Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (36 page)

“
Would you
like to dance?” Brace had moved without me even
noticing
. He held a single hand out to
me.

I didn’t hesitate taking his hand and
yanking him into me. Well, more like attempting to move a mound of
muscle in my direction, which didn’t work. But thankfully he took
pity on my weak-assed attempts and stepped forward.

“
I
wish I had the words to describe how I felt when
you walked down that aisle toward me.” Brace had his head lowered,
speaking into my cheek. “Your beauty knocks me to my
knees.”

I could hear
the tremble of emotions in his voice
. My
usually stoic, strong warrior-man sounded like he was on the verge
of tears.

“
I felt the
same
,” I whispered back. “And I promise
you, we’ll have our own ceremony and we’ll never be parted
again.”

“First thing in the morning, we go to the
lalunas.” His arms tightened around me, almost to the point of
pain, but I welcomed it.

As his lips
met mine in a kiss
, I decided then and
there that nothing would keep us apart any longer. I was no longer
fighting that which fate had decreed. It was stupid of me to
second-guess my melding bond, it had been a gift from whatever gods
created our universe, and I would destroy anything and anyone that
got in my way.

But that
destroying would have to wait for tomorrow
; right now was for dancing, drinking and celebrating the
beauty of love. I paused as my eye caught on something strange
walking along the beach toward us. I pulled my face back from
Brace.

“
What the
hell …” I tried to get a better look. Brace stopped twirling me
around, and turned his head in the direction of the water. “Tell me
you’re seeing the same thing as I am
,” I
could finally gasp out.

A low chuckle shook his chest. “It’s
Lina.”

“
Oh
, my freaking god.” Lucy ran up
to me, screeching her head off. “Abbs, it’s a unicorn.”

“Lina the unicorn, apparently.” I closed my
mouth, which had been hanging open.

Lina was
beautiful, standing hands taller than most of the people present.
The unicorn was black as night, and its horn was white and
shimmery, like a glitter
-threaded piece
of ivory. Ivory that was a good three-foot long and lethal, with a
razor sharp tip.

Cerberus
took off then, galloping along the sand until
he circled Lina. I held my breath, but there was no
attacking. Instead they seemed to be greeting each
other.

“Why is there a unicorn walking along the
beach?” I managed to drag my eyes from the magnificence of the two
animals to face Brace.

He reached out a hand and pulled me closer.
“The sacred ones are returning.”

“Which means what?” Lucy asked.

He paused for a moment before answering.
“It’s time to prepare for war.”

I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat.
Shit, things were starting to get real and I wasn’t ready. I
doubted I’d ever be ready.

Josian
clenched his fists as the calling started again. He fought the
urge
, but he knew it wouldn’t be long
before their power overwhelmed him and he had to leave.

Lallielle
lifted her face, meeting his eyes
, and he
knew that she could feel his unease. He reached out a hand and
gently touched her perfect features; the connection worked as
reassurance for both of them.

The emerald green of her eyes softened as
she turned back to the emotionally touching ceremony. Josian’s gaze
alighted onto Aribella, who stood close to her best friend, Lucy
the pixie.

Josian loved nothing in this world more than
his true mate Lallielle and their beautiful daughter. It made him
happy to see that Aribella was happy. She stood tall in her green
lace dress and she was as beautiful as her mother.

Josian’s heart literally hurt.

He was in so
deep and there was no way to dig himself out. He was powerful, hell
one of the most powerful creatures in all of the worlds, but
right
then he was nothing but a pawn in a
large and deadly game. He knew that if he wasn’t Walker the fight
he battled now would have knocked him down. He was fighting so hard
to free himself, but it was like sticky glue. He’d free one part,
only to find another was stuck.

In the
beginning he’d never remembered when they’d influenced him to help
them. But eventually bits and pieces would come back and over time
he no longer forgot his actions. Instead they kept him up at night;
he raged around his rock planet but to no avail. All the raging in
the world wouldn’t save him. Right now he wasn’t sure what was
worse
: not remembering, or actually
knowing how bad things were and not being able to do anything to
stop it.

Colton and
Lucy were kissing now
. The ceremony had
reached the point where on Earth the couple would be joined as
husband and wife. Now it was time for the Walker tradition, where
they would actually join their souls together. A much more
permanent binding than any Earthling could hope for.

Lallielle
slipped her hand into his
, and he was
instantly reminded of the moment he had formed a mating bond with
her. The happiest instant of his life. She’d never forgive him if
she knew what he’d been doing, the ways he’d manipulated all of
them for the past twenty years. It didn’t matter that this was out
of his control. He should be stronger; he should have figured out a
way to fight them. Thankfully, after so many years together, she
didn’t pry too deeply into the small parts of his mind that he kept
separate from her.

The calling
came again, like a vi
se of pressure
forming around his skull. Pain was no issue. He welcomed the
punishment, but the voices that never stopped in his head – they
were driving him crazy. Making it impossible to think or focus on
anything else.

He leaned
closer to Lallielle’s ear. “I have to leave for a short while,
darling
,” he murmured. “Tell the girls
I’m sorry. I’ll try to be back in time for the
celebration.”

As always,
his most perfect mate just smiled at him and kissed his cheek.
“They understand, my sweet
. I know you
wouldn’t leave unless it was important. I love you.”

Her final words almost broke him, because he
knew it was true. She did love him. And he was completely
undeserving of her love and trust.

