Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (12 page)

“Calm down, Colt, Lucy’s fine but … I’m just
not sure where she is right now.”

He snapped at me, but before I could answer
– with a kick to his face – a black shape dashed out of the trees
and landed between me and the Walker-wolf.

Cerberus
must have smashed through the dense undergrowth. He was covered in
leaves and sticks. His growls were low, vibrating across the area
as he started to advance on Colton, pushing him away from me. The
snow-white wolf didn’t
like this,
although it took a few steps back before he stood his ground.
Luckily, Lucy flew out of the trees then and headed straight for
her snarling mate.

“
Cere.” I
called him t
o me. The two-headed hound
retreated, but didn’t take his eyes from Colton.

“Lucy’s mate?” Refis and Malisna stood
behind me. Refis was the one who had asked the question.

“Yep, that growling, drooling fur ball is
her one true love. Have to hope the babies look like Lucy, right?”
I attempted to lessen the tension.

“I’m not drooling, Abigail,” Colton said. He
was back in human form and naked as the day he was born.

Lucy stepped in front of him, her tiny build
hiding the important parts. Not that he was shy. As a shifter he
was often left with his bits hanging free.

“I need an explanation right now?” Colton
was still growling, and he had both of his hands wrapped
possessively around Lucy’s biceps. He met my gaze with his own
furious one. Every line of his face stood out starkly. “And can
anyone tell me why the hell I had to knock Brace out to get here.
He’s supposed to be the calm one.”

I worked hard to keep all expression from my
features. I didn’t need to invite these sort of questions right
now. I must have been semi-successful because Colton removed his
laser eyes from me.

Lucy quickly detailed everything that had
happened since we came to the forest. When she was about halfway
through her story, a Walker doorway opened and out stepped my
parents and the half-Walker girls. A wave of disappointment drowned
me, although the smile remained on my features. The fake smile I’d
learned to cultivate the past few weeks.

I don’t know why I’d expected it to be
Brace. I felt like he should be storming around like Colton,
worried off his brain. Which won me moron-of-the-year; he didn’t
remember me, and it was all my fault. If we’d still been melded and
I’d disappeared like this, there was no doubt that right now I’d be
cuffed to his bed, and he’d be debating whether to keep me prisoner
for fifty or a hundred years.

I was distracted as Lallielle and Josian
engulfed me in huge hugs.

“
Don’t ever
do that to us again
,” my bear of a father
scolded me. “When Colton lost sense of Lucy, and then no one could
reach you mentally, I didn’t know what to think.”

Half-Walkers had an inbuilt protection. No
one could sense our energy, even though we were all pretty
powerful. So this made it really difficult to keep tabs on us.

“
Sorry, once
we were in, there was no going
back, and
I couldn’t trace or open a doorway. We were definitely stuck,” I
said.

All of the girls stepped forward to hug me
too. I welcomed each one with their vastly different energy. All of
the half-Walkers varied in power and looks.

Fury had hot energy, and with her red skin
and white hair she was a very dramatic contrast against the woodsy
backdrop. Talina with her cool, watery power had emerald hair that
wrapped around me during our hug. And last was Ria, stunningly
beautiful and with an affinity for nature. Vines were emerging from
the forest line to brush lovingly against her.

As we finished up all of the hugging, Lucy
summed up the last few details of our journey. Josian stepped
around me and handed Colton a pair of pants. He must have brought
them knowing the boy was going to be bare-assed in front of his
in-laws. The blond Walker turned his back and dressed quickly,
which allowed Lucy to step forward and introduce everyone to her
newly discovered family.

“Queen Malisna.” Josian clasped her hand
briefly. “It’s been far too long. I feared the worst for your
species when you disappeared.”

It was clear that Josian and Malisna were
well acquainted with each other.

“We’re back now. Lucy told me about the
Seventine, and in light of the bond between my daughter and yours,
I offer the skills of the pixies to once again work with the
Walkers.”

Josian inclined his head respectfully,
before he turned to where Cerberus was sitting by my side. The
puppy was back to his horse height.

