The Travelers: Book Two (11 page)

Carson teetered on his weakened legs, but he knew there was no time to try to regain strength. He had to get out before Preston turned on him again.

Aaron’s assault on Preston was relentless. He clawed and pecked at every bit of Preston that he could get to until he had the lion backed into a corner. He flew out of reach then, taunting Preston to distract him from the escaping hostages.

Dez and Trick freed the women and in the process drew the attention of a few more henchmen.

“Go!” Dez grunted, remembering that Trick was unarmed. “I’ll hold them off.”

Trick gave his pal a hearty clap on the shoulder before helping the last of the hostages find their way out of the dilapidated warehouse.

Once the building was clear of civilians, Dez started his own retreat. His feet carried him backwards as he kept up his defensive attacks; he stumbled to the ground — painful electric shocks shot up his spine and for a moment his legs wouldn’t respond to him.

“Not now,” he grumbled, punching his muscular thighs to wake them.

One of the henchmen jumped at him and he managed to roll to the side, his knife slicing through the man’s abdomen as he did.

The horrifying cry of defeat that came from the henchmen was enough to scare off the others.

Desmond finally was able to pull himself to his feet and limped out of the warehouse to rejoin his friends.

Once he was sure that everyone else was clear of the building, Aaron pulled back. He glided down to the loading doors, every gentle breeze pushing him off-course with his wounded wings.

There was only one thought on his mind as he escaped that horrible warehouse:
Izzy, I’m coming home.

Chapter Fourteen

“Thank you Gemma,” Trick said dutifully after she healed the acid burns on his face. She’d already addressed a few other injuries — at least those that the stubborn men would let her close enough to — and was finally finished with cleaning up the aftermath of their mess.

“Yes, thank you sweetheart,” Carson said.

“Hmph,” was all Gemma had to say to him.

Izzy sat vigilant watch next to Aaron. He still wasn’t back. Everyone said he was right behind them, but he still sat there — unmoving.

“What I don’t get,” Trick said, “Is why Preston doesn’t hunt us down? Why doesn’t he come after us?”

Ty nodded, “I’ve pondered the same thing. The only explanation I can come up with is that he’s not ready to be out in the open yet. Somehow, he’s still vulnerable.”

“Preston? Vulnerable? To what?” Alina said, her voice a little shaky. She refused to take her eyes off of Desmond; she’d heard the harrowing tale and seen the pain he was in even though he wouldn’t let Gemma touch him.

“That’s the thing… I don’t know,” Ty said.

“Maybe it’s us,” Carson offered, “he seems to dedicate a lot of his time to trying to sabotage or trap us.”

Alina nodded, “It’s a possibility. The Travelers are the natural enemy to the darkness.”

A high-pitched scream drew all of their attention.

“Izzy are you all—” Gemma started to ask.

Izzy sprung herself on Aaron full-force, tackling him and showering him with kisses.

“Oof! Ow, Iz, yes, I’m happy to see you too,” Aaron sputtered between kisses, “ow, watch it there,” he winced, holding his shoulder.

“What hurts? How bad is it? Gemma?!” Izzy called with a note of hysteria in her voice.

“Hey, hey,” Aaron said, his hand cupping Izzy’s cheek, “I’m alright, I’m here,” he said, trying to calm her frantic worries.

Gemma dusted off her hands and joined them.

“How bad is it, and how much do you want me to fix it?” she asked, her hands resting on his back.

“Uh… a six? Don’t worry about it,” Aaron answered.

“Don’t be stubborn!” Izzy scolded, she peered at Gemma with the most pitiful puppy-dog look, “Fix him please?”

The school teacher chuckled and nodded, “It’s going to get a little warm for a minute.”

Heat surged through her fingertips into his broken and battered body. She was able to use Izzy’s own magic to speed along the process and before long, Aaron was flexing his arms gratefully.

“A little warm? The sandbox was a little warm, compared to that,” Aaron teased.

Gemma shrugged, “Blame Izzy, she got a little over-zealous.”

Healing with the help of another Evoker meant that Gemma didn’t have to give as much of herself; she only had the faintest bit of dizziness and the expected nosebleed never came at all. Maybe she was getting the hang of this.

Izzy flung her arms around Aaron again.

“It’s not like you didn’t just see me,” he said with a grin.

“I know, but I owed you a proper homecoming,” she answered. “When you came back stateside… I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. I don’t want to waste any more time with you.”

A wide grin split his face as they kissed again.

“So, are you going to tell me why you’re so mad at me?” Carson asked Gemma.

She rolled her eyes.

“Really? I have to tell you?”

He sighed.

“No, you don’t. I know I shouldn’t have gone alone… I didn’t know about Aaron though.”

“None of us did.”

Alina cleared her throat absently.

“Okay, well, almost none of us did. But you should have trusted us.”

