He stopped cold, his boots sending muddy water in every direction. Sweat rolled down his back. “So you’re saying that some fairy has been painting different dimensions. So what.”
She shook her head and halted, her breathing even. “No. All of the Fae are accounted for. I mean, I know them all, and nobody has been painting anything like that.”
“Obviously that isn’t true if the paintings you saw were of actual places.” What was he missing?
She was quiet for a minute. “All of the full-bred Fae have been with me on other worlds until recently. None of them painted what I saw earlier on that screen.”
Full-bred Fae. The words hung heavily in the air. “What are you talking about?” She could not be saying what he thought she was.
She turned and started running back the way they’d come.
He easily caught up to her. “Talk to me. Now.”
“It’s probably treason,” she muttered.
Who the hell cared? “Mercy,” he warned.
She sighed, running faster, her small legs just a blur. “Fine.” Her breath remained easy. “The president confirmed my suspicions. When the elders created my generation with leftover genetic samples, they might have experimented a little bit. Most of the experiments didn’t make it.”
“But?” His ears burned.
She winced, running smoothly again. “They combined Fae and demon DNA—and apparently found success.”
They reached the campground, and he stopped, grasping her arm to halt her motions. Shock dropped a series of hard rocks into his gut. “Say that again.”
She shuffled her now dirty tennis shoes. “The Fae elders apparently created a demon-Fae hybrid.” She winced and tried to kick off the mud, spraying his calves. “Female too. You know how rare female demons are.”
They were rare but existed. Energy ricocheted through him. “Where is she?” They had to get her on board. Now.
Mercy grimaced. “Well, that’s the thing. They couldn’t take her to the other world with us. A hybrid like that would be too volatile. Probably. They left her here on earth.”
“Where?” He released her before he bruised her arm.
She paled. “The president wouldn’t confirm, and truth be told, I don’t believe she knows. I think they left her with humans.”
His head jerked. “Humans? A hybrid like that?”
Mercy kicked a rock, and it rolled toward a tree. “Yes. I mean, teleporting is a learned skill, so if she was raised human, she might have no idea what she’s able to do. If she survived childhood. Who knows. The images she creates—could be from dreams. Or…maybe she has traveled dimensions and knows how to commit a demon mind attack. It guess it’s possible. Somehow.”
The Fae were fucking nuts. He’d love to get his hands on those elders right now and squeeze until their heads popped off.
The doors to the cabins burst open, and his friends poured out. Logan reached them first, his jaw set in battle mode. “We have to get to demon headquarters. There has been a breach. A huge one.”
Ronan brought Faith and Promise out of the research room, a gun already in his hand.
“Stop.” Ivar held up a hand toward Promise. “Stay there for a minute.” He didn’t want her brain shutting down if she stood too close to Mercy. She’d had enough training for the day.
Ronan and Faith kept coming, while Promise hesitated on the cabin steps.
Garrett jogged out right behind Logan. “They want Promise there since she just talked to Dayne the other day. Thinks that might calm the guy down since the meeting was cordial.”
“Dayne?” Ivar asked, his body going hot and then ice cold. “What the hell does he have to do with a breach?”
Garrett reached him at the same time as Logan. “Long story, but his kid is at demon headquarters. Might’ve run away to meet up with our niece, but who knows? Could be a setup.”
Ivar growled, and his fangs itched to lower. “Promise is not getting involved in this shit.”
“She already is,” Logan said, wrapping an arm around Mercy’s waist and drawing her near. “There are kids involved here, Ivar. We have to avoid a full-out war.”
Faith clutched her mate’s hand. “Let’s all go. There’s a medical facility between Realm and demon headquarters with top-of-the-line machinery. That’s where I wanted to go, anyway.”
“There’s no time for helicopters,” Ronan said, tucking his gun at the back of his waist.
