Tempting Ecstasy (The Guardians of the Realms Book 4) (11 page)

What?
she asked. Her stance was alert as she sniffed the air.
Humans?

Mageia, evolved humans with some magical ability with the elements.

That’s the difference in their scent? I assumed the difference was illness.
He heard the curiosity in her voice.

They’re gone, but I need to look around for just a second. I want you to stay here.
He knew she wouldn’t run, at least not far. Not when he still had her sisters. It wouldn’t matter if she did, he would find her, and if she incited his beast, she’d find herself claimed, pinned and screaming her release no matter where he caught up to her. He didn’t need to give her another warning.

Are they dangerous?

This group is, but not all are.

He quietly stalked around her and moved to check the perimeter of the site. The scent was slowly fading with the light rain. There were chemical smells left over from the explosion that had leveled the building weeks ago. He didn’t like it.

*****

In taking them on a path away from her sisters’ home, she’d landed in something else. Dacia wasn’t sure what she was sensing. She couldn’t distinguish whether she was feeling danger or just the obsession of her animal. So many roiling emotions she was trying to understand. Anxious. Her damned wolf had started snarling the second he left her side. Every feeling was new, different, and needed deciphering.

She paced as she watched him. His beast was huge, beautiful, with deep obsidian fur that begged for her human fingers. When they’d started, she was nearly lost in the euphoric emotion coming from her animal. She’d never felt such a sense of freedom and utter sense of safety, enough that it left her fighting for breath. She’d spent her life watchful, on guard, making sure humans weren’t hunting anywhere near where she ran.

She hadn’t even scented the humans, Mageia, until he’d ordered her to stop. That power had grated against her, but her animal ate up every bit of his command. All the changes were just so damned much to process. That odd secure feeling and the fact that he’d been using their telepathic connection. Having the mental link in and of itself left her reeling and distracted. The permanence of it was beyond disquieting and left her stomach churning. It didn’t feel anything like the connection to her siblings. It was intimate and arousing. Intense, just like everything else about him.

Her animal was getting more agitated, and she was at a loss at how to calm it. There were so many scents coming from the destruction ahead. Subtle, as she was still several hundred feet from the first debris of what was once a big home, but still throwing her off. The bitter scent of ash was burning her nose, and her body was warming with her beast’s irritation.

She paced back and forth, narrowing her gaze on her surroundings, but always tracking back to Conn’s muscular flanks. She knew better than to follow. She didn’t know what they were up against, but he did. She watched as he stalked forward and looked up in the trees closer to the destruction. She followed his gaze and saw something small and black. A camera hidden in the foliage? Something a human would barely see if they were standing beneath it. She frowned. He tracked around the area, slowly. The wood fencing around the property was demolished in spots, and there were tracks all over from the one road she saw to her left. Probably from when emergency crews came in and doused the flames. The faint scent she’d caught when they’d stopped was slowly filtering away. Whoever these Mageia were, they’d been gone for a few hours.

Conn disappeared around a partially erect wall and what was left of a fireplace. A small glimmer of moonlight shone through the dissipating clouds and gave the scene an eerie quality. Was this how he’d found her? It was too close to her new town to disregard the possibility. Another question to ask when he came back. She looked around some more. Trees had been thinned closer to the home, but were thicker toward the fences.

She didn’t like it there, and her animal was growling and furious in her head. Was her wolf so damned attached to the male that he couldn’t get more than a few hundred feet away without it losing its mind? That was an uncomfortable thought.

A minute later the ground rocked under her feet. Her ears buzzed from the roar of the explosion while small debris rained down and smoke and flame lifted into the sky. Fire, heat. Nothing big made it to her, but her heart stopped.

Conn?
she shouted in the link, and her heart started pounding almost out of her chest. Her parents had been killed in a fiery crash. Her beast wanted to rush in when he didn’t answer.

Isa, tell Bastian to send someone to Conn. There was an explosion.
She hoped they knew how to track him, because she had no way of giving directions.

Run then, Dacia.

