The address that Austin had texted me turned out to be a tattoo parlor named “Ink Bats”, and thankfully it seemed to be open.

After hours of sending messages and getting nothing back, I’d decided to pull what was likely to be a stupid-as-fuck move and sneaked out of the apartment in the dead of night to drive some fourteen-odd hours from the Omega Base to San Francisco. By the time I’d arrived, I was tired, cranky, and my phone had lost all battery from the guys blowing it up with calls and messages. Granted I did have a charger in my car, and had recharged it, but that was the excuse I was going to stick with.

When they’d first noticed me missing, probably when Caleb got home and didn’t find me in bed, I’d answered their calls. But they hadn’t been happy accepting my vague answers on where I was, so I’d simply stopped answering.

A happy bell chimed as I pushed open the door, and a young girl behind the reception desk looked up.

“Hi, hon. You got an appointment?” she asked, eyeing me up and down as though it wasn’t believable I was here for a tattoo.

“No, I’m looking for a friend of mine, Austin King?” I hesitated only because he hadn’t responded to any of my recent messages, so I had no idea if he was still here or not. The girl’s expression seemed to frost over, and she gave me another look.

“He’s busy.” The sneer on her face spoke volumes. She clearly had a crush on my frustrating friend.

“Okay, well he asked me to come here, and I just drove, like, fourteen hours, so I think you can move your scrawny ass, go back there, and tell him Kit’s here.” I paused. “Christina. I mean, tell him Christina is here.” The girl glared at me with a look that could fucking murder, and I snarled at her, “Go!”

Okay, so that probably wasn’t the most polite I had ever been, but she scurried off her stool and into the back of the shop, so whatever. It got the job done.

“You’re Kit?” A handsome man, covered in tattoos, asked. He’d just come through from the back of the shop, where the buzzing of tattoo guns could be heard, and I looked at him with suspicion.

“Yeah, and you are?” My arms remained firmly crossed, and I didn’t take the hand he offered to me to shake. His ink was stunning but interspersed with runes and symbols as well as the usual animals, flowers, and so on.

“I’m Yoshi; I own Ink Bats,” the guy said with a smile that reminded me a bit of a shark.

“Yoshi?” I repeated. “Master Yoshi?”

“Ah yes, that’s what they call me around here because I’m considered an Ink Master. You’re here looking for Austin?” His smile didn’t waver for a second, but it also didn’t reach his eyes. Something... wasn’t right.

“Yeah, he texted me to come and meet him here? You know, I was expecting someone older... Austin mentioned you’d had a stroke?” I narrowed my eyes at the guy who couldn’t have been a day over twenty-five, and a cold chill ran down my spine. I should know, better than most, that appearance was no indication of age when it came to supernaturals.

“Silly misunderstanding.” The guy, Yoshi, smiled his shark-like smile. “Austin’s in the back. If you’ll follow me?”

“Sure... um, just one sec?” I held up a finger and slipped my phone from my pocket. As quickly as possible, I copy-pasted the address from Austin’s message and sent it in a group text to all of the guys, Vali included. If nothing else, it’d give them a starting point when looking for my body.

“So, I don’t think Austin ever mentioned you until a couple of days ago,” I said, following the tattooed man through his busy shop. There had to have been at least twelve artists all at work on clients, and the art they were producing was simply divine. That certainly answered my question on where the guys had all gotten their ink done.

“He didn’t? I’m offended!” Yoshi chuckled. “I’ve known Austin and Caleb since they were about twelve years old. Caleb was never much interested in tattooing, but Austin... Well, that boy just has a natural-born talent for it, don’t you think?”

“Uh, he does?” I questioned, and Yoshi paused, looking back at me.

“Surely you’ve seen his work? I thought you were close with his team?” He raised his eyebrows at me, and I nodded slowly.

“Right, yeah, of course. I never realized...” Well, now that it had been pointed out, it was pretty damn obvious. The flawless artistry on all of them, the way the boys caged up when I asked about the tattoos, Wesley’s smug grin when he suggested I get one from the same artist. “He surely didn’t tattoo himself though?”

