by Sadie Jacks
I leaned my head back on the dirt. “How have you been, Xander? Still killing it with the ladies?” I closed my eyes against the spinning in my head.
He chuckled softly. “You’re the only girl for me, Kiema.”
“Xander?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you ever want to fly?”
He hummed over the line. “No. I don’t think I would. I like being on the ground.”
“I got to fly when Hellion kicked me off the helicopter. I didn’t like it though. Not one bit.”
“I need to meet this Hellion.” Xander’s voice had a distinct bite to it.
“He could talk in my mind after he left a piece of onyx in my spirit. It was hard.”
“Hellion was hard?”
I giggled. “No. The onyx in my spirit was hard. He said I wasn’t fully human. I don’t think that was very nice. Do you?”
“No, sweets. Not nice at all. We can show Hellion that you’re fully human after Atlas does his tests. How does that sound?”
“I like that idea. Xander, I’m tired. I’m going to take a nap.”
“No! Kiema, do not take a nap.”
I felt like I was floating away, like leaves in the breeze.
“Sleepy.”
“Then fucking get there, T. She’s about done.” It was the last thing I heard before everything went black.
Chapter 5 – Taryk
“Pull over here, Atlas. If I’m gone more than twenty minutes, you back up and get the fuck out. Send in the security team,” I said as I lowered my ski mask.
Atlas nodded. I wasn’t sure I trusted him to do what I asked in this case, but I knew he wouldn’t add to the body count.
I shut the door as quietly as I could. I turned from the big military vehicle. Kiema was out here in this mess somewhere. I pushed the emotion, the stress, away. Focused only on the mission.
Get in. Get her out. Get home.
Everything else could wait. Would wait.
I took two deep breaths and pushed away from the truck.
Slinking down into the waist-high grass, I pulled my thermal imaging glasses down over my eyes. A grouping of bright yellows and reds appeared off to the far left.
“I found the camp,” I let everyone know.
A single click sounded in my ear. I smiled. Xander knew what he was doing when it came to covert work. I guess those video games weren’t complete trash.
“Her last position shows her a klick northeast of the camp’s location,” Xander sounded in my head over the implant.
I moved in that direction. I pulled nature around me like a blanket. I became one of the swaying shadows. Moving and bending as the air bent the grasses around me.
After ten minutes, I huddled behind a huge rock.
“I’m at the location, Xan. I don’t see her,” I called through the mental connection.
“I’ll send her out.”
Out from where? I wanted to ask. Where she came from didn’t matter as much as her being okay. I let Xander do his end of things.
Something shifted in the air behind me. “Xander. Hold!”
I dropped to the side as something fell right where my head had been. I rolled, pushing up to my side. A faint clicking sound, unmistakable in the quiet night, had the figure above me stilling.
“’as, you fuck. You hurt my Ta’k, I’m gonna to ‘king kill ya.” Kiema sounded blitzed out of her mind.
“I can hear her, but for the life of me I can’t figure out where her voice was coming from,” I told Xander.
Something pushed at my leg. I didn’t take my eyes or my weapon off the man above me.
“This one with you, luv?” the man I had a weapon trained on asked softly.
The nudge against my leg got angrier.
“Xan, tell Taryk to let me out. I’m sick of being in this cave.”
“She’s coming out from under a rock, T,” Xander said in my head.
I moved my leg, scooting back. I got to my knees as the other man retreated a couple of steps as well. He dropped a log as long as my leg before putting his hands up in the air.
Kiema wiggled free from under the rock. She was pale enough to resemble a ghost. Without even a touch of moonlight, it was still easy to see her. She teetered on her feet, stumbled forward.
Log Man shot forward, his arms catching her before she smacked face first into the ground.
I edged my gun forward, laid it against his skull. “You’re going to lay her down. Gently. And back the fuck up before I blow a hole through your brain.”
“He’s with me, Taryk. He’s a null,” Kiema said, her voice a harsh rasp.