She snarled through the mental link.
Tell him now! Tell him that we’re near one of their enemy Mageia’s demolished homes.
She’d never felt so out of her mind, and that was all the information she had to relay. Her beast wanted to run to him, but she didn’t dare get them both blown up. She treaded as lightly as she could toward the debris and flames. The scents screwing with her. Was that what her beast was trying to tell her? She didn’t like the guilt that was like acid licking at her gut, adding to the pain of her racing heart. She never went against her instincts, but she hadn’t trusted them since the minute he’d come in her home. Nose to the ground, she moved further toward the fire. Hoping to hell he wasn’t dead. She may not trust him, but she didn’t want him dead and her animal was howling and crying out for her to get to him.

Her parents had died and she couldn’t stand the idea that he might too because she didn’t get to him in time. Images flooded her mind. Him lying decapitated or burning because she hadn’t trusted what her animal was trying to tell her. Her pace quickened.

Two males and a female appeared not far from her. Jax was one; she didn’t know the others. The one male was huge, the biggest male she’d probably ever seen, with longish blond hair and emerald eyes. He barely spared her a glance as he focused on the fire and getting into it. Power. So much rolled from him. She transformed in front of Jax, who moved to her, and he nodded grimly. “It’s okay, Red, stay here, and let us get him out. If you hit a land mine, Conn’ll have my ass.”

The female was a beautiful blonde in heels and a fifties-style pencil skirt under a lab coat. A doctor for their kind? She snarled, her beast more in the forefront in the last hour than it had ever been. The noise was low; her muscles tightened at the idea of the female going near him. She was shocked, but at that point her damned animal was more in control of her body than she was. She clenched her teeth and battled the possessiveness coming from her beast. Conn obviously needed help, and damn it, he wasn’t hers. Her animal snapped back in her mind.

Jax turned to her, a mirth-filled grin on his gorgeous face. There was a hint of mischief there. How was he not worried? She narrowed her eyes when he spoke. “Sirena will get him healed and conscious, and I promise she won’t feel him up.”

She snarled again. When he grinned, she snapped, “I’m not doing it intentionally, asshole,” defending her snapping, snarling animal showed just how out of sorts she was. She pinched the bridge of her nose and ignored his chuckle, her embarrassment, and the anger and possessiveness that was eating away at her mind. Her eyes tracked the others as they went into the flames. The tension didn’t seem to be getting any better.

Jax moved so fast she never saw him advance before he had a gentle hold on her arm. “Brace yourself, the landing is never fun for newbies.” She felt her body break apart, and then she was nothing more than air one second and whole again the next. She gasped to fill her lungs back with air and fought the dizziness and nausea that hit her hard. She doubled over as her sisters came at her through a balcony door.

She halted their talk with a hand in the air as she breathed, refusing to throw up.

“It’s horrible, but passes quickly,” Mia said as she rubbed Dacia’s back, the small comfort not nearly enough to calm her animal. Isa and Zoe ran their hands in her wet hair to get it out of her face. Family. Conn. She swallowed hard.

She spun on Jax. “Why did you take me away? They hadn’t got him out yet!” she snarled at the big male. Furious that she hadn’t seen if Conn was alive. Her animal needed to fucking see him alive!

“They’re getting him into the infirmary now. You can rest here with your sisters until he’s up.”

“Take me to him!” Her voice was deadly, and she knew her wolf was in her eyes. She wanted to see where he was. Had to. Her sisters had quieted, but still rubbed her arms and back.

“He’s fine. I promise. He’s just unconscious, and they’re telling me through our link that Sirena will have him patched up soon.”

She growled at him and tried for calm. It wasn’t coming; her animal was just too riled. She wouldn’t rest until she saw him, had confirmation he was alive.

Jax ran a hand over his hair and shook his head. A small smile was on his lips when he spoke. “I’ll take you down for one look, but then you come back.”

“We’re going with her,” Isa said in a hard voice. Her sisters were all at her side, trying to comfort her.

“Son of a bitch. Shit, okay. You’ll need to keep her animal level,” Jax growled, and she saw him look at Bastian, who was off to the side. The two males quickly escorted all four females down the stairs into the lower level. She saw the big blond male, and he quirked an eyebrow at Jax.

