by C. L. Quinn
Hearing that voice again for the first time in almost a year, Will turned to the woman who spoke.
The last time they’d been together had been under circumstances that he still had trouble believing.
Will and a rag-tag group of supernaturals and humans had faced a devastating battle, the end of life on a massive scale, prevented it, came back victorious, bruised, bloodied, but not beaten, and then parted to return to lives interrupted with little idea how to do it.
He searched the young woman who stood beside him now, confident, smiling. She looked good.
“Scottie. Damn. You look happy, girl.”
Never one to initiate physical contact, Will found himself reaching for her and pulled her into a loose hug. Scottie returned the embrace by pulling him closer, tears in her eyes.
“I am. More than I ever thought possible. This land has become a part of me and I think I’ve become a part of it.”
“Won’t be returning to New York?”
“The concrete jungle? No. Now that we’ve activated our powers, I doubt any of us can go back to our old lives. Have you?”
A shake of his head answered Scottie’s question. Will lifted his eyes to the scarlets now streaking across the wide sky. “No. I’ve been unsettled since Yellowstone. That’s why when Ife called, I didn’t hesitate. I felt a strong pull to be with you guys again. I can’t describe it, but…”
“You felt incomplete?”
Will looked back into Scottie’s eyes. “I guess. Maybe this is where I belong.”
Scottie lifted a hand to push back a heavy swath of hair that had fallen over Will’s face. “Earth man, you absolutely do. Chione reminded us before we split up that, even when we went back to our lives, we will always be connected. Hey, you gotta be tired and hungry. Come on in and we’ll get some food in you. Ife has a superb chef.”
“God, yes.”
They watched in silence as the departing sun left a navy sky fading quickly to black. Will was accustomed to pitch dark skies and the Milky Way-patterned skyscape in the southwestern deserts of Arizona, but it was different this far south.
Reaching for him, Scottie wrapped both arms around Will’s right arm to draw him into the large building.
“Come, the others can’t wait to see you. Especially Caed. He’s outnumbered by chicks and sometimes it makes him nervous.”
As they passed sliding doors, Will looked around, and smiled. He wasn’t shocked to see that the unassuming warehouse hid a huge high-ceiling semi-circular room filled with large plush furniture in natural shades, the walls clad in local grasses weaved into leaf-like patterns. The décor and open spaces had been designed to feel as if the outdoor continued inside. Coming off each side of the semi-circle were heavy doors that he knew would lead to each member’s private rooms.
One of the doors opened just as they entered, and the ethereally lovely Ife walked out, scrolling through a small tablet in her hand. She looked hurried until she glanced up to her right and saw Scottie leading Will toward her.
“Willoughby, you’re here!” Always quiet and reserved, Ife’s exuberance showed him how grateful she was that he had actually come to help her and her team re-populate this irreplaceable rain forest.
She glided forward, her movement silent and elegant as only a first blood vampire could do.
Scottie released Will as Ife, less uninhibited than Scottie, gently took his hands with an easy smile, her pale eyes sparkling. “This means so much to Brazil. Will, your magics are the final piece we need to resurrect what has been lost and to recreate this forest. Please, we are just to begin first meal. You must be famished.”
“Yup. Especially since you vampires eat so well. I hope you have enough.”
“My darling traveler, I suspect we do.” Ife laughed and moved her eyes to Scottie.
“Would you mind taking Will to his chambers, then bring him to the dining room when he is settled in?”
“Sure, Boss.”
“Scottie, how many times…”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t call you boss, I get it. But you are. Kinda.”
“We are all equal. I am merely the one who guides this effort.”
Scottie grinned. “’Cause you’re the boss.”
Ife sighed and looked back up to Will. “She’s untrainable. I’ll see you soon.”
Once settled in a bedroom at least four times larger than his cabin in the desert, more like a suite with a big sitting room and vidscreen, Will followed a chatty Scottie through a corridor that held native plants, past a big gaming room, and into the dining room. Voices floating through the doorway let him know they weren’t the first to arrive.
