CHAPTER 21

~ Embracing Destiny ~

 

“Well, fuck!” Nyle snarls.  “What the hell was that?”

Both men are momentarily disorientated by the remnants of the vision, but the fog of confusion instantly clears with thoughts of their female.  They both look down at Callie lying unconscious in their arms, only to gasp at the bloody scratches, scrapes, and deeper wounds that mar her fair skin.  Callie is deathly pale and her respirations are shallow as though in a deep sleep. 

“That was not just a vision,” Kazar snarls ferociously, stating the obvious, as he grabs a clean hand towel from the rack to staunch the trickle of blood flowing from the deepest wound he can see on his mate’s body.  “That was some kind of fucking psychic attack!”  He effortlessly and tenderly moves Callie to lie her on the floor so that he can attend to her injuries.

“I’m calling Blood,” Nyle says as he digs his phone from his back pocket to hit the preset number to make the call.  He pushes the speaker button on the phone and tosses the device onto the vanity countertop and then retrieves a first aid kit from under the sink.

When the call connects after five rings, Blood’s tense voice barks through the device.  “What the fuck is happening out there?  Coyote just called me and said some kind of fucking psychic attack just knocked him on his ass!  The same fucking thing happened to the other five guards.”

“We don’t know what happened,” Kazar shouts over his shoulder.  “We got sucked into some kind of vision, or at least we thought it was just a vision, until we came out of it and found our female unconscious and wounded.” 

“I’m on my way.  The whole fucking MC will come watch your backs.  You take care of Callie.”  With that last decidedly unnecessary command, Blood disconnects the call.

Kazar begins to gently pat Callie’s face trying to wake her, when Nyle produces smelling salts from the first aid kit.  Kazar quickly snaps the container under Callie’s nose and the foul stench of ammonia sears the vampire and shifter’s sensitive olfactory tissues, but they both smile wanly as their female begins to stir and sputter.  They watch, feeling helpless and filled with impotent rage, as their female’s eyelashes flutter and she moans as though in pain.

She comes up out of her mindless state on the offensive.  Their stoic, reserved female is gone, having been replaced by a dangerous hellcat.  She’s fighting back against an unseen foe, landing several painful blows on her males before their quiet words and calming touches assure her she is safe. 

“That fucking bitch!” Callie rants as she struggles to sit up from her position.  “I will tear her limb from limb!  I will crush her bones and devour her innards!”

“Easy, jǫru-fægir!” Nyle coaxes as he tries to sooth her. 

“Damned straight, I am a fucking warrior.  And that cunt Dysnomia will rue the day she launched a mind fuck at me and mine.”  Callie effortlessly leaps to her feet despite the ungainly bulk of her pregnant belly and declares; “Get out, please.  I need a moment to gather my thoughts.”  Without conscious thought, her hands are protectively laid over the baby in her body.

“Callie…” Kazar begins.

“Just leave the room, maritus.”  His heart nearly melts when she calls him husband, but he’s too worried about his female to really enjoy the endearment.  A bit of their old Callie returns to her expression and her eyes shine with true affection and a plea for understanding.  “You can wait just outside the door.  But I need to sort through everything in my head right now, and I cannot concentrate with you two hovering over me.” 

Her expression softens and she looks from one mate to another.  “Just give me ten minutes.  I’ve no idea how I know this, but I have no doubt in my mind that Dysnomia cannot launch another attack right now.  She threw everything she had at us with that last little stunt.  But I need to gather my thoughts and wash the blood and sweat from my body.” 

When she looks down at her naked form, her would be lovers do the same and both gasp in shocked amazement to see that all of the wounds, even the deeper ones, have healed.  But there is still crusted blood and sweat all over her, leaving her feeling filthy and in dire need of that bath.

“Ten minutes,” she assures confidently.  With great reluctance her men kiss her cheek and move to do as bidden.  “I’ll be alright,” Callie assures them as they leave the room.  “Just ten minutes.  I promise.”

