Watcher United

by J. L. Madore

  Phoenix would never be whole without him.

  He hoped Storme would understand.

  Thea gave Niobi back to her mother to let them rest while she followed Austin’s instructions. Zander’s wife was a true force. She’d enlisted all hands for the scheduled meeting and had whipped the household into action. If they were around, they were working.

  Thea was tasked with finishing the baking.

  “The scones are out and cooling,” she reported, turning to the massive country-styled stove. “The cobbler has eight more minutes. How would you like us to serve them?”

  “In the dining room buffet. My mama’s beautiful antique maple tray is in the bottom, on the right.”

  “Got it,” Ronnie said, jogging in from the adjoining room. “Oh, it’s lovely. My mother had one similar but with hand-painted tiles on the bottom.”

  Austin smiled. “We had one like that too. This is my favorite though. Before I lost my eyesight, we went to a huge estate auction of one of the richest families in the area. The old grandmother died, and her kids and grandkids didn’t care for her collection of things. I took one look at that tray and fell in love. Mama let me hold the bidding paddle and I just kept raising it until the auctioneer declared us the winners.”

  “Well, it was worth every penny, I’m sure.”

  It struck Thea hard she had nothing of a mother—not a warm memory, nor a hand-me-down family treasure, nor any passed down wisdom to draw on when life grew difficult. She had nothing from a mother because she’d never been raised by one. Things were different in the Choir of Angels.

  She’d been trained for a task—a life of serving as an angel of the Powers. She missed it, actually, filling each day and night with purpose, feeling like she truly made a difference.

  Things were different here too.

  Here, she had the chance to raise her baby and give it all the love and care she wished she’d had. She may have gone about it the wrong way, but like Seth said, she knew what she wanted, and she went after it. She owned it.

  Bo came in from the old delivery dock, his long blond hair loose and wild from the wintery winds outside. He rubbed his hands together. “Man, it smells good in here.”

  Austin smiled. “There’s plenty for everyone once we’re set. How do the two spaces look?”

  Bo shrugged. “Well, we have a Hansel and Gretel cottage complete with cobwebs and mice armies hunkering down for the winter, or a mini horse barn with gaps in the wall boards and a lovely gusty gale whistling through it.”

  Austin frowned. “Oh, dear.”

  “What are our other options?”

  “What about the riding arena?” she said. “We could set a table and chairs in the center of the ring and dress it up a little. Would the wide-open space be a comfort or a threat to a Master Djinn?”

  Bo shrugged. “I’ve never met the man.”

  Thea frowned. “Does it smell like manure in the arena?”

  Austin chuckled. “No, it smells mostly like the soft footing that covers the ground. It’s a damn sight better than mice and winter wind.”

  Bo nodded. “Okay, I’ll bring the truck around. What do you want me to take to dress it up?”

  “The harvest table from the foyer and four of the kitchen chairs. Ronnie, can you run a quick iron over the white table cloth with the embroidered edges?”

  “On it,” Ronnie said, hustling back to the dining room.

  “And someone should check on Storme. If she’s calmed down, maybe Hark could help Bo move the furniture.”

  When the timer went off, Thea removed the cobbler from the oven. “Why is it such a stir that this man is coming?”

  Austin shifted Niobi to her shoulder and patted the baby’s back. “Since Seth recovered the body of the boy before the factory crumbled, Zander wants to offer the family comfort and create goodwill. Seth might well die. That has to prove that the Watchers aren’t the monsters they are made out to be.”

  Thea rubbed the wriggling mound of her belly, thinking of the child’s sire. “I honestly hope he survives. What happened, happened. There was fault on both sides, but I don’t want this child to suffer for it. I want my baby to know his father.”

  Austin nodded. “You haven’t had the chance to get to know Seth either. The man you met . . . well, that was a terrible time. There is much more to a man than his actions on his worst day.”

  Thea thought of Seth standing before her in the loft. He’d been brusque—so had she. He’d lied that first night—so had she. She supposed Austin’s point was true of her as well.

