by Abby Blake
“Go back and get Nathan, Thomas, and Samuel,” Devlin said quickly, nodding to Jed to go with her. “Right at this moment, you’re our only way to get people into and out of town without anyone noticing.”
She nodded her understanding, leaned up to kiss him quickly, and then blinked back to the safe house to do as he’d asked.
* * * *
“Hannah,” Devlin said as he checked over West’s wound, making sure that the “blink” travel, as Lilly seemed to have named it, hadn’t reopened his wounds. “Can you explain what we need to do to protect the town from heavy artillery?”
“I’m not sure I can explain it,” she said, “but Ava, Kali, and Amber are on their way here now.” She smiled as she heard the front door open. “Better move over, West. This room’s about to get really crowded.”
Devlin couldn’t hide the smirk, or his relief, when he realized that all three women were accompanied by their husbands. Brody’s niece, Keira, was with them as well. A moment later Lilly blinked back into the room with Nathan, Thomas, Samuel, and Jed. Nathan pushed through the crowded room and moved quickly to Ava’s side. His hand touched her belly protectively as he spoke to her quietly.
Benjamin and Skye, and Adam and Jennifer stepped into the house just a few moments later.
“Sit-rep,” Benjamin called to Devlin. He was halfway through his explanation when Ava used her newfound skill to blink from one husband to the other clear across the room. Nathan and Brody turned to glare at Devlin.
He shrugged. “Don’t look at me,” he said with a quiet laugh. He knew enough about Ava to know the woman made her own choices no matter how dominating her men got behind closed doors.
“That is so cool,” Ava said with a delighted laugh as she reached up to kiss Brody.
“It’s not the only ‘gift’ I gave you, unfortunately,” Lilly said, looking a little upset. “I have a skill that seems to freeze people in place.”
“So that they can’t move?” Ava asked with a grin.
“So they can’t breathe,” Lilly said worriedly.
“I accidentally did that to Nathan,” Ava confessed with a laugh. “Fortunately my husband is a very clever man and created a bubble thingy that blocked whatever I was doing. It took a while but Kali and I have learned how to control it. I think you’ll find just by being here with us that you can now control it yourself.”
Lilly frowned for a moment, but then nodded in surprise. She turned to Devlin and gave him a sassy wink that had him laughing with her. “Guess I won’t need to use you for target practice after all.”
“Guess not,” he said, relieved to see the fear leave his woman’s eyes. He’d never seen her more frightened than when she thought she might hurt someone with her unexpected skill.
Devlin turned his attention back to Benjamin. “Long story short, Hannah says that she and the other Oracle’s receptacles are able to shield Sugarvale from physical attack.”
All eyes turned to Hannah. “It would be easier with all six of us, but between the five of us we can weave an invisible physical barrier around the town. It would be very similar to the wards except that it would repel bullets and rockets and stuff instead of magic.”
“And stuff?” West asked in a skeptical voice. “How can you know it will repel ‘stuff’ if you don’t know what that stuff is?”
Hannah shrugged. “I don’t know. We just know we can do it.”
“You said all six of you,” Brody said, his arms firmly around Ava, perhaps hoping to deter her from using her new blinking skill. “Kristen doesn’t seem to be an Oracle’s receptacle. She hasn’t shown any signs of ‘knowing’ or abilities out of the ordinary.”
“Is it possible we missed one?” Nathan asked. “According to the birth certificates, Kristen was the seventh girl child to be born in that three-minute window.”
Hannah looked a whole lot less confident now. “I don’t know if we missed one, but it feels like there should be six of us. Why else would Kristen have been heading to Sugarvale?”
“Maybe she wasn’t,” Ava said, looking just as disturbed by Nathan’s question as Hannah did. “Kali, can you call your brother and get him to double-check the birth records? Someone is missing. We know there should be six of us.”
“Is it possible I only sensed Kristen because she was a target of the assassins?” Hannah asked, looking rather concerned. It wasn’t like the woman to show emotions in front of others. She was a well-trained pediatric nurse, so her public persona was usually a lot more controlled.
“I’ll call Dave,” Kali said with a nod, “but first we need to make certain we can do this.”
“Of course we can do this,” Amber said in her usual quiet and calm manner. “We’ll build it inside the wards protecting the town. Basically just wrap it around the houses that are currently occupied, not all the way to the town limits. That way it will be a lot stronger.”
The others nodded in agreement.
Devlin stood back, waiting for some kind of instructions or indication that the five women needed meditation space or a way to link hands or some other ritual similar to the ones witches used. But nothing happened.
They basically stood around talking quietly between themselves and their husbands. He leaned over, snagged Lilly by the wrist, and hauled her into his arms. “How long will it take?” he asked quietly.
“Already done,” she said with a bright smile.
“Seriously?” It wasn’t that he doubted she told him the truth. It just seemed too simple to be the solution they needed.
“Seriously,” she said, touching his face lovingly. “Oh, but you probably shouldn’t go firing weapons inside the shield.” She turned to explain to the people in the crowded room. “The inside will have the same effect as the outside. Basically it will bounce your projectile back at you.”
