Authors: Gabrielle Evans
“What’s all this?” Eyce asked quietly as he cast his eyes around the circle. “Echo, you know that none of us would ever leave you.” He combed his fingers through his mate’s hair and sighed. “You had a dream, didn’t you?”
Echo nodded frantically, but didn’t move his face from Myst’s neck. Then he stopped and began to shake his head. He stopped again and nodded. Then he stopped once more and shook his head. Eyce couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, which is it, little one?”
Finally extracting his face from Myst’s neck, Echo looked at him and sighed. “I was asleep, but it didn’t really feel like a dream. It didn’t feel like the other times the Oracle has talked to me either, though. I don’t understand it.” His brows drew together, and his nose crinkled. “I don’t like it.”
“We need to talk.” Hex motioned for everyone to resume their seats around the table. “I’m guessing you had a dream as well,” he said to Eyce.
Eyce grimaced, not wanting to talk about it just yet, but he knew they couldn’t put if off forever. It was already the day after Christmas, and the new moon raced toward them like a freight train. They needed to prepare, to work out a plan if they hoped to face whatever evil was coming.
“Yeah, I had a dream, but like Echo, it didn’t feel like a dream. It was strange.” He gave them a rundown of his dream, telling them the same things he’d confessed to Syx in the earlier hours of the morning when he’d woken, shivering and afraid. He was a fucking demon warrior, for pity’s sake. He wasn’t supposed to be afraid.
“We’re all worried about what’s coming,” Syx said softly. “There’s no shame in it.”
Echo scrambled out of Myst’s lap and hurried over to crawl up on Eyce’s thighs. Their little mate just always seemed to know what they needed, and it warmed Eyce right down to his soul. Wrapping his arms around his lover, he nuzzled his cheek against the top of Echo’s head. “Thank you,” he whispered.
“I’m scared, too,” Echo admitted. “I usually like the Oracle, but she was creepy in this dream. She talked all funny, and there was fire. It was so dark, and I couldn’t even see the moon. Then it felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t see the water, but I felt it all around me, and I couldn’t breathe. There was this horrible smell, like something dead, and I wanted to gag, but I was afraid to open my mouth and let the water in.”
Eyce nodded his agreement as he rubbed his palm gently down Echo’s spine. He hadn’t felt the sensations of drowning, but he’d felt and seen all the rest. A brief flicker of recollection passed through his brain, too fast for him to latch on to it. Recalling the memory, he studied it from beginning to end. He was missing something. He just couldn’t figure out what the hell it was.
“I could see you,” Echo continued, snuggling closer to Eyce’s chest. “I could see all of you, but no one could see me. I screamed for someone to help me, but no one could hear me. Then the water came, but it wasn’t really water, and I couldn’t yell anymore.” He pushed away and looked up into Eyce’s eyes. “Then you looked right at me, and I calmed down like that.” He snapped his fingers to punctuate his statement.
“I looked at you?” Eyce didn’t remember Echo being in his dream. The small memory nudged at him again, teasing him, but he still couldn’t latch on to it and reel it in.
Echo nodded slowly. “Then the Oracle said something about the heart being the shelter, and how it would help win some struggle.” He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “I’m the heart, right?”
“When did you have this dream?” Syx asked from across the table as he eyed Echo intently.
“I woke up at the same time as Eyce,” Echo mumbled.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Eyce caressed his little man’s face and frowned. “You didn’t say a word.”
Echo shrugged innocently. “You were so upset. I didn’t want to add to your problems.”
“You can’t keep these things from us,” Fiero growled, speaking for the first time since entering the room. “Why do you keep lying to us?” Without waiting for an answer, he stood so abruptly that his chair tipped over and crashed to the floor. Turning on his heels, he stepped over the chair and stomped out of the room without a backward glance.
“What did I do? I wasn’t lying, I swear!” Echo looked on the verge of tears, and Eyce wanted to throttle Fiero. “I wasn’t keeping it from you. I just didn’t want to add to your stress just then.”
“Shh,” Eyce cooed before kissing the tip of Echo’s nose. “I understand, baby. Everything is fine.”
“You keep saying that.” Echo pushed against Eyce’s chest and jumped up from his lap. “None of this is
fine
! Vapre’s gone. Fiero is pissed at me, and I don’t even know why. I keep having these fucked up dreams, and I talk to some lady in my head. I’m mated to not one, but
seven
freaking demon warriors. Please tell me how any of this is
fine
!”
In the weeks since Echo had arrived on their doorstep, Eyce had never seen him so vehement. He hated to admit that it turned him on something fierce. Reaching out for his mate, he sighed and let his hand drop when Echo dodged his advance.
“I’m going back to bed. I’m just going to sleep until one of you starts making some goddamn sense.” Then he, too, stomped from the room, mumbling under his breath the entire way.
“I’d say that went well,” Myst muttered from beside Eyce. “He’s got a bit of a temper, doesn’t he?”
“He’s afraid,” Syx whispered. “He has no control over any of this and no way of knowing what the future will bring. Anyone would be freaking out right now.”
“True.” Hex pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled deeply. “What the hell is Fiero’s problem? I mean, I know he’s always a dick, but this was above and beyond.”
“He’s scared, too,” Syx answered. “He’s afraid of losing Echo, of having to return to Tartarus, and of something happening to one of us.”
“Aww, he does care,” Myst said around a snort.
