by Sadie Jacks
“I doubt it's anything else. We haven’t had a temp alarm since we installed them in the server rooms. No one else is in the shop today. I sent everyone else home after we got Kiema hooked up.”
“We need to get them both outside before the fire department shows up,” I said, nudging Atlas out of my way.
I reached down and pulled Saint into my arms. Atlas moved Kiema to the far side of the table. Setting Saint beside Kiema, I yelled for the rest of the group to either open the infirmary doors, the bay doors, or the doors across the street in our warehouse. They scattered.
“You’re coming with us,” I said to Lukas.
He rolled his eyes, stood up, kicking his chair away. “Make up your damn minds, yeah?”
I snarled at him, the sound deeper and throatier than a human larynx should be able to produce.
His eyes widened as he shook his head. “What are you lot?”
“Shut up and you just might live to find out. Keep pissing us off, you’ll only know for the couple of minutes it takes for your brain to die.”
“Route’s clear, Ransom,” Xander said from his post at the infirmary door.
I nodded, looked back to Atlas.
Atlas finished unhooking Kiema from the various machines and drips. He tucked her hand over her chest, and hit the brake control on the exam table. “Let’s roll.”
We moved Saint and Kiema through the smaller set of doors, headed for the huge doors in the deliveries section of the bay.
“Hang on, Ransom. We’ve got company,” Taryk said, hand raised to stop us.
“Who is it?” Atlas and I pulled on the table before it could slide through the open door.
“Asher gave me the signal from his floor. I told him to put some real clothes on.” Taryk was angled up, facing our building.
“Ransom, your parents are here,” Asher said over the mental link.
“Fuck.”
“Go. We’ll take care of this,” Atlas said, pushing me away from the love of my life and one of my brothers.
“Don’t lose them, Atlas.” I looked up to lock my gaze with his.
He nodded. “I won’t.” He pushed me again, nudging me closer to the doors. “We can’t afford for them to come over here right now, Ransom. Go.”
“Ransom. They want to see you and Saint,” Asher said.
“They’re only going to get me. Saint’s down for the count. On my way.” I clenched my teeth, striding across the street, fingers curled into fists.
They were fucking with my life, once again. They were about to learn, once and for all, to leave me the fuck alone.
Chapter 13 – Taryk
“What can we do to help, Atlas?” I asked. The fear that wanted to push through my skin was held back by the thinnest wall of willpower.
I couldn’t lose her, not without her unleashing my magic.
“We need an open clear space that’s sheltered. I was going to use our first floor, but if the Kolefnis are here, that’s not going to work.” Atlas pinched the bridge of his nose.
“There’s another empty warehouse about a block down. They have at least thirty-foot ceilings,” Xander said.
Atlas nodded. “Yes. Now. Lead the way, Xan.”
Xander pushed by me. He looked towards our building, waited a couple seconds, then began to move up the street to the north.
“How’d you find this building, Xan?” I asked as I helped steer the exam table. The divots and seams in the concrete were playing hell with the casters.
“Just wandering around one night.”
I nodded. Xander’s nocturnal activities didn’t faze me anymore. He was an adult.
“Fuck this thing is loud. I hope Ransom can keep his parents distracted,” Lukas said. He was leaning over, keeping his hands on both Kiema’s and Saint’s skin.
“Oh, they won’t be focusing on anything else but him. Believe me.” I chuckled. I’d been fielding the calls from Claude and Charlotte since the takeover. Ransom had been in no place to deal with their eternal bitchiness, not while Kiema was missing.
“Just up here. Watch out for the lip of the floor. It’s not huge if you’re walking, but it will probably feel like a mountain pushing that bed.”
“Table,” Atlas corrected automatically, absently. His attention was focused on the jostling patients on said table.
“Go get the doors, Xan,” I called.
He nodded, kicked his fast walk into a jog. He got the rusty door shouldered open just as we came up behind him.
The lip was definitely going to pose an issue. “Let’s just lift the whole table up and over.”
Atlas nodded.
