Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3

by Jodie B. Cooper

  “Liquid synth crystal,” Nick said, and continued explaining the situation to Colin, the one person who might be able to help Sarah. “I was following her thoughts. She barely brushed the crystal when her entire body arched up and she screamed in agony. I don’t know if she shoved me out of her mind or the power did, but we are no longer sharing thoughts.”

  “It’s why I’ve never linked my mind with Miranda. I’ve always been afraid the power within me might burn her,” Colin said, as his eyes narrowed in thought.

  “You could’ve explained that to me,” Miranda huffed, smacking the lethal elf in the arm.

  For a split-second, Colin’s face went blank then twisted in pain. Turning to Miranda, he gently cupped her face. Nick was too worried about Sarah to care, but he knew they had to be having a fairly serious conversation.

  When a large, beautiful smile crossed Miranda’s face, Colin sighed in what sounded like relief.

  The big, dark-haired elf kissed his mate and turned back to Nick. “I’m going to try and siphon part of the energy off of her.”

  “Siphon? You’re a damn wizard!” Lord Trellick exploded, naming the one group of Sídhí that could suck power from another. The transfer of power turned the wizard’s skin a putrid green.

  Nick had heard how blinding fast full-blooded elves were, but the speed with which Lord Trellick unsheathed and lunged with his sword was more like mega-warp speed.

  “No,” Miranda screamed, terror widened her eyes.

  As fast as Lord Trellick was, Colin was faster. A synth crystal sword appeared in his hand. Slicing upward, Colin deflected the man’s killing blow.

  Colin surged toward his opponent, smashing his fist into his father-n-law’s face. Lord Trellick’s body went airborne, slamming against the freezer door that had begun to swing inward.

  Someone shoved the door inward, pushing the dazed man across the floor. Shouts of concerned warriors erupted, filling the room with ear-aching noise.

  “Out,” Nick ordered, throwing as much authority behind his voice as possible. When they hesitated, he added, “It’s a family disagreement.”

  A broad shouldered vampire with familiar cobalt blue eyes and hair the color of midnight nodded once and shut the door. Nick didn’t have time to process seeing his older brother, not when Lord Trellick had the look of death in his eyes.

  “Lord Trellick,” Nick shouted, then hastily corrected his form of address. “James, meet the Sídhí Chi’Kehra.”

  The blonde-haired elf froze. The pupils of his elfin eyes dilated in shock.

  “Colin is not a wizard,” Miranda snapped. “Jeez, Dad, how could you even think such a vile thought? Does his skin look green to you?”

  “Chi’Kehra?” he asked, owl-eyes blinking rapidly. “From Sídhí? One Chi’Kehra is amazing, two alive at the same time is incredible, but both in the same family? Unbelievable.”

  Shaking his head, he sheathed his sword.

  Colin chuckled. His sword simply disappeared as he reached to clasp the hand Lord Trellick offered him. “Now, let’s see to Sarah.”

  Colin glanced at Miranda. “Whatever happens, even if I hit the ground twitching, no touching any part of my body. The power is wild, untamed. I won’t take a chance it might not recognize you.”

  “Yeah, I’d rather not have singed hair it wouldn’t match my new outfit,” Miranda said with a snort. When Colin approached Sarah, the worry tightening her face didn’t match her flippant words.

  Leaning forward, Colin brushed his fingers across Sarah’s cheek. He hissed; a grunt of pain mixed with the choked sound of alarm.

  Surging up in Nick’s lap, Sarah gasped. An instant later, she rolled out of his lap, ending up several feet away in a half-kneeling position, looking like a sprinter getting ready for a race.

  “Sarah,” Nick said. Relief flooded him, and he reached for her.

  “No,” she jerked backward. A strand of hair hung haphazardly over one eye giving her a crazed look as she snarled at him, “I’m on fire. I’ll burn you.”

  Behind her, a gate opened onto a field of brown grass and dying flowers. Hot, brilliant sunshine filled the meadow of late summer colors.

  “Go,” Colin snapped the order through clenched teeth as he motioned toward the opening, “We’ll burn off the excess energy.”

