And then, shattered.
As the waves coursed through me, I was wrapped in hot, panting warmth from within my mind. Caliel, as aroused as me, was forced to ride it out.
It wasn’t anything I could help. He was part of me.
It is okay,he husked as the waves subsided.None of this is your fault.
The forgiveness flowed from him into my mind. Along with something more that filled my heart until it hurt.
Because laced through it was an awareness. That despite his ability to bring me to panting completion, he could never do more than pretend.
Itwasmy fault. And nothing I could do would make it better.
8
Riggs
Snap!
With a flash of golden light, we arrived in Cara’s garden.
Breana fell into me, and as I reached to steady her, my own knees buckled. I kept myself upright with an effort. I noticed Riley sway into Havoc, and he propped her up.
“Hold on, everyone,” Cara said. She’d warned us that we would react—because at the end of the path was her house—and most of us were inside it, sitting at the kitchen table.
“This time travel stuff fucking sucks,” Havoc growled.
As another wave of dizziness hit me, I had to agree. Although there were all kinds of reasons to be dizzy, and as Breana’s scent washed over me, I wondered whether it was really the time overlap doing it…
“Distance should help.” The Watcher pushed aside overgrown foliage from a shed I hadn’t noticed before. She opened it, and I saw crates within. “Riley, take your team back first. You’ll need to move as many crates as you can—they have clothes in them. I keep them for emergencies.”
By the manner in which everyone swayed, they were as weakened as me. But Marcus, Havoc, and Rafael loaded up.They piled the crates in the center before they linked arms, making sure their legs touched the wooden boxes.
“As far as they are aware, you guys have only been gone a few minutes. I’ll take Bree and Riggs through the gate. They’ll have been gone only a little longer. Tyrez, you can go through on your own.”
Riley and her crew vanished in a cloud of golden light, and I stooped to lift a crate. Bree swayed into me as she hefted hers, and my pulse bounded as her breast brushed against my arm.
When I’d run into her on the path outside the showers, she’d seemed a bit dazed. My lips twitched when I remembered her reaction to the turtle. And then I’d babbled nonsense about mutants…
What was up with that? It had been an uncomfortable few minutes, considering I’d just jacked off to thoughts of her wrapping those sensuous lips around me. For just a moment, there on the path, with my body still tingling from the experience, I’d entertained all sorts of hopeful thoughts. But then she’d acted so strangely. I hadn’t taken her for the screaming type. Perhaps the turtle had been scarier than I’d thought?
I considered that.
Nope. It was a pretty small turtle. It had been a cranky beast, though.
Perhaps it was for the best that we’d both walked away from that encounter, because my life was a mess. And while I had no memories of either of my brothers, one of them might be responsible for trying to bump me off.
None of it made me a good bet for dinner and a movie. If she liked movies. They were kind of a human thing.
I think, anyway. My memories weren’t exactly what I would call reliable.
And a teenage thing? Why was I still thinking of the turtle?
“Okay,” Cara brought me back to the present by hefting her own crate. “You guys have been helping me get this all together. We most certainly have not been rescuing Dragons from a fire.”
Tyrez’s face remained calm, but his eyes were flaring chaotically.
His family had almost died. My family, too.
