Part 34 (1/2)
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
WITH A GASP, CADEN sat straight up in bed. He looked around the darkened room at Lucan's house, panting, sweating.
Something was wrong.
Bounding out of bed, he grabbed his jeans and s.h.i.+rt, thrusting them on as he ran down the hall to Lucan's room and shoved the door. Empty. s.h.i.+t!
Backtracking, he raced toward the front of the house, wondering if his brother had slipped out, gone to challenge Shock for Anka, decided to end it all. . . . Instead, he found Lucan sleeping fitfully on the sofa.
As Caden's gaze latched onto his brother's face, Lucan opened his eyes. ”What is it?” Hesitating, Caden wasn't certain what to say. Lucan was well enough-in one piece, anyway. But Caden knew something was terribly wrong.
”I have this sense of foreboding . . . this dread.” It throbbed inside him, an echo of someone else's real fear.
Lucan rubbed his hand over his shadowed jaw. ”Have you opened your magical senses?”
”My what? No.”
Lucan sighed. ”Close your eyes. Look inside yourself for your magic. That thing that sparks and burns at your core.”
His eyes slid shut, and he shook his head. ”It's not in one place; it's everywhere.”
”Find the heart of it. Look inside,” Lucan snapped impatiently.
As Lucan said the words, Caden focused deeper inward. There it was. As soon as he found the heart of his magic, it expanded, growing exponentially, as if it had been waiting for him to acknowledge its existence. Now, it woke a sleeping giant. Desperately, Caden tried to shrink it, shove it aside- something.
”No!” Lucan commanded. ”Grab onto it. Let it take you.”
”h.e.l.l no! It's going to drown me. It's ma.s.sive.”
”Excellent.” Lucan jumped to his feet. ”Size . . . um, matters. Magically speaking.”
”I don't want it! d.a.m.n it, I just want to be normal.”
”You're not,” Lucan snapped. ”And the sense that something is wrong often involves a wizard's mate. If you want to know if something happened to Sydney, I suggest you give your senses free rein. Now.” Caden caught his breath. Sydney in trouble? Yes, he sensed it. Her fear and panic. Her regret. Her cry for help. And for her, he'd move mountains, scale skysc.r.a.pers.
Embrace magic.
Most of the night he'd spent pondering Lucan's admonishments about embracing love and accepting his mate. His heart wanted it so d.a.m.n bad. All evening, logic had urged him to resist.
But everything changed the moment he knew Sydney was in danger.
Without hesitation, he looked inward again, mentally touching his magic. It burst inside him, burning down his arms, reaching its tentacles through his brain-and grabbing on. As it did, he looked outward for Sydney, trying to feel her, find her.
He did, and horror washed over him.
”Oh, G.o.d,” Caden gasped, heart drumming furiously.
”For a moment, I saw everything through her eyes. And he's got her. Mathias!” Lucan cursed. ”Don't panic. Close your eyes. See if your magic can locate her.” He concentrated, frowned. Vague images pinged back at him. Her arms curled around the book, Mathias barking questions. But no location.
”I-I can't. I don't know how. You couldn't do it when Anka was taken from you.” Would Sydney be ravaged by that monster, as Anka had been? If an experienced wizard with a long-term mate bond had been unable to find her, what hope did Caden have?
”He took Anka suddenly,” Lucan explained. ”I felt only a vague sense of uneasiness before the bond was broken.”
”We aren't mated. How can I find what isn't technically mine?” ”Mother said for years that your magic would cross rare lines. Try.” A deluge of thoughts and emotions pounded him. Fear. Anger at himself for not mating with Sydney.
Dread. The sensations that kept pouring across the tenuous thread of consciousness he shared with her.
Determination.
There! ”A house. Remote.” Frustration crashed over him. ”That's all I can see. It could be anywhere.”
”Have you teleported on your own yet?”
”No.”
Lucan sighed roughly. ”Remind me when this is over to beat you within an inch of your stubborn life.
Close your eyes. Envision yourself getting as close to Sydney as possible. Focus on your sense of her, not the appearance of the location. Your instincts should guide you to her.” His first time to teleport, and he wasn't even sure where he was headed? No time to worry about that.
”If I fail?”
Wincing, Lucan slapped his shoulder. ”Best not to dwell on that.” Perfect. But as a fresh surge of terror clawed at his magical senses, and he actually felt Sydney's fear like the taste of blood in his mouth, he had to try now.
”Here I go.”
Lucan grabbed his arm. ”I'll pop in on Bram. He'll help.” Caden shook his head. ”He coerced me to temporarily join the Doomsday Brethren in exchange for helping me find Anka. After flubbing a mission a few days ago, he ousted me.” With a raised brow, Lucan predicted, ”I think you'll be surprised. But if I'm wrong, then I'll go to Shock.
He'll know best where Mathias is keeping Sydney.”
The gesture stunned Caden. ”You'd do that? Even though the b.a.s.t.a.r.d has your mate?”
”To keep you with yours so that you could have your happy ending? Yes. Shock may well work for Mathias, and if so-”
”He claims to be a double agent.”
”Not relevant now, except that if he's truly on our side, then getting him to help me find Sydney should be much simpler. Go. I'll sort the rest out.”
Suddenly a scream rent his mind. Pain and fear sc.r.a.ped every nerve ending raw. The time for deliberation was gone. He had to act now.
He closed his eyes, focused on Sydney and how to be as near her as possible. Then he was tumbling through the dark.
”How lovely of you to bring the Doomsday Diary to me.” Mathias sent her a tight smile. ”I'll reward Zain later. But now, my dear, you must tell me how the book works.” Sydney staggered as Zain completed teleporting and the room tilted. She blinked, trying to get her bearings. But all she saw was an unfamiliar house. And Mathias waiting for her.
Fear zipped down her spine. It was one thing to sit across from Mathias with Shock present and the Doomsday Brethren just outside. This face-to-face now? Disturbing, to say the least.
She clutched the book to her chest. ”What will you do with it?” He sifted his fingers through her hair, and Sydney tried not to show just how distasteful she found his touch. ”Put an end to all this silly fighting. Magickind needs to unite.” Under the banner of false equality and his cruel thumb? No.