Authors: Gabrielle Evans
Smiling wickedly, Eyce looped his fingers around Echo’s wrist and pulled him back into bed to sprawl over his chest. “You babble a lot when you’re nervous.”
“Yeah, sorry about that.” Echo bit his lip again, his eyes focused on Eyce’s chin.
“Look at me.” He waited until Echo hesitantly lifted his head and met his gaze. Cradling Echo’s cheek in his hand, Eyce’s heart melted when his mate hummed happily and nuzzled into his palm. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it. My brain just needed a little time to catch up with my heart.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely. I love you Echo. I love everything about you.”
“Good.” A mile-wide grin stretched over Echo’s face, and he leaned down to rub their noses together. “I love you, too, big guy. Can we eat now?”
Rolling his eyes, Eyce chuckled and swatted Echo on his upturned ass. “Let me up, and we’ll go find Syx and Onyx.” A sudden thought came to him, and Eyce gripped Echo’s hip, preventing him from moving away. “Baby, do you love the others?”
“Is that wrong?” Echo looked nervous all over again. “I didn’t know there was a rule saying I could only love one of you. In fact, I thought that would be bad.”
Sighing in relief, Eyce patted his mate’s ass again. “No, baby, it’s not wrong. I was actually worried that you didn’t. Have you told them?”
Echo slid off the side of the bed and shook his head slowly. “You’re the first.”
Eyce burst out laughing, clutching at his sides as he rolled back and forth on the mattress.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” Echo demanded, fisting his hands on his hips.
“Oh, I can’t wait to tell Fiero!”
“Tell me what?”
Eyce stopped laughing immediately and stared in awe at the figure standing just inside the doorway. His heart hammered inside his chest, a lump forming in his throat, cutting off anything he wanted to say.
“You’re back,” Echo whispered. Then he launched himself across the room, jumping into Fiero’s arms and attacking his mouth like a starving man. “I missed you so much. Are you okay? Are the others okay? Where is everyone?”
Fiero chuckled, clutching Echo to him as if he never intended to let him go. “Everyone’s fine. They’re all in the kitchen, along with Gage, Mac, and Sony.”
Eyce rose slowly from the bed and moved across the room until he stood just in front of his lovers. “Welcome home, Fiero,” he whispered.
Fiero kept his hold on Echo with one arm, but his other hand shot out to wrap around the back of Eyce’s neck, pulling him into a desperate kiss. Eyce moaned, his tongue wrapping around Fiero’s as he fisted a hand in the man’s hair, pulling him even closer.
“Tell him,” Echo whispered, dousing some of Eyce’s desire.
“Tell me what?” Fiero panted against Eyce’s temple, his hand still gripping the back of Eyce’s neck.
Looking into Echo’s eyes, he pleaded for his mate to keep quiet. Yes, he loved his men, but they were demons and warriors. Besides, he waited so many years, would they even believe him if he told them now?
“Can’t you see how much he needs you?” Echo whispered. “I won’t let you fall.”
“Someone, please tell me what the hell is going on here,” Fiero moaned as he licked a slow path around the shell of Eyce’s ear. “Gods, I missed you. I missed all of you.”
Gulping audibly, Eyce pulled Fiero’s head back by his hair and looked into his eyes. He opened his mouth to utter the damning words, but the look on Fiero’s face stopped him. “What?”
“What the fuck happened to your eyes?”
* * * *
Echo couldn’t stop staring. After he’d kissed and hugged his men home, and greeted their guests, he’d crawled back up in Eyce’s lap and just stared. Gone were the swirling colors he’d never been able to recognize, and a pale, dreamy blue now shone from Eyce’s eyes.
“Would you stop looking at me like that?” Eyce grumbled as he cuffed Echo in the back of the head.
“I can’t help it. They’re beautiful.”
“They are really nice,” Sony said quietly from his place in Gage’s lap. Mac sat beside them, tucked under Gage’s arm. Echo thought they all looked a little wary, but happy to be together.
“I don’t get it.” Myst walked around the table, grabbed a handful of Eyce’s hair, jerked his head back, and bent until their noses almost touched. “How did it happen?”
Eyce smiled and leaned up to peck the demon’s lips. “No clue. Welcome home, sexy.”
Myst grinned goofily and released Eyce’s hair. “Good to be home.”
Echo thought his heart would burst. His men so obviously loved each other. Why couldn’t they say the words? Sighing, he rested his head on Eyce’s shoulder and decided it didn’t matter. Even if they couldn’t say it, they showed their love in all the ways that mattered.
“I want to know everything,” Vapre demanded.
“I want to know why you’re here when I said to take Echo and run.” Fiero growled as he plopped down in a chair beside Syx.
“Echo made a strong argument for staying.” Syx chuckled. “Home field advantage, Fiero.”
“That’s actually pretty smart,” Fiero agreed grudgingly. “We would have been better prepared if we’d been here instead of out in the open when they attacked.”