Ivar evaluated the group and who had the ability to teleport. “Okay. Mercy, you take Grace, and Logan, you get Garrett.” The fairy was strongest, but Logan had gained some of her teleporting powers after mating her. “Adare? You get Promise and me.” He could help her shield herself from Adare but probably not Mercy at this point after having her mind attacked all day via training. “And Benny? You can take Ronan and Faith.” He figured Ronan wouldn’t let anyone take Faith without him.
“Ah, shit,” Ronan muttered.
Benny rubbed his hands together. “I can do this. No problem.”
Adare shook his head. “Grace is coming with me. I can take all three of you.”
Ivar wouldn’t let Promise teleport for the first time without him, and Adare had a right to protect his mate. Teleporting three people would tax the Highlander, but it was his decision.
Mercy pouted. “I want to take somebody. It’s not fair, otherwise.”
Ronan pushed his mate toward Mercy. “She’s safer with you, Mercy. If Benny dumps me in an ocean, you’d better come looking for me.”
Mercy grinned and slapped an arm over Faith’s shoulders. “Hey, Doc. Want to stop off in Paris for a quick shopping spree for some new boots?”
Glee filled Faith’s face.
“No—” Ronan started just as Benny jumped forward and hit him in a tackle, tumbling them toward the ground and then disappearing.
Promise let out a gasp from across the campground and then dropped to her butt on the stairs, her eyes wide and her chin lowering.
Ivar moved toward her across the uneven ground. There wasn’t time for shock.
She lifted her head and watched him. He’d expected fear after the way he’d treated her earlier. Color infused her face. No fear. Not even warning or uneasiness. Instead, she watched him walk, her gaze intense. She licked her bottom lip. Holy shit. She was scrutinizing him like he was a chalkboard covered with equations. Trying to figure him out and solve him.
The woman should be scared shitless.
Instead, she stood as he got nearer, her blood pumping faster than usual. He could hear it. “We’re going to have a crash course in mind shielding and teleporting.” He paused in front of her. “Adare will take us, and since he’s teleporting three of us, it’s going to be bumpy. It’ll take longer than usual, but don’t be frightened.”
Excitement lit her brown eyes.
“Are you up to shielding some more today?” he asked. They’d already asked a lot of her brain for one day.
She nodded, her gaze moving past him to where Adare had fetched Grace from her cabin. The young woman was drawing on a jacket, her hazel eyes serious. “Why can’t I bring my camera?” she asked as they approached.
“Metal doesn’t teleport,” Adare said. “Unless you’re with a Fae. Somehow they can do it.” He’d obviously removed his gun and knives. Then he paused about three feet away. “Promise? You good?”
She rubbed her temple. “Slight ache but not bad. I’ve been practicing shielding all day while working on equations.”
Adare grasped Grace’s bicep and smoothly swung her onto his back. “I need you to hold on, sprite,” he said, manacling her wrists at his clavicle with one wrist. “Secure your ankles together at my waist.”
The woman did so, setting her head on his shoulder and turning her face into his neck.
His eyes darkened, and he exhaled sharply. “You’
re safe, Grace. I won’t let you be harmed.”
They made a nice couple. Why the heck didn’t they see that? Ivar pulled Promise in front of him and wrapped both arms around her waist, plastering her body to his. They both faced Adare. “You can hold on to my thighs, sweetheart.” Ivar had her arms trapped.
She dug her nails into his cargo pants, her body trembling with what was probably anticipation. Maybe a little fear. “What should I do?” she whispered.
“Nothing,” Ivar said. “There’s nothing you can do once we go. Just hold on and trust me.” He nodded to Adare. “You ready?”
The Highlander cocked his head. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Brace yourself.” Then he charged.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Adare hit Ivar in the shoulders right above Promise’s head, not touching her in the slightest. Then no sensation. Darkness pressed in, and then a heaviness, followed by an unbelievable weightlessness, and finally pure light.
Her vision focused first. She stood on a thick lawn next to a firepit facing a lake surrounded by mountains. Adare stepped away and shook his head. His mouth moved as if he was talking. He bent over at the waist and sucked in air, letting his mate easily slide off his back.
