“She wasn’t alone down here. There was another prisoner who was treated much better.”
I nodded. I was willing to bet who they kept down here. That was how they forced her compliance before they broke her enough not to worry.
“Her brother.” Noah breathed. I nodded in agreement.
We climbed the stairs. Fuckin’ Naresh wouldn’t bring her here. That meant he had a secondary lair set up.
Aran was waiting for us when we left the basement.
“Aran?”
“Cole, Noah, I have everyone out looking for Leta. Dante says you should look for the water.” He shrugged. “I’m going to meet up with my brothers.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand the created,” Angel told us.
“I’m in agreement.” I looked over at Noah.
“He said look to the water Cole.” I nodded waiting. “It might be nothing.”
Noah took the lead. The prisoners that he tied up were now in the hands of the police officers on the scene. Ash one of Aran’s brothers was talking to the police. We took off avoiding the confusion.
Robertson came down the stairs of the basement grinning at me. I hated him. I disliked Markovic, but I hated Robertson with every fiber of my being. He was cruel. Causing pain gave him pleasure.
“I love family reunions.” He tossed the man he was dragging across the floor at me.
“Leta?” His voice was cracked, and his gray eyes were haunted. It was him, he was alive and almost well.
“Maxi!”
“Leta.”
“What the fuck kind of faggot name is Maxi?” Robertson kicked him.
“Leave him alone!” I was screaming. How much more was I expected to handle?
“I did everything they told me to do. They said if I didn’t fight they would leave you alone. You would get to live. I tried so hard.” His voice broke.
Maxi was two years older than me. All my life he tried to take care of me. Even when he left for school, I was to call him if anything happened, and he would find a way back to me. My big brother, my hero. When they said he died with my father, my heart broke. Everyone I loved taken away in one swell swoop.
When the therapist told me, I hadn’t seen my brother, that he wasn’t in danger, I believed her. They said he was a product of a damaged mind. I was damaged, so it was hard to argue that. He had been so real, so alive. I learned not to fight so he would have a chance at a better life if I could be good.
Now I knew they did the same thing to him. They used me to keep him in line.
“Did they…”
He dropped his eyes, and I knew.
“I’m gay Leta. I got what I deserved.”
I wanted to argue with him, shake him. What did it matter, if we died?
“Maxi, you deserve love. Don’t you remember dad telling you that?”
“Dad always said it was his job to love me. As long as whoever I picked loved me as much as he did he would be happy.”
I smiled. “That was dad. I forgot he used to say that. He never cared who we picked; he only cared that we were loved.”
My dad would have loved Cole and Noah. He would have called them his son’s. I got two for the price of one. I could almost hear his voice; he loved getting more for the same amount of money.
“You’re crying.” Maxi wiped my tears.
“Happy tears. I was thinking about dad. I forgot that he wanted us to be true to ourselves and not a world that had three different opinions before lunchtime.”
“They’re not human.” He lowered his voice.
“I know.”
“I can’t think of anyone I’d rather die with.” He smiled at me through his pain.
“Maybe we won’t die.”
Maxi looked at me with doubt in his eyes, but he didn’t argue. That’s when I realized that my older brother was going to allow me to be the one with the hope this time. If only I could protect him the way he protected me when I was younger.
“We need to get back to the car, Cole,” I told him. The word water was playing in my mind. I could be wrong, but every time I thought of it; it brought up a memory I couldn’t shake. Cole picked me up and began to make his way back to where we left the car.
A month before I met Cole, I took my mom to look at the houses on the water. She loved them but didn’t want to live in one. They flood Noah. I could hear her telling me in her reasonable voice. The one she used when she was sure my logic was flawed.
I had driven further than I usually would. We stopped at a house that was beautiful as well as isolated. When I suggested looking around, she begged me to keep moving.
She thought the place felt evil. I gave her my, please don’t do this look, but she shrugged. Normally, I wouldn’t give my mom’s rambling that much attention. It was the look in her eyes along with the conviction in her voice. I drove away thinking she might be right.
Cole set us down by the car. I told him what I was thinking.
“It’s the best lead we have.” He handed the keys to me. “Drive.”
Chapter Thirty-one
Leta
Cole
Noah
“Let him go please,” I begged for Maxi’s life as Robertson dragged him away from me. I was chained up, there was nothing I could do. He strung Maxi up from a chain in the ceiling. I knew what was coming next.
“Don’t do this Robertson. Whip me, I know I’m your favorite target. Leave him alone.”
“Nothing I’d rather do than hear you scream in pain Leigh, but this isn’t my show. I’m just a spectator.”
Fuckin’ Naresh walked into the room with a whip in one hand and a wickedly curved knife in the other.
“Let him go you have me.”
He turned to look at me. His blue eyes were bright along with that white-blond hair making him look like a surfer. His body screamed we’re about to have fun.
I knew better.
“I want you both Leta. I waited for this day. I allowed your brother to come into his own. I watched you as pain and fear became part of your blood. You’re my Christmas feast; I will enjoy it.”
