by Jaymin Eve
The bridge started to descend in a gentle slope and the brightness at the end increased. We were close now. I forced myself to focus on simply getting in and out of the island without some god screwing us hard. Because even in my sexually-deprived state, that did not sound enjoyable. Plus, I was only going to drive myself insane trying to put together a puzzle that was missing so many pieces.
I reached out and Braxton met me halfway, fingers interlocking. Somehow he knew I needed something to keep me from drifting away. Or maybe he’d needed the comfort too. I was used to being strong, never letting shit bother me, but I’d been thrust into this massive battle and I had no clue what I was supposed to do.
None of us slowed even as the brightness became intense enough to blind. I could tell by their rigid jaws and lack of comment that the boys were not exactly happy to be running into an unknown danger, but when you have no choices left … yep, this shit sucked balls.
At the very last moment, when the piercing brightness was causing actual shooting pain in my head, I closed my eyes. The wooden planks disappeared from underneath us and the ground softened. I stumbled as voices rang out, a chorus that was so familiar. Braxton’s firm grip on my hand was the only thing which kept me standing.
I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the black dots and blurry vision. The moment I could see, I spun in a circle, taking in everything, trying to catalogue it all so my poor brain could catch up with what my eyes observed.
The bridge, voices and ashy mist were gone. We were on a very large island, surrounded by water so clear I swear I could see the sandy bottom for miles out. The sky was a peach color, and I couldn’t tell if that was because of the time of day, or if this soft shade was simply native to this part of Faerie. The waters held me mesmerized for some time. They were magical in nature, sparkling unnaturally, brighter than any green I’d seen before, so many shades of aqua and turquoise that there was no true way to describe it. Its beauty was literally breathtaking. I was having trouble taking it all in.
My wolf and dragon slowed their pacing inside and stared with me, all of us finding a sense of peace and tranquility. I could have stood there staring out into the waters for an eternity and that still wouldn’t have been long enough.
I’m not sure exactly what snapped me out of the daze, but by the time a sense of clarity started to filter in, there was a strange tingling sensation running up and down my side. I lifted my shirt to see what was happening to me.
Braxton ran a warm hand along my body. “Your mark is changing, Jess.” His voice was low and rumbly as his hand continued to glide across my side. “It’s moving, swirling. It almost looks as if your dragon is flying. It likes this island.”
I could see it now, the red and black moving, dancing across my skin. The entire mark seemed to have shifted at least three inches lower. The rest of the quads gathered around me, shaking their heads as they stared.
The mark eventually stopped its weird little dance and I dropped my shirt back down. The five of us turned to the island, which was as captivating as the water, possessing a beauty beyond compare – golden sands, greenery that was so bright it looked unnatural, sparkling waterfalls, picturesque ponds, the lightest of breezes and the sweetest of animal sounds.
Take every clichéd image of a tropical paradise, mesh them all together, polish it off with some magical dust and throw sparkles into the air … you had this island.
Tyson lifted his face, tawny skin glowing in the soft light. “I sort of think we should just forget about the king and live here. We’ll get the rest of our people and just chill here in the land of shiny shit forever.”
I had to chuckle. He sounded half serious, and I couldn’t blame him.
Maximus slapped his brother on the shoulder. “What have I always told you about pretty things? Often they hide the most darkness inside. That’s why I said you couldn’t trust beautiful women, they’re treacherous.” He gave me a wink. “Except for our Jessa babe. But then again, she can be a little evil if you interrupt her sleep or steal her food.”
I groaned then, my hands instinctively clutching at my stomach. “Gods, don’t mention food. I’m so hungry.”
A faint nausea was fighting for control of my stomach. I was starving, but the actual thought of eating anything made me feel queasy. It had been too long between decent meals. Rose’s sad little – possibly magically tainted – sandwich most definitely did not count.
“We’ll find you some cake soon,” Braxton promised, and I actually bounced a little on the spot.