“Fuck, I didn’t have a choice, Drake. I told her one fucking look and she’s back to the media room to cool her jets.”

“Play nice, wolf, Sirena’s in there to help.” The power and warning in Drake’s words were clear.

The door opened, and she looked in and saw the female standing aside, assessing her. Conn’s skin was burned, and the scent of his blood made her heart stop. Her animal needed more, wanted to rush to him, but Jax held her back, not crushing her arm, but not allowing her entry. Her sisters’ hands were on her, and they were saying something, but her ears were ringing from the explosion and fear. Breathe. She saw his chest move, and finally her animal let her take a breath of her own.

“He’ll be fine,” the blonde said with a small smile.

“Come on, Red. Let her patch him up.” The door shut as she snarled. Jax pulled her away before she could see the female touch Conn. Her sisters were snarling now.

“Let her go!” Mia snapped at Jax.

“And that’s why you’re not allowed to stay down here,” he said, shaking his head and ushering them all ahead of him and up the stairs. Her sisters’ hands were at her back as she fought the need to turn back. “You saw him. He’s alive.” She heard the smile in Jax’s voice. When they got into the media room, she settled as best she could. Her beast was still furious, but not at the same level. Still, it was a battle, the thought of the female touching him almost as bad as him hurting, which was so wrong her mind was having trouble with all of it.

She didn’t even know Conn, but if her wolf had its way, she’d rend that blonde into bite-sized bits topped with tufts of shiny blonde hair. Her beast was more than possessive. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to clear her mind of all insane impulses. He was technically fine, breathing, unlike her parents had been by the time her brothers had gotten to them. She rolled her neck. She shouldn’t care if he was fine. She. Didn’t. Know. Him. Her wolf snarled inside her head, and she’d never felt so separated from the animal inside her.

“Are you okay? What happened?” Isa demanded softly as they settled her onto a big leather couch. Isa next to her, and Mia and Zoe on the floor in front of her.

She told her sisters about the walk and then running with him, the Mageia home close to her new town. Told them about the agitation, his giving her a choice, and then finally about her mental link. They all stilled. Processing that huge piece of information in shock. She was connected to him already.

“You’re wearing his shirt?” Isa touched a button, and it set her animal off. The snarl slipped out before she could stop it.

“Sorry,” Dacia said in frustration and embarrassment as her sisters’ mouths gaped. “It’s that he’s hurt, and my damned wolf thinks he’s hers. You saw how possessive and crazed I was down there.” She shook her head, still reeling.

“Yes, we did. This makes things more complicated. Or maybe less,” Zoe said, eying her, assessing as they all either touched her leg or her hands in comfort, but staying away from his shirt.

“Less?”

“What if everything that’s happening is actually good?” Zoe added and Isa looked at their sister, thoughtful.

“We can hope, but I still want everyone cautious and watchful. It’s all we can do,” Isa said, blowing out a breath. The others nodded and settled in to comfort Dacia.

In Dacia’s mind her sister told her about her brothers.
Hagen’s sure he can find a way to free us. He’s so damned arrogant. He has no clue what he’d be up against. He and Jerric are on their way to the States. We told him the Guardians are taking us to Tetartos, and he’s convinced he can do more than we’re doing to get free.
Isa sounded pissed at their eldest brother, and she understood.

Zoe might be right. These Guardians don’t trip any of our beasts, at least not in a dangerous way. I think we still need to look for any weakness or anything useful around us. Mia’s animal is still focused on Jax, but if anything, he seems standoffish when he could have taken complete advantage of her. They all could have done anything they wanted to us by now. I think we need to see what we’re getting into in the other Realm.
Isa shook her head. Dacia knew she was frustrated, angry that they were all so powerless, and she was likely pissed at their brothers for thinking she wasn’t doing anything. She was the one who’d always been stuck dealing with Hagen’s arrogance. Mainly because she was the oldest in the States, and the rest of them pretty much avoided dealing with him.