I pulled the gun back, not holstering it, but not pointing it at the man either. I grabbed the canteen from my side. “Let her sip this. Don’t let her guzzle it. She’ll—”
“I know what to do, mate.” He took the canteen, turned his back on me. Laying Kiema down, her back against his knees, he dribbled it into her open mouth.
“Atlas, I’ve got two. Kiema is almost bone white. Her verbal skills are still intact, but she’s stumbling around. I’m going to have to carry her out.”
“NO!”
“NO!”
“NO!”
The guys jumped on the mental network in a stereo of negatives.
“You can’t touch her skin, remember? She’ll go into the spiritual plane and we don’t know what that could do to her in this condition,” Saint said.
I gritted my teeth.
“One of the guys, a Lukas, can touch her. I’ll have him bring her out.”
Mental growls filled my head.
“Him or me. Pick. Now,” I ordered my brothers.
“If he can touch her without issue, he should bring her out,” Dr. Atlas said. “Give him the remainder of the electrolyte water. He’s going to need it for the hike, especially carrying Kiema.”
“Ki-Ki got back, Atlas. She ain’t fat,” Asher said. He sounded insulted on Kiema’s behalf.
“I realize this, Asher. But if he, too, is dehydrated it could make a significant difference if he has the fluid reserves to pack her out to our vehicle. Now shut up.”
I turned to Lukas. Pointed at the canteen. “The rest of that is for you. Since you can touch her, she’s your responsibility.” I lifted my gun. “But if anything happens to her on the way out, the price comes out of your body. In whatever way I see fit.”
He nodded.
Kiema didn’t even raise a fuss when the man pulled the jug from her lips. He drank it down in big gulps.
“Where’s the third?”
“He’s right behind you.”
I whirled around, my gun raised. It was wrenched from my hand as if I were a baby.
Glints of metal appeared in what weak light was making it to us this far from the camp. The person’s face was like a starry night.
“He doesn’t speak. But he’s good,” the man behind me said.
“If he doesn’t speak, how do you know? He could just be playing you.” I lifted my hands into the air. Up to about shoulder height.
The other guy smiled at me. He lowered the gun, shook it side to side.
I froze in the middle of getting the blades from my vest.
“Kiema told me he can talk to her in her mind. He’s good.” Something in Lukas’ voice had me turning back to him. I backed up so I could keep both men in my sights.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I’m pretty sure he’s the one who saved her life on the helicopter.”
The silent man nodded, his smile even wider.
I knelt down next to Kiema. “Wake her up for me.” I hated that I couldn’t touch her. I tucked that emotion away. I would have time for that later.
Lukas jiggled her awake. She glared at him, her eyes unfocused in the low light.
“Hm?” Even her hum sounded angry.
“Kiema, is Facial Piercing Guy good to go?” I asked her as I leaned down.
She nodded, her cheek a hair’s breadth from my own.
“Fine. I’ve got transport. Let’s move.” Out of the corner of my eye, Facial Piercing Guy made a sudden move.
I turned to face him straight on.
The gun sailed through the air, landed in my hands.
I blinked. Huh.
Holstering the weapon, I turned back to Lukas. “One dent, one scratch…”
He nodded and lifted Kiema up into his arms.
**
“Atlas, start her up. We are four. We’re about two minutes out,” I called mentally.
“On it. What’s Kiema’s current status?”
“Breathing.”
I didn’t know what else was wrong with her, but something was.
“Copy that.”
We crested the last small hump to the road and the back doors opened to reveal Atlas in a black ski hat sitting next to the gurney we’d brought with us.
“Up and in. Facial Piercings, you’re with me.” I pointed him to the front passenger seat. He nodded, got in. Shut the door without a sound.
“Lift her up to me,” Atlas said to Lukas.
Lukas shook his head, cuddled Kiema closer to his chest. “Unless you can safely touch her, I’ll need to be the one to move her.”