Ife was already seated at a round table in the center of the room, large enough to have pleased King Arthur. Trays filled with towering food faced the diners. She looked up as he entered.
“Will, come, have a seat next to me.”
Scottie pushed him toward her. “Teacher’s pet.”
At a buffet table near the back of the dining area, Crezia and Caedmon turned when Ife called out.
Caedmon, shaking his head, surged forward.
“Oh, thank the gods! Another male!”
“Is that a complaint?” Crezia chided as she reached Will first and hugged him. “Welcome to the sweat box, Will.”
“Thank you. I’m happy to help.”
A loud yawn drew everyone’s attention to the entrance where a swiftly moving young woman breezed past everyone and headed straight for the coffee.
“Caffeine please. Oh, please.”
Another pleasant surprise. Smiling, Will moved toward her. “Dani.”
Dani, a steaming cup in her hand, turned to the voice behind her, sleepy eyes squinting. “Will?”
Accepting an embrace from the big man, Dani held the cup out to her side. “Will. What are you doing here?”
Pleased to see another earth warrior that he’d trained with in Africa and fought beside in Yellowstone, Will shrugged. “I think the same thing you are.”
“To party like there’s no tomorrow?”
Laughing, he stepped back so she could take a sip of the coffee she’d sought in desperation. “Okay, maybe not the same thing. I’m here to help with the restoration.”
“Oh. Cool. I’m here to visit Scottie and get a little R & R before I begin working with Cari’s crew. It’s, um…” Dani shook her head, glanced at Scottie, then looked back up into Will’s amused eyes. “It’s pretty frantic around here. Kind of wild. Have you ever met Dez and her gang?”
A quick shake of his head answered Dani while she took a longer sip of the coffee.
“Oh, it’s a gas. You’ll love it. Hot men and women, endless drinking, music, games, just a freaking amazing good time. But it’ll wear you out. I’m more exhausted than I was after the big battle last year.”
Scottie pushed in to pull Will back to his table.
“Get something to eat, my friend. Dani’s just a lightweight when it comes to all-night partying. I’m training her, though.”
“Ugh. I hope I survive.” Dani grinned. “Although if I don’t, I’ll die with a smile on my face. And then, Will, there’s the mystery.”
Seated now, Will looked up as he filled a plate with bacon and eggs. “What mystery?”
Crossing to the table, Dani snatched a slice of bacon from his plate. “Ife hasn’t revealed it yet. Ask her. See if she’ll tell you.”
Dani lifted her voice. “I love a good mystery, but I’m dying to know more about it.” She leaned across the table, staring at Ife. “Tell us?”
“Now that Will’s arrived, I can. After first meal, everyone, we’ll gather in the lounge. Yes, something quite interesting is going on. Now, eat, enjoy, and then we’ll meet and I’ll tell you what it is.”
“At last.” Dani dropped into the seat next to Will and began to fill her own plate. “You look good. We need to catch up.”
He shrugged. “Not much to tell. My life is pretty much back to ordinary.”
“That’s about
to change,” Scottie announced.
Over an hour later, a group of 14 blood-bonds that worked with the vampires, Dani, Scottie, and Will had taken seats in the high-ceilinged lounge he’d first seen when he came into the building.
Dani looked down at Will, sprawled on a teddy-bear brown sofa, a hand on his gut. “Oh, boy. I remember my brother and half a dozen steaks not long after we came to Colorado. It wasn’t pretty. That’s a complication of living with vampires, they can eat ten times what we can, and never suffer or gain weight. Yet we still overdo.”
Will groaned. “Worth every pang, though. I’ve had days when I get ready to hit my bed and realize I haven’t eaten.”
Watching the huge man with deep roots to the earth, Dani wondered how well he was adjusting to the new life thrust upon them all this past year. She had the support of her brother and the close bonds she’d built with Cairine and her friends in Colorado. Her innate ability to intuit people’s truths let her know that he was unsettled. Coming here to this family that Ife had built might be exactly what he needed.