“I don’t know what to say, Cerberus, how are
you here?” His tone sounded reverent. “We thought you had forsaken
our race.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, my
nose crinkling at the intensity between Josian and Cerberus.

“Cerberus is one of the sacred guides.
Walkers have animal spirit guides, and they’re important in our
lives and customs.” He straightened, his eyes finding the hound
again. “There are seven different guides.”

“Seven,” Fury said, mock astonishment
written across her wide-eyed features. “Never would have guessed
that.”

I bit my lip to stop a grin.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

Josian waved his hand. “They’re scattered
around the worlds. They often return to us during times of war.
Maybe the others will also find you, Aribella.” He stared off into
the forest for a moment.

I saw his shoulders rolling, as if he was
uncomfortable.

Finally he caught my gaze again. “I’ll give
you all the details of the other six another time. Right now you
need to get moving to Nephilius.”

“But you said we had two weeks,” Lucy
protested. She’d moved back to her Walker; he’d become agitated
when she was too far away from him.

Colton’s broad shoulders were still bare,
the corded muscles in his arms flexed as he held Lucy close. He
couldn’t keep his hands off her, seemingly fascinated by her
physical changes as he touched her wings and the glittery green on
her skin. The simple act of being able to touch and scent her was
calming him.

“You’ve been missing for twelve days,”
Colton murmured, his voice low and rough. “You’re lucky I managed
to stay sane and control my wolf. I just wouldn’t accept you were
gone; I’ll never accept it.”

Lucy tightened her arms around him, and even
though he was twice her size and four times her weight, it looked
as if she was holding him together.

Damn, twelve days! Once again time moved
differently on every world and apparently even within portals of
worlds. And we needed to get to Nephilius before the tournament
started. I couldn’t lose my legitimate excuse to be wandering
around; I had to find the half-Walker.

“Lucy, you need to stay and learn about your
pixie abilities,” Malisna protested.

My oldest friend shook her head. “Sorry, end
of the world and all that junk. Abbs and I just don’t have time.
You noticed how we didn’t have a clue that there were Walker
animals. Well, that’s just one of a million other things we still
need to learn, and we’ve known about Walkers for months now. We
learn the hard way.”

Malisna locked me in her gaze. “Give me just
one day with her. Maybe we can get to the bottom of these planted
visions and strengthen her mind enough to prevent any further
deception.”

I hesitated. I didn’t trust the pixie queen,
but it was clear Malisna was not ready to give up this precious
time with Lucy, and who could blame her? And it was pretty
important to figure out Lucy’s visions, since we continued to base
our decisions on them.

“So what will happen to pixie land now?” I
asked while I considered. “The portal is gone.”

“Now that the spell on the portal has been
broken, our world will slowly seep back into First World,” Malisna
said, sweeping her arms. “This forest used to be home to many of us
fey, both greater and lesser.”

I guessed goblins and such were considered
lesser.

“It seems as if in our absence the land has
grown wild, but we will tame it to our will again.”

I had no doubt they would.

Her serious flower eyes locked on me. “I
really do need time with my daughter. Just one day.”

Finally I nodded. “One day,” I said, before
leveling a glare at her. “But if I hear any more shit like the
chest-stabbing incident, I will hunt your pixie ass down.”

“What?” Colton’s voice was a growl. He
started to shift the collar of Lucy’s shirt in an attempt to see
her chest.

She stilled his hand. “I’m okay; I’ll
explain everything to you later.”

I locked
eyes with Colton and raised one of my eyebrows. He gave me a
succinct nod in return. He’d keep
a close
watch of Malisna for me.

I spoke again. “Alright, I’ll head back to
Angelisian. Colt can stay here and bring Lucy across. I can’t give
you more time. We have to gather the half-Walkers –”

“The worlds depend on it,” chorused Fury,
Talina and Ria, their voices blending together.

I snorted. Okay, maybe I was a bit of a
broken record lately.

Josian opened a doorway while I hurried over
to hug Lucy.

