Page 27

Neith

I move so that I’m leaning on my elbows and look at Reed with a frown, “If I had stopped you when I got a little bit tired it wouldn’t have been a good gauge for how out of shape I am with my sword practice. It also wouldn’t be good practice for if I’m in a real sword fight, I can’t just say, ‘okay I know that you are trying to kill me, but can we stop for a moment, because I’m tired. Maybe we can pick it up again later?’.” I raise my eyebrow, as the logic of my words sinks in.

Doc shakes his head, “While I see the logic behind your words, and I can admit that to a certain extent, you are right. You are currently more than a little bit tired.”

“Semantics,” I mutter, as I hop back up and start stretching out my muscles, so they don’t cramp on me later.

Doc frowns at me, clearly he is not a fan of my answer.

“Neith, you should be a bit more careful,” Van says.

I shrug, “Honestly, I am used to running on empty. I’m used to having to push my body past what it should be able to do, simply because I have no choice. I don’t see the point in not training hard, but I will make sure that I hydrate properly and don’t allow my stubbornness to cause me an injury. Deal?”

I can see it in Doc’s eyes, he wants to argue with me, he wants me to say that I won’t push it that hard again and that I will take it easier when I’m training. But he also knows that to a certain extent I am right. We are agents, and our jobs aren’t safe. We all need to be at the top of our game to make sure that we are safe.

“He’s giving her the look,” Reed smirks.

“Aw, you’re now officially part of the team, Nene,” Evander teases, “Doc gives us all that look from time to time as his doctor side wars with the logical side that knows we have to push ourselves.”

I grin, and smile up at Doc, “I really appreciate that you are looking out for me, but you know I’m right. Just like you know that they are right too, and that you most likely do exactly the same thing.”

Doc shrugs his eyes, as his lips lift into a smile, but he doesn’t confirm or deny that I’m right.

River

A s soon as I am outside, I take deep breaths.

I am already controlling my reaction a lot better than I did the first time that it happened, I didn’t immediately scoop Neith up and not let anyone touch her, so at least there is that. I wanted to, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t and that’s the key factor right now. The fact of it is the more it happens the better at controlling it I will be.

Admittedly it does take me at least twenty minutes or so to get a really good grip on my reaction, but I probably could have gone back in after ten minutes or so, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to go back too soon. It has been a long time since I have had to work on my reactions in certain situations, it makes me feel like a young pup if I’m being honest.

As I turn to head inside, a noise from the direction of the forest stops me and I turn back around just in time to see Neith’s kelpie come crashing through the trees and head straight for me. I drop down into a defensive crouch, calling on my magic but not letting it engulf me yet. I don’t want to attack it, Neith is fond of it, and it did let me stroke it, but if it comes down to me or him and he attacks first, then I’m going to have to defend myself.

The kelpie doesn’t attack though, it stops in front of me pawing at the ground with its hooves and snorting. It doesn’t take me very long to realize that it is panicking about something, but I have no idea what. If he has come here though, I think that it is safe to assume that he wants help and most likely wants Neith.

“Do you need help?” I ask, feeling a bit ridiculous at first but that feeling quickly dissipates as the kelpie nods back. It can clearly understand me better than I can understand it. “Alright, I will go get Neith.”

It nods again and stomps its hooves, clearly telling me that it’s urgent and I need to fucking hurry up. I turn back toward the door and start to make my way inside, before I realize that he’s following me.

“You can’t come with me buddy,” I tell him, but he pushes forward clearly wanting to get to Neith. If it’s as urgent as he is making out, then we don’t have time for this. “Back up. I will get Neith.”

Without meaning to, I let some of my alpha power out through my voice, it most likely happened because the power was already so close to the surface. I have no idea how the kelpie is going to react to it but what I don’t expect is for it to take several steps backward and then bow its head, conceding to me and doing as I have asked. Either it’s decided that I was right, which is unlikely since it was so desperate to get into the house to get to Neith, or my alpha voice worked on it.

That shouldn’t be possible.

