The Wicked (21 page)

The air was cold. Shivers trembled along my entire body causing my teeth to chatter. Soft warmth was the only relief as it provided heavy weight against my back. I raised my head, hurting, sore, and exhausted beyond belief.

“Wh—wh—a—t,” I managed.

Suddenly, the warmth in question shifted from its wolf form, and Valor’s weight was heavy against mine. “I need to get you away from here. You are not well,” he said in my ear. “You need to grab hold of me and not let go. Do you understand?”

I nodded softly. It was all I could do.

The warm skin instantly changed to a welcoming fur coat. He squirmed off and nuzzled under my body to help me onto his back.

It took some pretty inventive maneuvers on his part to get me up there. But eventually we managed and I latched my arms around his neck. I laid my head down against his shoulder, relishing in the fact that I was safe. He let out a little growl and punched forward.

Trees whipped by.

Valor never stopped running, and it felt like hours before we arrived at a gas station, which sat deep on a country road. He shifted, and tucked me beside a large tree.

“I need to find out where we are.” His breathing was labored. “Will you be alright here?” I nodded, which sent him running into the gas station.

Seconds later, he was out. “I have called for them.”

His words ended, and suddenly, I was yanked into arms that immediately made everything all right.

“Álainn,” Kyden shouted. “Zia, quickly!”

“No,” I whispered. “Valor first.”

He had collapsed beside me. Who knew how long he’d been running. By the looks of him, it had been long enough to almost kill him.

Zia was there, grabbed his hand and a moment later, he jumped to his feet. She quickly reached out, latching onto my arm, and with it came a wave of health.

When I opened my eyes again, we were back in the foyer, and everyone I loved surrounded me. Haven was sobbing hysterically and grabbed onto my leg. Considering that Kyden had wrapped himself around my body, it was really the only place she could touch me.

“You know, if you don’t let me go, you’re going to smother me to death.” I laughed.

Kyden leaned back, tears in his eyes.

Tears
.

I immediately reached for his face. “I’m safe now,” I told him softly.

He leaned in, and rested his head against my chest. I cradled the back of his head with my hands. When I glanced at the others, he wasn’t the only one taken with emotion. They all were, including Talon. “Shouldn’t you all be happy to see me?” I asked.

“You are here.” Zia wiped her tears, touch my head as if I was a dream. “You are really here.”

“Of course I’m here,” I responded. “Didn’t you send Valor to get me?”

She shook her head. “No. The witches have been trying to locate you for a day now.”

“A day?” I gasped. “How long have I been gone?”

“The battle with the vampires was last night.”

“Christ! I must have passed out.” My gaze landed on Valor. “How’d you find me then?”

He knelt down, took my hand. “When I heard of your situation, I tracked you.”

“Tracked me? How the hell did you do that?”

“Being the Patriarch comes with special abilities. Your scent is strong, because of your mixed heritage. I caught the faint trail and followed it.”

“But I was in Colorado! Don’t you live in Utah?”

He nodded.

My gratefulness grew dramatically. “You ran all that way?”

“You needed my help.” Then, he squeezed my hand. “I am only glad I found you in time.” He stood, heading toward the portal.

“Glad to have you back, Darlin’.” Briggs gave me a classic Briggs smile then followed behind Valor.

Just before Briggs turned, the werewolf who was also Kyden’s best bud—who we never saw due to his duty as Valor’s beta—seemed more than thrilled to see my return, he appeared relieved. His sharp yellow eyes weren’t his usual playful nature, they were focused and rejoicing. Even his mischievous grin wasn’t to be found on his strong features.

Judging by the faces around me, that was the theme for night. “Hey, Valor,” I called out.

He turned around just steps from walking through the portal.

“That’s twice now.”

“Twice?” he repeated in apparent confusion

“Twice, you’ve saved my butt. You better start asking something of me soon or our numbers are gonna be a little uneven.”

The side of his mouth curved slightly, he winked, then spun around and walked through the door. Minutes passed, no one said a word. Kyden still hadn’t let go. I rubbed his back and stayed silent.

Leave it to Haven to break the silence.

“You are in big trouble, Nexi,” she snapped hastily.

I laughed. “Let me guess—I shouldn’t have done that, right?”

“That’s right!” Of course, she could never stay mad for longer than a minute. She leaned in, wrapping her arms around Kyden and me, giving us every ounce of warmth that always came with her hugs.

When she backed away, Kyden did too, only to grab my face. His tears gone, his possession was clear. “You will
never
do that again.”

He leaned in and kissed me with a raw edge that left no misunderstanding that he meant what he said. He was my protector, my strength, and in this moment, I relished in it.

Kyden finished off with a soft kiss just as Talon ripped me from his arms, lifted me to him and hugged me with every ounce of his strength.

“That was foolish of you,” he growled in my ear.

I gasped at his strength. “All’s well that ends well.” Gloria had loved Shakespeare and his words fit the bill entirely.

He set me back on my feet, and Kyden instantly lunged to his taking my hand in his. I glanced around at the room. Everyone looked stunned—as if I’d returned from the dead.

I burst out laughing. “I’m not a ghost you know.”

“Woo-woo.” Finn laughed, wiggling his finger.

Only the two of us found any amusement in that.