“Who attacked you?” Echo asked as he sat up straighter in Eyce’s lap and leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table. “Were there a lot of them?”
“Just a small guard,” Gage answered. “They ambushed us just before we reached the park entrance.”
“So, they knew you were coming?”
“I don’t know how, but it looks that way.”
“How did you get Sony and Mac out?”
Gage snorted and jerked his head toward Hex. “Ask the boss.”
Echo looked at Hex with raised eyebrows. “Well?”
“Fiero blew up the helicopter.”
“Excuse me?” Echo whipped his head around to stare at Fiero in astonishment. “You can do that?”
Fiero winked and gave him a little smirk.
“Wow! So, then what happened? How come it took you so long to get back?”
“He blew up the helicopter by setting the car on fire and having Myst hurl it at the damn thing.” Hex rolled his eyes and sighed. “We had to walk back.”
“And boy did that suck,” Mac piped up. “You should have seen some of the lakes and ponds we passed. They were gross-looking and had dead fish just floating on the top. Smelled like a bag of assholes.”
“How far out?” Eyce asked as he smoothed his hand down Echo’s spine. “All the way to Glacier?”
“No.” Myst shook his head. “We didn’t see anything like that until we were almost home.”
Echo felt more than heard Eyce’s sigh of relief. He wished he knew how to help his lover. He’d been trying for days to come up with a plan, but kept drawing a blank. Hell, they still didn’t even know what was turning the water red and killing all the fish.
“Okay, so you blew up a helicopter, but that doesn’t explain how you got them out of the lab.” Vapre lounged in his chair, his feet propped up on the kitchen table.
Echo cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes at Vapre’s muddy boots. The demon winced and dropped his feet to the floor, sitting up straighter in his chair. “Sorry, Echo.”
“Oh, you have them trained really well,” Sony said excitedly. “You have to teach us how to do that.”
“Yes, please,” Mac nodded enthusiastically.
Echo laughed when Gage groaned at his mates. “Later,” he told the two brunettes with a wink before returning his attention to Hex.
Their leader just shrugged. “We waited until they were bringing everyone out to load them into the helicopters. Fiero blew the damn thing up. Myst froze the guards and grabbed these two.” He waved a hand at Sony and Mac. “It was almost too easy.”
“Like how I just walked out?” Echo asked.
“Well, not quite that easy. We did get shot at, but it wasn’t as hard as I expected it to be at all.”
“The Oracle,” several voices mumbled at the same time.
“But why did she want you to rescue them in the first place?” Syx crossed his arms over his broad chest. “And why not the others?”
“We have a theory about that.”
Everyone looked at Myst, who in turned looked at Fiero. Fiero glared at the warrior, but addressed the room. “They have powers. Gage is a werewolf. I think either we’re going to find others, or they’re going to find us before this is all said and done.”
“It seems this war is going to be a lot bigger than any of us anticipated,” Myst added.
“It would seem we’re going to need a little help.” Onyx gestured toward the threesome across from him.
“Like an army?” Echo shivered at the implications. Just how many more would join them? How many more did they need?
Hex bobbed his head in confirmation. “Exactly like an army.”
“Are they all going to stay here? Do we have enough room?”
Eyce chuckled, tugging at the ends of Echo’s hair. “We have four empty bedrooms, and two storage rooms we can convert if we need more space. I think we have it covered.”
Echo shrugged. “Well, I think we need to start stocking up on supplies. We’re going to have a lot of mouths to feed, clothe, and keep clean.”
“I’m not cooking,” Myst said at once.
“Me either,” Syx and Onyx said at the same time.
“I’m not doing laundry either,” Myst added.
“We’ll divide up the chores, and everyone will rotate.” Echo sighed in exasperation. “Sound fair?”
“No,” Myst answered immediately. “I’m a warrior. I’ll slay the dragons. You can cook them.”
“You’re right. You can’t cook anyway.”
“Hey! I can cook!”
“Right. Sorry.” Echo pretended to think it over for a minute. “What I meant to say is that you can’t cook anything edible.”
Myst stood from the table, glared at Echo, then stomped over to the cabinets where he began assembling ingredients on the counter. He paused in the act of opening the refrigerator and turned to look at Echo in astonishment.
Echo just grinned back innocently. “Yes?”
Myst snorted and shook his head. “You suck.”
Chapter Eleven
Sitting at the edge of the small pond, Eyce held his hands up in front of him, turning them one way and then the other. The moonlight ghosted through the trees, the lunar crescent reflected off the surface of the dark water.
The wind shifted directions, wafting the pungent odor toward him and causing him to gag as his stomach churned in revulsion. He heard the footsteps approaching, and closed his eyes as small hands landed on his shoulders.
“Nothing?”
“I don’t know what to do, Echo.”
His mate moved around to sit on the cold ground beside him and leaned against his shoulder. “What all have you tried?”
“I tried separating the water.” Eyce opened his eyes and lifted a hand, watching as a wall of water rose up before them. He narrowed his eyes in concentration, trying to push the water to one side and the foulness to the other.