Whatever the reason, I don’t have the time to question it now, I need to get the others. I rush inside, making sure to shut the door behind me so it can’t follow me, not that it will be able to if it is under the influence of my alpha voice, but doing so just in case anyway.

This is nuts.

Neith

“N eith!” River exclaims as he rushes back into the gym. I hadn’t realized that he wasn’t still in here, since I was so focused on Reed and Doc.

“Yeah, what’s up?” I ask, already feeling better. I always tend to bounce back from a hard workout quicker than I should. I think it might be because I do it so regularly, which probably isn’t a good thing and isn’t something that I want to tell Doc about.

“Your kelpie is outside the front of the house and seems to be panicking. I have no idea why he’s panicking but I barely managed to stop him from coming into the house after me when I said that I would go and get you.” River explains urgently.

The voices stir, becoming louder in my mind, and I almost freeze as for only the third time in my whole life I actually understand what they are saying.

“Danger,” the voices whisper.

It’s not one voice, it's thousands all joined together to say that one word.

Well, fuck.

I rush out of the gym, heading for the front door with the guys hot on my heels. This can’t be good. I was planning on going down to see him later, before we had to go to the poker game later, but this sounds concerning. Especially since kelpies are pretty fucking near the top of the food chain and I have no idea what the hell could make a kelpie panic.

Unless River is reading the situation wrong.

As soon as I step foot out of the door, I see Mael pacing and snorting his ears pinned back, and it’s obvious that River didn’t read the situation wrong at all.

Shit.

“This doesn’t look good at all,” Griff says. “You need to be careful, Neith.”

“I will, but he obviously needs help with something,” I reply, as I rush out of the front door.

When I’m clear of the porch, Mael moves toward me, he ducks his head at the last moment and just like before, he flips me so that I land on his back. This time I’m not tired from almost dying, so I feel as his magic gently guides me and cushions my landing, so it doesn’t hurt either one of us when I land on his back. My hands automatically start to hold his mane before I realize that there are reins, dark blue leather reins, and as I take a quick glance at his face, I realize that he’s wearing a bridle, studded with green, black and blue gemstones, with golden runes that I can’t read stamped into the dark blue leather and continuing up to the reins in my hand.

Whoa, that is seriously cool, but where the fuck has it come from?

Magic.

The guy's eyes are wide, as they watch me.

Opening my mouth, I quickly change what I was going to say when my sword appears in my hand. “Shit. this is bad, I’m guessing that the appearance of my sword means that there is danger, arm up and then meet me at the lake.”

“Like fuck am I letting you go off into unknown danger by yourself,” Griff growls.

Swords suddenly appear in Doc’s arms, and he quickly passes them out.

“Problem solved, let’s go,” he mutters.

Mael takes off. It’s a damn good job that I know how to ride horses, because with no saddle, I’m having to rely a lot on my thigh strength in order to stay on, at least I have the reins though. Mael moves a hell of a lot quicker than a normal horse, and it’s fucking exhilarating, I would be more excited if we weren’t charging into unknown danger. Movement to my left catches my attention and I see River in his kitsune form easily keeping up with us. Looking around I realize that the others are all with us as well.

I become incredibly grateful that they can all keep up as soon as we break through the trees and see what is before us. The kelpies are all out of the water and in what can only be described as a battle with creatures that kind of look like a cross between an imp and a troll, except they are tall and thin, their heads easily reaching the tops of the kelpie’s backs where as mine only just reaches the bottoms of their bellies.

All of the imp troll’s have weapons and it’s clear that they are aiming to kill the kelpie’s and not capture them.

“What the fuck are they?” I ask no one in particular.

“Scavengers, they are after the kelpie’s scales and hearts, they make an absolute fortune on the Obsidian market,” Raiden is of course the one that replies to my question.

“Oh, hell no,” I reply. “Come on Mael, let’s do some damage.”

“Neith wait,” one of the guys says, but it’s too late, I am already charging toward the battle, my sword swiping through the Scavenger’s as they quickly realize that I’m a threat.