  Quick as a serpent’s strike, Sarah turned and darted through the open gateway.

  ____________

  The instant Sarah cleared the gateway she opened and shut a new gateway, expending energy the fastest way she knew how. Rapidly, one right after another, a dozen more gates quickly followed.

  Behind her, from the billowing power expelled, she knew Colin was doing the same thing.

  Several hours later, her heart continued racing. The jittering of her body felt as if she had downed a few dozen caffeine-laden triple-shots on an empty stomach. She felt wired to her eyeballs.

  Crossing the field, she approached Colin.

  Glancing at her, he continued creating gateways on the edge of the silent meadow. The wildlife had disappeared within moments of the first gateway opening.

  “Thanks,” she said softly. The serious tone of her voice must have grabbed his attention, because he didn’t open a new gateway as he turned toward her.

  “I’m just glad it worked. Miranda would’ve never forgiven me if her big sister had died,” he said. He crossed his arms, appearing to ignore the breeze, as it played with is long, black hair. “Try not to do that again.”

  A slight smile touched her lips. “No problem there. I just barely touched the ruin in Trellick Valley when power flooded me. I’ve never tasted such a wild surge of raw energy.”

  “Hopefully, you never will again. Another experiment like that and you’ll end-up as dead as the previous Chi’Kehra.”

  Sarah snorted. “I wasn’t that stupid. I knew I couldn’t control that much power. I just wanted to open a spigot that would drain into the valley’s reservoir.”

  “Ah, that explains it. You believe in the Second Dimensional Balloon Theory. I take it that you think Chi’Kehra gathered the energy to him and thrust it into his command to teleport his people to Earth.”

  “That’s just the bare bones of the theory, but yes, I agree that sums up what happened.” She looked at him with curiosity. “Do you believe something else happened?”

  “Something else did occur. The idea of taking his people to a new world was literally driving the old Chi’Kehra insane. Once he figured-out how to use and replicate the ruins there was no stopping him. He filled the ruins and pushed his command for them to teleport everything to Earth.”

  “And it killed him,” she added, not seeing any difference in what she originally believed.

  “No, that’s not what killed him.”

  Startled at his reply, she snapped her mouth shut on her next question and waited for him to finish.

  “Before I explain, I have a quick question for you. When you give an order to the crystal, how long does it take for the crystal respond?” he asked. His tone hinted at full-blown teacher mode.

  Sighing, she withheld a smart remark and answered him, “Instantly. There is no wait.”

  “How would you react if you gave an order to a chunk of synth crystal and it just sat there, appearing completely unresponsive?” he asked, opening a gateway into a bedroom, one that looked extremely familiar.

  Walking through the opening, she confirmed her theory. Behind a delicate looking desk of pale blue furble wood, an open window revealed the town surrounding Trellick castle.

  “I’d think something weird was going on and mentally look into the crystal,” she said, and joined him as he sat in one of the padded chairs in her sister’s room. The four chairs sat around a small card table placed near the row of windows where it could catch the morning light.

  “Nick, I’m in Miranda’s room,” she called to her mate. The pulsing anxiety in the middle of her chest didn’t pause; it simply morphed into relieved concern.

  “I’ve n
ever been there, would you port me in?” he asked, mentioning one of the greatest restraints a vampire had on his porting ability. Porting blind, always took the risk of appearing stuck in the middle of a wall of stone.

  Sarah did better than what he asked of her, she ported him and Miranda into the room.

  Nick had his arms around her nearly as fast as Colin reached Miranda. That was saying a lot.

  Briefly, she snuggled into his embrace as his relief flooded her.

  “Don’t ever do anything like that ever again,” he ordered, tightening his hold on her.

  “Totally agree with you on that one,” she murmured against his chest.

  “Sarah?” her dad called. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. We’re in Miranda’s room,” she said with a sigh, knowing her brief respite was at an end. Crap, how could she have forgotten the invasion?

  Her check trembled as Nick’s growl rumbled through his chest. “It’s not like you had much time to worry about anything else.” Smoothing her hair down, he kissed her temple, and added with a slight tremor in his mental voice, “When I lost contact with your thoughts, I was terrified you were dying.”

