Chapter Nineteen

 

 

“I think I need another beer, make sure it has a kick.” Lucca drained the one he was drinking and accepted the second one. His brothers followed his lead.

“I thought the prophecy was iron clad.”

“Nothing is ever iron clad, Raphael.”

“So, we can break it?”

“You broke it the minute you came back in time.”

“That’s not why I came back.”

“You came back to avoid Tempest. How’s that working out for you?”

“Better than I could have ever hoped for.” Dante shot him a smile.

They drew closer to the book looking at the prophecy.

“I understand The Darkness wants us dead, but there is something else that’s trying to kill our mates.” Mick sat back down in his chair taking another swig from his beer.

“I thought it was Aquilo, but it’s not him.”

“Aquilo?” Julian turned to look at him. The others just stared at him.

“He’s some ancient wind god. I thought he might have a problem with Tempest because she can control the wind.”

“He didn’t?”

“Nope, he admired her because he said the wind originates with her.”

“She’s a daughter of the Earth. Whatever that means.”

Lucca nodded at Damon’s words.

“So where does that leave us,” Mick asked.

“Nowhere, all I have is some guy named Harold. He’s the one that captured and tortured me.”

“Tall, dark skin, looks like he could be the star of a vid?”

“Yeah, do you know him?”

“He was one of Jaz’s handlers. He wanted her dead, nothing personal.”

“He wanted me to kill Tempest.”

“He’s not working alone; I saw him when we dealt with the person who tried to kill River.”

“How do we get rid of him?”

They all turned to look at Raphael.

“What? Isn’t that what we would do with any of our enemies or targets?”

There was a slow nod as they began to smile.

“There are four of them. Two females and two males.”

“Then we do what we always do.”

They all turned to look at Dante, who was sitting there.

“We take one out at a time.” Julian’s eyes shined with happiness.

“Bloodthirsty, the lot of you,” Raphael laughed feeling like he had his brothers back.

Lucca’s laughter was cut off as he looked at Mick and Damon.

“Where are your mates?”

“Upstairs with yours. Where else would they be?”

“Shit.” They jumped down from the chairs and turned around to find their mates looking at them laughing.

“Where are you going?” Tempest was smiling, and her eyes were flashing.

“What are you up to menace? I left you upstairs sleeping.”

“This is what happens when you leave me alone.” She walked over to him deliberately making him focus on her ass. His eyes dropped down, and she gave an internal fist pump.

Jaz and River had been right a sexy slow walk had taken his mind off his frustrations. She reached up and placed her hands around his neck before she kissed him nice and long. She was letting everyone know that her knight in shining armor belonged to her.

He kissed her back allowing his tongue to duel with her as she pressed her body against his slowly rubbing.

“You’re up to something,” he said when he broke the kiss.

“Me? I'm as innocent as they come.” She gave him a smile. “We wanted you to know where we were going.”

She stepped back standing with Jaz and Rive like they were a posse.

“Baby, where are you going?” Damon asked River as he came to a stop in front of her.

She crossed her arms and cocked her hip giving him a defiant smile. “To the mall.”

“Tempest, didn’t we try this earlier? You never made it to the mall.”

“We will this time.” She looked at him through narrowed eyes and dared him to disagree with her.

He ran his hand over his forehead before he cocked his head at her. “They say a long life is overrated. Let’s go to the mall.”

She shook her head. “Girl’s only.”

“Who’s driving?”

“I am.” Jaz stuck her arm up in the air like she was inside of a classroom answering a teacher posed question.

The males groaned.

“Hun, this isn’t like driving on our plane.”

“I’ve got it don’t worry about it.”

“I’ve still got your card, so all we need is a vehicle.”

Three sets of eyes stared at Lucca. He turned and looked at his brothers.

“Don’t stare at me. I just popped in,” Damon told him.

The others nodded in agreement.

“I feel like this was planned. What makes you think I have a vehicle? We seem to be leaving them all over the place.”

He could see his Dante’s head moving out of the corner of his eye. “They’re all back in my garage, Aren’t they?”

He nodded. Lucca opened his hand, and a pair of keys appeared.

“Take the one we last used. It has a high safety rating.”

Jaz and River laughed. Tempest threw herself into his arms for another kiss.

“You’re marvelous,” she whispered into his ear before taking the keys.

“When will you be back?”

She turned around to flash Lucca a smile. “When we’re done shopping.” She winked before leaving the kitchen.

“She winked at me? Your mates are corrupting her.”

“Uh-huh, that’s what happening.” Damon laughed before turning back to the prophecy on the table.

“What do we know about their weakness?” Julian was reading the prophecy again. This time he was frowning.

 

*~*~*~*

 

“That was much too easy.”