“Noted,” Benjamin said, taking control of the unusual meeting. “Is it a physical barrier? Can we walk through it?”
“At the moment the only people who can walk through it are in this room,” Hannah said, glancing down at the blood on her hands as if she’d just realized it was there. “Oh, and Kristen, Angus, and Dyson as well. We can add more if necessary.”
“We’ll leave it that way for the moment,” Benjamin said with a nod. “Are you able to do that travel thing with the shield up?”
Lilly seemed to consider that for a while before shaking her head slowly. “We can’t blink out of Sugarvale without dropping the protective shield first.” She smiled slightly, as if the thought just came to her. “But we can blink within the shield’s limits, so we can get some practice without you guys having to worry about us ending up on the other side of the world.”
“Good to know,” Brody said as Ava blinked from his embrace and into Nathan’s arms. “Although I’m not entirely thrilled that you seem to have a choice whether or not to take the person you’re touching with you.” He smiled when Ava blinked back into his arms. She whispered something in his ear. Something that had him grinning like the cat who’d gotten the cream. “Are we done here?” His voice sounded impatient, and it didn’t escape Devlin’s notice that the dragon-shifter moved his wife in front of him like he was hiding an erection.
Benjamin must have noticed, too, because he laughed, gave them final instructions, and then dismissed everyone. Ava reached for Nathan without letting go of Brody, and then the three of them disappeared in the blink of an eye. The other women grabbed their husbands and followed Ava’s lead. Skye and Jennifer laughed as they grabbed their own men and headed out the front door on foot.
That left Lilly, Jed, and Devlin standing in the middle of Hannah, Eric, and West’s home. Lilly shrugged. They couldn’t blink back to the safe house without dropping the shield so they were basically stuck.
“There’s a spare room upstairs,” Eric said, obviously realizing their dilemma. He was packing away the equipment he’d used to transfuse West with his blood. Thankfully, the injured bear-shifter looked much healthier now.
“Thanks. That’d be g—” Devlin cut his words off as the front door opened once more and Ronan stepped back into the room. He threw a set of house keys to Jed.
“Directly across the street,” Ronan said, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb. “If you like it, we’ll discuss details later.”
Jed glanced at Devlin and Lilly and then dipped his head at Ronan. “Thanks.”
* * * *
“So what happens now?” Lilly asked as she wandered through the house. It was quite large, solidly built, and best of all, restored to look almost brand-new.
“I’m not really sure,” Jed admitted as he wandered through the house checking inside cupboards and drawers. He felt sick to his stomach that it was his own people attacking them, but he also felt very grateful that not a single person in Hannah’s living room had shown any doubt that he was on their side.
“We could make it official,” Devlin said casually.
“Make what official?” Lilly asked innocently, apparently not realizing Devlin’s intention. But Jed did. In many ways this was the moment he’d been dreading. Even though he’d told them he wasn’t going anywhere, a very sensible part of him realized that he and Devlin were almost exact opposites. They’d annoyed the crap out of each other on the job. How the hell did they expect to get along well enough to hold ménage sex and kinky fantasies together long term?
It was very obvious that Lilly loved Devlin. Jed even remembered how happy the young woman had been four years ago when she’d been dating the Navy SEAL. In fact the way Devlin had left her still made Jed want to punch the angel in his nose. If Jed had actually met the man dating Lilly four years ago, he might even have been able to save her the heartache of dating the man in the first place. There was no way Jed would have let a paranormal—at least a paranormal that wasn’t him—anywhere near the sweet twenty-three-year-old Lilly had been back then.
Yet it was obvious that the connection they’d had back then was a solid foundation for their future together. Seeing how Devlin was with Lilly went a long way to explaining why he’d walked away four years ago. He’d literally tried to give the woman he loved a chance at a normal life. Walking away had probably been the hardest thing the man had ever done, but he’d done it because he’d loved the woman with all his heart. He’d done it because he’d thought it was the best thing he could do for Lilly at the time. Of that, Jed had no doubt.
But now, faced with two people who wanted and deserved a long and happy life together, Jed found himself wondering if he should be the one to walk away. Life would be much simpler for Lilly and Devlin if he wasn’t getting in the way.
“I think that’s a great idea,” Jed said, trying to hide the ache the thought of leaving Lilly created. “You two should get married as soon as we can arrange it.”
Lilly quirked an eyebrow at him. She might be sweet and polite and infinitely sexy, but she also never put up with bullshit. “Are you going somewhere?” she asked in a voice that warned him to answer carefully, very, very carefully.
“No, I’ll always protect you, Lilly, but you’ve got to admit life would be far simpler with only one husband.”
“I don’t have to admit anything of the sort,” she said with a soft laugh. “Did you miss the fact that everyone in that meeting was in a triad relationship?”
“No, I didn’t miss that fact, but it doesn’t mean we need to follow the same trend.”
“Jed,” she said with a shake of her head, “you’re making me very glad that I can control that freezing skill now.” Come to think of it, so was he. “But it wasn’t the only thing I learned from Ava and the others. I know what’s in your heart. I know that you loved me even when I thought you were an eighty-year-old man. And I know the three of us can make this work.”
