peppered him with kisses.
Zander stepped out after him, followed by Jayden. Wade waved from the driver’s seat. Nash was either still home or deep within the dark recesses of the van—and he didn’t come out. I remembered that Zander had told me his reaction to the fact that I’d slept with an elf hadn’t been… ideal.
Shifting to put myself somewhat between Alarik and the approaching men, I found him squeezing my hand gently and taking a step forward.
“What in the blazes is going on here?” asked Jayden, seemingly taking painstaking measures to keep his voice even. I tried to meet his gaze, but he pointedly refused to look my way, staring straight at Alarik.
Scoffing, Alarik dropped my hand to slip an arm around my waist and pull me against his side. “We won’t be parted,” he said, as though that even began to even approach the more important subjects at hand.
Roulette slipped down from around Darien and they both glanced over at us, frowns appearing on their faces.
Pushing myself slightly away from Alarik, I ignored Jayden’s pointed glare and settled on pleading with Zander. “Can we discuss this elsewhere?” I jutted my chin toward the onlookers. “We’re drawing a crowd.”
Something silent passed between Jayden and Zander—perhaps a conversation in their heads—and he nodded. “Okay,” Zander said, reaching forward to slide an arm through mine, ripping me completely free of Alarik’s grip. He leaned down to kiss me atop the head as he directed me toward the car. “You look stunning,” he said and I saw we caught Jayden’s eye at that, though he quickly turned to focus on the ground instead. “You’ll have to tell me how to get that slinky dress undone, though,” he purred directly into my ear, and a tingling shot up from the back of my neck to my cheeks.
There’d been no time to figure out how to get out of this dress—though I figured it went over the head like it had when Tianah had slipped it on. Roulette and I both sat around the conference room table in our elven attire, the place packed with Veras and Renegades alike. Lila shifting one leg over the other as she sat at the edge of Wade’s console kept drawing my attention, my brain urging me to flee from this room before it broke out into Natch-on-Natch fireworks.
Even if the four men who’d each taken a piece of my heart were all here, too.
Especially if, maybe.
Nash had given me a quiet hug as soon as we’d arrived, but when I’d opened my mouth to speak, he’d just put a finger to my lips and shook his head. “Not now, angel,” he said. “Give me a little time to process this.”
And that had been it. He leaned against the wall opposite me now, Chastity—looking much better after Roulette’s touch—beside him. She cracked her knuckles, her gaze pointedly on Torynt, who seemed to be amusing himself with a little tornado in his palm in the opposite corner.
Kouta was actually in our kitchen making dinner—despite the seriousness of the situation, despite the shaky alliance bringing us all together. Lila had sworn she’d fill him in and we wouldn’t regret letting him focus on food.
My growling stomach had to agree with her—we hadn’t even gotten to eat anything Tianah and Normak had brought for us.
Roulette finished speaking about what had happened to her since Darien’s departure—he’d filled the rest of the group in on what had happened before then—and fortunately, it hadn’t b
een much. She’d seen Xerxes acting like a substitute king. They’d provided her with a room, reminded her she had nowhere to run—and she’d obeyed, fearing the sickening touch of Xerxes’ power.
Alarik tried to speak to explain more about Xerxes, but Jayden had sent him a cutting glance to shut him up, which had caused Alarik’s hand on the table to clench into a fist as his lips grew thin. He looked to me, as if to ask permission to let loose with his powers.
As if.
I filled the group in on what had happened to me—skipping the details, acknowledging only that we’d needed his boosted powers to escape the cavern—and after explaining the rest, that brought us to this moment.
A disquieting silence fell over the room. Zander wouldn’t stop looking at me—Nash kept stealing glances—and Jayden pointedly stared at his white knuckles clutching the table’s edge.
“Nelia is beautiful,” I said then, surprising even myself. “It’s lush and symbiotic.”
Lila snorted. “You said there were giant, bloodthirsty warthogs.”
