“Exactly. Follow me to the kitchen.” It was large enough for several people to cook at the same time.
“There are two stoves!” Mira took off looking at the appliances and opening the cabinets. “I love this kitchen.”
“Do you cook?”
Mira turned around to find one of the males that she saw last night looking at her.
“Mira this is Cade. He’s the leader of Enigma One.” Tristan walked up behind her.
“I cook. Do you?”
“No, all of us have been in the ground for way too long.”
Thoughts of Tristan in the cemetery brought up images she wasn’t comfortable with.
“It’s a good thing you and your team are here now.” Three males smiled at her.
“I can’t wait for you to meet my mom,” Ven told her.
“We can secure the land. It will be a little tricky, but doable.”
Tristan and Ven nodded before they followed Tina on the rest of the house tour that took over two hours.
They ended the tour in the kitchen.
“It’s a great house,” Tina told them as they took a seat around the kitchen island.
“It needs some work,” Tristan told her.
“If you need the space you’ve been talking about, you won’t find a better house.”
“How much,” Ven asked.
Mira choked on the gum she wasn’t chewing when she heard the price.
Ven never batted an eye when he gave her a counter offer.
“The owner will never go for that.”
Tristan gave her a counteroffer lower than Ven’s.
Tina moved to stand between the two of them refusing to budge on the offer. Ven gave his counteroffer again. Tristan lowered his counteroffer. After ten minutes of haggling, Mira had enough.
“Stop! Tina doesn’t want to sell this place. I say we get a new agent find a different piece of land and buy that one.” Mira stood up and moved to the doorway.
“Wait, I need to make a call.” Tina stepped out of the kitchen.
“Did you hear how much the owner wants for this place?”
“It’s worth it,” Tristan said. Ven nodded his approval.
“Neither one of you looks like your rolling in money. I drove you here.”
They shrugged their shoulders and waited for Tina to come back in the room.
“The owner is willing to take Ven’s counteroffer. They will not go one cent less.” She glared at Tristan.
“We have a deal,” Ven told her before he stepped out of the room.
“Where did he go?” Tina asked.
“To free up the funds,” Tristan told her.
“Tristan talk to Declyn,” Ven said walking back into the room. He handed him his phone.
“Yes, no, of course. Let me handle them before we celebrate. No, doesn’t look like I’ll be going to ground after all. Don’t celebrate yet, nothing’s set in stone. Yes, he’s being Ven. Does he know how to be anything else? He knows how everyone feels about him. Yes, I’m keeping him safe.”
“I hate when you all talk about me like I’m eight.”
“I still remember when you were eight.” Tristan handed him the phone. “The money’s free, pay up, so we can get the keys.”
“You can’t get the keys today. There has to be a closing agreement, papers to sign,” Tina told them.
“Come with me, Tina.” She followed Ven out of the room.
“She’s right you know,” Mira told him.
“Maybe, but the first thing we learned on your planet is that money talks.”
Ven walked in with the keys. “I’ll sign the papers tomorrow, but we own the house.”
“Just how rich are you?” Mira looked between the two of them. They shrugged.
“We’ve never thought about it,” Tristan told her.
“When are you moving in?”
“Today, we need to go back to the hotel and check out. Will you take us back?”
“Of course. Maybe I can come see you here sometime.”
“Maybe or maybe you can spend the night and then tomorrow night and then…” Tristan walked up to her taking her into his arms.
“That’s a lot of maybe’s.”
“Then let’s just start with tonight.” He lowered his head.
“Ven,” she choked out.
“Is out on the porch waiting. I saw the perfect room for us.” He took her mouth in a kiss. She opened her lips to protest but ended up sucking on the tongue he sent searching. His taste hit her, and once again she was gone. The feel of his body and the taste of his mouth should be considered illegal.
“I could die happy kissing you.” She sighed into the kiss.
“I like how you taste too.” Her cheeks pinked. “Let’s go. If we’re gone too long Enigma One will start hunting us down.”
“Don’t they have names?”
“The leader is Cade. I’ll introduce you to the rest when they surface.”
“You know what I’m thinking?”
“What?” They walked through the house and onto the porch.
“You owe me breakfast and lunch.” They walked over to her Jeep.
“We can stop on the way to the hotel,” Ven said.
Mira slid into the driver’s seat and then stopped to gulp air.
“What’s wrong?” Tristan asked, he was sitting next to her.
“I felt pain, but it’s gone now. Buckle up.” She started the engine trying to ignore how Tristan and Ven were studying her.
“It sometimes happens when you tap into every emotion around you. Both of you are like a breath of fresh air. I get nothing from Ven unless he wants me to. Tristan your low-key and hard to read.”
The car swerved the minute they hit the main road. She gasped for breath unable to breathe. Mira’s foot hit the brake before they ran into a tree.
“Tina,” she said between gasps. “She’s petrified.”
Ven hopped out and pulled open Mira’s door. Tristan was there they put her in the back with him by her side. Ven took over driving.