“How can you ‘know’ something I don’t even know myself? How can you be so sure that I can make this work?” he asked, trying to hide how relieved he was at her faith in him.
“Okay, maybe I don’t know as much as I think I do, but all three of us deserve to be happy. Don’t you think that means we should give things a chance?”
Devlin gave him a raised-eyebrow look that suggested he knew exactly what Jed was trying to do. And in that moment Jed realized that he did have something in common with the man. They both loved Lilly, and they’d both die to protect her.
Whatever the future held, the three of them would face it together.
“Official sounds like a great idea,” he said, grinning widely.
* * * *
Lilly watched the understanding that passed between her men and loved them that much more. It felt like a dream come true to have them both love her back. But as they moved toward her, their intentions very clear as they gathered her in their combined embrace and started stripping her clothes away, every other concern melted away.
This was where she belonged.
Between her men.
And it didn’t matter where they lived, what they did, or who threatened them. What mattered most was that they were together.
Epilogue
Dex DeKardoin stared down at the official assassination order bearing his signature and again felt his heart clench with dread and fear. The only good news was that the assassins hadn’t yet been able to find the woman. Despite the reason for the assassination order, Dex thanked the goddess for keeping Emmallina safe so far. She had been his wife for nearly three centuries. She was the mother of his children. He’d loved her with every fiber of his being—still did—so her betrayal was very hard to accept.
He turned the beacon button over and over in his fingers.
Dex had refused to believe the PLA, had denied his wife’s complicity with every fiber of his being, but the fire demon’s beacon button had proved him wrong. Why would she have this hidden in her chambers if she hadn’t been contacting the enemy all along? The tiny little button was the physical proof that had finally convinced him that she consorted with their enemies behind his back.
So, faced with overwhelming evidence and the fact that she’d done exactly what his informant had said she would do, he’d been given no choice but to sign the PLA’s request. To do otherwise would have brought his leadership into question.
He’d ruled over the pixies for half a millennium. He was known for his ruthless decision making and decisive action. If his enemies sensed any weakness—any weakness at all—it could throw the kingdom into civil war, and suddenly the long-forgotten fact that pixies could actually be killed would become common knowledge once more.
Far from being exterminated by humans—as Dex and Emmallina had so recently feared—it was more likely that if civil war erupted, pixies would simply destroy themselves.
* * * *
Emmallina glanced up at the young werewolf who stepped into the room. Jennifer gave her a friendly smile, but it was obvious that she realized the seriousness of Connistanterina’s illness. The withdrawal symptoms were growing worse with time, making her daughter’s tiny, doll-sized frame shake more violently. Connistanterina had literally been unconscious for days now. Yet, despite her obvious exhaustion, her body continued to shiver from the withdrawal.
“No change?” Jennifer asked in a very quiet voice.
Emmallina shook her head and tried to keep the tears from her eyes. She’d never had to face death before. It was something pixies rarely had to deal with. True, they eventually grew old and died, but with pixies being so long-lived even Emmallina’s great-great-grandparents were still only considered middle-aged. And of course with pixies usually able to recover from any injury and illness, an early death of a loved one wasn’t really something pixies had to deal with either.
“Ronan Deeks and a couple of his operatives may have some information that could help, but he’d like you to look it over before we get too excited.”
“What sort of information?” Emmallina asked as a small kernel of hope grew in her chest. She tried to tamp down the feeling. Her life had been altered in ways she never would have imagined only a few
days ago. The only way assassins could come after her was if her husband signed the order. Even with all of the unexplained happenings within the PLA, there was no way they’d make a move against their queen unless it was approved by the one man she’d believed she could always trust.
No, hope wasn’t a feeling she wanted or needed at this very moment.
She refused to let her daughter die without at least trying everything she could, but she understood reality all too well. It would be foolish to hold on to such a baseless emotion. The reality was very clear. There was no known cure for Connistanterina’s affliction, and they were running out of time.
“Ronan has a journal that we believe was written by Bethany Childes.”
Emmallina frowned. Bethany Childes had been the human gifted with the Oracle’s information twenty-seven years ago. Her murder—an assassination Connistanterina herself had carried out—had somehow passed information to a group of human women born on the same day as Bethany. Emmallina had no idea how the murdered Oracle, a fire demon named Prianna, had passed her information to a human in the first place, so she was completely bewildered by what was happening with the Oracle’s receptacles now.
The fact that they were reportedly collecting information for all species and not just one or two the way Oracles usually did was more than a little concerning, but it was their ability to put the skills into practice that had everyone on edge. As the Oracle for humans and vampires, Emmallina even knew without a shadow of a doubt that none of them had possessed any of the knowledge or skills they had now before Bethany was murdered. Whatever Bethany or Prianna had done was simply beyond Emmallina’s understanding.
“Bethany’s journal has been heavily encrypted, and to be honest there are passages that seem to be complete gibberish, almost like the woman was insane.” Jennifer glanced at the doll-sized pixie lying on the bed. “But we found a passage that we think mentions you and the miniaturized pixie assassins.”