Chapter 26
Guardian Manor, Tetartos Realm
Alex sat next to Sirena with Uri in the seat at her left. They were in a war room that looked almost identical to the one on Earth, waiting for a few more Guardians to show up.
She and Uri had changed, checked on Erik and Sam, then sifted through the minds of the lab tech and victims, and arrived with barely time to find their seats in the meeting. She was still reeling from everything they’d done in record time.
She zoned out, pondering how much she had misjudged Tetartos. She’d expected something primitive. She hadn’t imagined the opulence of the manor, with its massive courtyard and several wings. When they’d gone to Uri’s suite, Havoc greeted them with a raspy woof and wiggle, expecting to have his ears rubbed. It was odd, but the beast was so like a puppy would be except for his red eyes, oddly soft fur over shiny black skin, and the potential of flames coming from his mouth.
Alex had asked Uri how big Havoc would get, and he issued one word, “Big,” with a grin. She was looking forward to heading back to his suite after only getting a quick glimpse. It had a sunken living room done in black and grays, and huge French doors opened out onto a big balcony. A kitchen with mottled black and brown stone sat to the side of the entry, and a huge bedroom, with a spacious seating area, was to the left. The closet had only a few clothes for him, and she was happy to see some of her clothes had been brought over from her Earth apartment. Along with shoes. Thank the Gods. She had smiled at the sight, enjoying the view of his big clothes and boots next to her much smaller things. Her stomach had tightened a bit at the domesticity of it. She wanted it all.
Vane prowled in beside Conn a moment later, holding a laptop. Her brother narrowed his eyes at Uri after greeting her, then sat at the opposite side of the table between Jax and Conn.
Jax was grinning like a freaking kid with a secret, and she felt Uri stiffen next to her. A second later she heard him telepath, That video better be in our apartment at the end of the meeting, or you and Conn will both meet my ass at the mats after this is done. She was catching Uri’s words to Jax, just as she’d accessed his Guardian links during Sam’s rescue. Then it hit her that the video they had to be talking about was of her and Uri in the holding cell. Alex’s cheeks heated, and she sent a death glare to Jax, only getting a wink and devilish grin back.
He has a copy of one of Brianne’s chick flicks. The only copy of the video is in your apartment. Conn winked at her, his amber eyes glittering with mischief as he sent the message over.
She choked back a laugh at the wolf’s antics. Her brother raised an eyebrow in confusion. Jax just leaned forward to turn and glare at Conn, who flipped him off. Jax sat back in his chair, mumbling about assholes.
Thankfully, Vane didn’t seem to be paying any real attention anymore. He was concentrating on the laptop he’d opened up on his knees as he lounged back. His muscles were tense, and she suspected he was doing everything he could to avoid looking at Brianne. Something was up there.
Finally, Drake entered the room with a few others scattering into chairs.
“Uri, Alex, report,” Drake ordered.
Uri began telling the group everything they’d done to dull some of the mental effects for the victims. It warmed her chest that he included her as if she’d contributed something monumental. She had only helped with some intricate work inside the minds, by accessing Uri’s power. It was invigorating and enticing, this feeling of swirling and swelling of her life force trying to combine with his as their abilities blended. It kept her in an aroused state that was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It wasn’t just her body, it was her entire being, as if he were stroking her inside and out.
She heard his frustration when telling the other Guardians that they were unable to do anything substantial for the redhead. Her mind was in tatters, and the pieces inside kept moving around. He informed them that they would try again after their mating was complete. Uri had been gentle with the females. If she hadn’t already been losing the fight against falling deeply in love with him, his care for the damaged Mageias would have pushed her over the edge.
Uri sent what felt like a caress to her mind through the bond. It was highly erotic and had her clenching her stomach. She sent a growl back. The last thing she wanted was to get hot and wet in a room with her brother.
He chuckled through the link.
Uri sobered before continuing his report, “At least one of the Aletheia that raped the victims seemed drugged. Eyes glazed and dilated. He also spoke inside the victims’ minds, encouraging them to relax and not let Elizabeth get off on their pain. All the women remember being raped with Elizabeth present. One of the males slipped them Aletheia venom so they would enjoy the experience. It confused and upset the victims more to be aroused by what happened to them. I’m not sure if it matters, but it seemed that both Aletheia present at all the rapes seemed to hate Elizabeth. Who knows what their allegiances are. They might be captives, too.”
