Fire's Touch (The Enlightened Species Book Three)

by Hales, Wendy S.

  “The entire ocean is fr-frozen. If we slide out, we’ll never have time to extend our wings before we hit the ground. Even if we could … I can’t keep everyone from freezing to death. It’s hopeless.” Stacey felt utterly defeated.

  “Stacey, get over here.” The sound of Osiris’s high-pitched voice came from the tunnel between the rooms. Fear for her son gripped her as Mick’s door burst open and Seven strolled in, his lip curled at the sight of them together.

  “Go. Protect our boy.” Mick pushed her toward the sleeping platform and faced his brother with fists clenched at his sides.

  Stacey shimmied through. From under the bed she could see Kelly crouched in the opposite corner with Johnny clutched to her chest. Her flamed checks and bloody lip showed the nanny had been struck. Three sets of feet waited for her to emerge, two by the open door and one at the side of her bed. Osiris’s punch to her jaw sent her flying into the supply table before she’d even been able to stand fully upright. Wind rushed from her chest on impact. Hands grasped her shoulders hard and she sailed thru the air to slam into the wall beside the door, crumbling to the ground at Hawk and Scotty’s feet.

  They stared at her wide-eyed. Their jaws ticked as both looked at her with concern. Then Johnny let out a howl and her blood ran cold. Kelly struggled to keep hold of Johnny as Osiris pulled him brutally by the arms. “Release the child.” Kelly shook her head and her arms locked Johnny’s body to her chest.

  Osiris let Johnny go and pulled a white-bladed dagger from his waist sheath. He bent over and gripped a fistful of Johnny’s hair, pulled him forward to create a space between Johnny and the nanny. The blade slit through Kelly’s throat so fast it seemed a blur. Blood sprayed out, covering Johnny. Stacey turned her head and vomited. Osiris held Johnny up by one arm like he’d won a fucking prize.

  The sound of fighting came from Mick’s room. Protect our son. Stacey rose to her feet. “Give him to me.”

  Osiris shifted Johnny, holding her baby’s back against his chest, anchored by one arm, the blood-soaked blade in his other hand. “Ma.” Johnny squirmed, reaching for her.

  “Restrain her.” Osiris ordered, growling when Hawk and Scotty didn’t move fast enough from their position in front of the open door. “Now!”

  Hawk and Scotty grabbed her arms. Oh, hell no. She hated hurting the brothers as much as they hated having to do their father’s bidding. Like them, she had no choice. Stacey focused on their hands. She’d worked so hard to learn to block others’ energy from seeping in and adding to hers. Now she gave that dynamic within her free rein, purposely drawing from Hawk and Scotty, intentionally weakening them for her gain. Flames erupted along her arms. They howled and released her. Osiris’s mouth gaped. Surprise, fucker!

  With Osiris’s focus on his sons patting the flames from their hands, Stacey balled heat into her palms. Miguel had shown her much about her ability during the few moments he’d spent in her mind, but she’d never tried this before. Please don’t let me harm my son. With a throwing motion she visualized the ball leaving her hand. Osiris roared with pain as a welt rose at his temple and his hair was singed. Johnny dropped to the ground, thankfully landing on his diaper-padded bottom next to her bed. His shocked cry made Stacey angrier. She hurled another ball. Osiris grunted, his hand to the center of his chest. Then he shimmered and vanished.

  She lunged toward Johnny, hitting something … or someone … hard enough to send her back to the floor. Stacey sent a mental image to Johnny through the maternal bond of the thick ice hole between her room and Mick’s. Hide, baby. She saw Johnny crawl beneath the bed. A foot kicked her hard in the side, fracturing ribs, followed by a blow to the ear and darkness.

  ****

  Trapped underwater by a thick layer of ice, Conlon felt a moment of panic. Greycia and one of Roark’s warriors pressed against his sides his arms around their backs. They warmed the water surrounding him as they raced along, further propelled by the currents. The gills along Greycia’s ribcage expanded, signaling it was time for a breath. Conlon released the one he held. Bubbles blurred his vision. Then Greycia’s mouth sealed to his and his lungs filled again.

  Time ceased to exist, replaced by the infinite water, the abundance of marine life they passed, an urgent need to find Stacey, and the next breath. He replayed every moment they spent together in his mind. Without her, his life held no meaning anymore.