Carson’s eyes clouded with the guilt that raged inside of him, “It was either let you down, or let those women down. I knew you would forgive me.”

“Oh, really? And what if I don’t?”

His hands settled on her hips and pulled her close.

“You will.”

“What if I don’t?”

“Gemma Marie Fellings, I promise you I will never go out on my own like that again. You have my word.”

“You’ve said that before,” she argued, her bottom lip trembling with the effort it took to rein in her tears.

“I know.”

“I was so scared… you don’t understand,” she said, her hand resting over his beating heart. The steady rhythm reassured her; he was here, he was alive, he was okay.

“I know, I never should have put you through that,” he soothed.

“No. You shouldn’t have,” she said angrily, pushing back against him, “I almost broke the connection to bring you back.”

That bit of information seemed to sober Carson some.

“You what?”

Gemma’s tears flowed freely now.

“You looked so pale and weak and… I thought I could pull you out, but Alina said if I did it… you might not be able to… we wouldn’t be… and I didn’t know if you’d still… want me,” she sobbed, barely forming coherent words.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Carson said, wiping away her tears with his thumb before pulling her to his chest and smoothing her hair as he gently shushed her.

“It’s all right. I did a dumb thing, I’m really sorry. But it’s never going to happen again. We aren’t alone in this anymore.”

“You never were alone in this, dipshit,” Aaron said, irritating Izzy who was still attempting to shower him with her love.

“And you never will be,” Trick added.

“We’re all in this together now,” said Ty, taking short shallow breaths to accommodate his ribs.

“Even if we don’t all get super powers,” Trick added ruefully.

“We’re going to see this through to the end and there’s nothing you can do to stop us,” Ty added.

Gemma giggled in spite of herself. These were her friends. Her family. Her comrades in arms.

“And there’s no other bunch of guys that I’d want to fight crazy shadow monsters with than you guys,” Carson said.

“You only say that cause we saved your ass,” said Dez.

Carson smirked, “Did I ever say thank you for that?”

Everyone laughed and exhaled a sigh of relief. For the moment, things were okay. Preston still grew stronger. His reach grew further. They wouldn’t be able to defeat him with their current resources, but they had each other and they had the magic of the Travelers. Anything was possible.

Alina has been through hell and back at the mercy of Preston Waters. She’s beginning to readjust to normal life and being the resident expert on the Travelers, but something is still missing.

Desmond has enough on his mind without constantly worrying about the new broken woman in his life. His friends are battling demonic beasts, a crazed super-genius and wrestling with their own newfound powers.

So why can’t he get her out of his mind? They’ll have to put their faith in each other to the ultimate test, but not everyone is going to escape Preston alive.

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Magic. Mayhem. Mysterious disappearances.

That's just a short list of the things schoolteacher Gemma Fellings did not expect to find in her new town.

Another thing on the list?

Carson Sanchez.
The reformed bad boy trying to find his way in a town that won't let him forget his mistakes.

Gemma moves to Hannaford Glen after getting pink-slipped back in Tampa. Things seem perfect until her new best friend Izzy disappears.

Carson isn't going to take his baby sister's disappearance laying down, but he's not about to trust her fate to the authorities, either.

Reluctantly, he accepts Gemma's offer of help, but he never expected her to unlock something deep within him. A power great enough to battle the new evils infiltrating their life and maybe just enough magic to save his sister.

All of my life I hungered for only one thing: revenge. I wanted to make my father pay for the terrible things he’d done to me and my mother that left her dead and me homeless as a child. That was my life’s only mission. Until I met Marcie. She saved my life in more ways than one and replaced my desire for vengeance with desires of another kind entirely.

My life was never all that great, but it was mine. Things were okay; I had a decent job, a boyfriend and a place to call home. That all changed one day when I lost my job, found out my boyfriend was cheating on me and wound up looking for a place to sleep on the cold city streets. When I heard someone in trouble, I sprang to action without thinking of the consequences. A few hours later I woke up in a hospital room with a grateful stranger at my bedside and a doctor telling me I was pregnant.

The moment I saw her, I knew I had to have her. I didn't know what it was about her; maybe it was those pouty red lips, her biting sense of humor or maybe it was the effortless way she handled my Jag that made me unbearably hard. What I expected to be a one-night stand became something so much bigger. All I wanted was every last bit of Aubrey, but she was intent on keeping her real life a secret from me. Add to that my long-lost delinquent sister moving in with me and my life just took a sudden turn to crazytown.

Everything in me told me that I needed Tanner. He was smart, witty, charming, incredibly sexy and able to do things to my body that I didn’t previously know possible. Hell, he even shared an interest in cars with me. If I had met him any other day, maybe things would have turned out differently. Unfortunately, I met him on the day that I was engaged to a man I’d never met, and that complicated things a bit.