“No, his are mostly my own work. He was my apprentice for a number of years, you know.” Yoshi looked genuinely proud of the fact, and I didn’t blame him. Business was clearly booming, too, based on how busy his shop was.

“So... I’m confused why I’m here,” I admitted as I followed behind him down a corridor to a short flight of stairs leading up at the back. “Austin sent me a kind of odd message asking me to come here. But it really doesn’t look like he’s in trouble...” My words trailed off as I entered the room at the top of the stairs, and Yoshi closed the door behind me.

“Well, fuck,” I cursed. “I stand corrected.”

In the middle of the studio apartment, tied to a chair and looking severely pissed off, was Austin. Beneath his chair, a circle of runes dusted the floor with what looked like glitter glue but was probably some magical, mystical shit.

The solid click of the door locking behind me tore my gaze from Austin’s, and I edged away from Yoshi.

“What exactly is going on here?” I asked cautiously, maintaining a safe distance between myself and the man who, I was fairly certain, was responsible for tying my friend to a chair. “Aus?”

Caleb’s identical twin glared at me, fury sparking behind his emerald green eyes, but he said nothing. A faded gold design on the side of his neck grabbed my attention though, and I frowned.

“Austin won’t answer; I apologize. I needed him to be quiet while I called Caleb and got your number.” Yoshi grinned again, like he wanted congratulations on his brilliant plan.

“What the hell are you planning on doing to us?” I demanded, keeping my weight evenly spread into a fighter’s stance. Fucking no one was catching me unaware this time.

“To you? Absolutely nothing. To harm the only Ban Dia with access to restorative magic would be... well, stupid doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what that’d be.” Yoshi shook his head like he hadn’t just lured me into a room and locked the door. Or like he didn’t currently have my friend tied to a chair and most likely spelled somehow.

“Okay, so...” I glanced at Austin, who still just looked pissed off. Not scared or hurt, just furious. Strangely, I found this a comforting emotion from him. “What are we doing here, then?”

“You’re going to repair Austin’s ties to the magic.” Yoshi said this so matter-of-factly it was almost laughable. “He was one of the unfortunate ones born to a plagued family, already severed from the magical world despite being a pure-blooded Mage. I need you to fix that so I can retire.”

“Mage?” I squawked, shocked as all get-out. I had just wrapped my brain around the whole Cole-and-Vali-as-dragons thing and really hadn’t taken the time to consider what the rest of my dianoch might turn out to be. I didn’t even fully comprehend which species of supernaturals really existed and which were fairytales, so to find Austin—and I assumed Caleb, too—were Mages... Stunned was one word for it.

Meeting Austin’s angry green eyes again, I frowned. He knew. He clearly knew what he was. For how long?

“No,” I replied to Yoshi, not taking my eyes from Austin but steeling my spine in anger. Austin’s eyes softened for a moment, almost in sadness, or regret, but I knew him better than that.

“No?” Yoshi repeated, like he’d heard me incorrectly.

“You heard me. No. I get the feeling Austin has known about his heritage for a while now?” I snapped the words out, still holding Austin’s clear green gaze and seeing no apology in it.

Motherfucker.

“Yes, of course. I did just tell you he’s been my apprentice since he was twelve, did I not?” Yoshi sounded vexed. Like I gave a shit.

“Well, then, if Austin had wanted me to change him, he would have said something sooner. He also wouldn’t be tied to a damn chair with a silencing spell on him. Would he?” I finally broke my stare down with Austin and glanced at Master Yoshi.

The expression he wore made my blood run cold.

“Perhaps I didn’t phrase myself quite right,” he murmured in a dangerously quiet voice. “I wasn’t asking you. I was telling. You will heal him, change him, whatever you want to call it, because he is one of your bonded guardians. You have no choice in the matter.”

“I don’t understand,” I admitted, backing another step away from Yoshi and in front of Austin. Hopefully if this maniac pulled out a gun or something, I’d have time to get in the way of it.

“Of course, you don’t. You’re just a baby. So take this as a practical lesson.” He held up a hand, palm out toward Austin, and spoke a simple word.