“I love you,” I pretty much squealed. “You’re the best mate ever.”
Braxton’s blue eyes were piercing then. They locked me into place, and all of a sudden it was hard to breathe.
“I love you too, Jess. I always have.” His words were low and serious as he stepped closer. Hot flashes started rocking through me. I wanted him so badly it was painful. “I’ll find you an entire cake. A goddamn truck filled to the brim with cakes.”
The moment between us was intense. He’d just told me he loved me – not in the normal way we’d always said it – and I wasn’t sure I’d ever recover. None of the other Compasses blinked an eye at our emotional leakage. They all looked really happy for us, like any true pack members would be. I wondered if Braxton could feel the epic scale of my emotions right now. They were vast and strong. Way fucking strong. I wasn’t even sure I had the capability to process them.
I had never been in love before – I loved the Compasses with every cell in my body, and knew I couldn’t live in a world without them in it – but in love was totally different. Braxton just had to go and up my emotions by a few million steps.
Damn him and his damn dimples. Not to mention that unwavering loyalty. He had waited a long time for me to wake up to our inevitability. I had no idea what I’d done right to deserve Braxton as my true mate.
The dragon shifter’s eyes twinkled then. “As long as we’re clear that I’m the alpha ninety percent of the time, I’ll try my best not to challenge you for the other ten percent.”
All of my loved-up emotions morphed into the urge to punch him in his smug face. “Dream on, buddy. We’re just going to have to share alpha. I ain’t giving that up for anybody, not even the Braxton Compass.”
The twinkle deepened. “Wouldn’t have it any other way, Jess.” He yanked me hard into his body and wrapped his arms around me. Against my better judgement I sank into him. The boy already possessed the ability to totally enchant my mind and body. I was in trouble.
“Anytime today, lovebirds. Don’t you think we should get our ass– ”
Braxton’s growl interrupted Jacob mid-sentence.
“Never mind,” the fey mumbled, and took a long step backwards.
I patted my dragon shifter on his chest a few times. It took nothing for him to morph into that possessive dragon mode. “He’s got a point, Brax. Time to get this all-inclusive Isle-of-the-Gods-tour started.”
Focus descended across the quads in an instant. It was odd seeing it happen, almost like the fun-loving side of them got tucked away behind the warrior. And their warrior sides were quite scary. They took point around me, two on either side, and together we started to move further into this beautiful land with its undercurrents of scary.
The boys fell in sync, walking with the same long strides, doing their quad thing, which reminded me of the time they joined their powers in the sanctuary. My eyes flicked between them.
“Has anything changed between you four since you received your calling?”
I hadn’t fully shrugged off the worry that I would lose them, their individual traits bleeding together. The original Four were total freaks, identical looks, identical creeptastic asshole tendencies – like locking away babies and shit. For now my boys still seemed the same as ever, but I needed to stay on top of that. I worried that the more time they spent joined, the worse it would get.
Maximus answered me. “We’re more tuned into each other. I can sense them in my head, eve
n though we don’t really share thoughts unless we’re actually joined. The calling does run through us, wanting us to join, to go back to Larkspur and finish what Braxton started, but we’re strong enough to resist it.”
Tyson joined in. “Yep, especially since we know there’s no way to kill him yet.”
“I feel stronger,” Jacob said. “The elements respond almost without any expulsion of power. The fire burns more intensely in my chest.”
Braxton shifted at my side. “Same. My beast is stronger, my urges too. Joining together has heightened our natural supernatural abilities. We’re evolving. Hopefully the strength is enough to help with the coming battle.”
“You know, I didn’t think much on it, but I haven’t had blood for days,” Maximus said. “And I’m not as weakened as I normally would be.”
The vampire members of our supernatural world were not bound by most of the lore of their kind, but the drinking of blood was one thing that humans did get right. For some reason vampires had a very high blood cell turnover. Blood cell death took about sixty days for most of us, but for vamps it was twenty. The rapid regeneration was too much for their bodies to maintain, so a little help was required. This regeneration did allow them to be resistant to injury, as rapid as a bullet, and a plethora of other coolness. So it wasn’t a bad tradeoff.
