Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (35 page)

“
Nick, I’m in Miranda’s room,”
she
called to her mate. The pulsing anxiety in the middle of her chest
didn’t pause; it simply morphed into relieved concern.

“
I’ve never been there, would you port me
in?”
he asked, mentioning one of the greatest restraints a
vampire had on his porting ability. Porting blind, always took the
risk of appearing stuck in the middle of a wall of stone.

Sarah did better than what he asked of her,
she ported him and Miranda into the room.

Nick had his arms around her nearly as fast
as Colin reached Miranda. That was saying a lot.

Briefly, she snuggled into his embrace as his
relief flooded her.

“Don’t ever do anything like that ever
again,” he ordered, tightening his hold on her.

“Totally agree with you on that one,” she
murmured against his chest.

“
Sarah?”
her dad called.
“Are you
okay?”

“
Yeah, I’m fine. We’re in Miranda’s
room,”
she said with a sigh, knowing her brief respite was at
an end. Crap, how could she have forgotten the invasion?

Her check trembled as Nick’s growl rumbled
through his chest. “It’s not like you had much time to worry about
anything else.” Smoothing her hair down, he kissed her temple, and
added with a slight tremor in his mental voice,
“When I lost
contact with your thoughts, I was terrified you were
dying.”

“
I thought I was too. When I felt the
power hit me, I threw up a barrier between us, but I didn’t have
time to warn you,”
she said, rubbing his chest trying to calm
him.

“
You’re okay?”

“
Jittery, but okay,”
she said with a
small laugh for his ears only.
“I feel like the energizer bunny
multiplied by a few billion megawatts.”

With a twinkle in his eyes, he looked at her
hair, giving it serious consideration.
“I don’t think pink fur
would work out for you.”

Turning her attention back to work, she said,
“Dad, we have more than just the Dhark Empire to worry about. I
need all our key people in the conference room in thirty minutes.
If they can’t get away, I need their first in command.”

His mental sigh was one she had heard a
thousand times.
“I’m really not going to like this, am
I?”

“
No, no one is,”
she said somberly,
heading out of the room.

They had just reached the bottom of the
staircase when Sarah’s mom rounded a corner going much too fast.
“Baby!” she cried in relief. Never pausing, she threw herself
toward Miranda.

A word of caution was on Sarah’s lips, but
Colin beat her to it. He literally stepped between Miranda and her
mom.

Sarah snorted to herself, ready to watch the
sparks fly.

“Who do you think you are?” her mom demanded,
poking him in the chest. “Bloody, arrogant elf, get out of my
way.”

“Hi, Mom, meet my new lifetime bodyguard.
Doesn’t he have the hottest body you’ve ever seen?” Miranda said
cheekily from behind Colin’s wide shoulders.

“Well, he’ll be mangled if he doesn’t get out
of my way,” the older, half elf, half vampire said with a loud huff
of annoyance. Her golden hair swung around her shoulders. Pale
green, elfin eyes shot daggers at Colin.

“She’s still healing from an injury, no hard
hugs allowed,” Colin said imperiously.

Sarah watched the spark in her mom’s eyes
turn to livid fire. “Mom, he did the same thing to me. His name is
Colin, and he is Miranda’s new lifeMate.”

“Mate?”

While her mom demanded an explanation, Sarah
and Nick moved around them, reaching the conference room as a
vampire ported Bea into the room.

Before the phoenix had time to approach, a
grim-faced vampire greeted them, “Liege, my lord.” General Cornell,
Cory for short, looked fierce in all-out battle gear.

The armor fit his body like a second skin,
making the spikes of steel on his shoulders appear a natural
extension of his muscled width. On his hips, hung twin curved
knives with hilts made of ivory, a highly prized - and expensive -
material harvested from adult kraken fangs. The two-foot knives, or
short swords, matched the long, double-handed sword strapped to his
back. Stopping several feet away, his hand clenched into a fist,
and he hit his chest.

“Cory,” Sarah greeted him, offering her hand.
She gripped the lower part of his arm in an age-old warrior-type
greeting. “I’ll ask for a full update during the meeting, but what
is the current status?”

