Amy's Advantage (9 page)

Amy released the breath she’d been holding deep in her lungs
and focused on her daughter. Chloe, totally engrossed in the DVD, was working
her hands in mimicking the itsy-bitsy spider in the nursery rhyme song she was
softly singing along with the cartoon. She was growing up so fast. Already her
little fingers were losing their sweet baby-fat chubbiness and each day she
became more independent, insisting on doing more and more with “no help. Me,
Mommy.
Me
.”

Pride collided with a wistful melancholy in Amy’s chest. She
wanted so much for her daughter. Peace, safety, happiness—everything. A perfect
world.

A single tear escaped and tracked down her cheek before she
could catch it. Embarrassed, she wiped it away and glanced up, feeling the
weight of Jordyn’s gaze on her before seeing it in the rearview mirror. His
gray eyes glinted silver as he searched her face. The hard lines of his face
formed a frame for an unexpected understanding she saw in his eyes. His
expression made it obvious that he knew there was more to the story, more to
her, than what Cirryc believed, yet he didn’t push for answers. This time.

What exactly did he see when he looked at her? He’d
interrogate her for answers when it came to information he thought he needed
for her safety, yet turn around and protect her from another’s inquisition.
He’d be distant one moment and then with a single look from him, the distance
evaporated and he seemed as close to her as her own skin.

Suddenly the memory of their kiss rose in her mind and she
could no more stop it surging and flooding through her than she could a large
ocean swell racing inland. Since he’d walked out the door last night, she’d
been struggling with the feelings left behind from the kiss. Quickly breaking
eye contact, she pushed back the feelings and took a deep, calming breath. Her
life was complicated enough right now without the drama of an alien version of
unrequited love.

She let her head fall against the back of the seat. Her body
ached from being cooped up in a car and hotel. Stir crazy had been passed days
ago and she really wanted to shrug everything off and go for a long run until
her lungs burned and her muscles trembled. Pounding through a couple of miles
or more always helped focus her mind and clear out any crazy emotions she had
rolling around inside of her. It had been harder to find the time once Chloe
was born, but with Aurora around, life had started to regain some balance
again.

Jordyn turned off the main highway and the trees hugged much
closer to the side of this road. They should be wherever they were going fairly
soon now. Snow had begun to fall again in thick, soft flakes, and while
beautiful, it made even a short jog unappealing. Trying to run around trees,
weave among thick brush and avoid rocks treacherously hidden by snow drifts in
a forest probably filled with hungry wolves made her second favorite stress-reducing
pastime a little less appealing than normal. Her first favorite stress-reducing
pastime was—she glanced at Jordyn, who’d gone back to maneuvering their vehicle
over the icy road—unavailable.

Amy closed her eyes, hoping to maybe just fall asleep and block
everything out for awhile. It was a reasonable expectation. Her sleep last
night had been fitful at best. But instead of drifting off into sweet oblivion,
her mind insisted on replaying every moment of last night. The hunger in
Jordyn’s eyes as he bent to kiss her, the warmth of his hands on her skin, the
hard muscles of his chest and solid beat of his heart under her palms all
swirled together with his words of denial, the emphatic click of the door
closing behind him.

Anger, excitement and disbelief spun together inside her in
a frenzied dance, hedged in only by a soul-deep exhaustion that made hysteria
just too damn tiring to consider.

Damn him. Damn this whole stupid, fucked-up mess. She was
really ready for just one single goddamn thing in her life to be both right
and
easy.

* * * * *

Siriyn found it impossible to stay at the farmhouse as the
afternoon wore on. Yesterday, when Cirryc had arrived by himself, he’d been so
furious the tips of his fingers had started to burn. Theoretically, he could
appreciate the care Jordyn was taking to ensure the safety of his mate, but the
fact that the man had kept Esraina away from him for even an extra second,
never mind an entire day, shot “theoretically” all to hell.

Cirryc had been cryptic about their arrival time and the
longer Siriyn waited, the more pissed he got. Before his edginess brought him
to blows with his older cousins, he took himself out of the house and spent
more than an hour prowling the perimeter of the grounds, looking for any signs
of Predators or Slayers.

