Regali (A Walker Saga) (18 page)

Unlike his egomaniacal father.

It looked as if Brace had his work cut out to change the rituals their last Princeps had demanded for thousands of years. No wonder Brace had chosen to avoid Que and take the First World task of waiting for me. I’d have done anything to escape also.

They were like robots: highly trained, expressionless, and unable to think for themselves. They stood in formation, twenty across and hundreds deep.

“I
’ve canceled mandatory training, but none of them know what to do each day. So they just end up back here,” Brace said as we observed them.

The Walker men looked nothing alike. There were
all varieties of hair, skin and eye colors – many of which I’d never seen on a person before – and yet they were all the same.

“How did Colton end up as such a smart-ass?” Lucy asked. “Que seems to have knocked the personality out of every male Abernath.”

Colton gave a snort of laughter. “Seriously? You’re calling me a smart-ass.” He shook his head.

“Colt
’s wolf protects him from the worst of Que’s brainwashing. No one owns the wolf.” Brace sighed. “And most of these men are almost normal when they’re outside the training hall. They have families and interact. But it was inside these walls that a lack of discipline was punishable.”

He rubbed his arm then
. I knew the slight and all but invisible marks littering his body were from Que.

“So what
’s the issue that Magenta was going on about?” I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Or whatever was deemed ordinary on Abernath.

At these words the men parted down the center. There was a raised platform in the middle of the room
. On it was a single ornate chair, and next to that was a stool. Brace stopped, his expression freezing.

“What is it?” I asked.

“They want me to officially take the chair as Princeps,” he bit out. His eyes darkened. “I think they’re worried I’ll refuse in the end.”

I laughed. “Doesn’t sound like they
’re too downtrodden. Get your butt up there and take your mantel, Princeps Brace.” I gave him a gentle shove.

He captured my hand and started pulling me along with him.

“What are you doing?” I tried to pull myself free.

“I
’m nothing without you,” he said, his warm tones washing over me. “We do this together or not at all.”

I wanted to refuse. In fact I wanted to run screaming from the room because I wouldn’t be
there for Brace. I was going to break his heart and my own. But there was no other choice. It was me who had made the decision to free the third Seventine, and now I needed to do everything in my power to make sure we didn’t destroy the worlds.

I dragged my feet a little but in the end I did nothing; I let him pull me to the platform. We stepped up, thousands of faces turning in our direction. At some point others had entered and were immersed amongst the men. Women, children … I would guess every Abernath was now
there.

Brace sat on the chair
and pulled me onto his lap. I was pretty sure the stool had been for me, but he was having none of that. The platform started to lift us into the air.

“What’s going to happen?” I whispered to him.

“It’s very simple. Just an absorbance of our people’s power.”

We were now level with the taller heads surrounding us
. I could see no mechanism that was lifting us, but still we continued to rise.

“Does it matter that I’m not an Abernath?” I wondered how a cross
-mating like ours worked.

“That
’s the reason for the power. You’ll take some of Abernath into your energy and we’ll recognize that you’re one of us for all time.”

This was going to backfire on me for sure.

Once the platform reached a few feet above everyone, it halted. The Abernaths each dropped to one knee, a fisted hand clenched over their chests.

“Princeps
,” they chanted as one. “We command.”

More words were stated, but they weren’t in English so I had no idea what they meant.

“Prepare yourself,” he murmured in my ear.

I was about to ask what he was talking about when the energy hit me. In unison every Abernath sent power into us. Spreading around the room, it ricocheted out until it hit the center and Brace and I were the eye of its focus.

If I hadn’t been cradled in his strong arms I would have hit the deck. The power slammed into me, and then, as if searching for my inner crevices, it seeped into my being, my soul, and somehow everything that I was started to morph inside. My eyes shifted to lock on Brace’s. His marks were glowing, the blacked interspersed with other shades of gray, purple and gold.

“The colors will fade
,” he said, his warm expression locking me in. “You should see your marks right now.”

I looked down at my arm and almost shrieked. My blood
-red lace had the same shades running throughout. And our marks were intermingling again, the ends reaching out to each other and joining. I could feel our melding bond, and now I could also feel a new bond, my one to the people of Abernath.

“What
’s it like for you?” I asked in awe.

It was as if I could sense a small part of every person there.

See for yourself.

He pulled me inside his head. And I was immersed in everything that was Brace. My slight feeling for each person was increased a million inside him. His sense of responsibility was huge. He cared for every person
; he worried for them and wanted to correct the wrongs of his father.

We
’ll always know our people. If any Abernath energy comes near us, we’ll feel it. I know you have your mission right now, but once we’ve destroyed the threat of the Seventine, we can have any life we choose.

I couldn’t stop myself from kissing him then. I slammed my lips down onto his soft mouth,
not caring that thousands stared at us. I was lost in the moment, and it was only as I returned to reality that I realized that cheers and applause rang out through their training building.

I finally caught sight of Lucy
. She was still standing near the doorway. Her worried expression met mine over the cheering heads, and I knew she was thinking the same thing as me: I was in trouble.

It took a long time for Brace to escape from the training hall. I was introduced to more Abernaths than I would ever remember. They greeted me with the weird forearm handshake of the Walkers. By the fiftieth time I had it down like a pro. Finally we made it back to his house. The four of us stood there in the front sitting room, just staring at each other.

