Evans, Gabrielle - Shades of Black [Fatefully Yours 5] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever ManLove) (15 page)

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Syx murmured against his temple.

Before Echo could respond to chastise the man, Hex dragged Syx away and crushed their mouths together in a passionate kiss. “You did good,” Hex said a moment later when they broke away. “You kept your head, and that’s what’s important.”

Syx cradled Hex’s face as he rested their foreheads together and groaned. “Don’t ever fucking leave me in charge again.”

Soft chuckles went around the group and then they were moving, heading out into the waning sunlight. “Wow, you got here fast,” Echo commented. No one said anything, but he saw his mates exchange worried looks. “What?”

“Echo,” Eyce said gently, “it’s been almost nine days. The new moon is only three days away.”

“No.” Echo shook his head frantically. “It’s only been a few hours. I was dreaming, and then you woke me up.” He looked over his shoulder and jerked a thumb at Hex. “He hit me.”

Hex rolled his eyes and chuckled. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat. You wouldn’t wake up, sweetheart. Mac was going off his rocker, said you and Syx had been like that for days. Remind me to buy him a really nice thank-you present, too.”

“Uh, okay.” Echo’s brow scrunched in confusion. “Why?”

“He was damn brave and fucking smart, too,” Hex answered. “He went into the darkest part of this cave by himself and found a small stream, just a little runoff. He’s been pouring water down your throat while you were sleeping.”

“Nine days?” Echo couldn’t wrap his mind around it. What had felt like no more than an hour or so inside his dream had been days in the real world. Had they seriously been asleep for that long? What if the others hadn’t come for them? Would they have continued to sleep until they eventually died of starvation?

“I think just until after the new moon, and I had failed my test.” Syx growled from somewhere behind him. “This is all my fucking fault.”

Echo wanted to tell his mate to cut it out, but before he could open his mouth, Eyce carried him out of the cave, and even the gray skies of dusk made Echo blink against the brightness. He closed his eyes when they began to burn and water, and laid his head on Eyce’s chest. For someone who had been asleep for over a week, he felt damn tired. Maybe he’d find the energy to reprimand Syx later. None of this was the warrior’s fault, and he needed to realize that.

His stomach snarled painfully, causing him to groan into Eyce’s neck. “Hungry,” he mumbled.

“We’ll get you something to eat, baby. Just hold on.”

“So, this is him.” The voice sounded snide and snarky, and Echo instantly disliked whoever it belonged to.

Blinking open his eyes, he turned his head and sized up the man standing in front of him. Tall and muscled, with short blond hair and piercing blue eyes, Echo had to admit the man was gorgeous. The qualities did nothing to endear him to Echo, though. There was only one person this could be, and Echo wanted to claw the man’s face off.

“Craze, I’m guessing.”

“The one and only.” The asshole held his arms out wide and smiled arrogantly. “Aren’t you just a whole mess of trouble?”

“Hey, Craze?”

Craze continued to smirk at him as he cocked his head to the side in question. “Yes?”

“Go fuck yourself.”

Chapter Twelve

Syx watched Echo curl up in Fiero’s lap and gnaw at the beef jerky clenched in his small fist. Echo looked thin and pale, his face and hair coated in dirt and grime. He hadn’t said another word since he’d told Craze to fuck off, and Syx worried about him.

Gods, this entire mess was his fault. He’d screwed up big, and he couldn’t blame his lovers if they never forgave him for it. How many of them would have been stupid enough to allow Echo into that cave in the first place? Not a one of them, if he was willing to guess.

“Stop beating yourself up,” Vapre said quietly as his arm went around Syx’s shoulders and squeezed. “I may not be able to read your mind, but I know what you’re thinking. No one blames you, so you have to stop doing this to yourself.”

“You’re not the one that got our mate trapped inside a cave with no food or water. Just look at him.” Syx spoke softly as he nodded his head toward Echo. “I can’t believe he doesn’t hate me right now.”

“What’s he thinking?”

“Nothing about me.” Syx chuckled and shook his head. “He’s thinking about how much he hates Craze though he just met the guy. He’s wondering if that makes him an asshole, but then he doesn’t really care.”

Vapre laughed so loudly everyone turned to stare at him. He waved his hand at them as he continued to laugh. “Don’t mind me,” he gasped.

“Tell me what happened,” Echo said, and the mood around the small campfire sobered instantly. “Where’s Mac? Why did it take you so long to get us out?” Echo pointed at Craze and glared. “And why the fuck does he keep staring at me?”

“Don’t mind him,” Hex said casually. “He just thinks you’re cute.”

Craze snorted, but Syx didn’t really find anything humorous in the situation. “How did you stand to drive all that way with him?”

“Myst kept him frozen,” Fiero answered.

Myst puffed out his chest and beamed. “It sucked. I had to stay awake the entire damn drive, but it was well worth it.”

“Where’s Mac?” Echo asked again. “Did you find Gage?”

“How about we just start from the beginning,” Eyce suggested. “Vapre called the day after the full moon and told me and Onyx to get our asses out here, that something bad had happened.”

“I didn’t know what was going on, but we could all feel it,” Vapre added, motioning around the circle to include Myst, Hex, and Fiero.

