Chapter Twenty-Seven
Neith
I’m quickly distracted as my hand begins to tingle, and then I feel a weird weight wrap around my finger.
Suddenly, everything clears, the fog that descended on my brain dissipates, my eyes clear, and the ancient magic disappears, the cave falling still and silent once again.
We stay frozen to the spot, staring at each other.
“So, we’re all true mates,” Van says.
“It would appear so,” Dimitri adds and then lifts his hand. “Apparently, we got a physical representation of that.”
“What?” Reed asks, and then lifts his hand.
I lift mine, and sure enough, wrapped around my ring finger on my left hand is a beautiful ring.
It has a black band, with green vines wrapping around the band and in between the stones.
There’s one big black stone with gold flecks in the middle that glitters in the low light of the witch lights, and then on either side are smaller dark green and red bloodstones. I count them, one for each of my men.
And they are fucking my men, a cave said so.
That’ll be interesting to explain.
I suppose I should be surprised that Dimitri was included, but honestly, I would be more surprised if he wasn’t.
Then it hits me.
“Oh my god, did we just get married? Did a cave marry us? I didn’t get to wear a pretty dress. Navy, Neera, Rana, and Joey are going to be pissed that they didn’t come. Oh my fuck I’m never going to hear the end of it from Sully and Earnie. No one fucking kissed me!”
Baz grabs my face in his hands and kisses me, effectively shutting up my rambling as I melt into him. Kissing Baz feels like home. Like he’s always been mine, and we just didn’t see each other for a while.
He growls, pulling me closer, and my hands fist in his shirt.
Eventually, he pulls back, smiling softly down at me. He says, “Those traditions are for the humans, and we take what just happened far more seriously than most of them do, but if you would like a celebration like that, I am one hundred percent certain that none of us could deny you.”
“He’s right,” Griff says as he gently pulls me into his arms. “You’re our true mate. It didn’t happen like I thought it was going to, and there were definitely some surprises that we should probably talk about, but we are all extremely happy with what happened.”
I look around at the others taking my time so that I can read their expressions properly to ensure that they really are okay with it.
I know that there’s nothing that we can do about it, and I know that technically we aren’t married in the human sense, but we are bound in a more complete way.
I wonder if this is where the human traditions stem from?
It’s possible.
They are all looking at me with open and happy expressions.
I grin, “Well, I guess we’re married now. Do all of your rings look the same?”
Asking the important questions, always.
They all hold their hands out, and the possessive part of me practically purrs with satisfaction when I see their rings, that’s physical proof that these amazing, kind, deadly, and gorgeous men are mine.
Their rings are all the same as each other’s and are similar to mine. They’re made out of the same black material as mine, but have a thicker band, and they’re all studded with the same number of bloodstones as there are of us.
“Ha, no returns bitches, you're stuck with me,” I grin, my words make the Voices groan, admittedly, I could have said something lovely and sweet then, but they were the first words that I thought of, so those were the words that escaped my mouth first.
The guys all burst out laughing.
At least I can make them laugh, that’s probably going to be important.
“I am really sorry, I hate to have to leave, but I didn’t get a chance to put up an illusion or anything, and someone is going to notice that I am not where I am supposed to be,” Dimitri says after a few moments.
“We’re going to figure something out, this is getting ridiculous, and I’m not entirely convinced that you deserve to be in there anyway,” Van says with conviction.
“Thank you,” Dimitri replies. “I am where I deserve to be,” his eyes meet mine and soften, “even if I wish to be somewhere else entirely.”
He walks over to me and kisses me softly, smirking, he says, “I told you that you were mine.”
Then he simply pops out of existence. The curious thing about when he does it though is that I don’t feel his magic. Like when Doc teleports, I feel his magic spike for a moment before he disappears, but when Dimitri does it, there’s nothing, he is just gone.
“Neith is a supernatural species that has been extinct for thousands of years. I heard that correctly, right?” Raiden asks.
I shrug, “That’s what the ancient cave said, I must say I have a strong inclination to believe it.”
“Me too,” Baz says as he spins the ring on his finger.
“How is it that she gave us an answer and yet didn’t as well?” Griff asks as he pulls me under his arm.
Van grins, “Probably because she is an ancient being who has learned how to say something without actually giving anything away.”
“If it’s true, then surely that means that one of my parents isn’t the kind of supernatural that everyone thinks they are, right?” I ask.
The guys share a look.
“Probably, but we all know that supernatural gifts are passed down from your parents, and you have your mother's gifts,” Raiden reasons.
“But do I?” I question. “My gifts don’t behave like hers.”
“We don’t know that for certain, we only know what we’ve been told, and if I were your mother and as rare as she is, I definitely wouldn’t be telling strangers anything of any substance about what I’m capable of, or anyone for that matter,” Raiden replies thoughtfully.
I nod, “Yeah, I suppose you’re right.
“So what now?” River asks. “Michael asked us to tell him if you and Griff were true mates. Do we tell him that we are all true mates?”
“I don’t think we should,” Baz replies. “The cave said that it was rare even before it stopped happening, and rare things are usually in danger. I’m reasonably certain that we have enough danger surrounding us.”
“Good point,” Reed agrees. “But if the old ways are coming back and with it true mates, then we need to tell Michael something so that he can keep an eye out for any more potential true mates.”
