Team Inez (House of Garner Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  Except faster and back and forth with them showing up and turning into seeds.

  The time went fast, and when I started itching, Darius gave them the word to head to the ship. That was fine, I wanted to help.

  Until I heard there was a nuclear fucking reactor on board and that was how the ship was supposed to run normally and the fueling had been a workaround. I blinked at them, Callum in particular who had come with us to drive and oversee this.

  “Are you out of your mind? You want me to use power, magic fueled by ghosts’ energy and blood, and play with a nuclear fucking reactor? I thought you liked me.”

  “I do like you and a lot,” Callum chuckled. “You won’t be touching any of the radioactive anything. You’re going to fix the components that shut everything down when the bombs hit near them and the EMPs. Everything’s been sealed up the right way as it should have been in an emergency. You got this.”

  “If I fucking blow us up, I’m so haunting your ass in whatever comes next,” I grumbled, letting them lead the way before the ghosts started again. “I’m gonna turn green from this, I know it. Or if it works, I’m getting shot soon for sure.”

  “You’re a saucy little sexy bite for sure,” James chuckled.

  “Wow, Vance calls me that too, and I’ve never heard it before.” It amused me enough to cut through my freaking out. Plus, the ghosts would catch up soon, and I didn’t want to add that to playing with a nuclear fucking reactor.

  Which Darius reminded me they weren’t actually called that. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, they were when I had to mess with one. The “fucking” was needed then for sure like I was fucking nuts to do it.

  At the last minute we diverted and went to other areas to begin when I brought up the worry that if we started at the reactor before everything else was fixed, it might just shut down again. Or blow us up. I was very concerned we were going to get blown up.

  But that worked out well at least, as I could feel my power moving along the first deck—or bottom deck maybe, I didn’t know the terms—and somehow I knew where it cut off in fixing. Callum could tell too because he waved at where it stopped, nodding he was all over it and not to worry.

  Right, because there was still that whole nuclear fucking reactor thing in a bit.

  We did two more rounds before we ran out of ghosts and I gave Darius a worried look after I let the energy out. “I don’t know if it’s better to get really charged up or if that might make it worse.”

  “I think getting anything on halfway would be worse,” Callum said after a moment. “You’ve not blown one thing, Inez. You could have multiple times from the navigator to the camper to the semi, and your power always seems to know exactly where that line is. I’m sure the Goddess would never have let you come here if you were going to blow us all up.”

  “Her brother might,” I grumbled, turning and biting Darius before I changed my mind. I took as much as I could and then licked the bite closed, sending up a silent prayer to Aether or whoever was trying to help me out—even if putting me in their mouse maze—as I put my hand on the control panel and let it out. I closed my eyes as I felt things start to fix around me and my magic hopped all around.

  “We’re not blowing up,” Callum chuckled. “You don’t have to squeeze your eyes shut so you don’t see it coming.”

  “Seemed smart to me,” I grumbled, keeping them closed. I yelped when warning buzzers and horns started going off.

  “That’s to let us know it’s starting up properly,” James promised. “This is right, keep going.”

  “Warn the person fixing the nuclear fucking reactor that it will make noises,” I grumbled. Yeah, that was probably a given, but like seriously, I was one huge ball of freaked out. It was a bit more, but then I felt my power not have anywhere else to go, which worked because I was about out of juice.

  I spun around and about climbed Darius, the fire flashing fast and hotter than normal since I’d been controlling the power instead of just letting it out full throttle. He easily caught me and blurred us out of there. Yeah, good thing because I wanted away from the nuclear fucking reactor even if it was safe.

  We ended up in an office, and he bent me over the desk, lifting my skirt and taking me as we both needed. I begged him for more, my hips moving to meet his thrusts. It was amazing.

  He was amazing.

  “Cross that off the bucket list,” I panted when we were done, melting on the desk.

  “What, my love?” he asked, kissing my shoulder and under my ear.