Reaching for Will, Dani slid her fingers along his shoulder and down to rest on his wrist. “This should be interesting. I think you’re going to enjoy your time here.”
Nodding, Will watched Dani. He’d only had a minimal relationship with her before now. Once they’d finished their mission at Yellowstone, he’d left without delay. His eyes moved over her face, lovely, with perhaps one of the most engaging smiles he’d ever seen. Her wild hair, longer than it had been when he’d seen her last, created a curly halo around smooth chocolate skin and eyes he’d learned could see past the surface and into the depths below. He sensed in her a genuine concern for him, a need to connect with him as a friend and compatriot.
Without forethought, he lifted a hand and caressed the back of hers as it lay on his other wrist. “I hope so. I needed…something.”
“I feel that when I touch you. If you need to talk, anything, while you’re here, just come to me.”
“I will.”
Their eyes locked until Ife and others surged into the room. Voice levels rose while the new arrivals found seats until Ife spoke.
“So, our little mystery.” She settled into a high padded chair, one leg drawn beneath her. “Two weeks ago, Crezia, Scottie, and I were in an area we call Section 12, a garden filled with native flowers we’ve replanted. Most of the varieties were nearly extinct. Luckily, we’ve been successful in reintroducing them and they are flourishing. Caedmon was helping me carry a new sprayer that we planned to use to supply natural nutrients.”
Caedmon laughed. “I’m the Back.”
“And a beautiful one.” Crezia rubbed his back, fingers spread, to punctuate her point.
“We couldn’t do without you,” Ife continued. “So this is what happened that day.”
Two weeks ago
“Ife, is this where you want this?” Caedmon asked, anxious to drop the heavy container. He might be vampire and strong, but not only was it heavy, but it was bulky and awkward. Grateful when Ife called out with an affirmative answer, he lowered it, as carefully as he could, and lifted up to rub his shoulders.
“Anything else I can help with?”
Crezia, already on her knees checking the roots of their newest seedlings, looked up. “Not right now, my love.”
“’Kay. I’ll be nearby if you do.”
Scottie drew Crezia’s attention back to the ground, and, his eyes on the three busy women, Caedmon turned to search the gardens and wandered away when he noticed large rock formations some distance away. Curious, he glanced back as all three women, on the ground, examined the health of the new plants. They wouldn’t miss him, so he headed toward the boulders.
“This row looks stressed.” Ife lifted a seedling from its roots and showed it to Scottie and Crezia.
“They do. We’ll use the nutrients we just brought here, then Scottie and I will give them a power boost.” Taking the seedling from Ife, Crezia examined it, and reached for a tool to poke a hole in the ground to replant it.
Ife began to rise when Crezia looked up abruptly into Ife’s eyes.
Calmly, Crezia shifted her gaze to Scottie and then back to Ife. “Caedmon fell into the earth.”
The comment was so bizarre, Scottie and Ife didn’t respond right away. A second later, Ife dropped back down to face Crezia. “What do you mean? Is he hurt?”
Crezia shook her head. “He’s fine, but we’d better go check on him. He can’t get out.”
“Of course,” Scottie agreed. Reaching for hand-held LED torches, she passed one to Ife and had to run to catch up with Crezia, who had already taken off.
Ife worked to keep up with Crezia, and although she was moving fast, she didn’t break into air displacement. “Zia, where is he?”
“I’m not sure. Our connection is strong, we can communicate psychically through distances, but sometimes I can’t get details. I know he wasn’t injured or in danger, there isn’t any panic or pain.”
The three women followed a crooked path through several of their planting projects toward an increasing amount of huge boulders and a solid rock cliff.
Half an hour later, weaving through several large upright stones, Crezia came to a stop on the far side of where they’d entered. Pausing, after searching through numerous walls of rock, she pushed through a narrow slit between two of the largest formations.
Scottie shrugged and followed, Ife right behind.
“Down there.” Crezia pointed to a fresh break in the ground, a dark hole, widened from where it had been disturbed.
