Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (31 page)

“
It’s so
strange hearing you call her that again.” Lucy’s voice sounded
louder. “I can’t believe she told you everything …”
There was an extended pause. “Don’t be too hard
on her. She wanted to tell you the entire time. I had to
practically glue her mouth shut to stop her from blurting
everything out.”

Brace’s arms
tightened around me
. I was pretty sure he
knew I was awake. “I’m not happy about her deception, but I do
understand what she was thinking. And in the end, I can deny her
nothing. She owns me, body and soul, and my driving need is to make
her happy. No point fighting against that urge.”

Colton
snorted. “Finally you can join the whipped
-Walker club.”

Brace stood
to the sounds of Colton and Lucy’s b
antering. “I’m going to take Red upstairs so she can wake
and get ready for Nephilius. I’m sure she won’t want to be left
behind. She’s stressing about Delane escaping her
grasp.”

“
Okay, we’ll
wait here for you
,” Colton said, and then
I felt a slight jolt.

I think the wolf Walker had slapped his best
friend on the shoulder.

“
Open those
beautiful eyes
,” Brace murmured as he
walked. “I like knowing I can stare at you as much as I
want.”

I met his gaze.

“
You’re like
a creepy old stalker
,” I teased, a true
smile gracing my lips.

“
Emphasis on
the
‘old’ part,” I heard Lucy shout from
downstairs.

Clearly her hearing had improved
greatly.

“
We need new
friends
,” I said loudly.

Lucy and Colton’s chuckles could be heard
for most of our journey.

I stared up
at Brace. “You know I can walk
. I must be
getting heavy.”

“I could carry you for all eternity.” His
voice was low and growly. And I liked it.

We didn’t
say much for the rest of the walk
. I
wasn’t sure what Brace was thinking, but I was just enjoying the
moment. He left me to shower and change while he sprawled across my
big bed. Of course, the moment he spread out it suddenly looked
tiny. The man was massive, and seemed to be growing even more. His
arms were pretty heavily muscled, but since he’d become princeps he
seemed to have grown stronger. Josian had mentioned before that
princeps received power from their other clan members. Maybe that
was what had happened with Brace.

I rushed
through my shower, dressed quickly, and was back to crawl in next
to Brace for a quick cuddle. The urge to reform the melding bond
was crashing in on me constantly
. I knew
we would not be able to hold out much longer. The closer we grew,
the harder it was to stop the compulsion. When we were together I
had to physically stop myself flicking open my necklace.

“
We should
go
,” I finally said, wiggling away before
he could drag me back.

With a
huff
, he followed me down the hallway and
into the white room. Lucy and Colton were not in there, but I could
see a green pixie through the front window. We stepped outside. The
sun was just starting to rise in the indigo sky. I was shocked to
see that Colton was in his wolf form.

“What’s going on?” I asked them.

Lucy was
fluttering around, small puffs of dust floating off
her
, but not enough that I thought she
was really upset. “Someone was looking in through the front window.
Colt wanted to be in wolf form to scent them.”

The
snow
-white wolf started to growl low, an
ominous thundering sound which had the hair on my arms standing
up.

And then he took off.

Lucy didn’t
hesitate to follow him
, and Brace and I
soon caught up to the pixie. Colton was much faster than we were,
but as long as we kept him in sight it wouldn’t matter if he pulled
ahead.

“
Why is
Colton so much quicker than
regular
Walkers?” I asked Brace.

He gave a half-grin. “Any Walkers that have
a secondary ability –”

“
Like your
tropical cyclone
,” I
interrupted.

His grin
widened. “Exactly. Well
, we’re faster and
stronger in our other forms. It’s as if that ability amplifies the
already superior abilities of Walkers.”

“
Geez
, Brace, you’re just so
modest. You should get some more confidence,” Lucy drawled,
fluttering her wings so rapidly I almost couldn’t see
them.

One thing Walkers had no lack of was
confidence. Especially Brace. He knew he was awesomesauce.

He shrugged. “I just call them how I see
them.”

We were
weaving through the main street of Angelisian. The day was warm.
Angelisian rarely seemed to get cold, although I detected the
slightest of chills in the air at night now; nothing like the
frigid winters of New York
, though. We
were slowly working through the seasons of First World, but it
seemed to be pretty much middle ground the entire time.

The various shoppers milling around the
market square barely batted an eye as a large wolf, two Walkers and
a pixie zipped past. It was like the start of a bad joke.

Colton led
us out of the town
. The gates knew us now
and opened without pause. I recalled this path from our first
journey so long ago.

M
y eyes clashed with Brace’s.
He’d told me that he remembered some of taking us to Angelisian,
but it wasn’t until I filled in the rest of the details he realized
how much had been taken from him. Including the first time he’d
called me Red. All the romantic memories.

“
So much has
changed
,” Lucy said, her tone low. “It’s
been a blink of an eye since we walked through that wall to First
World, and yet in experiences at least ten lifetimes have passed us
by.”

“
Have you
ever asked Quarn how he opened that doorway?” Brace asked. The
superiorly-fit-ass wasn’t even breathing heav
ily. I had no doubt that he could go like this for days.
“Because I’ve never heard of any but Walkers being able to move
like that between the worlds.”

M
y forehead crinkled as his words
washed over me. “No, I haven’t asked him again.”

I felt as if
there were so many little things which had happened that I
had simply accepted or shoved from my mind. But
were some of them important? Was I ignoring information that might
give us some advantage against the Seventine?

