by Jaymin Eve
Chapter 15
“What have you done to our famous dragon shifter?”
Louis’ question distracted me for a moment. “What do you mean?” I wrinkled my nose at the sorcerer before turning back to the quads.
Braxton looked slightly bored, as if he had not a single care about what was going to happen next. But I could tell by the rigidness in his jaw and semi-hooded state of his eyes that he wasn’t as calm as he portrayed. None of us knew what was going to transpire after the joining of their power.
“You’re wearing quite an interesting look right now, Jess.” Louis’ grin was as wide as his damn, arrogant face. “That dragon has you all wrapped up in emotions.”
I snorted. “You’ve been mated, you know how it is.”
Louis’ face fell, the amusement disappearing, and I wanted to smack myself. Damn, why did I bring that up?
He finally answered, his voice more brittle than usual. “She wasn’t … we weren’t true mates. But it didn’t matter. The fates made a mistake, she was my chosen one.”
I tried to school my expression. I had assumed from the way he’d spoken, the depth of his anguish, that she’d been his true mate, but apparently not. I reached out and rested my hand against his shoulder. We didn’t speak again, but I wanted him to know I was here for him. He wasn’t alone anymore. Louis felt things so deeply, hiding it behind power and his jovial attitude, but he loved with all of his heart. Braxton was the same. This was what made them so dynamic … so amazing.
Now that I knew what it was like to be truly loved by Braxton, well, Louis was right … I was different. I had officially lost all chill. I didn’t even care who knew it. If supes didn’t like me all loved-up, well, they could suck it. I was happy. I’d always been happy, but this was like an entirely new level.
I was granted a reprieve from my thoughts when the quads’ training started.
Quale was the one in charge now. He looked a little hesitant as he addressed the four Compasses. Might have been the way they were standing with their “get fucked” expressions in full force.
“There is only one way to know if you four are going to pose a threat to us or the king. We have sworn an oath to … remain loyal to the command of our leader. Many of the mystics did not agree with Gerard’s decision to allow you entry to the sanctuary, though we understood that the circumstances were a little unusual with Jessa’s odd mark. We voted, and the only way you will continue to be welcome here is if you join your powers together and don’t pose a threat to us in the sanctuary. The compulsion to hunt marked will be strong, you won’t be able to fight it.”
Jacob pulled a face in my direction, clearly loving the heck out of this lecture. I forced myself not to laugh at him. Sensing that this was going to take a long time, I slid myself against the wall. Grace – who looked pretty miserable – dropped next to me, and Cardia hesitantly sat on the other side of us, keeping a reasonable space between me and her. I was glad to see she was taking the no-rush thing seriously. I slid my hand across and grasped Grace’s hand.
“You okay?” I asked, without looking in her direction. I really didn’t want her to cry or anything.
She kind of snorted before returning my hand squeeze. “Tyson and I have been playing this game for a long time now, even though he was slow to figure it out.” She paused, before sighing, her voice barely a whisper. “I’m just not sure I want to play anymore.”
Oh, I got that. I totally got it. There was only so much a heart could take, but I had to give it a shot. For Tyson.
“Don’t give up on him, Grace, Ty has a good heart, and I think you two could be happy. True mates or not.”
That was the bottom line, they didn’t know if there was more between them than just anger and raging attraction. And right now, I could see that Grace wasn’t ready to find out.
I noticed then that the quads had stopped pretending to listen to Quale. All of them were staring in our direction, like a force-of-nature smacking us in the face, strong, swift, and breathtaking. Grace and my conversation died off as we became caught in the Compass magnetism. Assholes. They sucked you in and never let go. I shook my head before flipping them off. They needed to focus on the mystics right now. With shakes of their heads, and small grins, they finally turned back to the cloaks. Tyson lingered the longest, his expression unreadable.
“I don’t know if I can walk away,” Grace said, her voice almost inaudible. “Damn, every female in Stratford would give their right arm to have a Compass.”
Despite her anger, there were still tendrils of awe from her. It wasn’t exactly the same for me, I’d always had the Compasses. I’d never had to fight for their love or attention. I was very lucky in that regard. But Grace was extra right, I was even more blessed now. True mates was a really strange and beautiful concept.
Generally when a supe stumbled across their true mate they had never met that supernatural before. So while there was an instant connection, there were also many unknowns. For me it was different. I’d known and loved Braxton for a really long time. The history and memories were already there, the bonds strong. Which meant I was feeling a tad overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of our new mateship.
Out of nowhere, an ache started low and dull in my chest, odd and out of place. My head jerked up and there was Mischa, her eyes locked on the three of us. She had been near the back of the room with our parents, but my newly formed twin bond was telling me that something in the way us females were grouped against the wall had upset her. Made her feel on the outside again. Mischa’s face showcased about a zillion facets of anguish. With a stifled cry, she stumbled away and left the room. I lurched to my feet to stop her, but she took off like a shot.
Shit!
