Not good.
Andra waved her hand in front of his face. “Hey. You in there?”
His mouth started to move, but no sound came out.
“Logan.”
Nothing. Andra put her hand on his shoulder and shook him. “Logan! Snap out of it.”
He did. Finally. His eyes blinked slowly and stopped their Ping-Pong routine. He sucked in a deep breath as if it were the first one he’d had in a while.
“Leave us. I need time to examine her.”
“I’m not leaving.”
“I promise you I will not harm her. I also promise you that if you don’t go drag Paul in from outside, the Synestryn will likely find him before sunrise.”
Drag Paul? “What are you talking about?”
“I needed strength to attend your sister. Paul offered me his blood. Unfortunately, I needed quite a bit and he had already donated recently. He’s outside. Recovering.”
“Why the hell didn’t you say something before?” said Andra.
“I did. You chose to ignore me.”
She had to go to Paul. She couldn’t leave him lying out there in the dark with all the monsters roaming around. “If you so much as muss her hair, I’m going to kill you. Are we clear?”
Logan gave her a patronizing smile. “Go to your Theronai. Nika is safe in my care.”
Andra believed him, which might have made her certifiable, but there it was. Paul needed her now, and without him, Andra wasn’t sure she could keep Nika safe from the monsters. Besides, she owed him. He’d given his blood to help Nika, and in her book, that made him a hero.
She had just turned to leave when he said, “Oh, by the way, that necklace he wears is yours if you choose to take it.”
Andra stopped in her tracks. She’d felt that, too, but brushed it aside as one more irrational feeling. “Paul never said that.”
“Because he’s protecting you.”
Andra frowned. “From what?”
“From the responsibility of the power you will wield if you choose to wear it.”
“Power?”
He gave her a level stare. “More than you can imagine. Enough to keep your sister safe. Maybe enough to heal her as well.”
It took her a couple of seconds to process what he was saying. This whole thing was so far-out, she didn’t know what to think at first, but one thing was clear. If Paul could help her save Nika, she was going to make him do so. “Is that why I keep feeling weird when I touch him?”
“Yes. It’s nature’s way of helping you find him. I suggest you don’t wait too long to make up your mind about whether or not you’re going to claim what’s yours. Nika is nearly out of time. She’ll be lucky to survive three days at this rate.”
Three days. Andra’s throat tightened as she fought back tears. “I don’t need any time. I know what to do.”
First she was going to make sure Logan wasn’t full of shit. Then she was going to do the only thing she could.
Save Nika.
Andra found Paul slumped on the porch. His big body was limp and unmoving. Panic skittered over her skin as she raced to him, looking for signs of life.
She pressed her fingers against his neck to feel for a pulse, and warmth spread up her arm. He pulled in a shuddering breath, and Andra’s eyes closed in relief. His pulse was strong and he was breathing steadily.
Now all she had to do was get him inside, where there was at least a door between them and the monsters. She knew from experience that that wouldn’t stop them for long, but at least it would slow them down. Out here in the open with darkness all around them, nothing would.
Andra gave his arm an experimental tug. Lord, he was heavy—easily eighty pounds heavier than she was. She could do it, but one of them was going to get their shoulder dislocated in the process.
Maybe if she pushed him over the wooden planks, it would be easier. He might get splinters in his ass, but she’d be glad to pull those out for him if they lived through it. She was pretty sure she’d enjoy getting a nice long look at his muscular backside, anyway.
She moved him just enough that his head lolled to one side. The iridescent choker he wore caught and held light from the single bulb glowing above them.
That choker was hers. It always had been. She wanted to take it back.
All this magic hoo-ha left her stumbling in the dark, but she had some strong instincts about this thing, and she wasn’t afraid to follow them, especially after Logan’s coaching. If Nika didn’t make it, she had nothing to lose, anyway.
Andra reached out and grazed it with the tip of her finger. A happy tingling sensation swept up her arm and settled deep in her chest, giving her confidence that this was the right thing to do. The colors inside the band swirled around that contact, as if it knew she was touching it. A plume of sapphire blue spread out from under her finger, expanding in concentric rings as it moved across the necklace.
The color was so pretty, so rich and deep, she wanted to have it for her own and see it grace her throat. Just as the thought entered her head, the band split open and fell from Paul’s thick neck.
Andra retrieved the slippery length from the wooden planks and let it slide over her fingers, passing it from one hand to the other. It was still warm from Paul’s body and heavier than she would have expected. It looked as though it were made out of some kind of plastic, but now that she held it and felt its weight, she knew that wasn’t the case.
