Page 9

As Killian watched his mate speaking with her best friend several feet away, he felt relieved that his sense of possessiveness had dimmed down a little. At least enough that he didn’t actively want to obliterate Shadow simply for being so close to his mate.

He considered that progress.

The two females were very close. That was obvious enough by the way they had laughed, cried, and hugged the moment they had seen each other. Shadow Warcloud was stronger than he had given her credit for. Instead of waiting for them in the private dining room like he had ordered her to, the demon-witch hybrid had remained in the hallway waiting for Seneca to appear.

By the worried glance she’d shot his way, she knew exactly who and what he was. But that hadn’t stopped her from standing her ground to make sure Seneca was okay. Because of that, she had earned his approval as his mate’s best friend. Of course, he still needed to do his own analysis of her in order to decide just how much she could be trusted, but it was a good start.

The sight of his mate in tears made Killian feel absolutely feral, but he hadn’t interrupted them. He understood their need to reconnect. The trauma Seneca had faced during her last life when her friends had been killed was still haunting her, and he would never interfere in anything she needed to reconcile her past. She needed to heal, and he would do whatever it took to ensure she could do that.

After all, nothing was more important than his mate’s health and happiness.

Time travel wasn’t a simple process. It took seriously powerful magic to even attempt such a thing. In fact, he’d only heard of a few people succeeding before. Even then, those people had still been alive at the time, and they hadn’t been able to travel back very far.

Sending someone’s soul back was unheard of.

Until now.

He wasn’t sure what he could do to make the transition between two lifetimes a little easier on her. It had to be confusing as fuck for her at times, but she was handling it pretty well. She hadn’t told them much about her meeting with the gods who had sent her back yet, but Killian wasn’t really worried about that. The most important factor was they had succeeded in giving her a second chance at life.

The rest could wait.

Leaving Seneca and Shadow huddled together in the corner, Killian sat back down at the table in the private room where a new male was doing his best to consume all the remaining food. When Arson introduced the newcomer as Thane Warcloud, it wasn’t a surprise. Killian could have guessed that by his resemblance to his sister, Shadow.

He was impressed by the way Thane didn’t seem afraid of him. Well, that wasn’t quite true. The male was intimidated, but he did a good job of masking it. Thane was an Olympic gold medalist and well known throughout the sports world, so he was used to being around powerful and famous humans but dealing with someone of Killian’s caliber was quite different.

As if guessing what he was thinking, Thane said, “So, you are Seneca’s new mate. Since she is like a sister to me, I should warn you not to hurt her. Of course, that’s not much of a threat since I know you are a powerful reaper who could crush me like an ant with a thought. However, there are a lot of people who love and care about her, so you won’t be dealing with just me if something happens to her.”

Killian had to commend his courage and loyalty, but the warning wasn’t necessary. In fact, he would have been insulted if he didn’t understand the sentiment behind those words.

Some people didn’t believe in love at first sight, nor did they fully trust the concept of fated mates. He wasn’t one of those people. Seneca belonged to him. She was more than just his mate or someone destiny had chosen for him. She was his heart and soul, his very reason for existing, and he would love and cherish her until the end of days.

If anyone tried to hurt her, he would kill them. If she wanted revenge? No problem. It would be his pleasure to take care of it for her. Whatever she wanted, he would provide. There was absolutely nothing that he wouldn’t do for her. Hell, he would fucking burn the world to ash just to keep her warm.

“That seems a little extreme,” she teased through their bond. “But also very sweet.”

“That is the first time I have ever been accused of being sweet.”

She chuckled. “It wasn’t an accusation. It was a compliment.”

“Compliment me again, mate. I like it when you do.”

“Later…mate.”

He was so pleased she had finally called him her mate that he practically felt his chest swell with pride. He would definitely hold her to her promise later.

“Seneca is my everything. As long as I have life in me, she will always be safe and protected,” Killian said out loud, his voice ringing with a hint of power that added to his conviction.

Thane smiled. “Well, then. Welcome to the family.”

Killian wasn’t sure how to respond to that so he just said, “Glad to see you still have all your limbs attached.”

Thane cringed. “So am I.” Lowering his voice, he asked, “I know Seneca wanted me and my sister to stay home with our parents, but Shadow has been freaking out ever since Seneca explained what had happened to her.”

“Seneca was also worried about them, so I went to make sure Shadow found Thane in time to save him,” Celine explained.

“I still don’t really understand what the fuck is going on,” Thane admitted. “I mean, I heard the recap, but it sounds like some crazy plot to one of their graphic novels.”

“Actually, it would make an awesome story,” Gunner said. “They really should write it.”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?” Celine asked.

Arson snorted. “Who the fuck would believe this is real?”

“What do you mean you bonded already?” Shadow shouted from across the room, but Seneca quickly slapped a hand over her friend’s mouth.

“Does your friend have a problem with me?” Killian asked through their bond.

“No, she was just freaking out a little because she thought we did it in the bathroom,” Seneca explained.

Since he could practically feel her blush through their bond, he couldn’t help teasing her again. “We did do it in the bathroom.”

“I didn’t mean…not that.”

Killian heard her thinking about how her friend had been worried about her losing her virginity in a bathroom instead of a romantic setting as she deserved. While he couldn’t fault her for what happened before they met, satisfaction swept through him knowing she was untouched by another male. He felt ashamed that he hadn’t waited for her as well. His only excuse was that he had been alive a lot longer than she had, but he wasn’t sure how to tell her that without upsetting her.

“Don’t worry. I’m not mad,” she assured him, amusement clear in her voice. “If you had waited, that would have made you the oldest virgin alive.”

She had apparently learned how to read his thoughts as well, and he was proud that she was adapting to their bond so quickly. He had nothing to hide from her and freely gave her complete access to his thoughts and memories.