There’d been no direct attack on the house since a pack of
eight Slayers had been released after Bethany had arrived, except for the
explosion in one of the garages that nearly killed Myra. He was so glad his
second oldest cousin’s head of security would be okay. Still, he found it
preferable to hike though the frozen forest on the pretense of rechecking
security than wait by the window watching the road. Not to mention that it
helped release some of his pent-up frustration by loosing occasional fire
streams from his fingertips to incinerate the tops of random pine trees.

His particular powers had caused a lot of conflict between
his cousins and him as he was growing up. Though he was the youngest Head of
House, his powers had been revealed much sooner than expected and he’d not had
much desire early on to control his temper or his power. He’d been brought
before the Council for warnings several times as a teenager and had his ass
kicked on numerous occasions by his cousins for misusing the gift the gods had
given him.

He shook his head at the memories. Though he could run
better than average odds at winning a fight against any of his older cousins
one on one, when they worked together, it was impossible to beat them. Which
was the whole point of the gods’ gifts in the first place, he admitted as, with
a laser-fine line of fire, he shaved off the top two inches of a young
evergreen.

The last several years he’d honed his gift until he could
wield it with both precision and power, knowing that his ability to control and
use it could be the life or death factor in finding and keeping safe his mate.
Jordyn had driven home that particular legend with all the Royal heirs
throughout their times of training. Hard to believe that the man who had given
him the skills to find and fight for his mate was the one standing in his way.

True, Jordyn’s concerns about the third woman at the River
Walk had been largely ignored. At the time, Wyc and Rordyc, heirs to the Second
and Fourth Houses, were already in Ilyria reassuming the obligations tied to
their official positions. Amdyn and Connyn, heads of the First and Third
Houses, had been so focused on finally having found their own mates and getting
them back to their homeworld that Jordyn’s suspicions had been dismissed.

Unfortunately, while all this had been going on, he’d been
following a breath of a lead up the western coast of California, looking for
his own mate, and he’d missed the big event of the last of Magdalyne’s
daughters being found—or so everyone thought. He hadn’t even gotten to meet
Aurora, because Connyn had taken her immediately back to Ilyria. Winter storms
had further delayed his return and so he’d also missed Shyrana’s announcement
fresh off the telepathic hotline that the fourth daughter was still missing.

He’d have loved to see Amdyn’s expression when Shy relayed
that bit of news from her Ilyrian contact.

According to his best friend, Kayn, who was also Amdyn’s
younger brother, Amdyn hadn’t believed her at first, insisted Shy had been
wrong or misinterpreted the message. It was no secret something had been off
with her lately. She’d become impatient and sharp with those around her, which
was a long leap from normal for her and her headaches and blackouts had become
more frequent and severe.

Because of her exceptional telepathic ability, which could
reach between the two worlds and keep them all connected, Wyc’s younger sister
had been brought to this world with the team. Shyrana might look delicate and
petite, but she’d been raised among a horde of arrogant, powerful males and
she’d learned to hold her own. He himself had been charmed or manipulated by
the woman many times. Probably more than he even knew.

Lately, Amdyn had been brushing off her behavior as stress
and homesickness, but Siriyn knew there was more to it. Kayn knew it too, but
had his own reasons for not talking about it. Both he and Kayn had tried to
talk her into going back home to no avail. She refused to leave until their
mission was accomplished. Though he loved Shy like his own sister, the woman
was damn hardheaded.

Smiling at the thought of Amdyn—or anyone, as long as it
wasn’t him, for that matter—questioning Shy’s ability, he stopped next to a
large rock fall, made a long, slow sweep of the surrounding area and then
squatted down and flipped back the top camouflage of a security unit.

Back at the house, a notice would have beeped once he
stepped over the line of rocks alerting a guard that the northwest perimeter
had been breached, activating both cameras and other security devices. Siriyn
ignored the tiny warning light, punched in his personal code and then the
all-clear code before resetting it.