“Which way?”
“Make a U-turn.”
He turned the car and was flying down the street in the opposite direction.
“Who taught him to drive?” Mira screamed her nails latching onto Tristan’s arm.
“His parents, do you see what I put up with.”
“How fast is he going? Wait, don’t tell me. Please, I just want to arrive alive.”
“It's not that bad,” Ven said over his shoulder.
“Eyes on the road.”
“Humans,” he said. “Where to Mira?”
“Right, make a right… now!”
Her Jeep went off-road. That’s why she bought it. All those commercials about going up and down hills and through large puddles of water appealed to her. But this was the first time her baby was going off-road. Why? Because she was a freaking city girl and proud of it.
The smooth concrete became bumpy as the shocks took on the bumps from dirt that was never supposed to be packed tight enough to make a road. She hung on tighter as pain lanced through her head, heart, and stomach.
“Someone’s hurting her.” Bile rose trying to gush out of her mouth. She lowered her head aware that Tristan had her in a hold that was unshakeable. Her eyes were closed, but her body was being pulled towards the highest concentration of pain.
“Make a left, she’s straight ahead.”
Ven made a left, then brought the Jeep to a sudden stop. Mira would have flown out the window without Tristan holding on to her.
“Stay here Mira, do not move.” Tristan laid her down in the seat before he left the Jeep.
She leaned up to get a look at the scene before her. A naked Tina was hanging from a tree by her wrists. In front of her were three men. Their shadows moved like they weren’t attached at all. Every time one of them touched her, she screamed.
They were killing her, but how? Mira could feel death coming for Tina.
“Mira.” One of the men pul
led away to look at the Jeep. How did he know she was in there?
There was a roar then Tristan’s shape changed. He grew tall and hairy. His nose and mouth elongated into a snout.
Shit, this was a dream. She was still taking the damn happy drugs she tried to escape. Her life was nothing but a druggie dream. She opened her eyes again when had she shut them?
Tristan was still a monster, now so was Ven. It was the brightness of their eyes that said she knew who they were. One of the men… monsters came for Tristan. He turned and shredded him with impossibly long, sharp claws. There was a cry like a moan of pain and the men she thought she saw were gone.
She blinked trying to bring her eyes and the men back into focus. When she opened her eyes, how long had they been closed, Tristan and Ven were cutting Tina down. There was no sign of them being big hairy monsters. Had she imagined it? Was this area filled with swamp gas that made her hallucinate? She opened herself up to be able to feel their emotions. She sent out a probe something she would not normally do. All she encountered was the same feelings of last night. Ven felt secure, and Tristan offered her a safety she knew from her grandmother. These were not the emotions of monsters.
“She’s going to need a doctor,” Tristan said as he placed Tina in the back seat with them.
“She’s going to need more than that.” She would freak out later. Now Tina’s life lay in the balance. She placed her hand over Tina’s heart and forehead replacing what the monsters had stolen. If anyone ever found out what she could do she’d spend the rest of her life in a cage.
Something hurt Tina almost killing her. That part hadn’t been imagined.
Chapter Five
“That was Cade on the phone. We have two hours to get our belongings, check out and get back to the house,” Ven told them quietly.
“Go get the other’s belongings I’ll take care of Mira,” Tristan told him.
“Mira?”
“Hey, suga you still with me?”
“Still here. How are you feeling?”
“Better.”
“You don’t look well.” He got out the Jeep and walked over to her door. “I’m going to carry you. You’re not going to protest.”
“You keep this up suga, and I’m going to think you're carrying me across the threshold on our wedding day.” Her voice was soft. It was hard to keep her eyes open as her emotions came and went. “I’m tired, Tristan.”
“You gave a lot of yourself. I can’t be sure, but I think your blood sugar is low. I also think you're anemic. I want you to drink more orange juice.”
“I drank some.”
“Not enough. We also need to get some food in you.”
“I want to sleep.”
“I know, hold on Mira.”
She nodded as he placed her on the bed. Tristan sat her up and began to encourage her to take small drinks of the orange juice. After he laid her down, he packed everything he brought with him, it wasn’t much. There was a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
“I packed for everyone and checked out. We can leave.” Ven told him looking at Mira on the bed.
“What about our vehicles?”
“Cade sent Locke and Key for them.”
“Alright I’m going to let you drive. Take your time Ven.”
“I will.”
Tristan picked up Mira and carried her to the back of the Jeep.
“She put her life at risk helping Tina.”
“She’s an angel Tristan. She does this every time she helps someone.”
Tristan nodded his head and pulled her closer. He knew about the angel network. They all did. To find out that Mira was a part of it didn’t surprise him.
She was fine, and that’s what he needed to focus on.
“Ven what do we know about the males we encountered. The one from the bar was there.”
“I called my dad and Declyn. They don’t know anything about them. I talked to mom and Fire, they haven’t felt anything. I think the dome is protecting them from this new menace.”
“They deserve the peace.”
