Chapter Twenty-one

“Rena’s not answering.”

“What do you mean she’s not answering?” Sergey immediately tried to get into contact with Lorali.

“She’s not replying, and I take it neither is Lorali.”

Mick and Damon shook their heads no as they left the kitchen.

“Someone should stay here in case they show up.”

“I’ll stay,” Raphael volunteered.

“I’ll stay with him.” Dante smiled at him.

“Not touching that one,” Lucca said under his breath before he left the house.

“Two cars or one,” Julian asked.

“Two.” Aran headed for his SUV.

“Lucca let Julian drive.” Dante was in the doorway watching them. He went back into the house after his statement.

“I don’t have a good feeling.” Lucca handed Julian the keys.

“Since when has Dante been the brother of good feelings?”

“True.” Lucca got in the passenger seat while he watched his other brothers get into the SUV.

Aran and his brother all piled into one SUV.

“Should I be alarmed that we broke up into family groups?” Julian was looking at the other SUV before starting the engine.

“Not family lines, mate lines,” Mick told Julian.

“Huh?”

“We know the mental cadence of River and Jaz better than the Dares. If there’s a tiny bit of a call all of us together have the best chance of picking it up. The same with the Dare’s and their mates.”

“Damon, you’re saying that all of us together act as an amplifier?”

“Yes.”

“That makes sense. It’s the reason when we’re all in the same room we refrain from mental conversation.”

“Now what?” Every eye turned to Lucca.

“How are you handling this?” Damon leaned over the seat to get a better look at him.

“This? Tempest is missing. Is that what you’re talking about?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Why aren’t you more bothered? River is missing, and Jaz is missing. Why are you so calm?”

“We’re not calm. We’re planning who to kill first. I will find River and Mick knows he will find Jaz. There’s no other option, but you and Tempest are just mated, and you don’t have the certainty we have.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Because I’ve walked through hell for her, and I’ll do it again. Julian!”

“I see it!”

In front of them was black smoke coming closer. Julian put the car in reverse, but the smoke came faster until the car was swamped in it.

They reached for the door handle's spilling out the vehicle as they choked.

“Is everyone still with me?” Julian asked sitting on the ground trying to take a clear breath of air.

“Here,” the voices of his brothers rang out.

“I didn’t hear Lucca.” He went back to the vehicle. “He was sitting right next to me but his door is still closed, and he’s not there.”

“I hate The Darkness.” The hardness of Mick’s voice said it all.

“I feel the same.” It was all Damon could choke out before his head hit the ground. The others passed out right after him.

*~*~*~*

“You can run, but you can’t hide.”

Great that’s what he needed some foreign voice in his head talking like he held the keys to the unknown galaxies. Wait, he held the keys so who was the creep talking to him?

Not opening my eyes. If I lie here long enough, it will all be a dream.

“I’m not leaving Lucca so you might as well face me.”

“Where’s Tempest?”

“If you can’t keep up with your mate whose problem is that, not mine.”

“Who are you?”

“Elandra, my job is to make your life miserable.” He bowed before he laughed.

Lucca finally looked at him. He wasn’t going to go away, and The Darkness was going to demand a pound of his flesh rather he liked it or not.

“Who kicked your ass?” Elandra had been worked over by someone who was on the other end of welcome to hell.

“The ass you should be worried about is your own.” He put his hand out and pulled Lucca to his feet without ever touching him.

“Thanks for the hand up.”

He threw him against the wall.

“I needed my spine readjusted aren’t you the nicest.”

“The only reason you’re still alive is because The Darkness has something special in store for you.” He picked him up and dropped him into a pit. “Enjoy.”

All I want is five minutes with him and not to go splash when I hit bottom. He had been falling for what was beginning to feel like hours. Were there bottomless pits? He had never dealt with one before. His momentum increased, and he braced himself for impact.

That hurt but at least he wasn’t dead. He stood on legs that weren’t ready to carry him. He knew he needed to get as far away from the opening as possible. He was in a village, with small houses surrounding him as well as wide-open plains with vegetables and fruits growing.

Where was he? The front doors opened, and females ran out. They were big and small, all of them different colors from different planets.

“He’s here; the awaited one is here.”

They fell at his feet worshiping him like he was a god.

“Pick me.” A blonde woman with a warm smile said to him.

“No, I am the female for you a dark-haired woman said to hum.

“You are mine.” Another female from a different planet said.

They all began to cry out to tell him why they were special. The more they talked; the more Lucca looked for a way of escape this was not going to end well. Their eyes which were staring at him began to change. They were filled with love and devotion, but the more time they spent trying to get his attention they filled with malice.

