“Unlike you and your female, we are able to keep our hands off of one another for longer than a few seconds,” Syndra said shooting him a sweet smile that was anything but.
“What she means is that we understand and are fine with it,” Tamsin reiterated.
“No,” ―Syndra shook her head― “that’s what you meant. I meant that Trik and Cassie are incapable of being separated for any amount of time because of their need to go at it like rabbits.”
Cassie let out a snort.
Syndra gave her a playful wink before turning back to Trik who didn’t look bothered in the least by her ribbing.
“Cush,” Trik continued as if the interlude hadn’t just happened. “You and yours will head to Vegas. Do some recon. See if you can hear any talk about The Book of the Elves. Lorsan will no doubt have bragged to someone about it. Syndra, if you could use a little glamour magic. I know that it won’t work on all the elves, but maybe we’ll catch a break, and you will find something out before being seen. Then see about stopping the distribution of the Rapture. Find where they’re storing it and destroy it.”
“What about the portals?” Cush asked.
Trik’s lips tightened. “We can’t risk it. We will have to travel as humans do.” He could tell that it frustrated the warriors as much as it did him because it was just one more way that Lorsan had the upper hand. “Those coming with me will head after Tarron.” The dark elf’s name tasted like rotten bread on his tongue not only because the worm desired his Chosen but because Trik knew the elf personally. He knew what depravity Tarron was capable of, and it sickened him even when he had been loyal to the dark elves.
“Quick question,” Elora said raising her hand. “How exactly do you plan to go after Tarron without knowing where he is?”
“I’ve known Tarron for a long time.” Too long, Trik thought to himself. “I have an idea of where he’s taken Cassie’s parents. If I’m wrong, well we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
They might cross it, Trik thought, or they might just go crashing down with the bridge as it collapses on them all.
Lorsan stood in the office of Iniquity, which, until recently, had belonged to the human male, Tony. The human had betrayed him. After centuries of relationship between his family and the dark elves and all the benefits that came with that relationship, he’d tossed it aside as if it were nothing. Lorsan wasn’t worried. The male would get his due for his traitorous ways.
A sudden fight on the main floor erupted and took his attention away from Tony. He couldn’t stop the large smile that stretched across his face as he watched two men tear into one another. They were near the bar so it no doubt had something to do with a certain drink that was becoming an addiction for the humans. His security team had the two men surrounded in a matter of seconds helping minimize the damage to his casino. Lorsan had found that to be one of the downfalls of the Rapture. The animosity the withdraw symptoms caused was wreaking havoc on the interior of Iniquity. He’d had to replace many bar stools, ashtrays, and broken glasses. Had he not been making a fortune on the Rapture, the repair expenses might have been concerning. But as it was, the Rapture was selling better than he could have predicted. It had been so easy to distribute; he already had it in multiple venues other than the casinos. He knew the violence and stupidity he had witnessed in Iniquity would soon spread outside its walls and then outside the city.
The power he felt at having so easily ensnared the humans was so heady he nearly felt drunk on it. Lorsan was beginning to realize that he didn’t have to stop with just making money off of the desperate people. With a drug as addicting as Rapture, he could bring the entire human race to kneel before him.
“What wicked scheme are you working up, mate?” Ilyrana asked as she slipped into the room.
“I was just thinking.” Lorsan turned his body partially away from the one-way glass so he could see his Chosen.
“A dangerous pastime,” she teased.
“Imagine ruling more than just the dark elf realm.” His eyes narrowed but grew unfocused as he pictured the future. “We could rule this realm as well. The humans are so easily influenced it would not take much to take over completely. Think about it, my love; we wouldn’t be subject to the Forest Lords. We would be our own lords. And with The Book of the Elves in our possession, we could make our magic even more powerful—as powerful as it once was in the ancient times.”
“I’ve always loved your ambition,” she purred as she stepped closer to him, pressing her body intimately against his. “It’s one of your most attractive attributes.”
Lorsan’s skin heated with desire but before he could act on the feelings building inside of him, the door to the office swung open with a loud thud as the knob hit the wall. He pushed Ilyrana aside and glared at the dark elf who dared to barge in on him, but the look on the male’s face gave him pause.
“We have a serious problem,” the elf said through clenched teeth.
“If you tell me the book is gone, I will skin you alive,” Lorsan snarled and the elf paled.
“N-n-no,” he stuttered. “It’s not the book. It’s the humans. There’s been a break in.”
“In the safe?” Lorsan asked.
The elf shook his head. “No, in the storeroom. Where the drinks are kept,” he clarified.
Realization dawned on Lorsan as his eyes widened. “The Rapture,” he whispered.
“They’re stealing it,” the male confirmed. “A lot of it.”
