We pulled up to a small dock jutting out of the side of a cliff face. There was no beach or easy approach to speak of, but three other boats identical to ours were docked there. We got out of the boat and took some time to stretch and look around as the man tied the boat to the dock.
“I’m Stavros.” He smiled at us—crooked teeth and deep laugh lines on a tanned face. “Pleased to meet you all.”
Nina introduced us one by one. “Stavros is a Lighthunter, like me.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I smiled, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from wandering up the cliff. I had to lean back to see the top. “Um, where are we, exactly?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you,” Stavros deadpanned, his voice low and gravelly. My eyes widened. Alec stiffened and stepped between the man and me. He couldn’t use his ability—none of them could on the Lighthunters—but Alec was deadly for more than one reason.
Nina slapped Stavros on the shoulder and rolled her eyes. “Not funny, old man.”
His serious mask dropped, and they both laughed. “It was a little funny.”
The scowl on Alec’s face suggested he disagreed.
“Come on.” Stavros picked up his backpack and waved for us to follow him.
Alec grudgingly brought up the rear. At the end of the dock, stairs zigzagged all the way to the top of the cliff. Most of them were carved directly into the rock, but every once in a while, timber ones filled in gaps.
“We are in the Greek islands.” Stavros puffed his chest out. “This island is called Naxonnos, and as far as the authorities are concerned, it is barren and unlivable with no wildlife or plant life of note. It is remote, about three hundred kilometers past the nearest island frequented by tourists or locals. It is also Lighthunter HQ.”
He delivered the last line as we crested the top of the cliff. This island definitely wasn’t barren or abandoned. Before us was an entire city! Or what I imagined a city would look like without really tall skyscrapers.
Paved streets and low buildings stretched out in front of us. People were milling about; ATVs and golf carts zipped past. I could even see a helicopter on a landing pad to our right. I couldn’t believe an operation like this had managed to go undetected by all the world’s authorities and operations, including Melior Group.
Ethan echoed my thoughts. “Man, Lucian’s gonna be pissed he didn’t know about this.”
Nina leaned forward, sticking her head between ours to stage-whisper, “Wait until you see what’s underground.” She winked and grinned at us. “Let’s get you settled and fed.”
She pushed past us and led the way down the main street. Stavros waved goodbye and wandered off.
A few people threw us curious glances, but for the most part, people just went about their business. I was a little surprised to see so many children running around among the adults.
“Nina, what’s with all the kids? I thought this was, like, a secret lair or something.”
She burst out laughing, then cocked her head and hummed. “Yes, I suppose it kind of is. A lot of our work happens from here and a few other sites like it across the world, but it is also a settlement of sorts. Lighthunters call this place home. It is a sanctuary as much as it is a lair.”
The hot summer sun was beating down on us, and I was grateful when she gestured us toward a shaded table outside a café. She ordered food and drinks for everyone in Greek as we settled in.
“How many languages do you speak?” Josh asked as Ethan fanned himself with the menu. Alec and Tyler sat back, looking relaxed, but I knew they were watching everything closely.
“Twelve,” Nina answered as if it were no big deal.
My eyes bugged out. “Fluently?”
“Yes. French is my native tongue, and my accent is stubborn, but I speak, read, and write the other eleven languages fluently.”
Before we could ask more, the food was delivered. We all dug in, Ethan the most enthusiastically.
After half his meal was gone, Tyler leaned forward. “You said there was something underground?”
“Yes, about twice as much as you see above ground. Most of the dwellings and everyday life is above ground—cafés, shops, the school, the library, and so on. Below is a large bunker, offices, a server room, surveillance, our secret texts and teachings. Our work is below ground, safe.”
Tyler abandoned his food, his full focus on Nina. “What’s with all the secrecy? How is this even possible?”
It was killing him that there was something he didn’t know—that an entire organization managed to exist without his knowledge.
“At the start, it was about protecting ourselves.” She waved her hand dismissively, speaking around mouthfuls of food. “We’re talking about hundreds of years ago, when it was believed the Light was a gift from God and Lighthunters were kind of like prophets. We had a connection that no other mortal being did. We understood it, saw it like no one else could. Eventually, some assholes figured out they could make money from this. Between the snake oil salesmen—the ones pretending to be Lighthunters and charging a fortune to send hopeful young Variants on veritable goose chases—and the more sinister practice of capturing, torturing, imprisoning, and exploiting Lighthunters . . . yeah, we decided to go to ground.
“At the time, we were led by a charismatic man named Father Lightwood. He believed we were truly God’s prophets, sent here to guide the masses to better live according to how God wanted us to live. He convinced us the best way to do that was silently—that our work was too sacred to risk having it perverted. We withdrew from society, disappeared from the villages and emerging cities, took all our texts and any other texts we could with us.
“Over the years, we continued to erase any trace of ourselves from history. We worked in secret, orchestrating the meetings of Variants and Vitals by setting up scholarships, overseas exchange programs, and job offers to bring them into proximity with one another. We only stepped in where we felt we needed to—like the incident in Thailand.”
“I’m amazed you’ve managed to keep this a secret for so long.” Tyler shook his head.