The ends were blunt, with no clasp, but she figured that the same magic that made it come off would fasten it again. She placed the band around her throat and the ends seemed to find each other as if they were drawn together like magnets.
As soon as she felt the muted click of the band connecting to itself, Paul’s eyes opened. Gold chips shone bright within the deeper brown of his eyes, making them sparkle under the porch light. His gaze moved to her throat and his hand went to his own.
“How did you . . . ?” His voice was a shocked whisper of sound, barely audible over the crickets chirping nearby.
He reached out and placed one blunt fingertip against the band and slid it over it, brushing her skin along the edge as he passed. His pupils dilated and his nostrils flared. He let out a deep, satisfied groan that made a shiver course up her spine. “So good,” he told her. “You probably shouldn’t have done that, but it feels so good not to hurt anymore.”
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You were unconscious.”
“I’m perfect now. Thanks to you.” His finger moved from the choker up the side of her neck and down along her jaw. “You are one of us.”
“Who’s us?”
“We’re Theronai.”
“What’s that?”
“We’re one of three races of guardians. Sentinels. We stand watch over the gate to another world, protecting it from Synestryn invasion. We also protect humans from falling victim to their evil.”
“Like you did with Sammy?”
He nodded. “We were put here to protect others. It’s in our blood—in your blood. It’s why you nearly kill yourself trying to find those lost children, why you never give up. You’re like me. I had hoped you weren’t human, but knowing it’s true—”
“Of course I’m human.” Even as she said it, she questioned the truth of her words. She’d always been different. So had her sisters. Andra had dismissed their weirdness as some kind of random genetic quirk, but now that Paul said the words, she realized she’d been wrong. She was different from all the other humans because she wasn’t human herself. It made too much sense not to be true, despite her desire to deny it.
Her mom had always been secretive about their father, evading questions, lying when she did give answers. Andra had always thought she was covering for some deadbeat, but maybe there was more to it than that.
If only Mom had lived so she could ask questions and find out the truth. Now all she had to go on was the word of a man she barely knew and her gut instincts—instincts that told her she wasn’t human. She was different. That was why she could find lost children.
Andra’s world shifted. The colors that had painted her life’s experiences changed from a distorted mass of mixed-up memories and unexplainable events to something clear and visible. That oddly shaped piece of the puzzle that had never quite fit suddenly fell into place. “How could I not have known?”
Paul stroked her cheek, his eyes bright with compassion. “You were never told. But it’s okay. You’re not alone.”
“Maybe not, but my whole life has been a lie.” She couldn’t help but feel betrayed by her mother. How many times had she asked Mom about their father? How many times had Mom looked her in the eye and lied?
“That lie protected you. It probably saved your life. And it gave me time to find you.”
“That doesn’t excuse what she did.”
“Maybe there was no lie,” said Paul. “Maybe your mother didn’t know.”
“She knew something. I can see it now, looking back. She lied.”
“But you know the truth now. You’re a Theronai. You can accept that and move forward or wallow in the past. Your choice.”
She didn’t have time to wallow. Logan had said Nika might not even live three days. “Nika needs me to move forward.”
A satisfied gleam lit his eyes. “Then we should finish this, you and I.”
“Finish?”
He nodded, staring at her mouth. “And then I’ll show you the truth. And my power—your power now. Let’s go inside.”
Andra stood and offered him her hand. He took it, but not because he was unsteady. His stance was solid and strong, just like the rest of him. “You seem to have recovered.”
“I’m still a quart or two low, but I feel great.” He slid his hand to the back of her neck and held her still. He was a few inches taller, and she found herself looking right at his mouth, wishing she had the guts to kiss him again. What she’d had already wasn’t nearly enough. Never would be.
“Later,” he said, and it sounded like a promise. “When it’s safe. And we have plenty of time.”
Andra’s mind went foggy around the edges. Something was happening inside her—some kind of warmth was swelling up, taking over. “Time?” she asked.
Paul nodded again. “Lots of time. I’m looking forward to getting to know you. Learning what you like.”
She liked him. Too much. So much it made her dizzy with the force of it and whatever was happening to her.
Andra swayed on her feet and grabbed hold of his arms to steady herself. His muscles were hard under her fingertips, sculpted so her hands fit just right against him.
“You and I, we can have forever if you want it.”
Forever sounded pretty good right now, considering how she was feeling.
A sane part of herself said, “But I hardly know you.”
“That’ll change soon enough. I’m going to take you inside and we’re going to finish what you’ve started.”
He scooped her up in his arms and she had the sensation of flying for a split second. A laugh bubbled out of her, and she sounded almost drunk to her own ears.