7: Apologies

Ian    

I have never seen anything like what’s happening with Darby. The air around her is sparking and crackling like lightning and there’s blistering heat coming off her in waves. The ground’s shaking and wind is whirling around inside the house, but not outside. Outside, it’s still.

Her wrath is palpable. Alive. A discrete existence with emotions and power—a whole hell of a lot of power—and deliberate designs of its own. Through Darby—inside her.

And its eyes are staring daggers at Jack.

Not that he’s faultless in this. I’ve about had enough of his shit too, and we’ve only been downstairs with him for a few moments. But he’s still part of my pack.

Mate—or whatever this living otherwise is—I can’t let it hurt him. And whatever’s happening here, it wouldn’t even be a fair fight.

I surge into the space between them, blocking with my body and though I grab Darby by the upper arms, she doesn’t even see me. Her wings flutter close to my hands where I clutch her. They’re so hot I can feel my skin blister and have to fight my own instinct to release her. “Darby! Stop that!”

It’s like I haven’t said a word—she can’t hear me through the berserker rage gripping her. Though I don’t want to hurt her, I shake her once, hard. “He didn’t know, but he didn’t mean her harm.”

Her eyes flick up to mine. A genuine fear begins inside me seeing their golden-green depths are sparking like the air around her, because there’s nothing but mindlessness beyond that. I feel her hands against my chest, pushing me out of the way with a force a lot bigger than hers. I have to stop this—now – because once she lays eyes on Jack again, I have no doubt he’s dead.

We might all be.

My wolf half leaps to the fore. Lacking a better option, I do the only nonlethal thing I can do. I crush her against me and bring my mouth down on hers.

Darby jerks her head, trying to get away from me. Not happening, my love, I think. You’ll have to kill me first.

Releasing her arms, I grip either side of her face, my fingertips overlapping at the back of her delicate head. I crush her mouth with mine, force my tongue into its sweet recesses, relieved when the tingling connection starts at the back of my neck.

On her back, the fluid humming of her wings has completely stopped and they’re silent, angled away stiffly, the burning glow rapidly fading. Still plundering her mouth’s sweetness, I watch around her head, waiting for her wings return to silvery white, not knowing what the outcome of my next action will be.

Praying it doesn’t kill us both, I release one side of her head and slide my hand up her spine between her wings, pulling her against me.

A yawning space opens inside my mind, like the computer-generated animations of the universe expanding, and my feet drop out from under me suddenly. I’m falling through it, images flashing in my periphery too fast to process them.

Searing pain shoots into my head. Shared pain. Mine. And Darby’s.

There’s a ringing in my ears now and I grasp at it as if it’s a tangible thing.

Ian! Let me go! It’s Darby’s voice.

I don’t know how! I don’t know what I’m holding onto! The flashing images, the falling continue.

Then abruptly, it all stops.

There’s a sensation of peeling suction. Like pulling at magnets that don’t want to come apart. I open my eyes and I’m on the floor of Darby’s kitchen, gasping for air and feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck. One that backed up over me-- multiple times— just to be sure.

Jack’s crouched over me, his sky blue eyes wide. “Ian! Can you hear me? Can you see me? Are you hurt?”

Coughing, I struggle to sit up. “I’m okay. Darby? Where is she?”

Jack looks across the kitchen, and I follow his gaze. The room is a disaster, the table and chairs broken into charred splinters, the remains pushed up against the walls. Darby lays face down on the uneven fragments. Her wings have retracted, but she isn’t moving.

“Goddess, no!” Aching in every square inch of my body, I scramble towards her on my hands and knees, roll her into my lap. Her head falls back in my arms and I think my heart’s being ripped out of my chest. Then her pale lips open and there’s a faint rise and fall in her chest.

Burying my face in her neck, I kiss the tender flesh gently. Thank you, I send up in prayer to whatever powers have saved her.

“Ian, what the hell happened?”