“What happens when a Lighthunter is born? Do you take them from their family?” I questioned.
Nina smiled. “That is not necessary. We are not like Variants and humans. A Variant can be born to entirely human parents and vice versa. A Lighthunter can only be born to Lighthunter parents—our gift is hereditary. Not every child is born with the sight, but no child outside a Lighthunter family is ever born with it. There are one hundred recorded bloodlines of Lighthunter families. Sixty-six remain to this day. It is frowned upon and very rare for us to marry outside the community.”
I nodded. “I guess not living among the rest of the world would help with keeping the secret.” All the kids running around made much more sense now. This wasn’t just a hippie commune on steroids or a headquarters for a secret society; this was an entire civilization, living in secret.
Nina smiled sadly. “You have to understand, for us, this secret and the work we do is sacred. We have evolved with the rest of the world—hell, some of the technology widely available now we developed first and then leaked—but our traditions are strong and lasting. The fact that we are even having discussions about getting more involved is momentous. People are scared, but it is time for change. We have the resources to help, and we should.”
“Why are you telling us all this now?” Josh asked one of the things I’d been wondering too. “You were so secretive when we brought you in to find Eve, then Charlie. Why lay it all out now? Why even bring us here?”
“I trust you.” She shrugged. “I think our goals are aligned, and I think it is time. We know more about the outside world than your Melior Group does, but we are still isolated from it. I am hoping that by bringing you here, the reality of what is happening beyond those cliffs will become more concrete for those who rarely leave.”
She was helping us, keeping us safe from Davis’s greedy clutches, but she was also trying to effect change—in her own
community and in the wider world. I admired her for that.
“Nina!” The exclamation was half reproach, half disbelief.
We all turned to look down the street. A small group of people were marching in our direction, varying degrees of anger and confusion on their faces.
Nina groaned. “If they don’t excommunicate me first,” she mumbled before standing to face the group.
The man who’d shouted, the one in the lead, was tall, his full head of white-gray hair a contrast to his dark olive complexion.
“What were you thinking?” he demanded as he reached us. “You brought non-enlightened here? Have you gone completely mad?”
“I understand this goes against our traditions, but I felt I had no choice.” Nina spoke in a low voice, her head bowed, her hands crossed in front of her. “Elders”—she raised her head, looking at them all before turning slightly to us—“this is Evelyn Maynard, a Vivid with great power. She is in danger, and she may just be what we need to help us come to a decision. These are her Bondmates.”
A dozen sets of eyes focused on me. I resisted the urge to hunch my shoulders and sink into the chair, opting instead to wave and smile awkwardly.
Twenty-Seven
The first few days with the Lighthunters were like a holiday. They freezed us out of most of their discussions while they decided what to do with us, and we were placed in a cottage on the quiet side of the island. There were no beaches, but the hill was slightly less steep—not like the sheer drop we’d had to climb up on the way in. It was still impossible to walk down, although the goats didn’t seem to have any issues.
Our cottage was nestled in among about a dozen others. They were temporary accommodation for Lighthunters who didn’t live on the island. As most of them were currently out visiting Vitals and Vivids, all the other cottages were empty.
Ours had a kitchenette, a dining table with four chairs, and a living area with a couch. At the back was a small bathroom and a decent-sized bedroom with two queen beds. Once we’d pushed the beds together and Josh had dragged an extra chair over from the cottage next door, we were actually quite comfortable. A little patio with chairs overlooked the cliff and the stunning view beyond, and farther down, there was even a pool and a traditional Turkish hammam.
We spent the days exploring the island; the perimeter could be walked in under two hours, and we were banned from some areas, so it didn’t take long. Josh found a library in one of the main buildings, so he ended up doing a lot of reading. Alec and Ethan exercised frequently, and I joined them for daily runs.
Tyler struggled the most. He was so used to being in control, calling the shots, and knowing everything. Now, suddenly, he was supposed to just stay out of it. There were no newspaper deliveries on the island and no TV in our cottage. We’d all left our phones behind, and he immediately started having major tech withdrawals.
The sun hadn’t even set on the first day by the time Tyler talked someone into giving him a laptop with a secure connection. He was able to keep an eye on the news; speak with Lucian, Kyo, and Charlie for short periods of time; and with Charlie’s help, even keep an eye on restricted intelligence channels. He didn’t share the info unless someone asked, but he was looking more and more worried each day. It wasn’t a surprise to any of us that things were going downhill.
We spent the evenings eating slow dinners on the patio and sipping Mediterranean wine. We played truth or dare, laughed, and had conversations that started with statements like “Remember that time we snuck out to follow Alec and Gabe to The Hole?” (Josh) and “OK, real talk, I actually hate mushrooms, and I wish you’d stop putting them in the stir fry” (Tyler) and “I’ll kill you all if you ever tell anyone, but . . .” (Alec).
I learned more about Alec and Ty’s bad-boy stage, their time hanging with the rough crowd from The Hole.
