“No, it’s not. It’s not a decision at all. It is your past. Your life.”
I nibbled on my bottom lip, turning my gaze to the vials. “I don’t know if I’m ready.”
“You are.”
I did not shift my attention from the sloshing golden liquid. “Ezra?”
Instant. “I’m not drinking one. I haven’t made that decision yet.”
Antonio barked, “Cahal, talk some sense into your fucking son before I beat the living shit out of him.” A pause, then his tone changed to calm. “I say that with much respect, of course.”
Cahal snorted softly. “Just get your kid to drink it. After she does, mine will soon follow.”
Antonio’s head teetered from side to side. “You’re probably right.” His lips parted…and he made that gurgling sound I had become so accustomed to hearing from him. Golden eyes narrowed. “Just drink the damned thing.”
Carefully, I picked just one vial. I lifted it to eye level. I stared. “Why would Elder Harcourt do a memory wipe on us…only to give us the memories back?”
Antonio gurgled once more. Growled. Shook his head. “You don’t have time for this.”
My eyes met his. “What do you mean?”
“Just. Drink. It.”
I stared. Blinked. “What happens next in time?”
His lips pinched, not a word uttered.
Tearing my gaze away from him, I peered…at my husband.
He gazed back, his spring green eyes dead set on mine. “It’s your choice.”
Slowly my chest rose and fell. “Okay.”
Chapter Fifteen
With my eyes on my husband’s, who was a stranger still, I popped the cork on one of the vials.
Breathed in once deeply. Out came the breath just as gradually.
Then I closed my eyes and lifted the vial to my lips.
I drank it down in one shot.
My body jerked as corked spells and time washed through my veins in a chilling rush. Flashes erupted behind my closed eyelids.
Scenes…so many scenes.
Feelings…so many feelings.
My body convulsed as the missing pieces of my life replayed in a continual loop, invading my mind with reality. Everything I hadn’t known that was in my past. Every cherished moment I now remembered. Every heartache I had known was now a part of me again.
What radiated the most…was my love for my husband.
My heart broke time and again, then blistered with agonized adoration. It pumped deep within my soul. The blackness that had consumed me was flooded with nothing but pure, gut-wrenching love.
The vial dropped from my fingertips as I sucked in a harsh breath.
My eyelashes fluttered in the night breeze, while hot tears, which I hadn’t even known I had shed, were cooling against my cheeks. My chest ached with a new madness to embrace my husband and never let him go.
Ezra was mine.
Directly behind me, Elder Merrick sniffed the air, his words whisper soft. “It worked.”
Goddamn right it did.
My eyes shot open, a feral blue shining like a blaze of warning in the darkness.
Instantly, I lowered my eyes at the sight of my husband. I didn’t want to frighten him.
Ezra’s nostrils were flared, inhaling and exhaling deeply, scenting everything I was feeling. His own green gaze was just barely shining in a frigid wariness. Every muscle on his body was poised to flee from what he sensed from me, his body even slightly turned…but his feet were firmly planted on the moonlit grass. He was just watching me.
My wolf howled deep inside my mind…but I pulled back with steel mental gloves all of my desires to tackle him to the ground and shove a vial’s liquid down his throat. I had become the ice queen bitch this last year. I knew how to shut off my emotions now.
And he needed to see that it could be done.
My jaw set, and I felt the cool rush of ice seep back into my bones. Into my soul. All I had to do was think of…killing Elder Harcourt. He had taken my husband away from me, torn away my two other best friends, and he had played with us, and all I wanted was to crush his heart inside my hand. My eyes now glowed with the frost of a killer as I peered up to spring green eyes. I wiped the tears off my cheeks with the back of my hand, never glancing away from him. “Drink it.”
Ezra inhaled deeply again. “No.”
I lifted one red brow. “Are you a King? Or a coward with a pretty crown?”
He stiffened. “What?”
“Antonio was right. This isn’t a decision. You just do it. It was, no, it is your life.” I stared just as coldly as he was. “You. Just. Drink. It.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously. He cracked his neck and stepped forward with a casual stride, then he began circling me, blatantly sniffing me at every angle. “You called me a coward. No one does that and lives.”
