Alexia and Devon had also talked about what they should tell the police and Caty, and in the end, they’d called Danny to the scene. Ironically, no one had seen the dragon. Magic at work? Alexia didn’t know. Danny had also helped with the state fire investigation. The official cause of the fire had been attributed to reckless campers leaving a fire unattended in woods that were dry due to the early summer weather New York was experiencing. She was just grateful they didn’t have more clean-up.
They’d told Danny all of it, trusting him to keep their secret, but also to spin the story in such a way that it would cover all the bases. He couldn’t exactly go to S’Bones and explain that the forearm evidence was ritual-based, that the bruises on the sternum were the result of pressure from Shadows holding the victims down psychically, or that these people had been Dormants.
So, when Devon had transformed to show Danny that he really could turn into a bear and that all of the histories and stories were also real, they’d both expected a bit of the chaos they’d seen from Cam, but Danny didn’t even bat an eye. In fact, he told them about the night Matthew Waters had beat his best friend nearly to death and the dragon scales that had emerged but then shrunk back into Cam. He’d been the only one to see it. The ritual had not been completed for Cam at that time. But Alexia and Devon knew what Danny did not, what had held back the change, and why now it was possible. Matthew Waters’ death, years of suppressing his animal, his introduction into the Clan world, and Mindy’s powers and eventual death. Life had broken Cam down until he’d had no choice but to cover himself in layer upon layer of impenetrable darkness.
It had been Danny who’d called the police and gotten his mom to come and stop Matthew Waters years ago, and those actions had saved Cam’s life. Danny believed in magic. So, when Alexia and Devon told him about Cam, he looked resigned. He didn’t look scared or angry or worried about their sanity even. He looked as if he’d been preparing himself for that moment. But when Alexia told him about Mindy, his reaction was not so calm. He’d broken down in the most heart-wrenching sobs she’d heard yet, even worse than the silent tears Nicky had shed when they’d put Uncle Grover to rest. The genuine pain radiating from Danny had been her undoing.
She sat on the back porch rocking back and forth on the hammock – twilight touching the sky like a small fire burning in the hearth. Her whole body felt numb, detached, surreal. Her Clan sides were silent. So silent, she wanted to cry at their absence. Their absence, although temporary, felt like another death. Whereas just a couple months earlier, she been thinking Skröm meant evil, now she knew the truth.
Evil came in all shapes and sizes. All forms. All colors. All Clans. No one could escape its clutches because Evil was not always tied up in some nice, neat bow.
Alexia rocked for what felt was minutes or hours or days. There was no distinction in time. She just was, and everything inside her wasn’t breaking… It was already broken.
She felt a strong presence at her back, and her tears gave way. Alexia’s sobs were pulled from her heart as the strong presence reached for her and pulled her close, holding her tightly. She should have felt more broken, more destroyed by the vulnerability of the moment, but as always, her mate’s hold could make the world light again. His hold – and the net that surrounded them in a swirl of red veins and green-tinged tendrils – could make her come undone and build her back up at the same time. She let all of her pain come out in heaving gasps and weeping, and he held her through it. He loved her through it. And when she thought she was done, she looked at his face, which was covered in tears as well. She started crying again and he only held on to her tighter. Alexia could feel his energy seeping into her very bones, reviving her Vuković and her Skröm sides as he loved her through the pain.
Alexia and Devon stayed there for a while, in silence. The sound of the animals and the mountain wind and the rushing river slowly making their way into the couple’s moment.
Peaceful and yet raging.
Because an animal was never just peaceful. A mountain wind was never just soothing. A river was never just a steady flow. Animals, under the right circumstances, could become fearsome monsters. Mountain winds attacked without warning as they battered your shelter with their natural anger. And rivers could change from peaceful flowing waters to chaotic white rapids in no time at all. The ebb and flow of life was full of chaos and danger, and now she’d experienced that truth yet again.
Alexia curled into her mate, and she let his presence soothe her damaged wolf soul, her raging Skröm blood, and her very human heart. Despite the fact that she was not human at all.
“You’ve been out here for two days, Red,” her mate whispered in her ear. Always by her side. They were one, and she’d be damned if anyone would take him from her, too. She pulled him more tightly to her, and he let her. It slowly hit her, what he’d said.
“Two days?” she asked slowly, and her throat felt raw and dry. “No, that can’t be.”
“It’s been two days, and this is the first time you’ve responded to me or to anyone else, Red.” He paused as he pulled her closer as well, so tightly she felt his love seeping through her skin while he kissed her forehead. He was hesitating over something, though. She could feel it, but she didn’t want to know what he was about to say. Was there more bad news? More losses? They’d both suffered too much. They couldn’t take another hit.
“How’s Carrie?”
“Don’t you mean Tinkerbell?” Devon asked, and she noticed that he tried to smile, but it did not reach his eyes. “She’s doing better. She’s healed, but heavily scarred. The scars…” He took a deep breath. “Well, they’ll never fully go away.”
“Oh, God.” Alexia wanted to go to her. Wanted to help her work through this.
