Angel's Touch [PUP Squad Alpha 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (10 page)

This was where she belonged.

Between her men.

And it didn’t matter where they lived, what they did, or who threatened them. What mattered most was that they were together.

Dex DeKardoin stared down at the official assassination order bearing his signature and again felt his heart clench with dread and fear. The only good news was that the assassins hadn’t yet been able to find the woman. Despite the reason for the assassination order, Dex thanked the goddess for keeping Emmallina safe so far. She had been his wife for nearly three centuries. She was the mother of his children. He’d loved her with every fiber of his being—still did—so her betrayal was very hard to accept.

He turned the beacon button over and over in his fingers.

Dex had refused to believe the PLA, had denied his wife’s complicity with every fiber of his being, but the fire demon’s beacon button had proved him wrong. Why would she have this hidden in her chambers if she hadn’t been contacting the enemy all along? The tiny little button was the physical proof that had finally convinced him that she consorted with their enemies behind his back.

So, faced with overwhelming evidence and the fact that she’d done exactly what his informant had said she would do, he’d been given no choice but to sign the PLA’s request. To do otherwise would have brought his leadership into question.

He’d ruled over the pixies for half a millennium. He was known for his ruthless decision making and decisive action. If his enemies sensed any weakness—any weakness at all—it could throw the kingdom into civil war, and suddenly the long-forgotten fact that pixies could actually be killed would become common knowledge once more.

Far from being exterminated by humans—as Dex and Emmallina had so recently feared—it was more likely that if civil war erupted, pixies would simply destroy themselves.

* * * *

Emmallina glanced up at the young werewolf who stepped into the room. Jennifer gave her a friendly smile, but it was obvious that she realized the seriousness of Connistanterina’s illness. The withdrawal symptoms were growing worse with time, making her daughter’s tiny, doll-sized frame shake more violently. Connistanterina had literally been unconscious for days now. Yet, despite her obvious exhaustion, her body continued to shiver from the withdrawal.

“No change?” Jennifer asked in a very quiet voice.

Emmallina shook her head and tried to keep the tears from her eyes. She’d never had to face death before. It was something pixies rarely had to deal with. True, they eventually grew old and died, but with pixies being so long-lived even Emmallina’s great-great-grandparents were still only considered middle-aged. And of course with pixies usually able to recover from any injury and illness, an early death of a loved one wasn’t really something pixies had to deal with either.

“Ronan Deeks and a couple of his operatives may have some information that could help, but he’d like you to look it over before we get too excited.”

“What sort of information?” Emmallina asked as a small kernel of hope grew in her chest. She tried to tamp down the feeling. Her life had been altered in ways she never would have imagined only a few days ago. The only way assassins could come after her was if her husband signed the order. Even with all of the unexplained happenings within the PLA, there was no way they’d make a move against their queen unless it was approved by the one man she’d believed she could always trust.

No,
hope
wasn’t a feeling she wanted or needed at this very moment.

She refused to let her daughter die without at least trying everything she could, but she understood reality all too well. It would be foolish to hold on to such a baseless emotion. The reality was very clear. There was no known cure for Connistanterina’s affliction, and they were running out of time.

“Ronan has a journal that we believe was written by Bethany Childes.”

Emmallina frowned. Bethany Childes had been the human gifted with the Oracle’s information twenty-seven years ago. Her murder—an assassination Connistanterina herself had carried out—had somehow passed information to a group of human women born on the same day as Bethany. Emmallina had no idea how the murdered Oracle, a fire demon named Prianna, had passed her information to a human in the first place, so she was completely bewildered by what was happening with the Oracle’s receptacles now.

The fact that they were reportedly collecting information for all species and not just one or two the way Oracles usually did was more than a little concerning, but it was their ability to put the skills into practice that had everyone on edge. As the Oracle for humans and vampires, Emmallina even knew without a shadow of a doubt that none of them had possessed any of the knowledge or skills they had now before Bethany was murdered. Whatever Bethany or Prianna had done was simply beyond Emmallina’s understanding.

“Bethany’s journal has been heavily encrypted, and to be honest there are passages that seem to be complete gibberish, almost like the woman was insane.” Jennifer glanced at the doll-sized pixie lying on the bed. “But we found a passage that we think mentions you and the miniaturized pixie assassins.”

Emmallina felt tears prickle at the back of her eyes. Oracles collected the history of the races. They didn’t predict the future. And they couldn’t sense other Oracles, no matter what species they belonged to. She shook her head slowly, biting her lips together for a moment as disappointment crashed over her.

“There is no way Bethany would have known about me. We can’t sense other Oracles, not even within the species history that we collect. Prianna collected the history of witches and warlocks. Considering that very few pixies know of our own weaknesses, the warlocks and witches are unlikely to have that information in their history.”

Jennifer nodded sadly, glancing at Connistanterina as her tiny body stopped shuddering and conceded to exhaustion one more time.

“Perhaps you can look at it anyway,” Jennifer said with tears in her eyes. It seemed incredible that this werewolf who’d so recently been human could feel so deeply about the suffering of a pixie who herself had done such horrifying things. Human compassion had always struck Emmallina as rather extraordinary, and Jennifer and her sister Skye were shining examples of the potential humans truly possessed. They were trying to help, and for that Emmallina was very grateful.

She nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”

As Jennifer left the room quietly, Emmallina rubbed the ache in her chest as that maddening sense of false hope grew inside her once more.

THE END

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Abby Blake writes erotic romance exclusively for Siren Publishing. She has MFM, FMMM, and FMMMMMMMM stories currently published with paranormal, contemporary, and sci-fi themes. At the moment she has three completed series available and many more planned.

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