Enemy through the Gates

by D T Dyllin

  “Nothing good,” Khol answered for me. “Her visions were jumbled and more confusing than normal but I was able to understand the gist of what she saw.”

  I fought the impulse to demand how Khol was still able to share my visions with me since I was bonded with Bryn, especially because a small part of me was glad for his deciphering help. I’d be damned if I had to figure it all out myself. But Bryn wasn’t above demanding answers from Khol. “How did you share her vision? If anyone should be sharing her visions, shouldn’t it be her mate? Which is me.”

  Khol gave Bryn a feral smile. “Yes, well, it seems your mate bond doesn’t translate out here where your Guardian and Seer sides take dominance.”

  “Hey, yeah,” Jenna piped up. “Those tattoos are gone from your necks. Weird.”

  “What?” I exclaimed, twisting to try and see the back of Bryn’s neck, which was now completely unmarked. I reached my right index finger up to trace the spot where it should have been, a sadness seeping into me despite everything else that was going on.

  Bryn caught my hand and tipped my face back so he could look into my eyes. His voice went low and gruff as he spoke. “I told you before, the marks don’t matter, we don’t need them to know we belong to each other.” It was just with the marks it somehow seemed to guarantee that we would be together, without them it felt like we were right back to where we started.

  I fought back tears that were swelling in my eyes. Bryn was right, and besides how shallow was I that I was worried about the lack of some stupid marks on the back of our necks when our families had essentially been kidnapped. I bit my lip and turned toward Khol. “Why were they taken? I mean what reason was given for the S.W.A.T. to take them? Obviously, it’s the aliens that wanted them, but they came in using the police and government under the guise of something else… what was it?”

  “Suspicion of plotting terrorist acts. They have fake intel, of course, which also implies that all the families here were part of a cult.”

  I felt Bryn tense, and for the second time since I’d known Jenna, she was temporarily rendered speechless. Jeremy spoke first. “Explain,” he said.

  “They took them—our families, those things—those alien riders—by using the government and law enforcement as their tools. And who would stop and question them? Once all of our kind is out of the way, there won’t be anyone to stop them. They’ll take over—they’ll rule this world just like all the others before this one. Oh God—what do we do now?” I covered my face with my hands and slumped against Bryn. What could we do? Who was going to believe us? It was probably all over the news about the cult who was planning some major terrorist activities. In fact, the whole situation could serve as a double whammy—they’d probably ‘find’ all kinds of weapons that this cult had in their possession so that the gun control legislation had a firmer platform to stand on. ‘Oh no, you can’t trust anyone, gun control is for your own safety fellow Americans.’ And then there would be no one left to protect us from our protectors. “What do we do?” I mumbled into my hands.

  “First things first.” Khol took on an authoritative tone. “We need to get all of you out of here. Just because no one is here now, or spotted us yet, doesn’t mean it’s safe to be out in the open like this.”

  Macon strode forward on a silent command. “Where should we take them? She needs to be able to get her visions but also be somewhere safe.”

  “Don’t state the obvious,” Khol snapped.

  Macon bowed apologetically and averted his eyes. “I’m merely thinking out loud, my Lord.”

  Khol spoke as if Macon hadn’t said anything. “We’ll set up temporary quarters in the caves just outside the boundary line for the spells covering my land. My—,” Khol stopped and eyed me warily. “P.J. will be able to get her visions and they’ll be safe there until we can figure out something better.”

  “We have to save them!” I exclaimed. “I’m not going back into hiding and leave them to fend for themselves. I’m the reason they were taken to begin with.”

  Bryn tightened his grip around me. “They’re obviously being kept alive because of you—us. They’ll probably offer them in some kind of exchange for you.”

  My eyes pricked with tears again. “Because of my visions.” Yep, and to think just a short time ago, when I hadn’t yet come into my Seer abilities, I had prayed and wished for visions to come to me. Now look at the trouble they had caused. Be careful what you wish for was a saying that was currently really hitting home for me. “I wish I’d never starting getting visions. I wish we could go back to the way it was before.” I turned my head and buried my face in Bryn’s chest, not wanting to deal with any of this.

