The Lycan Hunter (The Gardinian World Series) (43 page)

“I just need to be there.”

“You need to be there because?”

“Kyran – ”

“Alexis.”

She heaved an irritated sigh as she ran her hands over her face.

“I want to go, because I need to be there. I need to be able to see for
myself that you’re okay.”

“We
’
re bonded now, Alexis. A piece of me resides in you. I
’
m linked
to you. We can keep in contact the entire time I’m gone, if it makes you
feel better, but I’m going to be fine.”

Bless the connection they had, but it was damn inconvenient. There
had to be something else she could do – anything – that would get him
to take her.

“If I don
’
t go, my parents won’t believe that you and I are together.
They
’
ll have a hard enough time believing the gods are real. They
won’t believe that I not only joined your side but married you.”

Kyran was silent for a few minutes. His features remained blank, and no thoughts of his trickled into her head. Alexis fought to regain
some kind of composure, but in truth, she had none. The need to
ensure his safety by any means had taken root the minute she felt a thread of his being weld itself to her heart. And she had thought she
loved him before. The lengths she was willing to go through to ensure
his safety eclipsed reasonable and listed towards paranoid.

“You can go,” he said finally. “I wanted you there, because while
Ronan is here and would protect you as best he could, he isn
’
t willing
to do what I would do to keep you safe.”

Alexis let out a slow breath that she hadn’t realized that she had been holding.

“Can you teach me how to block my thoughts?”

Kyran laughed. “Tired of sharing your thoughts already?”

“It’s not that – ”

He leaned forward, grasped her hands in his and kissed her fingers.

“I know,” he said with a slight smile.

The next hour was spent going over the basic concepts regarding erecting mental walls.

The concept behind blocking mind to mind communication was that you could block your outgoing ‘calls’ but not the incoming. This allowed for important messages to be transmitted without the other
person missing something like a ‘Don
’
t come home yet. A Hunter
’
s in
the area’ type of message.

Cultivating the blockade was rough going at first. Forcing herself
to create a wall – to form it just as she would a physical one – was
something that she had the hardest time visualizing. It took her roughly
thirty minutes before she had the concept down.

The way she managed to shield her thoughts was to imagine herself
building a wall. It was almost a physical effort. Lifting the bricks,
slapping on some concrete, and stacking them around the borders of her mind.

Alexis spent another thirty minutes removing and building the w
all
before she was satisfied with the fluidity of her ability. Her speed was
slower than she liked, but with time, she’d get better at blocking and sharing her thoughts.

She practiced sharing her view of some of the happier moments
in her life – most of which involved him – when Ronan entered carrying
a laptop. He began researching the area, merging his findings with Kyran’s tactical plans.

It was the first time that Alexis had really seen the brothers work
together beyond their work in the infirmary. Seeing them work together
now showed how much they deferred to each other for their respective expertise. Ronan was the technician, the one who hacked into the more
inaccessible satellites to gain the images they needed. Kyran was the
commander of the unit, his job was to organize the troops, plan for
all possible outcomes, and ensure success by any means. He did all
of this while reiterating, primarily for her benefit, that there were only
contingency plans should the worst come to pass.

They set up a contingency plan for if she went into labor or if any
of the Lycans were injured. Alexis stayed quiet, both vocally and
mentally, because the meeting was supposed to be a peaceful endeavor
and no one had asked her. They were doing a good job anyway. They
knew their enemy well. Something the Hunters couldn’t truly say.

“What happens if there is war between us?” she asked and then cursed herself.

She had planned on remaining silent, to avoid bringing up some
nagging idea that lingered in the recesses of her mind. The question
brought Ronan’s head up, but Kyran scratched his head and stared at the map before he answered.

“I know you were going to do it anyway, but you
’
re going armed
. But if things head toward war, Lykil will bring you back here. Keep
in mind, though, I don
’
t think any of it will be necessary. Othion needs
this to happen.”

Alexis pulled down her wall and let the thoughts that had been
assaulting the back of her mind assault his. Kyran flinched at her
onslaught of graphic images.

Her parents came from a generation before the recent invention
of the silver nitrate darts. Alexis had grown up in an environment
where the more inventive the kill, the better. And her parents had a
preference for hand to hand, which meant things got bloody fast.

“Sending me away only protects me and the baby. What about you?”

Ronan took that as his cue to go, leaving his laptop behind to avoid
getting dragged into the conversation.

“I’ll be fine. I’m damn hard to kill, remember?”

She pulled her wall up slowly, but not before she shared the
aftermath
of Torin’s death. His face paled but not for the reason she intended. His own thoughts showed her the pity he felt for her, the
sudden clarity that understanding what she had meant months ago
when she said she had to clean up after her brother’s death.

“You have a point; you are hard to kill,” she said. “But what about
the others? Do you have a plan for them?”

“I
’
ll work with them tomorrow to come up with a plan of action.”

“That’s all I need.”

They both turned around to see Lykil hovering, legs crossed near
the office door.

“If you summon me to take Alexis, I’m taking all of you. There is your plan of action. Works for everyone?” He paused for a sarcastic
moment. “Good, because I’m not a taxi, and I doubt you
’
ll get anyone
else to aide you.”

They both thanked him, knowing what he said was the truth.

