“The trial gives you want you need not what you want.”
Rylan gave Voyager a scathing look. This trial was exposing his weakness. He wanted to stay strong, aloof, that was the best way to protect Aviana.
There was a small caress against his mind causing him to stumble. Aviana was reaching out looking for help and she found him—her mate. Her touch was soft and sensuous. It teased him, bringing back thoughts of her lying under him in her room. His body hardened as his steps quickened, he wanted her. Not just physically, he wanted to be one with her, see her thoughts, and know her heart as she would know his.
They turned the corner into gang territory. She was here somewhere, he could taste her on the wind, but where? There were several warehouses but they were empty. He checked dumpsters afraid he’s find her broken body in one of them. The whole time Voyager stared at him.
“What are you staring at, you freak of nature?” He finally lost it. No more Mr. nice guy; he wanted his female back. Every person between him and her needed to start praying.
“Freak of nature? I think you are the first person to come close to what I am. Arbrin, what is your Matra telling you?”
“Besides beat you down and find out why you’re here in the first place? He’s telling me she’s here. I’ve checked everywhere.” The last part he murmured to himself.
“She’s not in the buildings, not in the dumpsters or behind them. That only leaves up or down.” Craning his head up to the sky, there was nothing there—that only left down.
He searched the alley until he finally touched a brick that moved a wall aside to reveal a staircase.
Chapter Twelve
Aviana’s scent hit him like a ton of bricks as it wafted up the stairwell. She was down there but she wasn’t alone. Rylan could smell at least five other distinct scents, all male and dangerous.
His eyes moved to focus on Voyager. He was going down there with or without him. With him would be a lot easier.
Voyager nodded, that didn’t give him enough to go on. That male had his own agenda and anything he did furthered it. With a sigh, Rylan prepared himself to go down the dark stairwell. He popped claws out on one hand. Lowering himself, he took the steps one at a time. They were steep. If he wasn’t surefooted, he would have slid down the steps and injured himself.
There were no sounds, not even a whimper from Aviana. His heart raced faster as he silently willed her to be all right. He reached the bottom of what was the entrance to an underground sewage area. There were pipes along the ceiling overhead. A steady stream of water was at his feet and he heard the scampering of small rodents in the distance.
He looked to see if Voyager followed him down the steps, not hearing anything he pressed on. The stairwell opened into a wide area that was also void of light. He stood, debating before he finally opened his palm allowing a small flame to sit on his hand. The light displaced some of the darkness allowing him to see without announcing his presence, he hoped.
This area looked like some sort of club house. There were several chairs and sofas spread about as well as a refrigerator in the corner, a microwave, and a stove. Whoever hung out here was pretty serious about comfort if you included the large screen television mounted to the wall.
There were three doors off the room. One had to be the bathroom, there was no way there was all this comfort in the front room and no facilities to be used. That left two other doors that could be used for anything, a bedroom or a place for torture.
He reached out trying to look for Aviana. He hadn’t even touched Gabe’s mind since the night of his rescue, he was rusty. Fighting the urge to close his eyes and cut off his senses, he pushed on. Aviana, he whispered as his mind went roaming. He stepped in front of the first door trying to catch a whiff of her sensual scent. Nothing. He walked to the next door; a sense of emptiness filled him.
He pushed that door open to find it was the bathroom which was empty. He went to the last door standing silently before it. Once again he reached out to touch Aviana’s mind. This time a flutter of distress came to him as her scent flowed through the small openings at the side of the door.
Rylan picked up the scent of five different males in the room with her. Unreasonable fury overtook him and he started to open the door.
“So that is your plan?”
The sound of Voyager’s voice stopped him.
“There are five males in their surrounding her. You are going to break in and face all five of them? Spectacular plan, why did I not think of that?”
“What do you suggest I do?” he drawled, challenging the male.
“I suggest you think like a male looking to bond instead of one with his head up his…”
Rylan roared back. No one talked to him like that except Gabe, who did it to knock some sense into him. He didn’t know what type of males were behind the door, all he knew is they weren’t human.
“Aviana,” he whispered mentally. No answer. He’d been in her mind, he could do this.
“Aviana.” This time he opened his arms and offered her shelter as he said her name.
He almost fell as he felt her mentally throw herself at him and shake in his arms.
“Who are you?”
“Rylan. The one who has come to free you.”
“Do I know you?”
“We came here together.”
“To do what?”
“To see if we were meant to be soul-bonded.” There was such warmth in his voice that he felt her stretch beneath it.
“Aviana, I need you to open your eyes so I can see what’s happening.”
“They’re hurting me. Do I have to look?”
“Yes. You’re strong, Baby, you can do it.”
There was a minute of distress before she opened her eyes. She was staring at the ceiling unable to see anything. With effort she raised her head.
