“How can you be sure?” Dillon asks.
“I just have a feeling.”
“Do you think they were always this large?” Dillon asks.
My gaze treks over the Wardens. Muscular, taller than the average male, all with shorn hair.
Lorenzo shakes his head. “No. Edward was a similar build to me.” He glances down at his brother’s unconscious form. “He’s been altered on more than a mystical level.” His jaw ticks. “Those bastards at Inceptum did this and they’ll do it again.”
Of course they will. They have the power. They have the subjects. They can do what they want. It makes me sick.
A soft moan draws my attention to Edward. “He’s waking up.”
Lorenzo is instantly on high alert. He carefully places his coffee mug on the bench beside him before crouching beside his brother.
“Edward? Ed, can you hear me?”
Edward groans and opens his eyes. He stares at Lorenzo in a dazed fashion for several seconds before his gaze focuses. “Lo? Lo, is that you? How…” He looks about, confusion coloring his features, then his eyes snap wide and a sound of distress falls from his lips. “Oh, God. What did they do?” His hands go to his head. “I remember…They did things.” A raw sob breaks from his lips. “Lo, what’s happened to me?”
Lorenzo pulls his brother into a hug. “It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
The others begin to wake up with similar results—confusion followed by a rush of memory and anger.
Lorenzo’s theory is right. The shackles have somehow broken the Inceptum’s hold on the Wardens. I doubt the Mageri are aware of the effect of the shackles on their creations. We got lucky.
Dillon and I exchange glances as Lorenzo fills the Wardens in on what might have been done to them.
“I can’t remember anything after they took me from my cell,” Ed says. “It was two months after I was arrested.”
Lorenzo tenses and I know why. Edward was arrested six years ago.
Edward studies Lorenzo’s face. “How long has it been? How long have I been gone.”
“Six years,” Lorenzo says. “They had you for six years.”
Edward exhales in shock, and around him the other Wardens begin firing dates at us. Turns out the one called Nixon has been with them the longest. He’s the biggest out of the Wardens, with a gold buzz cut and angry green eyes. They’ve had him for fifteen years, and from the scars decorating his arms and collar area, there’s no doubt in my mind that they experimented heavily on him.
He barely speaks, and when he does it’s in grunts and monosyllables. He has the look of a caged animal, which makes me wonder how much he really remembers.
“We can’t let them get their hands on us again,” the Warden named Vin says.
“Lo, you have to help us,” Edward implores.
“I will,” Lorenzo says. “I failed you once. I won’t fail you again. I have a safe house outside city limits in the Rim. Mageri do not have jurisdiction there. I know it’s not ideal, I know the Rim is dangerous, but you’ll be safer there than in the city.”
“We’ll take it,” Edward says.
“I’ll get you a vehicle and the coordinates. You can leave first thing tomorrow.”
Edward holds up his shackled wrist. “And this?”
Lorenzo shakes his head. “I don’t know. I think, for now, best to keep them on. We don’t know if the shackles have permanently disrupted Inceptum’s hold on you, or if they’re merely blocking it. I’ll do some digging and find out what they did to you. I’ll find you as soon as I know.”
The shackles mean their onyx powers are muted. It leaves them vulnerable, but when faced with a choice of being powerless or a puppet, there is no competition.
Movement alerts me to Orina and Nyx’s arrival.
“Ah, the mini hulks are awake.” Nyx props her shoulder against the gazebo frame. “Sorry about kicking your asses.” She grins.
Edward smiles back. “No problem. I probably needed the workout.”
“They’re not a danger to us,” Lorenzo says. “They’ll be gone in the morning.”
“What about you?” Orina asks. “You vanished after the Mageri began the wake-up ritual for the Wardens. I’m sure they’ll notice there are shackles missing. What if they ask questions?”
Lorenzo frowns and shakes his head. “I’ll figure something out.”
“You need an alibi,” Nyx says.
“You can use me.” Orina shrugs. “Say we were hanging out.”
“Hanging out.” Nyx snorts. “No, it has to be more than that. You two were engaged in hot, sweaty sex.”
Dillon chokes on a mouthful of water and I pat him on the back, biting back a smile at the look of horror on Lorenzo’s face.
Orina arches a brow. “Wipe the frown off your face, old man. I know it’s a stretch to think I’d be attracted to you, but I kill cold ones for a living, so I’m obviously slightly unhinged. The Mageri will totally believe it.”
Lorenzo clears his throat. “In that case, thank you.”
She waves off his gratitude. “We’ll work out the details later.”
“Details…” Nyx snickers.
Orina shoots her a glare.
Nyx sobers. “You should be seen coming out of his home. Looking all disheveled and sated.”
Another figure cuts across the garden. Emmit. Naked.
Nyx lets out a low whistle.
I step away from the gazebo. “Where’s Quinn?”
“Bath,” he says. “You give clothes to me?”
“Sure. Follow me.”
I leave the group and lead Emmit back into the house. The Wardens are neutralized, Quinn is safe. I could sleep for a week, and as soon as I’ve cooked up those steaks I promised Quinn, I’ll do just that.
QUINN
Emmit carried me around the front of the house, through the main doors, and straight upstairs to my bedroom, bypassing the crowd in the garden. Just as well because we were both essentially naked and I could do without the knowing looks.
I stripped off the tatters of my clothing and allowed him to lower me into bubbles. I hissed at the initial sting below. Berserker cock was something else. Thank goodness for supernatural healing. My back already felt better.
He crouched by the tub. “Did we hurt you?”
“No.” I stroked his cheek, leaving soapy suds in my wake. “I loved every moment.”
He kissed my temple. “Still, we hurt you. We too…eager.”
“Next time we can go slow. Next time we can do it on a bed.”
He kissed me again. “I go check on Lorenzo and Wardens.”
“I’ll meet you down there. Can you ask Tate to put the coffee pot on?”
“Yes.” He left me to my soak, closing the door behind him.
I sank into the bubbles, tipped my head against the lip of the tub, and closed my eyes.
God, this felt good.
Normal.
This felt normal.
Soft laughter echoed inside my head.
Her laughter, but not aimed at me. No, she wasn’t laughing at me.
Theron’s words drifted to the forefront of my mind. What had he said? Something about being able to get into her head just like she could get into mine. Something about a doorway?