Black Orchid (15 page)

Griffin
hoped like hell that Nate’s warning had come in time. Or that perhaps Maddox
was just testing Nate’s loyalty and nothing was
happening
to Selene and
the Vyusher. He had Charlotte take them directly to the limestone caverns near
Austin, Texas, that had once been Maddox’s base
of
operations. Maddox had abandoned
it after the fight last year. But Selene had wanted to do one last pass through
before having Darius, a Vyusher with the ability to control earth and rocks,
fill it in so that Maddox could never use it again.

Charlotte
had dropped them into the heart of the main chamber of the complex. Risky,
given the fact that Griffin was still hiding his wolf form from the majority of
the Vyusher. But Desmond brought them all in under his stifling cloak of invisibility.
A handy skill that the Vyusher leader had but eerie because it felt like being
suffocated.

They
fell smack into the middle of chaos.

Damn!
Two things were instantly obvious: Maddox hadn’t been bluffing… and Nate’s
warning had come too late.

Griffin
had no idea how long Maddox’s forces had been there or how long the fight had
been raging. Wolves and humans filled the space along with a cacophony of sound
and the metallic smell of blood. So much was happening, he had difficulty
identifying his own people.

“Shit,”
Desmond breathed before quickly sprinting off to help his brethren, taking his
power with him and leaving Griffin and Charlotte exposed.

Griffin
looked at Charlotte. “Get people out of here. I’ve got to find Selene.”

She
nodded and disappeared without question.

Griffin
immediately opened his mind.
“Selene?”
he called as he started to stalk
through the insanity looking for his
te’sorthene
.

“Selene!”
he yelled
louder as he searched more and more frantically for her mind.
“Answer me!”

“I’m
here,”
came the faint answer.
“Busy.”

Griffin
latched on to her location and took off at a sprint. He caught a flash of her
long silvery hair through the throngs of bodies across the room. He was plowing
his way through the hordes when suddenly a large, mottled brown wolf blocked
his path and growled menacingly.

Griffin
wanted to howl his frustration. Instead, he took his shield and formed it like
a battering ram in front of him, slamming the wolf back.  He spotted Selene
standing off to the side. He could tell from her concentration that she was
trying to turn off powers and neutralize the fighting all over the room. But
she had to be careful to do it one at a time and could only apply this skill of
hers when she could see a power in use.

Where
the hell were her guards? In battle Selene was supposed to be surrounded by
wolves meant to keep her safe while she applied her unique gift. But
no
one was near
her that Griffin could tell.

A
flash of movement across the room caught his eye. A massive grey wolf was running
on a trajectory to intercept Selene. And he was going to get there before
Griffin.

Stopping
his run, Griffin formed the shield like a brick wall and slammed it up in the
attacker’s path. And then something happened that’d never happened before – the
wolf careened right through the shield, head first.

Griffin
grunted as the wall he’d built crumbled under the force of the blow. The wolf
didn’t seem remotely fazed, and it just kept running as if the shield hadn’t
even been there at all.

“Charlotte!
Get Selene!”
Griffin yelled as he took off running again. He wasn’t going to get to her in
time.

Griffin
did the only thing he could think of…. He started putting up wall after wall of
his shield in front of the wolf. Maybe he could slow him down a little. The thing
went through every obstacle as though it barely existed, his momentum only
slightly slowing.

“Charlotte!”
he yelled.

When
she didn’t appear at Selene’s side, Griffin called,
“Selene, take off. Now!”

“I
can’t! I’m working to keep about thirty different powers turned off here. I’ll
lose someone if I try to add my falcon morph to the mix.”

Griffin’s
muscles burned as he pushed himself to reach her first. But it was hopeless.
God,
no. Not her
!

Just
before the grey wolf rammed into Selene, another wolf jumped into his
path
and took the
brunt of the hit. The two animals rolled, snapping and snarling. Vicious growls
ripped from their throats as they fought.