“
I just
assumed it was because he held the laluna
,” Lucy said. “If they decided to open the shimmery portal
thing for us, then they’d have no problem, right?”

Brace gave her a nod. “They most definitely
could have achieved that. But it begs to be explained why they
would respond to Quarn.” His expression softened as it touched on
my face. “It was probably because you were there, Red.”

My laluna
was very tied to me. But something was niggling at the back of
my
mind about that whole thing now. I
hadn’t been worried, but thanks to Brace’s words, it was really
bugging me. I needed to speak with Quarn. And I could check if my
laluna was at the castle with the other royal stone. I hadn’t seen
it for a while.

“
What about
before that, when Abbs disappeared and ran into you in this
forest
?” Lucy said to Brace. “How the
hell did that happen. She had no laluna then?”

He didn’t
hesitate to answer; he’d clearly thought about it before. “I think
as Red approached her enlightenment, our bond was attempting to
connect us.” He met my gaze. “Somehow our energy locked between the
worlds and it was like you traced to me, but it was awkward because
you didn’t have your full powers yet.”

I remembered
the pressure and pain. It had been unpleasant. But meeting Brace …
more than worth it.

“Best day of my life,” he said to me.

I blew him a
kiss.
“Mine too.” And it had been. I
never knew it then, but I was the luckiest person alive.

We entered
the forest and either Colton was slowing or we were getting
faster
, because he was much closer in
front.

“
Did you
tell Brace about Lucas’ visit the other day?” Lucy
changed the subject.

“
What?”
Brace’s voice went in to the low, scary register. Where I knew he
was thinking about doing bad things, like ripping Lucas’ head from
his shoulders. “Might be time to make it a little clearer that you
are off
-limits to him.”

“
Come on,
it’s not like I’m all loving-me-some Lucas
,” I pointed out. “Most of the time I don’t even
like
him.
He just thinks I’m still the empress.”

“Plus he seemed to have a thing with Ria.”
Lucy was smiling. “And if anyone can keep his butt in line it’s
Mother Nature.”

“
Well
, let’s hope that’s the case,
and I might let him keep his arms and legs attached to his body.”
Brace reached out and pulled me closer to him. We were practically
running on top of each other and I was okay with that.

“You were always possessive,” Lucy said,
examining us. “But you seemed to have upped it a notch, Brace.
What’s with that? Are you and Colt having some sort of
competition?”

He met her
gaze with his own serious expression, but I saw a twinkle in his
eyes. “I think it
’s because we have no
bond at the moment. My entire being wants to tie Red to me. It goes
against the order of nature for Walkers to stay unbonded, and that
causes a bit of aggressive and possessive nature.”

“
Well
, that might explain Colton.
He informed me last night that he wasn’t waiting any longer for us
to complete our mating bond. He said it’s too dangerous for his
wolf. He wants to have the ceremony after we get back from
Nephilius.” Her blue eyes sparkled. The yellow threading them was
glowing too. “I need you to be there, Abbs. I told him I want to
incorporate some of an Earth wedding ceremony in too. So you’re my
bridesmaid, and Brace will be a groomsman.”

Even
though
legal marriages no longer occurred
on Earth – there was no way to officially get those documents
anymore – some of the rebels still held ceremonies in their
compounds. We had gone to a few when we were younger, before New
York became a complete shit-hole of a city, and Lucy had talked
about them for days. The beautiful dresses, kissing the love of
your life, flowers, and romantic words. I’d always been cynical,
knowing the reality of married life was vastly different. On Earth,
anyway. But Lucy had believed in the beautiful concept of
forever-love.

“
I wouldn’t
miss it for any of the worlds, Luce. We should have told
Lallielle
. She works magic setting up
events.”

Lucy smiled.
“Oh
, well, we can figure it out when we
get back. I don’t need anything special, just Colt.”

Lucy
deserved a perfect moment
, so with that
in mind I reached out for Lallielle.

Mom, can you hear me?
I still
sucked at mind-talking. I didn’t like others in my head, and it
made me wary of reaching out or dropping my own
barriers.

Aribella, is everything alright, baby girl?
She used Josian’s nickname for me quite a lot
now.

I quickly
explained to her about the mating ceremony for
Lucy
, and I showed her some mental
pictures of Earth weddings.

Do you think you can organize something for
her? It doesn’t need to be much, just so it feels a little
special.

I felt her
smile
. It surrounded me with
warmth.
Leave it with me. I
have the perfect thing in mind.
She
paused.
And please tell me
that I’ll get to organize something like this for my daughter one
day soon.

I
laughed.
You never know, Mom,
but I have to save the worlds first.

Okay, I love you
, and
I’ll see you all back at the house tonight. Stay safe.

I tightened
my barriers as we cut off the mind
-speak.

I realized
that she didn’t know we weren’t on Nephilius. Oh
, well, there was no need to worry her until we found out
exactly what we were chasing. Rounding the bend, I recognized the
area we were crossing now.

“
Hey
look
, Brace, we can stop in and say hi to
your dad.” I lifted my brows as we moved around the little clearing
that held Deralick’s camouflaged house. “Sorry, I mean your
fake-dad.”

He gave me a full smile, sending a trail of
warmth from my chest all the way to my toes. It was rare to see his
real, happy face. In fact I was sure this was one of his first
filled-with-joy smiles since I’d broken the melding bond.

“
Smart
ass
,” he said, pulling me even closer. He
was pretty much carrying me under his arm now. And still I was not
complaining. Hell, no.