  Being judged based on your actions on your worst day wouldn’t be fair.

  Ringo returned to the kitchen with Stetson fresh from his walk. The stalky chocolate lab bounded in, his tail crashing and clunking against everything in his path.

  “Austin?” Ronnie called from the hall. “Can you join us for a second? Bo has a couple questions.”

  Austin laid Niobe into the bassinet and turned to Ringo. “Are you good to keep an eye on your niece for a few minutes?”

  Ringo’s face lit up and he pulled out his chair at the end of the breakfast bar. Flipping the cover open on his drawing pad, he picked up his pencil. “Yep. I’ve got her.”

  Austin ruffled Ringo’s spiky ebony hair and winked as she got her bearings and left the room.

  “She amazes me,” Thea said, finishing up with the baking. “The way she maneuvers within this house, you’d never know she lacked traditional sight.”

  “Unless you move the furniture. I made that mistake and she tripped. Zander wanted to punch me in the face.”

  “No. I’m sure he didn’t. Accidents happen.”

  “Yeah, he did.” Ringo went back to his drawing and smiled. “Hey, do you want to see a picture I drew of you? It’s not finished, but it’s pretty cool.”

  Thea smiled and rounded the counter. “Of course.”

  Ringo flipped back two pages and showed her an exquisite drawing of her smiling and speaking with a tall, well-dressed male outside of O-Zone. With short, dark hair and an earring, she found him quite attractive.

  The background wasn’t filled in enough to get a sense of the context, but she seemed quite engaged in the conversation. She knew it was Zander’s club because she recognized the little plaque on the wall with his name, where they parked the truck.

  “Oooh, who is that?” she asked.

  “I thought you might know. A new boyfriend? Maybe the Dragon guy that got hurt last night?”

  Thea liked that idea.

  From what Danel said, the Dragon shifter was a good man, a military hero, and had gotten hurt defending the honor of a human woman from a pack of nasty Leviathans.

  “When do you suppose I’m going to meet him?”

  Ringo shrugged. “My visions don’t work good yet. They can be stuff that already happened, or what’s gonna happen, or what’s happening right now . . . I don’t have good control.”

  Thea patted the boy’s shoulder, a new sense of wonder and intrigue playing with her emotions. “Like Austin always says. Things happen as they are meant to.”

  Seth stood in the operating room next to Tanek, rocking an out-of-body experience. His body lay shredded to shit in front of them as a panicked crew worked to save his worthless life. “Well, this sucks,” he said, casting a sideways glance to the ghost of his dead brother-in-arms. “So, am I the next warrior enlisted as Lady Divinity’s protector? You here to ring me in?”

  Tanek shook his head, the guy’s mannerisms so familiar it hurt to have been deprived of them the past year. “Not if the magic-medic dream team get this right. And I’m not so much a protector as an intimidating backdrop. Lady Divinity is the shit. She doesn’t need any man to defend her.”

  Seth agreed. Their patron mother really was the shit.

  He tried to breathe through compressed lungs, but Phoenix was hemorrhaging enough dark magic to choke an elephant. “It makes me want to puke that he went this route.”

  Tanek shrugged. “The
train left that station months ago, my brother. Stop your whining and get over it. You’ve all got more powerful, determined enemies coming for you these days. It’s not all bad to have that kind of power on Team Nephilim.”

  The operating room door burst open and Phoenix’s witch wife stormed inside. “Are you insane? How dare you let this happen. It’s reckless and unforgiveable.”

  Seth agreed. He would never trade his life for Phoenix’s.

  “The guy’s polluted. It’s too high a price to pay.”

  “Storme keeps him balanced.”

  “Storme is his problem.”

  Tanek slapped a heavy hand on Seth’s shoulder and gave a pinching squeeze. “Take a good, hard look at what’s happening in front of you, dumbass. There’s no turning back time. Phoenix absorbed your mother’s powers and it changed him. He’ll never be the man he was. The reason Storme is his mate is because she is exactly what he needs.”