  Greycia and the male warrior slowed. Conlon looked around. Others were circling a huge piece of solid ice stretched from the surface toward the sea floor. They joined the procession and Conlon studied the bottom of the iceberg closely. No doubt the Aquaties sought an access.

  A gray line caught his attention. He squeezed Greycia using his chin to point. He could hear the low tones of the Aquatie songs underwater but couldn’t understand the language. Greycia maneuvered close to the mark while others gathered around. The water heated significantly. She put her hand to the mark to thermodynamically melt the ice. Another hand joined Greycia’s, then another, and another. Slowly the thick ice retreated under the cumulative energy of the school to reveal a rod of some kind with several more trapped behind it. Greycia turned to him and smiled.

  Chunks of ice started bobbing down and floating away across the underside of the surrounding layer of ocean ice. Conlon looked up to see a group of Aquaties making a hole above him. Greycia gave him another breath before she too watched the work in progress.

  He gasped as his head broke through the newly formed hole. Greycia yanked him back down. A huge mass of the berg crashed down, barely missing him. It vibrated the layer of ice. Together he and Greycia peeked out carefully. Conlon looked up to see long steaming legs, the tattoo on her hip and the curve of Stacey’s bare ass an instant before they vanished into the ice. He loved her ass … right now he worshiped it. She was alive. A few minutes later the end of a rope emerged and dangled with invitation. Conlon got a mental image of Stacey on the other end tapping her foot, hands on her luscious hips, barking at him, “get me the hell out of here.”

  “How did you know where she was?” he asked.

  Greycia shrugged. “This side of the ocean is being warmed by the iceberg rather than chilled. Stacey generates heat and fire. It was pretty obvious she was responsible.”

  Holes were erupting along the perimeter of the iceberg. Within minutes a long trench had been carved out by the school. The rope above called to him. Antarctic wind ripped through him as he climbed from the water. Determined, he extended his wings, cold and sluggish, gritted his teeth, and flew against the battering wind to the rope. Holding the rope tightly to keep from being blown against the sharp mountain of ice, he gauged the hole it protruded from and then let go and plunged back into the comparative warmth of the ocean.

  When his head broke the surface, Enlil, Sargon, Eros, Mattie, and Jacob were waiting. “It’s tight, but I think Enlil, Jacob, and I can fit through.” Sargon and Eros were huge males; they nodded in understanding.

  “We’ll catch whoever comes out.” Sargon added.

  “What about me?” Mattie asked.

  Conlon nodded. “Monkey up, partner.”

  “My mother will kill me for this.” Mattie climbed from the water, her modesty surrendered to the cause, and placed both palms to the berg. The hair on Conlon’s head stood straight on end with the surge of electromagnetic energy racing toward her. Though it was invisible to the eye, Conlon felt a surge of adrenalin quicken his pulse the moment Mattie unleashed the electromagnetic pulse into the ice. To unleash the Tellus ultimate weapon meant Mattie had seized her bloodline and colony’s power without her mother condoning it. That was a big no-no. Every electronic or battery-powered device Osiris might be using had just been rendered useless.

  “Why did you risk it?” Conlon asked her

  Mattie shrugged with glistening tears in her eyes. “If I were Osiris, I would have some way to escape. He can’t fly, and the South Pole magnetic field will make porting impossible. That leaves something of man-made power—su
bmarine, helicopter, airboat. Just because we don’t see a hatch doesn’t mean there isn’t one. That bastard is not getting away. Not this time.”

  Greycia, Greyton, Roark, and Reesa joined them. Roark’s voice whispered through the wind with a hiss. “We found the main access and an anomaly far beneath the sea. Our people are melting through the frozen seals. We’ll be in shortly.”

  Jacob hooked a shadow conductive chain around Enlil’s throat letting it hang. Eros handed a second chain to Conlon. “Give this to Mick. He’ll know what to do. Trade me.” Eros held out a different sword to Conlon.

  Conlon took it with a nod, swapping the shadow-conductive sword for the one at his thighs before he hit the air with Enlil and Jacob behind him. Sargon trailed them with Mattie clinging to his neck. Using the rope, Conlon pulled himself hand over hand through the narrow passageway quickly to give Enlil, Jacob, and Mattie room behind him. Stacey’s scent lingered as he intermittently slid over indentations of her nude body revealing the extent she’d gone to in her quest to escape. Her ingenuity and grit filled him with pride.