“Don
’
t worry about it. For whatever reason, I like you guys. It
goes against the conscience that I’ve gained since I’ve stopped living exclusively in Gardas to let you come to harm.”

He stopped hovering and came to stand next to Alexis.

“Can I touch your stomach?”

She laughed. “Why?”

He shrugged. “I’ve never felt a baby kick.”

She glanced at Kyran, who just gave her a shrug as a response.

“Look, it’s okay. Forget I asked.”

He moved to step away, but Alexis grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach.

Alexis knew that Lykil had very few people whom he trusted. Even
fewer who trusted him to be around. During one of their brief moments
of privacy at the wedding reception, Torin had told her it had been the most interaction that Lykil had had in a long time.

Suddenly, a flurry of kicks and punches nudged his hand. Alexis jumped at the initial onslaught.

“I'm fine. The baby was just suddenly very active. It caught me off guard
,”
she said in Kyran’s mind.

Lykil pulled his hand away and turned to leave.

“Thank you,” he said.

“Lykil, is something wrong?”

He sounded crestfallen, and for Lykil, god of the awful flirts, to
sound sad just seemed somehow inherently wrong.

“No, I’m good, just needed a reminder.”

“Of what?” Kyran asked.

“That everything in the universe doesn’t need Destruction
’s touch.
”

Before either of them could ask what was going on, Lykil was gone,
his parting words echoing in his absence.

“Remember to call me if there is need, and Destruction will ferry you to safety.”

ALEXIS
STUDIED THE FIELD,
her senses alert for the dangers in
the surrounding forest. The Lycans looked edgy under the gathered
gods’ gaze.

The Shapa and Bao exchanged whispered commentary – breaking
the forest’s natural noise – as they waited for the Hunters to appear.

She looked down the line at the assembled gods: Tuyir, Jordis, Vili,
Lelah, Narn, and Othion. Their beauty was given, but their differences
were evident in their varying physical attributes.

Tuyir was shorter than Vili, falling somewhere just shy of six
feet. And like his opposite height, his albino skin was a stark contrast to Vili’s ebony carved body. His hair was a lot like Theo’s had been,
closely cropped and bright red like freshly spilled blood. He watched
her intensely, favoring her with a heated gaze that had nothing to do with lust.

Alexis tried not to squirm, but his eyes made it hard to remain still.
War’s soulless stare roamed over her, his white irises with a black outer
rims framed red pupils were full of unguarded hatred. The way he
assessed her said without the power of words that the most attractive
thing she could do for him was die. Since she was in favor of remaining
alive, she broke their visual contact and
directed her attention
to the others.

Jordis stood proud, dressed in blinding white leather. The clothing
appeared molded to her viciously carved femininity. Vili was dressed
as the last time she
’
d seen him, in an unbuttoned white shirt with white
linen pants. Everything about his presence announced his dominion over all things gained by logic and wisdom. Lelah, draped in a white
fur lined cloak over a flowing white gown, stood with her head slightly
bowed. The gesture seemed as much at odds with what she was –
living death.

The last two gods stood separated from the others. Alexis pegged
the one who stood slightly behind the others, as the fallen goddess
Narn. The pride that radiated off her said she was far from fallen.

Narn was a golden-haired beauty; her eyes matched her long tresses
but had a dark chocolate rim to them. The proud goddess locked eyes
with Kyran, giving him a nod before her eyes trailed around to the rest
of the Lycans.

Othion was the embodiment of the protective father. The way he
shielded Narn away from Lycans, Hunters, and the gods said in no
unnecessary words that he trusted no one with her safety. The pants
he wore were multi-hued like Gardinian metal. His long black hair,
broken by twinkling spots of white, hung loose and seemed to be
everlasting in length.

The God of the Sky must have felt Alexis’ loitering stare, because his eerily ancient eyes turned on her, taking her in the same way that Tuyir had. She made no pretenses, trying to hide the anxiety she felt beneath the weight of his attention. He was imposing in a way that Tuyir could only wish to be.

A sudden burst of light drew Alexis
’
attention from the gods. She
turned her attention across the field to find the Elder Council in a
flurry of motion, readying their preferred weapons. They worked like
a well-acquainted group of comrades, everyone falling easily into their
respective positions and roles. Majority of them were heavily armed and dressed like her in cargo pants and a well woven t-shirt.

The Elder Council wasn
’
t made up of Elders as their name suggested
.
However, age wasn
’
t necessarily on their side as they were all into their
late forties or early fifties of hard-lived lives. Their lifespans were longer
than the average human, but many Hunters rarely saw their full one hundred and fifty years.

Alexis focused on the banked hatred in her father’s caramel eyes.
He wasn
’
t much shorter than Kyran
’
s six-four frame, but his close
cropped hair was more salt than pepper. Her mother was an ageless beauty, her dark hair clipped short into a pixie style.

Of all the Hunters, her parents were the most heavily armed.
Unfortunately, they suffered no outrage at being summoned by gods to meet with abominations like the other Elders. Her parents actually
looked pleased by the turn of events. Their target had come to them, and
nothing made them more excited than having stupid prey. That
was
until their gazes dropped to her distended stomach. Then the real party
of emotions filtered across their features until one won out. Abject rage.