I use their shock at seeing someone riding one of the kelpies to my advantage and manage to swipe through a few before they realize what is happening and start to try and attack me. Suddenly the guys are there with me, helping to defend the kelpies, and killing the attackers with ease.

One of the scavengers gets in a lucky shot, striking Mael on his flank and making him cry out in pain. Anger burns through me, and using balance that I didn’t realize I had, I stand up on Mael’s back, and launch myself through the air, flipping and slicing through the neck of the scavenger that hurt Mael.

I have no time to celebrate the win as the scavenger’s immediately try to overwhelm me. A kelpie, not Mael, comes to my rescue wrapping its massive jaws around the neck of an attacker and biting through it like its butter.

Smiling in thanks at the new kelpie, I glance around me, and I’m shocked to see Doc riding one of the kelpies as they work together to neutralize the threat that is almost dealt with. He’s not the only one either, the kelpies are fighting side by side and working together with all of my men. I smile, this is a good thing.

I can feel it.

Mael, I need to check if he is okay. The Scavengers numbers have dropped drastically, and we will win in no time at all. The guys have it handled, but I need to check on Mael. I have no idea how badly he is injured. I duck and dive through the scavengers that are left as I make my way to where I can see Mael fighting a Scavenger.

He’s up, that’s a good thing.

The scavenger is so focused on Mael and trying to kill him, that he completely misses me coming up behind him. My sword drives into his heart, and I pull it out watching him crumple to the floor. I step over the dead body and start checking Mael over only to realize that he of course has supernatural healing, so his wound is already healed.

He nuzzles me gently, and I’m pretty sure that it’s because he can sense that I was worried for him, I think he might also be checking that I am okay. I stroke him, and then turn around ready to get back into the fight and realize that it’s done. All of the scavengers lay dead, scattered around us, and the guys are all talking to or stroking the kelpies.

I think it’s probably safe to say that we aren’t likely to get eaten by kelpie’s any time soon. Not this herd anyway.

“Is everyone okay?” Evander asks, and everyone sounds off that they are.

“That was fun,” River grins, “and I made a friend. He’s called Reath, he had my back a couple of times.”

I frown, “How do you know his name?”

River shrugs, “I’m assuming the same way that you know Mael’s name. It just sort of blazed through my mind.”

“Same,” Reed says with a confused frown and points to the one standing next to him, “Thoreah.”

My eyes widen, “Wait, do all of you have one that gave you its name?”

All of them nod.

“Guys, I know that’s a big deal and something that we need to ask questions about, but right now, we have a bigger issue,” Raiden starts.

Evander nods, “He’s right, we need to work out how they got in here.”

“Presumably the same way that the kelpie’s got in?” I ask, as I stroke Mael’s nose.

Ransom shakes his head, “No, I checked when we found the kelpie’s and there were no breaches. I did a really thorough check too.”

“Can you check again?” Evander asks.

Ransom frowns, “I don’t know how a breach could have occurred in the last day, without me knowing.”

“True, but something is going on. Something bigger than we are, it has to be because of the imps behaving badly and the kelpies either appearing out of nowhere or being here the whole time and only now suddenly deciding to let us see them. I think we have to question what we thought we knew,” Reed replies.

Ransom nods, “Yeah, you’re right. Give me a few minutes, I will do a really thorough check so it’s going to take me longer than it usually does.”

“Okay, take your time,” Van replies.

While Ransom is busy doing his thing, his magic growing around us, Doc looks around at all the bodies scattered on the ground and mutters, “The clean up is going to take a while, even with the help of magic.”

Mael snorts and gains our attention, the other kelpies stomping their feet, he looks at me and snaps his teeth.

“I think he’s trying to tell us not to worry about it because he and the other kelpie’s will take care of it,” I say, a questioning note to my voice.

Mael nods enthusiastically.

“Well at least that’s something that we don’t need to worry about,” Van says.

“We have a problem,” Ransom says, his eyes opening and an urgent tension in his body, “we have a breach.”