“Yes,” I admitted, nodding. “I didn’t at all feel like the dominant being there. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s… it’s beautiful.” My eyes met Alarik’s and for the first time since he’d sat down, his expression softened. “I understand where the Nelians are coming from, even if I don’t agree with it.”
“If they’re really just all clustered in one village smaller than our Podunk town,” said Torynt, closing his palm and letting the little tornado dissipate, “then I say the plan is we jump through one of these portals the next time these fuckers appear and see how they like it when Natches tear their shit up.” He rubbed his palms together gleefully.
“Torynt,” snapped Zander, sighing. “Not helping.”
But Alarik was already on his feet, Chastity at his side letting her crackling light color her fist.
“Stop!” I shouted, jumping to my own feet. Jayden had pointedly directed me away from sitting beside Alarik, so there was no way I’d reach him in time to stop either of them.
“Settle down,” said Jayden to Chastity first. “Our goal isn’t to decimate another civilization, even if they attacked first.”
“Typical Veras limp dick,” huffed Torynt, leaning back in his chair.
The mouthwatering scent of something cooking wafted into the room from down the hall and my stomach grumbled very audibly. Lila snickered as I retreated back to my chair. Alarik followed suit and Chastity backed up beside Nash, exchanging a quiet word in his ear. My mouth went dry as I sent him a silent plea to not act rashly.
“We won’t attack the Nelians on their planet,” said Jayden, and he looked at Zander, as if daring him to contradict him. “Unless they take more of us hostage again…” He turned pointedly to me.
Hostage. I was a hostage, even if…
I let out a deep breath.
“It’s a moot point regardless,” said Wade from his computer keyboard. I’d almost forgotten he was here, he’d been so quiet, but the screen behind him and Lila kept bringing up and closing windows, so he’d been hard at work on something the entire time. “I still can’t predict the portals’ appearances.”
“That’s because there’s nothing to foresee,” said Alarik, folding his arms over his chest. “There is no pattern to most of our appearances—we don’t care where we appear, so long as it’s here.” He nodded at me. “The time we appeared here, at your headquarters, the one exception. But that was difficult for the portal creators to pull off.”
“You needed to get in and out real fast to pull off that kidnapping, didn’t you?” snapped Nash, his lip trembling.
“We could wait until after we arrive on a scene and jump through the portal then,” said Chastity quietly. “Then conquer these would-be conquerors.”
Jayden stared at her as if she’d recommended we all split our guts then and there. A corner of Zander’s lips twitched and I didn’t need his voice in my head to know he was delighted Chastity was seeing the light of the Renegades’ more forceful ways.
“I prefer to think of them as the more practical ways, more likely to get fast results,” he purred to me over the bond. “Jayden’s having a fit, mind you—internally. In so many, many ways.”
Just slightly, I shook my head at Zander, silently telling him to not distract me just then, and rose to my feet once more.
“We don’t need to attack such a beautiful place,” I said. I gripped the silky-smooth material of my dress at both thighs and I had to flit my gaze away from Nash’s—then away from Zander’s—away from Alarik’s… They all proved too distracting.
Jayden swallowed visibly, but he was the one I needed most to convince. “Capture this Xerxes—end his rebellion. Then Alarik will step back into his role as king.”
Zander scoffed. “And this helps us how?” He gestured at Alarik beside him. “He’s the one who started the assaults on our city, isn’t he?”
This time I met Alarik’s gaze, pouring every ounce of determination I had into the action. “Because if Alarik resumes his throne, he’ll give up his quest,” I said. “If he ever wants me to willingly give myself to him again.”
I didn’t know how his lust for me stood in the face of an age-old goal his people had to turn our planet into an echo of theirs, but I had to hope I had some sort of power over him.
Alarik’s intense gaze met mine, a slight twitch in his jaw as he flipped his long, green hair over his shoulders. “Agreed,” he said.
And that caused the entire room to burst into argument.
