elemental 06 - the best man (2 page)

Aiden and Aira were practically thrumming with the energy between them as Dylan thought about his conversation with his brother, about what he knew of Aira. He knew for a fact that they would end up married; it was a foregone conclusion. But he also knew that it would happen only on Aira’s terms. She had to come around to the idea on her own, she had to believe that she was getting married because she wanted to—not because people expected her to. Dylan watched the couple in front of him with an odd mixture of hunger and bitterness; he didn’t want Aira for himself. He knew that he and Aira, while they had an excellent understanding of each other, were just not right for each other as a couple. He liked the idea of Aira being part of his family—and admired the way she handled his brother, in ways that no one else could. But it was difficult to not feel as though they could exist perfectly well without him and even harder to know that a love so intense could exist—but he didn’t have it himself.

Dylan cleared his throat. Aiden and Aira snapped out of their enthrallment, and Aira smiled ruefully. “It just feels like it’s too soon, that’s all,” she said finally, shaking her head.

“Well, then, we’ll wait a while. But at least meet my mom. She’ll stop sending you fruit baskets for a while if you meet her.” Dylan chuckled, then added, “He’s right. Mom will stop sending you fruit baskets for a few weeks until she gets the itch for grandkids again.” 

Aira sighed and looked at the assembly of fruit on her counter; Dylan was impressed that his mom had sprung for a couple of the more expensive baskets—ones that included tropical fruits, out of season in this hemisphere. He knew his mother had been intent on Aiden pairing off once it became clear that the elder brother was an unstable elemental; she had tried to find him a good earth elemental to ground him, but none of the suggested matches have ever worked. Dylan thought privately that his mother was as much interested in meeting Aira because she wanted to see just what kind of woman had managed to bond Aiden as she was in selling the idea of marriage.

Of course, Dylan was no fool; there were status signals to be considered as well. According to the traditions of the elemental world, Aiden and Aira might as well have been married. It wasn’t impossible for two bonded elementals to separate, but it was practically unheard of. The process of severing such a bond was so intensely painful to both parties that it took a very grave transgression to convince either to go through with it. Once the energies of two elementals were mingled together on such a basic level, pulling them apart again was such a difficult procedure that in a few instances, it had resulted in death.

“Okay,” Aira said, sighing. “I’ll meet her. But I am NOT going to set a date, and if you put a ring in front of me I will throw it in your damned face.”

CHAPTER TWO

IN THE MONTHS SINCE THEY had come together as a team—no longer as plagued by the potential for Aira’s death—Dylan, Aiden, and Aira had developed a kind of steady companionship, a division of labor that made them one of the most powerful forces at the right hand of the Elders. They had brought in several intractable elementals; which also meant that Aira had gained some deep-seated enemies. Among them were those who had wanted her dead so that she wouldn’t be a threat to their own ambitions; those who feared that the balance among the elemental rulers would remain shifted towards the fire and earth elementals were joined by those specific families who had been affected by the efforts to bring those especially dangerous people to justice.

The Elders had not asked Aira to put anyone to death since she had proven herself capable by killing Alex under their orders; but she had grown into her full abilities in ways that impressed both Dylan and Aiden. They were still careful to protect her, however, but for different reasons; Dylan because of his promise to her grandmother and because of his loyalty to her as his sister, and Aiden because of his obvious, deep love of her. But Aira had set them both straight early on in their first assignment together, tracking down a Chinese earth elemental who was causing earthquakes: She was no longer their client and they were no longer her bodyguards. She would take on her own share of the risks and she would work by their sides, not from behind them.

When Aira decided to meet Jessica, Aiden and Dylan’s mother, the brothers had started to make the necessary arrangements. Aira had to make sure that the Elders knew where she was at all times—as the ruler, she was one of three members of the upper echelon of elemental society, and part of her job was to judge unstable elementals, to take care of matters affecting the air elementals in particular. There was no air elemental on the planet who was her equal; Dylan had concluded that before she had become the ruler of her element. But because her elemental essence was so strong, she was extremely vulnerable to attacks from earth and water elementals. Even without her bond with Aiden, she would have been fairly immune to fire magic; while she could burn like almost anyone else, her ability to manipulate air and wind made it easy for her to curtail or redirect the fire.

So while Aira checked in with the Elders, Aiden and Dylan made security arrangements. Their mother lived in Tennessee, a fairly long trek from Aira’s apartment. While she was happy to fly, Aiden and Dylan both preferred to drive. It took longer, of course, but they had slightly better control of the transportation and they could evade notice more readily. Aiden quietly kept tabs on the people who might have an interest in taking Aira out, while Dylan contacted their mother and a few highly-placed water elementals. Because of her ties to her grandmother, Aira enjoyed uncommon approval among the water elementals; it was common knowledge that Lorene had given Aira a great deal of her energy at passing—which was seen as a tacit indication that she wanted Aira to be her “heir” among the rulers. Even though Dylan had pulled the last of that energy out of Aira in order to cure her of the poison that Alex had inflicted, she still enjoyed a kind of honorary status among the water elementals. 

When the arrangements were all in place, they made their way to where Aiden and Dylan’s mother lived, taking turns driving through the night. Dylan knew that Aira was nervous; he had been studying the tomes that her grandmother had left behind, and strengthening his own elemental abilities, particularly his natural empathy—a trait that came along with allegiance to water. Where Aira was becoming better and better at projecting thoughts and words into other people’s minds, Dylan was becoming more and more sensitive to the perception of feelings and thoughts. Even if he hadn’t been able to read her, Dylan would have known that Aira was nervous. She chattered, talking about irrelevant things, jumping from one subject to another without transitions. 

