chapter
“Tell me again what you think you saw.” Black paced on the grass alternating between staring at the cracks in the wards and the gnomes that had placed them.
“Well, I came outside when I saw the lights out our window. Wanted to check that you all were safe.” Sigar stroked his beard.
Margreth touched his nose. “You old perv, you knew they were fine. You wanted to see their fireworks.”
“So, what if I did? Anyway, while you two were lighting up the sky, I caught something out of the corner of my eye.”
Black had never experienced anything like what had happened between him and Kady last night. He’d heard that sex between mates was different, he’d thought simply better, more intense. He hadn’t expected her to pull his soul from his body and dance with it.
The fireworks the Gunderson’s had thought they were watching was the carnal dance of his soul blending with Kady’s.
He’d been so close to completing their mating, biting her, marking her, and claiming her for all the galaxy to know that she was his. He’d barely been able to resist fusing their souls for all time.
He had to complete his mission, defeat the spectral warriors, before he could take the time to go back to the crash site and try to recover his soul ember. Until then the two of them couldn’t be united.
“What did you see?” Black was already sure he knew. There was too much evidence to be anything else.
Sigar continued. “I don’t rightly know. I’ve never seen anything like it before. They were like ghosts, but not any spooks I’ve known.”
“I know this is going to sound like a dumb question, but ghosts are real?” His sweet Kady had so much to learn about who she was and where she belonged.
He loved watching as she uncovered each new discovery. Her awe and wonder at the parts of his world that were banal breathed new life into him. Gave him hope.
And hope was a dangerous thing for a soldier like him to have.
“Yes, dear. But, these weren’t ghosts. They were eerie, like they were made of both darkness and shadow, the very opposite of light.” Margreth shivered and rubbed her arms trying to stave off a chill that wasn’t there.
Sigar pointed to the cracks in the sky. “They bombarded the wards. I’ve never seen wards get a visible crack.”
Black wished Passion had sent him and his team to Earth sooner, maybe even contacted Star Ranger Frost’s mate about these protective wards. The only thing that had ever held the Spectral Warriors at bay, had been condensate matter reinforced graphene of a meter or thicker. It was difficult to produce and could only be made in small quantities. Not even the coalition had the resources to manufacture enough to create a barrier around an area as big as the Gunderson’s field. Even if they did, it wouldn’t last even a tenth of the time these wards had.
“I even tried reinforcing them, but it doesn’t seem to make a difference.”
Because the spectrals would sacrifice and destroy themselves in pursuit of their target. What they were all seeing in the sky wasn’t just the cracks in the wards, it was chunks of the spectrals themselves, left like blood from an injury.
It was the same as he’d seen at the graphene plant that had been attacked and destroyed. He’d needed his spectral visor to see the remains there.
What Black didn’t understand was why they could see the spectrals or their remains with the bare eye now.
“The more light the two of you put out, the more they attacked the wards. Those buggers did not like your fireworks, pretty witch.”
Kady appeared visibly shaken. She could figure out how to defend herself, and him, against other humans, but she hadn’t embraced her own powers or that of the rest of the world around her. He saw in the way her hands shook when she sipped from her mug that the idea of an attack of this kind, scared her.
She should be scared. The spectral warriors scared him. They were pure evil, and a scourge on the galaxy.
He’d been a Star Ranger for a long time, and even the worst of the worst had a motivation for why they killed, maimed, attacked, or destroyed those around them. But, not the spectral warriors, not that he could understand.
They were emotionless, voiceless, driven only by stealing another soul and leaving behind an empty husk, still living, but completely void.
He’d seen it firsthand. His own homeworld of Honaw had been devastated by the spectrals. They’d stolen the lives of those dear to him.
He would never let them steal Kady.
He would die himself, first.
“Sigar, you said yesterday you needed to transport the abode we stayed in. I suggest you prepare it and leave. The spectral warriors will continue to attack until they break through your wards.”
“Oh no. Not our little garden.” Margreth hugged Sigar and wept.
“Kady and I must continue on to our destination, so I can hook up with my team and use this new information to work to defeat this blight on the galaxy.”
Sigar patted his wife’s back. “Where is your team, bear?”
“Magic, New Mexico. There is another Star Ranger there who will be able to help us.” Frost and his witch mate Lacey, should be able to help with the spectrals and Kady’s formidable but budding powers.
“Then that’s where we’re going too. Margreth has a cousin who runs the taxi service in Magic. They’ll take us in.”
“Good. How long do you need to prepare?” Black wanted to be underway as soon as they could.
“Not long, maybe a couple hours. We need to prepare and load the other containers on the truck.”
He nodded, and the gnomes hurried off. That gave him enough time to teach Kady to defend herself.
She stood off to the side, looking lost and alone. He wanted nothing more than to wrap her up in layers of graphene lined with the softest down and protect her.
Not only did he not have that luxury, he didn’t think Kady would want it that way. She’d already proven she was smart and resourceful, that she could keep a level head in a dangerous situation.
That was fucking hot. His curvy warrior princess had his soul burning for her and his cock twitching. He crossed to her and ran his hands through her soft hair.
“Black, I heard the Gunderson’s talking this morning. They think my magic brought those things here.” Kady twirled her cup in her hands and stared down at the ground.
