Breaking Free (17 page)

Jamie set her keys down in time for Devlin’s hand to slide up her thigh and around to her slick heat. His finger grazed over her clit as he sucked at her neck.

His fear spiked and he pressed harder, his teeth clamping down enough to hurt.

She
shrugged him off and grabbed his hand before turning to face him. “What’s going on, Dev?”

“
What?” he whispered but terror hid in the emerald depths.

She closed her eyes and felt for him, his warring emotions slammed into her. “What’s eating you up? Why are you near panic?”

He shook his head, his face contorting into a mask of pain. She felt something pulling at him. Some link to him, tugging him another direction.

Then recognition passed over his face. “
Oh damn it, damn it, no.” he started to shake his head as he backed away from her. “I can’t do it, I can’t.”

Her heart plummeted. “Can’t do what, Devlin
? What the hell is going on? You are totally freaking out and I have no idea why. You need to talk to me, baby. What is it?”

“Dad,” he squeaked. “He’s
calling me. He’s trying to break through the wards.”

Jamie had her phone in her hand
, but it rang before she could decide who to dial. “Hi,” she answered breathlessly.

“Shit,
it’s happening already, isn’t it? Fallon and I are on our way. Don’t let him out of the house.”

His eyes
drifted closed as he started falling to the side. “He’s not leaving the house, he’s going unconscious.”

She fell to her knees beside him, and took his face in her hands as the phone clattered to the floor. “Wake up! Devlin, I command you to stay right here with me. Wa
ke up. NOW!” she screamed.

His eyes flipped open, and his breaths came in great gasps. “What happened?”
he panted.

“You tried to leave. Or you were taken. I don’t really know
.”

“Only Dad can pull me into the
dream realm. It’s bad when he does it. He’s broken, he pulls me in and they take control. Through his link they can control me. I have done terrible things that I couldn’t stop.”

“Not
you. They
did terrible things, Devlin. Get that through your head.”

“
They
made me do horrible things,” he conceded but then shook his head. “How did you stop it? How did you sever the link?”

She frowned, wondering how he was going to take that bit of news. “Um, I uh… I ordered you not to go.
” She swallowed hard. “Sort of like my alpha can do to me. Happens sometimes with mates.”

His head cocked to the side, a slight smile on his lips. “Does that mean you’re my
alpha?”

Her brow crinkled and she chewed her lip as she shook her head.
“I don’t want to control you, I don’t want to force you to do anything. You’ve had plenty of that.”

“Hey,” he grabbed her face, pulling her closer. “You stopped me from
possibly hurting you, or worse. You kept me from doing something horrible, or watching whatever they want me to. I can’t stop it, I can’t do anything about it, so I’m glad you did it.”

The last thing she ever wanted to do was control him after the years he was forced to do the Dales bidding.
“You don’t hate me for giving you an order?”

He shook his head. “Not if the order comes from your mouth, and it’s given with love.”

She closed the distance and took a kiss from his lips. Before she knew it, she shifted to straddle his lap.

The door burst open but she didn’t stop. Devlin’s hands drifted under her dress, curled around her ass and hauled
her tighter to him.

Fallon cleared her throat, and Jamie laid her forehead against Devlin’s
. The words
I love you
were on the tip of her tongue, but she choked them back.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

“You okay?” Fallon asked, annoyed.

“Am now,” Devlin answered.

Jamie stood up and pulled him to his feet.

Jess
gave her a long look before turning to Devlin. “I saw you going down, saw you convulsing on the ground, your eyes turning white before you knocked Jamie down and ran into the night.”

Jamie shrugged. “Didn’t get that far. He hit the ground and I yelled at him not to go.”

Slater’s brow arched. “That’s a relief. What Jess said came after was pretty bad and we couldn’t tell if it was a dream or real.”

Devlin grimaced. “My father’s still alive, but I’m not sure how aware
he is. Last I saw him, he was a broken mess. He wasn’t responsive, and completely withdrawn.” Jamie saw the tremble in his hands as he shoved them in his pockets. “They probably gave him vampire blood and the dark mages forced him out of the recesses of his mind. It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Shit. Is it that bad?” Fallon whispered.
She wore the same fierce look she got right before she went to get Jess from the Dales.

Jamie shook her head
, guessing where Fallon’s mind was heading “Oh no, not right now, not when they have the advantage, Fallon. We don’t even know where they are. We need a plan.”

She nodded, her breath coming fast. “I know. I hate it, but I know. I’m not stupid. Hell, I don’t even know where I would start.”

Slater rubbed his fingers over his beard as he watched Devlin.

Jamie
shifted from foot to foot, trying to calm down before she slapped her alpha for what she feared would be some request to put Devlin in harm’s way.

His gaze switched to her, and he gave her a grim smile. “
Relax, Jamie. I’m not about to suggest your mate open himself up to their sick games. I need to ask a few questions. We may have a way to find Declan, but we need Preston. And I suggest we do it during daylight, if it will even work.”

Her eyes slammed shut as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

Slater added, “Hey, I get it, Jamie. Devlin’s yours and you don’t want him in danger. I don’t either, and Jess would have my balls if I threw him to the dogs. We simply need to discuss our options.”

She nodded. “I know.” At least she sounded more sure than she
felt.

Devlin stood there watching her. “It’s okay. He can ask. I’m not sure how much I can help, but I want this over. I hate
knowing Dad is likely conscious enough to be suffering. Right now, there’s nothing I can do with the limited information I have.”

