The Final Link

by Erin Thornton

  “You might have a hard time understanding what I am.” His musical notes were almost inaudible as he chose to give up his self-imposed vow of silence.

  “I can’t imagine it would be any worse than anyone else in this room. Seeing as two of you can literally change shape and one of you drinks blood for sustenance and one of you, maybe two, can actually transport themselves by mere use of thought.” Aggie fought an eyeroll and waited for Eldon to continue.

  “Not so much that you wouldn’t believe me but you might have a misconstrued idea of what I am. I am of Fae decent and that means different things to modern people than what is factual.” Aggie’s eyes grew large as she took in this information. Her fingers itched to see his power take shape.

  “Fae? As in fairy? Oh, do you have wings? Can I see them? Do you live in a tree?” Eldon gave her a withering look that instantly muted her interrogation. It was so instant that she feared his powers included the ability to take someone’s voice. The look that was still pasted on his face kept her in fear of testing her theory just yet.

  “This is what I meant, humans have ruined the reputation of the Fae. Making us more like pixies, flitting from tree branch to flower bringing in the seasons.” His words were laced with such disdain that Aggie glanced up at him expecting an eyeroll then again, she couldn’t see someone like him stooping so low. “I am Fae, born of magic interlaced in the earth. While I’m connected to the trees and plants I am in no way controlling them. My powers are connected and drawn from the power of the earth. I do have wings, but they are more glorious than any miniscule pixie’s wings.” Aggie halfheartedly hoped that he would show her, but after a moment she realized that wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’m sure you’re a sight to behold in all your glory.” Aggie’s words held a hint of awe as she envisioned this creature in a new light. Moving on quickly she addressed the elephant in the room. “Now as for this discussion about my potential within this group of misfits.” Her choice of words got a couple snarls and some laughter. She didn’t pinpoint the exact owners of each sound but she was sure Mitchell was one of those who didn’t like being referred to as a misfit given his Alpha status within his own circle.

  “Do you have questions?” Mathius piped up reiterating what he had started the night before.

  “Not necessarily questions, as perhaps some ground rules. After the new discoveries I’ve now been made aware of,” Aggie let her attention fall on Kyrel for a split second before continuing, “I think there need to be some stipulations and boundaries. I completely understand that you have been incomplete for many years and I’m more than happy to help where I can to get these kids back, but I’m not just going to fall in bed with eight men just because you say I’m supposed to. “

  “No one ever expected you to do that, Agatha.” Liel chimed in and Aggie fought her natural sarcastic reaction. He was always so methodical and in this, while she knew he spoke the truth, what else could they have expected? They have found their ninth link and after so long they surely wouldn’t want to prolong it further, would they?

  “Of course not, Liel. I just wanted to say it out loud making it clear for everyone. While I don’t know the best way to go about this as it was just sprung upon me last night. I just want you all to be aware that I’m willing to try, but I’d like to take the time to get to know each of you rather than just create a schedule of sex to complete some bond that isn’t even apparent naturally. I would like to make sure we have a connection before we start discussing the horizontal tango or the meetings between the sheets.” Of course, Ren started laughing at that with a boisterous enthusiasm Aggie paused wondering if he was going to be able to regain control of himself. After a minute or so, he finally calmed and Aggie realized she needed to ask a very pointed question. “Come to think of it, am I at risk of getting pregnant by any of you? I’m on regular birth control but given that none of you are exactly regular yourselves I’m going to bet I’m going to need to make new arrangements.” Rubbing her belly absentmindedly, not that she didn’t want kids, but she definitely didn’t want them right now. Halting her maternal distractions, Aggie looked around in hopes someone had an answer for her. Gryson was at her side before she made the full sweep of the room with her eyes.

