"Well, between the three of us, we have five good arms." Alena grinned. "I think that will be enough."
Eden almost asked "enough for what?" but bit her lip before the words came out. Was she ready to hear that answer? A voice behind them saved her from the awkward moment.
"I wondered where everyone was on this beautiful morning."
Eli sauntered toward them. His emotions were tightly controlled. It made him difficult to read, especially with the amusement that accompanied every word out of his mouth. He was dressed similarly to yesterday in a black hoodie and ripped jeans. His dark hair, longer than Alec's, was pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Eden still wasn't sure how she felt around him. He smirked as he sat next to Alena, snagging a pastry from the ever-full plate.
"Everyone else is buzzing about like a busy bee. I think you three have the right of it." He spread his arms wide. "It's a beautiful morning."
Eden shifted uncomfortably. Was there something she was supposed to be doing? "What is everyone doing?"
Eli shrugged. "The tech-heads are designing weapons and Elliott is sniffing around them." His face darkened a moment, suspicion slipping through his tight control. Eden shivered. She had a similar distrust of the reluctant mage. "That Amazon woman is working out again; I think she and Davin are trying to kill each other. Mac is still sleeping. Maybe she's the smartest one."
Alena shrugged. "Well, I don't think we can help much with any of those tasks, so we're enjoying the morning."
"And the never-ending supply of sugar," Alec added, though he had eaten fewer of the decadent pastries than the women.
Eli sighed in pleasure, licking the icing off his scarred fingers. "Yes, I do so love Brownie food."
"So," Alena began. Eden felt their worry-free morning come to an end. "You said last night that Alec and I have a role with Eden concerning Mather. What were you implying?"
The prophet studied the three of them, his lips curved in a smug look that Eden couldn't read. "I can't tell you everything. Where would be the fun in that? I can tell you a little, though. Eden will need to be in a safe place when the battle begins. Her magic isn't suited for close contact. She can help you, though, if you develop a strong connection, little dragon. She can give you information to relay to the rest of the team. Alec is a grounding force for my sister. See already how she gravitates toward him?" He gestured towards the nonexistent space between the two of them, and Eden blushed predictably. "His energy calls to her, and the dragon's energy calls to her in a more action-oriented way."
Alena shook her red curls. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? And why do you keep calling me little dragon?"
"Because, little dragon," he answered with a smirk and an emphasis on the nickname, "you spit flames and are a fierce little creature. Dragons are protective beasts. They protect their own with fire and strength. You do the same."
Eden smiled. Although she knew Alena didn't like the nickname, the description was wholly accurate. "Our energy calls to each other? Do we have a choice whether we’re drawn to each other?"
“Of course, little sister. We're humans; we always have free will and choice. Fighting against certain things might be like fighting against gravity, but it can be done with a little pain and the right tools. Besides, what is love or attraction but a pull towards someone's energy? You don't have to sleep with them to forge that connection, but it wouldn't hurt." He winked and Eden jerked away from Alec, her dark skin flaring red. "Sorry, little sister. I forget how innocent you are, all cute and blushing. But really, it might do you all some good."
"I'm not going to sleep with someone just to forge a magical connection in an effort to beat a psychopath," Eden sputtered, unable to face her other companions.
"No?" Eli asked, raising one eyebrow. "Then do it because you want to. But don't avoid it just to prove me wrong." He stopped and looked at the sky. "Sometimes I forget how to talk to real people. The point is that the three of you are connected magically. The bonds have already begun. Alena's magic is drawn to yours, and it's the same with Alec's tech energy. His energy grounds Eden's. Your attraction should be utilized to increase your comfort with each other. It will assist us all in the time to come, but it will also make you happy." He stood. "And now that I have thoroughly embarrassed you all by addressing the elephant in the courtyard, I'll take my leave." He disappeared as quickly as he came.
"Your brother lacks tact, but some of what he says makes sense," Alec murmured into the silence that followed. Eden stared at the table, uncertain how to feel.