“Fuck,” Drake said, pacing, which Alex realized was his norm. She had yet to see the Guardian leader sit.
“We got a lot of intel from the lab tech. He’s an earth elemental, been with Cyril since he was a child. His memories were tampered with, so how he got to be in Cyril’s employ is a mystery. Sirena will be digging into the family tree. He doesn’t know Cyril’s current location; backup facilities were kept secret, which is fucked. He doesn’t have a lot on Cyril and Elizabeth themselves, not being in the inner circle, but he is aware of vials of Aletheia semen being traded for test subjects on Earth. The name Cynthia was in his memories.” She felt Uri’s fury all over again with that knowledge. He seemed to know the female and had said he’d checked her mind when the first females had gone missing.
“Is it the same Cynthia who rules the west coast covens?” Jax growled.
“He didn’t have a last name or any more information. It better not fucking be her. But Sam remembered Mageia chanting a spell to send her to the other Realm, so it would track. She’s a fucking bitch with Mageia at her beck and call. I checked her mind when this all started and found nothing. It was just a surface scan of her thoughts, so it looks like time I check her fucking blood memories.” Alex sent him soothing energies, trying to calm his fury, knowing it was tinged with guilt at not having known.
“She’s smart and powerful with a lot of fucking money,” Conn ground out. “Let me do some digging into her life.”
Uri continued, shaking his head. “The lab guy also knew that Elizabeth is the one able to contact Earth as well as the Tria…” There was a short pause as the table went quiet before the occupants erupted in a variety of expletives. Who knew the extent of Elizabeth’s power?
“Added to that shit, it turns out Elizabeth has been luring Mageia from the covens on Tetartos over centuries. Until this last year, when they started getting them from Earth.” More noise followed until Drake’s booming, “Quiet!”
“The Tetartos covens have finally put in higher security measures. I should have insisted on working more with them. The leaders can be such pains in the asses,” Sirena volunteered. She looked concerned and just as furious as Uri.
“The lab tech’s mind confirmed that the tests they’re performing focus on the mating spell. He’s a total zealot, refused to speak. Cyril promised all in his compound that his research would find the key to allowing Immortals and Mageias to choose any mate they wished to have. They were working on a serum that would trick the DNA into thinking there’s a match. It seems that instead of getting rid of the spell, he’s basically attempting to deceive it.” Uri waited as the room quieted again. “I’ve sent Sirena all the memories we got from him so she can decipher the medical shit.”
Alex felt the rage all through the room.
Uri’s voice held disgust. “It gets worse. When the serums he’s using fail, they cause brain damage. Those Mageia whose minds are no longer working are kept and used as payment to the Tria for some kind of service.”
“Fucking hell,” Drake said as the room’s noise volume reached epic heights.
Uri’s voice dropped dangerously low. “And this is only one of the experiments they’ve been working on. There are several, but our guy only worked on one other.” Uri paused again. “They’ve been using their own warriors as lab rats to find a way to sever telepathic links. The problem is that they weren’t able to find a way to reverse the effects, so the Aletheia he’s injected are messed up and now practically vegetables.”
“Shit.” Drake’s response was echoed down the table. All were grim.
“Well, now we can guess what was in the syringe the demon-possessed had,” Gregoire said with a menacing scowl.
Uri nodded, but Alex remembered that they had never gotten around to discussing the syringe. He was so damn distracting. Gregoire must have caught her look of confusion, because he explained for her.
“Uri was attacked a couple of nights ago by a trio of possessed with a syringe, but we weren’t able to recover it. Havoc took one down. We still don’t know if the hound was how they found him, since Havoc is blood-bound to Uri, not the Tria.”
