Before he left, Lynx took another glance at the photograph that was sitting on the table beside Rain's bed. He still hadn't told any of the other warriors what he had discovered on the back of that picture, and he was still unsure if he should. Releasing the picture from the frame again, he slipped it into his bag and started downstairs to the waiting men.
Chapter Two
The warriors were gathered around the living room, making the space look small with their massive size only magnified by the fact that that there were so many of them there together. Lynx stepped into the room and all of their eyes turned to him, burrowing into him with the intensity that said they all expected him to do something, but he wasn't sure what that was. He paused at the door and looked back at them, for the first time distinctly aware of the pairs of orange orbs that stood out against the contrasting blue, green, and grey ones that stared back at him. He had caught sight of his own eyes in the mirror above the vanity in Rain's room while he was brushing his hair and noticed that they were still their usual shade. He wondered if they flickered orange when he was near her like he had seen happen to some of the other men in the early days of them finding their future mates but before their bonding was complete.
This thought brought painful tightness to his throat and a rock to his belly. Would he ever be able to complete his bond with Rain? Would they ever be able to look into each other's eyes and truly be together, or would he be left to long for her for the rest of his life knowing that she was there, but frozen in place for eternity?
An even worse thought hit him then. He suddenly wondered if when they destroyed the Covra they also destroyed the link that kept the Light Ones alive.
"We have to figure out how to unlock them," he said without waiting for any of them to say anything to him first.
"That's exactly what we were just talking about," Bannack told him from his spot near the fireplace where the other men had seemed to be watching him before Lynx came into the room.
"How long have you all been here?" Lynx asked.
"Only about an hour," Pyra told him, "Ty and Vax were still sleeping after their healing and we thought that after everything that you went through last night you could probably use a little bit of extra rest."
Lynx nodded.
"Thank you," he said, knowing that they were probably right. The night before had been rough on him and his body still felt like he could use more sleep, "What were you saying about unlocking the Light Ones?"
He was still cautious about the way that he spoke about the people of the settlement, keeping with the name for them that they all already knew from the information they found in the abandoned, burned prison rather than revealing that he knew anything else about them that the others did not.
"You were there when Loralia told us that the Covra aren't gone. There are more to come and she is pretty positive that they are going to be strong enough that the Light Ones aren't going to be able to survive when they come."
"So what do we do?" Lynx asked.
Bannack let out a deep sigh and looked at Pyra.
"We don't know," Pyra said, "We were hoping that there was something more you could tell us about them, something else that you noticed when you were watching their last few moments. Anything."
Lynx shook his head.
"I told you everything. I can't think of anything else that I saw that would have any meaning. I only saw them locking them, not waking them up."
"And they locked them by stabbing them with their legs just like they did when they were fighting us?"
Lynx shuddered as he remembered watching the Covra's sharp, gleaming leg puncturing Rain's belly and her body going completely still. He nodded.
"Can you show us?" Ciyrs asked.
Intense protectiveness flooded through Lynx and he felt the anger and aggression surge within him. He didn't like the thought of any of the other men, not even Ciyrs, looking at Rain, especially if they wanted to expose her belly so that they could see the injury that was inflicted by the Covra. He knew, though, that they had to have as much information as they possibly could if they were going to have any chance of figuring out how to wake the locked residents of the settlement, and that meant having to trust the other men of the tribe, particularly their healer, with his mate.
"Not all of you are going to fit in the room with her," he said.
He wanted to find a way to limit the number of the men who were going to be close to her and looking at her in such a prone and vulnerable state, but he also was trying to control his anger and not hurt any of their feelings by obviously trying to exclude them from the situation.
"Just Ciyrs, Bannack, and me," Pyra said carefully as if he were coaxing permission to get near Rain out of Lynx and being cautious not to upset him for fear that he would rescind the permission and the hopes that they would be able to help these people would be completely futile.
"Why Bannack?" Lynx asked with a touch more aggression and suspicion than he intended to put in his voice.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Bannack asked.
Bannack himself was still only a few days into his mating relationship with Loralia and it seemed that much of the aggression and temper were still lingering in him as the defensiveness in the question caused his body to tense visibly.
"Calm down," Pyra said, holding one arm out in front of Bannack as if to block the other warrior from advancing on Lynx, "This is his future mate you are talking about. Think about how you would have felt if it was Loralia lying up there in that bed completely helpless and you had never even been able to speak to her much less be with her, but all of us wanted to go in and look at her and touch her."
"Touch her?"
Lynx appreciated that Pyra was trying to explain the situation to Bannack in a way that the young and volatile warrior would understand, but mentioning that they were going to touch Rain had Lynx feeling like he was pushing the very edge of his control.
"Ciyrs might have to," Pyra said to him evenly, "We have to figure out what exactly happened to them that locked them if we are going to be able to figure out how to reverse it, if that is even possible, and that means that we are going to have to examine her as thoroughly as Ciyrs thinks is necessary."
