by Honor James
Chapter Fourteen
It took her a good four days to get back to feeling like herself, four days of her mates pampering and spoiling her rotten. They were actually pretty good at it. Case in point. Kristjan walked into the living room, where she was lounging, with a tray of food in hand.
“Lunch time,” he smiled at her. Moving closer he settled the tray across her lap and stepped back. Volker coming into the room with a glass of juice for her to drink with her meal.
When they both settled in beside her Luna grinned. “Heavens. The two of you are so good to me.” Leaning her head against Volker’s shoulder she smiled. “I love you two. I’m happy that you are both mine,” she said honestly.
“As we are happy you are ours,” Kris told her with a smile. “Now, eat woman. You need to rebuild your strength. And you know us well enough now to know that we are not going to let you get away without having a full meal.”
“Yes, yes I do.” So she ate. “Who said that I was going to want to go away anyway? The only thing that I want to be able to do is to get upstairs, naked, and into our bed. I think that four days of having you guys not loving me is far too long.” Dammit.
“Considering you started snoring the moment your head hit the pillow,” Volker murmured, “doesn’t exactly inspire either of us to do much of anything sexual with you.”
“Especially with the drooling,” Kris said.
“Right, the drooling, very unsexy.” Volker shook his head slowly.
Luna snorted on her drink. “Oh lord. The two of you are not allowed to make me laugh when I’m getting ready to take a drink. You big goobers.” She saw the looks on their faces and smiled even bigger. “I don’t drool.” At least she didn’t think that she did.
Volker grinned and shrugged slowly. Apparently he wasn’t going to tell her. She looked to Kris who was inspecting his nails with a smile on his face. No help there either. “Eat your meal in peace, we won’t bother you any more, for now,” Volker said with a chuckle. He stroked her cheek gently before leaning in to kiss her skin.
“That’s just evil.” She teased but leaned against him as she did so. “I don’t drool.” They were pulling her leg, she realized that now. “Even if I did the two of you would never bring it up. You would still kiss me every morning.” She just usually demanded to brush her teeth first. Something about icky-feeling mouth and kissing just didn’t mix.
“We will always kiss you in the morning,” Kris said with a chuckle. He leaned back against the other arm of the couch and played with a chunk of her hair. “You are damned sexy when you’re all soft and warm from sleep.”
“There is that.” She sighed happily. “I happen to love it when you both kiss me and do something more than kiss me in the mornings.” They were always so hard, so hot in the mornings and she loved it. A great deal.
He let his head fall back as he laughed. When he looked at her again he shook his head. “You’ve definitely let us know that, more than once as I remember.” Winking he slouched down on his part of the couch and rested his cheek to the back.
“This is very true. One thing that you never have to worry about is me telling you just what I think and when I think it. That’s one of the many things that I happen to love about being yours and having you as mine. That I’m able to always tell you just what I think and feel at any moment in time and you not getting all grumbly with me.”
“Doesn’t mean we aren’t,” Volker said quietly. “Grumbly I mean,” he added when she looked at him. “We do get grumbly from time to time, who doesn’t after all? But we know it’s not your fault and you’re not to blame for how we feel. It just is and we will never take any of it out on you, love.”
“Well at least you don’t get grumbly with me. At least not that I’ve seen so far so that makes me all kinds of happy.” As long as they didn’t get grumbly with her she likely would always say exactly what was on her mind at any given moment in time and that was something that she would always want to be able to give to them.
“We won’t,” he murmured. Pressing a kiss to her temple he sat back and pointed to her tray. “Eat,” he ordered. But with a smile as he leaned away to give her plenty of room. Then he too slouched down in his seat and kicked his boots up on the coffee table.
Right, eat. She was supposed to eat. Doing as she was told Luna ate right along with them, enjoying the time to simply relax and be with her men. When she was finished eating Luna leaned her head against Volker’s shoulder and smiled. “Now, food has been consumed. Now what?” she teased.
“Now,” he said. Kris moved the tray off her lap and onto the coffee table. Volker slipped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her close to him. “Now we can do whatever you’d like to do. We were thinking we should get out of the house for a while, go for a walk or something since you’ve been cooped up here for so long.”
“That would be wonderful!” She hadn’t realized just how much she wanted to get out of the house until that particular carrot was dangled before her face. “I think that a walk will be wonderful. Maybe out in the woods or perhaps around a lake?”
Her mates shared a look before she saw Kris nod. “We could take a picnic basket and head to one of the lakes. Do a walk around and then come back and sit to watch the sun set. The weather’s warm enough that we can stay out until the sun goes down. But you will need to bring extra layers, Luna. It will get chilly by the water.”
“I’m sure that I would have two big strong men who would be willing to keep me warm as well,” she teased with a grin. “Although I will bring layers anyway. A jacket and blanket and pillow too. That way if I want to lay back and nap I will be able to.”
“Good plan.” He nodded. “All right. Why don’t you go and get dressed for an outing. And,” he waved a hand toward her head. “You might what to tame that just a little. No need to scare the poor humans.” He got up, collected the tray and headed out of the room, whistling under his breath.