“Good, we’re in good shape,” he said,
acknowledging Bea with a nod as she joined them. “We still have
several hot spots, but everywhere else we’re hunting stragglers.
I’ve sent thirty percent of the standing army to assist with rescue
and clean-up efforts.”

“I pretty much did the same with our phoenix
forces,” Bea added.

“You’ve already called in our reserves?” she
asked. At his nod, she continued, “Within twenty-four hours they
need to be in position to take up the slack when we pull the
phoenix out of the valley for another mission.”

Frowning at Sarah, the phoenix general leaned
forward as if prepping for an argument. “Liege, with all due
respect, what could be more urgent than helping rebuild lost
homes?” Bea asked, looking as appalled as her words sounded.

“Umbra,” Sarah said. Her single word response
stopped both generals. Movement within the rapidly filling room
stopped, like a freeze-frame in a movie people stared at her in
horror.

“There are more of them?” Cory asked at the
same time Bea did.

“Yes,” Sarah said, refusing to answer
additional questions. It would be easier to explain it all at
once.

Moving to the head of the long, rectangle
table, she smiled at Nick. “As my mate, the other end is your
domain.”

Pulling out the chair for her, he snorted.
“My domain, as you put it, is at your side. As long as I win the
occasional argument, I’m quite happy with being beta to your
alpha.” Taking the seat to her right, he crossed his arms, looking
like the Viking emperor, Mordecai. From the possessive emotions
radiating from him, she knew she’d never budge him. With a small
shake of her head, she glanced at her two generals.

Cory dropped into the chair to her left, and
Bea sat on the other side of Nick. Neither seemed fazed by the
seating arrangement.

“
We figured that’s where he’d want to
sit,”
Bea said to Sarah.
“Cory and I agreed to switch seats
at every other meeting.”

Along both sides of the table sat a wide
range of people, each of them key to the safety of Trellick
Valley.

Making eye contact, she acknowledged each
person. Glancing around the room, she wondered where Mac was.
Normally, he sat between her spymaster and head animal trainer.

Mac’s current task was one more detail -
among several hundred - on her growing To Do List. She needed
someone to guard the teens at camp, but Mac was the head of her
personal security detail, which now included guarding Nick as
well.

“Where is Mac?” she asked, making immediate
plans to send another warrior to take Mac’s place.

Garrick, Mac’s second in command, looked
uncomfortable as he answered, “Out of pocket for the moment.”

Cory didn’t look any happier when he added,
“I called him. When I didn’t receive a response, I sent a couple of
men looking for him.”

“And,” she said, prompting him with the soft
word.

“The cabin looked like a tornado hit it. None
of the teens were there,” he paused, giving her time to let his
words sink in. “I’ve sent men to question the dragons.”

Inhaling through her nose, she sucked in a
harsh breath.
“Mac?”
she called.

“
Not now!”
Mac snarled, shutting her
out of his mind.

The power behind his thrust snapped her head
backward. Under the table, Nick’s leg pressed against hers. His
dark green eyes glinted with anger.
“Let’s get the meeting over
with then we’ll deal with your winged boy wonder.”

“
I’m going to pluck him. I swear that I’ll
pluck every darn feather if he went off on one of his tangents and
left his post. His duty was to protect those teens,”
she said,
growling softly. To Cory she said darkly, “He’s alive, but he might
not be when I’m finished with him.”

Turning her attention to the two dozen or so
people facing her, she asked each of them for an update.

As soon as they were finished, she said,
“Sounds like you don’t need me around.”

Her words caused the laughter she was aiming
for. Looking into the eyes of her people, she saw shadows that
would never go away. “Each of you, are to be commended. You have
gone over and above your duty. I thank you for holding our valley
together.”

Pausing, she glanced down the twin rows of
people. “Now, comes the hard part.”

She turned to Colin.
“Do you want it known
who you are?”
Sarah asked privately, understanding his reasons
to remain silent if that was what he decided.

Colin glanced at Miranda, but aimed his words
at Sarah.
“Miranda doesn’t think it will undermine your
authority, but I’m not too sure.”

“
Having the Sídhí Chi’Kehra appear will
make a big difference to most full blood elves, but the people in
this room are solid. They’ll stay loyal no matter what,”
Sarah
said without a single doubt.

