On Wicked Ground (Solsti Prophecy Book 4) (41 page)

Gin stared at him, gaping. “What? How?”

“The night I met her she fell over the side of a wooden gate…it’s a long story. I’ll tell you the details later. Get Rosa. I have it!”

In a flash, Gin was on her feet. “Mathias!” She ran to where he and Ashina knelt by a fallen Watcher. Blond hair on the ground, the identity obscured by the Hunter’s body.
Ria?

Caine sat up fully and tried to take a deep breath. Fuck, that hurt. Ashina’s healing magic had repaired his cells, but a lingering soreness would remain for several hours.

Suddenly Rosa was running toward him, surprisingly fast for an ancient witch. Nicole and Brooke followed close behind.

Rosa swooped down and knelt alongside him. “You have her hair?”

Caine nodded and reached into his pants pocket. He drew out the red velvet bag, now soaked in his blood. Opening it, he slid two fingers inside and drew out the blond silky strands.

“You carry a lock of her hair?” Nicole laid a hand over her heart, her voice softening.

Rosa took Alina’s hair reverently. “I don’t know how you have this, but let’s thank the gods you do. There’s no time to waste.” She reached into her own pocket and produced a small silver box. She opened it, revealing three locks of hair, one blond and two dark. In a methodical pattern, she laid them on her skirt. Blond, dark, dark, blond. Chanting guttural words in a Demonish dialect so old Caine didn’t recognize it, she turned her hands palm up at her sides.

She waved her hand over the sisters’ hair, then picked up the segments one by one. Speaking continuous soft words, she twisted and wound them, braiding them together, each one wrapping securely around the next, until she had formed a silken circle.

Lifting the hair, she kept up her quiet but urgent litany. The light feathery touch of her power flicked up and down Caine’s arms, ruffling his hair. It was followed by a thousand tiny needle pricks, and followed immediately by the sensation of more soothing feathers. He couldn’t tell if this was Rosa’s power fluctuating, or if this was a normal side effect of the binding spell.

She stopped speaking. The field went quiet. No birds chirped or insects buzzed. It was like everything, right down to the air itself, was waiting to see what would happen.

A rumble started deep underground. It paused for a moment, then started up again, stronger. Out of the corner of his eye, Caine saw Ashina, Raniero, and Brenin carrying a limp Ria away from the activity and toward the building.

Suddenly a roar came from the earth, so loud Caine and everyone else covered their ears. It went on and on, and bright white light pushed up from the ground. It shot a wide column into the dawn sky. A gale tore through the trees, bending hundred-year-old oaks as if they were saplings. Still, the horrible bellow stretched on and on.

The light was blinding in its intensity and the deafening noise pained Caine’s eardrums. The ground shook harder, until he wondered if they were all going to end up permanently underground…and then it stopped. The light went out and the roar ceased. The wind stopped blowing and the earth stopped trembling.

And in a heap on top of the ground lay Alina.

Her sisters gasped.

Caine’s whole world distilled down to the little blonde laying on her side and a possessive roar ripped from his throat. “Mine.”

The need to touch her, to hold her, overrode his aching body. Forcing strength into his muscles, he pushed to his feet and crossed the distance to his beautiful, brave woman.

Caine crouched low beside her and smoothed her hair away from her face. Flecks of dirt scattered free at his touch, joining the rest of the earth around her. Her eyes were closed, her expression peaceful as if she were sleeping. “Alina,” he whispered.

She didn’t move, but the pulse ticking at the base of her throat told him she lived, that her heart rate was calm and steady. Cupping her cheek, he leaned down, though his entire chest screamed from the position, and pressed his lips to hers. “I love you, Alina. You’re safe. Come back to me.”

She sighed and turned her head side to side, then her eyelids fluttered open.

Gods, the sight of her beautiful green eyes looking back at him was a moment he would remember forever. And not just because he had a knack for that stuff. He couldn’t suppress a smile. “You’re okay, baby.”

“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” She blinked in confusion. “Wait, what happened to you—” Awareness dawned in her eyes. “Oh my god. What happened?” She sat up, too fast for him. “Oh no. The battle. You were hurt. That Viper—”

“I’m fine.” He pushed up to a sitting position, grimacing.