I shake my head, cradling Darby against me and watching her breathing grow stronger and steadier. “Something—connects—when I touch her wings. Implodes. Or collapses. Like a black hole.”

“That’s why you couldn’t let her go?”

I look around at the wreckage of the room. There are scorch marks on the ceiling and splinters of wood embedded in the walls. It looks like a fiery tornado went through. “I don’t know. Something separated us.”

“That would be me.” Jack raises a hand, then points it at himself. “When I heard her tell you to let go, I pulled you apart.”

“You heard her?”

Jack rolls his eyes. “Didn’t I just say that? Yeah.” He glances over at Tessa. “We both heard her. Through the pack link. She was part of you, Ian.”

**

Jack    

I’ve just learned an entirely new respect for freaky pixie magic.

And not the good way.

I roll out of my crouch and sit on the floor, rubbing my forehead with one hand. Note to self: do not, under any circumstances, disrespect the faery’s mother instinct.

Wow, Tessa. I tell you what, just wow. Is her temper always like that?

That was nothing. You should see her dealing with vampires, triumvir.

Yeah, no. I think I’ll pass. Are you okay?

Yes, but Milady...

Her Alpha mate is looking after her. She’ll be okay. We should give them some time. Show me where we can bury the bones from the deer so she doesn’t go nuclear on me when she comes to again.

We’re digging?!? Yes! Okay, triumvir. Then you owe me two rabbits.

Yeah, yeah. No need to gloat. You’re lucky I’m still alive to pay up.

Actually, I think you’re the lucky one.

Good point.

By the time Tessa and I creep back to the kitchen, Ian has Darby upright in a chair and has her drinking more of the nectar. She looks pale and exhausted, even to me, but eventually she gets up and makes her way to her surgery.

She stands for a minute, looking about at the floor, then turns and fae-wide gold-green eyes landing on me in the kitchen. I flinch like a pup, prepared to bolt.

“You cleaned this?”

I nod. “I only mean to help.”

“You changed his IV.”

“Well, yeah. I’m not dumb.” I nod then shrug, silently admitting I have my less than brilliant moments. “Usually. I can figure out how to work that pump thing at least.” I look down at the kitchen table and chairs, miraculously restored as if a hell-spawned pixie didn’t just blast them to smithereens.

Tessa, am I losing my mind? Didn’t this explode? 

Yes, triumvir.

Right. Of course it did. I nod, looking around. Exploding, self-reassembling furniture. Shrinking and expanding clothes. Why not? Fits in with the rest of the freaky stuff in this place.

With Ian trailing her, Darby enters her surgery and switches the IV bag to a different solution.

As she checks vitals, Ian asks when Ivan will wake.

“I’m afraid I don’t know. Were medicine isn’t my area of expertise.

**

Ian    

“I think we’d best get him back to Candlewood. The doctors there should be able to monitor his progress more easily and keep him comfortable.”

In the kitchen, Jack rises from the table and claps his hands together. “Yes! Let’s blow this freaky faery taco stand! Ready to go see your new digs, Tessa?”

“Slow down, Jack. We’re not even certain where we are.”

“Could use the GPS on a phone. Not one of ours obviously.”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Darby stares at both Jack and me in turn. “There’s no phone here. Who would I have to call?”

I look aside sheepishly, ashamed again of my wolf half’s rage against her a few hours ago. When I look up, it’s to Jack’s smirk, and I can pick the thoughts out of his head like I’m reading them off a page. Not that he let’s me.

Nice to see my big bad Alpha brother has had his ass handed to him by this dainty albeit weird-ass powerful fae too.

I clear my throat, refusing to acknowledge – or admit—Jack’s spoken the truth. “You have to have some way to get around when you leave the valley.”

“Yes, of course. Come with me.”