“I agree," Alena said with a small sigh. "Magic does call to magic. I've never heard of tech calling to tech, but that's not my thing. But none of it matters. We were attracted to you before we knew what was at stake, Eden."
"Your brother's words don't change my mind or my intentions. But I'm letting you determine the place we take in your life." Alec's tone was soft, sexy, and sincere.
Eden inhaled deeply before she spoke, weighing her words before releasing them. "I don't know what I did to deserve your attentions, but I consider myself one lucky woman." She paused. "Helping in the fight is one thing, but I liked both of you before I knew that. So…” She ducked her head. "Let's just forget everything my brother said."
Laughter met her words, and Eden decided it was time to do something more than sitting around. She rose, stretching her muscles.
Alena groaned. "I guess we should go see what we can help with." She walked past the table and hugged the other woman to her side, her sweet scent filling the air. "Thanks for the lovely breakfast." Her lips coasted along Eden's cheek, soft and promising in their barely-there tease.
"Thank you," Eden murmured, returning the hug. She watched as Alena embraced Alec and kissed him briefly on the lips. A shiver of desire coasted through her. She enjoyed seeing the other woman touch and kiss her boyfriend.
When Alena had gone, Eden glanced nervously at the now clean table. "I'm going to get lazy living with Brownies. We don't need to cook, clean up after ourselves, or do anything remotely domestic. Even the younger kids are taken care of."
"Well, we do have to save the free world from an insane Magitech," the techie reminded her with dramatic flair.
Eden laughed. "Yes, I suppose there's that. I might find Cat and Andrew. Hopefully, I won't fry their hard work with my magic."
"If I'm supposed to be grounding, maybe I should come along to prevent that from happening," Alec suggested. His tone made it into a joke, but Eden liked the idea.
"I'd like that." She twisted her dress nervously in her hand, not yet moving toward the house.
The kiss she'd witnessed still hovered in her mind. What would it feel like to kiss him? Before she could lose her nerve, she stepped closer to him. She didn't need to stand on her tiptoes, but she did need to tip her head back. He watched her, patient and unmoving, while she pressed her lips to his. It was a brief, chaste kiss, but it tingled pleasantly on her lips. His dark gaze increased the desire she felt from him, and it took effort to not kiss him again - longer and harder. She forced herself to look away.
"Shall we?" She started walking towards the house, glancing at him. He stared after her with a smile dancing on his lips. When the heat of his body joined hers, she had to focus her mind on something other than imagining being sandwiched between Alena's soft curves and Alec's hard muscles.
Chapter Five
Mac
Mac woke with a vague sense of discomfort she couldn't shake as she showered and dressed in the new clothes the house Brownies had provided for her. Their choices were amusing. It was a mix of what she'd worn before her mother's death and what she wore at the safehouse. The eclectic selection included designer jeans paired with frayed henleys or loose cargo pants with silk blouses in dark colors. She paired a nice pair of jeans with a maroon henley. The silk blouses would be forgotten, but she missed the way expensive jeans fit.
She stared at herself in the mirror before leaving her room, which resembled the one a
t the safehouse and not her childhood room. Dark shadows supported her eyes, probably because she'd spent almost all night in the treehouse mourning and trying to focus on moving forward.
The color of her hair was a simple spell. She liked her hair short and black instead of her natural auburn shade. She brushed back the thick locks, letting her fingers linger on the ends until the strands faded to a reddish purple that didn't clash with her shirt. Her full lips and wide eyes made her look haunted. She and Andrew looked alike, but his features were more masculine; they weren't easily identifiable as twins.
Her strange discomfort grew. Her foot tapped angrily against the tile floor, but she couldn't explain the nervous energy coursing through her muscles. She needed to go outside. The house possessed peculiar magic; not only could she specify where she wanted to go, but she could also indicate she wanted to be left alone. Unfortunately, Brownies didn't factor into the equation. The sweet cook was waiting at the front door to the house, holding out a small sack.