That was it. Just one hand up, one word.

Wetness hit me in the back of the neck, and I whirled around to face Austin. Still tied to the chair, his throat looked as if it had been slashed with an invisible machete or something, and blood poured from the gaping wound that was his neck.

Acting on pure instinct and fear, I threw myself at him, my hands clamping the edges of his wound together in a futile attempt to stop the blood from flowing while my magic slammed through me with the force of a damn freight train. Whatever the feeling of his supernatural power was, I couldn’t make it out from the feeling of his blood rushing between my fingers and the frayed edges of skin, tissue, and tendons as I tried to hold everything in place.

“Fuck, fucking fuck, shit, fuck,” I cursed and willed my magic out faster. I had no idea if it worked on the dead, and I wasn’t willing to test the theory out.

Austin’s eyes held mine as I swore, and I could taste the salty wetness of my tears at the edges of my mouth. He still didn’t look afraid, that fucking wanker. His gaze was steady and confident, like he had no concerns about my ability to save him from this bloody mess.

“Trust you to fucking get your throat slashed, you.... argh!” The magic was pounding through my body and into Austin, but still my hands slipped in his blood, and I kept needing to readjust my grip to try and hold pressure or hold the edges together or something. My body sagged as I poured more and more energy and will into healing him, and finally the blood began slowing. The raw wound began knitting back together and gradually began looking less like Austin’s head was hanging by a thread.

My knees buckled, and I let them go, resting my weight on Austin’s lap while keeping my grip around his slick, crimson throat.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, feeling a wash of fear and panic and sheer sadness. He’d known he wasn’t human, for probably longer than I had, but said nothing. Aside from the fact that I wanted to fucking kill him for keeping quiet, I also felt overwhelmingly sorry that this healing was going to change him when he so clearly didn’t want that to happen.

His gaze held mine still, and I saw the reassurance there that he didn’t blame me. Not that he would have any right to, fucking bastard. But still, I felt guilty and responsible. Without me, he could have lived out his days human.

Skin fused back together bit by bit until his throat was whole once more, and I kept my hands in place, pushing more magic into him until I was satisfied that all traces of the wound were gone. Before I withdrew my magic, I felt it do a sweep through the rest of him, and I recognized it as having done the same thing on all my previous healings, like the magic was sentient and checking that all was fixed before it departed.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered again, my hands falling limp from his neck and my forehead dropping to his shoulder as my body went boneless.

“Don’t apologize, Princess,” he replied in a husky voice. “I should have seen this coming.”

“Is he gone?” I whispered back, meaning Yoshi. The fucking Mage. What the fuck?

“Yeah, baby, he took off almost immediately. He’ll be watching somehow, though. Making sure you didn’t actually let me die.” Austin’s face buried into my hair, and we stayed like that for a long moment.

“Um, I guess I should untie you, huh?” I murmured, not really ready to move just yet. Not really sure I could move just yet. I was seated straddling him with my head resting on his blood-slick neck, and he was still bound to the chair.

“Please. Preferably before you pass out?” His voice was gruff, but there was almost a level of concern in there. Almost.

Hands braced on his chest, I pushed myself up to standing, wobbling like I’d had one too many vodkas and then catching myself on his shoulder.

“You okay?” he checked, and I nodded, not trusting myself to speak without vomiting. The room was spinning dangerously, and I could already feel my stomach churning like I was on a ship. I hated ships. Sea sickness was a real damn thing and not in the least bit fun.

“He will have tied those ropes professionally tight; you might need a knife or something,” Austin suggested, and I nodded again. Holding his knee for support, I reached down and slid a deadly sharp blade from my boot and showed it to him.

“That’ll do.” He grinned a tiny half grin. “You’re learning, Princess.”

Taking slow, deliberate breaths to calm my rolling stomach, I shuffled around behind him and sliced through the intricate web of ropes that held him immobile. As they fell away, he groaned and rubbed his wrists. My gaze had snagged on the glittering pattern around the chair, though, and I reached out my toe, digging it into the sparkling substance and dragging a line back to me, messing up the runes and breaking the circle. The air in the room seemed to compress and pop, like we had been in a bubble or something, and I raised my eyebrows at Austin.