  “I’m trying to embrace the crazy better. We had hot sex on an aircraft carrier. That’s one for the bucket list.”

  “Yes, and thank you for doing it in my office, as I’ll never be able to look at my desk the same again,” James drawled. He nodded to Callum. “And what was that?”

  “Um, my knights get a taste of what I’m feeling if they’re around and it’s dirty stuff,” I muttered, hiding my face in embarrassment. Then I burst out laughing. “Really? The captain’s office on an aircraft carrier?”

  “That’s one way for you to christen a ship,” Darius teased me. We quickly cleaned up and went to head out, but James waved for me to follow him.

  “We will keep up our end of the deal, but if I might offer an alternative idea,” he explained as he led us into a room that looked like the main war room or something. He stopped by a global map with topography on a large table. He tapped Alaska, showing where we were. “We can navigate the Arctic Ocean and come out down by Europe and get to Ireland that way and with a lot less time.

  “You want to pack up everything useful and get it to your new coven eventually, right? So why don’t we do it smarter and clear out Anchorage for your gift? It’s a full city with a few hundred thousand people originally, and I saw solar panel stores and more. A lot has been picked over in food, but a lot is still here. If you fix some choppers, we use the fuel we have for them and bring trailers right on the deck. That’s what you eventually want, right?”

  I flinched, getting he’d figured out why else I wanted them to join us. “Maybe. I’m not sure what we’re doing or what’s the steps or just ideas.”

  He moved closer to me, closer than Darius liked from the tension I felt in the room. James moved so I was backed against the table. He leaned in and sniffed me. “Let me have you right now, and I’ll agree to do this and more, me and my crew will work for your coven. Let me taste what Darius got, even as you bleed, and we’re yours. No one ever needs to know, just us here would know I fucked you.”

  I looked away from his gaze, staring at his chest. “I would know. Vance is my friend. I couldn’t keep that I did such a thing with his brother from him.” I took in a shaky breath. “Please don’t ask me to do things like that to start my coven. Join or don’t, but I’m not a whore to sell myself for what I want. We’ve been doing fine without that. I don’t want those kinds of deals and shit in my coven or built that way.”

  He didn’t answer a few moments but then kissed my hair. “Glad to hear it, sexy bite. We’re in. I don’t know we’ll stay in the end, but we’ll help you for now.”

  I blew a raspberry. “You were testing me.” When he nodded, I moved away, clenching my fists, and then punched him with all I had. “Don’t push my fucking buttons like that. People need to stop traumatizing me to get their answers or shit handled. Glad you dealt with your shit of princesses or trust and dumped it on me. Asshole. I’m telling Vance.”

  I stormed off the ship, taking the wrong turn, but Darius caught me and led me out. When I reached the SUV, I shook out my head, not sure who was heading back with us and needing a moment to walk off my anger.

  “That was hot, like seriously hot,” Darius praised.

  “Yeah, it was,” Callum agreed as he joined us. “And Trisha is going to hand him his balls when she hears it.”

  “Fuck, she is,” James grumbled, holding his face. “Nice hit.”

  “Your cousins have been working with me on how to fight better instead of just being scr
appy,” I taunted as we all got in. “I hope they bite you.”

  “I’ll take it. You’re right, I could have dealt with my issues by not dumping on you. I apologize for that. I didn’t consider it.”

  “Fine, I won’t hit you again.”

  13

  When we got back to camp, I saw some of the shifters had really hunted and there were lots of animals we were apparently cooking over all the grills and fire pits the state park had at the site. There were coals going and cleaned grates already heating up, chunks of wood for smoking as well.

  Apparently the party was at our camp that night. That worked for me, and it wasn’t long after lunch since I was getting better at handling the ghosts so we had hours until dinner and time to prep.

  I saw a huge bear checking things out at the tree line and had a moment to wonder if it was a bear shifter. With my luck my joke of bears getting us would really happen. I thought it best to check and was about to call out to Jaxon when a blur of yellow lunged at the bear.