Then sound roared in. Heavy boots running, a couple of shouts, Ivar’s breathing above her.
She blinked. Soldiers dressed in full combat gear, armed with sleek rifles, ran in directed chaos along the lake, obviously securing the perimeter.
Ivar hugged her close and turned her toward the building, which was a rustic example of a beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright–style lodge. “Welcome to demon headquarters,” he said.
The doors opened, and a large male dressed in all black stalked out with a gun strapped to one thigh and a knife to the other. He tossed guns toward Adare and Ivar, and they caught them easily. His black hair was tied at the nape, and his green eyes sizzled. The jaw was familiar—he looked a lot like Logan. He reached her. “Hi. Zane Kyllwood. I need your help.”
Pain lashed into her temples.
Ivar pulled her back into his body. “Shield, Professor. You can do it. Grab my hands and draw strength.”
She did so, mentally imagining those shields slamming into place.
Zane frowned. “I didn’t attack her mind.”
She blinked, her heart rate slowing back to normal. Well, slightly above normal. “You can teleport.”
He nodded.
Garrett and Logan popped up on their right, and a second later, Mercy and Faith appeared on their left.
Promise barely jumped.
Mercy grinned. “You okay? Covering your brain?”
“Yes,” Promise said. The shielding was actually becoming easier to accomplish.
“Good,” Mercy said. “What did you think of teleporting? Of there being nothing?”
Promise frowned. “I’d like to do it again. But there wasn’t nothing.” How could any of them think that? “We were there, so there was something. And there was a path, so again, something.” It appeared that the immortals hadn’t spent the time in their long lives studying physics. It was a pity, really. “Even at a reduced energy level, fluctuations occur in the quantum vacuum of any space,” she said.
Zane lifted his eyebrows and looked at Ivar.
Ivar leaned down. “One thing at a time, Missy.”
Oh, yes. That was right. She looked up at the demon leader. “You said you required my assistance.” Too bad it couldn’t be to discuss and study physics at the moment.
Faith looked around. “Hey. Where’s Ronan?”
As if on cue, Ronan and Benny slammed down, cracking the asphalt around the firepit. They had icicles in their hair and covering their boots.
Faith gasped. “Where did you go?”
Ronan shoved away from Benny and started picking the ice out of his black hair. “Greenland? Arctic Circle? Russia?” He shook his head. “Next time somebody else goes with Benny.”
Zane’s gaze sharpened, making him look frightening. “Long story short. We have the leader of the Kurjan nation’s kid in our possession. We’d like to give him back, but there’s a great chance we’re about to be bombed instead. Promise, I thought you could talk to the guy since you’ve had the most recent contact with him. According to my brother, it was a friendly meeting.”
Promise drew in air, trying to fill her lungs. “I’m the only one who’s met him?”
Faith shook her head. “Nope. I met him, and he handed me over to a psycho Cyst who wanted to cut me apart and study me.”
Promise gaped. “Were you, I mean, are you—”
“Oh, I punched him in the eye and then Ronan ripped off his head.” The neurologist grinned. “Good times.”
Promise’s legs weakened. “All right. So he truly is a bad guy.”
Faith frowned. “Didn’t you know that? I heard you screamed for Ivar when Dayne was in your office.”
Promise swallowed, her head still aching a little. “I decided to trust Ivar, and he said the Kurjans were dangerous and were the enemy, so I yelled for him when the time came.”
Zane’s chin lifted. “I like you.”
“She gets that a lot,” Benny said, shaking ice out of his shirt.
Ivar growled.
The sound brought everybody back to the present. Promise nodded. “I’m happy to speak with him. It’d probably be beneficial if I could see for myself that his child is here and is safe.” She looked up at the clear blue sky. How would bombs be delivered? Did the Kurjans have missiles, or would a plane provide warning?
Benny chucked Garrett on the arm. “While they deal with this, why don’t you and I run over to Realm headquarters? My nephew Chalton is there, and your mama is there, so let’s go visit.”
