Through The Veil (28 page)

“Damn brothers’ connection,” she muttered.

* * *

Lori had been awake for several hours the next morning,
thinking and debating their odds of making it out of this mission alive. She
worried about her friends, both the ones in the ES and the three she would be
dragging into danger by taking them across the Veil. She would never be able to
forgive herself if any of them died because they did this for her.

In the hazy early morning twilight, she watched Marcus
sleep. They still hadn’t talked about the Predator, but when faced with
possible death or permanent separation, the importance had faded. She
understood his views now even if she didn’t agree with them.

It was almost time to get up when Marcus rolled over and
embraced Lori. “I know the last few days have been stressful, but are we okay?”
he whispered to her.

She searched his face, relieved that he’d asked instead of
just finding the answer in her mind. They were all learning how to build those
natural barriers between them again so they could have privacy. The nice thing
was they could lower them when they needed to work completely together.

But when all their mental barriers initially shattered after
the blood exchange, she’d learned about his pain. It made his extreme reactions
to the creatures more understandable. She would be hard-pressed to have mercy
on the scientists from the labs. She certainly hadn’t mourned when William had
killed Dr. Henderson.

“I just don’t understand why you just didn’t tell me about
her and what happened.” She’d tried to keep the hurt from her voice, but wasn’t
very successful at it. She didn’t want to hurt him or give him a guilt-trip,
but this was a huge part of the reason for his anger toward the Predators. Why
wouldn’t he have shared this and given her a little insight into that? She of
all people could understand how mental anguish affected a person and their
world views and those that had hurt them.

He caressed her arm gently. His voice was low with emotion
when he spoke. “I don’t talk about it with anyone. That day shattered my life.
It shattered my hope.” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “Honestly,
if I hadn’t had Malcolm in my life, I don’t think I could have carried on after
losing the two of them.”

“Two?” she asked. “You mean Shane?”

He nodded.

She shook her head, confused. “But he’s still alive.”

“Yes, and I thank the Goddess every day for that. But in my
life, he’s gone. He never forgave me for not saving her that day.”

“Marcus, he doesn’t hate you. If anything, I think he feels
guilt and shame over how he reacted to the situation.”

“You can’t know that.” But a glimmer of hope lit up his
eyes.

“I do. I talked to him the morning I went to see Bethany and
he encouraged our relationship. He said you deserved some happiness. That
doesn’t sound to me like someone who hates you or blames you still.”

“Really? I guess I should have approached him before now,
but he was so angry.”

“How old was he when it happened?”

“Fourteen, and yes now that I say that I realize that
fourteen-year-olds in general have an issue with the world. I should have done
more.”

“It’s not too late, Marcus. He’s still here and from what
I’ve seen, he still cares about you, too.” She took a deep breath, afraid to
ask the next question, but knew she couldn’t go on without knowing. “What about
Audra? I know you’re here in my bed, but have you truly moved on from losing?
Hiding the details of her death makes it feel like maybe you haven’t.”

“No, Lori.” He jerked up in the bed. “In fact, it’s just the
opposite. Our connection is so much deeper than what I had with her. It seems
disloyal to her memory. I don’t understand it. I was with her for a lot of
years and I’ve known you for less than a month, but we share something I never
had with her.” He brushed a fingertip across her cheek and her heart wobbled
just a little bit more. “You have to know that I’m falling for you and I’m so
sorry my actions with the Predator hurt you. It never even occurred to me until
afterward.”

Nodding in the dark, she stroked the light dusting of hair
on his chest. “I know you have your reasons for why you did what you did, but we’re
okay. I’m falling for you, too…so much more than I ever expected.” They were
headed into a situation they might not survive. She couldn’t give up these
moments with him. She might need the memories in the days to come.

“Relationships are about compromise, right? We aren’t going
to see eye to eye on everything. If we did, that would get boring quickly. We,
and right now I’m talking about mainly me, just have to learn patience with the
process. I’m sorry I flew off the handle at the time. I was really tired, but
that’s no excuse.”