“I will make sure our first time together is special,” he vowed.

“I don’t need anything special. I just need you,” she whispered back shyly.

Lust surged through him, making it difficult to breathe. Her declaration made him want to teleport her the hell out of there so he could make good on his promise, but there wasn’t time for that now.

A strange sensation had begun settling in the pit of his stomach, making him feel extremely uneasy. At first, he wasn’t sure what the uncomfortable feeling was. He’d never felt nervous before, but that was the closest thing he could describe it as.

He started to reach out to comfort his mate, then was surprised when he realized that strange feeling wasn’t coming from her. He was the one experiencing that sense of foreboding.

“What is it?” Arson leaned forward, picking up on his growing tension. “What’s wrong?”

“You don’t feel anything?” Killian asked.

Celine frowned. “Feel what?”

“I do,” Seneca announced as she dragged Shadow with her over to the table. “This is what it feels like when my luck is warning me about something.”

That immediately put him on guard. If her lucky warning system had also been transferred to him through their bond, he had to pay attention to it. Stretching his senses out, he tried to decipher what he was feeling. It was like having a premonition that something big was about to happen, but he just didn’t know what it was yet.

He noticed the moment the air pressure changed, but it wasn’t just a little variation from the storm strengthening. The shockwave of magic that struck him a moment later was strong enough to make him jump to his feet. His first instinct was to protect his mate, and he wrapped his arms around her, even as he threw up a magical shield around the entire building.

It was a magical surge, similar to what he’d felt when Seneca had been reborn, only not as intense. Still, it was enough to explain why the storm had caused so much damage during her previous life.

“Okay, I felt that,” Arson said also getting to his feet. “What the hell was it?”

“The awakening of a powerful supernatural,” Killian declared.

It all made sense to him now.

Since he had experienced it before, he knew what that type of magical surge was. A powerful supernatural had just gone through their awakening, and now they were leaking magic that was feeding the strength of the storm. That meant until they learned how to control their new powers, they were a serious danger to everyone around them.

In an instant, the rain outside had shifted into a torrential downpour with the wind force of a hurricane. A sense of urgency swept through the room, and he knew they had to act fast to save the people in the area.

“That’s why so many people died during my previous life. Whoever is causing the storm is literally flooding the entire area with magic. That’s why there is going to be more than one flash flood. Disasters are going to happen all over the place. But I never heard of this during my last life.” Seneca glanced over at Killian with wide eyes. “How do I know about it now?”

“Since this was caused by magic, peoples’ memories of the storm were probably altered or wiped. Maybe even by the Guardians here.”

“That would be ironic,” she said dryly.

“And you are scanning the area using your new magic and merging it with the information you acquired during your last life. I’m helping you a little, but you figured out how to do it on your own,” he said proudly.

“Go, me,” she quipped. “So, how should we deal with this?”

“We’ll have to split up. You guys focus on doing damage control and saving people, while Seneca and I go find the source to the north where the magical surge originated from,” Killian ordered. “Once we have the supernatural contained, the storm should quickly die down.”

“I’ll take Thane and Shadow with me to the west toward the town,” Arson said. “Celine, you and Gunner lead some of our people to patrol this area.”

“We’re on it,” Gunner assured.

“Boss, we have a problem,” Dario announced as soon as he and Anika stalked back into the room. Instead of the clothes they had been wearing earlier, they were decked out in the black leather armor warriors from the Hell Realm preferred to wear when going into battle.

“What is it?”

In response, he hurried toward the windows and threw open the curtains. Rain slammed against the windows, and the wind howled as the storm raged outside. Thunder boomed overhead, and lightning slashed across the sky, but it was almost impossible to see because it was pitch black outside. Even the lights coming from the surrounding buildings were being blocked out by the strange dense fog.

Clearly, it wasn’t normal darkness.

“What’s wrong?” Thane asked after everyone walked over to glance outside. “I don’t see anything.”

“I think that’s the point,” Shadow said dryly. “It’s like there is nothing out there.”

“That’s exactly right,” Anika stated. “We had a little trouble teleporting in, so we arrived through the portal on the top floor and saw this. When we went out on the roof to check it out, I couldn’t even see my fucking hand a few inches from my face.”

“It’s like some sort of dark cloud has settled over the entire area,” Dario said. “I flew up, and the darkness is being contained by the storm clouds. Above that, the sky is clear. So, it’s only happening in this area.”

“Interesting,” Killian murmured.

“That’s not interesting, it’s fucking terrifying,” Seneca countered.

Hearing the tremor in her voice made him want to leave her behind where she would be safe, but something told him that she had to go with him to find the supernatural causing the storm. If helping whoever was doing it was one of the things she needed to accomplish to stay in the new timeline, then that’s exactly what they would do.

Killian would make damn sure she was safe, though.

He would never risk losing her again.

When Seneca let out a little squeak of surprise, he glanced down to see her holding the magical umbrella in her hand. Clearly, the ancient relic didn’t want to be left behind. Since that was another layer of protection for her, he was grateful to have it tag along.

She yelped again when he used his magic to change them both into their own set of black armor. It would protect their bodies as well as keep them from getting wet. Even if he could dry their clothes with a thought, there was no use ruining a good suit. He had to take a few brief seconds to admire her in the form-fitting armor since she looked absolutely divine in it but knew he couldn’t obsess over her for too long.

“We have to go.” He held out a hand to Seneca. “Are you ready?”

“No, but let’s do it anyway,” she said as she slipped her hand into his.

“That’s the spirit.”

“We’re going with you,” Anika said as Dario moved to stand beside her.

Since Killian had expected that, he just nodded. With that, he teleported them away from The Manor, and into the heart of the storm.