  Seth rolled his eyes and watched his brother’s wife run to grip Phoenix’s wrist. As the connection hit her, she buckled and narrowly escaped face-planting on the painted concrete floor.

  “She’s amazing,” Tanek said. “Ying and Yang. That’s what Nephilim mating is about. Lady Divinity is giving you boys what you need in a better half.”

  “And my brother needed a witch?”

  “Are you so fucking jaded that you look at the two of them and don’t see that?”

  Seth ignored the frustrated sigh leaking out of his former garrison commander. Whatevs.

  Zander doubled back to the clinic, the pounding in his skull really taking root. Torture factories. Exposure. Seth. Phoenix. The Master Djinn. He was juggling too many balls not to beef something up bad. It was only a question of what it would be, and when.

  As he approached the clinic, the level of dark magic that hit him was hard to comprehend. Phoenix was powerful—they’d all been at the lakefront and watched him lift the building into the air—but this was another kind of power. This was the kind of energy that was best left locked in a steel trunk and buried in a cave somewhere. This kind of power shouldn’t be wielded by anyone, no matter what their intentions.

  The handle to the clinic door was hot to the touch and singed Zander’s fingers. “Well, that can’t be good.”

  He hustled his ass into the clinic and jogged down the corridor to the operating room. To his surprise, Storme was in there with Kyrian, Phoenix, and Drina.

  How the hell had she managed to get back there? And where were Brennus and Hark?

  With no way to affect what was doing in that operating room, Zander fished out his phone and dialed up Brennus’s number. No answer. Next, he hit up Hark. Still nothing.

  Thumbing through his contacts, he pulled up Bo. Will wonders never cease, the guy answered. “Yeah, hey. Storme’s here at the clinic and Brennus and Hark have gone dark. Drop everything and check on them.”

  “Shit,” the Viking said, the background of the call going quiet. “You don’t think she’d hurt them, do you?”

  “Not intentionally, but we were keeping her from her mate and she knew he was in danger.”

  “On it. Give me a few.”

  Zander hung up the phone, just as a kaleidoscope of light exploded. A violent energy wave blasted from the operating room, the force of the hit knocking him on his ass and cracking his head against the far wall.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A magical disturbance knocked Thea off balance as something wholly unnatural exploded close by. Being an angel of the Powers, she sensed when Otherworld influences affected the Human Realm. She had no idea what happened, but something huge had knocked the balance of nature off its axis.

  “Thea? What’s wrong?” Ronnie ran and grabbed her elbow to steady her. “Is it the baby?”

  Thea dropped her head and waited for the room to stop spinning. “No. It’s not me. I . . . I think it’s Phoenix.”

  When the world settled, Thea raced through the main floor and headed down the stairs to the tunnel. Phoenix was far too brave for his own good.

  With tears in her eyes, she ran down the long corridor, her feet barely touching the tiles as she closed the distance to the clinic. Was she overstepping her place as his friend? The ache in her chest said no—she cared deeply for him, even if he never felt the same way about her.

  The bite of the November wind slashed at her cheeks as she emerged from the tunnel stairs. Her tears felt icy on her cheeks as she passed the blown-out windows.

  The place looked like a bomb had gone off.

  “Oh, sweet mercy.” She reached down to where Zander lay on the floor, looking dazed. The warrior had his hand clasped to the side of his head, blood matting his long dark hair. He opened his mouth to speak, but then leaned to the side and vomited.

  To see such a man struggling and weak scared her more than anything ever had. What could possibly have done this to him?

  A male groaned in the operating room and she left Zander to check on the others. Kyrian was unconscious on the floor, with Drina tending to him. Storme gripped Phoenix’s shoulders and sobbed as she tried to wake him.

  Thea fought not to rush to him. Phoenix didn’t need her. He had Storme—his mate.

  Another groan and she turned to Seth, lying on the operating table, alone and unattended. The moment she leaned over to check on him, his arm came up and he pulled her mouth to his.

  He kissed her.

  Seth . . .

  She . . .