“Well don’t tell them that. They are going to try to find out what’s going on. Mom said if we need her; she'll be here before we can blink.”
Tristan laughed. “I think we’ll figure this out on our own. Deja and Enzo and of course, then Declyn and Safire will come and then… yeah we’ll do this on our own.”
“Scared we’ll have a dragon sighting in the city?”
“Hell yeah.”
“I wanna see a dragon.” Mira struggled to raise her head.
“No dragon’s baby.”
“I like that, but you shouldn’t call me baby.”
“Why?”
“Because sweet names should only be used if you mean it.” She laid her head back on his thigh enjoying the thickness and hardness of it.
They finished the rest of the drive in silence.
“We’re here.” Tristan placed his hand on Mira’s shoulder to wake her.
“I need to work tonight.”
“Do you think you can walk a straight line or wrap that beautiful body around a pole?”
“I hate males like you.”
He lifted a brow and looked at her.
“Reasonable.” She picked up her phone and called off. “Have you seen Anna and Eve? Are they well? Thanks, if anything happens call me.”
“Anna and Eve?”
“Two young females I work with. I’m concerned about them.”
Tristan helped her out of the Jeep and up the steps. When they walked in, there were three males she hadn’t met sitting in the living room.
Damn, they were panty melting handsome. In fact, if she hadn’t of met Tristan first, she would willingly throw her panties at any of them.
“Mira this is Cade; you met him earlier. This is Locke and his brother Key.”
“Hi, you guys remind me a lot of each other. Tall, thick with green eyes. Why does everyone except Ven have green eyes?”
“It was easier for our people to recognize us,” Cade told her.
“Why don’t I like the way you said that?”
“Because you were blessed with sensitivity,” Cade responded.
“No one has ever called this curse a blessing.”
“You’re not cursed. Without you, Tina would be dead or worse,” Tristan whispered in her ear.
“Sometimes people don’t appreciate the blessing they’ve been given. I’ll start dinner,” Ven told them.
“Ven cooks?”
“You’d be surprised what we can do Mira,” Locke told her.
“Nope, I saw what you can do.” She shivered but refused to move away from Tristan. He was different; her mind was still refusing to think about it. She was different too. If her government knew what she could do, they would call her an animal and place her in a cage. It wouldn’t matter that she couldn’t change form.
Tristan took her to a love seat to sit down.
“Did you buy the house furnished?”
“We did, but we’ll eventually change out what we don’t like. Anything you don’t like in our suite, we’ll get rid of immediately.”
“Slow down. One night does not mean you get to keep me.”
“Right, I know that.”
“But you have me for tonight. It’s probably not good for me to be on my own right now.”
“One day at a time.”
“I wish I had a change of clothes.”
“There’s a whole wardrobe upstairs for you to pick from,” Cade told her.
Tristan turned to look at him.
“What? Did you think Deja was going to let her son move into a house she hadn’t seen? I think she was in the car as soon as Ven got off the phone. Between her and Safire, they brought a store full of clothes and thing's females like, bath soaps, etc.… It’s all upstairs because what do any of us know about females?”
Tristan leaned back and laughed. “I thought I was escaping the madness when I left. They never planned to let
me go to ground.”
What did going to ground mean? He was going to have to explain it. She didn’t like it. It sounded ominous.
“Should we check out this cache of clothes and possible goodness?” She needed something to take her mind off what happened today.
“Did they find the room I picked out for myself?” Tristan asked.
“Do you really have to ask?” Ven was standing in the doorway to the living room. “The food will be ready when you come down.”
“Can you stand?”
“Yeah, the orange juice seems to have helped. You’re really a doctor.”
“I am. I must admit that I really didn’t know much about human physiology. I learned from Cait; she is the first one of us to attend medical school. I thought I would never need it.”
She filed that away for later. He didn’t seem to be hiding that he was different from her. “You spent years denying what you were or needed to know.”
“I did.”
“Me too. I let people who I thought knew better than me, tell me that I was crazy. It wasn’t until I took my future into my own hands that my life started to turn around. Human’s aren't supposed to be able to feel other peoples emotions. You only get to do that on television.”
“I know, do you like it?” They were walking down the hall to the room Tristan wanted her to see.
They stopped in front of her favorite suite of rooms. You walked into a little foyer that led to a large sitting room. It was just big enough for a family, from there you could walk into the large master bedroom. There was an en-suite off the bedroom. There was also a bathroom off the sitting room as well as two other bedrooms.
“I love it. You did a good job of picking your rooms.”
“There are three rooms on the other side of this suite. I can always expand if needed. I’ll make one of them into an office. The other two will become an examine room and an overnight observation room for patients who need on-site treatment.”
“Why are you single Tristan?”
“Where I come from no self-respecting female would touch me. I was created to be used as fodder in a war that lost its meaning long ago. They found a way to use a mass of enzymes that is the basis of our evolution to mass create warriors. We are just as real as anyone else, but we have no parents, so we are expendable. We’re not real.”
The Wolf & The Empath Page 4
