Authors: Gabrielle Evans
Myst had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. The brat was too adorable when he got himself into a snit. “I love you,” Myst said very clearly, his eyes traveling around the room to include everyone. “I have loved you all for more years than I can count, and I, for one, am just fucking relieved to finally be able to say it.”
Now that he’d spit it out, laid his heart at their feet so to speak, it didn’t seem quite as terrifying as it had a moment ago. The looks on his men’s faces told him that whether they returned the words or not, it didn’t change what was inside their hearts.
“Ditto,” Fiero said gruffly.
“Amen!” Vapre shouted.
“Agreed,” Eyce and Hex said together.
“It’s about fucking time,” Syx grumbled, but he was smiling so wide, Myst thought his face would split in two.
“Glad I could help,” Onyx mumbled sleepily, and everyone burst into laughter.
Echo squealed, throwing himself across the room and tackling Onyx back to the mattress when the man went to sit up. Myst thought he might actually prefer that sound to his mate’s cute little giggle.
As he watched his men kiss and hug, Myst wondered why they’d all waited so long in the first place. Then Hex sashayed over to him, smirking the entire way, and pulled Myst into a brief but scorching kiss. “Love you, babe.”
Myst sighed. This is how it was supposed to be.
* * * *
“Your eyes are really pretty.” Mac batted his lashes and made kissy faces at Myst.
“Shut up,” Myst growled.
A few snorts escaped the warriors, but Echo didn’t hold back. He threw his head back and laughed with the sheer joy of it. “He’s right, Myst. They’re very pretty.”
“They’re fucking purple!”
“I’d say more lavender,” Echo argued with a smirk.
“Isn’t that purple?” Syx asked.
“Well, yes, but lavender is prettier.”
Everyone jibed Myst for a few more minutes until Hex put a stop to it and called them all to order. Leave it to their alpha to ruin their fun. “Okay, so we need to debrief.”
Echo stood up and reached for the button on his jeans.
“What are you doing?” Fiero frowned at him and reached over to still his hands.
“Hex said to debrief.” Echo looked up innocently at Hex, but inside he was roaring with laughter at the look on the demon’s face.
“Sit down.” Hex sighed and scrubbed at his face. “Fucking brat,” he mumbled under his breath. “Gage, tell us what you know.”
Gage shifted on the love seat and pulled his mates closer to him. Echo didn’t think the werewolf had let go of them since they’d arrived home. “The night after the new moon, I came downstairs to get a glass of water, and found Jet and Pax preparing to go for a run. They were still upset about what happened and how they’d attacked everyone.”
He spoke calmly, almost as if he were on autopilot. Echo supposed it was better than the explosion he figured would come later.
“I’m sorry about that, by the way,” Gage added. “Unlike Jet and Pax, I understand that I couldn’t control it, but I hate that anyone got hurt.” A little emotion had returned to his voice, and Echo tensed, waiting for the yelling to start. Gage continued calmly, though. “I told them to give me a minute to leave a note for Sony and Mac, and then I’d go with them. I’m sure they can take care of themselves, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to let them go alone.” Gage shrugged.
“Good thinking,” Hex agreed. “What happened after that?”
“Well, I left a note saying that I’d be back and not to tell anyone I’d left. It wasn’t some big secret, but I didn’t want anyone to worry and come looking for us. That would put us all in a vulnerable position. Besides, I figured we’d be back within a couple of hours.”
Mac groaned and covered his face. “I thought you meant not to tell anyone period. I thought you left me.”
“I’m sorry, Mac.” Gage kissed the top of his mate’s head. “I wasn’t thinking. I should have told you the reason I was leaving, but I was kind of in a hurry and not thinking.”
“How does Sony come into all of this?”
“I woke up to see Gage leaving the room, so I followed him.” Sony sat up straight as he took over the narrative. “When I made it downstairs, I heard voices outside, so I went out to look. Gage and the shifters were talking to Jinx near one of the cars.”
“He said he’d heard noises in the trees and wanted backup to go check it out,” Gage said with a slight growl to his voice. “I didn’t even see Sony until we’d reached the tree line.”
“Then what happened?” Echo marveled at Hex’s calm authority. He was only hearing the story secondhand and his heart raced, thudding hard against his sternum. Hex looked almost bored, however. Echo knew better, but he still felt amazed that his lover could shut down his emotions like that.
“We got jumped by about twenty vampires and had our asses handed to us.” Sony took a deep shuddering breath. “The next thing I knew, I was chained to the wall in some basement.”
Hex looked to Gage for confirmation, and the werewolf nodded. “That about sums it up.”
“So, Jinx betrayed us?” Echo’s eyebrows drew together, and he frowned. He didn’t know the vampire that well, but it just didn’t fit with the man he’d been living with.
“No.” Gage shook his head firmly. “I thought so at first, too, until I witnessed what happened in that basement.”
“What happened?” Echo whispered. Gods, did he even want to know?
“Apart from bringing in a new person every day to change over, sometimes as many as four at a time, they are changing a lot more than humans.”