I snorted…even while I remembered he didn’t love me. “I asked if you were a coward.”
His Vampire growled quietly, then his tone turned intimate. Quiet. “You care for me.”
“I do.” Easy. I wouldn’t lie to him.
He hummed softly. “You love me.”
I nodded. “I do.”
He inhaled deeply. “You don’t smell like it anymore.”
My lips curved as he stopped directly in front of me, his gaze roaming my frame for any crack, any weakness, he could find. “I did learn a few things over the past year.”
“Hmm.” Once more, he leaned in, inhaling. “If you could do anything right now, what would it be?”
A soft chuckle escaped my lips. “Your dad and mine are here. I won’t answer that.”
His arched black brows rose, then he lifted a finger and poked my shoulder. “Did you feel that?”
“Yes.”
He shoved my shoulders, knocking me back a step. Instantly, he breathed deeply again.
I crossed my arms. “You can’t distract me. I’m better than that.”
Spring green eyes roamed my body…his gaze landing on my hand where I fisted the vials.
My words were steady. “Drink it.”
His lips pursed, but he didn’t say no this time.
I uncrossed my arms and held out a single vial. I didn’t say anything else.
A full minute passed before a Vampire’s hiss sounded. Cahal was apparently running out of patience. He griped harshly, “Son, are you really going to be a goddamn pussy about this?”
Antonio whispered, “Tick-tock.”
With a nonchalant hand, Ezra flipped his father off, but his gaze lifted to mine. His question, when it came, sounded honest. “Is it hard?”
I knew what he was asking. “No, all I have to do is envision an elusive Mage. After that, I’m as cool as a cucumber.” I shrugged a shoulder. “If I ever see Elder Harcourt again, I’ll kill him.”
Ezra’s lips twitched. “I’ll drink the dammed thing.”
My words were quiet. “I know.”
Cracking his neck all over again, he lifted his hand and took the vial. My husband stared directly into my eyes as he uncorked it. Knocked it back like it was a shot. He didn’t jerk as I had; instead he went predatory still while his eyes rapidly scanned back and forth, like he was reading a book. I knew he couldn’t see me, but his gaze never wandered too far from mine.
I stifled a squeal when his power erupted like a hurricane wind, the blister of it deadly.
Just as abruptly, the power was hammered back inside himself, his head lowering. He stared at the ground with his glowing gaze, crushing the vial inside his palm, the glass sprinkling to the ground and the smell of Mystical blood wafting to my nostrils.
I wanted to grab his frozen hand and pluck each sliver of glass out of his flesh.
But I stayed still.
Five seconds of silence ticked by before he raised his head, rolling it on his shoulders. When his gaze roamed my features, his eyes were just as frigid as mine. Gradually, his lips quirked on one side and he took a step forward, aligning our bodies. He s
tared down at me while his heat penetrated through my clothes, warming me bone deep. He raised a black brow and his tone was a sexy-as-hell purr. “Our dads will ride with Elder Merrick and Elder Jacobs. And you’ll drive our car. I want my hands…and lips…free to travel as I wish.”
My resulting grin was private. “I missed you.”
He chuckled softly. “You can show me how much later tonight. I get the first round.”
We stared, no other words spoken. This was a test for us. To see the new individuals we had become around each other. Ezra and I were pressed against one another, a coldness to anyone else’s senses radiating from us, because our protective love was pushing it. We would never be taken from each other again. We were that much better now at hiding our affection.
A soft whistling reached my ears, a merry tune. Ever so slightly, Antonio was rocking back and forth on his heels, his hands in his pockets and an entirely content expression on his features while he lit the night with melody. Even though he whispered once more, “Tick-tock.”
Ezra scowled, then he turned, his shoulder brushing mine as he faced Antonio. “Enough with the Mage shit. What’s happening?”
Antonio sighed heavily, sending me a cross expression before peering back to Ezra. “You and my daughter are about to take a trip. Since I can’t follow to watch over you two, it’s a trip that I do not approve of.” He waggled glowing fingers in the air. “It’s not in my blood to do so.”