“What the fuck was that?” I whispered, and he grimaced.

“It was a spell, and you just broke it. I didn’t know your kind could do that, but it’s certainly handy to know.” He stood and stretched, cracking his neck.

“We will be discussing that. Later though. When I’m not about to pass out. Okay?” I pointed at him sternly, but there was suddenly three of him, and the floor was rushing up to meet my face fast.

The sharp, copper tang of blood filled my nostrils, and I blinked awake again, meeting a pair of emerald green eyes only inches from my face.

“Hey, baby girl, stick with me. You just need a recharge, right?” Austin murmured softly, and a pathetic sounding whimper slipped out of my throat. “Try not to slap me when you regain your strength.”

His hand slid up to gently cup the back of my neck, and his lips touched mine. His kiss was so light, so soft, it was like he was barely touching me at all, and it was the worst kind of torture. A small sound of frustration worked its way out of me, and I moved my head a fraction closer, deepening the kiss into something more satisfying.

Austin met my demands, his lips caressing mine in an unhurried dance of emotions, like he was trying to tell me something that I just wasn’t getting. Maybe I was taking too many knocks to the head or something, or maybe I just didn’t want to read into it too much for fear that it wasn’t what I hoped for. Either way, his kiss was helping. Everywhere our skin touched I could feel the magic tingling between us, soaking back into my skin and boosting my energy enough that I no longer needed to vomit.

“This isn’t enough, is it?” he asked, pulling back from my lips and looking me in the eye.

“Not really,” I murmured back in a weak voice. “But that’s okay; so long as I have enough to function, I can probably recharge in my sleep or some shit.”

Austin stared back at me for a long moment, his eyes searching mine for... I didn’t even know what.

“Fuck, Princess, you’re a mess,” he muttered, tightening his grip on my face and pulling me back to him. His lips slammed into mine with a ferocity that matched his personality much better than the gentle kiss he had just given me. Our teeth clashed and he forced my lips apart, thrusting his tongue into my mouth and meeting mine in a battle of wills.

With a sexy, frustrated groan, Austin moved over me, pressing me into the floor and pinning me with his hips. His hardened length crushed between us, and I gasped against his mouth, wrapping my legs up and around his waist to pull him tighter against me.

Needing more, I slid my hands underneath his soaking, blood-covered T-shirt and grabbed onto his muscular sides while my lips engaged his in some sort of wild tango.

“Fucking Christ,” he swore, breaking free from my lips and kissing down the side of my neck, then sucking and biting at my pulse point until I was shaking with ecstasy.

“What the fuck?” Caleb’s voice dumped over the two of us like a bucket of ice water, and Austin shot up like someone had just lit a stick of dynamite under him.

“Are you two okay? What the hell happened?” Caleb demanded, staring wide-eyed at his twin—soaked from neck to knee in blood—at the overturned chair amidst purple runes and puddles of blood, and then me, lying on my back in the middle of it all, panting like I’d just run a marathon, and doubtlessly covered in just as much blood as Austin. Now that I thought about it, I could feel it crusting in my hair.

“Yoshi took matters into his own hands.” Austin’s voice was clipped and angry, and I had no doubt he was relieved his brother had shown up when he did. “Christina healed me, but Yoshi probably didn’t need to do quite such a thorough job on the killing blow. It took a lot of magic. Oh, and what the fuck had you so distracted that you didn’t notice Yoshi call Christina ‘Kit’ on the phone?”

“So you two were...” Caleb raised an eyebrow at the two of us and gave me a knowing look. Even in the state I was in, I noticed he’d ignored Austin’s question about being distracted.

Fuck him; this is so not the time for teasing.

“She was practically comatose, so yeah. Recharge. But you’re here now, bro, so I can go clean up. Shower’s all yours, I’ll use the bathroom downstairs.” He didn’t wait for a response from either of us before slamming out of the apartment, leaving me more than a little speechless.