  “You have nothing to worry about. I can give you something that will ward off pregnancy until you take the, let’s call it a counter-potion. That is easier to explain in your current understanding, but that is getting ahead of ourselves and won’t be needed right away.” His words could have been offensive, but the way he said them and the look in his eye was one of compassion and understanding. Placing a hand on her shoulder, Gryson pulled her against him. Now that she didn’t have the conflicting feelings of a gateway door pulling at her she realized that his touch was electric. Stronger than the buzzing she felt with Mathius. She felt like the synapses of her brain were vibrating. His touch was different as she noticed they all were. Since she knew what was causing the sensation she didn’t pull away. Aggie let him linger and she closed her eyes to the feeling to see where it would go. Unfortunately, or under different circumstances would be more like fortunate, it shot from her brain straight to her core. With a gasp, Aggie jerked her body away from his touch. Eyes wide she turned to face him, his brown eyes were glowing almost a lavender color that simmered back to his brown as soon as they met Aggie’s hazel ones.

  “Did you feel that? Do any of you feel that?” Aggie started the question directed at Gryson, but quickly expanded it to the rest of them. Even though she had only made contact with a few of them, the question was still open to them all.

  Gryson leaned down but didn’t make direct contact with her, but she felt the words as he spoke and his breath caught across her ear, “I feel your touch to my very soul, dearest Aggie.” A chill ran through her and goosebumps ran down her arm as his breath carried down farther than she could actually feel it. She resisted the urge to rub the feeling away.

  Chapter 8

  Shaking her head, in an attempt to clear the fog created by the shift in the conversation. “OK, well then I guess we have that all sorted. Should we talk about where we’re at with this case of disappearing kids and apparently the shift in weather?” Aggie looked out the glass wall and took in the winter wonderland. Beauty beyond words and the ice glistened in the sunlight that glowed but didn’t seem to warm. The architecture of this castle was phenomenal. Humans didn’t see things the same way as these architects seemed to. They saw a home as more than just a shelter. They seemed to see the beauty underneath. Rather than destroying it or covering it up they built the trees into the structure and added full glass walls and not just panels so one could take in that which was inspiring outside, as well. She had seen the glowing lights the previous night from the bathroom, but this was something one would only have seen in pictures and it took her breath away.

  “We determined with our search last night that there had been no one inside the room that wasn’t allowed. The locks hadn’t been broken and it will take a while to ascertain who has been through there.” Mathius started the debriefing and Aggie took in his words but didn’t detour her attention from the lightly frosted window, that when she looked closely could make out the tiny snowflakes frozen to the glass. That took her back to her childhood when Gran would let her run through the freshly fallen snow and catch snowflakes on her tongue. Gran would sit on the porch on her swing and watch her with laughter in her eyes. A tear escaped Aggie’s eye and before she realized and could catch it, a finger ran across her cheek. Glancing up Ren was standing beside her now, he took the tear he had just caught on his finger and slipped it into his mouth, never once taking his clear blue eyes off of hers. Their wordless exchange was the most powerful conversation she had had with any of the guys. It was as though he knew what she was feeling and he silently comforted her in his own way.

  Turning her attention back to Mathius, “Nothing in the space stood out, so we assume that whoever abducted Prince Rikan must have dusted him out
to avoid detection as well as any unnecessary signs of a struggle. Even though we have decided that he was probably drugged in some way.” The recap wasn’t completely necessary but it was nice to hear all the details lined out to better identify any gaps they might be overlooking.

  “How many total children have been taken and what is the understanding of their given or expected powers?” Aggie was running on a theory, but she wasn’t sure if anyone had considered some kind of correlation if gender wasn’t the draw.

  Mathius thought for a moment, but then went to the sidebar and pressed a button. “I know there are five total kids missing. I’m not sure what their prolific choice of magic is but I will in a moment.” Just then a petite young girl came into the room, but she was more than that. Her eyes flared a deep hunter green in a shade Aggie had never seen in someone’s eyes before. Then when she and Mathius spoke Aggie was sure she saw a fork in her tongue like that of a snake. As quickly as this girl came she left. “I’ve requested the information and we will have it shortly.” The look on Aggie’s face must have been clear. “What is wrong?” Mathius face was painted in confusion.