I really wanted to stay here with the Compasses, I needed to know what was going to happen. I was afraid that if they decided to go all crazy-marked-hunters, there weren’t many supernaturals here who could stand against them. Only Louis and my father had a possible shot. But I also knew deep in my soul that this thing with Mischa was important too. I started to follow her path, it was time to deal with my twin’s drama. I was just about at the elevators when Lienda halted me with a hand on my arm. “I’ll go, Jess, you have other responsibilities.”
I blinked a few times at my mother. “Are you sure? I don’t mind.”
I sort of did, but I was giving this “nice supe” thing a try. Must be all the love pheromones confusing me.
Lienda kissed my cheek and I barely even flinched. See, emotional growth was my bitch. “I’m happy to go,” she said. “I haven’t seen my daughter much lately. It seems we might need a mother daughter chat. I’m worried about her.”
She wasn’t the only one.
I tried not to let it upset me that she’d said “my daughter.” I was her daughter too. But I knew that with so many years between us, it was going to be difficult bridging that gap. For reals … I could have used mother-daughter chats myself over the years. But there was no point dwelling on the past. Had to move forward. Like I told Mischa, there was no other direction to go in.
“You’re my daughter too,” Lienda rushed to add. Either everyone was a mind reader, or I wore my emotions on my face. She wrapped an arm around me. “I love you, but Mischa is just a little more alone than you are, a little less independent. Children need different things from their parents, it doesn’t mean I love you less. You just need me less.”
It was true, I didn’t really need Lienda anymore. I’d learned not to need her.
Lienda gave me a lopsided grin before leaning in and kissing me on the cheek again. I rubbed my face, stepping back. I was at my kiss limit now. With one last shake of her blond hair, she laughed as she turned and hurried out the door.
I strolled back. Nothing in the room had changed: four bored Compasses surrounded by a group of mystics. No one looked to be connected yet. I was wondering what the holdup was when I noticed that a circle of white stones had been placed on the floor surrounding the quads, crystals like those
we occasionally used in magic class, primarily for protection spells. The mystics were creating a protective zone just in case the boys lost their shit. Probably a good idea.
One of the mystics was activating the stones, spelling them one by one with magic of the fey. As he moved to the next, fizzling energy followed his path.
I settled in beside Jonathon, next to his warmth and power. It reminded me of home and pack and alpha comforts. I needed the comfort, something to ease my nerves. My eyes briefly alighted on Cardia and Grace still against the wall, both staring at the quads. Grace looked sort of mesmerized and Cardia, even more so, as she locked in on Maximus. That was the face of an obsessed, loved up, supe.
Screw that, I might be riding this mate-ship thing too, but I was not following Braxton around like a lost puppy. I forced myself not to stare at my dragon, and focused on this weird spot on the floor instead. It was white, like a fleck of paint or something.
After about eight seconds of this, I sighed.
“They’re starting,” said Jonathon, and joy crackled through me. I now had a legitimate reason to be staring.
I lifted my head only to realize that all four Compasses were watching me, wearing the widest of grins. Double dimples and all. I sucked in rapidly. Being the sole focus of their attention was like being zapped by electricity, no matter how many times it had happened over the years. I flipped up my middle finger, because even though I had no idea what they were thinking, I knew it was going to be something asshole-worthy. With the Compasses, that was a given.
The mystic had just finished up on the final white rock – eight in total. The moment he stood, energy beamed out, crisscrossing the room and surrounding my boys, thankfully distracting them from whatever nefarious thoughts had brought out those four, identical, shit-eating grins that had been facing me.
I met my father’s gaze. “Do you think the protection dome is necessary? Is there really a possibility that by joining, they are just going to completely lose their shit and start trying to kill marked?”
He was focused on the center of the room. “Sometimes control takes a while,” he said. “After a few times joining, they should have the same mental-control of the Four, but the first times can be a little dicey.”
Control of the Four. That was exactly what we wanted … said no one ever. I wanted the Four to cease to exist, and I wanted to be the one to wipe them off the face of the Earth. But … when everything was all said and done, I had to keep reminding myself that if the dragon king rose, the supernatural community would need them for the fight. I wondered what role my quads would hold if the king rose?
Everyone fell silent as Quale addressed the Compasses. “You are free now to join your power. I believe you have been instructed on the manner in which to do this?”
Four heads, just one single nod. I was surprised. After twenty years of friendship there weren’t many secrets left in our pack, but I had no idea when they’d been instructed on joining their power. They had had a few private classes in the history of supernaturals, and in Family Ties class … it had to have been during these lessons.
They’d told me at the time those classes had been about the unique abilities of multiples – a class I probably should have attended also, but back then my twin status had been a hugely guarded secret.
Wanting to see everything that was about to happen I shuffled forward, Jonathon stayed by my side. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was acting all bodyguard-like, which meant he didn’t have that much faith in the protective ring surrounding the boys. I couldn’t really blame him. It was always better to be safe than sorry with the Compasses. They often did … the unexpected.
For the first time, since entering the dome, unease flittered across the quad’s faces. But they also looked intrigued. I could tell they wanted to know what their calling was, but were concerned about the damage they might wrought. A concern we all wore.