She continued, “I have no idea what the next few days are
going to hold for us, but I need you to know that since I’ve met you these have
been the best days of my life. I will never regret a moment I spent with you.”

The erection she’d felt pressed against her thigh since she
woke up grew. But with the sounds echoing from Brooklyn and
Griff
as they moved throughout the cabin, they couldn’t indulge, no matter how
tempting. The fact the four of them basically shared a brain right now could
make things a bit awkward, too.

So instead of groping Marcus like she really wanted, she
gave him a hard kiss and then leapt out of bed. “Come on. We have some
Warriors’ asses to kick today. I don’t know about you, but I’m anxious to see
what we can do. And if we take down Aaron’s team a few notches in the meantime,
well, then how can that be a bad thing?”

Marcus followed her out of the bed and nuzzled under her
neck where her skin was extra sensitive.

“Marc, you need to stop right there,”
Griff
called from the other room. “I know you don’t want to take us all on this
little exploration of her body. Goddess knows I don’t want to go there, so you
need to stop.”

Marcus groaned low, sounding very pained. “After this
mission, we are working to build stronger mental shields and we’re not going to
live anywhere close to Brooklyn and
Griff
.”

Lori couldn’t hold in the naughty giggle. She tried not to dwell
on the fact that she might be tied this tightly to these people for the rest of
her life. No way would she be able to convince Marcus to hold off that long and
she honestly didn’t feel too fond of that idea, either. They’d already begun to
find ways to separate themselves, but it was definitely a problem to
concentrate on when they got back. And they would
all
come back.
They’d made this sacrifice for a reason, to save her friends. Nothing less than
one hundred percent success was acceptable.

She tugged him out of the room. They needed to test their
newfound abilities.

* * *

Four hours later, Lori stood grinning at Brooklyn,
Griff
, and Marcus. They’d done it. Bethany stood trussed up
between them, looking as pleased with them as they were with themselves. All
five of them ignored the clamoring from the other team of Warriors. The four of
them had combined their abilities and erected an impenetrable clear glass wall
between Aaron’s team and Bethany. They could see her but couldn’t get to her.

Hot damn, they could do this. It had been a hard day, but
their new connection made them so much more powerful, so much more of a
cohesive unit. No one would be able to beat them.

Bethany remained tied up, but her mouth was free and she
used it to grin at the scowling Aaron, glaring at them through the glass. She
nodded her head at Lori. “You did good. This was a very impressive display, but
don’t you four wear yourselves out. I’ve declared you the winners, so you can
let them in now. I need you to be at your complete peak the day after tomorrow
when you head into the ES to save the Others.”

The four of them exchanged very self-satisfied looks before
moving away as one, dropping the barrier. As soon as the wall dropped, Aaron
rushed to Bethany’s side to ascertain her health. The other team of Warriors
looked as pleased with their progress as Lori’s entire team had been.

Only Malcolm looked even the slightest bit concerned, but he
held back.

After Aaron knew Bethany remained unharmed, he turned to the
team and beamed at them. “I think you’re ready. That was truly impressive. Take
tomorrow to finalize your plans and details, and rest and regroup. I know
Malcolm has some medical questions for you from today, but as for me, I’m very
impressed with what the four of you have accomplished in the last few days. Our
prayers go with you, but judging by that display, I don’t think you’re going to
have any problems. Go bring back the newest members of our village.”

Bethany nodded her assent.

Yes, this was finally going to happen. As a team they were
ready. They just had to get through Malcolm’s questions.

* * *

This was it, the moment of reckoning with Malcolm. Marcus
knew his brother well enough to know he would give them hell over their
tampering with what he’d consider medical experimentation with the blood
exchange.

Malcolm gestured them toward his clinic, his lips pressed
together in a tight line. After that little display of power, they couldn’t
hide what they’d done from him and Brooklyn was probably right. He wouldn’t be
amused by their little medical experimentation, no matter how successful the
outcome had been.