Sirena explained to the others who had only seen Havoc in the courtyard, “Drake and I okayed the pup’s presence. It appears that hellhounds are not evil by nature. Havoc feeds off dark energy, metabolizes it, without being affected at all.” Sirena took a breath. “The demon-possessed probably did track Havoc’s aura. I could see that being plausible. The possessed brought in was too new to have any real knowledge. Uri interrogated him. The fact that Havoc teleported to Uri in the courtyard is something I’ll have to look into. Hell beasts don’t teleport, the Tria send them, so it has to be Uri’s blood, which is something that can never leave this room.” If the Immortals in Tetartos learned that Uri’s blood had that power, it could be very dangerous.
Sirena turned to her and Uri. “When will you two complete the bond? I recommend you do it quickly. The distraction could be dangerous.”
“Tonight.”
Alex’s shocked expression shot to Uri. They hadn’t discussed doing it tonight. She raised a brow at him. He grinned wolfishly back. A laugh escaped before she knew what was happening. She shook her head. They needed to do this. There was no turning back, and she wouldn’t want to if there was. In truth, she was excited that he wanted to finish their bond.
“Okay, let’s finish this meeting. Looks like there’s a mating ceremony to prepare for. Sirena, do you have anything to add?” Drake said, grinning at Alex with affection.
She grinned back, thoroughly enjoying being a part of the fold. She could truly get used to this.
“Only that we need to get Erik and Sam to finish their mating soon, for both their sakes. I don’t think Sam would be able to handle the mortal mating ceremony, and the Aletheia semen will only stay in effect for a few weeks at best. After that, the process will need to be started all over again. So the quicker we can get them mated, the better for them both,” Sirena remarked to the table.
Alex was confused again. “I think I missed something?”
Sirena said, “Part of turning a mortal into an Immortal is that they need to be filled with Aletheia semen, which has regenerative power that helps initiate the change. That already happened with Sam’s rape. The next issue is that mortals can’t digest any Immortal blood other than that of an Aletheia. So in mortal-Immortal matings, we add Aletheia blood to the Immortal mate’s for the blood-bonding. Erik’s blood will have to be mixed for Sam to be able to take it and complete their bond. After that’s the consummation. In the end Sam will become Immortal and mated. Since Cyril has already begun the process, we need to get them to complete it. Otherwise she will need to have sex with another Aletheia.”
Alex’s mouth gaped at that. They said it was a process, but that was extreme. She shook her head grimly at that information. There was no way it was happening. Not after what Sam had already been through, and Alex couldn’t imagine Erik being okay with sharing her.
Drake nodded with the same look of understanding. “Conn?”
“Cyril wiped his research and data files before we got there. All I got was a month’s worth of video surveillance in DVDs. Cyril had all the labs, corridors, outside, common areas, training area and holding rooms monitored. No clues on where he went. If he hadn’t blown his exit, Sacha or Bastian might have been able to track him, but now it’s doubtful,” Conn said as he leaned back, tapping on the table with his thumb. He was in another flannel, this one in green and black, sleeves rolled back revealing the tattoos covering his arms. He must like to pull at his hair as he worked, since it stuck out everywhere. “I gave Sirena the videos from the labs. Vane and I have been going through the other files. It’ll take some time to get through it all. We haven’t found anything useful yet.”
Drake continued down the line. “Gregoire, Jax?”
“We didn’t get shit at the location where Uri was attacked. Nothing was left behind, and there was no video surveillance covering the exit road. Too many options after that,” Jax provided.
Gregoire was sprawled out in his chair, spreading his big body out like the warriors around the table all seemed to like to do. He was large all over, and she’d seen a lot of him in those clubs. His equine half was definitely dominant in the lower part of his anatomy. Her brain was officially fried if she was thinking of that. It was all the talk of her mating ceremony and what Uri had shared, making her think of it now. She felt Uri’s heat and essence mingling with hers from inches away and couldn’t wait to get him alone. She had been trying to avoid looking at him for fear she would jump him.
Jax began, a distinct scowl painting his beautiful features. “Sirena asked us to check on Sam’s parents’ home and we found something interesting.”
“What?” Uri asked.
“There were two Mageia parked outside, watching the house.”
Uri snarled, “Cynthia’s?”
Jax shook his head. “I don’t know, man. I have their license shit for Conn to check.”