  “I thought I was too. When I felt the power hit me, I threw up a barrier between us, but I didn’t have time to warn you,” she said, rubbing his chest trying to calm him.

  “You’re okay?”

  “Jittery, but okay,” she said with a small laugh for his ears only. “I feel like the energizer bunny multiplied by a few billion megawatts.”

  With a twinkle in his eyes, he looked at her hair, giving it serious consideration. “I don’t think pink fur would work out for you.”

  Turning her attention back to work, she said, “Dad, we have more than just the Dhark Empire to worry about. I need all our key people in the conference room in thirty minutes. If they can’t get away, I need their first in command.”

  His mental sigh was one she had heard a thousand times. “I’m really not going to like this, am I?”

  “No, no one is,” she said somberly, heading out of the room.

  They had just reached the bottom of the staircase when Sarah’s mom rounded a corner going much too fast. “Baby!” she cried in relief. Never pausing, she threw herself toward Miranda.

  A word of caution was on Sarah’s lips, but Colin beat her to it. He literally stepped between Miranda and her mom.

  Sarah snorted to herself, ready to watch the sparks fly.

  “Who do you think you are?” her mom demanded, poking him in the chest. “Bloody, arrogant elf, get out of my way.”

  “Hi, Mom, meet my new lifetime bodyguard. Doesn’t he have the hottest body you’ve ever seen?” Miranda said cheekily from behind Colin’s wide shoulders.

  “Well, he’ll be mangled if he doesn’t get out of my way,” the older, half elf, half vampire said with a loud huff of annoyance. Her golden hair swung around her shoulders. Pale green, elfin eyes shot daggers at Colin.

  “She’s still healing from an injury, no hard hugs allowed,” Colin said imperiously.

  Sarah watched the spark in her mom’s eyes turn to livid fire. “Mom, he did the same thing to me. His name is Colin, and he is Miranda’s new lifeMate.”

  “Mate?”

  While her mom demanded an explanation, Sarah and Nick moved around them, reaching the conference room as a vampire ported Bea into the room.

  Before the phoenix had time to approach, a grim-faced vampire greeted them, “Liege, my lord.” General Cornell, Cory for short, looked fierce in all-out battle gear.

  The armor fit his body like a second skin, making the spikes of steel on his shoulders appear a natural extension of his muscled width. On his hips, hung twin curved knives with hilts made of ivory, a highly prized - and expensive - material harvested from adult kraken fangs. The two-foot knives, or short swords, matched the long, double-handed sword strapped to his back. Stopping several feet away, his hand clenched into a fist, and he hit his chest.

  “Cory,” Sarah greeted him, offering her hand. She gripped the lower part of his arm in an age-old warrior-type greeting. “I’ll ask for a full update during the meeting, but what is the current status?”

  “Good, we’re in good shape,” he said, acknowledging Bea with a nod as she joined them. “We still have several hot spots, but everywhere else we’re hunting stragglers. I’ve sent thirty percent of the standing army to assist with rescue and clean-up efforts.”

  “I pretty much did the same with our phoenix forces,” Bea added.

  “You’ve already called in our reserves?” she asked. At his nod, she continued, “Within twenty-four hours they need to be in position to take up the slack when we pull the phoenix out of the valley for another mission.”

  Frowning at Sarah, the phoenix general leaned forward as if prepping for an argument. “Liege, with all due respect, what could be more urgent than helping rebuild lost homes?” Bea asked, looking as appalled as her words sounded.

  “Umbra,” Sarah said. Her single word response stopped both generals. Movement within the rapidly filling room stopped, like a freeze-frame in a movie people stared at her in horror.

  “There are more of them?” Cory asked at the same time Bea did.

  “Yes,” Sarah said, refusing to answer additional questions. It would be easier to explain it all at once.

  Moving to the head of the long, rectangle table, she smiled at Nick. “As my mate, the other end is your domain.”