He took a step backward and then another as they began to rise. Their hands that were empty now reached into what they were wearing to bring out knives. He took one last look at the women surrounding him, pivoted on his heel and began to run.

“You can’t run from us.” It sounded more like a screech than a cry as they began to chase him.

There was no way he was going to outrun them. They knew this area better than he did. He tried to change, to bring out one of his deadlier sides, but he couldn’t reach them. Elandra, the name rolled around in his brain. The Darkness would do whatever it took to make sure that he didn’t survive.

The area was booby trapped he jumped to avoid one trapped and landed directly in another that was weight activated. The rope went around his legs, and he was hanging upside down like he was the Thanksgiving turkey.

“They always think they’re so smart.” One woman smiled as another cut him down. They dragged him to the center of the village. One knelt on his chest with her knife at his throat while the others made sure to tie him down.

“We will kill you slowly.”

“I always thought your story was a myth. It’s a rather harsh awakening to realize you exist.”

“Cut his throat or rip his tongue out.” One female said as she tripped over her r’s the human language a bit complicated for her people.

“He’ll die too fast, and I want to enjoy this kill.” The blonde from earlier spoke up.

“You don’t want to know about yourselves? The first time I heard the story, I was nothing but a young male. Our planet was invaded by a group of males who only wanted a place to rest. They swore that they were running from a group of females out to kill them.

“They found a planet that looked like it was a paradise from space. The perfect place to rest. When they tried to land on the surface, only one seemed to make it. A day or two later another was allowed on the surface. The planet was filled with beautiful, enchanting females. That’s where the story turned deadly. These females desired male blood. They cloaked the need under the false desire to mate.”

“You lie. We have spent our lives looking for our mates. You come down here and pretend you are interested in all of us, making a mockery of the sacred mating rituals, and then you think you should be allowed to leave.”

He looked up to see so many females standing over him that they blocked out the sun casting a large shadow over him.

“The only one lying here is you. You never let more than one male on your planet or ship at a time. There is never another allowed down until the first is killed. You punish every male for something they never did to you, and now it’s my turn.”

The knife at his neck dug deep enough to draw blood, each female took her time using her knife to make shallow cuts. They would take their time killing him.

“You can kill me.”

“I am not fooled by your tricks women terrify you. The thought of mating one of them being committed to one of them makes you ill.”

“You’re right, or at least you use to be right. I didn’t trust females, especially ones that wanted to be my mate, the other part of my heart and soul. Then I met Tempest.” He smiled even as they cut him deeper.

“She’s a runner. The kind that can never stay still for any real period of time. She ran soon after she met me, but I went after her. Then something amazing happened; my menace stopped running. I call her menace; it's the perfect name for her.

“There were things she wasn’t supposed to do, like take one of my childhood memories and turn it into a favorite memory just because she danced in it. She wasn’t supposed to be able to touch my heart, but she did. You can kill me because I’ll be locked in memories of being embraced in her arms and loving her.”

He waited for the next cut or sarcastic remark. When none came, he found himself alone. The village was gone, and he was lying in the grass and not the dirt.

“I hate people like you.” Elandra walked up to him. “Do-gooders who are out to save the world one good deed at a time.”

“You have the wrong person. I’m a killer, an assassin, a deadly warrior from birth, and let’s not forget I’m a mercenary. Nothing good about me.”

“Yet you’re still alive explain that.”

“Charm.”

Elandra stretched out his hand wrapping it around Lucca’s throat.

“The rules say I can’t kill you. I’m tired of the rules. You come into my domain and act like you’re in command here.” He squeezed tighter.

“What do you want Elandra?” He choked out.

“The one thing you can’t give me.” He threw his body watching as he tumbled through the air until he was finally out of sight.

“That was revealing.” Dante stepped out of the shadows.

“I wonder what it is you want. Is it something I can give to you?”

Elandra stood still ignoring him, hoping he would leave.

“No answer? I do believe that you have hurt me.” He stepped up to him slowly circling him. “What could you want that my brother can’t give you, but I can? Shall I take a guess? No, instead I’ll let you panic trying to figure out if I know your price.

“You will sleep at night wondering if I know what you will do anything for. If I do, you’ll say to yourself will you pay it? What will that mean for your life if I dangle the only thing in front of you that matters? The question you should be asking is, do I think you're worthy of what you want.”

Elandra dropped to the ground beating his fist on it until they were bloody and bruised. The question he asked was what had he done to deserve this life?