Once the door closes silently Callie looks around the bathroom.  She’s still feeling unsettled because she has no doubt that the attack was launched from some future moment.  The scene outside of the solarium was definitely mid-summer.  Even though she does not understand magick that can do such a thing, she has no doubt that the attack was very real.  A desperate effort to lash out at Callie before she came into her true strength.

Feeling a bit confused and weary, she looks down at the blood and grime on her body and knows that the attack was indeed real and meant to destroy her before she could give birth to her child.  Her hands protectively caress her belly and she vowed to keep her daughter safe, because she has no doubt that the baby is truly what Dysnomia was after.  She was trying to kill the child.  The child that the beast had kept behind her and would have given her life to protect.

The pieces of the puzzle begin to slip into place for Callie as she steps into the very warm bath and sighs at the soothing feeling of the hot water and the luxuriously scented salts Nyle used.  She finally understands, at least in part, her destiny and it is truly mind blowing.  But, for just a second, she allows herself to savor the care her males show her.  She revels in the connection that solidified when she claimed their mouths, and their souls as her own.  There is no doubt in Callie’s mind, she has well and truly begun the process of claiming her mates and needs to finish the claiming immediately.  The barest hint of a plan begins to form in her mind.  When her womb clenches so painfully that it steals her breath away, Callie tenderly caresses her belly and whispers assurances to her unborn daughter.  “Soon, my darling girl.  Very soon.”

Moving quickly and efficiently to clean her hair and body of all traces of blood and sweat, Callie knows there isn’t a moment to waste.  After she rises from the tub to wrap up in a towel, she notices her pink daisy bra is ripped to shreds and bloody.  She shakes her head.  Not quite sure how that happened, but a vague idea is forming in the back of her mind as she reaches out mentally to connect with the ruby beast who defended her child. 

“Soon!  My child, very soon!” A powerful and familiar voice booms in Callie’s mind as she dries her body before quickly applying lotion and brushing her teeth.  The promise did a lot to reassure Callie and she wraps the giant bath towel around her body.  Just as she begins to struggle with trying to comb out the tangles in her rapidly drying hair, there is a sharp rap on the bathroom door, followed by Nyle’s bellow.  “It’s been ten minutes!”  With that declaration the door opens with such force Callie is surprised it remained on its hinges.

“I’m fine,” she breathes out in exasperation.  Not bothering to look away from the mirror as she struggles with the tangled mass that is her hair.  She was in such a hurry to wash up and get out of the tub that she simply forgot to use conditioner.  Now she is paying the price for the oversight as she tries to work the comb through the tangles.  With a funny little human growling noise, Callie tugs hard on the comb as it becomes wrapped up in a particularly knotted mass. 

“Easy, my love,” Kazar soothes gently and takes the comb from her determined grasp.  “You will yank all of that lovely cinnamon shaded hair from your head.”  Callie stares blankly at her male and wonders what he means.  A quick glance back at the mirror plainly reveals her hair is the same old mousey brown it has always been, and yet, Kazar calls it cinnamon.  She can’t help but smile.  Cinnamon sounds much more appealing than mousey brown. 

She watches as Kazar lays the comb on the vanity top and retrieves a bottle from the cabinet above the sink.  He squirts a tiny amount of a sweet smelling oil into the palm of his hands and begins to work the oil into her tangled strands.  After a bit, he gets a touch more of the oil and resumes his ministrations.  “This is pure Argan oil,” he says in answer to her unspoken query.  “I import it directly from Morocco.”  He grins into the mirror and adds; “Untainted with the flowery essence of orange blossoms and fragrant sage, it is also very tasty on bread or drizzled over couscous.”  He gives his youngest mate a smile that lets her know he is simply trying to diffuse the tense situation about to explode with their shifter mate.

Callie simply smiles lovingly at her sexy vampire, enjoying his ministrations and the scent of the oil.  It reminds her of Kazar and she realizes he must use the substance on his own glossy black hair.

After a few moments, he retrieves the comb and easily works the tangles from her long hair and braids the mass into a long thick braid which he ties off with a covered band designed for the purpose.  He releases the thick braid that falls down her back and places his comforting hands on her shoulders.  “Feel better after having a moment to yourself?”  At her nod, she hears a derisive snort come from behind and she looks up to see the reflection of Nyle leaning against the wall opposite of the wall with the mirror and her heart sinks.