“Speaking of quads, we ran into the Four while we were looking for you.” Jacob said this all casual-like, the same way he might have said he’d had some eggs for breakfast, or punched a dude in the face.
Meanwhile my mouth was hanging open and a sort of red haze had descended across my vision. I’d like to think I was mature enough to accept some of what the Four had done. They’d had a job to do, and the way they treated marked was not personal, but reality was I hated their ugly, robo-cop asses, hated them enough that if Jacob had said they were dead, their heads stuck on spikes and mounted around the borders of Stratford as decoration, I’d be okay with that. I’d even ask for photos so I could put them up on my wall.
Jacob, noticing my expression, hurried along. “We had no real choice, Jessa. We need their help. We reached a tentative agreement: if the king teams up with the marked, the Four will fight with us. They can use their energy to hold dragon marked at bay, giving us a shot to take out the king.”
Maximus snorted. “Yep, we reached this agreement right after Braxton smashed two of them in the face. A little payback for when they tried to take you from Stratford. FYI their calling power does not work on dragons.”
I tilted my head back to see Braxton. He was focused on our surroundings, no expression across his face, but there was that look in his eye. He didn’t like the Four any more than I did, and trusted them even less. He wouldn’t be letting his guard down.
I freaking hated that they’d made this deal, but there wasn’t much I could do about it now. I had to focus on finding some sort of weapon to defeat the king. This was the key to bringing control back to the supernatural world, to making sure that supes like the Four never came into our lives again.
I focused on our surroundings. Rose had said the answers were here, but where? Would a weapon or god just jump out at us, or would we need to search? From her tone I’d certainly expected a level of danger on this island, but so far there was nothing scary.
Of course, just like the last time I’d thought shit in Faerie, the damn land decided to bring it to life. A rumble rocked the ground beneath our feet. My dragon and wolf jumped to attention as electricity filled the air. Holy freaking ogre balls. Damn my random thoughts. The next time I thought of something here, it would be cake shops and naked Braxton.
The peachy sky darkened and we were looking at a world of twilight. A sense of danger filtered through to us and we closed ranks. Before any of us could react, a schism split the grassy land, opening a massive crater beneath our feet, so fast and wide that there was no way for us to avoid the fall. The five of us plunged straight down into whatever waited below.
Chapter 9
The space we fell through was not large enough for Braxton or me to call on our dragons. We’d definitely kill the other quads by dragon-bulk-into-rocks. But we might also all die by plunging into the ground below, so … hard choices. The darkness of this chasm, beneath the beautiful island, was all encompassing, no way to know what we were heading for, or how long until we were pancakes. Braxton was close by and I knew he’d be tapping into dragon sight, trying to see if there was enough space to shift and grab us all. He would only need a few seconds to save us all.
The air started to cool as the space between the rocky walls narrowed. Maximus was plastered to my front, Braxton was at my back, both of them probably trying to keep me safe. I mean, I did love me some Compass sandwich, but these circumstances kind of sucked the big one.
My dragon roared, sensing something below, but before I could freak out, iciness encased my legs as we plunged into a dark watery abyss. In the last second before going under, I managed to take a massive breath.
Confession time: I hate swimming when I can’t see what’s in the water. The deep darkness hides many a thing. We dropped for a long time through the blackness, the water eventually slowing our descent. I kicked out, forcing my body back to the surface. It was hard not to lose my direction. It was so dark that if I turned myself around, I’d find myself swimming to my death.
The boys were close by. I could feel their ripples of energy, and thankfully one of them – Tyson I’d guess, because Jacob’s fire was not going to work down here – produced a magic light that filtered through the water.