  “But then who would protect our world? Who would know the truth?” Bryn said gently before kissing the top of my head. “Ignorance isn’t always bliss, Peej.”

  He was right. Of course, he was right. I knew in my heart if I actually had the chance to go back to the way things were before, I wouldn’t take it. I simply wished things were actually as simple as I thought they were before, even though they never actually were anything but complicated.

  “Let me just talk to some of my friends before we go,” Jenna said over her shoulder before skulking off into the woods. And by friends I knew she meant of the local little furry persuasion.

  “At least we have an entire team with us,” Bryn muttered.

  “Yeah, that’s at least lucky,” Jeremy agreed. “Maybe we should try contacting some of the other teams that are centered around the other gates. Surely they haven’t been affected by all of this. Maybe the riders don’t even know about them yet.”

  “I’ll send out some scouts,” said Khol. “We’ll know shortly who our allies really are.”

  Jenna came scurrying back to our little group with a grim look of determination on her face. “The good news is that my friends seem to be able to see the riders inside of people too. That could come in handy in the future.”

  “Yes. We can use any help we can get.” Khol bared his teeth in a mock smile. “Now let’s get out of here before we’re spotted.”

  * * *

  “I kind of liked our other accommodations better,” Jenna grumbled as she slumped down onto her makeshift bed that was nothing more than an air mattress with a bunch of blankets.

  Macon smiled at her indulgently. “This is only for tonight, and then we’ll figure out something better. I’ll stay here with you.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jenna muttered as Macon disappeared to probably get more unnecessary things for her. When he was gone, she scooted over to sit by me and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “I wish he would just give me a little space, you know?”

  “You seemed really into him before, what happened?”

  “He just wants sex all the time. I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t break me,” Jenna said with a sigh.

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Could it actually be true? Could you have actually met your match?” Wow. Who would have thunk it?

  Jenna scrunched her face up at me with annoyance and flipped her rapidly fading rainbow hair over her shoulder. “I guess I never had a guy stay interested in me for so long.” She glanced around to make sure Bryn, Jeremy and Khol were still setting other things up around the cave and not paying attention to us before leaning in to whisper, “What do you do with Bryn?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know… when he wants to get it on and you’re not in the mood, or he wants to do something you’re really not into?” She stared at me waiting for my answer.

  “Well, Bryn and I haven’t been having sex all that long but—,” Had I ever not been in the mood when Bryn wanted me? Had I ever not been into something he wanted to do to me? I felt my cheeks blush as I realized the truth, I don’t know if I could actually deny Bryn anything he wanted from me. He owned me in a way I wasn’t sure I wanted to let anyone else know about. Of course, I knew in my heart that Bryn would never be able to deny me anything either, he was mine as much as I was his, bu
t things like that are still hard to explain to an outside party. “But—,” I stammered again. I didn’t want to tell Jenna, but at the same time, with her Speaker abilities, she’d probably figure it out eventually and just be mad at me for not telling her to begin with. I really didn’t need the headache. “But whenever and wherever Bryn wants it, I don’t deny him. I just don’t want to. I love him too much.”

  Shock played across her features. “So you’re telling me that no matter what, you’d give him what he wanted?”

  I thought about it for a second, just to make sure before answering. “Yeah, I guess that’s exactly what I’m saying.” When Jenna didn’t say anything right away, I felt the need to explain more since it was already out there. “I love him. I mean I love him with everything that I am. I would lay down my life for his. Hell, I almost did,” I said, thinking about my botched suicide attempt.

  Jenna started twirling a piece of her rainbow hair around her fingers, her eyes glazing over. “I wish I could find that.”