“Don’t you mean
were
?” Onyx asked.
“I don’t believe we killed them all,” Gage argued. “Not by a long shot.”
“We know they kidnapped members of the coyote pack, but who or what else besides humans?”
“I don’t have a roster for you, Hex, but I do know they have at least two skinwalkers.”
“Fuck!” Hex spat, and loud groans went up around the room.
Echo tilted his head in confusion, mirroring the same look Mac was giving everyone. “What’s a skinwalker?”
“They’re usually witches,” Syx explained. “You know how Jet and Pax shift into wolves, or Lorcan shifts into a coyote?”
Echo nodded mutely.
“Skinwalkers can shift into other humans, vampires, werewolves, whatever they want pretty much as long as they have the blood of whomever or whatever they want to look like. They literally walk in another’s skin.”
Echo reached up to cover his mouth as he gasped. “How do we know who to trust?”
“I hate to do this, but we’re going on lockdown. No one leaves the house until we figure this mess out.” Hex pushed up from the armchair and began pacing the room. “How long will our supplies last before we need to restock?”
“With five of us gone, I’d say at least until the new moon,” Vapre answered immediately.
“Okay, so we have a little over three weeks.” Hex seemed to be working something out inside his head. “If anyone comes to the door, they do not get in, got it? Not even if it’s Craze, Lorcan, or any of the others.”
Everyone nodded their agreement. What else were they going to do? Hex was right, and they all knew it.
“How is Onyx supposed to practice his power?” Eyce asked. “He needs to be outside for that.”
Well, hell, Echo hadn’t even thought of that. It seemed so much happened between each new moon that Echo always seemed to forget that the Big Bad was coming. They just fought a horde of freaking vampires. To him, that should count for something, and they could just skip the new moon and whatever challenge it brought. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen, but a guy could dream.
“We’ll figure out something,” Hex replied distractedly. Echo could practically hear the gears turning in his head.
“Let’s just figure one thing out at a time,” Onyx suggested. “I think I’m going to have more time like Eyce did. It’s not like dying crops are going to kill people overnight.”
Echo figured the man had a point, but somehow he didn’t think they were going to battling back grub worms with pesticides.
“Are we done?” Onyx asked.
Hex nodded. “I think we’ve covered all we know for now.”
Onyx rose to his feet and crooked a finger at Myst. “You volunteered?”
Myst bobbed his head eagerly and jumped up from the couch. The minute he stood in front of Onyx, his entire demeanor changed. His shoulders went back, his head bowed respectfully, and he linked his fingers behind his back.
“You know what to do. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Yes, sir.” Then Myst hurried up the stairs.
Echo opened his mouth to say something but snapped it closed at the last minute. He’d thought Onyx had moved past what had happened earlier that morning. Obviously not. Why Myst, though? Had Echo not met Onyx’s standards? Was he lacking something that made him a good partner for Onyx’s games?
Onyx knelt on the floor in front of him as though he’d read every thought in Echo’s head like it had been written out in bold letters across a marquis. He took Echo’s hands and squeezed them gently. “We’ll play again soon, okay? Myst needs this,” he whispered quietly.
“Myst?” Okay, now Echo was even more confused.
“It’s not my place to talk about it.” Onyx placed a tender kiss over his knuckles. “This isn’t about me thinking you can’t handle what I like, okay? I can see what you’re thinking, and don’t. I’m more than happy to share my little world with you whenever you need it.”
Need.
Not want.
Echo nodded slowly. He was beginning to realize that he didn’t know his men nearly as well as he thought he did. There were so many hidden depths to them, things they kept locked away in a secret place.
He wanted in. He wanted to break the locks on those places closed off to him, but did he even have the right? Everyone was entitled to some secrets. Right?
Then why did he suddenly feel like something was missing? Like a huge hole had opened up in his heart.
Plastering the best fake smile on his face that he could, Echo nodded like he understood what was going on. “I have something to tell everyone when you come back.” He didn’t much feel like talking about it right then, though. In fact, he didn’t feel like talking about anything.
Chapter Eleven
Echo eyed Myst curiously when he and Onyx stepped into the downstairs office a few hours later. The demon looked more relaxed than he had earlier, but they all did. There was nothing conclusive in the way Myst moved or acted to clue Echo in to what had happened between the pair. Well, he had a good idea of
what
had happened. He just didn’t understand the why of it.
It would have to be filed away to take out and examine later, though. “I had a dream.”
All conversation and movement stopped instantly. “What dream? When?” Syx asked from his chair behind the desk.
Echo glared at him. “When you knocked me out this morning.”
Syx didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed of his actions. “I was trying to protect you. I’m only sorry that it didn’t work like it was supposed to.”
“Whatever.” Echo waved his hand around in dismissal. It wasn’t as though he expected a different answer. Put in Syx’s shoes, he’d probably have done the same. To be honest, he’d been seriously considering asking Syx to put Mac to sleep. No, he really expected nothing less from his mate. “Anyway, about my dream…”