Josiah tried to squeeze through the break in the fences but a burly security guard stopped him with a hand to the chest. “Sorry, sir. You’re not allowed back here. Performers only.”
“A girl with bright colored hair just slipped back there. We need to talk to her,” Micah protested.
“Sorry. She had the credentials. You don’t.”
“It’s okay, Jack.” A tall, very muscular man with a blond buzz cut strode to them. “These guys are welcome any time. How’s it going, boys?”
Josiah popped his way through the fence and offered his hand. “Best as could be expected, Harry.”
Harry shook each Hallow brother’s hand and stuffed them into his jeans pockets. “How can I help you fellas out?”
“We’re looking for a girl. She just took off backstage.”
Harry motioned toward the curtains. “You’re welcome any time. Maybe one of these days I’ll get you to fight for my promotion. I just bought a cage.”
“We’ll talk more,” Micah remarked. “Right now, we need to find this girl.”
“I’ll hold you to that. See you guys later.”
Josiah and Micah hurried past the curtain and found themselves in a long corridor. The white painted concrete walls were blinding under the fluorescent lights. The only people who roamed the halls were staff, tearing down the show.
“Shit. We’re too late,” Micah said.
“Let’s just keep looking. We’ll ask these guys. Someone may have seen her.”
Josiah and Micah wandered down the hall. They stopped whoever they found to ask if they saw a girl with bright colored hair. The first three just gave them a silent shrug in response. The fourth pointed to a gray painted door. A sign with the name Luchador was taped to it.
Micah rapped his knuckles on it but there was no response. He twisted the doorknob and shoved it open.
Kai was there wrapped around the wrestler who they just saw win the belt. He had her pinned with his body against the side of a locker. Although he was still dressed head to toe in Lycra, Kai was in the process of losing her clothes. Her T-shirt was pushed up to her neck and the Luchador had a finger snaked inside the leg of her shorts. She groaned as he caressed a bare breast in his other hand as he feasted on her neck.
“What the fuck is this?” Josiah demanded.
The couple struggled to pull themselves from their lust-crazed stupor. The Luchador set her on her feet and squirmed to hide the bulge growing in his tights. Kai adjusted her clothes back to their place.
Josiah stormed to her until he hovered over her. “How dare you? Abe loves you and you go fucking around on him.”
“That’s not what I was doing,” Kai countered.
“Then what was it? It looked like fucking to me.”
“How are you doing it?” Micah questioned. “We can’t touch anyone else who wants us without getting violently ill. How can you?”
“I have no idea,” Kai answered.
“Maybe it’s a mermaid thing,” Josiah countered as he looked at Micah.
Micah stood stone still as he stared at the Luchador. A smile peeled from his lips. Josiah frowned. “What are you thinking, Mike?”
“I’m thinking I know why Kai isn’t getting violently ill. She would if someone other than her mate touched her. So maybe…”
Micah took hold of the Luchador’s mask and tugged hard. The Luchador wrenched away out of his grasp. It only helped unmask the wrestler.
Micah beamed at his baby brother. “It’s her mate who is touching her.”
Josiah glowered at Abraham. “What the fuck is going on?”
Abraham scowled back, his voice reverberating with a growl. “You wouldn’t let me fight so I found one of my own.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind? You’ve been running off to do this? You could have gotten hurt. The bloodsuckers could have gotten you.”
“I’m an adult, Joe.”
“Maybe you should act like one.”
Abraham threw his hands up. “You won’t let me. Everything I do, you’re on my ass. I can’t even breathe wrong without you going down my throat.”
“Because I want better for you. You don’t have to end up like us six. You were too young when Dad died to remember much. Fuck, Abe. You could have a family, settle down, be normal.”
“I call bullshit. There’s so much bullshit the place actually stinks now. For one, I wasn’t too young, asshole. Dad took me hunting. He read to me. I was there when he died and I remember every fucking detail. And two. Normal? I’m a werewolf. Nothing is ever going to be normal for me. Nothing is going to be normal for any of us.”