Jack and I follow Darby across the lawn to the shed. I help her open the double doors, but what’s inside isn’t what I expected to see.  Her vehicle is an old decommissioned WWII jeep with a faded red cross painted on the hood and doors, one I’m not certain has been driven since. Its tires are flat and the rubber rotted, the seats are cracked and the stuffing disintegrating, its covered with rust and there’s no doubt the battery’s dead, and that’s assuming that’s the worst of its problems. Unable to stop myself, I draw a deep breath. There’s no way its drivable.

As I’m trying to come up with another plan, Darby reaches down and picks up a handful of earth. Raising it to her lips, she blows across her open palm. The vehicle shakes in its spot and both Jack and I leap back and watch open-mouthed as it restores itself in seconds to look like new.

“Now all it needs is—.” Darby points a finger at the hood like she’s going to touch it. A static spark leaps from her fingertip and the jeep roars to life, running like new.

“Huh. She’s kinda handy.” Jack walks around the vehicle, kicks the tires and pushes on the seats. “For the four of us, this is going to be a tight squeeze.”

“Oh, be nice, Jack! Tessa isn’t that large,” Darby says, smiling weakly and I know we’re done for today. She points to the back of the vehicle. “Space for Ivan. One of you drives and one of you carries Tessa.”

“Where are you going to ride?”

Darby’s face screws up in distaste and her head gives a nauseated little shake. “I’ll run.”

Jack looks doubtful. “You’ll keep pace with a Jeep?”

“Yes. But not today.” She flicks her wrist at the jeep and the engine dies. “Ian, if you don’t mind, I’d like to rest.”

**

Darby    

So now I’m lying in bed with Ian.

And we’re both naked.

Again.

Naturally.

Because apparently, with mated weres, clothing is considered optional but some kind of contact that’s both intimate and deeply sexual is not. Not that I’d complain. It’s quite the pleasure to be tucked up and warm against Ian’s magnificent body. “Ian.”

He stops gently teasing my nipple with his lips only long enough to lift his head to answer.

“What, baby?”

“I’m sorry. About what happened to me when Jack… I don’t know why I…”

Against me, Ian stills. He stares at my collarbone for an eternally long minute and I start to get anxious that he’s upset with me.

The mere thought is unbearable.

My stomach knots up like a pretzel. My chest feels tight. Tears spring to my eyes.

He raises his gorgeous eyes to mine. “I don’t think you could help it, Darby.”

Ian’s voice is low and soothing as he continues, “In twenty-four hours, I’ve seen you use immense amounts of magic to restore a tree, spend nearly five hours to heal Ivan’s magically hexed wound, plus yourself after my wolf half pummeled your insides, all on the few hours of sleep I’ve allowed you to have since I found you. You’re tired and I think it’s also because you’re in heat.”

He shrugs. “Jack did something potentially dangerous with Tessa. Without your consent. Even if she isn’t your biological child, Tessa’s still your adopted child, and right now, your mother instinct is in high gear.”

“That doesn’t mean—.”

He puts his fingers against my lips, silencing my arguments. “Let me finish. I’ve known Jack since we were kids. Even though he’s my brother and I love him, I’ve still had to beat the crap out of him a couple times for pushing my limits. He makes a bad habit of disrespecting boundaries, especially when he’s mad at himself, and right now he is. He can be reckless and immature, even if it’s not malicious. Sometimes, it’s like he’s twenty-five going on six years old.”

I wind my fingers into his hair and Ian closes his eyes for a minute, enjoying the way it feels.

“It’s probably best that this happened because I think you genuinely scared him. It’s a lesson learned the hard way, but for him, sometimes that’s the most effective way.”

I chuckle at the thought of scaring the man behind the raging four-hundred-pound gray wolf that leapt over my examination table to kill me yesterday morning in my surgery. “I guess now we’re even.”

Ian chuckles, remembering the same thing. “Yeah, maybe so.”