“Well, Sony wasn’t about to take no for an answer when he heard something was wrong, so we loaded up and headed out here.”

“You just left Jinx and Syn alone?”

Eyce winced at Echo’s tone but dipped his head. “Sorry, babe, but we didn’t really have much of a choice. Anyway,” he hurried on when Echo looked like he would speak again. “Jet called about an hour after we’d been on the road and gave us the whole rundown. We met them where you first made camp, and they took Sony out to look for Gage.”

“We must have walked miles through these woods.” Onyx took up the story. “Jet told us how to find the cave, and I still say we walked right past it a dozen times, but it was like nothing was there.”

Syx nodded his understanding as he thought about how many times he’d felt like they were walking in circles trying to find that cave. He wished they’d kept right on missing it until they’d given up and went home.

“It was four days before Hex and the others showed up.” Eyce frowned and shook his head. “The shifters found Gage and showed up the next day. I swear I don’t know whether I wanted to hug Jet or strangle him when he led us right to the cave.”

“So, it took you five days to find the cave?” Echo bobbed his head a few times. “You did better than we did.”

Eyce smiled crookedly but didn’t comment.

“Gage was pretty banged up,” Hex said. “I guess he’d gotten himself lost on the full moon and had been stumbling around trying to find his way back. This place is damn creepy.”

Syx shuddered in sympathy. He wouldn’t dispute that. Whether it had been a trap to lure him to the cave or not, he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something lurked in the woods, just waiting for them.

“It took you four days to dig us out?” Syx’s eyebrows drew together. “Not that I’m complaining, but with Onyx and Myst, that seems like a bit much. What went wrong?”

“What didn’t go wrong?” Fiero grumbled. “First we had to move that damn tree just so we could get to the rocks. Then it was like every time we started making progress, there would be another rockslide, and the hole would close right back up. A storm blew in on the third night and knocked another tree down right in front of the entrance. It felt like…”

Fiero trailed off, but Syx could read his thoughts, and he agreed. “It felt like something or someone didn’t want you to get to us,” he finished for the warrior.

“Exactly,” Myst said loudly. “Gage had this brilliant idea about bringing in one of the trucks to help pull the bigger rocks out.”

Syx frowned at Myst’s sarcastic tone. “Yeah, that’s where he was headed on the full moon. What’s wrong with that?”

Myst waved a hand around the small clearing. “Exactly how do you expect to get a vehicle through all these trees? There’s no trail that leads up here, and the trees are too closely packed.”

Syx scanned the tree line and sighed. Myst was right. “Okay, so then what?”

“Well, we finally got the second tree moved and the rocks dug out. Onyx and Myst are amazing, but they only have so much power,” Eyce said.

“You try lifting one of these damn trees with your mind,” Onyx grouched. “Man, I thought I was going to have an aneurism.”

Myst nodded emphatically. “It sucked big hairy balls, man.”

“We got inside, but of course, it was empty.” Hex growled under his breath. “I thought maybe we had the wrong cave and had wasted all that time for nothing.”

“Then Mac started screaming. If it wasn’t for Gage, we probably wouldn’t have heard him. We got the boulder moved, though that took some time, and Gage snatched Mac up and ran him out of the cave before anyone could blink.” Onyx laughed under his breath. “Not that I blame him, though. Mac looked bad.”

“Gage took Sony, Mac, and the shifters home,” Hex said, anticipating Syx’s next question. “They can’t help us anymore here, and I wouldn’t have told them no anyway.”

“Okay, so why is he here?” Echo shot a scathing look at Craze where he perched beside Hex. “Shouldn’t he have gone home with the others?”

“We felt it was better to keep an eye on him,” Hex said with a menacing growl.

Syx was with Echo. He didn’t want the asshole there, but he understood Hex’s point as well. Why did everything have to be so damn complicated? “So, what are we still doing out here?”

“We’ll sleep here tonight,” Hex answered in a more polite tone. “Everyone needs to rest and recuperate before we make the hike back to the vehicles. We should be home by tomorrow night, though.”

Syx sighed and slumped against Vapre. Thank the gods that Hex was back. Syx never wanted to be in charge of anything again—not even something as small as what to cook for dinner.

Vapre kissed his temple and hugged him close. “I missed you,” he whispered in his ear. “Don’t scare me like that again, asshole.”

“Love you,” Syx mumbled wearily.

“Love you, too, babe. Let’s get you to bed.”

Even the prospect of sleeping on the hard ground sounded like heaven as long as Syx had his lovers wrapped around him throughout the night. “Please.”

* * * *

Echo woke to howling winds that beat against the tent with such ferocity he was surprised it was still standing. And damn, was it cold! Even snuggled inside his sleeping bag, Echo shivered violently.

“Everyone out,” Hex ordered, and Echo realized that he was the only one still in a prone position. His lovers moved about the confined space of the tent, gathering supplies and cursing under their breaths.

“Where are we going?” Echo asked as he squirmed out of his sleeping bag and began pulling on his boots.

“The cave,” Hex answered with a no-nonsense tone. “The storm’s getting worse, and we have to find shelter.”

“No.” Echo started shaking his head, his blond hair flying around his face. He’d rather take his chances with the storm. “I can’t go back in there. No, no, no!”