Chapter 3
“Humans continue to amaze me with their ‘technology.’ These so called ‘inventions’ that they’ve come up with over the years are nothing more than efforts to stay connected. Deep down they know they are weak. They know they are vulnerable. Subconsciously they fear to be alone. So they continually strive to connect themselves to other humans. But those connections themselves are weaknesses. Like a virus spreads from cell to cell, so can disaster spread through the networks the technology affords. Their very ingenuity will be their downfall.” ~Tamsin
“Have I ever mentioned how much I loathe airports?” Elora asked no one in particular. The group that was now gathered in terminal C, Section A of Oklahoma City International airport each glanced in her direction. After surviving the long and hazardous journey across the airport, considering they had nearly been run over by one of those luggage golf carts, they’d finally reached their gate. Now they could sit and wait with a hundred other bodies crammed into the tiny little terminal.
“What about it exactly do you despise?” Oakley asked her. “Could it be the obnoxious lady on the intercom having to repeat herself because people won’t pay attention? Or perhaps, it’s the lovely smell that seems to be wafting off of these fabric seats that are more than likely several decades old? Better still, maybe you utterly loathe airports because they let guys that look like Cush walk through the security line without a backward glance, but then pull a seventeen-year-old female to the side to pat down because she looks too threatening.”
“Yes,” Elora answered to all of the questions. “And to be fair, I do sort of look like someone who likes to play with fire.”
“I personally like the part where Cush made the male security guard who stepped toward Elora take several steps back causing him to trip over a guy trying to put his shoes back on. I was sure the poor man was going to start crying,” Syndra laughed.
Elora noticed that Cush did not.
“He made some comment about Elora being selected for a random pat down,” Cush said. His jaw was clenched so tight Elora wondered how his teeth didn’t shatter. “I simply made it clear that if he touched her I would crush his hands.”
“Oh is that all?” Oakley chuckled.
“Poor guy,” Elora said in a voice that was forlorn, though when she looked at Cush she knew he saw the wicked gleam in her eyes. “That might have been the only action he would have had in a long time.”
“Elora,” Lisa admonished though not very convincingly.
“He c
an touch someone else’s female,” he said in a deathly low voice. “No one touches you.”
Elora knew better than to continue to tease him when he was feeling all possessive and protective so she let it go. But she continued to watch him and he continued to seethe. Elora was a little confused as to why he was still so upset over it, and she was just about to ask him when a voice came over the intercom.
“Attention passengers of Continental Airlines flight 233, we apologize but your flight has been put on hold for some routine maintenance of the aircraft. We will attempt to move as quickly as possible to keep your wait as short as we can. Thank you.”
“Routine maintenance,” Elora huffed.
“It probably won’t be long if it’s routine,” Syndra offered attempting to soothe Elora’s ruffled feathers.
Elora glanced at her brother. “You’d better be the bearer of bad news. If I tell them I’ll add lots of expletives and have to blame it on my dark elf half.”
“What she’s not saying,” Oakley started as he looked from Cush to Syndra, “is that when they say routine maintenance it usually means there’s a massive leak in the gas tank, or half the engine is suddenly on the ground. They don’t want to cause any fear by telling us what is really going on.”
“So basically the nice human just lied to us,” Cush pointed out unnecessarily, his face just as tight as it had been since going through security.
“It’s a form of customer service,” Lisa offered. “Keep the consumer happy and ignorant and hide everything else under the rug. Welcome to the American way.”
“I always said humans were weird,” Syndra said as she sat back into her chair attempting to get comfortable. Elora didn’t know why she was even trying. Sitting in airport chairs was about as comfortable as sitting bare-butted on a cactus. Okay, so maybe she was exaggerating, but not by much.
Elora stood up and stretched her arms above her head attempting to work the kinks out. If they were going to be stuck here for a while, she was going to have to move around and get the blood flowing to all of her extremities again. She could see Cush standing up behind her from the corner of her eye, but she didn’t bother to acknowledge him. He would give her some space, but he wouldn’t take his eyes off of her.
She walked over to the huge glass windows that looked out over the tarmac where the planes docked for loading and unloading. She watched as men in blue jumpsuits and yellow vests hustled about, each moving with purpose and efficiency. It made her think of an anthill with all the little worker ants scurrying here and there to get their tasks done. Her eyes were drawn to the plane that had their flight number on the side, and she attempted to find what could be wrong with it. Granted she knew there wasn’t going to be a huge sign with an arrow that said ‘faulty propeller.’ Nothing could ever be that simple.
Elora was just about to turn away from the window when fluid movement—much too smoothly to have been made by a human—caught her attention. Her eyes narrowed as she stepped closer to the window; her nose nearly bumped into the glass. She was sure it had to be a trick of the light but then two other men seemed to materialize next to the first one. Her eyes widened. “You sneaky, sneaky elves,” she muttered under her breath as she watched three dark elves working alongside the humans, only she was pretty sure they weren’t attempting to help. There was no doubt in her mind that they were dark elves because she was seeing past their glamour. Elora imagined it was probably not airline policy for their employees to have long hair flowing freely whipping in all directions in the wind where it could get caught in something. She also thought that it was probably not acceptable for their employees to carry swords and daggers at their sides.