“So, who’s going to talk to him?” Eyce asked the group. He was unsurprised when all eyes turned to look at him. “I had a feeling you’d say that.”
Chapter Two
Echo grumped and grumbled all the way up the stairs. Okay, so he was young, and small, and maybe didn’t know a great deal about the world outside of the lab he’d come from, but he wasn’t stupid. They all kept telling him things were going to work out, yet no one had any idea what they would face, or how they would defeat the unknown threat.
He appreciated that they all wanted to protect him, but his men were so focused on him, they weren’t being cautious with themselves. Though his brain still rebelled against the idea of being in love with the warriors after such a short amount of time, his heart thumped rapidly against his sternum at the thought of anything happening to his lovers.
So lost in thought, he didn’t immediately realize where he was going until he found himself outside of Fiero’s door. Pursing his lips and scrunching his brow, Echo lifted his hand and rapped heavily on the door.
He didn’t know what the hell Fiero’s problem was, but he intended to find out. He hadn’t lied or withheld anything from them, so why was the man acting like Echo was the bad guy?
He waited for a couple of seconds, but didn’t receive an answer. He could hear Fiero’s footsteps on the other side of the door, though, and knew the man was pacing. He banged against the wood again, his temper rising when he still didn’t receive any type of acknowledgement.
“Open this fucking door!”
“Go away!” Fiero roared back.
“I will not!”
“Leave me alone,” Fiero growled.
Echo kicked the door in frustration then wailed as his big toe began to throb painfully. Lifting his foot and grabbing it with both hands, he hopped around on his other foot while he cursed and yelled.
The bedroom door flew open, and Fiero stood framed by the doorway, his eyebrows lifted and the corners of his mouth twitching as he watched Echo’s little dance.
Placing his injured foot to the floor, but keeping most of his weight off of it, Echo pointed a finger in the warrior’s face and glared. “Don’t you dare laugh! This is all your fault.”
Fiero nodded slowly, but he looked to be having a hard time containing his mirth. “Wouldn’t dream of laughing at you.”
Echo dipped his head curtly and pushed past the man and into the room. “Much better.” He turned to smirk at Fiero.
“Sneaky little shit,” Fiero mumbled under his breath as he strolled back into the room and closed the door quietly behind him. “Okay, so you’re in. What do you want?”
“I want to know why you have such a foul attitude. I want to know why you always push me away.” Echo started pacing, waving his arms around wildly. “I want to know why you don’t trust me.” He stopped abruptly and turned slowly to look up at the bigger man. “I want to know why you don’t like me.”
Fiero growled and pushed a hand through his spikey blond hair. “I never said I didn’t like you, or that I didn’t trust you. I just don’t like it when you keep things from me—from us.”
“I wasn’t hiding anything.” Echo took a tentative step closer. “Everyone was sleeping when I had the dream. You didn’t see Eyce when he woke up. He was shaking so hard, I thought he was going to have a seizure. I didn’t want to add to whatever he was going through.”
“You still should have told someone,” Fiero argued. “This is important.”
“I told everyone the minute I woke up, didn’t I?” Echo eyed his grumbly lover for a long minute before he finally began to recognize the emotion Fiero was hiding. “You’re scared.”
“I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Yes, you are.” Echo stepped even closer, pressing himself against Fiero’s front. “What are
you
hiding, my big warrior?” He laid his palms against Fiero’s chest, loving all of the smooth, sun-bronzed skin beneath his hands. How the hell did he get so lucky?
Fiero’s long fingers wrapped around Echo’s wrists and pushed his hands away. Though the action had been done gently, it felt like a slap in the face. Fiero didn’t want Echo’s touch. “Fine.” He sighed and took a step away. “If you decide to be an adult and talk to me, I’ll be around.”
He made it no more than three steps before the door eased open, and Eyce stepped into the room with a deep frown on his face.
Great!
Another pissed off asshole too macho to admit that he might have feelings other than hunger and anger wasn’t exactly what Echo wanted to deal with just then. “I was just leaving.” He tried to sidestep Eyce, but the warrior’s arms shot out, stopping his retreat.
“We need to talk,” Eyce said coldly, his eyes never leaving Fiero.
“Yeah, that sounds like fun, but count me out.” Echo tried to push Eyce’s hand away, but the man was having none of it. “Look, he obviously doesn’t want to talk to me, or have anything to do with me. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine.” Eyce’s fingers looped around Echo’s shoulder and turned him to face Fiero. “Talk,” he demanded.
“I have nothing to say.” Fiero turned his back on them and went to sprawl out on his bed to stare up at the ceiling. “Leave.”
“We’re not leaving until you start talking.”
Fiero didn’t answer.
“This is bullshit, Fiero, and you know it. We’re supposed to be a team. You can’t just run and hide when things get hard.”
Still, Fiero didn’t answer. Echo just wanted to leave, but Eyce’s hand rested on his shoulder, holding him in place.
“Coward,” Eyce growled.
That got a response. Fiero leapt up from the bed as though it were on fire and strode across the room to stand directly in front of Eyce. He leaned in close until their noses almost touched and snarled like a wild animal. Eyce gently eased Echo behind him, but otherwise didn’t react to Fiero’s aggressiveness.
“I am no coward,” Fiero growled. “You want to walk around pretending like everything is sunshine and daisies, that’s your fucking problem. Forgive me if I’m a little more realistic.” Then he turned sharply and just stood there with his head bent and his body heaving as he breathed heavily.