by Lia Davis
"Ready?" Meda called when our ball was too big to contain behind our bodies anymore. "Throw toward the water just in case the blast is as big as I think it'll be."
"Ready," Fenton called.
"On three," Tala said, then counted down. As she said three, we looked at the guys. They threw their ball of bright blue energy toward the air above the water, and we did the same. It wasn't difficult to move in unison, the power tied our thoughts together, and our bodies followed suit.
The orbs crashed into each other with a loud boom, and the ground shook under our feet. The small crowd cheered as a rainbow of sparks blasted us all. I felt a few stings of power tap at my skin, but we'd managed to throw it far enough out to keep the crowd from any harm.
"Again," a small girl yelled.
We turned to see Harper and Phenex walking toward us.
"Impressive," Phenex said. "But can you use that in battle?"
"Should you be out of bed?" I asked.
"I am much improved," he said. "Sleeping with my mates helped tremendously. Your energy helped my healing process while we rested."
Phenex's arrival sobered us, and we dispersed the crowd. We weren't there to create fireworks. We could do that for the rest of our lives. For now, we had to train for combat.
Chapter Fourteen
As soon as training was over, I made a beeline for my hotel room. After a scalding hot shower, I dressed in my favorite nightie and had just settled down with a book when a knock sounded at the door. Harper and Noah were off doing sentry drills, so I knew it wasn't them. Then again they wouldn't knock.
Setting my book on the bed, I got up and answered the door. My heart danced at the sight of Gino. His dark brown hair was, as usual, perfect, and his chocolate gaze lit up with desire. Without speaking, he stepped inside my room and closed the door behind him. "I've been waiting for a time to get you alone."
The fire in his gaze promised passion, and I was so on board with it. It amazed me how we'd been able to fight our desires as long as we did. Because I'd been tempted on numerous occasions to drag him off somewhere for some mind-blowing sex.
I reached for his white button-down shirt, and he grabbed my wrist while walking me back to the bed. Excitement shot through me. I would've never imagined I loved being dominated, but as much as I let my mates do it, apparently I did. The urge to be sassy and bratty rose up, and I wondered what Gino would do if I disobeyed his silent command to submit.
Even though he was a witch and not as fast or as strong as me, he still had a dominance and power inside him. I wanted to explore that side of him.
Letting my fangs lower, I smiled so they showed. His lips twitched as he noticed them, then his gaze darkened. "You going to bite me?"
"Oh, yes. Both my vampire and my lycan want to claim you. And they will." I pushed my arms into him, and he stumbled back a step but didn't let go of my wrists.
He chuckled and claimed my mouth in an unforgiving, raw kiss that sent a zap of power through me. Was that me or him? I didn't care because it felt too damn good.
Biting my lip, he pushed, and we fell on the bed in a tangle. Holding my hands above my head in one of his, he ran his other one down my side until he cupped me over my panties. A groan escaped me as I rocked my hips into his touch, wanting more.
He broke the kiss and trailed his lips to my ear. "As much as I want to tease every part of you, I need to be inside you now."
"Yes!" I tried to move my hands but he tightened his grip. I could break his hold if I wanted to. But a wickedly naughty part of me wanted to see where he was going to take this.
He brushed my panties to the side and thrust two fingers inside me, making me cry out in pleasure. My orgasm slammed into me, the intensity of the first time with my new mate taking me high. I desperately wanted to touch him, but he didn't release my hands.
Yanking down my panties, he pushed them down my legs until I was able to kick out of them. Then he tried to remove his pants with one hand. I smirked. "If you release my hands I could help."
"Oh no. You touch me, and I'll be done for." Gino's lips lifted into a sensual smile, and I almost came again.
Giving up on removing his pants, he settled for pulling himself out of his pants and scooting them down enough to grip his hard and huge cock as he guided it to my entrance. With a quick thrust, he entered me. Pleasure and desire crashed together and another release exploded inside me as he stretched me to the point of pain. If he'd been a fraction of an inch bigger, or if I hadn't been soaking wet, it would've been really painful.
