Powerful Awakening [L.U.S.T. 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (20 page)

Now.

She heard his order in her mind, quickly scanned the areas where she knew other LUST agents waited in the shadows for the command, and saw signals being given to those who did not possess the powers of mind-speak. Too many things happened at once for her to keep track as agents took their positions, invading the area around the compound with the fierceness and speed of their given abilities.

She saw Andrew shoot a warning look up at her as he straightened to his full wolf height and knew the meaning of that glance. Stay in the tree.
Yeah, right. Sorry, my love, but it isn’t going to happen.

Chrystal leapt into action, carrying her long lizard body down the tree and across the jungle in a swaying gait that brought her to where she had last seen Gideon and Kahil in a blink of the eye. They were gone. She knew that the instant she reached their post and cursed a blue streak as she detoured toward the compound.

Roars, howls, and the sounds of gunfire split the night as beasts battled, various powers flying through the air, thickening it with concentrated energies that made it difficult to breathe. Shifting her camouflage as her surroundings changed, she hurried into the door left open on the side of the compound, only to find herself in the midst of another fight between a half-shifted were-bear and werewolf inside.

Not Gideon, she told herself as she found a scant space of safety to scurry through. She knew the werewolf wasn’t Gideon by the color of his fur. Rotating and focusing her eyes independently of one another, she scanned the long hallway as she scurried through it, getting a full three-sixty view of everything behind, beside, and in front of her.

The hallway split in a T and her left eye gave her the vision of Andrew, his snout dripping with blood, his claws slashing out a fully shifted were-fox in his path. Her right eye showed her another fight, this one between the wizard, Cosby Duncan, and a were-cat feverishly attempting to avoid the bolts of power being shot at him. Beyond that fight, she spotted an open doorway and telescoped her vision to pull in as much as she could of the room beyond. She only needed to catch a glimpse of a cage to know that was the room where the hostages were being held.

She took to the wall on her right, climbing up and along it as she had the tree outside, and headed for that doorway. A vicious were-leopard shot through it just as she reached the opening, pouncing on the were-cat with sharp teeth bared. Others followed and she realized Gideon and Kahil must be already inside, freeing the hostages from the cages where they had been kept.

Ignoring the pandemonium going on all around her, she slithered down the doorframe and into the room. Doors hung open on empty cages. More doors remained shut on others with shifters in their full beast form rattling their confines in fury to escape. She didn’t have a clue what the cages were made of, but they had definitely been built to entrap any shifter no matter the beast that lived inside him.

There’s so many of them.
She didn’t know what she had expected to find in the compound, but a dungeon-like room full of more cages and beasts than she could count hadn’t been it. There was no way all the shifters had come from American soil, no way the terrorists could’ve gotten them out of the states without far more reports of missing people being received than what had been.

“Are you fucking nuts?”

Above all the ruckus, howls, and pained shrills, Chrystal heard Gideon’s voice and locked both her eyes on his now-human form ahead of her. He stood in the opened doorway of a cage, blood covering his flesh, and his face contorted in aggravation. A quick shift of one eye and she saw the source of his frustration. It nearly made her laugh.

Calista stood inside the cage, her fisted hands on her hips, and darts of defiance shooting from her eyes. “Probably. I’ve certainly been called far worse in my time.”

“Come on, damn it. We have to go.”

“I’m not going. Free the rest if you want, but I’m not leaving this compound until I know the leader of this damn cell is taken out.”

“Duh, sweetheart,” Gideon fired back. “What the hell do you think we’re doing here?”

“Getting the little guys, rescuing those who have been taken, and leaving the big man to do it all again.”

“We know who is behind this and, as soon as we get you and the rest to safety, we’ll be all over him.”

Calista threw her head back and laughed, the movement jostling her long, matted brunette hair. “You think it’s Nikolas McLeod, don’t you? He’s not even here tonight and he’s definitely not the mastermind you’re after.”

Gideon growled. “Then who the fuck is?”

“I don’t know yet, but if you leave me alone and use that lovely charm of yours on the others who
want
to be rescued, I’ll find out in time.”