  Lines of green glowing light signaled the end. Conlon rolled to his back and peered up through a wood-slat floor. He could see Mick fighting with another male but no sign of Stacey. In one move he shoved the floor up, sending it crashing against the wall as he jumped from the hole and drew his sword.

  A male with a tattooed face turned from Mick, clutching an ivory dagger in his fist. His eyes narrowed as he shimmered and vanished. Mick, covered in deep, jagged cuts, slid down the wall to the ground. How his friend had still been standing at all amazed Conlon.

  A gust of air warned him of the attack. He swung his blade wildly, and the grunt and feel of flesh told him he’d hit the mark as the burn of the deflected blade missed his neck and flayed him open beneath the collarbone. The outline of his assailant became visible, and he knew that Enlil had entered with Jacob and was siphoning his attacker. Still the male matched blades with Conlon. He sidestepped Mick’s feet, circling. The dagger sliced into his side with a burn as Conlon spun away from the dagger targeting where he hoped the assassin would be based on his experience in battle, the sword cut through empty air, Conlon braced himself for another attack as the sword completed the strike ark it encountered resistance. Conlon braced his stance, determined to make the most out of the contact regardless of where it was on his opponent. The edge of the blade hit bone nearly ending the momentum, but then the bone gave and a tattooed face plunked at his feet staring up through lifeless eyes from the severed head. The bastard had been coming in at Conlon low.

  “Mick.” He knelt down. “Where is she?”

  Mattie rushed to Mick’s side with a cry. Mick pointed toward the bed weakly before his head lolled to his chest. “My brothers will help her if they can.”

  Conlon felt the wall above the platform for weakness. Johnny’s muffled cry gave him direction. On her belly, Mattie ducked head-first under the bed until only the bottoms of her feet were visible. Conlon knelt and peered into the hole Mattie’s body straddled. It was too small for his shoulders to crawl through.

  Wiggling, Mattie started to reverse. Conlon lifted her at the waist and thighs and pulled her out, ignoring Mick’s weak growl behind him. Mick would have to get used to it … Mattie was Conlon’s partner.

  In Mattie’s arms was a sniffling, blood-coated Johnny. The sight of that much blood stopped his heart in his chest. “Stacey’s on the ground … she’s not moving but she is breathing.” A small measure of premature relief overwhelmed him. “There is another female dead and three males discussing the power outage. They think it’s a generator malfunction.”

  Johnny reached for Conlon and he took the child from Mattie’s loose grip before he could drop. Mattie immediately went to Mick and brushed his blood-coated hair from his face. Mick had already lost consciousness

  “Thank you, Mattie. Tell Sargon and Eros that Mick is coming out behind you.” Conlon handed her one of the glow sticks from the floor. “You need to get Johnny out of here.”

  “But …” She looked at Johnny like he was an alien. “I don’t know how to hold him.”

  “He’s Mick’s son, partner. You better figure it out.” He locked her arms around Johnny at her chest, guided her to the ice slide, and watched her climb into the crevasse with a last worried look at the male she loved. Clutching Johnny tightly, Mattie slid out of sight.

  Conlon crawled to the gap beneath the bed, needing to get a glimpse of Stacey with his own eyes. Instead his eyes clashed with those of another tattooed face. The male seemed to recognize him, lifted a brow, and stated. “Sire, the child has crawled through to Mick’s cell.” The guy hadn’t told Osiris of their presence. Conlon gave him a nod of gratitude.

  “Go get him. You will now be the caregiver for the child. Tell Seven to seal that hole with lead and platinum mesh. You carry her, Nine. I want that bitch restrained in the medical lab at all times.” The high-pitched voice of Osiris carried mutely. Conlon had to strain to hear what was said.

  The tattooed face moved away and Conlon saw the long waves of Stacey’s hair lifted from the floor.

  “The door is meshed and locked, Conlon.” Enlil stood at the door.

  Jacob knelt beside the dead male, checking his blood-soaked pockets. He held up a string of keys. “Got ’em.”