“You’ll have the chance,” her mate said. God, Devon just got her, didn’t he? “But first, you’ve gotta take care of yourself. Let me help take care of you,” he pleaded. Her rock. Her home. “You’ve got to drink.” And before she could fight him on it, he pulled her to his neck.
Her Skröm side knew what to do as she felt that part of her enter her previously empty psyche. Her fangs slid out of their little corner, and she let them enter his neck slowly. He gasped at the contact, and she realized suddenly that he hadn’t really touched her in those two days. Fated mates lived for each other’s touch, mind or body, and she’d held both back from him. She’d obviously needed to grieve in her own way, but she’d neglected her mate in the process. Alexia felt her cheeks warm and substance return to her form before she gently pulled back and offered her own neck.
“Devon?” she asked, when he didn’t take her offered gift right away. Did he not want to drink from her? Her insecurities came to the front, and she felt the shame of her rejected offering down to her toes. Alexia tried to pull away, but he held onto her.
“No, Red,” he said, in a gruff voice. “I want to… Jesus, do I want to. But I won’t be able to control myself right now. I don’t think you would be able to either. I need to be with you at the deepest level – and I won’t do that to you while you’re grieving.”
Alexia watched him, her shame dissipating as she chastised herself for falling on old insecurities. He wasn’t going anywhere. He was her mate, and he loved her, and she was absolutely worthy of that love. And damn it, but he was grieving, too. They needed this. He needed her, and she’d left him. Not truly left him, not like—
She stopped her thoughts with a shake of her head, and turned to her mate.
“You’ll drink, Devon, because you’re grieving, too. We both need this. And Man Bear,” she whispered, right next to his ear, “if it’s what you need, what we both need…we’re mated. We complement each other, and I will be what you need me to be for you, just as you would do the same.” This time, when she exposed her neck, he gave her a wary look as he moved in closer. His desperation called to her, and Alexia let him know that that vulnerability was okay as she brought her hand to the back of his head and guided his mouth to the suppl
e skin at her throat.
She could give him this.
They could give each other love and companionship and touch and healing. And that would be okay. Mindy would have wanted them to have that. She’d been all about love. All about forgiveness and grieving and finding joy whenever possible. In fact, if Alexia had tried to object to this moment, Mindy would have yelled something intrusive like, “Stop fucking around in your head, and just bang your man, already!”
Alexia smiled a teary-eyed smile at the thought, and a small laugh escaped her just as her mate’s fangs entered her neck in a flurry of feeling so deep and raw and real that her laugh turned into a moan of exquisite pleasure.
As his fangs retracted from her neck and the tendrils around them spread out into the Earth, Alexia felt her magic, her power come back to life, and a peace settled over her. Devon reached for the waistband of her jeans and he undid the button in a rush, ripping the stretchy material in a haphazard manner that only made her seek a deeper moment with him. He tore the material the rest of the way down and a small chuckle escaped her.
The laugh felt foreign, felt unwarranted, like a part of her shouldn’t be happy, but she didn’t follow that line of thought because Devon grabbed her face in his large palms and made her look in his eyes. Made her see the grey-green beauty that would help anchor her to him. The planes of his face were shadowed by the bruises of the fight, and with their quick healing, she knew he must have been bleeding and injured badly if he was still healing almost five days later. Wow. Had it been five days? Of course, she’d been out for two of them.
“They aren’t healing,” Alexia whispered with a voice that was no longer as raspy, now that she’d had some sustenance.
“You were hurt,” he said in explanation, and she realized that their bond had healed her before him. That the pain and the catatonic state she’d put herself in had been a wall between their bond, and she’d taken more than her fair share. She’d taken too much.
He wasn’t healing because she’d held back. Alexia looked away, but Devon was the best person she’d ever known, and he refused to let her turn her head fully. He held her face firmly with just that one hand, and he didn’t say a thing. He just shook his head and gave me a small smile before leaning in to kiss her cheek and then her jaw. He followed this action up with a slow-burning kiss that speared her heart with a small dose of healing light.
Apparently, they could go slow after getting some blood-drinking in.
She touched the bruises along his face gently, kissing a path along each, taking the blame and accepting the forgiveness in his eyes. She’d do better in the future. She’d do better right now.
She didn’t have healing gifts like some of the Azima did, but she did have a bond with a fated mate, a gift any Clan member wished for, and as she kissed along each bruise, she gave a little of her strength and her power until she saw the bruises lighten to a yellowish tint.
She couldn’t heal them completely, but she could help. Carrie had taught her that trick in one of their training sessions, and she thanked the little Tinkerbell and her Herculean brother in that moment, wishing that Carrie had had the same benefit. But Carrie would make it through. Tinkerbell was stronger than most gave her credit for.
“Thanks, Red.” Devon nipped at her bottom lip. “But now that you’ve healed me a bit, I’d really like you to put your mark as deep as you can. Score my back with those wolf nails. Bite me hard with those beautiful Skröm fangs. I want to feel you all over, my beautiful mate, so don’t hold back. Let loose. Let go of your pain. Let go of your heartache. Because Red,” he whispered and his breath tickled Alexia’s ear and turned her on even as her heart stuttered at the fact that she had so much pain to let loose, “I intend to let everything I have let loose in you.”
