walker saga 06 - dronish (21 page)

Crete ignored her ranting, snuggling in further, closing his eyes and starting to purr. Fury just stared down at her new bundle of joy. She eventually staggered to her feet, her mouth continued to open and close, over and over, as if she had no idea what to do or say.

Lucy was still laughing, holding her stomach and wiping away tears. “She’s in shock. Fury is never speechless and look at her now. Hysterical.”

I couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped me. I knew Fury would be pissed off that I was laughing at her predicament too, but come on – of all the half-Walkers, it had to be Fury who got the fluff-ball.

Cerberus stepped closer to my side then. His movement drew Fury’s gaze. Her features darkened further.

Lucy swallowed the last of her laughter, wiping away the tears still streaming down her face. “I’ll take him if you don’t want him. He’s adorable.”

Fury snarled as Lucy stepped closer. “No! You are not Walker.”

And there was that arrogance we were so well known for. Fury didn’t even seem to notice that she had pulled Crete closer, snuggling him into her chest. Lucy winked at me, and I had the sneaky suspicion that she’d deliberately provoked Fury’s possessiveness.

“I can’t wait here any longer. Please take me to the stone world.” Lallielle drew my attention by gently grasping my arm.

Shit, she was right. I couldn’t wait any longer either.

“Yes, we need to get our Josian back,” I said firmly. “You all keep this under control here. Go and find Delane; she’ll have the rundown. And make sure Ria and Lucas haven’t killed each other yet.”

Everyone laughed, except Fury, who was still glaring at Crete.

“I want to go with you.” Lucy stomped closer. “You keep running off without me.”

I lowered my head and dropped a kiss on her cheek. “Stay here, Lucy Loo. We’ll be quick, not worth dragging your butt across the worlds.”

She snorted. “You say that, and then you disappear into some weird drama and I get more gray hair worrying about you. Let me tell you, blond, green, and gray do not go well together.”

I half-rolled my eyes. Her dramatics were funny. “Okay, fine, you can come with me.”

“I will be there.” Brace’s voice brooked no argument.

Colton stepped in. “And don’t even think of leaving me out.”

Lallielle flapped her arms, her features tightening. “Yes, everyone is coming, and it’s time to move now.”

Fury finally lifted her face from the feline that had her sole attention, even though she’d claimed to not want Crete. “See you soon. Be careful.”

We stepped away from the crowds, back toward the mountain entrance. Lallielle took one of my hands, Brace the other. Lucy and Colton linked into our group. Cerberus shrunk down to his tiny size and crawled up onto my shoulder again.

“Ready?” I shifted my head to take them all in. Everyone nodded.

I closed my eyes and reached for a tether. I wanted to go to the main stone living area. My mind expanded and energy rose. I had the image firmly in my head – but there was nothing there. No tethers connected, no glittery strands. Exactly the same as when I’d tried to trace from pixie land. Why was this happening? I replaced the living room image with another, the garden area where Tenni used to be sequestered. Again, there was nothing.

I opened my eyes to find everyone watching me.

Lucy was blunt as always. “I’m guessing by the fact that we haven’t zipped across the star-system that there’s a problem.”

I blinked a few times, trying to get myself under control. I turned to the right and faced my mother. “There’re no tethers; his world is gone.” The pitch of my voice rose. I was pretty much screeching.

My hands were sweaty. I gripped Brace’s harder so that he wouldn’t slip away.

“I can’t open a doorway either.” My mate’s voice had me swinging my head around to meet depthless chocolate eyes. “There’s no other explanation: the world is gone; its tethers have been severed.”

Tears started to pour from my eyes. I couldn’t have stopped them if I’d tried. “Does that mean …” My voice broke and I couldn’t continue.

I wouldn’t even let my brain comprehend the possibility that he was, that my father no longer … no! He was alive.

“Tenni clearly planned for this, but Josian is not gone.” Lallielle wasn’t falling apart. “I can’t contact him but the bond still exists.”