Zane tightened his gun strap. “We’ve activated the land mines around both headquarters. You’ll be blown up before you get ten feet.”
Benny sighed. “We’ll teleport, then.”
Garrett grabbed his shoulder, his odd gray eyes sizzling into a deep metal color. “How about I lead?”
Faith took Ronan’s hand. “We want to come. The queen and I have been working on some genetics, and I’d like to see her.”
“Damn it,” Ronan said, shaking his head. “All right. I’m with Benny.”
“Wait,” Ivar said. “Real quick. The Realm has the best computer system in the world. We need to find a female demon-Fae hybrid born around twenty-five years ago and probably raised by humans. Have the computer guys go through all databases they can find to search for her. Somehow.”
Benny’s chin dropped. “There’s a fairy-demon hybrid? A female one?”
Mercy kicked at the firepit. “Yes. When I was created, the leaders experimented a little bit. That’s all I know.”
Benny rubbed his chin. “Where do you suppose they got demon sperm?”
Zane turned toward the doorway. “We don’t have a lot of time here. Please come this way.”
Ivar’s warm palm slid down her arm to take her hand, and Promise held on tightly. The world was changing in front of her. Or rather, it was revealing itself to her, and her senses were experiencing an overload that tilted her vision.
Her head held high, her gaze seeking new discoveries with each step, she walked into the headquarters building of the demon nation.
* * * *
Ivar kept a good grip on Promise’s hand as they followed Zane through the maze of headquarters, taking a second to admire the architecture. Logan had designed it, using sharp lines and elements of stone, wood, and stained glass. Zane barked orders into his comm unit the entire time, even sending up the Blackhawks. This was serious.
They’d just gotten out of a full-out war and were currently succeeding in keeping the Mission of the Seven to a strategic battle.
Maybe seeing the way the immortals lived would change Promise’s mind about mating him. Or perhaps
she’d find another immortal among the demons.
The idea flashed like a knife through him, and he growled again, his fangs pricking his lip.
She jumped and turned her head.
He forced his fangs into place and gave her a smile. Her eyes widened. Man, it had been too long since he’d gotten in a fight. If they survived the current crisis, he’d ask Benny to spar with him. Benny never held back.
Zane paused outside of a closed door at the end of a hallway. “The Kurjan kid seems okay, but I’m sure he’s taking notes.”
Ivar exhaled. “You don’t think this was deliberate, do you?”
Zane shrugged. “Dunno. The Kurjans have never hesitated to take advantage of any situation. Apparently my daughter and Drake have been meeting in a dreamworld, and I sure didn’t know about it. If the Kurjans did…”
Ivar shook his head. “I can’t imagine a father would send his eight-year-old into danger like this.” But the Kurjans were evil, so who the hell knew? “Did you check the kid for recording devices?”
“No,” Zane said, sighing. “We brought the kids from the park to headquarters in the back of a van. If he’s recording, let him. I’m not searching a child.”
“Dreamworld?” Promise asked.
Zane pushed open the door. “Could be another universe, one she gets to without her body leaving here.” He shook his head. “Sounds like the Seven ritual, and I did the same thing as a kid. But we thought we blew up what we considered the dreamworld.” He looked down at Promise. “Guess it’s one more theory for you to solve.”
It didn’t surprise Ivar that Zane was well versed about Promise. The demon nation had excellent resources.
Zane led them into a colorfully painted room containing game consoles, a small golf putting course, air hockey tables, and dartboards with plastic-tipped darts. Plush beanbags were strewn about along with bookshelves overflowing with books. A costume area stood in the far corner with princess dresses, sparkly shoes, and tiaras.
A massive vampire with sizzling pink eyes stood guard at the other end of the room, while two kids sat in the beanbags, not playing, both pale.
Zane pointed. “This is my daughter, Hope, and her friend Drake. The other two pint-sized escapees went home with their parents.” Hope was a cutie with blue eyes and brown hair, and Drake a pale kid who looked almost human. In fact, he could probably pass for human if necessary. Very rare genes for a Kurjan.
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