“One. Two. Three.” Atlas grabbed the foot of the table; I grabbed its head. We took a couple shuffling steps over the threshold. Set the table back down on the broken cement floor beyond the door. The place smelled old with a slight hint of mustiness.
I looked up. The ceilings were at least thirty feet tall. “What was this place?” I asked.
“Records show an old plane factory,” Xander answered. “They went out of business about twenty years ago when Hydro became the dominant propulsion system.”
“Get them to the middle of the room. If Saint shifts, we’re going to need as much space as possible to keep from being noticed,” Atlas said.
“I’ve never heard of this shifting kind of magic before,” Lukas said as he walked with the table to the middle of the room.
“Neither had we, until Ransom shifted after Kiema healed him,” I spoke for the group. I would be the one taking Lukas out if he abused our trust.
“No fucking way, mate. That shit isn’t real.” He chuckled and rolled his eyes.
“Yet you changed Asher from a huge fucking bear back into a man with a touch of your hand.”
He looked a little dumbfounded at that. “That wasn’t real. Just a game you all were playing on me.”
I looked over at Atlas. The doctor rolled his eyes. “Denial is a strong thing when the new information goes against the acknowledged, acceptable, traditional belief.” He shrugged, turning his attention back to his patients.
I turned back to Lukas. “Oh, it’s real all right. But, just in case someone didn’t warn you, if you breathe even a hint about this, about our magic, or Kiema’s, I’ll gut you and feed you to one of us. Got it?” I watched him, holding his gaze steady with my own.
Disbelief and anxiety washed over his face. He looked down at the two people whose magic he was holding at bay. With a shake of his head and a snort, he looked back up at me.
“I’ll play along. What is Saint going to turn into?” he asked.
“We’ll have to wait and see.” I crossed my arms. If Lukas wanted to keep his head buried up his ass, it was no skin off mine. But I wasn’t going to out Saint, not to this man. I turned to look at Atlas. “We good?”
He leaned down, took both patients’ pulses. He sighed. “Might as well see what we’ve got to deal with.”
“Do we want to remove Saint’s hand from Kiema’s?” Xander asked from a few feet away.
I turned to look at the man I considered a brother. The fear in his eyes tugged at my heart. I hadn’t seen him this scared since just after meeting him in college. I caught his attention, lifted my brows.
He nodded, bit his lip.
“Atlas?” I asked, turning back.
“Yes. Lukas, keep your hand on Saint. He’s the one we’re most worried about right now. We don’t know what’s happening to either of them. But if he shifts and somehow hurts Kiema…” Atlas’ voice trailed off.
Atlas got busy disentangling Saint’s and Kiema’s fingers.
The doctor nodded at the newcomer when Saint and Kiema were no longer touching each other.
“On it, gov.” Lukas lifted his pale hand from the darker skin of Kiema.
Kiema’s thick fringe of lashes fluttered. Her chest rose in a huge inhale. Ratcheting straight up into a seated position, it took her a fraction of a second to get her bearings. As her gaze landed on Saint, she pu
lled back, putting as much space as she could between their bodies.
“I lost him,” she whispered.
I pushed back the emotion her words caused. “Where did you lose him, sweetheart?” I asked, my voice harsher than I wanted it to be.
She flinched back from me before steadying herself against the guardrail of the table. “In the spirit realm. It was Saint, in dragon form. And then something happened. He hurt me.” She sounded confused as she rubbed her hands up and down her arms. “Then the Saint I knew disappeared. All that was left was his dragon. And he wasn’t very nice.”
Lukas laughed.
Kiema turned, glowered at the other man. “Shut up, Lukas.”
“Kiema, off the table, sweets. Lukas is holding back Saint’s magic. If his magic comes back in a rush, then he might hurt you with his shift,” Xander said. He stepped forward, his hand raised.
The woman who’d stolen our collective hearts smiled at Xander. “Xan, baby, I can’t touch you until after I heal you. But thank you so much for trying to help me.” She blew him a kiss as his cheeks pinkened.