  My eyes went wide as the lion shifter took that bear down. He bit into the bear’s neck with that jump and just tore into it. He clawed it up, and the bear was dead in less than a minute.

  “Well, now I hope that wasn’t a shifter,” I whispered, wondering if I should have taken pictures like I was for my journey or like those animal wildlife magazines I liked to read when I could find them. The cougar came to help the lion just to be sure, and I rubbed my eyes that I’d really seen that.

  “It was a natural bear,” James assured me. “Apparently you were right to tell them to handle the bears. It’s probably all the fresh meat and kills around the camp.”

  “Wow,” I breathed, watching the large cats drag the bear closer to us. “Glad they were here.”

  “We were about to handle it when we sensed it over all the other animals,” Kristof assured me.

  “Princess, I’d like to apologize,” that noble, Eddie, said quietly as he knelt in front of me, bowing his head. “I’m truly and very sorry for my behavior. I know it’s not an excuse, but you are the first princess not of my family I’ve been around when bleeding. My reaction was a bit… I wasn’t ready for that or finding a princess waiting at port. I’m sorry how I handled—fuck, I can’t even focus!”

  “Well, you were doing fine until that,” I drawled.

  He fisted his hands as he looked up at me with the prettiest gray eyes that seemed to swirl with the storm he was feeling inside of him. His nostrils flared as his chest heaved. “I’m sorry, all I can think about is you bleeding on me. I didn’t know it would be like this. It’s killing me to not move and touch you.” He shot a look at Kristof. “I thought you said we can control this.”

  “I said there are princesses I’ve never reacted to when they bleed,” he replied. “It’s a sign of whether the princess is right for you or not. Yes, you’d feel any not family at your age, but that strong of reaction means you’re drawn to her. It’s why nobles used to journey to courts and ask the princess to bleed on them to find a match or if she was inclined to do it.”

  “Gross,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest. “So she just rubbed against them, and if they got tingly it was a match made in heaven?”

  “No, not quite that crass,” Kristof chuckled darkly. “Though I have seen just that. Most were small cuts as I’ve seen you do with your fiancés and draw on their skin. This is the extreme side, as you are his first and clearly he’s suited to be at your side.”

  “Let’s just say hi and not jump to that,” I grumbled as I focused on Eddie. “Nice to meet you. I get this is weird or whatever, so just bear it for now and we can officially meet when it’s over or whatever. Maybe. I won’t hold it against you, just try not to blurt out any more embarrassing crap.”

  “I’ll do my best,” he agreed, looking like it would be hard.

  Why? Just shut your mouth? Then again, I had no idea what he was feeling since I didn’t have to deal with it from their side.

  It seemed to be the agreement overall that the nobles and vampires from the ship not greet me until after I was done with my period, which added a whole new level of ways to feel awkward for me. Darius reminded me that we had enough on the plate for the moment, as now we would be there for at least a few days clearing out Anchorage and more.

  I realized there were more plans afoot than I grasped when the cargo van and truck came back loaded with equipment. I glanced at Jaxon with a raised eyebrow.

  “We’re doing quick cooks for dinner, but we can roast whole animals overnight with what they found in the city. Plus, you fixed their freezers and whatnot, so they’re going to help us restock ours as we feed them and all that the ship has.”

  I nodded. “We’re not just ignoring cans of tuna or soup, right? We shouldn’t only kill animals like gluttons when we can still use that and now have like mayo for sandwiches.”

  “I agree, and as second in command have ordered all viable options like that to still be gathered,” Trisha assured me. “The animal populations are great because no one’s been hunting them for years here. We’re not going to be the ones to wipe them out. If we’re smart, we can take a trip once a year and load up again.”

  “Agreed, smart,” I muttered, glad when she gave me a wink that she had it. There was a deep purr, and I turned to see the lion had dragged the bear a few feet from me like he was bringing it to me. I smiled, trying not to note the gore. “Thank you for protecting me. I’m sure a lot of us can get dinner from that. I’ve wanted to try bear.” I went to say more, but the ocelot dropped something right at my feet.