  The lock clicked and the second tattooed male stepped in with his hands in the air. “I mean you no harm.” His eyes traveled to Mick slumped at the wall. No expression registered until he looked at the dead male that could have been his twin. Conlon gripped his sword in anticipation of his reaction. Instead of anger the look was … gleeful satisfaction. “You are Conlon, yes?” Conlon nodded. “Stacey speaks of you often. You are fortunate to hold the heart of such a female.”

  “And you are?” Conlon felt a twinge of jealousy at this male’s admiration of the female he loved.

  “Your female named me Hawk. Stacey is with my brother Nine.” Hawk shrugged. “Stacey calls him Scotty. He will try to keep her safe. However, if Osiris realizes you are here, he will order us to fight you, and possibly kill … Stacey. I beg you to allow me aid in achieving her freedom before that happens.”

  Conlon knew his mouth gaped open. Stacey had befriended Osiris’s sons and endeared herself to them. His jealousy evaporated in a wave of new appreciation for his bloodmate-to-be. “Enlil, send Mick into the crevasse.”

  Hawks eyes followed Enlil’s every move. When Mick’s limp body slid out of sight, Conlon watched the male smirk. “She is remarkable. I had often wondered her plans, though I feared to ask. My father has access to whatever I know. Should he have become suspicious, he would have rooted into my psyche to find the truth.”

  Conlon held up the chain Eros had given him. “Do you know what this is?” Hawk’s indrawn breath gave him the answer. Conlon hooked it around his throat and offered Hawk the loose end.

  “The chain of my forefathers …” Hawk bowed slightly. His hand trembled when he reached for the end Conlon held to him.

  Conlon quirked a brow “This one is your Uncle Eros’s.” If anything, the male’s face took on a deeper look of awe.

  Jacob held the chain attached to Enlil. “I am your cousin, Jacob Sicarius, and this is the siphon Enlil.”

  Hawk’s eyes, already wide, nearly popped out of his head when Enlil lifted his hand to Hawk’s shoulder in a friendship embrace. “You are very brave, Hawk. We are aware of the compulsions you are subjected to. We will do everything in our power to help you and your brother Scotty, including rendering your both unconscious.” That brought a small smile to Hawk’s face.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Osiris followed Nine with Stacey in his arms through the icy hallways toward the medical suite. A pyro. What were the odds of that? An ominous feeling of dread coursed through his body.

  “Strap her down,” he ordered Nine.

  The gentle way Nine handled Stacey annoyed him. Only Seven and of course One had Osiris’s penchant for domination. Ob
ediently, Nine buckled the female at both wrists, waist, thighs, and ankle. Even with her secured, naked and spread-eagle, Osiris did not feel confident in her containment. Her ability enabled her to turn the soft metal of lead and even steel into a molten liquid.

  The only male Osiris had ever loved had been pyrokinetic. When Osiris’s father Tenebrae had forbid him to see Gabriel, Osiris had aided an Aquatie prince to kill his father. It was only after his father’s death that he learned Gabriel had been killed in the fall of Atlantis.

  How had she come to that bloodline? The grief he felt thinking about Gabriel was ripped open, leaving him raw. Until the memory of his great love’s face was replaced by the vision of Frank’s quick smile. When had he fallen? Why after all this time had his heart healed now?

  Johnny. A child born of a pyro and a shadower. Was this a gift and a goodbye from Gabriel? Osiris’s knees nearly gave out. It was as if Gabriel had reached to him from beyond the hereafter to gift him with a grandson whose abilities would have been those of Gabriel and Osiris. Given him a child to cherish and to love for all time.

  Suddenly the need to figure out the genetics meant nothing. His revenge toward Mick became mute. Even his desire to rule above all fell secondary to the urgent need to protect Gabriel’s gift.

  Stacey moaned as Nine secured the final restraint and the scientist stepped in with a smile of success on his face. “My lord, I have determined the truth—”

  Osiris cut him off. “Sedate her … quickly. Keep her that way until the sun rises in four months.”

  The healer pursed his lips and injected Stacey. Her face relaxed as she succumbed to the powerful drug. The healer spoke again. “Miss Winkel and your tenth son are more than pH balanced, My Lord. They are bloodmate compatible.”

  That would explain why she felt compelled to tunnel into Mick’s room. What normally would have filled him with excitement suddenly held little interest. His mind was on getting himself and Johnny into the two-man submarine hidden inside a secret cavern at the bottom of the berg and away.