Dylan could see that his brother was aware of her nervousness, but wasn’t sure how to fix the problem. “You could stop somewhere that has a decent hotel and screw her brains out,” Dylan suggested while Aira was inside a convenience store getting drinks for them all. 

Aiden looked at Dylan in confusion at the non sequitur. “She’s nervous, full of energy,” Dylan explained. “Screw her brains out—it’ll take what, 2-3 hours? Mom won’t mind if we run a little late.” 

Aiden rolled his eyes, though Dylan could feel the pulse of lust in his older brother that indicated he was considering the idea—seriously or not.

“And while we’re trashing a hotel room, you’ll be?” Dylan shrugged.

“In another room, several doors down or on a different floor, watching TV ... with the volume up as loud as it will go.” 

Aiden appeared to consider it and then shook his head.

“If we can just get to Mom’s, Aira will meet her, and everything will be fine.” 

Dylan shrugged.

“Just wanted to give you a chance to be alone with her before Mom gives you separate rooms.” 

Aiden turned and scowled.

“We’re bound. Mom won’t make us have separate rooms.”

“Bound, but not married. She might make the distinction and you know it—probably just to try and force you to propose. Did you bring the ring with you, by the way?” 

Aira suspected that Aiden already had a ring for the purposes of their engagement; but Dylan knew his brother had never shown it to her. It was made of white gold, with a large ruby inset. Dylan thought that if anyone ever doubted that Aira was entwined with a fire elemental, that ring would put them on notice. Since the materials were fire-aligned, Aira could wear it without sapping her strength. 

“Yeah, it’s buried in my suitcase,” Aiden admitted, smiling in a slightly sheepish way. It was never far away; Dylan knew Aiden was waiting for the proper moment. Eventually, Aira would have to come around to the idea of marrying him, and Aiden—who had had the ring made a few weeks after they had bonded—wanted to be ready for to seize the moment.

Aiden took the last leg of the drive, his right hand rarely straying from Aira’s knee as she sat in the passenger seat. Dylan sat in the back, pretending to nap but actually thinking about the upcoming visit. He and his brother had rarely had much time to spend with the rest of their family since they had become one of the go-to partnerships for the Elders in apprehending unstable or otherwise dangerous elementals. In a way, he was relieved that Aiden and Aira would be the focus of his mother’s attention. Jessica had been intent on her sons finding wives for years, and Dylan had not been exempt from that. In fact, as the more “stable” elemental—more closely aligned with her family of water elementals—she had hoped that he would get married first, would find a mate and produce another generation of water elementals. Her concern for her eldest son to be mated had more to do with keeping him out of the way of the Elders’ possible condemnation as an unstable elemental.

He loved his mother. Jessica was not even in the same league ability-wise as Aira’s grandmother Lorene had been, but she had taught him well as she could about his inheritance as a water elemental. He knew that part of her willingness—and his grandmother’s willingness—to come to terms with Lorene had to do with the closeness between their families. Dylan wondered if his mother had entertained the hope that Aira and he would become mates, that he would provide the stabilizing influence that Aira had always lacked. It was for the best that Aiden had become Aira’s mate, and there would be less pressure on him for a little while as Jessica campaigned for Aira and Aiden to make it official, but Dylan knew eventually the same attention would be focused on him.

Aira had steadfastly refused an arranged marriage; Dylan wasn’t in any danger of that expedient, but he almost—almost, in the back of his mind—considered the possibilities it might offer. He wanted to love the woman he would bond with, but he was feeling lonely, and envious of Aiden’s happiness. Dylan reminded himself that if he wanted what Aiden had, he would need to find it spontaneously. He should stick with being grateful that his possibility of finding a mate would play second fiddle to the more urgent—to his mother—matter of Aiden’s relationship being official. There would be no gentle pressure, no suggestion of his potential connubial bliss, while Jessica was focused on convincing Aira to go through with a ceremony, and pressuring Aiden to insist on it. Dylan wondered if his mother had yet observed—either through conversations with her sons or through her own empathy and clairvoyance as a water elemental—that Aira was not a woman to be insisted to. If Aiden kept the pressure up, she would never agree to actually marry him. She would dig her heels in like the most intractable of toddlers, close her metaphorical eyes and ears, and shout down anyone who even mentioned marriage in passing. 

Even while Dylan hungered for a relationship of his own, he could understand Aira’s hesitation. She was determined to be independent; it was part of what had made her frustratingly difficult to guard on occasion during the time when they were waiting for her to come into her inheritance as an elemental, even more so when she had been in contention to rule her element. That she had completed the bond with Aiden at all spoke more to her sense of self-preservation than to her readiness to have a mate, to be vulnerable to another person for her happiness. She had entered into that bond to satisfy the Elders—as well as to thumb her nose at them with her choice—and to keep from being taken out by those who would have preferred a different elemental ruler for air. That she and Aiden were perfect for each other, Dylan didn’t doubt; before Lorene’s passing, he had gathered that she had ‘seen’ their possible future together, and that she approved of the match. She hadn’t said it to Aira, knowing that if she had insisted, Aira would have refused to entertain the idea sheerly on principle.