He held on to my wrist with both his hands as he moved in and out, each forward thrust taking him deeper. My climax built higher, rolling through me like shockwaves. I wrapped my legs around his waist and rocked my hips with his once he made it fully inside, my walls stretching to accommodate him.
His scent filled my senses, clouding all ability to think. I was running on primal instinct and the need to claim him. Lifting my head, I struck, sinking my fangs into the curve of his neck, even with my hands trapped above me. His rich, magical blood coated my tongue and slid down my throat. I moaned as I sucked, taking what I needed.
Mine. He was mine.
The threads of a bond formed and weaved together faster than it had with Harper and Noah. Gino picked up his tempo, pounding into me while keeping his neck still under my teeth. My skin heated and tingled while our minds merged as the mating bond between us took root. When it snapped in place, we both cried out as our release washed over us.
Only then did he release my hands. I slid my arms around his neck and kissed him. When I broke it he stared down at me. Smiling, I asked, "What?"
"You are so beautiful."
"So are you."
He frowned. "Handsome, maybe."
I stroked his cheek with my index finger. "Men can be beautiful."
"I guess." He winked at me and pulled out. Then he rolled to his side, taking me with him.
After he kicked his pants off, I settled over Gino's chest with our legs tangled together. Listening to the thump, thump of his heart while feeling him inside my head. Our bond was strong, and I knew Harper and Noah had felt it snap in place. Harper wasn't happy about it, but she couldn't do anything about it, even if I'd wanted her to.
Gino stroked my shoulder with his fingers. "Now I know what Sterling was talking about when he said you and your sisters were powerful. I couldn't imagine carrying around that much power."
"I guess we're used to it. And it seems to be still growing."
Rumbling voices out in the common area made me frown. Then Meda entered my thoughts. Tala had a vision. We need to go. Now.
What? I jumped up and quickly dressed. "Something is wrong."
Gino was dressed and at the door before I was. Not impressive considering he'd never even taken off his shirt. We exited the room, and I crossed the common area to my sisters. "What is it?"
Meda had tears in her eyes. "Kins. Trinity has her."
Immediately, I start to form a portal, picking at threads to take us to her parents' home. Mom held up her hand. "Stop. We don't know what we're walking into."
The niswi each stared at her and asked, "We?"
Mom ignored them. "You can't go charging in unprepared."
"Mom, this is Kins and her family!" Meda began to pace.
With a sigh, Mom said, "I know, honey, but we don't even know where she is. They went to their secret place and only their secret keeper knows."
Meda stopped. "I know a few that might know. People close to her family."
Her lycan mate, Peter said, "Write the names down and I'll see if they are on the island and ask around."
Noah entered the suite and crossed the room with Harper and Randell behind him. "I'll help." He'd heard, apparently.
Meda nodded and grabbed the stationary pad and pen, then went to the table to make the list of names for Peter and Noah.
Harper stopped next to me and brushed her fingers against my hand. Wrapping my pinky with hers, I
focused on the group. "We need a plan while the guys are hunting down the secret keeper."
Mom nodded. "Tala, tell us everything in your vision."
Tala leaned into Kevin, and he wrapped his arms around her. "Trinity has them tied up. She used the curse she placed on us to tap into my visions somehow to send us a message. She said for us to come to her or Kins and her family will die."
Mom cursed. "She's a crazy bitch. We know this a trap and I wouldn't put past her to have already..."
"Jilly," Papa warned. Then he turned to us. "We go in knowing it's a trap, but that doesn't help us with the battle. Trinity is harnessing Hell power. What else do we know?"
"She wants revenge on all of us it seems." Tala crossed her arms and bit her lips.
I glanced up and met Phenex's stare as he walked in. "Phenex, can you call the hounds to help?"
"I will."
"Phenex, we'll need you to hang back to control the portals. We're not as fast at creating them as you." Meda rejoined us in the center of the common area. Peter and Noah left to find out where Kins's family's secret hideaway was.