Volker snickered and gave her a squeeze. “It’s not that bad, not really.”
Luna cast a mischievous glare toward where Kris disappeared and then to Volker said, “I’ve half a mind to make it even worse than it is right now. I won’t though, simply because I don’t want people to look at me and be all crazy and wild and all that fun stuff.” Or at least people thinking she was crazy and wild.
“Given some of the hairstyles your people tend to favor, I doubt many would give it more than a second look if even that. But, it is ultimately up to you, darling.” He smiled. Hugging her closer he dropped a kiss on her nose. “Go and get ready, I’ll ensure that Kristjan puts some of the fruit you love into the basket.”
She snorted at that and waved at Volker. “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” she muttered as she walked away from him. When she finally made it to the bathroom she looked at herself in the mirror and was horrified. Holy smokes she really looked insane. Like right out of the padded white room with the hugging jackets that they wrapped you in insane. “Wow. No wonder he was cracking on my hair.”
“You do not look insane!” Volker called out from somewhere. Then he laughed, a little too loudly and with too much amusement. “Sexy as all get out though, absolutely!” he yelled.
“Ha! You are only saying that because you want to get into my pants later,” she yelled back to him and snickered. Only her Vhampire mate would hear that.
“Damned straight I do!” he yelled right back. A couple minutes later she heard a knock on the door. When she opened it he leaned in and kissed her. “I always want in your pants, babe. Now, later, tomorrow and every day after that. Know it and live with it, darling. You have one hell of a horny Vhampire for a mate.” He grinned.
“That is a very, very good thing because you have one hell of a horny Spiryte for a mate as well.” Luna would never ever turn down her men and they damn well knew it. “Now, go so that I can finish getting this hot mess that I call hair tamed and all that fun stuff. Go I will be down shortly.”
Laughing he dragged her close to
kiss her gently. “Hurry up. I think we’re all antsy to get out of here. And it’s a gorgeous day out there, the sun is shining, the breeze is minimal and damn it, hurry up woman!” He laughed again. Stepping back he made hurry up motions with his hands to before he bolted off to other parts of the house.
“Five minutes,” she told him with a laugh and pushed him out of the bathroom. Once she had her hair tamed she brushed her teeth and she was off. Walking into the hall Luna looked around and laughed. “Okay boys, where are you hiding?”
“Front door, come on!” Kristjan yelled. She could hear them talking and Kris laughed at something Volker said. Not that she managed to hear, they could talk really softly when they wanted to. “There you are, about time woman,” he grinned at her when she stepped out of the hall.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” she shouted. Standing before them now she moved to stand between them. “So, you going to tell me what the two of you were just whispering about? I would really love to know. If you wouldn’t mind?”
“We weren’t whispering,” he said, grinning. “Were we whispering, Volker?”
“Nope, definitely not whispering,” Volker grinned.
“See, no whispering going on here. Now, we were chatting at a volume so not to disturb you or the neighbors, but that’s it.” He nodded.
That had her laughing. “So you are saying that I talk in a way that makes the entire block able to hear me?” She didn’t believe that for one single cotton-picking moment. “And I still say that the two of you were whispering.”
“Nope, no whispering was going on.” He chuckled. “But I will say, you do have your loud moments.”
Volker helped her into her jacket and laughed. “She does, right when she climaxes. I’m pretty sure that the entire city knows that she just got what she wanted.”
“The state, at least,” Kris teased. Leaning in he kissed her gently. “Sexiest thing ever.”
Luna grinned, blushing as she shrugged. “Well come on, with two men as sexy as the two of you are, how can a woman not climax so hard that she screams? It would be a crying shame, criminal even, if the entire world didn’t know just how much the two of you pleasure me.”
Laughing he pulled her into a hug. “Damn fine answer.” He chuckled. “Come on, darling, let’s go and find ourselves a lake to lounge around for the afternoon.” Urging her out the door behind Volker, Kris paused to lock up and then ushered to her to the SUV.
“I think that sounds superb.” A happy sigh escaped Luna’s lips and she slipped her hand into Kris’s and gave it a squeeze. “Come on now. We have a lake to find and sun to enjoy.”
Volker opened the passenger door, but his attention wasn’t on hers and Kristjan’s antics. He shot her a quick smile when Kris helped her into the truck before following her inside. Then he moved around the hood, his eyes moving over everything beyond the vehicle.
“We good?” Kris asked when he finally joined them.
Starting the engine he nodded, slowly. “Yeah,” he murmured. He sounded distracted and not entirely sure of his answer. But he pulled out of the spot and started driving so whatever was bothering him mustn’t have been a huge concern.
Luna looked up at Volker and frowned. Slipping her hand into his she gave it a squeeze. “Hey, talk to us. If there is danger out there we can go back home. I don’t want to do anything stupid. Yes going out and spending time outside of the house sounds amazing but not at the cost of your safety.”
“It’s not danger,” he said. Shooting her a look he flipped his hand to lace his fingers with hers as he returned his attention to the road. “It’s—” He frowned. “I dunno. It’s really familiar and yet different.”
“What are you talking about?” Kris asked, looping an arm around her waist and giving her a squeeze.
