In one smooth movement he scooped me up and tucked me into his body. I let out a muffled shriek and clutched at his thick shoulders. Unlike Jessa, I wasn't used to this being carried around business.
My twin grinned at me. "Just go with it, girl. You can't fight them. They use dimples and pure brute strength to get their own way."
I snorted. "You're just lucky I'm tired and fat. Otherwise I'd be kicking your butt, Ty ... and I'm not that slow."
Tyson just chuckled as he hugged me closer. "We're tactile guys, you're just going to have to get used to our manly ways."
That was just the thing. I didn't want to get used to it and then have it ripped away from me again. Somehow these supes were slowly infiltrating themselves into every part of my world.
And I was starting to like it. A lot.
We moved out the door so fast my head was spinning. Even though I'd put on a decent chunk of weight with this pregnancy, Tyson didn't show any strain at all as he carried me.
It was still cold, but the first signs of spring were emerging. The huge acres of forest bordering Stratford were already blooming to life. I had been loving the wolf runs we'd been having lately. Not having a murderous dragon king controlling me had really freed up my time for other fun activities.
As the security force field surrounding our town came into sight, a wiggle of nerves started in my belly. I almost let out a sigh when Louis appeared on the edge of the forest. The absolutely gorgeous sorcerer, with his light hair and arresting purple eyes, was waiting patiently for us.
I found Louis to be such an anomaly. If I'd never seen him and just heard him speak, or felt his power, I'd have expected him to look like a wizened little wizard – something about the way he knew everything, could do everything, and had an ancient power which literally made my bones ache. All things that did not fit the Calvin Klein underwear model look he had going on. He was tall, not quite as bulky as the Compasses, but definitely not lacking in the body department. Looked about twenty-eight years old, but I knew he was well over a hundred. Supes aged really well. We didn't start to look old until we were like eight hundred years or something.
Louis' power slapped across my face as we closed in on him. Together with the Compass quads, there wasn't much that could best these five. Which was a relief when I had a precious one to protect.
I still couldn't figure out what the hell Kristoff Krass wanted. He'd been the council leader for the magic users before the quads took over. Though, actually, he lost his position long before that, for trying to frame and murder the boys to keep his place of power. He was quite a piece of work.
There had been multiple sightings of the sorcerer over the past week, and now the boys were trying to deal with that as well as learn their new duties.
We'd just finished one war and I'd be damned if another landed at our feet anytime soon. But I had this weird sense that something big was coming our way, and I really hoped we were all equipped to deal with it. New motherly instincts were blazing through my soul. I would protect my child or die trying. That was the first promise I made to the baby when I found out I was pregnant, and it would be the last also.
Maximus Compass
I was rapidly reaching the conclusion that humans were fucking idiots.
Until recently I had never spent much time in their presence. We'd occasionally had to slip into the regular world to chase down supe criminals, but that rarely required an extended stay with the locals. It was better that way; there was something very other about us, and this scared the humans. They didn't like anything that couldn't be easily explained. The Guilds were the only ones who could handle knowing about our world. They were born in to it and had a lifetime of training for their role.
I'd been wandering the human streets for a week now, slowly working my way home but managing to find enough distractions that it was definitely taking me longer than expected. The excessive number of dishonorable humans was keeping me busy and fed.
During my time out of Stratford I'd saved many of this short-lived race from rape, torture, robbery, and violence. At first I'd ignored them, not wanting to get involved, but eventually the berserker rage inside of me needed somewhere to go.
Like the piece of shit humans I fed from, my nature was violent, much more so than them. I was the nightmare lurking in the shadows of their world. Until recently I'd directed those urges toward the path where it could do the most good, and hurt the least. I'd always volunteered for criminal collection duty. But now I no longer cared. I was leaving a bloody trail in my wake.
To date I hadn't killed any of the humans; that would be too easy for them. I chose to weaken and scare the life out of them, reducing them to piss-covered jeans and a fractured mind. For the rest of their lives they would be busy looking over their shoulders for me.