  “Who was that and what was she?” There wasn’t any emotion behind her words but a slight breathy tone gave way to astonishment.

  Raising an eyebrow at her Mathius pointed in the direction of the girl. “Delia, she is a handmaiden that works in the castle. She is an Apep demon.”

  Aggie mentally recalled her school history classes cataloging the useless facts that she learned and filed away for a rainy day or random trivia night. “Egyptian serpent-like demon?” Aggie was beyond actual sentences and was stating facts to make sure she was on the right track.

  Smiling a little, Mathius seemed to realize what she was trying to say. “Yes, in your world the Egyptians were the ones who saw the Apep demons. I believe the most well-known was Apophis when he was in his prime they worshiped him with the reverence due to a god. I think if the lowly humans hadn’t decided they were better than us, and continued their worship, we would have remained on Earth a few more centuries. Those were some memorable times.” He looked as though he were reliving them himself and not just the stories of the Apep demons shared with their youth.

  “How many different kinds of demons might I encounter on my visit here?” Aggie wasn’t as lost now that she realized that there would be physical characteristics that she might be seeing as they manifested themselves in human-like form.

  “Thousands.” Mathius didn’t elaborate and his one-word answer made her think of Xavier. Glancing over at the stoic vampire he reclined in his chair looking more bored than interested in their current conversation. Thousands of different demon species that could be encountered on a moment’s notice. Am I ready for this? The guys were a lot to handle in the beginning but I pushed through because it seemed like the best course of action at the time, but thousands? Aggie’s thoughts streamed through as if on a film reel in her mind. So many things to consider, yet she had no real understanding to know where to start.

  A moment later, Delia made her way back into the room with a file folder. How very human of her. Aggie’s thoughts had trailed back to someplace close to her usual sarcasm and snark. It seemed like she was getting back to feeling more like herself in this rollercoaster of life she had been on the past few weeks.

  Without so much as a word to Delia, Mathius flipped through the file. Delia turned and left once again as quickly as she arrived. Aggie wondered if servants were seen and not heard even in the demon world similar to her own humankind. While she and her Gran never had the means for servants to Aggie’s knowledge, mentally ruling out the Brownies, there were others in their smaller town whose finances allowed for such luxuries.

  “It appears that Rikan had the gift of fire. Though his full powers hadn’t manifested he did have minimal abilities that he was beginning to hone slowly through daily training.” Mathius flipped to the next page, “The first one taken was a young girl early teenage. She seemed to have come into her powers of water. She could manipulate it and was already proficient in her skill but at her age there are still things she would be working on to perfect.” Flipping the page again, he continued, “The second child was a boy close in age to the first. His skills lay in air manipulation.” Aggie was starting to notice a trend but waited to hear the final two children skills. “The next two hadn’t come into their powers, but one is an earth wielder and the last one is an amplifier. They will come into other powers that complement their own but these are their specialties.”

  Everyone else took in the information silently, but Aggie didn’t wait any longer. She was a part of this team and was determined to pull her own weight and show her own worth. She wasn’t just a pretty face that was here to polish their knobs. She was here to help. “Am I the only one who thinks the fact that you’re suffering from weather-related challenges in this realm and these kids seem to have gifts that revolve around nature isn’t just a coincidence?” Mathius and Liel shared a look but neither spoke. Xavier leaned up from his lounged position and placed his feet on the floor. Drinking the last of his goblet he placed it on the table and placed his hand beneath his chin deep in thought. Aggie thought he looked a bit like ‘The Thinker’ statue by Auguste Rodin and remembered the movie that animated him. Biting her tongue because this wasn’t the time or the place she thought, I’m thinking. I’m thinking. All the while, stifling a snicker. The twins growled in unison and Mitchell began to pace the room. Eldon’s eyebrows perked up and it made Aggie realized that he might be the most connected person to this case because he also sourced his powers from the earth. Gryson crossed his arms but didn’t speak. Kyrel stared out the window, but she could see that he was frustrated in the way his shoulders slumped forward in defeat. They were all thinking in their own way.