Chapter Fifteen
After the meeting room settled, people broke off into groups to come up with strategies for what they knew about Xerxes. Wade insisted on Alarik staying behind to tell him everything he knew about the rogue elf—every little detail, starting from childhood. He input the information into his computer, running a program to determine strategies or something.
My strategy? Kick Xerxes’ butt and take him hostage. According to Alarik, Xerxes didn’t have the vine power at all. It was just that uncomfortable truth-telling thing, apparently. So without his followers, he was nothing.
Even if he brought Alanna with him, I was confident our fighters could take him out without their powers.
Alarik seemed less certain.
Exhausted, I left them to it and went to my room, intending to take a short nap.
I woke up, groggy, and finding it difficult to reorient myself for a moment. I’d collapsed on my bed, the elvish dress still on, the dried branches still in my hair. My fingers made them crinkle as I ran a hand through my knotted tangles. The bedroom light was even still on.
Fighting against the desire to just lay back down—I needed to know how long I’d been out and what had happened in the meantime—I leaned up on my haunches and searched for my phone on my beside table.
Right. Lost it somewhere downtown during Alarik’s assault… a day ago? Two days ago? Who knew at this point? I rubbed my eyes and stood, padding across the room to my shared closet to put on some of my own clothes.
Raised, muffled voices carried through the hallway, and the exchange, whatever it was, was tense.
Quickly tossing the dress over my hair and swapping it for sweats and a trainer’s jacket after putting on a sports bra and some boy shorts, I headed to the hallway, pulling at the branches in my hair as I made my way toward the sound.
Even the aroma of something new cooking—how long had I been asleep?—did little to deter me as I made my way to Jayden’s office, his door slightly ajar.
“Will you stop pretending I can’t fucking see inside your head and just tell me what this is really about already?” Zander. There was a coy stirring over our bond in my head at my recognition of his voice.
“You need to stop confusing impulses for some sort of indictment on character.” Jayden. “It’s a person’s actions and words that comprise who they are. Thoughts are irrelevant so long as a person is able to focus on what really matters.”
Zander scoffed a
t that and I felt the desire to turn tail and stay out of it. It shouldn’t have surprised me to come across the two of them arguing. It’d just been a while since they’d met to exchange verbal blows instead of physical ones.
I could have asked Nash for an update—or Roulette or Chastity. Anyone. But here was where my feet had taken me.
“Aurora, darlin’, come in here,” said Zander out loud, his voice raising a decibel.
Shit.
“Not ‘shit,’” said Zander over the bond. “Just get that sexy butt in here.”
Sighing, I pushed on the partially-open door and let myself in. Jayden leaned against the front of his desk, shuffling his feet and pushing his glasses up his nose, then crossing his arms and clutching his elbows a little too hard. His gaze was all over the place, too—though I didn’t know why. I was probably in the least revealing outfit I’d been in in days.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that,” said Jayden to Zander.
Do what, I didn’t know. Surprise him by sensing me nearby? Say something dirty in his head?
“Pretty much on the mark on both accounts, darlin’,” Zander said over the bond. He sent me a playful grin as he crossed his own arms and leaned back on the bookshelves he’d once slammed me against in our first throws of passion together.
“Only our first?” he asked over the bond. “I’m hurt. I seem to remember something wild passing between us at the first kiss.”
Clearing my throat, I took a seat on one of the chairs in front of Jayden’s desk, shifting it at an angle so it would face toward both of them. “How can I help you?” I said, folding my hands over my knee and preparing to get down to business—to go over anything I might have learned about Xerxes or Nelia or whatever we needed to get out of this mess.
“You don’t really think that’s why I called you in here, do you?” said Zander, and it took me a moment to realize he was talking out loud. He chuckled. “We’ve got Wade and everyone else on it.” His eyes flit to Jayden, who placed a hand on the edge of his desk and stared down at a paper weight beside his thigh. “No, we’d just reached the part of these little peace-while-at-war talks where it cycled back to one of the causes of our rift. As it always does.”