Selene
turned to face them. Griffin, now only about twenty feet away, could see the
fuchsia glow of her eyes as she tried to apply her gift to yet more of Maddox’s
forces. But before she could stop him, the grey wolf ripped through the jugular
of her would-be protector. Blood sprayed from the wound.

“Oren!”
Selene screamed.

Griffin’s
mind was filled with piercing pain as he felt her mental anguish. But her
screaming quickly turned to a roar of such force, every creature in the room
stopped and howled as their sensitive ears registered the agony.

Looking
up, Griffin saw Selene’s body wavering, trying to morph. He leapt the rest of
the distance separating them. Tackling her to the ground, he sent out a call to
every being in the room.
“Get out now if you want to live.”

Griffin
growled his frustration. Unable to shift out of his wolf form, he couldn’t take
his
te’sorthene
in his arms. He couldn’t sooth her or hold her. She lay
on the cold stone floor and curled in on herself. Her body shivered, wracked
with spasms.

Griffin
stood over her on all fours. Reaching down, he nuzzled her neck.
“Look at
me,”
he said softly. When she did, fear ripped through him. The
fuchsia-colored glow in Selene’s eyes was too much of the dragon and not enough
of the woman.

“Charlotte!”
he called,
hoping to hell that she came this time.
“Get me to our family. Now.”

He
looked away from Selene for a moment and realized that every being in the room
was hastily clearing out. They’d all seen what an out-of-control dragon could
do, and no one was going to risk being there when she went nuclear.

Charlotte
suddenly appeared at his side, and, with a touch, they were back at the castle.
“Ellie!”
Griffin yelled for his sister.
“Bring everyone. Selene’s
dragon is—”

Before
he could finish the call, his entire family surrounded him. Hands lay upon him
and Selene as they all concentrated at once. Griffin didn’t know how long they
stood there, working in tandem, applying every power in their arsenal until,
gradually, her body calmed and the shaking subsided.

Everyone
breathed a collective sigh of relief when Selene took a deep breath and opened
her eyes. And then her face crumpled.

“Oren,”
she sobbed.

“Okay.
Just stay still,” Adelaide said to Nate.

She
scrunched her face as she concentrated on her attempt to repair their
relationship bond. Nate could see the flutter of her pulse at her neck as she
expended a great amount of effort to fix what he’d broken.

“I’d
show you what I’m doing, but I can’t concentrate on both things at once,” she
said.

As
Nate watched, she sat back slightly. He could tell when she accessed her power
to see relationships because the hand he was still holding started to tremble
slightly.

“You
sure you can do this?” he asked, concern lacing his words. “Last time I had to
hold you through the night before you calmed down.”

She
rolled her eyes. “That was after several
big
revelations if you
remember. I’m okay.” She reached out and appeared to grab hold of something
mid-air and hissed.

“What?
Does it hurt?” Nate asked.

“No,”
she said, through gritted teeth. “It feels ice cold and tingles.”

“Is
that bad?”

“No
idea.” She pulled her other hand from his grasp and reached out toward him. He
watched as she waved around futilely in empty space for a good minute.

Adelaide
let out a deep breath, a small frown of concentration beetling her brows.
Finally, she made a grab in the air. “Got it!”

Suddenly
a warm, tingling sensation fluttered from his heart and spread throughout his
body. “I know,” he said in a choked voice.

“You
can feel it?”

Nate
nodded, speechless. What had started just as a tingling was now growing into
something more powerful. Unable to resist any longer, Nate dropped to his knees
on the floor in front of Adelaide and placed his hands on her thighs, needing
to touch her, his gaze glued to her face.

A
flush bloomed in her cheeks. “You’re… mmmm…” She gave a little moan as he
started to move his thumbs in little circles. “You’re distracting me,” she said
in a hoarse whisper.

Nate
forced his hands off her. “Sorry. I just—” He shook his head.