“He’s in there?” Ife asked, and Crezia nodded.
“How deep is it?”
“I don’t know. Too deep to jump out or he would have instead of letting me know he was in trouble.”
Scottie moved closer and looked into the hole, so dark she could see nothing beyond. “How do we get him out?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Can you speak with him?”
“Not exactly. Our communication is more sense than words. It’s tough to explain.”
Suddenly, she grinned. “He’s exploring. He can’t see much, but he thinks it’s enormous.”
By now, Scottie leaned over the opening, squinting.
“The locals make rope ladders. Long ones. They might do the job.”
“Of course!” Ife exclaimed. “Scottie…”
“On it.”
Scottie was gone immediately as Crezia leaned over the broken earth at the edge of the hole. “I’m going in.”
Ife sighed and nodded. “I’m not surprised, but Zia, are you sure it’s safe?”
“It’s safe. Caed has traveled some distance into the opening. With my help, we can create light balls and see what he has found. “Just…get those rope ladders, Ife.”
“We will. You have your fone?”
“I do. See you soon.” Crezia stopped to smile to her friend. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”
“We’ll see once we know why the earth gave way here, and what’s underneath us.”
“I think the Mother Earth is in a generous mood. I don’t know exactly what Caed is seeing down there, but he’s feeling something kind of intense.”
“Send me a Vtex when you create light and see the space. Gods, I am curious, but be careful, Zia.”
With a last nod, the LED torch secured against her, she took a deep breath and dropped blind into the opening, aware that the bottom would come up fast and that she’d hit hard.
Watching from above, worried in spite of Crezia’s assurance, Ife heard the distant thump as her friend landed brutally.
“Are you okay?” she called down.
Silence at first was followed by her fone chiming. Ife grabbed it and punched to accept the call. “Zia!”
Zia’s voice, even labored, seemed fine. “I’m okay. Um, I’m going to try to find Caed. I’ll keep this line open.”
Minutes passed as Ife sat above, her eyes wandering over and over to the opening. She toy
ed with the idea of joining them, the purpose being that three first bloods should be able to use their magics to escape the underground cave or whatever the hell this was. The ethereal connection Crezia and Caedmon shared was unique; the other first blood warriors were more effective with physical contact. Without a conduit like Chione or Cairine, it was difficult to share and maximize their power.
Using her skills, she listened for Scottie or any of the locals who helped them during daylight hours, mostly trusted blood-bonds, but she didn’t hear or see any movement through the scruffy brush that surrounded the rocky outcropping that backed up to their planting projects.
The decision made suddenly, she palmed her fone to Vtex Crezia.
Zia, I’m coming down. Make way.
A final momentary hesitation became solid determination and Ife jumped, for the first time in her life, into a dark chasm, unaware what waited, and felt her body fall almost in slow motion, her arms out to her side as if they could slow the descent…and felt unrestrained exhilaration. That split moment when she jumped pitched her heartrate into maximum overdrive and for those seconds, she felt weightless and free, a wild sense of joy that she breathed and lived. Fear became her companion in this reckless and awesome act.
Always graceful, Ife had a fraction of a second to acknowledge that, with the effects of gravity, she would crumble upon landing, but it didn’t happen. The ever-elegant vampire landed hard enough to jar her teeth, but on her feet, stunned for the first few seconds.
“Holy shit. Ife, you all right?”
Caedmon’s voice penetrated her state of shock and euphoria as pain surged from her ankles up into her legs, her knees buckling at last. She felt Caedmon’s strong arms support her as she nearly went down.
“Ow,” Ife whispered as Crezia started to laugh from somewhere in the darkness to her left.
“Understatement of the century, darling. Try to relax. If you didn’t break anything, the pain will subside quickly.”
“Whoa. That was incredible. Not sure I want to do it again, but wow. It was a longer drop than I expected.”
“Yeah. I tried the vertical jump to get out and I couldn’t pull it off. With the three of us, maybe we can rise through the air.”