I cocked my head. “Your blood?”
Antonio now appeared sullen as hell, his nostrils flared. “I’m not yet powerful enough to see into your future of where you’re going, by touching you.” That was all. With a scowl.
“Uh…” I rubbed my lips together. “Why would you have to touch me to see my future? You’ve been able to see it without touching me before.”
He snorted, then he mumbled a curse under his breath. “I just can’t. Not yet. Give me a few years, and I’ll be able to then. It’s all about age now. Or the time.”
I blinked. “I don’t understand.”
He sighed heavily, waving an aggravated arm through the air, toward the trees. “Never mind. There’s no time to explain. Your visitor is here.”
My attention swiftly honed to the trees.
Ezra muttered quietly, “There’s no…” His head cocked. “Wait, someone is there now.”
The six of us stood silent as a Shifter man, smelling heavily of wolf, stepped out of the tree line. He wore a hooded black cloak almost identical to our other guest’s minutes ago, though he held two more black cloaks over one of his forearms. He appeared mid-thirty in Com years, handsome as sin, with roughish black hair that fell in messy clumps to his cheekbones. His eyes were golden, shining dimly to light his way through the dark. The oddest part about his appearance was the bow he had over one shoulder, along with a lot of silver arrows in a leather tube, their spikes sticking up next to his head and gleaming a lethal invitation.
He stopped three feet away from our group, his eyes directly on Ezra and me.
Elder Merrick instantly took a step forward, assessing the Shifter. “What’s your name?”
The man smirked, making him appear even more dashing. “The name’s Tipkin. I’ve come to collect King Zeller and Queen Ruckler. They’ll be traveling with me tonight.”
I lurched forward a step…not of my own free will. My words were not even my own, pulled from my throat. “I’ll go with you this time. You have my word.”
Ezra grabbed my arm in a blur when I took another step toward the Shifter. “What are you doing?” His eyes darted across my face. “You just gave your word to a stranger.”
I yanked my arm away with Shifter strength, again my body acting like I was a drone. “I have no choice. It must be done.” I leapt through the air, landing directly next to the man I did not know, having pledged my loyalty to doing what he asked. “Ready?”
“What the fuck?” Ezra boomed, blurring to stand directly next to Tipkin and me. “If you’re going, I’m going too.” He paused. “Antonio said so.”
Tipkin grinned. “Antonio said so, huh? Do you do everything he says?”
“Fuck you,” Ezra growled quietly.
“Maybe another day.” Tipkin shrugged.
“Wait a goddamn second,” Elder Merrick hissed and stepped closer. “I don’t know this man, and I know damn near all Shifters. I want to know who the hell he really is.”
“I said my name is Tipkin,” he explained calmly, even as he handed Ezra a large robe, then gifted me with a smaller one. He pointed at us. “Put those on.” His golden eyes swung to Elder Merrick as we dressed. His words were blunt, and they would have knocked me on my ass if I were in control of my own actions instead of doing exactly as he bid. “I’m a hybrid. I’ve been in hiding. I’m Shifter and Mage, just like Philip Masterson. My Mage power, like his, is reversed because of our dueling nature. Where powerful purebred Mages can see the future, and a few lucky ones can travel there, I have the power to see the past and travel there.” He shrugged. “That’s where we’re going. To the past.”
Cahal grunted. “Bullshit. No one has the power to do that, because it would change time.” His words were heated and he looked as if he was constructing all kinds of deadly scenarios…for Tipkin. “Changing time is not allowed, if you don’t fucking know!”
Elder Merrick’s wolf growled softly. “I agree with Zeller. No one should go back in time.”
Tipkin shrugged a shoulder, watching as we finished buttoning the cloaks…and as I slipped the two remaining golden vials into one of my cloak’s pockets. “Since Philip is no longer winning this war, he is going back in time to try to change it. These two are going with me to stop him.” His hands landed on one of my shoulders and one of Ezra’s, keeping contact with us. “Don’t move.”