He
couldn’t put into words what he was feeling. Desire was riding him hard, but more
than that, he felt this electric connection with her.

“I
know,” she said. “I feel it too.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Just let me—”

“Adelaide,”
he groaned.

“It’s
not working,” she gasped. Tears started to slip down her cheeks. “I can’t… I
can’t.”

Nate
couldn’t stand watching her struggle for another second. He stopped resisting
the need inside him and reached up between her outstretched arms. With all the
tenderness he possessed, he gently laid his hands on either side of her face,
wiping away the tears with the pads of his thumbs.

“Let
go,” he whispered.

“No,”
she gritted, biting her lip.

“Adelaide,”
he said, quietly. Her eyes opened and refocused on him. “It’s not meant to be.”

Her
face crumpled as her hands released the lines she’d been holding. Sharp and
terrible pain like nothing he’d ever felt before ripped through him, competing
equally with desire and want. But he had only one thought –soothing
her
pain.

Nate
brought her face down to his and laid his lips across hers in a kiss that was
both desperate and reverent.

And
healing.

He
opened his eyes and looked up to see Greasy Dave standing at the window, fury
written across his face.

Nate
jerked away from Adelaide and was out the door and around by the window before
Dave could even move. Taking Dave’s head in his hands, he knocked it hard
against the side of the house. Dave crumpled into a heap on the floor.

“Shit!”
Nate muttered. What the hell was he going to do about this?

“Nate?”
Adelaide asked as she walked toward him on the veranda. “What was that about—”
Her eyes widened when she saw the prone form before him.

“Shit,”
she said, echoing his earlier sentiment. “That one of Maddox’s?”

“Yeah,”
Nate muttered, watching her carefully. He saw the moment she recognized the man
on the floor.

She
suddenly paused and looked a little closer. Then she slowly lifted her eyes, a
painful kind of disappointment shadowing them.

“Is
that—?”

“The
guy I pretended to kill to save you and worm my way into your life?” he cut her
off to ask. “The answer is yes.”

Adelaide
nodded slowly, as if absorbing that information.

“Is
he dead this time?” she asked.

“Adelaide,
I’m sorry—”

She
held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t. That was before. Is he dead?”

Nate
blew out a frustrated breath but squatted and felt for Dave’s pulse. “No. Just
out cold.”

Suddenly
Adelaide gasped and stumbled back a few steps. “What?” she said.

“What?”
he asked.

Adelaide
said nothing, and he moved to stand directly in front of her.  He was about to
ask “what” again, when she laid a single fingertip over his lips.

“
Griffin,
”
she mouthed.

The
word was as effective as an instant ice bath. He waited patiently while
Adelaide focused on the conversation happening inside her head. The longer it
took, the more worried Nate became. It had to be pretty bad. Good news never
took this much time to share.

The
longer the wait, the more Adelaide seemed to fold in on herself. Her mouth
pulled down in a frown, her arms wrapped across her belly, her shoulders
slumped. Finally, she looked up at him, misery pinching her lips tight. “There
was an attack,” she said.

Nate
nodded. He’d come to that conclusion just watching her reactions. “Is everyone
okay?”

Adelaide
shook her head. “No,” she whispered. “Oren is dead. Maggie’s been captured.”

“Shit,”
Nate bit out the expletive again. He’d known, dammit. Maddox had given him a
clue. If he hadn’t bothered with finding Sheila, he could’ve prevented more,
saved them. Nate clenched his teeth so hard his jaw ached. Images of Selene’s
old friend and mentor, Oren, and of Maggie, the sweet wolf shifter who referred
to herself as a living megaphone, popped into his head. He remembered vaguely
that he’d really liked both of them.

“Charlotte
is bringing Griffin and Desmond here,” Adelaide said, interrupting his silent
self-flogging. Her tone, flat and emotionless, worried him even more.

“When?”

“Right
now.”