My eyes darted across her features, trying to ferret out whatever thoughts she was concealing. I felt a glimmer of hope shoot through me.

“So where could he be then? You’re his mate. Is there anywhere he could be hidden that you wouldn’t feel?”

“Like the dome on Nephilius,” Brace suggested.

Colton straightened. “Yes, the lalunas planned for this, probably knowing we would fight them. They stashed Josian somewhere and made sure the power containing him didn’t come from them.”

So where the hell was my father and how could we possibly find him?

Lallielle pulled her hand from mine. “The rest of you don’t have time. We have to beat the Seventine or there’s no point to all of this. I’ll find him. I’ll search the universe.”

Grantham stepped up to her side. “You’ll need me to open doorways. I think maybe we can use some of the power from the new Doreen princeps to try and find him. Princeps receive a distinct sort of energy from their people. Josian will have remnants of this.”

“I want to help.” My voice was a growl. “I promised Dad that we wouldn’t reform the melding bond, that he wouldn’t be a prisoner of those crazy lalunas.”

Brace and I had not had much choice. It had been reform the bond or die. But still, Josian had suffered from that decision. Sometimes you don’t have any good choices, but you still had a choice. And I had made the choice to reform that bond, so now I needed to clean it up.

Lucy hugged me. “You can’t, Abbs. The Seventine and lalunas can’t win. We need to find that last girl. We have to go to Earth like now.”

I huffed in hard, my lungs burning as if the very air was toxic. Which, considering all of the ash floating around, wasn’t farfetched.

“Okay, but I want to know everything you find,” I said to Grantham and Lallielle. “Check in with me or Brace. If there’s anything serious you might need the half-Walker power for, you have to let me know.”

Please don’t risk yourselves unnecessarily, I was mentally begging them, but didn’t say the words out loud. I swayed a little on my feet.

All of a sudden the blood loss, lack of sleep, stress over Josian and never ending emotionally trying moments were starting to take their toll.

Warmth draped across my shoulders. I blinked a few times, my thick lashes concealing the view for a moment. Brace had removed his long-sleeved ribbed shirt and draped the massive lengths around me. Leaving him in just a simple black shirt. I tried not to swoon or drool. The man was perfection, every single hard plane of him. Sigh, I was blessed to have him as my mate. He’d never had to give me a coat or anything before. This world just wasn’t cold, but right then he was as selfless and observant as ever. I had actually been feeling a little cold.

“We’ll start with the Doreen camp, and move on from there.” Grantham, in his warrior mode, drew my scattered attention. “We’ll find him, Aribella.”

“I’ll come to the Doreen camp.” I straightened, my hands reaching up to keep Brace’s shirt from falling free.

“No.”

The word was not loud or angry, but there was an unmovable strength to it which told me how serious Brace was.

“You need to rest. I could count on one hand the amount of sleep you’ve had in the past few days, and you have to go to Earth. Grantham and Lalli can handle this. The fighting hasn’t started yet.” He waved his hand across to the regimented chaos which surrounded us. “Take your rest while you can.”

I wrinkled my nose at him; our stare-off continued, neither of us bending, each wanting to control this situation. I knew Brace was right, but still … never hurt to push back. Give a man an inch and he would run a mile.

He grinned, reading my thoughts. “Please, baby.” He softened his words and I knew he’d spoken out loud so that everyone would know he had caved first. He was giving me the power.

I closed my eyes briefly, before sucking in a ragged breath. “Okay, I’ll rest for now.” I strode across to hug my mother hard. “Please let me know the moment you find anything. If I’m asleep, come into my dreams.”

She gave me an extra squeeze before pulling away. She ran a hand down my mass of curls. “Get some rest, sweetheart. I need to know that you and Sammy are okay. That lets me focus on finding Jos.”

I grinned. “Don’t you worry; I have my guard dog.” Cerberus shifted on my shoulder. “And my guard mate to keep me safe.”