“
Then, as my mate is fond of saying, go
for it,”
Colin said with a slight smile curving across his
handsome face.

“By now, everyone knows Miranda has a new
mate. What you don’t know is who he is,” Sarah said, nodding to
Colin.

“As cute as he is, he must be the missing
crown prince of the elvish Royal Valley,” Bea said in a stage
whisper.

Rolling his eyes, Cory snorted at her
theatrics.

The two had a great working relationship. His
grim outlook clashed with her cheeky attitude to create a perfect
unit.

“Almost, but not quite,” Sarah fought the
urge to grin. Next to her, Nick chuckled. “Everyone meet Colin,
Chi’Kehra of Sídhí.”

The table erupted with noise as everyone
tried to speak at once. Several jumped to their feet, clutching
weapons. At the opposite end of the table, her dad raised an
eyebrow as if asking if she could have stated the information with
a bit more tact.

“Sit down,” Sarah said quietly; lethal menace
coated her words. As she spoke, several people turned to her and
blanched. “Each of you will remember he is now my
brother-n-law.

Bea chuckled. All but rolling in her chair,
she broke the tense atmosphere. “Can we do it again?” Phoenix had
such a warped sense of humor it wasn’t even funny.

Once everyone calmed down, Sarah outlined
everything that had happened from the Khr'Vurr’s attack at camp to
her trip to Sídhí to the umbra’s plan to unite the valleys with
earth.

When Sarah finished, Cory cursed.

Bea’s ever-present humor had deserted
her.

“To sum it up,” Nick said into the heavy
silence, “The Khr'Vurr’s attack at the camp and the empire’s
assault on Trellick Valley were just diversions. Very lethal and
devastating, but the attacks were only a diversion to keep
everyone, primarily Sarah, busy while they finished filling the
ruins with liquid crystal.”

“Forcing the valleys onto Earth will destroy
the dimensional barriers. It doesn’t make sense. There will be no
In Between. The umbra use the In Between to hide in,” Bea said.
Disbelief made her voice sharp. Her eyes flickered silver then
returned to normal. “You must be wrong. It doesn’t make sense for
them to destroy their bolt hole.”

“There is no doubting the ruins have been
filled and activated,” Nick said firmly, not budging under the
heated gaze of the phoenix.

“Then they are planning something different.
Whatever it is, we will find them. The Clan vampires and dragons
believe they are responsible for hunting the umbra to extinction,
but we destroyed the final nest of vipers. Rather we thought we
killed them all. Given time, the phoenix can do the same thing
again,” Bea said with a snarl.

“You successfully hunted the umbra because
their smell was somehow intensified inside the In Between. If there
is no In Between, finding the umbra by scent, on Earth, would be
difficult if not impossible,” Sarah said, brushing her foot against
Nick’s leg, silently apologizing for taking over his debate, but
her knowledge of the In Between was greater than his.

Before she could worry too much about his
reaction, she felt his flash of understanding and relief that she
had solid facts that might sway the difficult general.

Bea hissed, flashing fangs. “Now, that makes
horrible sense,” she said, slapping her hand on the thick wooden
table.

“Yes, it does. So once we get the valley
stabilized, finding the umbra will be our primary concern,” Sarah
said.

“What about trying to empty the ruins,” Cory
asked, glancing at Nick as he growled at the general. “I agree the
umbra need to be destroyed, but the problem they present is fixable
in the long run. I think having the valleys and earth crash into
one another should be the top priority.”

“She’s already tried to drain the ruins. It
nearly killed her,” Nick said amid a harsh growl, glaring daggers
at Cory.

“It should’ve killed her,” Colin said from
the opposite end of the table. “From what Sarah has told me, most
of you believe the old Chi’Kehra was killed when he pushed all his
power into sending the elves to Earth.”

“Well, he is dead,” General Cory said
sarcastically, glaring at the man who represented the vampire’s
oldest enemy.

Colin snorted. “True, but that isn’t how he
died. Once he filled the ruins with liquid power, he ordered the
synth crystal to transport his people to earth. From experience, I
know the moment I give a command to crystal, it instantly
obeys.”