“Got something you need to say, wolf?” Her tone isn’t taunting but it isn’t hesitant either.

“You should not have kicked us out of here.  It is our right to care for our female.”

Callie snorts, rolls her eyes and turns to face Nyle head on.  “Is that right?”  He nods mulishly.  “And what of my rights?  Do my rights and needs fall secondary to yours?”

He blanches at the implied accusation in her question.  He uncrosses his arms and allows his hands to rest limply at his side.  “Never,” he asserts quietly, but looks down as she approaches him.  “I don’t know what came over me.  I was livid you sent us away.”

Callie cups his face tenderly and kisses his lips with true affection and a dash of the white hot sexual heat which flares every single time she looks at either male.  “I told you, I simply needed a bit of space to sort things out.  I can’t do that when my sexy males are distracting me.”  Nyle opens his mouth, likely to protest, but the sounds coming from the hallway distract him. 

“They are getting restless,” Nyle says with a hard look at his male.  Kazar shrugs as though it is of no consequence and looks to Callie, as though waiting to hear their next move.

Callie doesn’t disappoint.  “Let me get dressed and we will go.”  She turns for the door, and asks while on the move; “I assume that Blood and Morrígan are both out there?”  At Kazar’s affirmative reply she nods and opens the bathroom door to stride for the closet.  “Good.  Very good.  I am ready to get this show on the road.” 

She darts into the closet and quickly dresses in a matching white bra and pantie set, a bright pink pair of yoga pants, and a white tee shirt from a concert featuring a local country music festival which she attended last fall.  She retrieves a pair of socks from the built in drawer and her running shoes from the floor of the closet before she moves to sit on the bed to put them on.

Kazar and Nyle are watching her move as graceful as a gazelle with obvious power and confidence in every motion.  They look at each other and wonder just what is happening with their female.  When she arises effortlessly from the bed and strides towards the door, Nyle’s question doesn’t even slow her down.

“Get this show on the road?” Nyle demands.  “Just what are you planning in that beautiful brain of yours, Callie Emma Boyd?”

She pauses long enough to look over her shoulder at her males.  “Embracing our destiny, and then we are finally going to take this fight to the assholes who have made my existence a misery for five centuries.”

She whips open the bedroom door as her shocked males stare at each other in dumbfounded stupefaction.  “Well, you heard our mate…” Kazar begins.

“Let’s go embrace our destiny,” Nyle completes the thought and they join their female in the hallway who is grinning at Blood and Morrígan.

When Nyle and Kazar come to stand behind her, Callie extends her open hand, palm up, toward the Brythonic goddess of war and says; “Let me have them, please.”

“Bout fucking time,” the redhead beams as she retrieves three small gemstones from her front pocket and deposits them in Callie’s open palm.  A glittering ruby, a gleaming sapphire, and a radiant cut obsidian jewel lie in her palm, capturing and refracting the artificial lighting in an unnatural manner.  Callie’s delicate fingers close around the stones and she smiles broadly before turning her attention to Blood.

“Please create a portal to the cavern of the Red Earth Dwellers.  I will need their ancient magick to spark the transformation.”  Blood simply nods and does as bidden, leaving Kazar and Nyle to look on in confusion.  When the portal opens, Blood and Morrígan precede Callie, walking through the magickal doorway.  Nyle snags her arm as she steps forward to follow. 

“I thought it wasn’t safe for pregnant females to be transported?”  His concern for her and her baby warms Callie’s heart, but she has little time to reassure the male.

“This is very different magick.  It’s perfectly safe.”  She can see the doubt on her soon to be mate’s face and smiles to reassure him.  “I don’t have time to try to explain how I know what I know, but we need to go through this portal right now.  The time has come for us to complete our mating claim in the presence of the most ancient magick of this realm.”  With a quick glance and smile at Kazar, she turns and steps through the portal.

“To embrace our destiny,” Nyle mutters as he follows with Kazar directly on his heels.

“Destiny,” the ancient vampire echoes his mate’s assertion.