As they walked to the clinic, no one said a single word, aloud
or mentally. Waves of reproach and concern emanated off Malcolm. Marcus knew
the others could feel it, too, through him.

Malcolm instructed, “Let’s go to the lab. I have a feeling
I’m going to need some blood samples from everyone.”

When they were all in the room, Malcolm stood in front of
them with his arms crossed across his chest and a scowl on his face. “So, who
would like to fess up as to what you all have been doing without any kind of
medical supervision? Because I know what I saw out there was not a miracle of
really good teamwork. You all are good, but not that good.”

Marcus started to speak first, but Brooklyn stepped in front
of him with a hand up. “No, it was my idea. I’ll take full responsibility.”

“What did you do?” Malcolm asked as he took her blood
pressure and pulse rate.

Brooklyn squared her shoulders. “We did an experimental
blood exchange.”

Malcolm’s lips compressed. “Between all four of you? Why?
How did you do it?”

“I did it ceremonially as is the Earthen way of the
Goddess.”

Malcolm’s jaw clenched, and he flashed a reproving glance at
Marcus as well as a mental one.
“Why would you let her do that?”
he
asked Marcus angrily along their mental link.

Griff
snorted.

Brooklyn glared at Malcolm. “Marcus doesn’t control or
let
me do anything.”

Malcolm glanced disbelievingly between all of them. “You all
heard me talking to Marcus telepathically, didn’t you?” He turned to Marcus with
wide eyes. “How did they do that? I used our special pathway that they
shouldn’t be able to breach. I know Lori has been able to eavesdrop on us, but
how did everyone else?”

Brooklyn nodded. “Exactly, Lori has been able to access your
and Marcus’s mental link through her connection to him.
 
We see something similar with mates. As they
get closer physically, their mental bond grows. I went with the theory that a bodily
fluid exchange strengthens their bond and decided a little experiment might
work for us. So we all exchanged a few drops of blood and now you see
us…super-connected, all of one brain.”

“You all can hear everything even when you’re shielded?”
Malcolm asked.

“Whether we want to or not,”
Griff
groused.

Brooklyn continued to explain, “Yes, we’re all very
connected, telepathically and physically. We can sense where the others are at
when we’re not all together and depending how far away they are, we also know
what they are doing. There’s also been a slight exchange of abilities. As you
saw today, we are all able to tap into a small portion of Lori’s ability to
shift matter.”

Malcolm turned toward Lori. “So you didn’t work alone to do
the wall thing today?”

She shook her head. “No, they can do it on a small scale. But
when the four of us work together we can do much bigger manipulations like
that. Normally I could never do something that big by myself.”

Malcolm studied the four of them trying to figure through
the implications of all this on a medical level, but on the other side Marcus
could feel the worry coming off Lori. She worried that what they’d done would
make her a science experiment again. He drew her to him and wrapped his arm
around her waist. “He’s my brother. I can promise you…no matter how curious he
is scientifically speaking, he absolutely won’t do anything to you that you
don’t want him to do. I promise, Lori.” He lightly kissed her forehead to
reassure her.

Brooklyn and
Griff
had
unconsciously stepped in closer to protect her, too.

Malcolm watched the four of them move with a tilt of his
head. “Fascinating.” When he looked directly at Lori though, compassion showed
in every line of his face. “Marcus is right. I hope you’ll let me check some
things just to make sure the four of you don’t suffer any bad side effects or
have surprises down the line. But I would never do anything without your
knowledge and approval.” He reached into a cabinet and began withdrawing files.
“I already have everyone’s DNA and blood work on file.” He nodded at Lori.
“When you were fighting off your infection, I took samples to make sure it was
nothing more serious. I’d simply like to check and see what—if anything—shows
up as changed. I’ll also want to do some follow-up work to see how long the
effect lasts, if it diminishes over time, those types of things.”