He was sick, but I already knew that. He took the whip laying it across Maxi’s back. He refused to cry out. Fuckin’ Naresh laughed, then he used the knife.
The drive took two hours. I was ready to kill something. “He’s mine Cole.”
“You can have Markovic.”
“What makes you think he’ll be there?”
“Someone came to our door. If it was fuckin’ Naresh, I would have felt him.”
“I want Robertson too.”
“We’ll have to talk about that one.” Cole was watching the scenery making plans in his head.
“He beat Leta,” I told him.
“I know.” Claws sprouted at the tips of Cole’s fingers before he called them back in.
Robertson wasn’t walking out of that house today. For a minute, I wrestled with myself about being the good guy. Then I remembered this is war. Kill or be killed. I wished I was past this point; I wished my people were past this point, but we weren’t.
The house came into sight. I stop down the street not wanting to make it too easy for them to see us.
“Noah there’s an electrical charge around the house. It was meant to stop me. I can only shut down a small segment of the fence. You will have to walk in right behind me. Once we get in, I’ll find the electrical box on the side of the house and disarm the power.”
“Why can’t you do it from here?”
“Fuckin’ Naresh built in a backup in case I found this place.”
I didn’t ask any more questions. It had been too long since Leta was taken. Even with the two-hour drive they would have had to make out here. They had several hours on us. I can’t imagine what’s been happening to her. I could only hope she would hold on until we set her free. I nodded at Cole knowing he would do whatever it took to keep Leta safe.
Cole walked us around the back until we couldn’t be seen by anyone on the street. His
form changed into the being I had seen earlier. I stood back as his tail touched the fence. He lit up as electricity went through him. I wanted to say something, but the shake of his head told me now wasn’t the time.
He was right there was a box on the back of the house. It took him minutes to disarm it. Then we were able to enter. We went in through the kitchen. The kitchen that didn’t look nearly as nice as the one in Leta’s basement. Had I come to the wrong place? A decoy to keep us occupied while fuckin’ Naresh killed our other mate?
I followed him through the house. I knew we were looking for a door that would lead to the basement. He stopped when we found the door standing wide open. Why?
I stepped back forcing Noah to back up behind me.
“Did you come for dinner?” Fuckin’ Naresh’s voice drifted up the stairwell. “Be a dear and take care of them for me.”
“Noah,” I growled at him. He nodded his head making his way toward the living room. I hurried up the stairs and waited for Markovic and Robertson to run past chasing Noah.
When they were past me, I went down the stairs and back to the basement door. I knew fuckin’ Naresh was waiting for me. I allowed my form to change as I walked down the stairs.
“Cole you’ve impressed me. No one has ever caught me before I made my dinner.”
My eyes took in the room in one long glance. Leta’s brother was tied to a metal table. He was cut and brutalized, but his chest was still moving. Leta was tied to a chair where she could see the whole thing. She was close enough that the blood that flew when the cuts were made was covering her.
Naresh dropped his thin veil of civility. He stood close to eight feet tall. His dark black skin was covered with scales that were fine looking but provide a tough layer to cut through. His red eyes reminded me of horror stories told by the humans. He grinned a macabre smile with his red serrated teeth.
Only one of us was going to leave alive.
Naresh leaped at me. He couldn't fly, but his body made him able to cover large distances on this planet with a jump. I turned to the side. He made his way up the stairs with me chasing him. The basement was too small for us to fight.
I ran out the front door after him. He jumped on me his teeth tearing into my shoulder. I flew up banging him against the overhang on the roof to knock him off.
He flew off with a Yenizen curse. He never did like my people. His razor-sharp claws came for my thigh as I set down. I turned around using the spikes on my tail to rip him across his stomach.
My true form on this planet would be something nightmares were made off. I had to push Leta and her reaction to me to the back of my mind. I still couldn’t help but wonder if I had lost her.
“I wonder if she’ll taste as good as she felt wrapped around my dick. If I had known she was yours, I’d have left you a surprise. Maybe I did.”
That’s why you can’t drop the word fuckin’ in front of his name.
“Do you really want her after I’ve soiled her?” His words were like poison trying to infiltrate my mind.
Always fight a human as a human. My rules went through my head and an alien as an alien. However, sometimes you can use a human weapon.
I could feel Noah standing on the stairs. I looked, and he threw me a machete. Fuckin’ Naresh leaped at me. I used the machete to cut through the scales on his underbelly knocking him out of the air. I followed up with a deep cut to his neck.
My shoulder and side had deep rivers of blood coming from them. I turned to see Leta standing next to Noah. Her brother was lying on the porch next to them. I stopped and allowed them to look at me.
“Noah,” she said.
“Yesss.” He drew the word out.
“You’re buying his shoes.”
I looked down there was no way I could see my feet in earth shoes. They laughed like it was funny. The laugh turned into a scream. Fuckin’ Naresh was up and moving with his head half attached to his body. I took care of that. I swung the machete like a baseball bat and severed the head. They might want to leave for what I would have to do next.