I was starting to get a little lightheaded. Lack of oxygen would become a problem sooner or later. Strong bands gripped my biceps and I jerked before realizing it was Braxton. He made a few military style gestures at me, trying to tell me something but I had no idea what it was, eventually he just held me close and powered upwards. Swirls of water churned below us – Jacob was using his affinity for water to speed our trajectory. The pressure around me started to lessen.
As my head broke above the surface I gasped, trying to suck in as much air as I could in those first few seconds. Braxton’s chest heaved beside me, but he was mostly silent as he held me, keeping us both afloat. The other Compasses were up now also, all of them breathing hard and trying to figure out what the hell we’d just stumbled into.
Braxton wrapped one of his hands around the back of my neck, threading his fingers into my long dark hair and tipping my head back. “You ever plunge into water like that again,” he said, his low voice echoing around the cavern, “shift into your dragon. She has a much larger lung capacity, loves the water, and will always know which way is to freedom. We can feel the call of the sky.”
I coughed a few times before managing to answer: “That’s what you were trying to tell me. Man, I wish you could talk in my head like king dragon dickhead did. Would make things that much easier.”
Braxton’s grip tightened and silence descended across the darkness, all-encompassing like a vacuum had been fitted to this underground cavern. I didn’t have to guess about what had caused the soundless and angry vibrations from my mate. I had just noticed that the icy water was getting warm when Braxton thrust me toward Maximus. The vamp caught me as blue flames licked across the shifter’s skin.
“He was in your head! Like a mate bond?” The words ripped through the shifter’s teeth, a definite snarl on the end of each one.
I was enthralled by Braxton, his hair so black, slicked back from his perfect features, blue flames highlighting every facet of his dark beauty. But then I registered his words.
“No,” I shouted. “No way! There’s no mate bond between me and Larky! It was just that we were both in dragon form. You said we could communicate in dragon form, right?”
Water swished as he moved closer, the flames dying down until they were no more than a fine tendril coating his skin. “Yes, that’s right, but he should never be allowed in your head. I need to teach you how to block those you don’t want to hear. How to pr
otect your mind. The dragon has natural protections, but if you encounter someone more powerful than you, they’ll be able to get in your head.”
The more he spoke, the calmer he got. The blue flames were all but gone, and the underground seemed a lot darker than it had been, even with Tyson’s light still shining around us.
Speaking of, the wizard had something to say: “Well, I don’t know about you all, but I’d like to get the fuck out of this water pit. Who the hell knows what’s in here with us, and I’m kind of freezing my balls off.”
He made two very good points. If I had balls, mine would be frozen by now. This water was like the freaking Antarctic, and I refused to even consider if there was any creepy shit in here.
“I doubt they’ll want to mess with two dragons. They’ll leave us alone.” Braxton was confident as he reached out and captured my hand, pulling me from Maximus. He then threw me up onto his back. The total hotness of that was sort of dimmed by the implications of what he had said.
What things are in the water?
Before I could freak out and start trying to see into the depths below, we were moving, swimming rapidly across the chilly water. I wasn’t sure what landmark they were using for direction, but I hoped it wouldn’t be too long before we were on land and dry. The heat which was a natural part of Braxton’s body was keeping me warm enough, but I still had that urge to get out and shake the water from my fur – metaphorical fur, but still the same sensation as when I was wolf.
“Hey, Brax!” yelled Jacob. “Not sure they got the ‘won’t mess with dragons’ memo.”
I scanned back and forth in rapid jerks of my head, but still couldn’t see anything.
Braxton still wasn’t worried. “If they come any closer, I’ll shift into my dragon. I think for now they’re just curious.”
My voice got all shrill: “You asshats have two seconds to tell me what’s in the water with us or I’m going to start punching the shit out of you.” I didn’t get scared much, not that true fear which starts heavy in your gut and rises up to choke you out, where you can’t swallow or breathe. Surrounded by the quads, my fear was manageable, but water was not my thing, and dark underground holes in the world of Faerie added an extra dash of creep to it.