As soon as I stepped away from Lallielle, Brace swept me into his arms, his shirt soft beneath me. Cerberus gave a barking growl before readjusting himself in the crook of my neck.

“I can walk,” I protested, but I wasn’t struggling very hard. It was too damn nice being in his arms.

“Indulge me,” he drawled. “I like to carry you.”

Colton stepped up next to us, Lucy’s hand firmly clutched in his much larger one. “Are you going to Abernath?”

Brace nodded. “I’m taking Abby to our home.”

I still got trills of tingles up and down my body, my actual blood heating at those words. Brace’s arms tightened as he felt my joy.

“Lucy needs sleep too. We might as well come with you and rest at our home.”

Lucy blinked a few times and then her beautiful blue eyes welled up. Colton’s expression was almost comical as he struggled to figure out what was wrong with his mate. If he stopped panicking for a moment I’m sure he’d read it in her mind.

“What’s wrong, pretty girl? What happened? Did you have a vision?”

Eventually Lucy pulled her hands free and fluttered up. When she and Colton were face to face, she kissed him. It shocked the words right out of his mouth. They both seemed lost in the moment, and the rest of us exchanged smiling glances. Except for Fury, who was still glaring at Crete, and Dune, who was watching his mate with an amused expression.

Finally they pulled apart.

“I’ve never had a home.” Lucy’s voice was soft, but we all had excellent hearing. “Abby and you are my home, but to have a place that’s ours …”

She trailed off as tears trickled down her porcelain skin. A tender half-smile crossed Colton’s lips.

He gathered his pixie into his arms. “I’ll give you anything you want, pretty girl. Everything is yours.”

Some of her tears dried up, and a scary grin crossed her features. “So you’re saying I have free rein to decorate?”

I snorted. Colton was in for it. But I had to give it to him. He never showed an ounce of apprehension.

“If you want me to, I’ll rebuild the entire damn thing for you.”

Lucy kissed him again.

I sighed. “This could go on for hours.”

My best friend managed to flip me off as well as continue kissing the love of her life.

Everyone dispersed. Fury and Dune took off to find the other half-Walkers – I promised I’d check in with everyone before taking off to Earth. Grantham and Lallielle went to the Doreen princeps, and the four of us – my very bestest friends – were heading to Abernath.

I was still in Brace’s arms. It always amazed me that he showed no strain despite the fact he’d been holding my weight for at least twenty minutes. We all entered the doorway, Lucy’s wings shimmering as she fluttered through.

As we exited on to the other side, the gravity hit me immediately. The strain was all encompassing, but thankfully my body seemed to adjust far quicker than the last time I had been there. It sort of felt as if my body contained a memory cell of that world.

Colton had coated Lucy in a thin layer of energy, even though they hoped that with her pixie and faerie genetics she would be able to cope now. But no one wanted to risk it.

I closed my eyes for the journey across the green cardboard copy mountains, under the stream and into the town of Abernath.

The noise was immediate and jarring on the other side. There seemed to be celebrations going on in the streets.

I was awake enough now to glance around. “Put me down. I want to see.” I struggled a little in Brace’s arms.

With a kiss on my nose, he dropped me to my feet. His long-sleeved shirt fell down, and I quickly scooped it up, one of my hands keeping a hold on Cerberus so he wouldn’t fall from my shoulder. The tiny hellhound had amazing balance.

Lucy danced a little as we continued to wander through. “What’s all this for?”

Colton laughed. “We’ve had celebrations galore ever since Caty and Lasandra returned. And, well, the return of our princeps’ melded mate tipped them right over the edge.”

I continued to look left and right. “Aren’t they worried with most of their men and warriors on First World to fight battles?”

“No, Que always had the men off on missions. The Abernaths are used to it,” Brace said, and I could feel his overriding need to change things on this world.

Many stopped their revelry to bow and greet us. We had more than one offer to join them, but sleep was what we needed most. I was dead on my feet.