“I still feel terrible though, Ian.” I remember the devastation in my kitchen. “A single elemental manifestation can be daunting, but an elemental storm…”

“Elemental storm,” he drawls, repeating me, as if storing that descriptive vocabulary for later. His brows flick up, briefly, “Yeah.” Then he lowers his lips again to my pert nipple this time sucking it deep into his warm mouth.

I groan softly, my eyes rolling back in my head before closing as the prickling sensation starts up in response to his diligent care. It’s instantly at high gear and pulsing, both at the back of my neck and deep between my hips. “You said Jack’s twenty-five. How old are you Ian?”

“Old. I’ve been searching for you for a long time, Darby.

I’ll be thirty in a few months.”

“Thirty? As in three, zero?”

Ian lifts his head and chuckles, flashing an exasperated but still gorgeous grin. “Oh, come on, it’s not that old. You can’t be much younger than me if you are at all.”

I can’t help but giggle. “I most certainly am not younger than you. My goodness, you’re a baby.”

“A baby, huh?” Offended at the suggestion, he caresses down my hip, over my thigh and back up the inside, and cupping me, slides his thumb inside, as if to reinforce he’s adroitly capable of very adult behavior. “How old are you then?”

“I am—,” I lift one hand, counting on four fingers, trying to keep my wits while Ian strokes his thumb in dizzying little circles inside me, “—forty-four hundred twenty-four years old.”

Against me, everything from Ian abruptly stops.

“What did you just say?”

“My age. Four thousand, four hundred twenty-four years old. Ian? Are you alright?”

He’s shaking his head in disbelief. “You’re half human, how is that even possible?”

“Half human, yes. But the fae half is… special.”

“How?”

“I’m the daughter of the Horned God.”

**

Ian    

“The Horned God.” As if the revelation that she’s thousands of years old isn’t enough, then Darby drops this bomb. It hits like a fifty megaton blast. “As in the Horned God? The consort of the Triple goddess of the Moon or Mother goddess. His daughter?” 

“Yes, Ian.”

Unable to concentrate on it any longer, I crawl up Darby’s beautiful body so I can look in her face. “You’re immortal?”

“No.” Darby raises her hand, covering her mouth while she yawns. “I beg your pardon. The Horned God, Arianrhod, the Mother Goddess—they aren’t immortal. They’re… eternally young. They can be killed. Or die from an injury. Just like you or me.”

I’m still struggling to process that my mate is a demigoddess. Unable to help myself, I glance down the length of her youthful flawless body slowly.

Holy shit! She’s kinda a schnack! She looks like a raw sausage somebody squeezed in the middle.

I tear my eyes away and focus on a spot on the wall. What the fuck? Jack?!?

Oh fuck. Ian!? This is not my fault! I’m just laying here on the grass and when I close my eyes, you’re broadcasting alpha porn on the pack link.

“Ian?” When I focus on Darby’s face, she can see I’m linked. Nodding, she closes her eyes, relaxing beneath me and yawns again.

Alpha porn? You can see her? Like through my eyes?

Kinda? The tone is sheepish and apologetic. It sort of switches between you two, depending on who’s eyes are open, but mostly through you.

I shut my eyes immediately.

Well, now it’s gone.

Say rubber duckie if you can hear me.

Um. Rubber duckie. Seriously, Ian, this house is full of freak—

I block the link and Jack cuts out. I open my eyes and look at the armoire in Darby’s bedroom. Say pickle pizza if you can hear me. I unblock the link and close my eyes.

– was just rude. It’s not like this shit is my fault.

No. It’s not. What did I just tell you to say?

Come on, Ian. Fine. Rubber duckie.

What did you see?

Nothing. You both still have your eyes closed. It’s something with her, Ian. She’s augmenting our wolf hal—

You’re right. It’s something with Darby. Among the whole lot of other things with Darby.

Yeah. I thought that whole Horned God thing was weird when Tessa told me too.

Wait—Tessa told you that?

