Chapter 4
New York, Earth Realm
Alex came to, struggling for air, and then promptly doubled over, trying not to vomit on Erik’s favorite boots. Her brother held her close when she rose back up, grateful for his soothing warmth.
The queasiness passed quickly. It was something that happened every time she came back to her own body after head-hopping.
Erik rocked her gently as if she were a child, not a full-grown female, and she let him. After what she had just seen, it felt nice, and honestly the offer of comfort seemed to ease him as well. He so rarely showed emotion that Alex savored the moment while gaining control of her vision, the spots dissipating. Erik’s woodsy scent grounded her. Vane sat at her other side and she felt his big hand rubbing her back as he handed her a bottle of water.
Her brothers couldn’t be more different, even though they were twins. But at moments like these, they were in complete accord while sweetly soothing her, and she soaked in their love.
Alex lifted the water bottle to her dry lips with shaky hands. Taking a sip, she savored the cool slide of it down her throat.
Gods, her head hurt. She was weakened from the hop into Sam’s mind, but she was also experiencing weakness in her limbs from her shield’s draining effects. She hated to be taken into the minds of victims, sharing their bodies and thoughts, but what really upset her was not being able to do anything to help them.
“Cyril has taken another female. I’m betting she’s a Mageia like the others.” She took another deep breath before continuing, “I know I say it every time, but it’s so frustrating not to be able to filter through their thoughts. I could learn so much more if I didn’t have to force the information to the forefront of their minds. I hate only seeing and hearing everything in current time. If I could just dig in…” She shook her head in frustration.
“You’re doing what you can. Don’t beat yourself up for something that’s beyond your control.” Erik’s voice had a rough rasp that she loved; it was so much like their father’s.
“I know. It’s just frustrating.” She sat up straighter when she realized she had good news. “I learned something new from this one. Sam is her name, and she actually saw people with black robes and heard chanting before being teleported away. I felt what was happening in the memories she shared. She was too drugged to decipher the chanting, but it had to be some kind of transfer spell. At least we know that a Mageia coven on Earth is helping send these females to Cyril and Elizabeth in Tetartos Realm. We need to get this information to Conn.” Vane’s Guardian contact. The Guardian was a Lykos, half wolf, who seemed to handle all their tech stuff.
Vane nodded. Since he was most skilled in telepathy, he was the one who relayed their information. Alex opened her mind to her brother, showing him every minute of her time inside Sam’s head.
Vane nodded. “I’ll send it over.”
She felt bloodthirsty and frustrated. “I wish the bastard was here on Earth. I hate not being able to catch him ourselves. This is the sixth abduction we know of; why haven’t the Guardians stopped him?”
Vane’s jaw tensed before he ground out, “Yeah, Conn’s lack of sharing and the ‘got it covered’ or ‘thanks, asshole’ is grating on my nerves too.”
Vane and Erik had been hacking the Guardian systems for years now, and it hadn’t likely put them in the Guardians’ good graces, which might be why Conn wasn’t sharing anything with them.
The hacking had been in the form of a prank, like stripper grams, but some of her brother’s antics had to do with information gathering on what the Guardians were doing.
A year ago, when one of Alex’s head hops led them to believe the victims were being sent to Tetartos, she, Vane and Erik had decided they needed to get the information to the Guardians. Tetartos was the one location they couldn’t investigate without it being a one-way trip because of a confinement spell placed on the Realm of exiled Immortals.
Alex blew out a breath; she was nearly drained. Even the small amount of energy her brothers were infusing her with wasn’t helping much.
A flash of anxiety ran through her, tensing her muscles and setting her nerves on edge. It was the telltale symptom that came with a knowing. She felt compulsion sweep over her, dilating her eyes.
They needed to find Sam. “We need to get to the female’s apartment.”
She looked up into her brother’s fierce eyes and mentally relayed the location and apartment number Sam had given her.
Vane gave her a nod and paused before saying, “I’ll get on the laptop now and see what I can find on her.” He rubbed her back again before leaving the room, headed for their office. Hopefully, Conn would be able to decipher the details Alex had seen while inhabiting Sam’s mind.
Erik studied her face. Concern was flickering in his pale blue eyes, and it tightened her chest. Taking another big breath, she said, “I wish I could go back to her. Get more information.” Unfortunately, she had never been able to return after hopping into someone’s mind.
As she got up and straightened the clothes she’d thrown on, she realized a Kermit T-shirt and yoga shorts were not a good look for breaking in to a human’s apartment.
“I’m gonna go change. I’ll meet you in the office. Vane will have the visuals we need by then. I’ll see if I can feel anything with my psychometrics when we get there.” It was a weaker skill, but she could sometimes get a vision off an object, which might come in handy at Sam’s place. Unfortunately, in the other cases of missing females, their abductors hadn’t left a trace. Either Alex’s power hadn’t worked with whoever was taking them, or they made sure never to touch anything that they didn’t take with them when they left. The strong pull to get to Sam’s had Alex hopeful that one of their skills would help track her and get her back.
Something would come from seeing the apartment. She wouldn’t have a knowing if she weren’t able to do something.
She rolled her shoulders as she headed through the living room, still not feeling quite like herself. She needed to shake off the effects of head-hopping fast.