Obviously, I knew I wasn’t his favorite person on the planet, but did he seriously need to act like I was some sort of fucking leper? He quite literally could not have taken off faster if he had tried, and more to the point, I was not some piece of meat that he could just hand off to his brother to finish up.

Fuck. Him.

Caleb held a hand out to me to help me up from the floor, but I batted it aside and pushed myself up.

“Don’t even,” I hissed at him. “You think I didn’t notice the smoking ring of fucking Mage runes that you just appeared in?” I pointed to the evidence near the front door, where it was quickly fading but still visible. “I am beyond furious at you right now, Caleb King.”

“Kitty Kat,” he sighed. “It’s not what you think.”

“Oh, it’s not? So you didn’t know all along that you were a Mage just in need of healing or that supernaturals existed or even what I fucking am?” I got up in his face, spitting mad and glaring daggers.

“I didn’t know what you are. I swear. If I had, I would have told you. We just thought you were a shifter of some sort and maybe Blood Moon had done some weird testing on you when you were a kid.” He reached out and took my shoulders in his hands, peering into my eyes. “I promise you, Kitty Kat. Yoshi taught us about moon phases and runic writing and alchemy—things that we didn't have the power to do anything with and I assumed we never would. I had no idea what was happening with the six of us until Victor explained it. I really never even listened when Yoshi taught us shit anyway, so it was all just a bit of a vague memory.”

“Why didn’t you say anything after the crash? You knew that you’d changed, that you were a Mage now. Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. His secrets fucking hurt. Why had he not felt like he could confide in me?

He heaved a sigh, dropping my gaze. “Honestly, I don’t know. I never truly believed the hype about Aus and I being these fucking destined ones in the Mage world. No new Mages have been born or created or whatever in, like, half a millennia, so it all just seemed a bit... far-fetched. You know? But then you healed me, and I knew. So I went to get help, to learn how to get some control in case I ended up hurting someone.”

“But why didn’t you just tell me?” I yelled, slapping him in the chest out of frustration. “I get that this is not ideal. It’s not what you guys wanted and I didn’t ask you to become my guardians, and I am sorry for that. I didn’t know how it worked until it was all too late. So, whatever, I get it. But you should have told me what was going on or at least told River. We’re supposed to be a team, remember?”

“I know; I should have... can you please let me help you now?” He gave me a crooked smile and peeled a piece of blood-crusted hair from my cheek. “You could really go with a shower, and you know how good I am at soaping.”

“I think I’ll be fine alone.” I pursed my lips, frowning at him. “You still lied to me. You’ve known about the existence of supernaturals from day one, and you never said a fucking word.” I glanced around the small apartment and spotted the bathroom. “I’ll take a shower and then sleep on the way back to Seattle.”

“Kitty Kat,” he groaned as I made my way into the bathroom with shaking knees. “Come on, you need the magic boost.”

“No, fuck you!” I snapped back, like the really mature twenty-one-year-old I was. God, that was something to get used to, suddenly jumping from nineteen to twenty-one in the space of days.

Storming into the bathroom like I wasn’t about to collapse in an exhausted heap, I slammed the door behind me and turned on the water.

Water pounded down, steaming up the bathroom, but I needed a moment to catch my breath, so I sat my ass down on the side of the tub. My mind was reeling with this new influx of information, and I was stinging with the knowledge that both Caleb and Austin had relevant information that they’d chosen not to share with me.

But why? Did they not trust me enough?

Fucking hell, these were two guys that my stupid, trusting subconscious had chosen to be my forever companions, and they had been keeping some huge ass secrets.

How was I even supposed to get past this? Obviously it was impossible to change the past, but I couldn’t just forgive and forget something of this magnitude so damn easily.

Ugh, why couldn’t I have it easy and be a damn human?

When I eventually dragged my butt out of the shower, my skin was pruning a little and I was quivering with exhaustion. Also I was seriously wishing I had taken Caleb up on his offer to help soap my back because the small energy exchange Austin had given me wasn’t nearly enough.

“Vixen!” Cole barked, as I stepped out of the bathroom wrapped in Master Yoshi’s bathrobe. My clothes had been pretty covered with Austin’s blood, and I shuddered at the thought of putting them back on again, so this was as good as it got.