And her man didn’t disappoint. They let themselves go. They let themselves bleed. They let themselves sink so deeply into each other that there was no beginning and no end to the madness they emptied into one another.
They were pain personified, but they were also love, and love always conquered pain. Love always conquered fear and loss. And their love, their connection, their mating was as pure as anything this world had ever seen.
In the moment when they both orgasmed and her mate emptied himself inside her with every last drop of pain and cum he could relinquish; in that moment, surrounded by their tendrils of power as she drew the corded vein of his neck into her mouth and sucked at him as he sucked at the vein above her breast; in that moment as she scored his back with her claws in a frenzy to let go and let him carry the burden of her anguish.
In that moment…
In that moment…
Evil lost and Love won.
Yes, their lives were forever changed. Yes, they had lost people – some on a soul-deep level, and some forever to the heavens that existed beyond their world.
They’d lost them, and it ripped at their insides. But in each other’s arms, they found release and hope and faith. Faith that the world was not over, that salvation was still possible for some, that they could change what had been made even if they could not change the fates of all of those who’d fought beside them.
Alexia grabbed onto Devon’s hand and curled her back into his stomach as they spooned on the hammock, in a position that felt so natural.
She knew this moment of calm and bliss wouldn’t last. Darkness was falling over them. They hadn’t been able to save Mindy, but come hell or high water, they would fight to get back the man they had lost to the Dark. Darkness was a test, but it was also a choice. And Alexia knew, deep down to the depths of her very Light Clan soul, that she and Devon could save Cam.
“Love you, Red,” Devon whispered at her ear, and the rush of his breath calmed her heart and mind in such a way that she started to drift off.
As her eyes fluttered closed, she softly murmured, “Love you, too, Man Bear,” and she fell into a deep sleep.
Alexia had her Midnight, her Man Bear. She had her love. She had her home right there at her back. That’s all she needed, that’s all she’d ever hoped for.
Her wings flapped around her, tinged-red and lightweight, but to her bird-like eyes, they were huge. To a human, her wings were weak and small, like the rest of her; but still, she had become a symbol. A symbol that life would move forward, but that ancestors and deceased loved ones remained watching over them all.
She watched the woman with the red hair as she held the darker of her two new babies. She’d just had twins, one dark skinned and named Graham after the man she’d barely met, but who had rescued her countless times. The other a light skinned baby girl named Mindy, after the woman who had always been her rescuer, whether she’d wanted the rescuing or not.
Alexia stood with her strong husband who held baby Mindy. Both babies had light orange eyes, and Mindy herself, as a cardinal, smiled on the inside. The Light Skröm Clan was returning, and her girl – as powerful as she was – was a part of that return.
Devon had been Alexia’s constant. He’d continued to live and learn and love at her side. He’d even been with her as she traveled to the Prussian empire and learned about sites she’d only dreamed of.
Mindy herself had continued watching as Alexia changed her major, as she took over for Mindy at the morgue, and as she started alongside Danny and his beautiful mother, Caty. After all that had happened, Alexia had needed something different, something to do where she could truly feel useful.
Mindy had watched Alexia for six years…six years that had seemed like forever, and she’d seen Alexia grow and love. She’d once told Alexia that her happiness gave Mindy joy, that Alexia deserved to be happy. Watching her, when she was able to visit, filled an emptiness in Mindy.
Mindy was lost to them now, lost to almost everyone. It wasn’t by choice. She was supposed to be gone from this world completely. Her sacrifice was supposed to have meant something.
But fate was, quite literally, an über bitch. Or she should have said, Lilyana Zoranski and the Shadow
of her soul sitting inside of Mindy, was a bitch. She wouldn’t let go. If Mindy had been able to live her life normally, she might have thanked the psycho. But she wasn’t able to live normally. Her days were spent as a Red Cardinal and her nights as a barely corporeal human, except to the two men she was not lost to.
Two men who could touch her, see her, love her. One of the men, she visited only when he slept and dreamed. The other was her rock. They’d spent most of the last six years looking for a cure, a reason, but there was nothing. And so she half-lived – bird and human ghost, which was really no life at all.
The one who she allowed to see her held her when things got really tough, but they never crossed that line. Lilyana Zoranski’s nagging presence was an ever-present curse and gift. Yes, it had been the combination of her Shadowed soul and Mindy’s untapped magic that had held her back from the brink of death, but Mindy was almost positive that it was also Lilyana’s soul that held her to this man, one of the men she was not lost to. Mindy didn’t know how she felt about that, especially because she didn’t know how she felt about him.
Mindy did know how she felt about the only other man who could see her, though. The one she visited while he rested, while he still looked like the man she had once loved even with his empty, swirling, silver-gold eyes.
She had sacrificed herself for him and for Alexia. And although he was steeped in darkness now, he was still her everything. She may have let the one man see her, but she would not let the other. The other was Evil personified now. He was darkness. He was, in fact, Other. Not human. Not Clan. He was something else entirely. His beast was a monster who terrified her and who called to the Azima leader in her as well. She wanted to heal him. She wanted to heal his monster and make him whole again.
The Devil's Pride (Wild Beasts Series) Page 31