“How did special agent Robertson die?” Special agent Johnson asked Cole.
I directed his attention to me. “I was fighting special agent Markovic when special agent Robertson came after me. He fell plunging his knife into his heart.”
“Markovic is that what happened?” He was in handcuffs.
“Yes, sir.”
Considering he was going to jail for the rest of his life, he was rather polite.
“I’m glad to see you didn’t meet the same fate.”
Special agent Johnson watched me. He knew I was lying. We all knew that, but we also knew that Robertson was never going to leave this place alive.
“That’s because I’m smart enough to use my belt to hold my pants up, nothing else,” Markovic whispered.
“Did you say something, Markovic?” Special agent Johnson asked.
“Just reminding myself why I’m still alive.”
“Take him away.”
“Leigh Taylor Anderson, I’m glad to see you again. I wish it was under better circumstances.”
“Special agent Johnson I’m glad to see you again. I didn’t suffer for six years so I think I can live with it.”
“That’s your brother?” He looked over at the ambulance.
“Maximillian Anderson, my older brother by two years.”
“You said he was alive; I'm sorry no one believed you at the time.”
I was sorry too, but the one thing that can’t be changed is the past.
“Did you see what happened to Naresh? I understand from Cole that he got away.”
“That’s my understanding also.”
“Did you see what direction he went in?”
He went in several directions. Cole cut off his head and placed it to the right. He cut out his heart and placed it to the left. Then he left his body in the middle and incinerated each piece so there would be no chance of him ever reanimating.
“No, I have no idea which direction he went in or where he is now.”
“I’ll need official statements and a description of the suspect.”
“Anything I can do to help I will.”
Chapter Thirty-two
Leta
Cole
Noah
It took two weeks of going back and forth to the station talking to every cop and special agent in the city or at least that’s how it felt. Before they finally gave me permission to move on with my life.
Now we were in Cole’s house. This should be the easy part when three become one. It wasn’t easy. Now I had to confess to Cole what Fuckin’ Naresh did to me. Yeah, he was dead, but anytime I thought of him; it would always be with the profanity in front of his name.
I watched as he came through the bedroom door. I knew Noah was still in the kitchen.
Cole sat on the floor in front of me, giving me the power. It was the little things like this that made me want to tell him the truth even though I knew I was going to lose him.
“You can tell me anything, Leta.”
“I know, but I don’t want to tell you. I want to take it to the grave with me, but I can’t because you have a right to know.”
I had never been in love before. After being held captive for so many years and abused my notion of love had died. I never meant to feel anything for Cole or Noah, but how could I not.
My eyes wanted to flood with tears. I was going to cry but not until after I left.
“There are so many things that happened to me over the six years I was a prisoner. I pushed the majority to the back of my head forgetting about them as soon as possible. It was the only way I had of staying sane.
“I didn’t know until I saw him. I swear I didn’t know.” So much for being strong enough to wait until he kicked me out the door. The tears flowed. Everything I wanted was being taken away from me. “He was one of the ones who… he was one of them.”
“I know.”
“You know?” My heart stuttere
d.
“I knew when you told us that you saw him before.”
“That was before we…”
“I know.”
“How could you want to?”
“Did you ask me for a list of my previous lovers or ask Noah?”
I shook my head, I would never.
“I won’t ask you for a list of the men who brutalized you. Let me make myself clear if you see one of those males tell me. He will not make it through the night.”
Cole grabbed me and pulled me close. I’m not responsible for someone else’s actions. The last weight on my shoulders rolled away.
Leta was cocooned in Cole’s arms when I walked in. I moved behind her and hugged her and Cole. We made it. I wasn’t sure I was breathing properly yet. The fight with Markovic and Robertson wasn’t easy. I was sure that they were both going to die before I was done or that they would kill me. Robertson ended up writing his own death sentence, he said how lovely he thought Markovic’s baby girl would look with red welts on her ass and legs.
At that point, it was a tossup who would kill him. I saved Markovic the trouble. It’s a good thing Markovic wasn’t in the basement when I went to free Leta and Maxi, or he would have died too.
“I want us to become one.” That was important. We put it off until we knew we would have time for ourselves. I didn’t want to wait another night.
“What do you want Leta?” Cole asked her.
“I want to become one with you and Noah.”
I stepped back and stripped. There was not going to be any teasing tonight at least not from me. I needed this. I felt her missing in my soul. Which was strange because I never really felt my soul before I mated with Cole.
“Someone’s in a hurry,” she teased me.
“You’ll have to take a good look in the mirror one day. How can I resist you?” I know she didn’t believe me. Every day she was healing and looking better. But it wasn’t her physical beauty that made me want her. It was her strength of character and will. The determination that shined so brightly in her eyes. The way she laughed at my jokes and even the pain she tried so hard to hide. I loved everything about Leta and wanted her to be a part of us.
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