“Well
, that was unexpected,” Colton finally said. “I assume no one told me because I would have definitely given you the heads-up.”

Brace laughed. “I don’t know
, Colt. You can keep secrets in the right situation.”

Lucy’s head swung up then, her expression intrigued.

“Do tell.” She smiled in her sweet manner. “What secrets is young Colton keeping?”

“I am at least five hundred years older than you
,” he huffed. “And I have no secrets that are worth sharing.”

“I disagree
,” Lucy said. “You have at least one that influences the decisions you make.”

He stared at her for a long moment. His white
-blue eyes shifted to me. “Can you spare Lucy for a few hours? There’s something I want to show her.”

“Hello
,” Lucy interrupted me before I could speak. “Standing right here and able to make up my own mind about whether I am free or not. And I am not.”

She emphasized the last words strongly.

Colton reached out and took her hand. “Please, I think once you see this you’ll understand me better.”

Her expression softened
. She pursed her lips for a moment before giving a swift nod. Then without another word the pair walked out the door. Colton’s massive height dwarfed her completely, but unlike with Samuel, they seemed to fit together. I hadn’t noticed before. Even though Colton always lingered protectively over her, he didn’t crowd down on her making her seem small. Unlike Samuel.

“Don’t worry about us, guys
,” I called as the door slammed shut. “Thanks for all the concern, but Brace and I will find something to occupy ourselves.”

I turned to face him. “Gee
, you’d think they’d forgotten we …” My words trailed off as I caught sight of his expression.

My pulse skyrocketed and I think I stopped breathing. If I could have bottled the pure devastatingly sexy aura Brace was emitting right
then I would have made millions on Earth. I was afraid to break the moment. The energy running between us was practically visible. It was potent and hot and … holy hell … I sucked in a ragged breath, but before I got to take a second he had me in his arms. We just barely made it to his room. And I finally figured out the advantages of his massive bed.

It took half the afternoon but finally when the urgency and passion had eased a little between us I had a minute to catch my breath. Right then I couldn’t find it within myself to regret that moment, despite the pain that I was sure to experience when the bond broke.

“What are you thinking, Red?” Brace’s husky tones sent shivers along my body, or it might have been the way he continued to run the pads of his fingertips over my naked skin. “I shouldn’t have to even ask you that, but since you insist on keeping me locked out of your mind
…”

I could hear the unasked question there
. He didn’t understand why I wouldn’t want him to know everything. His mind was wide open to me anytime I wanted to access it. I was hurting him with my actions and he didn’t deserve that.

“I was just wishing I could freeze time right now
,” I said, trailing my hand along his defined chest muscles. “I just want to stay in this room with you forever. Because I know when we leave anything can happen.” I snorted. “Hell, the world could end tomorrow. But right now everything is perfect.”

“I
’ll keep you safe, baby.” He pulled me so I was sprawled half on top of him. “And I’ll make sure that this isn’t the last perfect moment we have.”

His mouth captured mine and for a little while longer I could pretend that Brace would always be mine and that I never had to give him up.

“Tell me about your sister
,” I said hours later as we lay in the darkness.

He laughed. “Caty was the biggest pain in my ass. She was a lot younger, by almost fifty years
, and I was pretty happy being an only child at that point.” His arms tightened around me. “I maintained that I didn’t want her right up to the point she opened her massive brown eyes, wrapped her hand around my little finger and captured my heart.” His voice lowered.

“She kept me on my toes
. Unnaturally beautiful and the daughter of the Princeps, there used to be battles and balls to win her hand. I might have had to remind a few Walkers of their manners.” I could hear the smile in his voice.

“If she
’s dead, a piece of me will die with her, but I’ll eventually come to accept her fate.” His tone changed then as he bit out the final words. “But I can’t live with the thought that she’s alive, suffering the way that those in the dark mountain were.”

“Is there no way to track the energy of a family member?” I snuggled in to him as close as I could, offering comfort.

“There are a few things we tried, but there was nothing to be found. It’s so strange because even if she was dead her energy should still be somewhere. We decide what happens to our energy, but it’s as if hers is completely gone.”

“What happens when you
’re reborn? Do you remember your last life?”

He shook his head. “No, I
’ve been reborn once. I don’t have any knowledge of my past life, except that I had one.”

My head shot up. I had no idea he had lived a past life. There were so many things I needed to find out about hi
m. And I had been counting on an eternity to discover them, but who knew now what the future would hold. I had that feeling then, in my throat where the tears were trying to claw their way from my chest and burst out of my eyes. But I refused to let them. Now was not the time for crying; it was for loving Brace with every fiber of my soul.

Hours later the rumbling of my stomach could not be ignored any longer.

“Trying to tell me something, Red?” Brace’s chest shook with laughter.

“I’m starving.” I groaned as I wrapped my arms around my stomach and rolled left to right on the bed. “Feed me or I’ll die.”

He was out of the bed faster than I could blink and I was over his shoulder.

“Never let it be said that I let my woman starve. You demand food and food you shall have.” He strode from the room, both of us naked as the day of our birth.

“Uh, Brace, what about Lucy and
–”

I never got to finish before my tiny blond friend, who’d clearly heard our voices, was standing before us. I lifted my head in time to see her grind to a halt, mouth open and hands dropping to her side. And as per usual Lucy she didn’t avert her eyes.