He headed back toward the house, unable to stop an electric
spurt of expectation at the thought of finally—
finally
getting to see
Esraina in the flesh.

Several months ago, he’d discovered a new twist to the gift
the gods had given him. Frustrated that one more lead for the Mystic daughters
had come crashing into just another dead end, he’d been sitting in the kitchen,
rolling fire from his fingers into a ball and pushing himself to see how long
he could hold it before the heat became too intense. Finding his mate had been
the one thought eclipsing all others as he rolled individual licks of flames
into a single, flashing sphere that turned from red to orange to white the
longer he held it.

Suddenly, a woman’s face had appeared in the flames. In that
split second, her green eyes had seemed to look straight at him and he felt the
force of that gaze straight through his soul. It had surprised the shit out of
him and he’d jerked back, dropping the fire onto the floor and setting one of
the throw rugs aflame.

Perfect timing, since Amdyn picked that moment to walk in.
He helped him stomp it out and they exchanged a few words, Amdyn telling him to
grow the hell up and he, in turn, telling his older cousin to fuck off.

Since then, he’d only been able to bring her image out of
the flames a couple more times, but had also discovered he could see others as
well. The closer he was to a person, the longer the image lasted and the easier
it came.

That’s how he discovered Kayn and Shy were hooking up. He’d
had his suspicions, but when he’d been experimenting with expanding his power
and focused on Kayn, he’d been extremely grateful he saw nothing below the shoulders.
His cousin had been involved in an intense tongue tangle with Shy, and even
from the shoulders up, it was obvious they were fucking.

With the tips of his toes and fingers starting to numb from
the cold, he nodded to the soldier standing guard just inside the forest line
edging the clearing to the farmhouse compound. The men Jordyn had chosen to
bring with them were undoubtedly good at their jobs. He knew he’d probably
passed more than one during his hike through the woods, but he hadn’t seen any until
this one who had purposefully stepped out to acknowledge him.

The distant sound of a truck coming down the long driveway
caught his attention and when he turned back, the soldier was gone. He stepped
into the clearing and headed toward the house. Coming in from the back end of
the property, he passed several outlying buildings before he reached the
farmhouse. Siriyn, screened by a tall holly bush next to the porch, stopped
short of walking into view, but where he could still easily see everyone getting
out of the Hummer.

The truck was already parked in front of the farmhouse and a
scene of mild chaos was in progress. Cirryc and Jordyn were already out of the
vehicle, pulling bags of toys and clothes out of the back and taking them
inside. Amdyn and Ellen had come out of the house and Amdyn had moved only
halfway down the porch steps to stand with his arms crossed and eyes peeled as
Ellen rushed to the truck.

Opening the door to the backseat, Ellen immediately started
making those high, delighted woman sounds that happened whenever there was a
baby around. It was the first time he’d seen her truly happy since she’d
arrived. Ellen’s dazzling smile lit her entire face and features that had been
beautiful to start with became alive with stunning joy.

At Ellen’s reaction, Siriyn glanced at Amdyn. Harsh
intensity marked his cousin’s face as he watched his mate lift Chloe out of her
car seat and make the baby laugh with silly words and a quick kiss. A dark
hunger passed in his cousin’s gaze but before Siriyn could carry that thought
further, a woman got out of the other side of the truck and walked around the
back of it to greet Ellen.

She gave Ellen a hug and the hood of her coat fell back,
revealing her face. Esraina. She looked exactly as she had in the flames. And…not.

Ellen shifted Chloe to one hip and motioned to Amdyn. Her
smile faded as she said, “You remember Amdyn from the hotel and River Walk.”

Uncrossing his arms, Amdyn stepped off the porch and moved
toward Esraina as he said, “We haven’t officially met, though. Welcome to—”

Chloe’s eyes went comically round as she pointed at Amdyn
and said, “The Kilth!” When everyone turned to her in surprise, Chloe stuck her
thumb in her mouth and dropped her head to Ellen’s shoulder, pressing her
forehead against the side of Ellen’s neck.