“You don’t look fine.” She reached out to touch him but stopped. “You’re covered in blood!”

He took her face in his hands, unable to stand it any longer. “I’m still recovering but I’ll be good. Ashina already did her healer stuff. Alina, listen.” He took a breath, able to breathe a little deeper now. “You were…pulled into the earth. Do you remember any of it?”

Her eyes went saucer wide. “I was…what?” She shook her head. “I-I…” She searched his face as if trying to find her memories there. “I told you…I love you.” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I
said
it. Oh my gosh.”

“You sure did.” He kissed the backs of her hands. “Tried to get you not to, but I was having a little trouble talking.”

“You knew?” Her voice was hushed in wonder. “When?”

“Mathias told me before the battle started.”

Her focus shifted beyond him. “Gin.”

“Yeah.” He ran a hand down her arm. “Hell, woman. You’re not allowed to scare me like that again.”

 She met his gaze and scooted closer. “I couldn’t live with myself if I hadn’t told you how I really felt. I didn’t want you to die thinking I didn’t love you.”

“Now you can tell me every day.” He dipped his head to kiss her.

“How?” she murmured against his lips.

He pulled back a fraction. “Rosa broke the spell. You truly don’t remember anything?”

She shook her head. “All I remember is that you were bloody, you could barely talk. I was so scared that you were dying. I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Holy mother of—” He stopped as relief crashed over him. She didn’t remember, and that was probably for the best. “We thought we’d lost you.
I
thought I’d lost you. And damn it, I just found you.” He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

“I love you, Alina. I told you before this shit started, and I still mean it. You make me feel like my world is exactly how it’s supposed to be. I can have fun with you, but also tell you the deep shit. You get me, Boots. You understand me, even though our lives don’t have all that much in common.” He kissed her mouth. “Be my mate. Bind with me forever.”

She blinked back tears. “I love you, Caine.” Winding her arms carefully around his neck, she whispered, “I love you, I love you, I love you. I want to be yours forever.”

A curious warmth vibrated in his chest and every place their skin touched came alive with the growing magic of the mate bond. In his mind’s eye, he had a sudden, beautiful image of Alina’s energy signature—the sparks dancing like miniature fireworks all around them, ready to add their life to the bond. The pull of his own Lash demon power surged, reaching out to hers and twining with it, creating a vibrant connection between them that made him want to beat his chest with pride. And then take Alina to bed for a month.

“I feel it!” she whispered. “It’s like a living energy, a…a strand of your strength and my power all mixed together.”

“Me too, baby.” He stroked her hair and kept her close to his chest, not ready to put even one inch of distance between them.

“So…I guess we’ll be in the honeymoon stage for a while?” Her voice was light and teasing, with an undercurrent of affection and contentedness that told him she wouldn’t have it any other way.

He pulled back just far enough to see the mischievous delight in her eyes. Yeah, she knew all about the mate bond. Growing up on Torth, almost everyone got mated. The facets of the connection were common knowledge: sensing each other’s emotion at all times, being able to project thoughts when in close proximity, gaining a lock of hair that matched the other’s, and the ability to feel your mate’s desire and orgasm right along with your own.

“Hell yes, woman. We can stay in that stage forever as far as I’m concerned.”

She twirled a lock of his hair around her first finger. “The night I met you at that party…who knew it would lead to this?”

“I had a hunch.” He grinned down at her surprised expression. “You were sexy as sin and cool under pressure. I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I wasn’t planning to stop until I found you.”

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY
-F
OUR

One week later…

A
LINA
SAT
CURLED
ON
THE
huge sectional couch in the game room of Watcher HQ, watching the last scene of a popular American movie play on the wide screen television. Her sisters had taken it upon themselves to show her every movie they could think of that took place in their home city, a place called Chicago. And after seeing movies about teenagers ditching school, couples falling in love, and superheroes zooming around the skyscrapers, she was ready to visit.

“What did you call your transportation system? The T, right?” she asked, sipping an herbal tea.