The Star Rangers didn’t know enough about the spectrals to know when and where they would strike. “I have had many run ins with them, so it’s more likely they were here for me.”
“But how would they know you were here?”
This part he didn’t want to tell her. “The spectrals are soul stealers. They have had a taste of my soul before, so when we made love and our souls danced around us, they were probably drawn to it.”
“Holy crap. We are never having sex again. I don’t want anything to steal your soul.”
Black pulled Kady to him, holding her tight to his body. “Oh, we will have lots of sex, mah wah.”
He kissed her, letting her taste the truth of his words. He could take her right there, in the field, but not before teaching her to fend off the spectrals.
He left her panting, and wanting, the soft glow of her soul seeking his across her skin. Exactly how he wished he could keep her. “But, first, let’s play with your powers. You can use them to keep yourself safe.”
Black had known witches on his world, but he only partly knew how their magic worked. They were nothing compared to Kady. Mostly he knew of healers who could do tricks that helped them in their trade, like spurring plant growth, making small objects appear or disappear, and mixing potions. The strongest magic he’d ever seen was when a witch and taken a sliver of his soul and bound it in his ember.
What he did understand was that a similar energy fueled the bear inside of him. He’d had to learn how to harness that as a cub crossing into adulthood, and he hoped the same idea would help Kady seize her own abilities.
“Can I use them to keep you safe too?”
“We’ll see. Now close your eyes. I want you to think of the last time you noticed your magic working.”
Kady scrunched her eyes tight and wrinkled her nose. “Okay, I got it.”
She concentrated so hard, and her face was adorable like this. He should tell her to relax and let the magic flow, but he was getting a kick out of seeing her this way.
“Good, where do you feel it in your body?”
“I think it’s behind my heart, but kind of in my throat and belly too.”
“Concentrate on that feeling, breathe into it.”
Kady’s face relaxed with each breath and the glow of her skin increased. Not in the same way as before, this light was all her own. Soft, ethereal, and a deep amber.
It reminded him of the color of his soul ember. He reached for the pendant that he’d hadn’t been without since he became a man. It still wasn’t there. Without it, he couldn’t complete the mating, couldn’t claim her fully, and make her his forever.
“I feel it, Black. It’s soft and warm.”
“See if you can expand it, let it spread across your whole body.”
The amber glow swelled, washing across her skin, surrounding her in its light.
“Yes, that’s it, love. Your magic is as beautiful as you.”
Kady opened her eyes and they wandered, looking at the waves of light and energy pouring out of her. “It is pretty. But, what can I do with it?”
“You’ll learn more than I can teach you when we get to New Mexico. But, for now. See if you can turn the soft light into something hard, like a shield.”
Kady closed her eyes again. Her light shimmered and she disappeared.
Black reached out, searching for her, and found her arm. She was there, but invisible. Where his hand touched her, it faded as well. That was a damn good trick.
“Don’t open your eyes, but concentrate on that feeling, right there. Hold it, feel it, so you can try to recreate it.”
Her voice was soft, but confident. “Is it the shield, like you said?”
“No. But this is even better. Do you have the feeling? Think you can do it again?” He would make her practice until she could.
“Maybe.”
“Come back to that warm soft place you found before.” Kady shimmered back into view.
As she reappeared her soft light pushed out from her, expanding, turning from a glow to rays of light. The light reached up to the sky penetrating the remaining wards.
A high-pitched scream, like a fighter ship tearing through the sky mixed with the call of a banshee, screeched through the air.
Black looked up and saw the spectral bearing down, crash into the wards, cracking it even further.
“Kady, pull back your light, now.”
She gasped and instead of her light coming back to her, it spread like an explosion through the sky. The spectral screamed again at first reaching for her light, then recoiling as it crackled, burned by her magic. It didn’t stay away long, hurtling itself at both her light and the wards.
“Ouch. Ow.” Kady cried out, matching the pain of the creature.
Black pulled her to him, took her face in his hands. Her light sizzled through him too, but it didn’t hurt, it washed through him like the energy of a thousand men. “Mah wah, relax, bring your light back, back to me. Close your eyes and find that feeling you had before.”
“Ouch, I can’t.” Kady’s eyes darted from the spectral that was attacking her light, to him, and back again.
“You can Kady, you must.”
She swallowed and nodded her head. Her eyes fluttered shut, but her face jerked as the spectral continued its barrage.
The sky above them shattered. The wards were destroyed. The spectral plummeted through the air toward them.
Fates above, please don’t take her from me now.
He added hope to his prayer that his next move would work. That he could help her be safe.
Black kissed her, rolling her to the ground, and under him. He swept his tongue into her mouth, and let his soul rise to mingle with her.
Kady grasped at him, shoving her hands into his hair and kissed him back, taking as much as she was giving.
If they were both about to lose their souls to this spectral, there was no other way he’d rather go.
Kady’s light shimmered and the world around them faded away. It was as if she was bending the light around them. No that wasn’t quite right. She was slowing the light, dissipating it, scattering it.
They could still hear the scream of the spectral and in the next instant it was upon them. Black waited for his soul to be ripped from his body, he wished for Kady that it be fast and painless.
The spectral warrior passed into the slowed light space around them, and Black saw a face he knew, would always remember, would never forget.
“Mother?”