Gideon raked a hand through his ebony hair and shot a glance at Kahil who stood with his broad shoulder resting against the outside wall of the cage. “She’s got to be kidding me.”

Kahil’s lips kicked into a wide grin. “Doesn’t sound like it to me, man. I say you step in there, throw her over your shoulder, and let’s get the fuck out of here.” He shrugged. “Or I’ll do it. Doesn’t make a shit to me either way.”

“You do that and I’ll—” Calista stopped, the muscles in her jaw working as she bit off whatever it was she had been about to say.

Chrystal knew and apparently Gideon did, too.

“You’ll what? Shift into a sexy little chameleon and slither out of my arms?”

Calista gasped, her surprise that he knew she was a were-chameleon evident on her face.

“Didn’t I tell you I know your cousin? It was first damn thing out of my mouth.”

Calista’s usually deeply tanned face paled. “You know Chrystal is a were-chameleon, too? What have you done to her?”

Gideon smirked. “Watched her turn my brother into a walking puddle of mush, for one. Damn man gets the love of his life back and he’s walking around with stars in his eyes half the damn time.”

Calista’s jaw dropped. “He what? Who? Huh?

Kahil shook his head. “There’s no time for explanations on that one right now, darlin’. Are you coming or not, because standing around here arguing like this isn’t going to do nothing but get us all killed.”

“Chrystal is safe?” Calista asked, her gaze dancing from Gideon to Kahil and back again.

Chrystal scanned the room one last time. Other than the beasts still in their cages, she didn’t see any threats. She shifted, returning to her human state as she slowly walked closer to Calista’s cage.

“I’m safe. Now will you quit fighting these two and come on. Daddy is so worried about you.”

Tears glistened in Calista’s eyes as she stared at Chrystal. “Gods, when he just said he knew…”

“Yeah.” Chrystal nodded. “I know what went through your mind. There’s a lot of things you don’t know, so much I need to tell you, but this isn’t the time or the place to get into it.”

Calista shook her head. “I can’t leave, Chrystal. This thing goes deeper than any of you realize. I didn’t even know it until I got captured. Believe it or not, being in this cage has put me in a position to get so much more information than I was getting out there. I’ve got to see this through.”

“You got captured on purpose,” Chrystal realized.

Calista winced. “Not exactly, but I didn’t really try not to get captured either. It’s my part in these long stories we’ve both apparently racked up. But, he’s right.” She jerked her head toward Kahil. “There’s no time for explanations right now.”

“Calista, you should go.”

The unfamiliar voice in the room had everyone turning their heads. Chrystal saw the man she’d spotted in a still-closed cage two down from Calista’s now standing at the side of his cell, his long fingers curled around the bars.

“I’m not leaving you to take on Nikolas by yourself,” Calista argued. “He threw you in that cage, used you to lure that Andrew dude here, and we still don’t know why.”

Chrystal felt a breeze at her back and spun around just as a man materialized in front of her.

“He did it because I asked him to and it appears my bargain with Nikolas has gotten me far more than I requested.”

* * * *

Michael drank the last of the blood from the shifter who had attacked him and dropped the lifeless body to the ground as the warmth and power pumped through his veins. He pivoted, ready to take on the next with his bare hands and sharp fangs when he felt it. The sensation that had swept through him so rapidly he had been unable to identify it before it moved over him again, lingering this time, and settling into the pit of his darkened soul.

Le Mort.
The name sped across his mind with little regard to whom it might project through his telepathy, but reached one whom he deemed definitely on the need to know.

What?

He is here, Andrew. I do not know where, but I can feel his presence.

Where’s Chrystal? How the fuck…

Michael mentally pushed the last of Andrew’s words aside, focusing all his energies on his connection with Chrystal, and cursed when his mind slammed into a brick wall. She’d raised her shields after he had expressly ordered her not to. He had wanted that connection to stay open, had feared he might need it once she was out of his sight.

I do not know,
he thought in answer to Andrew
. I cannot get through her shields.