Rylan’s world went black. Fury swamped him and he shook where he was standing. Aviana was stretched spread eagle on a table with one of the males in the room slicing into her.
He could feel her fear. The pain she was pretending wasn’t there with her eyes closed hit her hard now that she could see what they were doing to her. She bit her lip to keep from crying out.
“Aviana, listen to me.” His voice dripped with liquid warmth trying to take her attention from the knife. “We can’t fight them physically; they are a very powerful race. Our only hope is to use the gifts we have to fight them.”
“All I have is a little light,” she whispered forlornly.
“That’s all you need. I have a bigger light and together we can do this.”
“What…” her words faded away as a ball of pain blasted in her belly.
Rylan clenched his fist and made himself stay still. Getting killed wouldn’t help her, but he promised not one of them would make it out alive.
“Baby, you have to let me in.”
“Ok. Whatever you need.” Her voice sounded far away.
“Voyager?”
“I will watch your body.”
Rylan nodded; it was the best he could do. He slumped on the floor leaning against the door and prepared to enter Aviana’s mind.
Moving into her mind was easy, like he did it every day. Her defenses were up but nothing attacked him. Without realizing it, she welcomed him as if he belonged there.
“Aviana? Where are you?”
He walked around looking for her. Bits and pieces of her warmth surrounded him but not her actual essence. He walked into the room he remembered that was filled with fear. That’s where he found her. She was sitting in a dark corner trying to protect herself.
“Baby,” he rushed over to her going down on his knees in front of her. “We need to get you out of here.”
“No,” she shook her head. “I can be safe here.”
He pulled her close to his chest. “You can only be safe if we fight and defeat the fear. Anything else is a hopeless illusion.”
“My body hurts,” she whispered to him.
“I know. We have to stop them.” He stood and bent over to pick her up.
“You are carrying me. How?”
“It’s really easy, I just swooped you up in my arms.”
“Put me down! I’m too big for you to carry.”
“Baby, you’re about as big as a feather and just as light. When we get back to our bodies, I’ll pick you up to prove it.”
Rylan walked out of her room filled with fear into another room.
“This is a nice room; you’ll have to tell me about it later.” It was sunny and bright with nothing but huge windows that looked out onto rolling green hills.
He placed her on the floor under one of the windows allowing the sun to heat her skin as she looked at the landscape. As she stared at it, the hills disappeared and a rolling sea appeared. It was storming with high waves that crashed against the side of a mountain.
“Let me see your light.”
She opened her hand and a small ember sat on her palm.
“I’m going to merge my light with yours. When I do, you have to open your eyes again and look at the male cutting you. He won’t be expecting you to fight back. We can take him before he can react and one other. By then we will have lost our advantage and will have to take the others mentally, but we can do it.
She gulped, her throat working before she nodded.
He produced a larger ember in his hand and brought it closer to her where he merged the two. The spark in her hand became a towering inferno. She tried to pull away but he caught her wrist with his free hand.
“Don’t fight it, Aviana. Let the two become one.” The two white flames became one, taking on a slightly blueish color.
“Beautiful,” he whispered. “Open your eyes.”
The male cutting her pulled out a bigger dagger raising it in the air. He was going to stab her.
Aviana’s mouth took on Rylan’s death grin as he directed the fire within her. Her eyes locked with those of her attacker as a flame of power shot from her hand. The flame arched following Rylan’s direction to encase the male, burning him alive.
Her head turned to the side and picked up the second male who was coming closer to her with a knife. The flames shot from the first male’s body to his. The other males in the room erected a hasty shield, deflecting the flame when it came for them.
The yells of the two males quickly faded; the flames stood as a barrier between her body and the other males who would try to hurt her.
“Excellent, Aviana. I’m so proud of you.”
“What do we do now?”
“We wait. It won’t take long. They’ll want revenge and the best way to do that is to mount a mental attack. They don’t realize you have help. They think you simply got lucky.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. Although it wouldn’t matter if they know I’m here or not. None of them will leave the room alive. Mess with the woman who is my soul-bond and die.”
“I wonder why…” The words died in her throat as the scene changed.
They were no longer in a room sitting under a window, they were on a battlefield. There were knights and horses.
“What is this?” She looked up at him.
“They are fighting, but not fair. Somewhere on this battlefield are the three men who need to die. They are trapped. They can’t leave the room because they would have to pass me and I won’t let them live. They can’t attack you because we left the flame there to protect your body. All they can do to escape is defeat us here.”
The battlefield was loud with the sounds of horses protesting and warriors in armor shouting as swords and other weapons collided in a large clash with each other.
“Can we just take that flame from earlier and kill everyone?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You’re looking at this place like it’s a dream and nothing really matters here, but you’re wrong. This is a different plane and although we may think this is a dream there are very many different creatures that make their home here. To kill these innocent beings is to really kill them. Neither of us wants their blood on our hands.”