Not that I stuck around. Every day I moved on. Running was my release. The moment I slowed, my mind reminded me that there was no waking from the nightmare.
I started this journey high in Canada, making my way down to the east coast of America. The landmarks around me were familiar now. I was back in Connecticut, and as winter started to disperse, the earthy forests bloomed to life around me. I was about a day out of Stratford, even less if I pushed myself, but that wasn't going to happen. The moment I returned, I would no longer be able to shut down. The ripping fire which burned across my chest would be released, and I'd be consumed.
As I crossed through a small town, faces turned in my direction. I got that a lot around humans. Don't really know why. Probably because most of them were tiny-ass punks, and they feared the giant, angry male in their midst.
More likely it was to do with the fact that I looked like total crap. A shower and a change of clothes would come in handy; I'd stolen my last set a few days ago. All I had on me was a dead cell phone. The battery died days ago. Which was great at first, no way for anyone to find me, but then I started to worry. There was a reason I always harped on Jessa about keeping her phone on her. If something went wrong, there was no other way for me to reach her.
It was probably a good sign that I was worried about my pack. Meant I was starting to remember that I wasn't the only asshole in the world to have suffered a loss. Part of the grieving process was about being purely selfish. I hadn't wanted to deal with anyone else, so I took off. I'd just wanted to be in my own head, but it was starting to get damn annoying in there.
I recalled Jessa's last text. She'd mentioned the bears and a coup. Was that related to their inability to get a leader on the council? Surely they wouldn't try to take on Braxton.
If they did, that would solve a lot of problems. Challenging a dragon, you might as well fall on your own sword. Pure suicide. Especially when our Jessa was with young. My brother was going to be crazy protective over her right now.
Still … the bears had never shown much self-preservation, and us Compasses didn't have a monopoly on arrogance. I found my footsteps speeding up; my pace increased to a run. I needed to know that everything was okay with my pack. My brothers were alive; our bond gave me that much information. None of them were in pain. None of them were experiencing strong emotions. But unless we were actually joined, I didn't know more than that.
As I left that town, moving out into the less populated forested areas, I let my mind wander. As always, it went to the one place I would rather have never visited again. My mate. Cardia. A familiar, hot jab lanced my chest; the pain was sharp but brief, almost as if it didn't go that deep, and yet she had been my true mate. I shouldn't even be functioning, but every day it got easier to deal with her loss, which was so many kinds of screwed up. What did it say about me that I could so easily let go of the one who was my perfect half?
It said I was not worthy.
Some part of me must be defective. Broken. And because of that I had not been worthy of my gift of true mateship.
Her face was still strongly imprinted in my mind. She had been beautiful, with porcelain doll-like features and dark curls framing her heart-shaped face – the sort of looks standard for vamp females, but for some reason I always expected my mate would be strong and earthy, more natural, the way Jessa and other shifters were. Which was a hundred kinds of screwed up. I was a vampire, not a shifter. Why on occasion was that so hard to remember?
Vampire. Just like my mate. She had been so damn tiny, petite even; it had always been a worry that I'd crush her with my strength, which I'd never worried about with Jessa. She was likely to pummel me to death first. She was a nasty little vixen when she wanted to be, and like all shifters was extra tough.
Cardia was too, in her own way. Jessa and Grace had told me how vicious she'd been in that final battle. Fighting like a true warrior … right up until that last strike of the sword.
Fuck!
I hadn't been there to save her or for her final moments. That killed me the most. She died a hero, bravely taking on an army that outnumbered ours ten to one, and she deserved to have me at her side. I didn't blame my brothers. We were a team and we had always stuck together through everything. But the loss of a mate should trump the possible loss of them. And it didn't. I knew even today, if I had to make the choice again, I'd stay with my brothers. So again, what the hell was wrong with our mate bond? It shouldn't have been like that. There should have been no thoughts of other females or other bonds.