She wouldn’t have put up her shields if she wasn’t in danger. He’s got to be with her.

She must have followed Gideon and Kahil to the hostage room.
Even as he relayed the thought to Andrew, he tuned another part of his mind on his connection with his brother.
Gideon?

The bloodsucker is back, Michael. You better get in here.

* * * *

A familiar fear raced through Chrystal’s veins, one that awakened at the sight of the cold black eyes peering back at her and the simmering rage deep in their depths. It momentarily sent her mind spiraling back to that night so long ago when she’d been Rebecca standing off against Regulus Le Mort.

“It is good to see you again, Gideon.” Le Mort’s voice was soothing, melodic, a lot like Michael’s, but dripping with an evilness far more sinister than any vampire Chrystal had ever come across. “All the more so because I know where I find you I will also find your brother.”

Chrystal sensed Gideon move closer and felt him reach for her a nanosecond before Le Mort yanked her into an embrace. Gideon stopped in his tracks with Kahil at his back, both men ready to pounce, but holding themselves in check for her safety.

“The last time I found such a beauty she thought herself to belong to Michael.” Le Mort’s gaze skipped back to Gideon for a brief moment. “And to you, of course. Have the two of you taken on another daughter now that Elena has abandoned you to live in Terra?”

He didn’t recognize her soul. The fact was the first clear thought to make it through the fear clouding her system. Andrew, and even Michael, had known the moment they met her gaze that she was the reincarnation of their Rebecca. The love they had felt for Rebecca, a love that had never died, had enabled them to see her soul through Chrystal’s eyes.

Le Mort had claimed to love her, too. So why didn’t he see it?

“No,” Le Mort answered his own question. “They do not see you as a daughter, do they?” He skimmed the back of his thumb down her cheek and Chrystal barely managed not to recoil from the touch. Icy shards rained through her as a wave of power, acidic and dark enough to leave her feeling haunted, seeped into her flesh. “You are the one Nikolas told me about, the one who is the lycan Andrew’s new lover, the one he shares with Michael.”

“Let go of me.” The demand came out calm and strong, not revealing an ounce of the fear slamming through her soul.

Le Mort’s smile would’ve been handsome if such evil hadn’t tainted his lips. “You have no need to fear me, beautiful one. I will bring you no harm. It is your men I want. Michael, Andrew, and the wolf who thinks to protect you now. They tried to kill me once. Did you know that? Not Andrew, of course. I do not know where he was at that time. It was a very long time ago. I did not see him when I last visited this realm either.” His gaze once again slid to Gideon. “Has he been in hiding all this time?”

“How the fuck did you get through the portal again?” Gideon asked through gritted teeth.

“You mean you do not know? Your sweet Elena has not contacted you?” Le Mort threw his head back and rolled it on his shoulders, his eyes closing briefly before he righted it again. “No, I guess she could not seeing the mess that Terra has become. Many things are happening there. I am afraid that realm may be closed off from this one forever now.”

“Then how did you get through?”

Chrystal heard the concern in Gideon’s tone he failed to hide. She remembered the love she’d heard in Michael’s voice and had seen in his expression when he’d talked about Elena. He and Gideon had raised her, took her in and treated her like their daughter. She didn’t want to consider the thoughts and fear that would be clouding Gideon’s mind at the news she was apparently in danger and could be cut off from him and Michael forever.

“That is an unnecessary detail I do not intend to address. Tell me, Gideon, where is your brother?”

As if on cue, Chrystal felt the air move around her, a breeze of sheer power that brought goose pimples to the surface of her flesh just as Michael materialized behind Le Mort. A dirty-blond blur whizzed through the doorway of the room a nanosecond later, becoming recognizable only when it halted at Michael’s side. Andrew shifted from lycan to human, but the animal remained clear in his golden-hazel eyes.

“Release her and face me.” Pure venom tainted the usual smooth melodic tone of Michael’s voice.

“You sure are one hell of a slow learner, Le Mort,” Gideon said when Le Mort started to turn. “Always using women to put my brother at your mercy and, yet, you always end up with the short end of the stick, don’t you?”