  Warmth bloomed in my chest as I thought about how lucky I was to have Bryn, and I too wished that someday Jenna would find with someone what I had with him. “Me too. So Macon’s not him? Even with his superior dragon lover skills?”

  Jenna flopped onto her back and exhaled loudly. “No, he’s not him. Even with his superior dragon lover skills.” She sighed again, making me smile at her dramatics. “I wonder what’s going on with our parents right now?”

  I frowned, not wanting to think of the possibilities. In fact, I had been trying very hard not to think about that subject at all, hence why I had let her distract me with her sex talk without any of my usual complaints. “I think it’s best not to contemplate the possibilities so we don’t drive ourselves insane.” I stood and walked over to where the boys were talking softly to each other in harsh voices. I felt my brows draw together as I strained to hear what they were saying, but as I got closer, they all shut up completely. “Hey,” I said knowing when people were trying to hide things from me. “What were you guys talking about?”

  A secretive look passed between the three of them before Bryn rose and gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Nothing you need to worry about.” He reached one of his large hands to snag mine but I batted it away with annoyance.

  “Don’t think you can keep secrets from us and tell me it’s nothing.” I turned my suspicious glare on each of them in turn. “Now, who’s going to tell me what you guys were whispering about just now?”

  By this time Jenna had come up to stand beside me with an angry expression to match mine. “Yeah. No secrets. You guys better spill it before it gets ugly in here.”

  Khol stood, his eyes meeting my gaze. “It might be best if you didn’t know for now.”

  “No,” I said, bunching my fists into tight little balls. “No secrets.”

  Bryn glanced back at Khol and Jeremy, letting another guarded look pass between them before he nodded once tightly at me. “Alright, it’s just we didn’t want to upset you anymore.”

  “Stop stalling and tell us,” Jenna exclaimed as she threw her hands in the air. I looked to Bryn expectantly waiting for him to explain.

  He cleared his throat and shifted nervously before he finally told us. “We’re the last ones left,” he blurted out. “The last complete team not in custody of some sort.”

  I felt myself blanche. There was no way I was hearing what I thought I was hearing—absolutely no way. “Holy shit,” Jenna whispered beside me, obviously just as shocked as I was.

  “It’s true,” Khol said. “My scouts just reported back to me. Those creatures—,”

  “You mean the riders?” Jenna asked for clarification.

  Khol tilted his head and looked at her. “Yes, the riders if that’s what we’re calling them now. They seem to have planted themselves in every major government in the world. They—,”

  “So it’s all up to us?” I interrupted. I felt my world tilt and I clutched at Bryn for support. The full implications of what Khol was saying were finally sinking in. “We’re the world’s first and last hope—literally?” Bryn’s warmth engulfed me as he wrapped his arms fully around me. “We haven’t even graduated from high school yet and it’s up to us to save our entire world?” The cave grew silent as everyone thought about what was now fully resting on our shoulders.

  How the hell were we going to pull this one off?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “It’s just not fair, Jenna whined for the umpteenth time as she studied herself in the mirror before meeting my eyes in the reflection. Her deep brown eyes brimmed with unshed tears that she furiously batted back with her eyelashes. “I’m so plain now… just plain ugly.” With that the dam broke and wetness flowed down her face.

  I struggled not to roll my eyes at her obvious pain and returned my attention to my own drastically altered image in the mirror. My long silky dark auburn locks had been shorn off into a short angled bob, the front longer than the back. I still had chunky pieces of auburn in my hair, but the majority of it was now a midnight black. “I’ll trade you,” I said with a sigh. Jenna’s only response was guttural sob.

  “You look beautiful,” Macon cooed to Jenna as he appeared and dropped down on his haunches in front of her. He lifted his arm to show her the offering of flowers that he had brought to cheer her up. “You’ll never be plain, you just look more… natural now.”

  I grimaced at his choice of words. Clearly just because Macon had been sleeping with Jenna, he didn’t know her at all. “Natural?” Jenna stood and snatched the flowers from Macon’s hands. “Who the hell wants to look natural?!”