  For a second, she was blinded by the burst of lust and adrenaline warring inside her. She couldn’t think. He had one hand on the back of her neck, holding her in place, and the other on her backside.

  And he was groaning, but it wasn’t the dazed groan like before. Now, he groaned like he was starved and she was what he intended to devour to satiate his hunger.

  Shock warred with sense, but finally she ripped her mouth off his and gasped for breath. “Lie still,” she said, her gaze racing over his pink and welted wounds to the massive erection weeping against his stomach.

  This must be some sort of fight-or-flight reaction. After all, his beautiful body was a rash of torn flesh and contusion. Opening the door to the supply cabinet, she extracted one of the cotton gowns and laid it over Seth’s exposed body. “Rest, Warrior. Don’t injure yourself any more than you are.”

  He mumbled something unintelligible and seemed confused at the sound of his own words. He stared at her, lips swollen and pupils dilated, a crease building between his eyes.

  Of course. He was still dazed and coming out of a traumatic event. He likely wasn’t even aware he’d nearly shoved his tongue down her throat. Not that she’d complain.

  What? She should want to complain.

  Still, the man could set a female aflame with his kiss.

  She helped him push his arms through the shoulder holes of the gown, though the thin fabric did nothing to hide the long, hard ridge rising from his groin.

  “Rest now,” she said, trying to settle the chaos in her mind. “You don’t want to overdo it and hurt yourself.”

  “Don’t care . . . the boy . . . the Djinn?”

  It surprised her the male’s first thought—well, after his hunger for sex—was of a boy he hadn’t even known. She shook her head. “I am sorry. Drina could not save him. She barely saved you.”

  Seth closed his eyes, a muscle in the side of his jaw flexing. “I really wanted . . . he didn’t deserve to die alone.”

  She collected his fisted hand in her own and sighed. “The Djinn child died free from his tormentors and in the arms of a male who cared about his well-being. By my estimation, it could have been worse.”

  Drina rose from the floor and straightened. When she saw Seth was awake, she rushed over. “Do you think he got it all out of you?”

  “All what?” Seth’s gaze narrowed. He searched their faces and then the room, gasping as he saw his brothers lying helpless on the floor.

  Thea and Drina barely had time to get a hand on his chest before he swung his legs
off the table and jumped down. His legs gave out the moment his considerable weight registered.

  The two of them managed to keep him from falling completely, but it was no small feat.

  “My goodness,” Thea gasped, falling forward, pulled by the momentum of his descent. “I swear you’re made of granite.”

  Seth planted his broad palms on the concrete floor and hung his head. “What’s wrong with them? What happened?”

  “I’d say you happened,” Storme snapped, tears thick in her words, “but he’s just as reckless. I used to wonder how the two of you were similar. Now, I see you’re both cut from the same stupid, stubborn cloth.”

  Thea saw her point. “Here, let me to help you up.”

  Seth shrugged off her touch and crawled across the floor to his twin. The motion split the back of his gown, flashing the room with an eyeful of his bare backside. “Why are they out?”

  “Something magical hit them,” Drina said.

  “Zander too.” Thea realized she forgot to mention that. “He’s outside the door, awake but not good.”

  Drina cursed and raced through the swinging door.

  Seth’s foggy gaze ping-ponged from Thea to Storme and back again. It wasn’t so much that his hamster struggled to keep up in its wheel but rather, it had flipped off the treadmill and gone sailing across the room—and hit the wall—face-first.

  He raised a heavy hand to his face and tried to scrub himself awake. “Despite you both hating me, could one of you please explain what in the three realms is happening?”

  “I don’t really hate you,” Thea said, her expression sad. “Hating you serves no one and will be harmful for our child.”

  Seth hadn’t thought about it like that. He hadn’t thought of anything past his anger. He’d never wanted the whole wife and family thing, but she did. Obvi. Going out of his way to be a cold asshole to her and his begotten was a dick move.

  Been there, got the Archangel Khamel to prove it.

  His mind fritzed and he stalled out on that. Okay, focus. “Back to my brothers. What’s happening?”