Xander lowered his hand, ripped his shirt over his head, and wrapped his hand like a glove. “Here you go, sweets. Good as new.” He offered her his hand again.
She touched her fingers to his shirt covered palm.
Atlas and I waited. I was barely breathing as I waited to see what happened. When she didn’t go still as a statue, I exhaled like I’d been underwater for fifteen minutes without a tank.
Xander’s black eyes crinkled in the corners as Kiema took his hand in hers. She smiled as she rose to stand on the table. “The perfect gentleman,” she said as she jumped down next to the shirtless man.
“Only until you heal me, sweets,” he said in a low voice.
She blew him another kiss, wrapped both of her hands around his covered arm. “You know where to find me.”
He growled low in his throat.
I almost laughed.
Lukas made a sound low in his throat. “All of you muff divers?” He sounded so sad.
Xander, Atlas, and I all laughed as Kiema glared at the man again.
“I’ve been known to pinch hit, but it’s a rare occasion,” Atlas said, a flirty smile on his mouth.
Lukas looked even more desolate. “You landed in the gold, didn’t ya, luv?” He glared back at Kiema.
“Too right. And I’m not sharing, little bitch.” She stuck her nose in the air as a wicked smile pulled at her mouth.
“If we can get back to the more pressing matter at hand, children. We still have a brother lost in the spirit realm,” Dr. Atlas said. “Lukas, on the count of three, I want you to launch yourself as far from the table as possible. We can lose the table if Saint shifts on it.”
Lukas nodded.
Dr. Atlas turned to us three standing in a small group. “Back up as far as possible. I don’t want any collateral damage because we weren’t cautious enough in our estimations.”
“Yes, Dr. Atlas,” Kiema said with a soft chuckle.
Atlas sent her the evil eye. “Don’t take that tone with me, young lady.”
Kiema shivered. Her voice was a little huskier when she said, “Don’t tell me what to do.”
“Kiema.” Atlas’ voice turned to smoke.
“Gaia’s balls, luv. We’ve got to save your bloody mate, you wanker. Keep it in your panties until he’s back, yeah?” Lukas said, like rain at an outdoor birthday party.
Atlas shook his head, glared at Kiema once again. “Right. Back to business.” He looked over at us again. Waved us farther away.
Once we were at the far side of the empty warehouse, Atlas began backing up to the door we’d come through initially.
“ONE. TWO. THREE.” Atlas had his hands cupped around his mouth.
Lukas catapulted himself from the table. He was already running by the time he hit the floor.
Saint lay there.
Still.
Silent.
Kiema’s breath caught. “Saint?” she called softly.
My brother still didn’t move.
“Saint?” she called a little louder.
Nothing. No movement. From this far away, I couldn’t even be sure he was still breathing.
“SAINT SMOK. DON’T MAKE ME COME OVER THERE.”
I wanted to cover my ears, the woman was so shrill and so fucking loud, I thought she’d done damage to my hearing.
The table shifted as Saint twitched.
“Say something else, sweets,” Xander prodded her. “And how did you know his last name?”
“I’ll tell you after I’m done dealing with him,” she said before she cleared her throat. With a huge inhale she let loose the loudest, piercing scream of obscenities I’ve ever heard from a woman.
I was impressed by her vocabulary, even as I blushed at her inventiveness. Too bad Asher wasn’t here for this.
In the middle of her tirade, Saint began convulsing on the table.
“Atlas? What do we do?” I asked through our mental network. No way I could compete with the screeching of the woman next to me.
“Stay there. I’m going to move closer to check on him.”
“You’re fucking not going alone.” I wasn’t willing to lose two brothers in some kind of fucking magical snafu.
Saint jerked upright. From laying to standing without any discernible movement between positions.
Kiema’s screams cut off, mid expletive. “Saint?” she called, her voice a little hoarse.
Saint acted as if he hadn’t heard her. Lucky guy.
She stepped forward.