Ezra’s nostrils flared in fury, but he hurried to bark, “Dad, watch Isa for us.”
The roar of a Vampire and the growl of a Shifter bombarded my ears, even as a frantic rush of wind hit. But Tipkin was already glowing and a golden sphere surrounded Tipkin, Ezra, and me.
Again, my body did exactly as he had commanded, allowing him to take me where he wished, and I stood stock-still inside the golden sphere of non-entity. All I could see were sparkles of gold, but the ride was rougher than anytime I had transversed with Antonio. I steadied my legs as the sphere jerked side to side. I grunted quietly when it became exceptionally rough, and I grabbed onto Tipkin’s shoulder — one of Ezra’s hands landing right next to mine — so I didn’t lose connection with him.
The sphere was abruptly gone…and I scented decay in the night air. We stood inside a forest, the trees appearing as tall as the sky. But just as suddenly, we were back inside the sphere, but now we moved differently. I stared, trying to understand what was so perplexing about it. Slowly it dawned on me that we were going back in time now. It was the way the Mage magic felt, like a slow creep running down my spine, a shiver of backwards time.
It took much longer than our first ride.
Minutes passed by slowly inside the kinked magic.
Ezra and I kept a death grip on Tipkin’s shoulder.
I went to scratch my nose with my other hand, but my arm moved as if it were in quicksand, the pull against my action impossible…so my damn nose burned with the urge to be rubbed until the sphere disappeared in a rough jerk.
Ezra grunted, grabbing my shoulder with his free hand when I stumbled forward.
Since we each still had a tight hand on his shoulder, Tipkin lurched with us.
We all went down in a tumble of limbs.
“Your fucking arrows are on my face,” Ezra grouched, the upper portion of his frame buried under Tipkin’s torso, while both of their legs were lying heavily over my stomach and trapping me.
“Well, your gun is poking me in the ribs,” Tipkin griped.
Rubbing my nose, I blinked repeatedly, the sun bearing down through the trees right into my eyes. The sudden change from night to day had my wolf stalking inside. �
��Are we here?”
“Yes,” Tipkin muttered, lifting his head. “Our first stop anyway.”
I flinched, my teeth grinding as searing pain radiated from my forearm. The sleeve of my cloak was up to my elbow, so the three of us watched as a golden bracelet of power formed on my skin then sizzled into the air. Gone. I shuddered hard as Clarice’s power dissipated in the air.
Two down. One to go. Whenever that was.
Chapter Sixteen
Still staring at my forearm, Ezra’s Vampire growled softly. “Lily…”
I cleared my throat, back in control of my actions. “Hush. It needed to be done to save you.” I sat up slowly, glancing left and right. My head cocked. “Do I hear gunshots?”
“Probably,” Tipkin murmured, also staring at my arm as he jumped to his feet.
Ezra ignored all of this. “Lily, what else did you promise her?”
I hummed absently, standing and brushing off my cloak. “Nothing important.”
Ezra couldn’t scent the lie even if Tipkin could. Luckily, the hybrid kept his mouth shut.
My husband muttered a curse. “Dammit, you’re lying to me.”
Okay, maybe he could still read me better than anyone else.
“We need to focus on why we’re here.” I held a hand down to him. “Are those gunshots I hear from the north?”
Another curse was heard, but he grabbed my hand and lifted to his feet. “Yes, they are.”
“Where are we?”
“In the state of Washington,” Tipkin answered, walking toward the gunfire. “More precisely, we’re in Washington the day King Zeller infiltrated a Com extremist’s camp to rescue his Prodigy.”
I gawked, not moving. “We really went into the past?”
Ezra’s head cocked, listening to the sounds in the distance. “It sounds about right.”
“Yes, we did,” Tipkin called over his shoulder, marching farther away through the forest. “So hurry your asses up. We don’t have much time before we have to leave again. Philip is on a damn mission today.”
Ezra stayed by my side, asking loudly, “This won’t disrupt the past?”
“No. We’re meant to be here. Including him. Just not what he wants as the end result.”
King Tomb (Forever Evermore) Page 24