Phenex nodded.
Mom met each of our stares. "Go in working as a team. Try like hell to fight the negative effects of the curse. Trinity will use it against you."
We nodded. And I sent a silent prayer to Poppy that Kins and her family were okay.
Chapter Fifteen
Phenex disappeared to gather his hounds. I didn't like to see him leave when the last time he'd left the realm it had been a trap, but he'd promised to pop directly into Hell and back.
Meda, Tala, and I took turns pacing the living room. After a half-hour, the three of us had to promise not to speak until we got news, because every time we did, we ended up yelling at each other.
Our niswi took mom into their bedroom to escape our venom. Several times one of us tried to leave the room and sit alone to wait, but always came back. Our nerves were too much on edge.
Finally, Phenex returned, walking through the hall. "They're in the hall," he said. "I didn't want to leave a portal to Hell open any longer than I had to."
Nodding, I sat on the edge of the couch and watched the door for the return of Peter and Noah.
Voices outside the door alerted us to their presence a moment before they walked in. "Here you go," Noah said. "Kinsley's grandmother."
He held his arm out, and an older woman with black hair streaked silver, walked in. "What's going on?" she asked, bowing at my mom as she stepped out of the bedroom. Her hair was rumpled like she'd grabbed a nap.
She'd been super-sleepy through the pregnancies of all our siblings. "Hello," she said kindly to the older woman. "I'm Jillian."
"Constance," she replied, looking around. "Why am I here?" Her wide eyes held a considerable amount of fear. "All they'd say is you needed to speak to me. Is this about my family?"
Tala stepped forward, and I felt her magic pulse in the bond. She was probably feeling Constance's fear. Her empathy was difficult for her to block sometimes. "Constance, we fear Kinsley is in danger."
Constance shook her head. "Can't be. They went to their hidden home."
"That's sort of the point. We think that their home has been discovered." I gave Constance a sympathetic look before continuing. "I know it's a lot to ask, but we need to check on them."
"I can't," she said.
"What if you tell me?" I asked. "We can step into the other room, and I can open a portal that is big enough for us to peek through, just like a peephole on a door. If everything looks normal, I'll swear to keep the secret and we'll move on."
She considered my offer and nodded. "Okay, yeah. We can just check first."
We walked into my bedroom, and after she whispered the location in my ear, I found the place where I could pluck at the tapestry. In no time, I had a tiny hole open and held the strands away from each other with my mind. Peering through the hole, I saw blood all over the walls.
Releasing the threads with a snap, I turned to Constance. "Are you here alone?"
"No, my husband, son, and his family are here."
"Do they know you're here?"
She nodded, her face moving from fear to sheer terror. "What did you see? Let me see."
"I've already closed the portal." I opened the door to the others. "Constance, go to your family. Wait downstairs. We might be gone a while. It didn't look good. We have to go get your daughter and granddaughter."
Meda sucked in a deep breath, squaring her shoulders.
"I'll walk her down," Mom said. "I'm not going with you." Tears filled her eyes as she spoke. She put her hands on my shoulders and kissed my forehead. "Be strong."
Moving to Tala, she said, "Be fast." Then, to Meda, "Be sure."
I felt my sisters' sadness as they watched Mom say goodbye to the niswi, then walk out the door with Constance, her head held high. It took a great deal of strength for her to not watch us go through and maybe even watch from the portal.
But she was a leader of all the Collective, not just her family. She had to be there for Kinsley's family as well.
"Are we ready?" I asked as I looked around at my niswi, mates, and sentries. The hounds stood in the hall peering in, none of them familiar to me.
Nobody said anything in argument, so I prepared to open the portal. "Stand back," I said.
"Hang on," Meda said. "Let's get the power flowing before we go in."
I nodded and started trying to connect to the hell power we'd have to have to make any headway against Trinity.