“
You’re my …
everything.” He brushed her silky hair off her face. “Call for me
if anything happens.” They touched foreheads
, and then, rising to his feet, he left the
ceremony.

He moved
around to the back of the house, away from prying eyes, and opened
a doorway. He didn’t step into it straight away
; he fought back against the pull. His hands were tightly
clenched as he dug into the ground. He shoved the voices from his
mind, working so hard to find a way to expel them. They continued
to beat at him, reminding him that they were all he had now,
reminding him of the list of terrible things he’d done to his
family.

Starting
with his influence of the
prophecy, which
had resulted in Lallielle sending Aribella to Earth. That was the
first blackout he’d had, waking with no memory of twelve hours of
time.

After
this occasion, when they’d rolled his mind for
the first time, they’d left him alone for many years. The next
major event was when he helped Que free the first Seventine. And
that’s when everything started to fall apart.

Unaware of
his actions
, he’d been so happy when
Aribella returned to them, not realizing the shit-storm he was
dropping her into. He hadn’t known that he’d been the one to open
the portal to get her back to First World, or that he’d kidnapped
Lucy, and revived Olden with stolen energy on Earth. He’d saved the
life of a woman who had tormented and stabbed his daughter in the
chest. He should have torn her to shreds, but his actions were no
longer his own.

It wasn’t until he absorbed the influx of
that traitorous Walker energy on Spurn that pieces of his memories
were unlocked. He’d finally had the power to remember and he’d
fought his controllers then, but it was too late. He’d never had a
chance.

He clawed at
his face in desperation as he continued to pace in front of the
doorway. So many horrible things he’d done. Facilitating the
possession of Brace. Planting false
prophecies in Lucy’s head. Keeping the half-Walker girls
away from each other, because together their strength continued to
increase. Manipulating Jedi into giving them the wrong incantation
for the ritual of four; the Gai princeps had no idea he’d done
that.

The list
went on and on. But the worst thing was the moment he’d encouraged
Aribella to break the melding bond to Brace. His controllers had
wanted it that way
, because together
those two were stronger than any couple that had, and would, ever
exist in the Walker world.

And his
little girl had been beyond resilient, showing a strength of
character that he clearly could not find. Despite the
pain
, she’d sacrificed her love and soul
for the worlds. And it killed him that it was all for
nothing.

Their
manipulation of Aribella had been a small turning
point
. Josian had managed to regain some
control of his actions. His anger was a fuel he used to fight them.
Recently he’d been attempting to fix things, planting little ideas
to keep the girls on the right track. But these rebellions were too
few and far between.

The
vise pressure increased on his head. His
breathing became labored as he fought again, but his feet started
to move toward the doorway. They were laying on the heavy now, and
he had no choice but to follow where they were leading
him.

Walking
through the vacuum
, he stepped out into
the stone cavern, looking neither left nor right; nothing
interested him here. This was his place of torture. He moved along
the path, one huge foot stepping after another. And then he stopped
before them.

Tenni glided forward. “Our bonded one, why
do you fight us so?”

He dropped
to his knees before his lalunas. Their power and bond washed over
him
, and his mind became pliable putty
for them to manipulate. Sometime in the past hundred years they’d
started to crave that which was not theirs to crave. They had
planned all of this to coincide with the convergence of the worlds.
And Josian feared that there was none that could beat them,
although he had a small flicker of hope inside that the seven girls
had a chance.

Josian had tried to warn Aribella about
them, but the best he could do was over-exaggerate the extent of
their powers, hoping that when she found out she came at them with
everything she had. Yes, the lalunas were immensely strong, but
they still had to follow the laws of the universe. There were ways
to beat them if the girls could outsmart them. And the fact that
Aribella had her own, not-yet-crazy laluna was a wild card that he
had managed to keep hidden from Tenni.

The lalunas
had a hive
-like mentality. Tenni was
their queen of sorts, and she controlled the rest. They looked
separate, but in reality it was one big consciousness that had
expanded into many different creatures.

“Tell us what has been happening?” Tenni
encouraged, and Josian’s mouth opened without any effort from
him.

“Aribella will come to you and ask to reform
her melding bond with Brace.”

Tenni tilted
her head to the side
. Ancient eyes which
were very alien stared at him. “We cannot let that happen. They are
too strong together. It tips the final battle in their
favor.”

Josian liked
this. “How will you stop them?” he asked. “Aribella is
determined
. It would take something
serious to keep them from melding again.”

Especially
Brace
; he would move mountains to claim
his mate.

“
You know we
can’t become directly involved in this battle
. We can only set up the chess board and hope the pieces
move where we want them to.”

Lalunas were
original powers
. They could not directly
influence the end of the worlds. But they could set it up so others
did the dirty work. It was a loophole they were taking advantage
of.

“Does that mean you can’t stop them?” He
tried to keep the hope from his voice.

Her tinkling
laughter rang out. “Oh
, dear one, you’re
precious. Do not fight us. We promise this is for the best. The
worlds are a mess. They’re no better than warring animals. This
will give the energy a clean slate. It will be reformed. But
Walkers will still exist, none will be lost.”

He tried to
appeal to their common sense
, to their
need for balance. “The Seventine will be free, and they’ll take all
the energy. They’ll destroy everything.”

She shook
out her long hair. “No, they will be re-imprisoned. They’re but
pawns.” She stepped closer until they were practically face to
face
. Josian was still on his knees. “And
don’t you worry about Aribella and Brace. We will make sure that
bond is never reformed.”