She nodded, knowing the kind of predicament he was in. She
hadn’t done much better when she found out Jess was being held by the Dales. This had been going on a hell of a lot longer than the week it took to find her twin. This had taken twenty long years.

Slater moved closer. “I’m not asking you to do anything you aren’t comfortable with. Right now I have questions, and maybe we can see if there is a way to temporarily block him from getting to you. It’s the best I can come up with, but I want to try to make this easier.”

Devlin nodded.

“First, is it strictly through dreams that he calls you?”

“No. He can pull me into a dreamlike state while he’s awake. He swears I can do it too, but I’m afraid to try. I’ve been on the receiving end when he was forced to contact me.”

“Forced?” Jamie asked, incredulous.

“It’s not always forced. He did it once when I was young and hiding from DeMarco, I managed to get lost. Dad had to pull me into a dream to locate me. That time was fine.”

He took a look at Fallon and back at the floor. “The Dales wanted to test the link when they first captured us. Tried to see if I could do it.
I never could. He fought it in the beginning, but they… I’m not even sure what all they did, but he’s not the same. He started pulling me in, and it would leave me a shuddering mess for days afterward. The nightmares he showed me were from DeMarco and Malachi. A few times, they took control of me, tried to make me do things, until I shut down. They stopped that though, because it leaves me useless for days.”

“Devlin,” Jamie whispered, “I won’t let them touch you.”

He nodded, but looked to Fallon. “They poisoned his mind, hijacked it. It’s bad. Really bad. Even if he survives this, I’m not sure he’ll be worth saving.”

Fallon nodded, not looking anywhere in particular. “I wish I’d known. I wish someone could have told me.”

“So you could have fallen into their hands the same way?”

Fallon laughed bitterly. “That’s the thing, though. I’ve always gotten out. They’ve never had me long. I could have done something.”

“I don’t know, Fallon. I just don’t know. I have no idea what to tell you. It’s all a mess.”

“Fucking right about that,” Fallon answered.

Slater cleared his throat. “Jamie prevented him from pulling you. Will that hold? Or would you like us to try something more?”

“I don’t know what you can do to even temporarily sever
Dad’s link to me.”

Slater gr
inned. “Preston might be able to. He can also track through that link. If we can block him from getting into your head, and he keeps pulling, Preston can follow it to wherever they are. We can go in prepared.”

“Will
Preston want to help though?”

“Oh
, he will,” Jamie answered immediately. “He will.”

“Call him.
I’m willing to try.”

* * * *

“I’ll keep making you drink from him and feed until you form the link to Devlin.” Malachi hissed as he closed the distance.

Sarah nodded.
The link to Declan’s mind had been easy. Finding Devlin had been hard. She found him staring at a pretty little blond.

The blond screamed at him, severing the link as he started to fall. Then she filled his vision and
Sarah was flung out with a command.

Now she couldn’t even feel Devlin through Declan
. She’d formed a mental link to Declan who was begging for death. His passing loomed near, but it wasn’t the one he wanted.

Declan drank enough of her blood he was close to turning. Her tears wouldn’t stop flowing.
She didn’t want to make him a monster like her.

“Again
!” Malachi screamed.

She sliced her own wrist open and held it to Declan’s crusted
lips. He was in such bad shape, she didn’t know how he would come out. Sometimes all the damage was healed, and sometimes it left the mind broken.

Declan
barely swallowed her blood. His green eyes opened wide and he screamed as Malachi wrapped his long spindly fingers around her wrist and pinched his nose, forcing Declan to swallow.

She felt her tie to Malachi snap, but a new one forged to Declan as he used the last of his magic before death took him.

Sarah was flung against the far wall of the cage in the burst of magic. She couldn’t catch her breath.

“What was that?” Malachi hissed.

DeMarco stepped into the cell as she opened her eyes.

Sarah had to fight back the wave of
revulsion. His open wounds oozed black slimy stuff that smelled worse than Declan. He knelt down beside her, and she heard something tear. Unbelievably, the smell got worse.

“What just happened, Sarah?”

Dazed, she shook her head. “I can’t reach Devlin. Something blocked it.” Something bigger had just happened though. Declan had somehow severed her connection to Malachi when her master bond formed.

“What threw you back?”

“Whoever was screaming at Devlin? She blocked me.” Or at least she had when the connection to Devlin had been severed.
“I got too close and then I was right back here, on the floor.” She was shaken enough, it would pass for truth.

DeMarco whirled on Malachi. “He’s changing. I recommend feeding him.”

“We’ll see if Declan makes the transition,” Malachi answered coldly.

* * * *

Preston sat in Jamie’s living room, frowning. “You want to what?”

Jamie sighed and paced away. She spun back and popped her hands on her hips as she glared. “I need you to block
Devlin’s link to his father for now, and hopefully track Declan after we all get some sleep.”

He threw up his hands. “The link is severed. I can’t even reach him. Whatever
you
did, severed it.”

“Shit, really?”
she asked, confused.

“With Robert’s help, I should be able to find it and we can trace that without letting him link back up. That’s the best I can do.”

“Wait, the link is severed?” Devlin asked, relief clear on his face.

“Yeah. I don’t sense any connection to anyone but Jamie right now. When Fallon’s near, I can sense a slight link between you, an old one that hasn’t been used in ages, but she has to be close.”