“Dad led a normal life. He had what I want you to have.”
“Dad lived in the middle of nowhere so no one could know who he was. He and Momma weren’t living in Duluth with their white picket fence.” Abraham sighed. “Joe, I know Dad told you to look out for me, for all of us. He’d be really proud of you. We all are. But fucking let up, okay? We’re men now. I am who I am because I want to be just like my brothers. You guys are my heroes.”
Micah chuckled despite the tension. “That’s pretty fucked up, Abe. Us?”
Abraham smiled at them. “Yeah. You degenerates. Joe, stop trying to be my dad and be my friend, okay?”
Josiah stared at Abe in awe. When the hell had the little squirt grown up? He’d spent so much time trying to keep Abraham on the straight and narrow he’d missed the man Abraham had become.
Josiah cocked his head and smiled. “Champion, huh?”
Abraham grinned. It spread from ear to ear. “Hell, yeah.”
“And no one knows who you really are?”
“Only Harry, and I swore him to secrecy. He wants me to make a big reveal. Maybe when half the magic world isn’t gunning for us I will.”
Josiah shrugged. “Or sooner. Still, congratulations. Gold looks good on you.”
He could see Abraham’s cheeks tinge pink. “Thanks.”
“Wait.”
Josiah turned to see Micah rub his chin. The way his brow creased, Josiah guessed he was deep in thought. “What?”
“Didn’t Harry say he wanted to start promoting MMA fights?”
“Yeah. What about it?”
“Abe’s fight with Loch. It should happen here. Let’s go pitch it.”
Abraham laced his fingers between Kai’s as he gazed at her. “Yeah. Then let’s go home.”
Josiah nodded as he pulled the locker room door open. “Agreed. You go ahead and change. Mike and I will go talk to Harry. See you out front in five.”
“Got it.”
“Seriously, five. Save your quickie for home.”
Both Abraham and Kai laughed. “We understand.”
Josiah ushered Micah out and let the door close behind them.
Micah looked at him. “I don’t know about you and Sarah but Eve and I can get it done in under five.”
Josiah stared at him and burst out laughing. Micah joined him as he strode down the hall to look for Harry.
»»•««
Kai couldn’t tell where she was. The room was cavernous but claustrophobic and made of metal. She also knew she wasn’t alone. There were thousands around her but she didn’t recognize them. Their images were a fuzzy haze.
Bodies lay on the floor surrounded by pools of their own blood. She blinked to refocus as she shook in horror. Abraham’s brothers lay dead at her human feet, their wide eyes lifeless as they stared up to her. She still had trouble with the names but she knew the faces. The two closest were the ones who’d found them in the locker room that same night.
In her terror she counted. One, two, three, four, five, six…
The scream came from deep in her soul. The farthest from her was the man she loved, the only one who set her free. Abraham’s eyes were as vacant of life as his brothers’ while a trickle of crimson slipped from his mouth.
“Kai.”
She sat up straight in bed still trembling as hard as she’d been in her vision. She sucked in a c
ouple of deep breaths and turned to her lover. She met Abraham’s very much alive glare as he sat up next to her.
“You okay?” he asked.
“No, I had a vision.”
“A nightmare you mean.”
“A vision. I’m a seer, remember?”
“You’ve never had visions before.”
“I can’t dictate when they come, Abe.”
She startled at the fist beating on their bedroom window. “Everything all right?”
Abraham flung himself back on his pillow and rubbed his brow. “Kai had a bad dream.”
“I had a vision,” she insisted as she pounded her closed fist into the mattress.
“But everything is okay?” the voice asked.
“No,” Kai answered.
“Yeah, Josh. Go back to sleep,” Abraham shouted out the window.
She listened as the footsteps shuffled away in the grass and another voice muttered, “Fuck, she has a set of lungs. Glad we’re not mated yet. Right, Josh?”