“Alec did it for many reasons, not least of all for the sense of control it gave him,” Tyler mused, swirling his pinot grigio. The corded muscle in his forearms danced with every movement. “But for me it was more about the challenge. My ability is passive. I never had to control it or rein it in. I just had to learn to keep my mouth shut when I accidentally learned something private. But other than that, I was free to use it all day and at any time. Fighting at The Hole made me learn how to control it, how to turn it off. I loved the mental challenge of figuring out how to do that more than learning how to fight, although that was fun too.”
“Eventually.” Alec smirked. “You got your ass handed to you the first few times.”
“Not the first time.” Tyler laughed. “The first time I didn’t even last two minutes before that fucking light went off telling everyone I’d used my ability. It was second nature. It took me ages to learn how to turn it off. Then I started getting my ass handed to me.”
Later that night we got onto the topic of food, and Ethan told us he really didn’t want to play pro sports. He had the talent and natural affinity for it, could probably have his pick of football, baseball, and ice hockey teams if he chose to really focus and train. “But honestly, all I want to do is cook.” He shrugged his big shoulders and looked around at the guys sheepishly.
“Bro, if you wanna cook”—Alec leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees—“then fucking cook. Who cares?”
Josh jumped in. “Life’s too short, man, filled with bad shit, pain, and loss. Follow your fucking dream.”
“You can totally do it. I know.” Tyler tapped the side of his head, half joking about his ability in an attempt to lighten the mood. It worked, and we all laughed.
I took Ethan’s big hand in mine and squeezed. I had no doubts at all he could do whatever he set his mind to. All of them could. And with each other’s support, we would be unstoppable. If we managed to survive the clusterfuck our lives had turned into. If the world managed to survive.
It seemed none of us really wanted to talk about that though—it was too heavy and bitter a subject for the sweet, warm night. It was too hard to talk about the future when we were precariously balanced on the tip of a sharp knife, unsure if we were about to slide down the smooth side, unharmed, or go plummeting down the sharp edge, leaving streaks of red behind.
Despite the way Tyler frowned at the laptop every day, his shoulders sagging under the weight of his worry, we managed to ignore the world for a few days and just enjoy one another. If my mother had taught me anything, it was to find joy in these moments—to seize the times of laughter and positivity, hold them tight, and let yourself embrace them. Because you never know when the next threat will come.
So I enjoyed the fresh food, the wonderful wine, the honest conversation with my Bond. I reveled in the warm sun on my shoulders during the day, in their embrace at night as I made love to one or sometimes more than one of them.
For a few blissful days, I let the rest of the world fade into the background as I lost myself in their stories, their smiles, their affectionate yet possessive touches. I knew I was sticking my head in the sand, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. For the first time since I’d met them, there were no secrets—not from everyone else and not from one another—and no immediate threats to our lives.
So fuck it! I was treating it like a Greek holiday and enjoying every minute.
The morning of the fourth day, we all had a slight hangover from the wine, and we lounged around the cottage and the patio. After days of summer heat, the sky was finally a little overcast, the air blessedly breezy.
By the early evening, it was cool enough for me to go in search of a cardigan. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds for the first time that day, just in time to disappear into the azure water in a stunning sunset.
“I’m gonna go give that steam room a try,” Josh announced, dropping the third novel he’d finished in as many days and stretching his arms over his head.
“Great idea.” I abandoned my search for warmer clothing and took Josh’s hand instead.
“Talked me into it!” Ethan flashed his dimples and foll
owed us out.
Tyler grunted, still buried in his laptop at the table. Alec was napping in the bedroom.
The three of us took a slow, lazy walk in the post-sunset glow, following a cobbled path to a building near the back of the cottages. A couple of outdoor showers stood in the building’s little courtyard, just outside a spacious changing room and bathroom. Past that, a glass door led to the steam room.
Josh fiddled with the controls on the wall, and it started to fill with steam.
“Shit.” I grimaced. “We don’t have bathing suits.”
“Who cares? There’s no one around.” Ethan shrugged, whipping his T-shirt over his head and pushing his shorts and underwear down in one go. Every large, defined muscle was on display; his fire tattoo curved tantalizingly over his shoulder, making me want to lean forward and lick the flames.
“This is a Turkish hammam,” Josh mused as he too stripped down to nothing. “Traditionally, they were used in the nude, the men and women having separate facilities or times of the day to visit.”
Now there were two glorious specimens of male beauty before me—all that corded muscle, masculine spatterings of hair, smooth skin, and abs . . . so many abs.
Josh startled me out of my trance by stepping around me to grab three thin Turkish towels from a shelf. “They did, however, use towels from time to time.” He handed one to Ethan and one to me, then secured one around his own hips before giving me a light kiss on the cheek.
He opened the glass door and walked into the steam that billowed out, his ass looking incredible even in a light pink towel. Ethan flashed me another mischievous grin and followed Josh, not bothering to wrap the towel around himself. I could’ve sworn he put a little extra swagger into his gait, and I stared at his bare ass unashamedly. It was my ass after all.
They were right. We hadn’t seen anyone else in the cottages. It was unlikely anyone else would be coming to use the steam room any time soon.
I still wrapped the towel around myself after undressing, just in case.
Vivid Avowed (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 3) Page 31