“I have to agree with River.” They had just turned onto the highway, and none of them could believe that their mates hadn’t tried to keep them in the house.

“They’re up to something. Mick likes to plan when he thinks I’m doing something else. It’s his way of trying to protect me.”

“Damon does that too. Have you any idea how long it took him to tell me we were coming back in time? Like it was a secret. I knew we were coming back when Lucca left the house.”

“Lucca would do anything to keep me safe. If he thinks he can keep me from fighting, then he will try. He still doesn’t understand, the only chance we have of winning is if I am there.”

Tempest watched the road in front of her looking at the ever-changing landscape.

“I don’t think we have to worry. We eliminated every possible lead we had. All that’s left was some male named Harold that tried to get Lucca to kill me.”

“Harold? Was he tall, dark-skinned and looked like a movie star?”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“He used to be my handler in the future.”

“Then how is he here?”

“Because he’s not human. I thought he was human because Roy was human, my other handler. River do you know him?”

“I’ve seen a man that fits your description, but he stayed in the background.”

“So, he has something to do with the two of you, and he actively tried to kill Lucca and me.”

“What does this mean?” Jaz was pulling into a spot in front of the mall.

“It means that he could have been around in the beginning. He may know what happened to me.”

“He may, but I bet he is what happened to you.” River's voice was devoid of emotion as she spoke.

“Can’t be him. Whatever did this to me wasn’t human.”

“Do you think Lucca is human?”

“No, he’s Created with the ability to… Oh.”

“Yeah, I doubt he’s human, and I bet he has the ability to shift.”

“Why?”

“Because we have something they want. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, pondering what it means to be a daughter of the Earth. Follow me.”

They got out the car and followed Jaz to a small area filled with trees, dirt, and flowers. She knelt by a tree and placed her hand in the dirt playing with it. Soon little shoots of grass began to grow as well as flowers.

“That’s amazing.”

“Not really.”

“River?”

She knelt and felt the dryness of the ground. She placed her hands together, and small trickles of water came from her hands until the dry dirt was moist.

“I don’t know what you can do, but I bet you can do something.” River smiled at her.

“Wind.” She held up her hand allowing the wind to converge on the palm of her hand until she had a tiny tornado.

“That’s powerful.”

Jaz nodded. “I think our abilities is what’s attracting them to us.”

“They want to reseed the planet?” What would they want with someone like her that could control the wind? It was a nice parlor trick and could cause problems if she was out to destroy the Earth, but she wasn’t.

“No, they want to destroy the planet. I don’t have it all figured out yet, but if they destroy me, it hinders the planet's ability to heal itself.”

They walked into the mall watching the women around them laughing and having fun.

“Let’s get something to eat. Believe it or not, I’m hungry.” The food court was noisy to be so early in the day.

They got their food and began looking for a place to sit.

“Hey, you can sit with us.”

“Rena?”

“In the flesh. You know Dee, and this is Lorali. The others couldn’t make it, but you’ll meet them soon.”

“Do you just hang out at the mall?”

“Nope, we may have gotten a phone call that a certain person of interest would be here today.”

“Lucca called you.”

“Nope.” Dee shook her head.

“The really top-secret stuff gets done by Dante. You’ll catch on soon enough.”

“He seems nice.” They all laughed.

“What?”

“He’s more than nice Tempest. He has his hands in everything but only because he lives to see his family happy.”

“I live to meet his mate.”

“What if he doesn’t have a mate?”

Rena’s eyes clouded. “That would be the second worst day in my life.”

“What was the first?”

“The day my sister died.”

They sat in silence as they played with the food on their plates.

“No more being sad. It was a long time ago.”

“Rena’s right. Why are we here?” Dee looked around at the expressions on their faces. “Something tells me we are not going to shop.”

“I thought, maybe if we got together away from the males, you could tell me what happened to you. That might help to spur some ideas of what I need to do to be free.”

“I’ll go first.” Jaz told them what happened to her. How it felt to know she was marked for death and didn’t have a say in what was happening.

River grabbed a cup of coffee before she started telling her story. She focused in on the hopelessness of knowing that only one of them could survive.

“You each defeated the enemy. I’m still not sure how you did it after hearing your stories.”

“I think the important part is that they did it.” Rena looked at Tempest.

“I know, never give up and all the things that go along with it. When Harold tried to get Lucca to kill me, I was scared. What if he killed me? After a while, I was more scared that he would die. I knew my life was worthless without him. How could I fall for him so fast? Then I realized something that shook me to my core. I think we both will die.”

“Why do you say that?”

“I would do anything to save him, and I know he would do the same for me.”

“Then we only have one choice.”

Every eye turned to look at Jaz, but it was Tempest that spoke.

“We kill Harold.”