Kai turned at Abraham and glared at him as she crossed her arms over her naked breasts. “Why aren’t you taking me seriously?”
“Beautiful, it was a dream,” Abraham answered.
“It was a vision.”
“And a vision is?”
“A glimpse into the future. And in it you’re dead.”
He frowned. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Am I dying tonight?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Then try to go back to sleep. In the morning, we’ll go talk to Joe about it. And we’ll figure out how to stop it.” He pulled the covers to his chin and rolled to his back to her.
“How can you sleep after I told you that you were going to die?” she pried.
“Because between my match and fucking you senseless both at the arena and here at home, I’m exhausted.” There was silence for a minute or two before she heard him softly snore. She slumped against the headboard as she fumed. How could he not take her vision seriously? In two hundred years, her visions were never wrong.
She sat in the dark unable to shake her vision. The images were clear as day. The thought of losing Abraham tore at her heart. Whenever that would happen, it wouldn’t be far in the future. He wasn’t much different than he was now.
“Very good.”
She frowned, puzzled. The voice she’d heard was in her head, not in the room. And she knew those tones. It had filled her mind for decades. She closed her eyes to try to drive Neptune from her thoughts.
“You served me well, Kai,” he continued. “The Hallows are dead. Now, retrieve the amulet and come home to me.”
Her eyes popped open in surprise. Somehow, in the disconnect she had with him, he mistook her vision for reality. He believed she’d obeyed him, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. She kept her stare on the wall ahead. If she looked down at her lover beside her, he would know something was up. “Yes, master.”
The pressure her head filled up with when he occupied it dissipated. She threw off the covers and sprang out of bed. With a wave of her hand, she was dressed in a tank top and shorts. Clothes still irritated her, but at the moment, it didn’t matter. Soon she’d have her fins again for a while. When her new mission was over, she would just have to find a way to get used to them.
She shuffled to the side of bed and bent over to kiss Abraham. It had to be quick in case Neptune returned to invade her mind again but long enough for her magic to work. She felt his body rise in his sleep to meet her.
As they parted, she whispered, “So we are always connected. So you know I am coming back to you after I free my family. I love you, Abraham Hallow.”
She got a snore in response. She hurried out of the cabin and across the grass to where Momma Hallow lived. She ducked among the branches as she crept to the bedroom window. She knew the jewelry box it was in and knew Abraham was telling her the truth when he told her it was counterfeit. She’d held both necklaces. She’d felt the sheer power radiate from the one hidden in the bag in the gym.
This one? It was costume jewelry, nothing more. But Neptune didn’t know that.
She lifted her hand and the lid of the jewelry box opened from across the room. The amulet rose into the air and floated to her across the slumbering woman buried beneath a patchwork quilt. Kai stifled a laugh. It was easy to tell where the boys got their snoring habit from.
She raced through the woods as she clenched the amulet tight in her hand. Once she’d finally found the lake, it’d taken several days to memorize the route there from the Hallows camp. She’d learned quickly the places to avoid, the places were the dangerous beasts called home.
It wasn’t long before she saw the sparkle of the quarter moon reflecting on the water’s surface. It would take days to get to the palace but the journey would be worth it. Her family would be safe and she would be in Abraham’s arms again. She ran past the dark building where she’d first seen Abraham as he’d pleasured himself against the rock outside. As she approached the bank, her clothes faded away. She gripped the amulet tight in her hand as she dove into the lake and disappeared beneath the surface.
Chapter Eleven
Abraham paced outside his cabin as he watched the pumpkin-orange sky slip into twilight. It wasn’t unusual for Kai to disappear during the day, but by now she would be back home. He hadn’t seen a trace of her all day, not since she’d woken up with her nightmare the night before.
Not to mention he had the uncanny sensation of cool water caressing his skin. He shivered for most of the day in the Minnesota heat and humidity. It was bad enough for him to skip his training. This was not the time for him to come down with something. He had a big fight coming up with the Loch Ness Monster no less.