Atlas burst out with mental expletives. “I can touch her for short periods of time,” he said by way of explanation.
Lukas studied him.
“Put her in and join us, or get ready to die. I’m done wasting time. She’s ours, not yours.” I bit off the words, clamped my lips against the rest of the stuff I wanted to say.
Lukas shifted Kiema up to Atlas. He scrambled up into the back of the van. As soon as he could, he took her back in his arms, as Atlas closed the doors behind him.
“Taryk, go,” Atlas called.
I turned around, checking to see if we’d been made. When no other lights pointed in our direction, I put the vehicle in gear.
“We’ve got her. Headed back to the lab,” I shared as Atlas and Lukas got busy trying to make sure Kiema didn’t die in our arms.
Chapter 6 – Ransom
“Again!” I punched my gloved hands together, lifted them to guard my face. Taryk and Atlas had been silent since telling us they were headed back here. The waiting was driving me insane. If I’d still had wings, I would’ve gone after her myself. Not been stuck in here, no matter what Kiema said.
She was mine. I should’ve been the one to go get her. To save her from the horrors since she’d been taken from the cabin.
Saint rushed me, his gloved hands up and ready.
I stepped out of the way. His fist glanced off my ribs.
I had a longer reach, but Saint was faster than a demon. He slid to the side as I returned the blow. The edge of my glove brushed against the end of his nose.
He raised his knee, slammed it into my side.
I inhaled the pain with a grunt. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him bouncing on his feet. He didn’t go for the kill shot. The bastard.
I bit back the begging I’d been sending to Gaia every night since Kiema had been gone. I needed the escape. I needed oblivion. Even if just for a while.
“She’s going to be fine, Ransom. I can feel her.” He tapped his glove to his chest. “She’s going to be fine.”
With a growl, I launched myself at him. I hated his calm, his knowledge. She was mine. She’d been in my arms, not his. Wrapped around my body, not his. Healed me, not him. The animals inside me snarled.
As the sound breached my lips, I stopped.
His punch landed. Right in my face.
Eyes watering like I’d pierced a water tower, I bent over and grabbed my knees.
“Fuck, Ransom.” Saint came over. He took his gloves off, laid his hands on my shoulders.
“Something is wrong with my animals, Saint. They’re going crazy.”
“They need her, Ransom. She’s the one to literally bring them to life. They love her. They need her. She’s not here. Not yet. They’ll calm down when she gets back.”
I brushed off his touch. I couldn’t handle it. It felt like someone was trying to lock me down, restrain me.
He backed up, hands in the air. “We good?”
I took a deep breath, nodded, my eyes still watering. “We’re good.” I bounced my shoulders up and down a couple times, trying to chase the feeling of captivity away.
I never would have survived in Kiema’s life. Locked into offices, my own apartment. Escorted to bathroom breaks. I hadn’t left the office since getting back from Feuer Tower because I didn’t want to miss any news or updates. And that was fucking voluntary.
“T is about ten minutes out,” Xander said over the warehouse comm.
“Send them straight to the lab infirmary,” I said. Biting the straps that held my gloves on, I ripped them off. “We’re on our way.”
I flung the gloves off and caught up to Saint at the door. We pushed through the heavy doors together.
Chapter 7 – Asher
I pushed through the doors to our lab. Everyone else was already here. Damn it. A small group of developers were standing around, watching the action play out behind the glass walls.
“T here yet?” I asked them.
The group jumped, almost in sync.
“I heard Xander say less than a mile,” one of the nanite techs said.
I nodded, pushed through the glass doors to the infirmary. The nurses and medical staff were running around like chickens with their heads cut off as Atlas barked orders over the phone line.
Sidling up next to Xander, I waited. Hands jammed into the pockets of my grease-covered jeans, I bounced up and down. Nerves, stress, and anxiety had made me a bitch of a mess lately.
The bay doors began cranking open.
