Sentinel's Hunger (13 page)

Genesis nodded. “Then let us go.”

For the first time since their escape, Xevera noticed Michael’s unusual silence. Frightened, she turned her face to him and cupped a cheek. “Michael?”

“I…I think I’m shot.” He slumped against her.

Xevera held him tight and lowered him to the grass. “
Lilith
, no…”

She could not have teleported and engaged her shields at the same time. She had thought they had enough time to teleport and escape the
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officers’ offensive maneuvers. She had thought to avoid a showdown with them, even one where she and Michael were behind her shield.

She had made the wrong choice.

Xevera helplessly glanced up at Alex and Genesis as they converged.

“Are you bringing him with us?” Alex asked.

“I am not leaving him here. He is my mate.”

“Keep pressure on the wound. He’ll be fine until we can get him back to Emsharra for repair.”

Xevera listened to Alex’s confident tone and wanted to believe him with everything that was in her. But Michael was losing so much blood, the precious fluid soaking through his shirt and leaking all over her hands and clothes.

Alex and Genesis bent to take Michael out of her arms.

Xevera let them until she got back on her feet and reached for him. “I will carry him.”

Hesitating only a moment, they gently handed him over and Xevera lifted him in her arms, holding him close to her chest.

“You’re not going to take me on another trip like the last one, are you?” Michael rasped.

Xevera chuckled at his weak attempt at humor and watched Alex and Genesis step through the portal a few feet away. “I am taking you home with me where you belong.”

Then she stepped through the portal behind her friends with her soul mate in her arms.

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Gracie C. McKeever

Emsharra Settlement—Four Weeks Later

A few hundred Inanna and Sebitu had gathered in Emsharra’s main temple from far and wide to witness the handfasting ceremony that would bind the leaders of their two regions, reinforcing the alliance between Emsharra and Gaiam.

Among the ceremony’s attendees were three hybrids who had earned their place in the ranks of the Alliance and New Regime by virtue of their special mixed blood or through their dedicated efforts within the Harvesting Program and Longevity Project.

Michael fell under the former category.

Most of his time in Emsharra so far had been spent recovering from two bullet wounds, and learning about his new home under Xevera’s enthusiastic tutelage.

He hadn’t yet had time to immerse himself in the various social and political programs in the Alliance and New Regime, but looked forward to the day when he would be able to make his mark and contribute the same way he had done with EMS in the human world.

Currently, he had his hands full keeping up with all the important people in Xevera’s circle of friends and colleagues, though it was a circle almost as small and intimate as his own.

There was Nahemah Enlil, the day’s bride and Xevera’s friend and mentor who was also The Highest and
Quna
of Emsharra (Michael found it ironic that his mate was practically related to and on a first-name basis with royalty). There were his and Xevera’s rescuers, and helpmates Alex and Genesis Ryan, and their one-year-Sentinel’s Hunger

103

old son Kalil Cassidy—KC for short. Then finally, there were helpmates Mateo and LaMia Diaz and their eighteen-month-old son, Julen.

Though Michael was a hybrid like Alex and possessed the same gifts as him and Mateo, he felt more kindred with their women, especially LaMia.

Despite all the females he had come across in Emsharra and Gaiam being impressive in stature and strong and dauntless warriors like Xevera, he sensed a singular arrogance and authority in LaMia, especially in the way she interacted with her mate. She was at once fiercely protective and predatory, and effusively loving and brusque with Mateo.

Michael turned his attention to the two toddlers fidgeting in their seats a row ahead of him and Xevera and smiled, remembering his own time spent fidgeting in church next to his mother.

As much as witnessing the day’s momentous occasion uniting two former warring leaders encouraged Michael, seeing how happy and healthy the Ryan and Diaz children were filled him with a special kind of hope that before now he had only gotten visiting with his mother.

Reading his thoughts and emotions, Xevera turned to him then, caught his hand and gently squeezed it in hers.

It took everything in Michael to stay focused and not invite her to that extraordinary room in their minds where they could start practicing to work on a couple of kids of their own.

He turned his attention to the podium several feet ahead of them and watched as the officiator bound Nahemah and Tenebrion’s hands together as part of the handfasting ceremony.

Michael’s chest and groin got decidedly tight watching the ritual and picturing his and Xevera’s hands bound together. “So that’s where the term ‘tying the knot’ comes from.”

“I do not understand.”

“I’ll explain it later.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders in
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Gracie C. McKeever

a firm, one-armed embrace, trying to emit with the simple touch all that she meant to him and all that he wanted her to mean to him.

“We’ll do this too, Xevera.” he murmured.

She pivoted in her seat to stare at him. “Is that a proposal?”

“Yes.”

“Then I accept.”

“I never had any doubt that you would.”

She playfully elbowed him in the ribcage as inconspicuous and gentle as possible, mindful of their surroundings and his still healing injuries.

Michael caught her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “I love you, Xevera.”

She gawked, so obviously taken aback that Michael couldn’t help chuckling before he asked, “Cat got your tongue?”

“I do not think that I will ever get used to human nomenclature and slang.”

“But you will get used to me.”

Xevera nodded, leaned her head on his shoulder and a palm over his heart. “I could never survive without you,
mishva.
”

He had survived her sentinel’s hunger and she had survived his human’s revenge, but he knew that he could never survive without
her.

Together, though, they could survive anything.

THE END

WWW.GRACIEMCKEEVER.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gracie C. McKeever has been writing since ripe old age of seven.

Though the existence of other-worldly beings and psi abilities in humans has always intrigued her, not until she decided to explore the myths behind succubi and delve into a universe where these beings might reign supreme, has she had so much fun creating a world and writing.

Learn more about Gracie’s brainchild in the world of Emsharra and the Sisters who inhabit this world in these Sisters of Emsharra books:
Guardian
Seductress
,
Predator’s Salvation
, and
Sentinel’s Hunger
.

Visit Gracie at GracieCMcKeever.com.

Also by Gracie C. McKeever

Adult Fable:
The Wolf in the Mansion

Adult Fairy Tale:
Nine Inches of Snow and the Ebony Princess
Between Darkness and Daylight

Eternal Designs

In Plain Sight

Sisters of Emsharra 1:
Guardian Seductress

Sisters of Emsharra 2:
Predator’s Salvation

Spells Cast in Shadows

The Matchmaker 1:
Beneath the Surface

The Matchmaker 2:
Terms of Surrender

The Matchmaker 3:
Manifest Destiny

The Matchmaker 4:
Emilia's Emancipation

Zara's Bois 1:
Zack and the Dark Shaft

Zara's Bois 2:
Ingenue's Choice

Zara's Bois 3:
Bouncer's Folly

Available at

SIRENPUBLISHING.COM

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com