Lynx could feel his fists clenching and releasing beside him and the urge to lash out at the men was building again. He worried for a moment that the effect of the Covra attack was still lingering inside him and that he was going back into his completely involuntary rage that nearly had him killing his fellow warriors with his bare hands. Pyra didn't seem concerned about his behavior, however, and Lynx realized that he was just feeling what all Denynso men did when they were getting close to their mates. He wanted to hope that the fact that the feeling was intensifying meant that he was, in fact, getting closer to Rain being awake and in his arms.
"Listen to me, Lynx," Ty said, stepping forward, "If any of us understand what you are going through right now and what you want to do to us, it is the three of us who have found our mates in the last few months. We know exactly what it's like to be angry and frustrated and distrustful of everyone who we thought might be trying to get near our mates. Pyra and Gyyx have even watched Ciyrs heal their mates. Because we understand it, though, is exactly why you need to trust us."
Lynx looked at the bandages wrapped around Ty's chest just as they had been around his own when he first awoke after the attack. This man was not a warrior by birth but rather a nurturer who devoted himself to making sure that the warriors and the rest of the tribe had what they needed and were kept comfortable and happy, particularly after battles. The arrival of his mate, Samira, however, had brought things out in him that none of the Denynso had ever imagined would exist in his huge but gentle presence. He had not only become as angry and forceful as Lynx was feeling now, but he had stepped forward and agreed to use the power that he had inherited from his father but had never used to battle against the Klimnu. If Ty's mate had transformed him that much; had given him that much power, st
rength, and courage, Lynx knew that he couldn't just let Rain lie there for a single second longer than she absolutely had to. He couldn't risk not having something so incredible in his life in the full and complete way that she should.
Chapter Three
Lynx nodded his agreement and started toward the door of the living room before he could give himself the opportunity to change his mind. He trusted these men and he had to keep reminding himself of that. He was not going to be able to save Rain or any of the other people in the settlement on his own. It was going to take the skills, the insight, and the abilities of all of them together to release the Light Ones from their binds.
As he climbed the stairs toward the bedroom he could hear Ciyrs close behind him with Pyra coming second and Bannack bringing up the end of their line. He didn't hear any of the other men following behind and he was relieved, happy that they were showing enough respect for him to stay in the living room while the four of them went up to Rain.
Pyra had never gotten around to explaining to him why he insisted that Bannack go along with them, but as he stepped into the bedroom with Rain and turned to allow the other men to come inside, he could see Bannack's hand mindlessly touching the large silver compact around his neck. He realized then that it was not so much that Pyra wanted Bannack up there with them as he wanted to be able to contact Loralia, and therefore the other women, if he needed to. That compact was their only true connection with the compound with the exception of the men being able to communicate with their mates through their minds, but Lynx knew that they had been so tense throughout the journey that none of them had been able to be open enough to connect with their partners.
The door closed behind Bannack and the three men looked at Lynx for a few tense seconds. It was as though none of them wanted to be the first one to say anything, or the first one to take a step toward Rain. Lynx finally stepped up to the edge of the bed and smoothed the blanket beside her. For the first time he noticed the clean cut through the blanket over her stomach and the slightest tinge of red around the edge of the torn fabric. He wanted to touch her, but this was not the moment for him to get swept away into one of his visions. In that moment he hoped that there would come a time when he would be able to touch her without that happening. He hadn't even known that he had that ability, and he certainly didn't know how to control it. Of course, if they figure out how to release the people from their locked state he would no longer have any need for the ability. Perhaps it would simply go away when it was no longer necessary.
"Can you show us, Lynx?" Ciyrs said quietly, breaking through Lynx's musings and bring him back into the reality of the moment.
"Please be gentle with her," Lynx said, "I know that she is locked, but we don’t really know what that means. She may still have some awareness or be able to feel."
"I won't hurt her," Ciyrs assured him, stepping up closer to the bed.
Being careful not to let his hands brush her body, Lynx took hold of the top fold of her blanket and gently peeled it down away from her. It stuck in place briefly before releasing and coming away to reveal the airy nightgown he saw her wearing in his vision and a puncture wound in her stomach. He had noticed the wounds on the other people throughout the settlement, but they hadn't bothered him. This, however, made his body twitch and his face feel hot and tingle with fury.
"I don't understand," Pyra said, stepping up beside Ciyrs and looking down at Rain, "What was the difference? Why did Lynx, Ty, and Vax become violent and angry when they were cut by the Covra, but the rest of these people were just locked?"
"Loralia said that her grandfather spoke of them using their enemies to fight themselves by infecting them. That is their primary method of battle."
"That must mean that they can control when they are infecting a person to turn them into a weapon and when they are locking them. It is a conscious decision, not just a biological effect."
"You saw that prison, Pyra. You can't think that creatures that were capable of building something like that would just be mindless animals. They are obviously more intelligent and more skilled than we are giving them credit for."