  And it was a rabbit. A bunny or hare, I didn’t know, but it brought me a dead animal. Right, okay.

  The margay moved next to the ocelot and dropped a fish.

  “Um, thanks, I’ve never eaten bunny or fresh fish,” I said, not sure what else to do. I squatted down and pet them, careful not to get the gore on me. “Thanks, that’s really sweet, but I’m so not cleaning or skinning it, so can you take them to someone who knows what they’re doing?”

  They both nodded and brought them over to Cerdic who was working with several helpers at one of the picnic benches to prepare meat. He shot me a look that he’d seen the whole thing and was losing the battle with laughing. I shrugged. At least I was honest and grateful. It worked because the lion and cougar took the bear as well.

  But I got more animal gifts. I thanked them and promised to try it, not sure what else to do.

  “So what’s the plan for tonight when we’re attacked?” I asked Jaxon and Darius as they looked over a map of the area from town.

  “They don’t like our idea,” Wolfe grumbled. “A huge chunk of Anchorage was cleared out. There are more, we can sense them, but there’s more than Anchorage around here. I think we don’t just stay at the camp, we do it smarter.”

  “I like smarter,” I muttered, moving closer to the map and studying it, waving off when Darius and Jaxon tried to explain or suggest something. “What if we put a few trailers along this main highway, the bridge even, and use that as our killing location? Those on the outskirts of Anchorage would head north, and those from the outlying areas would head south.

  “Get them on the bridge, and we’re shooting fish in a barrel as they eat their own as well. You guys will undoubtedly dart all around and weed them out, but seriously, you were taking the bulk of them out the last few times. Let us help.” I glanced up at James. “You guys are getting in on this, right? I mean, you were military, so you had weapons training?”

  “This is why we’re friends,” Wilson chuckled, giving me a one armed hug. He nodded when I glanced at him. “Yeah, that’s what we wanted to do too and have an epic movie scene sort of killing spree with a ton of us cutting corrupted down, but they don’t like it.”

  “You are more alluring to them than normal,” Darius defended. “Your scent is ridiculously strong and—”

  “Yeah, so use that,” I cut in. “They’re going to come, so lead them to the place that funnels them like on
a wide bridge. We want to get everything from those areas over the next few days too, right? Then let’s do it right, and there’s less worry during the day.”

  “The population of the state was under a million before everything happened, and assuming some fled but most might not because the Air Force base was here but more came in, that could be what we’re really facing,” James warned.

  I snorted. “Kristof moves faster than air displacement. They’ve been stacking up bodies all over the place moving so fast that reloading…” I blinked at him and then smiled. “Did you say there’s a base here? Could we get like really big guns?” I gave a squee. “Tell me I can play with a big grenade launcher. I’ve only used small ones or just grenades.”

  “You’ve used grenades?” James asked, his tone saying he wasn’t buying it.

  I rolled my eyes at him. “This is my first time in a skirt, so don’t let it fool you. I just met everyone like a month ago. I’ve been surviving alone during my super scented times while moving around continents. I know the US was hit worst from what people say but—”

  “It was,” James confirmed. “I don’t know that we really did fire first, but once people were launching missiles and bombs, a lot of others fired and all at us. Everyone ganged up on us, some clearly settling old scores in the confusion or now that the chaos started, they didn’t have to even pretend to be our friends. We pissed in a lot of pots and for a long time, and people don’t forget that.”

  “Right, makes sense, but other countries had a lot of corrupted too, so I’m saying it’s not just like I dodged a few here and there. I don’t want to ruin potential supplies, but if it’s living or the cans of tuna, fuck the tuna, I used the grenades. Hell, it was how I made it around Russia, as they were hit hard too, and that meant not a lot of people who knew how to handle corrupted and became corrupted.”