"You should take this with you, my dear," Jay said, patting her on the shoulder.
Mac raised an eyebrow at the woman. "I'm not hungry," she protested, more irritated at being betrayed by the house than being given food.
The Brownie smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Just take it with you," she said and blinked back to wherever she'd come from. Mac shrugged at the bag that had been thrust into her hand. No one in their right minds refused food from a Brownie.
She thought she just needed to move to dispel the nervous energy, but it led her in a particular direction. She followed with concern and curiosity. A sudden spike in the strange emotions made her realize that it wasn't her own fear she sensed. She walked faster, wondering if Andrew or Davin needed her. She couldn't think of anyone else whose emotions would transmit to her. Her uncle wouldn't seek her out if he were scared, so it could only be her brother. Fear settled deep within her, visions of the night her mother had died flashing through her mind. Except it was her brother's corpse that lay on the street.
The warm morning sun and the pleasant blue sky remained unnoticed as she followed an old footpath towards the edge of the property. She recognized this place. A small opening existed under the wall. She and Andrew had wriggled through a couple times as kids. A sudden wish for a weapon made her shiver and reminded her she had magic. She hadn't used her power in so long before that fight with the automatons, but it coiled within her like an old friend, more than ready to spark at her command.
The edge of the property arrived quickly, the wall towering before her. The wards rippled in the air before her, still strong and intact. They offered no threat to her, but Davin and the Brownies would be alerted the moment she crawled through the broken barrier.
She didn't have a choice. The strange emotions spurred her onward. She paced in front of the stone wall, examining the ivy crawling over it like a fungus. When the itching under her skin became unbearable, she dropped to her knees and started to shimmy through the breach. As a kid, it had seemed large, but her adult self might not fit. With a wriggle of her hips, she managed to reach the other side, grateful for the long sleeves that protected her forearms as she belly-crawled. Her head bumped the stone above her, and she cursed profusely, momentarily stopping to rub her aching skull. Why wasn't anyone else reacting to the danger? Why her? Irritation pulsed through her.
Mac's grumpy mood didn't detract from her good sense, thankfully. There might be an enemy on the other side. The surrounding woods and strip of bare land between the woods and wall were suspiciously quiet, not rustling with small animal and bird sounds as they did on the other side. She pulled her magic to her, her fingertips crackling with energy. It wasn't as subtle as Eden's or Alena's. The wild force begged to be released, asking to relieve her tense muscles.
The bare strip of land on the other side used to be just barren grass, but small saplings and bushes had grown in the years that the property had been mostly abandoned. Davin spent all his time in Brenville.
Rising to her feet, she brushed leaves, twigs, dirt, and a small beetle off her jeans. A scan of the trees revealed nothing out of place. It didn't feel like her brother anymore. The mind that accompanied the feelings seemed both alien and familiar.
Her heart beat a heavy tattoo against her ribs as she pushed aside a lilac bush to peer into the woods. A large wild cat, his hind leg dripping with blood, sat sentinel in a small clearing. Mac froze, remembering the lessons her uncle had given them about what they should do if they encountered a wild animal in the woods. With its two-inch fangs, the creature definitely fit the category.
Mac frowned, caught in a stare-down with the powerful beast. She felt compelled to help it. Was this her familiar? The thought sent a fierce bolt of pride through her. At the same time, though, she dismissed it. Familiars were supposed to be friendly to their humans - not bare their teeth and hiss.
The animal needed help. A strip of rope strangled its leg, likely a snare from one of the illegal poachers that roamed these woods. Her fists clenched, the animal's fear fueling her rage. If she ever caught one of the hunters, they'd experience the bite of her magic.
The majestic beast's thick pelt was mostly silver. Black tufts of fur rose off its ears, and silver tufts under each side of its chin formed a lopsided beard. A black stripe on its back resembled a lightning bolt. Its eyes were eerily close to the same color as hers, stormy gray with silver.