Ransom, Saint, Xander, and I all stood up, moved to the doors. Almost like a barricade. We were her shelter. The only one she’d ever had. Or would ever need.
The huge black military vehicle screeched to a stop just inside the bay doors. The back doors were shoved open by Atlas, his white blond hair visible over the edge of the doors.
Some red-haired asshole held her. The woman who saved my life, healed me. He cuddled her in his arms.
She was ours, damn it.
I wanted to roar. To rip into this intruder, shred him to pieces. He was touching what was ours.
Kiema, Kiema, Kiema.
I needed to touch her, to hold her, to tell her jokes and make her laugh. I needed her smile. Her laugh. She was the sunshine in my dark and barren world.
Kiema, Kiema, Kiema.
“- to lose it!”
Ransom got in my face. “Asher!”
I pushed him away. He was getting between me and Kiema. My light.
A low feminine moan floated over the beeping and buzzing of alarms in the small room.
She sounded hurt. Scared. Tired. Broken.
I fell to my knees as pain ripped through my belly. We were supposed to protect her. To make sure nothing like this ever happened to her again. Beating the shit out of her parents felt like too long ago. The joy of scaring them and stealing their company for Kiema had worn off.
Now my Ki-Ki was hurt, and fucking Ransom was in my way.
They were all in my way.
Closing my eyes as my spine tingled, as my bones broke and reshaped themselves, agony like I’ve never experienced shattered my mind without giving me the decency of unconsciousness.
My skin itched as something erupted from beneath it. All over my body, I felt like fire ants were trying to both burrow inside me and evacuate their hills at the same time.
“Asher, get your shit together!” Xander said through our mental connection.
Then at just the right fucking time, sheer delight settled over me.
I was reborn.
“Of course he’s a fucking big ass bear. Why not?” Ransom said.
I chuckled. The sound was odd, deeper in my chest.
“Asher, you little dipshit: You’re the bear!” Ransom got in my face. He grabbed me, pulled my face to his. �
�You shifted, you fucker.”
I snorted. I opened my mouth to tell him that he’d finally lost his fucking mind.
A snarl was all I got out.
Ransom’s eyes went unfocused. He sent me an image. From his vantage point, he was talking to a big brown bear around his height. Who curiously had my eyes.
“Holy fucking shit! I shifted? I shifted!” I yelled through the implant. If I’d had regular arms, I’d have pumped them in the air. “Ki-Ki made me into a bear!”
Ki-Ki! The name sliced through my joy like a guillotine through a neck.
I pushed everyone out of the way. Okay, fine, I stumbled, and everyone dodged out of the way, but I still made it to her side.
She looked pale as death under the dirt that had been smeared and painted onto her skin. I sniffed at her. She smelled of sweat, nature, foreign males, and Ransom.
I pushed my face into her hip. There, finally, there was her scent. Just like Ransom fucking said, berries and amber.
And fuck did she smell like home.
As I inhaled again, the other scents of the room blasted me right in the face. Chemicals, plastic, heating implements, grease, trash, blood. I could smell everything.
Plastic tubing was attached to a needle in her arm. Fluids dripped from the bag that was connected to the tubing.
Atlas pushed at me. “Asher, I need to examine her. Back up.”
I growled at him but moved back.
“Change back and you’ll be able to touch her,” Ransom said in my head.
“The fuck, dude? I just shifted into a fucking bear! I’m riding this for as long as fucking possible.”
The guys all laughed.
I wanted to touch her. I wanted to crawl up to her, grab her into my arms, and never let her go. But I also wanted to get used to this kick ass new body.
Ki-Ki lifted her hand, settled it on my head. Peace and calm like I’d never felt washed through me. Like that fucking sunshine, she made everything better. She was ours. I was going to share her with the guys, but no one else better fucking try to take her. There would be hell to pay.
No one was stealing this bear’s honey.
I chuckled. Shit, I’m fucking hilarious.