“So why don’t we tell the Chief that Griff and Neith are true mates, if they’re both okay with that, and just not mention that we are all true mates and the cave spoke to us?” Raiden suggests.
“Good idea, I’m good with that,” I reply.
“Me too,” Griff says.
“Alright, why don’t we . . .” Ransom starts.
Reed
Ringing interrupts whatever Ransom is about to say next, and we all frown as we pull out our phones.
“Has anyone even got a signal here?” I ask as I stare at the no service icon on my phone.
“Nope,” River mutters with a frown as he taps his screen.
“Neith, Love, I’m pretty sure that ringing is coming from you, and considering that none of us have any bars at all, I’m going to guess that means that Kar is calling you,” Coen says as he smiles at Neith.
“Shit, you’re probably right,” she replies as she haphazardly starts patting herself down to find her phone.
The fact that she’s managed to lose her phone while it's on her is a gift. I have never known anyone to lose phones like she does. It's weirder because I’m pretty certain that her ability to lose things is limited to just her phones. I don’t think she loses anything else quite so consistently.
“Wait, he can do that?” Ransom asks. “He can call you even when you have no service?”
Neith’s still looking for her phone, so Coen answers, “Yeah, when we said he was a genius with tech, we meant it. Instead of fighting his magic, tech seems to tolerate it more than anyone else's. Not completely, I mean it’s not easy for him, and it takes a lot of time and patience, but he seems to be able to get his magic and his tech to work together.”
“It’s really fucking handy in times like this, or if you’re on a job in the middle of nowhere. It means that we’ve got an easy line of communication no matter where we are,” Neith adds. “Ah ha,” she grins as she holds up her phone. “I found it.”
She quickly presses answer and then puts it on speakerphone so that we can all hear what’s being said.
It occurs to me that it was also ringing for a lot longer than a phone would usually ring. My guess is that Kar knows about Neith’s penchant for losing phones and was making it ring for longer so she had time to find it.
The way his magic works is really fascinating and definitely something that I would like to have a conversation with him about at some point.
When that will be is anyone’s guess. I don’t even know for certain where we’re going to be tomorrow. It would probably bother most people, but I do know that wherever I am, I’m going to be with my family, so I’m not bothered.
I glance down at my ring.
Now that was completely and utterly unexpected, and what is more unexpected is that no one is freaking out. I mean, we all know that we love her, that she’s ours, and that she’s it for us, but knowing that and having a surprise physical representation of that is an entirely different thing.
It’s not how I thought it would happen, but then again, nothing when it comes to Neith is how I thought that it would happen.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I need to try to find some time to talk to Baz away from the others and see how he’s handling it all. He only joined us a few days ago, and now he’s bound for life. We don’t know him very well at all, although what I do know I like, and he doesn’t know us very well either.
Something tells me that he’s absolutely fine with the current turn of events, but I still want to check in with him and make sure. It’s what we do in this family: we check in with each other.
Especially since some of us aren’t that great at sharing our feelings.
Neith
“Hey, sorry, I couldn’t find my phone,” I tell Kar in a breathless rush as I answer the call and make sure that the guys can hear Kar as well. I really don’t want to be repeating whatever it is that he’s called to tell us, especially since it’s likely that it’s quite complicated.
Kar chuckles, “I know. Why do you think I carried on calling for so long?” He asks, but then continues before I can answer. “I’ve found him, Pete, but you need to leave right fucking now. Can you do that?”
“How long do we have?” Ransom asks.
“Ten minutes maximum,” Kar replies.
Ransom nods, “Send me the location. We can get there in time.”
“We can?” Baz asks, his eyebrows drawn down in confusion.
Ransom just smirks as he pulls his phone out of his pocket just as it pings with a notification.
“Thanks, man,” Van says.
“I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if it moves. You need to be careful, we have no idea what you’re about to walk into, and if he knows that you’re coming, then he’s going to be on the defensive,” Kar warns us, the worry evident in his tone.
“Got it,” I reply, and Kar promptly hangs up.
“What’s the plan?” Reed asks Ransom since it’s clear that he has one.
“I’m going to call House’s portal to us, and then we should be able to use that to take us to the location,” Ransom replies quickly.
“Should?” Baz asks.
“Well, I’m not entirely sure that it will work, but it’s the only shot we’ve got. Doc can’t take us because there are too many of us to take at once, and we don’t know what we’re walking into, so going one at a time would be a really bad idea,” Ransom explains quickly.
“Got it,” Reed replies.
We all watch as Ransom calls on his magic and starts the spell to bring House’s portal to us. I’m really glad that cave hasn’t taken offense to magic being used in here, and I hope that it stays that way.
Nervous energy thrums through me, but at least I’m going to get to ask Pete the questions that I need to ask him sooner rather than later. Ironically, I kind of wish I had a bit more time to digest it before I had to speak to him about it, but oh well.
I summon Betty and Asael. He disappeared almost as soon as Griff pricked his finger, and the ancient magic came out to play.
I can’t say that I blame him.
Securing Asael on my back and holding Betty tightly. She hums in greeting, and I instantly relax.
Whatever is about to happen, I’ve got this.
We’ve got this.