Evans, Gabrielle - Hypnotic Healing [Fatefully Yours 6] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove) (10 page)

“You remember all this?” Hex asked in awe. “How?”

“Jinx has a photographic memory,” Syn said proudly.

“Yes, I know you said that…” Hex trailed off as he studied the names on the sheet of paper. He walked around the sofa and eased down beside Echo. “Look at these descriptions and tell me if any of them sound like the man that took you.”

Reading quickly, Echo shook his head and passed the paper back. “The guy that took me was at least your size, if not bigger. His hand almost covered my entire face. He was wearing a black, leather coat and dark, steel-toed boots. That’s all I saw of him, though.”

“Did he say anything?”

Echo could see Hex shaking with the effort to hold back his fury. Moving closer, he molded himself to the alpha’s side and stroked his chest to calm him. It seemed to be working when Hex’s arm went around his shoulders and his cheek rested on top of Echo’s head.

“Just what you’d expect from a kidnapper. He told me to be quiet or he’d kill me.” Hex tensed and his chest rumbled. Echo just continued to rub his palm over the demon’s chest. “It was a bunch of bullshit if you ask me. If he really wanted to kill me, he wouldn’t have carried me off into the woods. He would have done it right there on the deck and left.”

“So, you didn’t know he was a vampire?” Vapre didn’t sound accusatory—merely curious.

“Other than Syn and Jinx, I’ve never met one.” Echo paused and scrunched his eyebrows together. “Well, that I know of, anyway. I guess I could have, huh? I mean, I knew Gage for a while, but I never would have guessed he was a werewolf.”

Gage’s chuckle reached his ears, and Echo looked over his shoulder to see the ex-guard enter the room with his mates. “There were three vampires at the compound with you, and you were in contact with them several times.”

“Well, see? There ya go.” Echo waved his hand around in dismissal. Before Christmas, he’d be losing his mind over the information. Now, he
was
the information. Fan-fucking-tastic.

“Okay, we’ll come back to this.” Hex folded the paper and handed it over to Syx. “Hold on to that.”

“Onyx didn’t take any of the vehicles,” Gage said slowly. “He couldn’t have gotten very far in the last hour. If we split up, we could probably find him before sunrise.”

Echo nodded eagerly. He liked that plan. “Let’s do it.”

“Hold up.” Hex kissed Echo’s temple quickly. “Don’t you have some questions for Syn and Jinx?”

Echo shook his head. “They can wait. I want to find Onyx. I am what I am. There’s not much we can do about me, but we
can
find Onyx. I’ll deal with my shit when he’s home.”

“You are kind of amazing,” Eyce said reverently. “You know that, right?”

Shrugging, Echo pushed away from Hex and rose from the sofa. “I just refuse to feel sorry for myself. I’ve always been different. Now, I’m just really different. Besides sleeping during the day now, and needing blood to live, I’m still the same person I was.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Do I want to find out who did this to me and why? Sure. Do I want to make the scumbag pay for it? Absolutely.”

“Oh, he will pay,” Fiero vowed.

Echo nodded and offered the warriors a crooked smile. “I know you’re all foaming at the mouth to get to this guy and rip him apart. As much as that should disturb me, it actually makes me feel pretty damn special because I’d do it for any one of you. Right now, it’s not nearly as important as finding our mate.”

“Your mate,” Vapre corrected quietly.

“No,” Echo said firmly. “I know what I said.” He’d never felt anything with more conviction than the understanding that they were all supposed to be one—claimed, mated, and bonded for eternity. He’d work that out later, though.

“We don’t even know where he went.” Myst settled back in the armchair and rubbed his temples. “How are we supposed to find him if we don’t know why he left in the first place? I still think he’ll be back when he cools off. In the meantime, we should do some more of this ripping apart you were talking about.”

A lightbulb went off in Echo’s head, and his mouth fell open. “He’s gone after him.”

“What? Who? What?” Mac looked back and forth between Gage and Echo before finally settling on Gage. “What’s that mean?”

“It means we need to find Onyx before he gets himself killed.” Hex jumped to his feet and began biting out orders. “Syx and Vapre, take Gage and head out to the west. Jet, you go with Fiero and Eyce toward the north. Myst, you take Pax and go east. Jinx and Syn, you come with me.”

“I’m coming, too,” Echo demanded.

“No.” Hex’s tone brooked no argument. “If this is a trap to get us all out of the house, we can’t leave Mac and Sony unguarded.”

“Then leave Craze here. It’s not like he’s much use for anything else.”

“No,” Hex repeated. “I need Craze to come with us. Stay here and keep your friends safe. You’re much stronger now, and we need you here.”

Echo thought it over for a minute and dipped his head. “I’ll take care of it.”

Hex took Echo’s hand and pulled him close. “Thank you for not arguing.”

“Oh, I’ll have plenty to say about it later, but I don’t want to waste the time right now. I’ll go get Craze. You guys get ready to go.”

As he hurried across the room and up the stairs, Echo had to wonder about the intelligence of the man that had turned him. If the goal was to kill him, or give him some kind of disadvantage, the guy had acted rashly.

So far, the only thing his transformation had succeeded in doing was to make him a stronger, more formidable weapon in the war. The thought made him smile. It was kind of like a big screw-you to Ares. He liked that.

* * * *

“Something has been bothering me,” Jinx said as they pushed through the trees.