“Cutie, when did you get here?” I asked through a yawn, and he wrapped me in a huge hug.

“We took the Omega chopper as soon as you sent the address. Well, we were sort of already on our way, but the address helped.” He huffed and held me tight.

“How do you mean?” I puzzled, not sure if it was just my fuzzy, tired brain not making sense of things.

“Ah, Wes tracked your phone, so we knew what general direction you were heading in,” Cole admitted, and I nodded against his chest. It made sense, and I expected nothing less from Wes.

“Are you okay, love?” River asked softly, and I pulled back from Cole’s chest to look at him.

“Yeah, fine. This was all Austin.” I waved a hand at the mess of blood and runes all over the floor. “Did he and Caleb fill you in?”

The twins were both at the little kitchen table with Wes, and both looked like they were in sour moods. No doubt River had been reading them the riot act before I had gotten out of the shower. Damn right, too; they both fucking deserved it. Secretive bastards.

“They did, and I think we can discuss it further when we get back to headquarters. Are you okay to head back? Or do you need...” River cocked his head in question, his golden eyes full of concern, and I shook my head.

“I’m fine, yeah; let’s head back. I just need to find something other than this robe to wear. My clothes are gonners.” I cringed at the thought of putting the dried blood–encrusted garments back on, even though it was becoming almost like a fashion statement for me these days.

“Here, I found these in the closet,” Wesley piped up, handing me a pair of sweatpants and a hoody. “I figure they might work? At least it has to be better than a bathrobe, right?”

“Thanks, Wes.” I smiled gratefully, taking the clothes from him. “I’ll just be a sec.”

I quickly retreated into the bathroom once more and dressed in sweats that were way too big for me, but easy enough to tighten with the drawstring. My reflection in the mirror showed me just how drawn and exhausted I looked, but it wasn’t even half of how bad I was feeling. Damn stubborn pride.

It didn’t feel right accepting any sort of sexual contact from Caleb when I was this mad at him, though, and Austin sure as shit made it seem like a chore. Of course, River and Cole were here now, and Wes... but I was just tired as shit and not in the mood.

“Ready,” I announced, leaving the bathroom again with my wad of bloody clothes in my hand. “Please tell me we can take the helicopter back? That was a long ass drive down here. Maybe I can come back for my car another day?”

“Of course we can, love. I’ll arrange for your car to be driven back to base.” River nodded, giving a tiny lip-twitch of a smile but tucking my hand inside his own as he led the way out of the apartment. “We have a lot to discuss when we’re back. A lot.” His glare speared the twins, and they both dodged his eye contact like naughty puppies.

“Vixen, you need to call Vali,” Cole advised me, handing my phone to me from where it must have dropped sometime during the mess that was Austin’s almost-death. It had little flecks of blood on the screen that I obsessively needed to scratch off with my fingernail before I could use it.

“He almost dragoned out and flew here himself. Maybe just let him know you’re okay?” Cole looked torn between wanting to be annoyed at his brother’s extreme reaction and impressed that he clearly cared.

“I’ll shoot him a text and call tomorrow. I’m wrecked,” I admitted, tapping out a quick message to assure Vali that I was totally fine and there was nothing to be concerned about.

Austin led us out the back door so we didn’t have to all troop through the tattoo shop, and I saw the guys had left a car waiting. There weren’t enough seats for all of us, so I willingly crawled into Wesley’s lap and curled up with his arms around me.

A sigh of relief rushed through me as the little, electric tingles of magic kicked back into gear wherever our skin touched, so I slipped my hands under his hoody to increase the contact. He must have either felt it or sensed what I was doing because he did the same thing to me, and my skin shivered in delight.

“It’s not far to the airstrip, but sleep if you want. I can wake you if I need to,” Wesley murmured in my ear, and I nodded sleepily, already halfway closing my eyes and snuggling my face into his neck.

As I drifted to sleep, I felt his strong fingers stroking little patterns up and down my spine, infusing my body with the magic it needed to recharge and just generally making me feel loved.