“Stay safe and call for me if you get into
any trouble,” I said as I pulled back from her.

I hated to leave her behind, but I knew
Colton would not let her out of his sight. And I could trust him to
fight to the death to keep her safe.

“I’ll see you soon,” Lucy promised.

Cerberus followed me as we entered the
short-length doorway taking us back to the beach in Angelisian. And
I have to admit, it felt right having him around. We had bonded,
the connection between us real and important. I sensed that it was
actually very important.

I was at the back of the group, behind my
parents and the half-Walker girls, so I didn’t see him straight
away as I exited the Walker doorway. But the jolt of awareness,
from deep in my soul, stopped me dead in my tracks.

Brace.

He was leaning against the railing of our
big front porch, in that sexy but casual pose he had down pat. His
Walker marks framed his perfect features and when I managed to move
my gaze past his face I realized that he held a huge bunch of
flowers. Not just any old flowers, but what looked like twenty
colorful varieties, stylishly thrown together in a bouquet. I could
smell the sweetness from where I stood. A lump immediately formed
in my throat; I stepped closer.

“Are you okay?” Josian asked me in a low
voice. “Do you want me to run interference?”

I shook my head.

Lallielle laughed then, before proceeding to
drag her mate away. “Stop being so overprotective. Let Aribella
have a few moments with Brace.”

She was matchmaking. I’d have thought it
funny if it wasn’t so heart breaking.

Everyone else faded off to do other things,
leaving me alone with Brace. There were no witnesses and no Lucy
around now to stop me from throwing myself into his arms and
reforming the bond. All I had was my own strength and conviction to
hold me back.

The worlds were screwed.

He straightened then, and my ability to
breathe fled, along with all the feeling in my lower limbs.

“I’m glad that you’re alright, Abby.”

His deep voice washed over me, all the way
down to my toes. My body reacted. It knew him intimately and was
conditioned to respond to him. Heat flooded through me and I almost
whimpered at how hard it was to keep my distance.

“Abby?” Questioning entered his voice.

God damn I missed hearing him say Red, but
at least he’d stopped with the Aribella, like we were
strangers.

“Lucy and I were stuck in pixie land,” I
finally blurted out, trying not to sound like a love-sick
lunatic.

He moved closer again, the smell of flowers
mingling with the spicy cinnamon scent of Brace. He was just like a
donut, only hotter and non-fattening.

“I kind of figured after Colt broke his
chains and knocked me out cold.” He rubbed his chin. “You should
have called me for help; I’m always here if you need anything.”

I couldn’t
halt
my smile. This calm, reserved Walker
was so unlike the bulldozer he’d been as my mate. And in that
moment I realized something. Maybe it was the look in his eye or
the slight tremble of his hands: Brace was nervous.

But nervous or not, it didn’t stop him
taking the final steps right up to me. And extending his long arms
for me to take the flowers. I accepted them. The bunch was
surprisingly solid.

“I wanted to get you something,” he said,
the faintest smile crossing his full lips. “I’ve been worried about
you.”

Oh
, my.

Be still, my trembling heart.

Brace was courting me.

And he was going to smash me into a million
pieces if he didn’t stop. I took a step back to give myself some
room, and to break the tension between us.

Suddenly his dark eyes flicked up and away
from my face. “Is that Cerberus?” He took a step toward the beach.
“What the hell? I can’t believe … how is he back?” His eyes were
wide. “He’s an old friend of mine.”

I turned, a smile curving my lips when I saw
my new buddy frolicking in the edge of the sea, his heads bouncing
around as he swam. Talina and Ladre were close by, which wasn’t
strange. Ladre rarely left the ocean.

“Yes, he was trapped in pixie land,” I
started to say.

Brace gave me a brief grin, one hand resting
warmly on my arm for a few intense seconds. “Hold on a moment.”

And then he
was off. He dashed right up to the big black beast and threw his
arms around him. Cerberus gave some happy barks and I wondered if
he was one of those animal friends Brace had told me about a long
time ago. I didn’t take my eyes off
them,
my gaze locked like glue.