“What’s that?” Hex kept his eyes straight ahead, scanning the dim light for any signs that Onyx had been through there.

“I didn’t smell any vampires at the party. I would have been able to scent them.”

“Right,” Hex answered distractedly. “Echo said the guy didn’t match any of the descriptions on the paper, though.” He saw Jinx bob his head slowly from the corner of his eye. The man looked thoughtful, though.

“I still should have scented something in the woods where we found Echo. He couldn’t have been there that long. A vampire would have left a lingering trace at the very least.”

Hex’s head started to ache. “Okay, we’ll talk about it later.” What did that mean for Echo? Was he not a vampire as they all believed? He certainly looked and acted like one. Come to think of it, though, he didn’t really smell like Jinx or Syn. Hex had chalked it up to Echo being his mate, but maybe he was missing something.

His temples started to throb, and he pushed away the thoughts. He could only deal with one crisis at time, and as long as Echo was alive and healthy, they would deal with the mystery surrounding him after they found Onyx.

Craze marched along beside Syn, but neither of them had said a word in the last two hours. Something was going on there, but Hex filed it away under none of his business. Unless it became a problem for him or his lovers, he’d let the two work out their own problems.

“You do realize that the new moon is in three weeks,” Jinx said hesitantly. “Should you be preparing?”

Swallowing back a frustrated growl, Hex ignored the vampire. Yes, he knew how long they had until the new moon. He knew they’d face yet another challenge, and hopefully, would come out victorious once more. Yes, they should be preparing. Now, if something would go right for a change, he’d get right on that.

His cell phone began to vibrate against his thigh, and Hex dug in his pocket until he could pull it free. His heart galloped inside his chest when he saw Gage’s name on the display. Flipping open his phone, he swallowed hard and pressed it to his ear. “Did you find him?”

“You need to come back to the house.” Gage’s voice was strained. “We’re almost there now.” Then he hung up.

With shaking hands, Hex closed his phone and slid it back into his pocket. “They found him,” he said, though his voice sounded robotic, even to his own ears.

“Let’s go.” Craze spoke for the first time, giving Hex a hard shove to snap him out of his stupor. “How far are we from the house?”

“At least a mile, maybe more.” Oh, gods, what if he didn’t make it in time? Gage hadn’t said, but if his voice was anything to go by, it was bad.

“We’ll make it,” Craze assured him. “I’ll get Jinx and Syn back. Run.”

So, Hex did. He ran harder and faster than he ever had in his life. He used every last reserve of energy he had, pulled on all of his added strength as a demon, and flew through the trees and across the frozen ground.

He didn’t know how long it took him, but he never stopped running until he bounded up the back steps and barreled in through the kitchen door. Myst met him in the kitchen, his face pale and his eyes red. “In the living room,” was all he said.

Hurrying past his lover, Hex jogged into the living room and froze just beyond the threshold. Onyx’s limp and unconscious form was spread out on the floor, completely nude, and covered in savage bite marks from head to toe. Not a single patch of skin was unmarred by bites, bruising, or cuts. Blood seeped from the wounds, dripping down his body to soak into the carpet beneath him.

“Help him,” Echo whispered thickly. His entire body shook where he knelt on the floor by Onyx’s head. He stroked the demon’s hair, tears streaming down his face. “Please, Hex.”

Everyone moved out of the way as Hex hurried over and knelt on Onyx’s other side. Closing his eyes and sending up a little prayer, Hex let his hands roam over his lover’s body, pushing away the nausea that rolled his stomach at the blood-slicked and gaping wounds he encountered.

He stayed that way for a long time, letting the power roll through him as he worked on the warrior. Echo’s hands landed on top of his, and Hex felt the added surge like an electric current along his skin. Still, he didn’t open his eyes, didn’t interrupt his concentration.

When he’d finally done all he could do, he sat back on his heels and dropped his chin to his chest, covering his face with his blood-stained hands.

“Is he going to be okay?” Echo asked after a few minutes of silence.

“I don’t know,” Hex admitted. “It’s up to him now. I can’t help him anymore.” Dropping his hands, he looked at Echo in apology. “I’m sorry.”

“No. He’s going to be fine. Don’t you dare start apologizing.” Echo stroked Onyx’s hair, caressed his cheeks, and kissed his forehead. “Can we clean him up and move him to the basement? Please? I can’t sit with him anywhere else when the sun comes up.”

Hex nodded numbly and looked up into the solemn faces of his lovers. He didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t even think around the pain in his heart. It overwhelmed him, consumed him, and left him broken. They were demons. They weren’t supposed to die.

“We’ll move another mattress to the basement,” Eyce answered Echo. “We’ll all stay with him.” Then he began giving out orders, finding something for everyone to do to keep them busy. The warriors looked grateful for the tasks.

To hell with the war, Ares, Hades, and Tartarus. Hex was locking his men in the basement and never letting them leave. Two nights in a row of finding a lover beaten and broken—Hex couldn’t survive another one.

Chapter Eight

Warmth surrounded him, pressed against him on all sides, and Onyx sighed in contentment. Echo’s sweet scent filled his nose, and Onyx wanted to weep in gratitude. His mate was in his arms, curled against his chest, and everything was right in the world.

Without opening his eyes, he held Echo closer, stroked his hair, planted kisses on the top of his head. How lucky was he to have such an amazing mate who loved him? In a world where most people thought him a myth, and the rest feared or loathed him, Echo’s love was nothing short of a miracle.