Elora turned to find Cush. She didn’t have to look too hard. He was about twenty feet away leaning against a pillar, completely unaware of the affect he was having on the people around him. The men were looking at him warily as though at any moment he was going to reach out and grab one of them by the throat, and the women were looking at him like he was the juiciest steak they’d ever seen. It would have been funny if she wasn’t worried about the dark elves sabotaging their plane. She motioned for him to come over and then unabashedly enjoyed the view of his large frame moving so gracefully through the crowd. People got out of his way without him ever having to say anything. Elora was sure at any moment someone was going to roll a red carpet out in front of him. She snorted to herself at the image in her mind.
“What’s the smirk for?” Cush asked once he was standing in front of her. His eyes were focused only on her. She knew that he was aware of their surroundings and he constantly watched for threats, but somehow he never took his eyes off her.
“Are you completely oblivious to the reaction of people around you?” Realizing that now was not the time to boost his ego, she shook her head and waved a hand in front of him. “Scratch that. I wanted you to come over here so you could see that.” She turned and pointed at what was beyond the window to where she’d seen the elves. Are you freaking kidding me?” she huffed. They were gone.
“What’s wrong, Elora? What did you see?” Cush asked her in the voice he always used when he expected obedience.
“There were three dark elves out there. They were running around just like the other workers, looking as though they were helping, but I saw past their glamour. I don’t know what they were doing but I would bet my big left—”
“Little Raven,” Cush said in warning.
She looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. “I was going to say my big left toe. Where exactly is your mind, oh great warrior?”
“Quit distracting me, woman,” he growled as he took her hand and led her back over to where their group was still lounging.
Elora could tell that they all new immediately something was wrong just by looking at Cush. His face was hard granite as his jaw clenched and his brow lowered over his seething eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Syndra asked as she stood.
“Elora saw dark elves out by the plane that we are supposed to board,” Cush explained. “For some reason I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
Oakley pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out a frustrated sigh. “How is this guy staying one step ahead of us?”
“Trik was not Lorsan’s only spy,” Syndra told him. “He just happened to be his most talented.”
“So what’s the plan?” Lisa asked as she joined the others all now standing.
Cush looked at Syndra with narrowed eyes. “It’s time you proved just how powerful you are.”
Syndra’s head tilted ever so slightly to the side and a crooked smile twitched her full lips. “What exactly do you have in mind, warrior?”
Tony sat in the living room of Cassie’s parent’s house with Rin, the light elf warrior sitting across from him. Trik and Tamsin were making some last minute plans. Cassie had disappeared from the room after telling the other group goodbye and they hadn’t seen her since. After having been employed by the dark elves his whole life, he knew what they were capable of. If his parents had been taken by one of them, he’d be just as terrified as Cassie. He had thought about offering some encouraging words to her but decided against it. Male elves were weird about other men getting near their Chosen females. Though he had known Trik a long time and didn’t think he’d be offended by him, people act differently in stressful situations. Having to rescue your mate’s parents from the clutches of an evil dark elf was about as stressful as it got.
He’d been surprised when Trik told him that he would be staying with the elf king. Tony would have thought that since he knew Vegas, and he knew Iniquity, that he’d be an asset for the other group. But Tony knew that Trik had been a spy and an assassin for decades. Obviously the elf knew his stuff, so Tony wouldn’t question his decisions.
“What made you change your mind?” Rin asked, breaking the stifling silence.
Tony looked up from the unfocused spot on the floor that he’d been staring at for nearly twenty minutes. His eyes met those of the warri
or’s and he didn’t see mistrust in them, just curiosity.
“What do you mean?” He was pretty sure he understood the question, but when in doubt, get clarification or risk looking like a dumb ass. Words his father always said to live by.
“Your family has been in service to Lorsan for generations, correct?”
Tony nodded.
“And you have obviously been working for them up until now. So what made you change your mind and switch teams?” Rin leaned forward and laid his forearms on his knees. It was a pose that said I’m listening, I’m interested.
Tony didn’t answer right away though he thought the answer should be obvious. He would have to be a truly sick, twisted bastard to have continued to work for Lorsan knowing what he was planning. Then again, he had worked for him knowing about other crimes he’d committed, and instead of speaking up or stepping out, Tony had turned a blind eye and a deaf ear. As far as he had been concerned, all of his life he knew nothing about dark elves. At least that was always his answer when the wrong people came asking questions. Finally, he spoke. “Knowing that something is going on but not really seeing it is very different from having the evidence right in front of your face. I didn’t see much of Lorsan’s doings before Rapture. I’m not saying it’s right or okay, but it was easier for me to ignore. But Rapture was in my house so to speak. It was destroying the people who entered it and I was watching it happen. I don’t know about you, but for me, if something is keeping me up at night, it’s a big clue that something needs to change. I wasted so many years doing the wrong thing.” Tony paused as he rubbed his eyes. He was tired—tired of hiding, tired of lying, and just plain tired of dark elves. “I needed to do something right for a change.”
The warrior stared at him as if Tony was an interesting, new bug that had never before been discovered. It was disconcerting to have someone examining him so closely. Tony wasn’t sure if Rin was trying to measure the honesty of his words or if he flat out didn’t believe them.