  “If that is indeed the common denominator, then we can stop wondering if the children’s powers are being siphoned. That can be added to the surety column.” Mathius spoke his thoughts out loud and everyone shared their agreement throughout the room. Aggie was proud to say she had helped in the process even if it was a small step in the right direction, at least they had a lead and something more to go on than speculation.

  Moments before it was bright and sunshiny, now the sky was blackened with storm clouds and a flash of lightning streaked across the sky. Followed quickly, by a crack of thunder resounding across the sky, so loud the walls of the castle shook. Aggie shrieked involuntarily in her surprise, at the sudden switch she wasn’t prepared for in the least. “Where did that come from?” Aggie asked no one in particular. She’d hated thunderstorms ever since she was a child. Her mother used to wrap her up in her arms and calm her down. When her mother passed unexpectedly, nothing seemed to work in the same way. So instead, she suffered in silence and just tried her best to hide from violent storms like what was happening outside the castle walls.

  “These are the weather changes I spoke of yesterday. They come in silently and without warning changing quicker than any natural storm could and much more violent. Hence the winter ice, in a season that should bring on unfathomable heat.” Mathius’s words gave her pause, but she was too busy cowering from the second rumble of thunder, to put her thoughts in any sense of order.

  “Unless Gryson can block that sound from my head or somehow one of you can make that stop, I’m going to be useless to you until this storm passes. I can’t think at all over that chaos.” Aggie opted for half-truths and didn’t share with them how terrified she really was.

  A moment later warm hands rested on Aggie’s shoulders from behind. She didn’t know who it was because her eyes were closed, but they started kneading her tense muscles and she slowly released them but not completely. Soon lips trailed her neck joining the hands that didn’t quit, light pecks that gave her goosebumps. Her skin tingled where he had trailed kisses, but Aggie refused to open her eyes, as she was still hiding from the raging storm on the other side of the glass. The water pelted the glass like it was carrying sand along wi
th it. The sound grew louder as the winds increased. Aggie curled up again, as another earth-shaking boom sounded and she involuntarily jumped as she startled. The mystery hands never ceased their manipulations and the kisses traveled all around never breaking contact with her skin. The effect was intoxicating and Aggie wished she wasn’t so terrified that she could actually open her eyes.

  Then before Aggie could consider what was happening, a second set of hands cupped her face, drawing her out of her cocoon of safety she had imagined around herself with her arms and legs. The sensation across her skin was nearly overwhelming. A vibration encompassed her entire body in a mold of safety. Never ceasing their ministrations, the mystery touches didn’t make it to every inch of her skin, but the feeling did. She had only ever touched one of the guys at a time. This was new but not unpleasant or painful, but she now knew what the phrase overstimulated meant. Pulling her close but not away from the first set of hands, lips gently brushed hers and a slight scruff swept along her chin and cheeks. Surprised by this, Aggie’s eyes flew open and right into the grey eyes that held a turbulent storm of emotions. Eyes that belonged to Mitchell.

  “What are you doing?” Aggie pulled away from Mitchell and glanced over her shoulder to find Ren’s hands still connected with her shoulders. The tingling and chills had stopped radiating through her and the goosebumps settled into a more common reaction.

  Mitchell stood and took a step back, but his eyes never left hers. “I was trying to calm you down. It worked for a moment, but you’re too stubborn and emotional. Are you sure you aren’t bipolar?” Mitchell’s temper flared, but he settled it with a touch of sarcasm that surprised Aggie a bit. Her fingers raised to touch her lips that still buzzed with the touch of Mitchell’s. Ren’s hands were ever vigilant and never ceased their movements. They were to the point of distraction. Reaching up she stilled his movement with her hand. It was then and only then that she realized that the twins quick thinking had indeed taken her mind off the storm, in a way nothing had since her mother’s death.