“Tell us what happened?” Zia asked, clearly ignoring our joke.

“You should know,” I stated. “You told me what to do.”

Zia’s face swept with confusion. “I never told you anything.”

“You didn’t?”

She shook her head. “No, I didn’t. Explain?”

“Basically, to sum it up, Astoria wanted to kill me and tried. We went a round of it. I broke her nose.”

Kyden actually smiled a little at that.

“Then,” I hesitated, clearly not wanting to bring this up. The reaction I suspected wasn’t going to be a good one. “Magnus showed up with an offer.”

“Magnus!” Haven gasped loudly. “The Lord of the Underworld?”

“Yup, that’s the one,” I replied.

Kyden arched a brow. “An offer? What kind of offer?”

“Magnus seems to think I would make a good Siren. Whatever the hell that is,” I responded.

The stunned faces in the room went straight to fear.

“I said no.” I answered their unasked question.

Zade laughed, shaking his head. “She said no.”

“Indeed you did or you would not be here,” Talon noted with equal amusement.

“What happened then?” Haven asked me in her normally
get to it
tone. Patience wasn’t one of her strong suits either.

“Well, after I said no, being the evil creature Magnus is, he told Astoria and I to finish our fight. He wanted to see my ability.” Kyden’s grip tightened on my hand. “She probably would have killed me if the voice hadn’t told me what to do.”

“You thought it was me?” Zia asked.

“I assumed it was. Who else would be in my head?”

“What am I nothing, so easily forgotten?”
Willow grumbled at my feet.

“It was you?”

“Are you going to get rid of me?”

“Get rid of you? Why would I do that?”

“I have failed you. It is in your right to disown me. The magic that witch conjured around you made it impossible for me to find you. I couldn’t pinpoint your location. I couldn’t protect you.”

“You saved me, Willow! But, how? I was so far away.”

She shrugged her fury shoulders.
“We are connected. Distance doesn’t hinder our communication, and I can always see what you are doing. It is what makes me your protector. I will always know if you are in trouble. I tried to tell them what was going on,” she glanced to the others. “But they couldn’t hear me, and Charm has been nowhere in sight—so, I couldn’t even get him to tell Zia.”

“That must have been frustrating.”

She nodded, wiggling her whiskers.

“And what does a kitty like you know about Black Magic?” I asked.

“I listen. When you’ve been having your instruction by the others, they said you had the ability to use their own magic against them. I figured it was your best bet.”

I leaned down and gave the top of her head a good scratch. “Thank you, Willow. If it wasn’t for you I’d be dead. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Thank you for telling me to use her magic against her.”

She purred at those words.

When I looked back up, it was to faces filled with surprise.

“You used her magic against her?” Zia gasped.

“Give Willow the credit. It was her idea.” I shuddered deeply at the memory. “And let me just tell you, it was disgusting. How any of them want to have that darkness withering about them is just gross.”

Zia stepped forward, and took me by the shoulders. “You drew Black Magic into you?” Her gaze ran searched my eyes intently. “There is not a trace of it left in you.”

“Why would there be?” I shuddered again. “Yuck.”

She burst out laughing, as did the rest of them.

“What?” I snapped.

“The call of the darkness is not an easy one to break, and that is not with the magic actually drawn within you. The fact that you accepted Black Magic, used it, and then pushed it away is…” she gave her head a shake, “amazing.”

“Magnus seemed surprised by that as well,” I responded. “He tried something weird on me. Some creepy magic thing, but I obviously resisted it. Thank God for that.” Zia’s eyes widened. “Oh and by the way, I didn’t accept the Black Magic. I just used hers back on her. There’s a major difference there.”

“Black Magic is very easy to give into, and that is without Magnus’ involvement,” Zia said. “If he offered it to me from his body the way he did you, it would be an intense struggle to resist it. To see what it could offer you is hard to turn your back on.” She rubbed my cheek and smiled just as a mother would. “You are very special, Nexi.”

“This specialness is becoming one big giant headache.”

No one needed to respond to that obvious statement.

“Magnus left you there then?” Talon asked.

I shrugged. “Must have. I remember him saying that we would be meeting again soon.” Purposely leaving out the,
you will be mine
bit. No need to send Kyden into,
I will defend you
mode.

“Do not worry yourself with him,” Brax said. “He cannot lure you into the Underworld. You must go of your own free will and accept the position that he offers.”

“I hope you’re right about that. The last thing I need is
old scratch
chasing after me.” I spun around and Kyden wrapped his arms around me as I leaned in against him. I glanced up into that angelic face that was all mine. “You know what I really need?”

“Tell me, Álainn.” He smiled, and ran his hands through my hair. “What do you need?”

“A vacation,” I exhaled.

“Ooohhh…a vacation.” Haven bounced up and down. “Let’s go to Disney Land.”

My mouth parted to respond to just how much of a bad idea that was when Kyden took my face in his hands, bringing my focus to him and him alone.

“You will swear to me right now that you’ll never do that again,” he nearly growled.

“I don’t plan on ever doing that again.”

“Say the words,” he demanded.

I stepped on my tippy-toes to come close to his face. “I swear that I will never again hold you with my magic and run off into scary evil portals.” Then, I kissed his lips.