“This is bullshit,” Vane snarled.
“Don’t,” Alex bit off. She could feel Uri’s own frustration and guilt, and her brother didn’t need to make this worse.
This is not Uri’s fault. He already feels guilty enough, she sent to Vane.
But he talked to the female.
“Just stop, Vane. We still don’t know that it’s her,” she snapped out loud. “Even if it is, we could just as easily blame my lack of skill with head-hopping for not getting to Sam or the rest of the females sooner. If I’d asked better questions when I was in their minds, it might have made a difference.”
Vane bit off a curse.
“That’s enough. This isn’t productive!” Alex pointed out in irritation before snapping at Jax, “Did you talk to her parents? Maybe this is a coincidence?”
Jax nodded. “They didn’t know them, but they were definitely there for something.” Drake nodded so Jax continued, “Drake didn’t want us to take them in, so I got close enough to hear them planning to take Sam’s parents somewhere.”
Conn spoke next. “If this is the Cynthia we think it is, I need to gather more information before we go after her. Like who she had helping her. She is a staunch believer in security. We’ll need to plan if we want the element of surprise. The crazy bitch has made a lot of dirty money over the decades, enough to fund an escape.”
Alex shook her head as Uri seethed. She wanted to ease his guilt, knowing she’d feel the same way in his situation, but it wasn’t his fault. Seeing him like this was rough. She sent him soothing energy before turning to Jax. “Where are Sam’s parents?”
“Stashed in a safe house. The elementals didn’t even know we were there. Hopefully, they’ll be watching the house for a while before they figure it out. I put a tracker on the car when they weren’t looking.”
Conn was tapping away at a laptop. “The car is registered to a corporation owned by Cynthia.”
Silence filled the room and she grabbed Uri’s hand in hers.
Smoke lifted from Drake’s lips as he spoke. “We need to bring Cynthia and her inner circle in. We will raid all of her locations to get the information we need. Hopefully, she kept some kind of records, since she is apparently resistant to mental scans. In all reality Cyril or Elizabeth likely helped her with that.”
“I underestimated her.” Uri cursed before adding, “She looked far too fucking young when I did that scan. I assumed it was good plastic surgery; now I know she was getting Aletheia semen from Cyril. If that piece of shit is selling off her own damned kind to look young, she deserves a slow painful death.”
The air in the room buzzed with energy as Drake growled. “I agree. Conn, put a hold on checking Cyril’s security footage and get all the data you can on Cynthia’s location. The raid needs to be precise; we’ll be spread thin. I want to hit as many locations as possible at once. We need to strike soon. We’ll meet back here at eight a.m. tomorrow to go over strategy. I want everyone fully refueled and ready.”
Vane growled in frustration. She knew how he felt. Alex wanted in on the raids just as much as he did, but they were both stuck on Tetartos. She blew out an irritated breath.
“All right, does anyone else have anything to report on the rest of the patrols?”
“Same shit in Hell,” P said.
Alex’s eyes started to glaze over a bit as the others reported.
Her mind fixated on the fact that she would be mated in a matter of hours. Her stomach fluttered with anticipation.
“Mating ceremony at eight p.m. I’m assuming we are all invited?” Drake grinned at that.
Looking around, she saw that everyone was up, moving around them. There was some backslapping for Uri, and happy grins and hugs from the females. Her heart clenched a little that Erik wouldn’t be there. Guilt hit with the impact of a boulder at the fact that she was happy while her brother suffered.
Vane pulled her in for a hug. His frame was familiar and comfortable as she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes, just as she had always done throughout her long life. Vane had always given her such free affection. Erik would want you happy, sis. You’ve been alone too long. You deserve to have a mate of your own, even if he pisses me off. Uri seems solid. I’ll admit that if I couldn’t tell he loves you, I might not be so okay with you mating the asshole. The guy makes it pathetically clear he cares for you, so we’re good.
When he pulled back, the sad little grin he gave her made her eyes blur. She blinked back tears and gave him a watery smile that she hoped showed how much she loved him. Uri sent a soothing caress through the link. Was Vane right? Did Uri love her? The warmth of it made her skin tingle.