Page 78

Story: Darkness Echoes

Nix finishes it and returns the glass. He then slides to the floor beside his distressed beta and alpha, taking both their hands and placing them in the center of his abdomen.

“Gideon, you are good. I know it. Luca knows it. The rest of us know it. But you have to start to believe it, too.”

“Kitten, it’s difficult to let that stuff go. It’s with me all the time. I can’t stop remembering what I did to survive—you don’t understand.”

Nix tilts his head. He’s pale, and his mouth is tight at the corners. He’s hurt at the unthinking comment.

Grayson’s own bond burns sharply, and he flops back so that his back finally hits the back of the couch. It’s Nix’s pain—and therefore his own—surging up in a column of agony.

What his soulmate has endured to make just those unintentionally callous words burn like the fires of hell, he can’t even bear to think about. He wishes he knew how to ease his pain.

As if his love and the perfectly joined soul they share can heal him.

Closing his eyes, he gathers all his strength and pours cooling energy over the pain.

Grayson has always had a visual-spatial way of thinking, so it’s easy to imagine columns of cooling, healing energy soothing his mate’s pain.

When he opens his eyes, he’s glad to see that the lines of pain around Nix’s mouth are fewer, and he’s breathing easier.

“Fuck, I shouldn’t have said that, Kitten. I’m sorry,” Gideon says softly.

“I accept your apology, but you were right.”

“I am?”

“Yes. It’s extra hard to let go of the things that you did to avoid being hurt yourself—things you might beashamed of, yeah?”

Jay growls, his eyes flashing red at the allusion to his life with Hayes.

“Cool it, Jamie. I’m okay, I’m just making a point here. What I am trying to say is, we aren’t those things, because we didn’t have choices. Like Luca says, now that we’re free,wedecide. Right, Baby?”

“Right,” Luca murmurs, kissing Nix on the mouth regardless of the vomit-breath, snot, and all. “I don’t want to do this chip thing. It feels wrong.”

“It does,” Nix agrees. “I already hate that I can’t go anywhere or do anything without you guys sending Sentinel after me to cafes or the grocery store.”

“We’re not talking about forever, Baby Boy. Just while we’re here in Clearwater.”

Until they take care of Carnell.

“Then you’ll take it out?” Luca asks.

Gideon nods. “There are instructions about how to extract it right here. I’m going to memorize and then destroy them so they don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

Nix must see something in Gideon’s face because he straightens his spine, and the anxiety in the bond lightens even more.

“Don’t be mad, Luc, but I think we should do it.” He nods at Gideon’s box.

“What? For real?”

“For real. Can you trust me? We’ll do it together like we do everything else. You’ll never be alone in that room again. I promise you.”

Luca is quiet, processing the past and the present, and trying to get to a place where this is something he can live with to protect his future.

“I’m in,” Finn states emphatically. “Someone has been in our house; he tried to run Jay’s van off the road, and my phone is on its way to Jacksonville. I don’t like it, but I’m not taking the risk that next time, I’ll be chasing after one of you in the back of a white van. Or worse, I won’t see it coming, and I won’t know where to find you. At least this way, we have a chance.”

Nix stands up, pulling Gideon up with him.

“What he said. But Gideon, I don’t think this will be necessary. We know he’s here this time, and he’s not going to get the opportunity to do anything else but die. Okay?”