Yeah and something about a being a secret keeper or some other shit.

We’ll compare notes later. Right now, I’m going to block so I can have some privacy with my mate. If you need something, knock on the door.

Privacy. Ha! I’m pretty sure these walls are made of paper. Wait! Ian?

What?

Don’t let her feel bad about what happened. You’re right. I’m mad at myself.

Don’t feel bad either, Jack. This is some next level shit going on. There’s no way you could have anticipated it.

**

Ivan    

Light hurts as I open my eyes. I squint and as my vision clears, I can see I’m in some kind of medical exam room, hooked up to an IV. Why? What happened?

When I start to sit up, a dull, throbbing pain aches in my side. I cover it, bracing with my hand, looking down. There’s an angry red scar beneath my palm, but the pain comes from beneath—it’s still healing. And there’s one of the short, red-fletched silver-tipped vamp arrows laying on the floor in a small pool of blood.

We were running.

We were attacked.

I was hit.

I squeeze my eyes shut trying to remember, but all I recall is the forest on fire beyond us and the earth is rumbling under our feet. I can’t remember how I got here, wherever here is.

I let my feet dangle off the side of the table as I disconnect my IV. Ian’s somewhere close. So is Jack. Both scents are nearby. They’ll have answers.

I’m wobbly on my feet as I make my way out of the exam room, clutching the ache in my side. This room opens into a strange, small kitchen, and beyond an equally small sitting of sorts. The smell of food cooking hits me and my stomach gives a loud growl. That’s a good sign at least. Then again, half wolf—we’re creatures of monstrous appetites.

Light pours in through a windowed door in the kitchen and beyond, outside, I see a grass lawn, mottled with dandelions.

Grass. Jack said he was laying on the grass. When I reach the door and look out, I see him, and he sits up when I open the door.

“Ivan! Man, you look like shit.”

“I look like shit? Jack, what the hell are you wearing? You join the BDSM Bee Gees while I was out?”

“Fuck off. Our clothes are lost and these are the only ones Ian’s mate had to lend.”

“Ian’s mate? Ian found his mate!?”

Jack looks at me like I’ve grown another head. “Yeah. We could smell her from the ridge. Don’t you remember?”

I sway on my feet and crash into the door frame and Jack’s on his feet and at my side in a second. “I’m a little fuzzy on everything after some vamp made a pincushion out of me.”

“Sit down, Ivan.”

Jack helps me to a chair under a wisteria-covered awning outside the kitchen door. It looks out over a garden wall to the orchard beyond. A border collie peers intently at me from a spot in the open gate. There’s a white stripe that runs up her nose between clear, brown eyes and the white around her mouth spills down her chest and along her belly. The way it covers her legs looks like she’s wearing long, white opera gloves.

“You must be hungry. I’ve got rabbit cooking. Hang on while I get you some.”

“Jack, actually, right now, what I need is a bathroom.”

“Oh.” He straightens. “I just pee in the orchard. I’ll take you over there.”

The border collie’s nose is going a mile a minute as we pass through the gate into the orchard and she trails behind, keeping several feet between us when Jack stops me beside a tree. “Who’s your cautious girlfriend, Jack?”

“That’s Tessa. She belongs to Ian’s mate. She’s cool. And don’t be a dick. She wouldn’t have me as boyfriend.”

“Smart girl.”

**

Tessa    

Triumvir, you need to alert Alpha and Milady that your friend is awake.

Not gonna happen, Tessa. If Ian isn’t banging her faery brains out of her ears again, then he’s letting her sleep the homicidal off and that definitely needs to happen.

But your friend is still injured. He needs Milady’s help.

He’s a were. I’ll put some food in him, he’ll be fine. Tessa? Where are you? Don’t you sneak off behind my back. Get down here! You’re not bothering them right now. Don’t look at me like that. Come on. Want some rabbit?

Yes.

Then come on out in the grass.

Okay, triumvir.

**