She crept closer, trying to move in a non-threatening manner. If she could just get closer, she might be able to zap it with enough magic to put it under long enough to free its leg. The paper bag she'd nearly forgotten rustled in her grip. The cat's eyes zeroed in on it, and she frowned at the intensity she saw there. She peeked into the bag, keeping one eye on the wild animal.
A slab of raw meat? Rolling her eyes heavenward, she realized the Brownie had known. Perhaps the house was preparing for another resident - a furry, four-legged one.
Mac pulled the strip of meat out of the bag, trying not to think about what animal it had once belonged to. The slimy texture made her wince in disgust. The cat's long, pink tongue licked its sharp canines.
"If I give this to you, will you not rip me limb from limb?" she asked the cat. It almost seemed to understand. It looked at the meat, and she shrugged, holding the thick steak out. "Please don't kill me."
Mac stepped forward carefully, relieved when its manner didn't become more threatening. The steak sailed through the air as she threw it towards its head. The beast sniffed the meat before starting to gnaw, still watching her. Here went nothing. She only had a couple minutes of distraction.
Her hands shook as she crouched near its back leg. Without a knife, she wasn't sure how to remove it. The blood made the rope too slick to unravel. The snare cut so deep, Mac worried any sudden movement on either of their parts would cause the thin twine to slice into a tendon and might render the cat permanently hobbled.
The sounds of slurping nearly sickened her, but they were preferable to the low, feline growl that started in the cat's chest when Mac still couldn't make headway past the twine and the steak was almost gone. She cursed in frustration, swiping a forearm against her sweaty forehead, her palms coated in blood. She needed magic, just enough to fry the rope. If she was careful, she could keep it a gentle spark instead of a raging inferno. Her magic sometimes had a mind of its own.
Apologizing softly to the cat, she wrapped her dirty hand around the cat's leg and released a small jolt. The stress of the situation and the effort of trying to focus her magic so acutely caused her vision to blacken the second after she released the trap. The twine sizzled and broke beneath her hand and then she blinked.
Pressure met her chest, stealing the breath from her lungs. The beast had moved with lightning quickness and knocked her to the ground. Its paws pressed against her torso. Its slit cat eyes met hers, the fangs dripping with saliva. Its breath smelled of raw meat.
Fear contracted every muscle in her body. A psychopathic murderer was on the loose, and sh
e would die via the jaws of a wild lynx. Just her luck. She debated zapping it with her magic, but she worried she didn't have enough control because of the adrenaline coursing through her blood. Her eyes begged for mercy as she slowly brought her hands up. Just as she braced herself to either kill it or be killed, it cocked its head and raked the side of her face with a huge, foul-smelling tongue. Sudden purring caused her chest to vibrate.
"What the fuck?" Confusion and relief warred within her. She scrubbed a hand against the wet side of her face, but her actions only smeared the cat's blood across her face. While she groaned with disgust, the cat bent its head again. It licked the blood from her face before starting on her hands.
"Ugh. You're fucking heavy." She wanted to get up, but the cat's impressive weight pinned her to the ground. Suddenly, the cat lifted its head and its purr changed to a low growl that made her spine tingle. A momentary worry sparked through her. Maybe the cat was just cleaning her before eating her? But she could almost clearly sense its intentions. Someone was watching. She followed the direction of the cat's glare.
Eli leaned insolently against a tree, clapping his scarred hands together. "Amazing. I've never seen a familiar being tamed before, but that was impressive. I'm glad to see it before I die."
Mac frowned, ignoring his last statement and focusing on the only thing that mattered. "Familiar? This thing almost killed me!"
"That thing looks like it's about to eat me, so tell it to back down."
He was right. The beast stared at Eli with the same look that she'd seen on its face when she'd taken the steak out of the bag. "It's not going to listen to me," she screeched. Internally, she loved seeing the cocky male squirm.
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