Xander wrapped his arms around her from behind. “Don’t make me have to touch your skin to keep you still, sweets. We’ll both hate me for that,” he said quietly.
Kiema stopped moving, lifted her arms up and away from the bare skin of his arms.
He let her go.
Saint jumped into the air. Straight up. Almost twenty feet.
“Fuck.” Kiema, Xander, and I all said it together.
As Saint began to descend, his body rippled in a shower of greenish gold sparkles. Before he hit the ground, a huge fucking dragon was standing in his place.
Chapter 14 – Tennotith
I could feel her near me. My mate. My heart. My soul. She was here in this physical realm. I turned from side to side. Where was she? I snarled at the man in front of me. His bright red hair a beacon for my ire.
I spit a stream of fire in his direction. He launched himself to the side avoiding the spray. He wasn’t holding her. He was no longer interesting to me.
I turned to the right. A man with white hair stood before me. Something about him called to the inner parts of me. I didn’t have time for this. I needed my mate. I spit fire at him as I turned again.
There she was. My heart lifted inside my chest.
She was bracketed by two men. Two men who were trying to keep her from me. I dropped down to all four feet. They would cease to exist after I saved my mate. They dared to stop us. Dared to come between us. I’ve been waiting millennia for her, and they thought to keep us apart.
Silly humans.
I stalked forward two steps. Stretching the smallest bit, I lowered my head at my mate’s feet. “Get on, mate. I will not have you hurt while I destroy these two meat sacks.”
My mate just watched me, her beautiful mouth agape, her chest rising and falling quickly. Her silver eyes were wide in her beloved face. I did miss her more resilient form on the spirit plane, but I was not dissatisfied with her physical form.
I repeated my order.
Her mouth snapped shut as she backed up.
I narrowed my eyes.
“Saint, you fucker, you’re freaking her out, man. Cut this shit,” the man without a shirt said.
I raised my head, looked down at the small biped. “My name is not Saint. Remove yourself from my mate’s presence. You are to be terminated.”
My mate stepped forward, her hand raised.
Attention diverted, I lowered my
head once more. I watched as she moved forward far enough to place her hand on the end of my snout.
“What’s your name?” she asked softly.
The melody of her voice lulled me, soothed the edge of my fire.
“Tennotith,” I said, my eyelids closing under the petting of her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Tenny. Is my friend Saint in there with you?”
I rolled the shortened name around in my mind.
“I like this name. You may continue to use it.”
She giggled, the sound like bubbles in my mind. “Is Saint in there?”
“No, just Tennotith. You don’t need any saint. I’m here to save you.”
“I don’t need saving, Tenny. These are my friends. They are Saint’s friends, too. You are Saint’s friend.”
Every time she said that word something pounded in my mind. Like a boulder being thrown against my cave when I was but a youngling.
“You are my mate. These puny insects are trying to keep you from me. They deserve to die for their insolence.” I opened my eyes.
She was glaring at me, her face pinched and pulled into unattractive lines.
“You look ugly when you make that face. Stop it. Right now.”
She slapped my snout, glared at me, as another boulder crashed into my mind.
“She’s not ugly, no matter the face she makes you overgrown lizard.”
“I’m not an overgrown lizard. I am the great Tennotith, Destroyer of Worlds, Savior of Beautiful Women. I’ve been in this realm for eons.”
My mate stepped back, her hand still raised. “I didn’t call you an overgrown lizard.” She looked around her. The two men beside her shook their heads. “No one in here did.” She peered at me, eyes squinted. “He’s in there isn’t he? That’s something Saint would’ve said. Let him out, Tenny. Everything will make sense if you merge with him. He’s been carrying your spirit for the last thirty-two years.”
I snorted. A line of fire shot from my nostrils, straight at my mate.
“NO.” The word rebounded in my head and came at me from all directions at the same time.
She lifted her hands to ward off the fire, her silver eyes clenched tight in fear. The flames danced over her skin, like a lover’s kiss. Not a single hair was singed. I marveled at her. Only a True Mate is impervious to my Pink Kiss.