As usual, I connected first. They were going to have to start practicing. What if something happened and they needed it while I wasn't around? I grabbed them and pushed the power into them without preamble. When we were filled as full as we could be, I slashed open the portal, Meda conjuring a sword for her and Tala. I followed, forming energy balls and shooting them off before I'd even gone through the portal.
The living room was covered in blood, and once I got a proper look at it, I realized three bodies laid on the floor. "Check them," I yelled as I flung energy balls at the demons pouring from the back of the house. I hadn't imagined that many demons could fit inside a house that looked like it was maybe a three-bedroom, if that. But they kept coming.
Phenex stooped and put his hands on the bodies of Kinsley and her parents. I knew what he was going to say before he opened his mouth. "They're dead," he said sadly.
My heart clenched in my chest and Meda whispered, "No."
I shoved my grief away. Meda and Tala kept the demons away from us, and away from the bodies of our friends, but I didn't know how long they could keep the demons on that side of the room. The niswi fought well, helping Meda and Tala keep the demons at bay, but there were too many of them. "Get them out of here. Find an empty room in the hotel for them and tell mom. Then come right back. Don't say anything in front of Kinsley's grandmother."
Phenex nodded, and made a portal beside the bodies. I looked away as he picked up Kinsley and stepped through. Focusing on throwing fireballs, I intentionally didn't watch the removal of the bodies.
When Phenex returned, Dad spoke up. "Get in the back and be prepared to open a portal to get us out of here if necessary." Phenex nodded and moved toward the back of the room.
Maniacal laughter echoed around us. "Welcome," Trinity's voice said. "I've been expecting you."
"Come out and face us, you bitch," Tala growled. "Stop hiding behind your demons."
"Where is your father?" I heard my Paw ask Dad. "Why is he allowing all these demons to be under her control?"
"I don't know. I haven't been able to reach him since he set us up on the island."
I kept throwing the energy balls while my sisters swung their swords. Our sentries tried to edge around us and protect us, but they just couldn't get past us. We were better than they were. If a demon got around us, they dispatched it with ease.
As I thought about how well we were doing, I realized I'd been backing up. The sheer volume of demons was slowly back
ing us toward the portal. I had to let it go and trust Phenex to be prepared to get us out now that he knew where we were. Inch by inch, we were pressed toward the door. The hounds in the back opened it. I looked when I felt the atmosphere in the room change. The air from the breeze outside caressed my cheek as if telling me it missed me. With a sob, I soaked up more power, throwing more and more energy balls.
When they hit their mark, which wasn't as often as they should have, they didn't seem to have the same effect as the last time. These demons were warded or shielded somehow. The sword, or physical contact, worked fine.
Magic, not so much.
By the time we retreated to the front porch, my energy waned. I started pulling from my mates, minuscule amounts to help me continue funneling the power. I was afraid I'd have to switch to hand-to-hand combat to keep myself in the game.
"Meda," I called. "Conjure me two swords, please."
She knew exactly what I wanted. I liked having two smaller swords in-hand, to slice and dice.
I kept hold of the hell power but didn't try to focus it. I dug into the demons with a gusto. Some of them disintegrated, some fell with a squelch. Some had horns, others had spikes. They were as varied as the animals in the forest or the faces of the humans. Each one unique.
Each one had to die.
Soon I realized it wasn't going well. Just as I thought about calling a retreat, or at least encouraging Meda or the niswi to call one, a roar from the forest behind us had me whirling around.
We kept fighting, but our attention kept straying to the forest, especially when the ground shook under our feet.
"What the hell is that?" Tala yelled as she chopped the head off of a demon with purple spikes.
We didn't have to wait long to find out. It stomped out of the forest, with the head of a lion. "Holy Hell," I whispered, my swords dropping to my side as I took in its massive horns.
Big mistake. As soon as my arms dropped, something plowed into my side. I hit the ground hard with a grunt.
Someone yanked the demon off of me, giving me time to get to my feet, but I gasped in pain. It felt like my ribs were cracked.