He looked up to see Josiah striding across the camp toward him. He rolled his eyes. He wasn’t in the mood for his brother’s shit.
“What do you want, Joe?” Abraham demanded.
Josiah stopped and shrugged. “You look bothered. I came to see if something was wrong,”
“I’m great.”
“Really?”
Abraham looked away in silence. Josiah continued. “Look, I hear you. I’ve been too much of a hardass on you and I’m sorry. I’ve been so afraid of you growing up I missed when you did. You got stuck with the most difficult mate of them all and you are handling it all so well.”
Abraham let a weak laugh escape his throat. “I’m not so sure about that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Kai should be back by now. She’s not.”
“Do you want me to go help you look for her?”
Before Abraham could answer, they heard a high-pitched scream come from Momma’s cabin. They glanced at each other before they sprinted across the camp. Neither stopped until they were standing in her living room. Before long the other four filed in behind them along with a couple of the mates.
She stood in the doorway of her bedroom with her jewelry box in her hands. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone, Momma?” Josiah questioned.
“The amulet. I wanted to look at it. It might not be real but it looks exactly the same. It’s not here.” She held the box out to him.
“Shit,” Josiah muttered under his breath. “The vamps got to us. And none of us knew it.”
“How?” Micah countered. “It’s been daylight. As far as I know, they can’t get here. Did you look at it before you went to bed, Momma?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“Then the floodlights didn’t work,” Josiah remarked with a growl.
“They work, Joe,” Micah confirmed. “I tripped the motherfuckers on accident last night. Sorry for the language, Momma. And they would have killed us.”
Abraham stared at the box in Momma’s hand as he thought. His heart plummeted into his gut. Kai was gone and hadn’t come home yet. The imitation amulet, the one he busted her trying to steal, was gone too. Maybe it was the weird cool wave constantly washing over him but it didn
’t seem like a coincidence.
“Check the bag,” he murmured.
“Check what, dumbass?” Caleb demanded.
Abraham glared at Caleb as he blinked back sudden tears. “Check the bag in the gym. We need to make sure we still have the real one.”
“Why wouldn’t we, Abraham?” Josiah asked.
Abraham sighed. He could hear Ezekiel behind him mutter, “Dude.”
Abraham sucked in a hard breath and confessed. “I caught Kai in here yesterday trying to steal the fake. Like the stupid ass I am I showed her where the real one is. I thought I could trust her. She said she loved me. Fuck, I am such an idiot.”
Josiah’s gaze never left him as he spoke. “Mike.”
Micah nodded. “I’m on it. Josh, Cay, come with me. I’ll need your help to get it down.”
The room was silent when the men left and it seemed to take an eternity for them to get back. Josiah’s countenance darkened as he glared at Abraham. For the first time Josiah had admitted that he was being too overbearing. Abraham thought he might be able to finally have a friendship with his oldest brother instead of Josiah riding his ass every moment. After this, he’d be lucky if he ever made it out of his cabin before he died. He couldn’t stop a tear or two from slipping down his cheeks, but he wasn’t about to wipe them away. For some reason to him it showed weakness and he was sick of being thought of as weak.
Micah stepped into the dim room with Joshua and Caleb on his heels. He glanced at Abraham and Josiah. He held up his fist and opened his palm. Inside his hand was nestled the amulet.
“Is it the real one?” Josiah queried.
“Oh, yeah. The little fucker is humming up a storm. I don’t think it likes the punching bag much.”
“It’s because we hit the punching bag every day,” Ezekiel replied with a snort of a laugh.
“Okay, we’ll put that back.” Josiah nodded toward the necklace in Micah’s hand. Then he looked back at Abraham. His face softened. “All we know is someone stole the fake. We don’t know who.”
“I know who,” Abraham retorted. He gave up and swiped his damp cheeks with the back of his hand.
“Eternal bond, Abe,” Micah reminded. “She’ll be back. She has no choice.”
Bantamweight Page 11