"Or they know how to manipulate another species into doing the work for them. I can't imagine how those sharp, pointy little legs would be able to build a prison like that. I can, however, see hands like that doing it."
Pyra gestured toward Rain's hands and a hushed moment fell over the room.
"If the Covra are able to weaponize anything that they want to," Bannack said, "Why didn't they just do that right along? What happened that they weren’t able to make the Light Ones fight each other? What could have weakened them so much that they couldn't fight, but that they could still lock the entire settlement?"
The other men shook their heads and Lynx glanced down at Rain again.
"I guess if they weren't locked by the same type of poison that the Covra use to turn people into their own personal killing machines, then you can't just use the same tool to draw out the poison and it will make them better."
"I think that would be a bit too simple," Ciyrs said, reaching forward to gingerly move Rain's gown so that he could better see her damaged skin through the cut in the fabric, "I could try it if you want me to, though. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try every option that we have. I just can't imagine that the Covra would have their last ditch effort of a war be something that could be resolved so easily."
"I don't think so, either," Lynx agreed, then took a shuddering breath to prepare himself for the next statement he was going to say, "but I think that we should try everything. I don't want to leave her locked for any longer than we have to just because we didn't try something that we thought was too simple."
Ciyrs nodded and stepped up closer to the edge of the bed. Lynx reluctantly got out of the way, moving closer to the head of the bed to allow Ciyrs to get nearer to Rain. Without taking his eyes off of the injury in Rain's stomach, Ciyrs lowered the bag from his shoulder onto the mattress. He reached into it and withdrew the same tools that he had used to heal Lynx, Ty, and Vax. Lynx couldn't remember what it felt like for the healer to use the strange instrument to draw the poison that the Covra had injected into him out of his body, but it still made him shudder to look at it. It looked painful and invasive, two things that he never wanted Rain to experience.
"This isn't going to hurt her," Ciyrs said as if he could sense the discomfort and worry that Lynx was feeling.
"What's going to happen when they do wake up, though?" Lynx asked.
"What do you mean?" Pyra asked.
"What's going to happen? If we can figure it out and we do unlock them, what will happen to them? They've been this way for decades. Are they going to wake up and be violent and aggressive and think that we are trying to fight them like the Covra were? Will they be able to understand us when we talk to them so that we can tell them that everything is going to be alright and that we want to help them? Will they even be able to survive? They are locked now and that is keeping them in this suspended state, but if we release the lock are they just going to shrivel up and die because all of these people should probably have died long ago?"
Everything poured out of him with greater emotion than Lynx had intended, but he felt like he couldn't hold back all of the questions and concerns any longer. As desperately as he wanted to look into Rain's eyes, hear her voice, and complete his bond with her, it terrified him to think about what could go wrong when they finally figure out how to unlock them. As horrific as it was to see her that way, and as heartbreaking as it was to think about never actually getting to be with her, at least when she was this way he knew that she was safe. For as long as she was locked the way she was, she was alive and he could be with her. It was a terrifying balance between wanting to preserve and destroy the same moment.
Chapter Four
Loralia was again running through the compound, feeling the ground pushing way beneath her feet as she rushed back from the moss-concealed entrance to her mirror realm in the forest towar
d the bakery where she hoped that she would find Samira. She was beginning to feel like running was the only thing that she was doing since the men had left. Rather than spending the time that they were gone settling into her new surroundings and helping the other women take care of the compound and prepare for the men's return, she had been running around desperately trying to help her mate even though he was far away. In her heart, though, she knew that there was nothing else that she would really rather be doing. Being close to Bannack, even if that meant helping him fight a battle through the power of her mirrored compact and the one that she had given him, was what mattered to her most.
"Loralia!"
She heard her name and skidded to a stop in the middle of the wide dirt road that led to Ty's bakery. Her thick braid swirled and hit her hip as she whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice. She was still learning the women who shared this new home with her, and when she was so lost in her thoughts about Bannack it was incredibly difficult for her to try to decipher which of them it was just through that one word.
When she turned around for the second time she saw all five of the other women coming toward her, Zuri out in front charging ahead with all of the intensity and commanding of attention that she always exuded, and Eden falling slightly behind as she tried to contend with the large, round belly that cradled Pyra's child.
"What do you need?" Loralia asked.
She surprised herself with the ire that came through in her voice when she spoke to them, especially considering she had been seeking them out just as much as they were seeking her out now. Seeing them again, however, only reminded her of the comments that they had made when they last spoke, and the feelings of frustration and anger toward them returned. She had done nothing but be helpful and welcoming to these women since they had first entered her home, but they had admitted that they have a difficult time trusting anyone new, particularly women. Though they had tried to reassure her that they hadn't meant her, that they were only talking about the flight attendant who had betrayed all of them by assisting the Klimnu, Loralia had felt like it was one of those comments that people make that they do not even realize what they have said, when they are revealing what is truly inside them even though they had been trying not to say that particular thing.
Saved by a Dragon (No Such Things as Dragons Book 1) Page 65