Holding out his staff, Kalen chanted a few soft words. The teens’ eyes fluttered closed, and their bodies lifted along with their mother’s. Gently, Kalen floated them all onto the bed and laid them down together. There they would sleep until the Pack could arrange to get them out of this place.
A hand clamped down on his shoulder and he turned his head to see Nick standing there, his expression grim. “Thanks for the help with those last few. There were more outside the house than we thought. Jax and Zan almost got their asses killed.”
“They all right?”
“Yeah. Because of you.”
Kalen flushed at the praise. It was nice, but strange to a guy like him. “What now?”
“We’ve got a dead civilian. Fuck!” the commander spat, losing some of his legendary cool for a moment. He heaved a deep breath. “I made a call to our buddy Sheriff Deveraux. The rest of the creatures hadn’t yet reached the citizens in town, so we’re okay there. He’ll spin this attack to the public as an armed robbery or something. Random attack.”
Kalen’s lip curled at Deveraux’s name. There was no love lost between him and Kalen. The asshole had tried to run him out of town more than once when Kalen had first arrived.
“A robber who bit a man’s head almost clean off? Yeah, that’ll fly.”
“They aren’t going to let that tidbit see the light of day.” Nick gestured to the forlorn figures on the bed. “Did they see what happened to the dad?”
“I don’t think so. The boy asked where he was, but I didn’t tell him anything. Figured putting them to sleep until this is cleared away would be best.”
“Good thinking. Can you do a mind wipe on them?”
Kalen considered it, and nodded. “That’s about all I have left in me, but yes. I can. They’ll wake up tomorrow with no memory of the Sluagh, us, or anything else that took place here. Then the good sheriff can spin whatever story he wants and they’ll never know any different.”
“All right. Do it so we can turn this over to Deveraux and get the hell out of here.”
“You gonna warn him that there’s more Sluagh where these came from?”
“Don’t see any other way. He needs to know, and he’ll call us if he or his men spot anything unusual.”
Unusual. Now, there was an understatement. It was on the tip of his tongue to smart off that he could tell Nick used to be an FBI agent, but he refrained. Barely. Instead he walked on unsteady legs over to the bed and knelt. He wanted this over with quick.
Starting with the boy, he pressed his palm to the forehead and literally pulled the memories of the last half hour from his mind. The scenes were horrid, filled with the terror of monsters at the door, and he began to sweat as they flowed from the boy. When he’d retrieved them all, he set them free, letting them dissipate like so much noxious poison. Until the day the boy died, there would forever be a gaping hole in the day he lost his father. Same with the sister and their mother.
Finished, Kalen pushed to his feet, barely able to stand now. He was beyond thrilled to see the sheriff standing in the bedroom with Nick, both of them studying him in fascination.
“It’s done,” Kalen told them hoarsely. “They’ll wake up tomorrow, and they won’t remember a thing about tonight. Ever.”
“Well, it looks like you’re good for something other than hanging out in the cemetery robbing graves and disturbing corpses,” Deveraux drawled, a hint of a snide tone coloring his words.
“Fuck you, douche bag.”
“Jesse,” Nick rumbled to the sheriff in warning. “Lay off.”
“Oh, sure,” the lawman said amiably. “Wouldn’t want to hurt the princess’s feelings, would I? Ya’ll have a nice night, Nicky. And don’t call me again for, say, twenty years or so.”
“You wish. This is only the beginning, I’m afraid.” Nick sighed. “But we’ll keep all of it away from the public for as long as we can. Forever, if possible.”
Nick shook hands with the prickly sheriff. Then he and Kalen turned to go. That was when Kalen’s body decided it was finished being abused for the day. His knees buckled and Nick caught him, placing Kalen’s arm around his shoulders.
“Easy, kid. I’ve gotcha.”
“I’m fine.”
“That would be more convincing if you could walk on your own and you weren’t bleeding all over me.”
“Shit. Sorry.”
His side hurt like a bitch and his head was swimming. As they made their way through the house, Kalen took note of the others. His friends were all accounted for, battered, some bloody and limping, but alive. That was all he needed to know for now.
And these guys were his friends. No matter what lies Malik spewed.
He just prayed he could remember that in some distant corner of his mind when the darkness rose once again.
Ten
In her quarters, Mac stretched out on her bed with a grateful sigh. Nobody had clued her in about the fatigue that plagued pregnant women even in their first trimester. It was as if a giant vacuum cleaner had sucked out all her energy and left her unable to do anything but lie down for a long nap.
Despite her worry about the Pack’s newest battle, and Kalen in particular, she was no match for the rigors of pregnancy. Her lids closed the instant her head hit the pillow and she drifted off into a deep sleep.
But her slumber was far from peaceful.
She’d been in this place before. A place of total desolation. Skeletal trees everywhere, no birds, no gurgling of fresh water. Fish carcasses littered the streambed, their rotting eyes staring up, accusing. She knew who had brought her here, but not what game he wanted to play.
“Show yourself, you son of a bitch!” she shouted.
Malik was here, watching and waiting. Trying to unnerve her as he’d done before, the night she’d first slept with Kalen. The night they’d conceived their child.
What was his purpose in bringing her here again? Mac was neither a paranormal being, nor powerful. She was nothing but a simple doctor. She was of no interest or benefit whatsoever to the king of the Unseelie.
“That’s where you’re wrong, dearest.”
She shuddered that he’d read her thoughts.
He stepped from behind a dead, gnarled tree as he’d done before, and she sucked in a shocked breath. Stood rooted to the spot, frozen in terror. She’d never seen an Unseelie in true form, and Malik was every nightmare rolled into one being.