  Unable to resist, I waved my hand in the air and scrunched up my face. “Umm. Hello? Me. I would love to have a shade of hair that looks like I could have been born with it. Not this—,” I tugged at my black and red do for emphasis, “—punk rock wet dream.”

  “My hair is brown,” Jenna hissed at me. “It’s the color of shit.”

  “You know what Jenna? It actually is the best I’ve seen your hair since I’ve known you, but besides that—well—,” I tried to clamp down on my anger the best that I could, “—it’s not about just us anymore. Do you think I want my hair to look like this? Do you think my self esteem is soaring when I look at myself in the mirror?” I breathed in and out a few times before continuing on. “Do you think I want to live in these caverns even if they look like one of those home makeover shows got a hold of them? It’s up to us to save our world and if going through some unwanted makeovers, both in our appearance and living conditions, helps, then you’re going to just have to suck it up.”

  “Easy for you to say, your hair doesn’t look like shit… literally.”

  I threw my hands up in the air in utter exasperation. “I can’t deal with you anymore right now,” I said as I swiveled on my heel and stalked out of the room. Jenna was my best female friend, and there was a time when I probably would have been as distraught over my hair as she was hers, but… things had changed. I had changed.

  I let my feet carry me blindly as my thoughts turned pensive. What if our efforts all turned out to be useless? What if my little band of misfits just didn’t have what it takes to defeat the alien riders that were trying to take over our world?

  “I feel your worry, my little Seer.” Khol’s deep voice startled me from my internal list of worries—the what ifs of self doubt.

  I looked up to see his large 6'7” frame leaning against a tree to the right of me, his dark auburn hair illuminated in the late afternoon sun, making it blaze like fire. I decided to overlook his term of endearment for me, because, after all, with me being mated to Bryn, it had little meaning anymore, except to him maybe. “I really don’t like that you can still feel my emotions. That shouldn’t be happening with me being mated to Bryn.”

  Khol pushed himself off the tree and strolled towards me, but I didn’t miss the bitterness that shown through from behind his glowing green eyes. “As if you have any idea what’s normal or not with a mated dragon pai
r.” He let out a long deep sigh. “Besides the two of you are hardly typical, neither of you being fully dragon.” He began to walk and I followed behind him, a part of me wanting to comfort him. Khol was in love with me, and being fully dragon meant that he always would be—not my fault—but I wished it didn’t have to be that way. I wished that he too could find true happiness like I had found with Bryn.

  “I don’t want your pity,” Khol rasped harshly, turning to face me. “Never give me your pity.” I stopped abruptly where I was and stared up into Khol’s angry face. I knew that the anger was simply covering his pain, so I wasn’t frightened. I knew that he would never hurt me. He had already sacrificed his own happiness for my own when he let me take Bryn as a mate despite his prior claim. Even though it only took my attempted suicide to make him understand that I would do anything for Bryn, and that he stood no real chance.

  “No pity,” I said as I reached my hand up to touch his arm. “I just wish I could comfort you, make you feel better. I… regret the way things have turned out for you.”

  Khol shifted into my touch and I felt him relax just a little. A sad smile turned up his lips slightly. “What I would need to be comforted, you would be unwilling to give.”

  I let my hand fall away from him. “No, you’re right. I’m not willing to give you what would really make you feel better.”

  Khol’s hand snaked out to grasp some of my hair between his fingers. “I’m glad you listened to me and left some red in your hair.” He frowned as he watched my baby fine hair slip out of his grasp. “It’s necessary to alter your appearance but you still must hold on to the core of who you really are… a Rua Arach.” I had the feeling he was talking about more than just my hair color. Had he been sensing some of the intrinsic changes that had been slowly taking place over the last couple of weeks? It was as if my hair was simply another symptom, a visible one, of my internal make-over. The old P.J. was too soft, too concerned with unimportant things. I had to become someone who could handle whatever my new life would throw my way.