I felt the surge of power then, even through the shielded cage. The boys were starting their joining.
Maximus vamped out first, energy drifting over his hair and down his body. Suddenly everything about him was changed, and yet he was also the same. It was hard to describe. His hair grew richer in color, his eyes black as a night sky, his skin glowing a tawny color. His fangs elongated as his body increased to even more massive proportions. He was spectacular. I could see Cardia licking her lips as she dragged lustful eyes over him, but along with her clear attraction, there was also dilation of pupils, paling of her skin, accelerated heartbeat. She was like the rest of us, fearing what this change might bring to her very recently discovered mate. I had the same fears churning inside of me, only times four, as I loved all of the Compasses.
Jacob was next. He called on the elements, and even here, inside a glass and metal building, they came to him. The most prominent was fire, definitely his specialty, whipping in burning arcs around his head and down his left arm. His right hand held a single ball of water, like a large dewdrop. Wind thrashed around his blond hair, and the scent of fresh dirt filled the room as earth responded beneath his feet. Green eyes burned as energy surrounded him and joy split across his face. The elements made him feel alive.
Tyson stepped up. He would be the least showy. Much of his power relied on spells and nature. Yet, as he spoke rhythmically, spell casting, chanting too low for me to hear, energy cascaded over him, a subtle glow, which like Maximus enhanced his already dangerously beautiful features. Grace drew forward now. I’d been mostly focused on my boys, so I hadn’t realized that the healer witch and vampiress had left the wall and were now just on the outside of the barrier, as if they had to move closer to the Compasses – the quads’ overabundance of life force drawing all of us like magnets.
Tyson and Maximus had predator eyes locked on their girls. Their energies filled the huge space, and I was starting to understand what everyone was worried about. Individually, the quads were so powerful. What the hell was going to happen when they fully joined with each other?
All coherent thought fled when it was Braxton’s turn. He would finish the quartet of energy. I knew he couldn’t shift into dragon, there wasn’t enough room in the dome. He dropped his head, light reflecting off his black hair, and then it hit me what he was going to do. I scooted further forward, not wanting to miss a single thing. This was something very few shifters had ever achieved.
A fusion shift.
I’d seen Braxton succeed at this once, in shifting class. He had been the youngest to ever achieve this feat. This wouldn’t be like the dragon spirit Mischa had called, this was attaining a form somewhere between man and beast. Almost like the loup-garou myth, which humans both feared and worshipped. That Braxton could fusion shift so young was one of the reasons he was considered to be so very powerful.
Lines of scales formed on his cheeks, before spreading down his neck and across his arms. There weren’t enough blue and black scales to be creepy, but enough to look scary and dominating. His eyes glowed the yellow of the dragon, and his body became much bigger, his clothing tore as it stretched to accommodate his new form. Which was almost double his regular size. Suddenly I was just like the other girls, my dragon straining inside to get to her mate, my feet pushing me forward, fear of the unknown flooding me. As I moved Jonathon stuck to me in the same way bitch stuck to Giselda. Permanently.
The four Compasses, their powers surrounding them, was a true sight to behold.
One of the mystics moved closer. “Now you will join.”
Shit. He probably should have stated that as less of an order. Sure enough, all four Compasses turned blazing eyes on him, their stares hard … scary as all hell. Especially with so much power riding them.
“Apologies.” Quale, always the diplomat, stepped forward. He’d been standing off to the side with Louis. “We’d really appreciate it if you’d attempt to merge as one now.”
I swear everyone in the room rolled their eyes right then. Seriously, what a condescending dick. But I was coming to expect tha
t from these fey hybrid tools. The Compasses fell into a circle of sorts, their backs to us in the room. I saw them lock eyes, and I knew they were communicating.
Mirroring expressions rippled across their features. After a few moments they started to chant, and I was close enough now to hear the words. My dragon had won in her quest to move toward Braxton.
“How will they join?” I whispered to Jonathon. I’d always been under the impression that these sort of callings came to the supe, not the other way around.
His reply was almost inaudible. “Their joining should have been allowed to arrive naturally.” He confirmed my thoughts. “Time and growth of powers would have taken care of the timing. Now they will have to use a spell to push forward the process.”
“How do you know this?” I needed to understand what was happening to the boys.
“All multiples can join, the quads are just on another level, and involves a calling,” he said.
The quads started to chant.
Brother as one, we will be, brothers as one. Power of four, join as one, power of four will never be undone. United!
They chanted the first part, before shouting “united” to finish. Three times they repeated the phrase and each time the energy coating them rose, moving above their heads, swirling, and then as the four of them bled their individual power, it formed a peak above them. Energy flashed outward, filling the room with a single wave of light. I tensed as it shot through me, but there was no kickback at all. It just flowed through our bodies and off into the universe.
I looked up after the wave had passed me and froze.
Grace’s voice was barely a whisper. “Holy fuck me.”
Cardia and the witch healer were slowly moving closer to us, and I couldn’t blame them. The boys were even scaring me, and I had never been scared of them in my life.