She vigorously shook her head.
“How do we find them?”
“Together. We watch our backs and slowly make our way through hostile forces. They will show up since they are helplessly drawn to you.
Chapter Thirteen
Aviana had no idea if she could be killed by any of the other warriors, but the feeling in the pit of her stomach made sure she didn’t take any stupid chances.
Rylan was crouched down slowly making his way between a trough filled with water and one filled with feed. She was on her hands and knees crawling behind him. She was on a battlefield and her mind was all but rejecting it. Her body on the other hand—she knew it was only a presentation of her body—felt real and it hurt like hell.
Still bleeding, any minute she expected a horse to rear up at the smell of blood and then either bite her or kick her to death. She had no idea how horses reacted around blood but that didn’t stop her fear.
She fell to her stomach as Rylan did. They were past the horses now and a large boulder was between them and a group of warriors who were sitting on the battlefield filled with the dead and dying. The group sitting around was eating. Her stomach revolted at the thought but there were others who were walking around, looking behind the rocks on the field, or turning over dead bodies to see their faces.
The ones they were looking for were in the last group. Instinct pulled at her making her more nervous whenever she saw a warrior standing. An internal clock went off in her head. Time was ticking.
“Rylan.” She pointed to a group of three males crouched down over a form on the field.
He nodded to her. They were the ones and they were looking for her.
“What do we do?”
“I want to get as close to the end of the field as possible. The further away we get before we fight, the less chance we have of others interfering.”
She nodded. None of it was making sense to her, but she couldn’t argue because she was here.
Rylan took her hand as they stepped out from behind the boulder. She was still dressed in the outfit she had worn to the office, but unfortunately her clothes were ripped and torn as well as bloody. At least she had some on. Ryan was wearing a pair of jeans and a tee but they were under dressed considering what everyone else was wearing.
They stuck out like a sore thumb. She kept her eyes lowered as they walked across the wide field. A few warriors looked at them and went back to eating or checking the dead. They were going to be…
A shout went up over the field directed at them. “Halt.”
Who said ‘Halt?’ Aviana asked herself as her footsteps picked up to stay in step with Rylan.
“Stop them.” She turned her head to see that the three they wanted had spotted them.
Rylan grabbed her hand and started to run, dragging her with him. She bit her lip and pumped her arms not wanting to fall behind. Her legs raced and her heart beat faster, but they were almost at the edge of the field. Every cut felt deeper as she ran and the blood flowed a little faster as her head felt lighter. Refusing to give up despite the state of her body, she focused on Rylan.
The three others were chasing them. It might have become a free for all but several of the males sitting down stood and met all challengers except for the original three. Rylan came to a stop.
“We fight here.”
They were on the edge of the battlefield with a forest behind them. Sounds came through the trees making her more nervous. She hoped this battlefield didn’t come from her mind; there were better places she would have rather fought.
Her three attackers stalked her. They were wearing grins that said it was all over for her. She glanced at Rylan but his natural assurance in his skills was shouting come closer and die.
“All we want is the girl,” one of her kidnappers said.
They were all tall, well over six feet, blonde and tattooed
. There was something about them that kicked at a memory she refused to acknowledge.
“She’s not available,” Rylan stated coolly.
“You know what we are, Arbrin, give her up.”
“I know what you’re supposed to be and this isn’t it. Going rogue disgraces you and today it will cost your life.”
The first kidnapper threw a ball of fire hitting against a shield Rylan threw up.
“Imagine a glowing shield surrounding your body, Aviana.”
“While you’re doing that we’ll be carving up her.”
They reached into a void that appeared and pulled through the little girl she saw earlier with the pig tails.
The girl screamed as the second kidnapper pulled out a knife and sliced her leg. She knew that scream; it slammed into her with the force of a hurricane—Mckayla. Aviana screamed and tried to rush them. Rylan caught her.
“It’s not Mckayla. She’s not real.”
“Her screams sound real to me.”
The third kidnapper pulled a knife and stabbed her in her chest.
“You’re next and you’ll die just like her, screaming.”
Aviana fell to the ground sobbing. A part of her died when she saw that little girl die.
“She’s not dead, believe me.”
Nodding, she wiped her eyes. They killed her daughter. She would never be the same again, but she couldn’t think about that now. Every one of them would die. Slowly she pressed her arms down giving her leverage to get up.
Her tiny flame sprang to life in her hand, she blew on it and watched it dance across her palm.
“You took my life.”
“Not yet, but soon,” one of her kidnappers gloated.
“Some say ignorance is bliss but not for you.” Aviana’s voice held a trace of mysticism in it.
She blew on that flame dispersing it. Her tiny flame grew into a roaring fire that engulfed the three of them. She backed it with her iron will and the love she felt for her child.
The three screamed trying to fight the flames that slowly ate at them, decreasing their ability to use their gifts.
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