  Pulling out the chair for her, he snorted. “My domain, as you put it, is at your side. As long as I win the occasional argument, I’m quite happy with being beta to your alpha.” Taking the seat to her right, he crossed his arms, looking like the Viking emperor, Mordecai. From the possessive emotions radiating from him, she knew she’d never budge him. With a small shake of her head, she glanced at her two generals.

  Cory dropped into the chair to her left, and Bea sat on the other side of Nick. Neither seemed fazed by the seating arrangement.

  “We figured that’s where he’d want to sit,” Bea said to Sarah. “Cory and I agreed to switch seats at every other meeting.”

  Along both sides of the table sat a wide range of people, each of them key to the safety of Trellick Valley.

  Making eye contact, she acknowledged each person. Glancing around the room, she wondered where Mac was. Normally, he sat between her spymaster and head animal trainer.

  Mac’s current task was one more detail - among several hundred - on her growing To Do List. She needed someone to guard the teens at camp, but Mac was the head of her personal security detail, which now included guarding Nick as well.

  “Where is Mac?” she asked, making immediate plans to send another warrior to take Mac’s place.

  Garrick, Mac’s second in command, looked uncomfortable as he answered, “Out of pocket for the moment.”

  Cory didn’t look any happier when he added, “I called him. When I didn’t receive a response, I sent a couple of men looking for him.”

  “And,” she said, prompting him with the soft word.

  “The cabin looked like a tornado hit it. None of the teens were there,” he paused, giving her time to let his words sink in. “I’ve sent men to question the dragons.”

  Inhaling through her nose, she sucked in a harsh breath. “Mac?” she called.

  “Not now!” Mac snarled, shutting her out of his mind.

  The power behind his thrust snapped her head backward. Under the table, Nick’s leg pressed against hers. His dark green eyes glinted with anger. “Let’s get the meeting over with then we’ll deal with your winged boy wonder.”

  “I’m going to pluck him. I swear that I’ll pluck every darn feather if he went off on one of his tangents and left his post. His duty was to protect those teens,” she said, growling softly. To Cory she said darkly, “He’s alive, but he might not be when I’m finished with him.”

  Turning her attention to the two dozen or so people facing her, she asked each of them for an update.

&
nbsp; As soon as they were finished, she said, “Sounds like you don’t need me around.”

  Her words caused the laughter she was aiming for. Looking into the eyes of her people, she saw shadows that would never go away. “Each of you, are to be commended. You have gone over and above your duty. I thank you for holding our valley together.”

  Pausing, she glanced down the twin rows of people. “Now, comes the hard part.”

  She turned to Colin. “Do you want it known who you are?” Sarah asked privately, understanding his reasons to remain silent if that was what he decided.

  Colin glanced at Miranda, but aimed his words at Sarah. “Miranda doesn’t think it will undermine your authority, but I’m not too sure.”

  “Having the Sídhí Chi’Kehra appear will make a big difference to most full blood elves, but the people in this room are solid. They’ll stay loyal no matter what,” Sarah said without a single doubt.

  “Then, as my mate is fond of saying, go for it,” Colin said with a slight smile curving across his handsome face.

  “By now, everyone knows Miranda has a new mate. What you don’t know is who he is,” Sarah said, nodding to Colin.

  “As cute as he is, he must be the missing crown prince of the elvish Royal Valley,” Bea said in a stage whisper.

  Rolling his eyes, Cory snorted at her theatrics.

  The two had a great working relationship. His grim outlook clashed with her cheeky attitude to create a perfect unit.

  “Almost, but not quite,” Sarah fought the urge to grin. Next to her, Nick chuckled. “Everyone meet Colin, Chi’Kehra of Sídhí.”

  The table erupted with noise as everyone tried to speak at once. Several jumped to their feet, clutching weapons. At the opposite end of the table, her dad raised an eyebrow as if asking if she could have stated the information with a bit more tact.

  “Sit down,” Sarah said quietly; lethal menace coated her words. As she spoke, several people turned to her and blanched. “Each of you will remember he is now my brother-n-law.

  Bea chuckled. All but rolling in her chair, she broke the tense atmosphere. “Can we do it again?” Phoenix had such a warped sense of humor it wasn’t even funny.