Nicole giggled from her end of the couch. “The El. Elevated train. It’ll probably seem archaic to you, but it grows on you over time.”

“I think Boston has the T,” Gin said. She frowned into her cup of coffee, so dark it looked like mud. But she swore that was the only way to drink coffee. “Um, Brooke, I need a warm up here.”

Brooke obliged, heating up Gin’s coffee by speeding up the molecules in the water, a feat which still stunned Alina. Over the past week, the girls had shown her every trick up their sleeves.

In turn, Alina and Sebastian had shown Arawn, the Watchers, and her sisters all of their different tools and had broken down the details of their more complicated operations. Arawn had actually cracked an impressed smile at a few of their stories, and had informed Sebastian that he ought to stay on in an advisory role.

And the mirror that had belonged to Sebastian’s father, the one that catapulted Alina’s life into dizzying, fast-forward motion, had been locked up with a select number of magical items deemed off limits. Only Arawn had the key.

Alina sighed. “I’ll miss you guys.” Nicole and Brooke were about to head back to Chicago with Kai and Gunnar. Brooke said she needed to get back to work for her graphic design firm, where she had recently been promoted.

Gin blew on her coffee. “So, back to Demon Central for you two.”

The men were across the room, absorbed in a game of swamp darts, so Brooke spoke up. “Well, I’m still keeping the condo. Kai and I stay there half the time. Arawn wants him, and Gunnar, Brenin, and Rhys in the city. He says he needs to monitor how much trouble is in the area.”

“And anyway, we’ll come back here to visit you a lot.” Nicole grinned at Alina. “We want to see you with a big round belly. Then we’re gonna spoil that baby like aunties are supposed to.”

Alina couldn’t hold back a smile as her hand reflexively went to her still-flat stomach. As soon as the battle had ended and the worst of the injuries tended to, Alina and Caine had sought out Ashina. Through her healer’s skill, she had determined that Alina was indeed pregnant. Caine had looked ready to burst with equal amounts of pride and protectiveness.

A baby. A mate. Sisters. Alina still couldn’t quite believe all of this was hers.

Gin nudged Alina’s foot with her own slippered one. “You’ll have me to hang out with. I know of a few Bonham sisters’ stories you haven’t heard yet.”

Caine, finished with darts, walked up behind Alina’s spot on the couch and bent down to kiss her hair. “I’ve got some ideas to fill her time.”

Stop it!
Alina said into his mind, though her admonishment was lost in a mental giggle.

What? They’re all mated. They know what it’s like.

Gin stifled a snort. “I’ll bet you do.” She glanced at Mathias, who flung one last dart into the squishy board. “And I won’t always be here. My schedule—our schedule—is up in the air.” Her expression fell. “But I don’t want to leave Ria, in case Mathias is out on assignment when she wakes up.”

“I’m sorry.” Alina laid a hand on her sister’s arm. “Ashina said she’d come around.”

“I know.” Gin looked down and picked a thread on her jeans. “I just hate seeing her like this. She’s one of the strongest women I’ve ever met.”

Ria lay in a magically induced coma, after inhaling toxic Serus demon breath that was nastier than usual because of the effect of the lily extract. After stumbling, she’d been dealt a bone deep cut along her quadriceps, thanks to a cowardly Viper. The Viper had been immediately brought down by a Watcher, but the damage had been done.

Gin had told Alina of her plans to help bring clean water to impoverished, drought ridden countries on Earth. But Mathias was still very much a part of Arawn’s inner circle. No one else had his uniquely honed sense of smell, and he was still required to go on regular assignments. Gin was looking into volunteering in different global relief programs rather than committing to one, but only after Ria woke and was doing better.

Mathias and Gunnar put the darts away and joined their women. “Time to go, love.” Gunnar helped Nicole stand and tucked her black streak of hair—her mate lock—behind her ear.

“Hugs!” Nicole commanded, facing her sisters and holding her arms wide.

All four girls got up and embraced. Family. Being with them felt so good. It was acceptance and fun and love on a level Alina had never known was possible. And while she had all those things with Caine, their mate bond had the added charge of raw and potent desire. It was completely different, yet equally something she couldn’t imagine living without.