“Every being, other and human, have a psychic flavor for a lack of a better term. Luna, you I can recognize a mile away, same with those I’ve worked with for a long time. For example, Kristjan, Byrne, Gavriel, the Captain, and several others you haven’t yet met. This.” He shook his head.
“It’s familiar but not right?” Kris asked, shrugging at her look. He looked as baffled.
“It’s definitely familiar but the flavor is off just a little. It’s like…” His expression went blank and then he yanked the wheel over and slammed on the brakes as they came to the curb. “Son of a fucking bitch. It’s your brothers,” he snarled.
She wouldn’t have been more surprised if he had hit her. “What?” she whispered in shock. “Why don’t I feel them?” She stretched her abilities, trying to feel for the flavor that was her brothers and hit a wall. “What in the ever loving name of hell?” she muttered. Looking to Volker she asked, “Can you track them down?” They weren’t safe out there, she knew it and they knew it.
Nodding he chewed on his lip as he looked around. “They’re about three miles from here, give or take.” He looked to her. “Do you want me to track them down? We can, but that means that we could expose them and potentially you as well.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted in shame. “I don’t know what would be best. Would it be better to have them under the same roof as us? If I recall correctly they were all three fierce fighters, but I don’t know if it would make us all more of a target, or better equipped for what might come?”
“There’s only two on this side of the Veil,” Kristjan reminded her softly. The third was still being held, against his will, as far as anyone could find out by those that had taken over her kingdom to get to her.
“Kristjan.” Volker shot him a dirty look. Then he glanced at her. “It’s your choice, babe. They are close, which means they may be looking for you now. The fact you aren’t picking them up means nothing. They could be able to pick you up. There may just be something they are doing to shield you from picking them up, some sort of safety measure. But if they are this close, and it’s only been the last couple of hours I’ve been sensing it, then they are heading our way.”
Chewing her lip she tried to make her choice and finally nodded. “We should meet them halfway. I want to see them. I really do. I want to know that they are safe. I want to see them again.” She had tears falling, ones that she couldn’t stop. “I miss them, so many years and its killing me to know that they did this for my own good.” The last four words she said using air quotes.
Kris hugged her closer and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Shh, baby,” he whispered softly.
Volker squeezed her hand and rubbed his thumb over her fingers. “All right,” he said finally. “I’ll aim us toward them and hopefully we find them at some point. It’s all a bunch of guesswork so bear with me if we seem to drive in circles.” Heaving a breath he eased them back out into traffic.
“Thank you, Volker,” Luna said with a smile. “I think that we will figure this all out, together. I think once we have them cornered as well we might be able to figure out everything that we need to do in order to ensure that we are able to finally get me and them free.”
“You are free, but I agree we need to figure out how to get their lives back. But if they even suggest taking you into hiding with them.” He growled. And it wasn’t the same one he gave her when they were naked. It was mean and scary sounding. Really scary sounding.
“Yeah it’s not going to happen. We all know it. I am not leaving the two of you, ever. Even when you have to go back to work we are going to have to figure out how in the heck to work out a way for me to be with you because I refuse to ever, ever give you up. Either of you. Not now and not ever. Period.”
“Good, because it wasn’t actually something that would ever happen,” Kris said. He hugged her to him and loosened his hold after a few minutes. “You are our mate. They are your brothers but they do not get a vote in your life. Unless you ask them for their opinion in which case we will listen. Maybe.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “However the only ones who get to make a decision in our lives is us. We will listen to their advice. We really will, but we
will not even come close to entertaining the thought of me leaving the two of you. Period.” She knew her mates would agree to that one hundred percent.
“Glad we’re all on the same page,” he said. Smiling he brushed back a piece of her hair and tucked it behind her ear. “At least we get to see some of the city given the route Volker’s taking us on.”
“If that’s the way that we have to go in order to get to my brothers then that is how we have to go.” She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed, it was a happy sigh though not a sad one. “I just really and truly hope that they will not run from us.”
“They won’t,” Volker muttered. He shot both her and Kris a look and shrugged. “They’re currently stationary wherever they are. I think they know that we’re coming to them, which is making finding them a hell of a lot easier. Not like having directions or anything, but definitely better than when they were moving.”
“Well that’s a good thing, right? That they know we are coming? Wait, does that mean that others could find us and them as easily if they were trying?” She certainly hoped not. It would be all kinds of bad, in her opinion.
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m attuned to your rhythm, vibrations, psychic scent or whatever you wish to call it. They know you as well and likely know that you are moving toward them. I don’t know if they are waiting to see if we reach them or if they are waiting so they avoid us. I honestly cannot say.”
“If they try to avoid us I will beat them when we finally pin them down. You two will hold them down for me, right?” she asked with a smile. “Don’t answer that, I know you will.” She spoke with utter assurance in her mates.
Kristjan chuckled softly and shook his head. Volker though barely had a twitch of his lips. But he was driving and trying to concentrate so she had to forgive him. He was slowing the truck, his head tipped to the side before he spun the wheel and turned down a side street. She had no clue where they were but it was a nice enough looking, if slightly trendy, part of the city.
