"You doing okay?" I asked Kiema as we got the table cleaned up from dinner. She turned to me, smiled, nodded. "As well as can be expected, I guess. I'm still reeling from everything with Hellion. I think I'd come around to trusting him at some point over the last couple weeks. To have it all ripped out from underneath me like that?" She shook her head. "How am I supposed to deal with that?"My heart caught. She'd lived her life knowing exactly who her monsters were. What side of the line everyone stood on. Having the evidence shoved into your face that you didn't know where people stood...that could be life-altering. Damaging. "You realize that the people who truly know you and love you will never do that to you," I said. Grabbing her hand, I gave it a squeeze. She squeezed mine back. "Thanks, Scarlet. I'll stop whining here after a while. Just got to get it out."I giggle-snorted. "If this is you whining, would you mind giving lessons to Asher? He says he doesn't whine, b
"What the fuck was that, T?" Xander said as soon as I closed the door behind me. He was up in my face, fists clenched by his sides. "Do it," I begged him. "Please. Do it." I could feel the hard burn of denied tears in my eyes. I wouldn't give myself the luxury of letting them fall. I'd hurt her. My mate. The one I'd promised to cherish, love, and protect. Xander's face lost its edge and he backed up, flexed his fingers, shook his head over and over. "What happened?" Saint asked.I shook my head. "I don't know. I've figured out how to run Smoke's magic over Scarlet's skin. She loves it. But this time, something else happened. I swear to Gaia my cock grew inside her and developed spines, like a real fucking cat.""Did they hurt her?" Asher asked, his teeth clenched. "In real cats they can hurt the female, but she also likes it. It starts ovulation. I don't know what it means that I've now got a cock with spines on it. We haven't talked about babies outside of the initial
"Kiema, how did you know that it was Smoke talking to you and not Taryk?" I asked as we watched the camera footage of Scarlet's memories again. Scarlet had gone off with the twins to do some hugging and holding. I couldn't blame any of them. "Smoke was talking to me in my head. Not really full thoughts like they would have been with Taryk, but more just grunts with cue words.""And that's not Taryk how?" Lukas asked with a smile. Taryk laughed, flipped him off. Kiema smiled. "I don't know. I just knew it wasn't actually Taryk talking to me.""Do you think he, being Smoke in this instance, knew what you wanted?"Kiema nodded. "Yeah. He knew he was hurting Scarlet and he was sorry, but he didn't know how to stop moving." She grimaced. I turned to Taryk. "Did you feel like you were in a battle with Smoke? Like wrestling for control?"He tipped his head to the side. Ran a hand over his bald pate. "Kinda. It was like he jumped to the front, like when I call him to cha
I shook my head. "No. No. That's not possible." I shook my head again. "No. Not possible."Heppni smiled at me. Nodded. "But it is. I know that Prime children age similarly to human children when one parent is human, but their bodies stop aging at a certain point. And since you've collected more power along the way, I doubt you'll age ever again.""No, I remember my life from about five and up. That was twenty-three years ago." A thought niggled my mind. "Well, almost twenty-four. But nowhere near one hundred years ago.""You are of me, Kiema. When I was inside you, I felt my power. There is no other explanation," she said."I'd like an explanation on how you think she was either held in cryostasis for over seventy-five years or some other form of hibernation," Dr. Atlas said. His voice was hard, his bright green gaze even harder. "Her father was a brilliant doctor. And he was working with magick users back on Earth.""I'm not even Azican?" I said. I felt like throwing up
I was getting very frustrated. It was almost mid-morning and no one was yet up and around. How could these people be so lazy that they didn't start their days until the noon sun had already crested the sky?"Idiots infantile," I muttered again as I searched through the cool box that held the food. Or was supposed to hold the food. Taryk had told me last night before I went to my stone form that the fridge' was next to the conference room and to help myself. Except for a wash of cold air, there was nothing to be had. Unless he thought I ate coated metal and glass for meals. Except for the brief burst of magic from one of the Directs, the night had been peaceful. I had run the Direct off and nothing else had bothered my new domicile. I'd forgotten how exciting it was to keep watch. To know I guarded the inhabitants with nothing but my magic, my wits, and my cunning. And just my luck, these inhabitants were bâtards paresseux. While we were in Faery, they had seemed noble and h
I shook my head. The thought that that's all I'd been doing for the last three hours had hysterical laughter bubbling up from inside me. Warm arms curled around me and lifted me onto my tiptoes into a huddle of my mates.I've come too far to break now. I've come too far to break now. I repeated the phrase over and over and over in my mind. Pushing everything else out until I could see a way forward. A way through. I sucked in a breath, held it until I felt like my lungs would burst, and then slowly exhaled. "I'm so proud of you, honey. You're a warrior. You can do this," Saint said. "I've never met anyone stronger than you, angel. You amaze me daily. You got this. We're here to help," Ransom said as he kissed my hair. "Nobody better than my mouse," Kord said, a flush of color on his cheeks. "Mouse?" I asked as I looked up at him, one eyebrow raised, a smile pulling at my lips. He dipped his head. "Yeah. I'm an owl and owls eat mice. I'm also Kord, and I def
"While we're all ruminating on that lovely scene, we do still have a more immediate problem," Taryk said. "Rent boy," Lukas said. Taryk nodded. "Yeah, he's got no more power of his own. But that can mean he's even more hateful now. We'll need to watch our backs for a while.""Do we think he was the only one Hellion linked?" I asked. We all stood around in silence. Saint cleared his throat. "I guess we'll find out if one of them pops up at our door.""Let's get him out of here before everyone else starts showing up for the tribunal," Taryk said. "We don't need him sharing any plans with anyone who might still be around from IS."A whisper of magic floated over my skin. I tuned into the sensation, listened. "And that needs to be now. I think the Faeries are here."Everyone turned to look at me."What?" I rubbed my hands over my arms."How could you possibly know that, honey?" Saint asked.I shrugged. "Um, I'm walking around with enough power to be a nuclear bomb
"Again," I called. Kiema gritted her teeth and sent another magic arrow at the target on the opposite side of the gym. It slammed into the bare corner. I came up behind her. Grabbed one shoulder, pointed with my other hand. "You see that section? Right there in the middle? Bright red. Surrounded by yellow, blue and green? That. Those are the sections you need to hit. Not the white corners."She laughed as she elbowed me in the lower belly. "No way. And this whole time I thought it was the corners. They're the smallest sections, you know. Maybe my aim is just that good."I snorted. "I would believe that if you had hit any of the colored sections. Even once would do."She shrugged me off, took a deep breath, and settled herself into her battle stance once more. As she exhaled, she loosed three magical arrows. All three of them hit the bullseye. No hesitation, no whining. Just thpt, thpt, thpt. All three in the red.I was expecting the smirk on her face as she turned back to