Chapter 26
One of Blade’s favorite tasks at DART was teaching new recruits how to disarm traps. Every second Tuesday of every month, he taught a class, and without fail, he had to use his healing powers to patch people up.
Except today.
For the first time ever, the students listened and were careful. It made class boring, but Blade would take it as a good sign. Especially because, in just under three hours, the Horsemen were going to attempt to bring Harvester back and save Eva.
“Thanks for offering to help,” Logan said as Blade entered his friend’s family castle. Hidden from humans in a remote part of Greenland, the keep had housed Thanatos—and now his family—for centuries.
“Anything for Eva.” Blade helped Logan spread a sheet over the massive oak table in the castle’s dining hall. “Scotty said she and Aleka will be here in a couple of hours with the blood.”
“Are you staying for the ceremony?” Logan asked. “Is Mace coming?”
“I wish.” The three of them rarely missed important events that affected any of them.
They were a package deal. Everyone knew that.
So, he hated that Scotty had to face whatever happened without him and Mace.
“Scotty said they only want immediate family in the vicinity. Something about diluting the powerful connections or whatever.”
She’d explained it, but Blade’s understanding of magical and mystical crap was limited, and he’d zoned out the way he always did when Stryke talked about science stuff. But give Blade a murder scene, a survival scenario, or a fight, and he was in the game to win.
“Ah, yeah.” Logan dragged a dining room chair away from the table. “Dad mentioned that not even Mom will be there. Except for Raika and Idess, they’re keeping the circle limited to Reaver’s blood relatives.”
Blade studied his friend as they moved the heavy chairs aside to create more space. Logan looked like shit. Stress had dulled his eyes and pulled his mouth tight, and he probably hadn’t slept for days. Blade could only imagine how terrified he must be.
“How are you doing?” Blade asked. “How’s Eva?”
“Not good. That’s the answer to both questions.” Leaning heavily on one of the chairbacks, Logan closed his eyes. “I’m scared, man. If this doesn’t work…if I lose Eva…”
“It’ll work,” Blade assured him. “Harvester is too mean to stay dead, and Eva is too awesome to die.”
Which was funny, because he’d been skeptical about Eva at the beginning. Everyone had. Not only did she work for the enemy, but she’d also been part of an Aegis team that murdered two of their friends and led to the death of another, Logan’s best friend, Draven.
“I hope you’re right,” Logan said, his voice thick with emotion. “I can’t lose her, Blade. After everything we went through. After Draven…” He took in a shuddering breath. “She’s the woman of my dreams, and I haven’t had enough time with her.”
Blade understood in a way he wouldn’t have before that night in Alaska. No, that wasn’t true. A few months ago, they’d come close to losing Scotty to a churning ocean full of sea demons. It would have killed him.
And she wasn’t even his.
The idea of losing her—to death or another male—filled him with terror. He’d gone toe to toe with monsters ten times his size, but he couldn’t face losing Scotty.
The reality was like hitting a brick wall, sending him to the verge of hyperventilation.
Because someday, he would lose her. Not to death, hopefully, but to a male.
And even if she never hooked up with a guy, it didn’t matter.
In around seventy years, Blade would go through his second maturation stage and turn into a violent, raping monster if he didn’t take a mate before that.
So, yeah, this thing the three of them had was amazing, but it had an expiration date.
And he didn’t take loss well. When his little brother, Chaos, died, he’d fallen apart.
Had gone to a dark place for a long time.
No one noticed, because everyone had been focused on Stryke, but Blade had suffered, and only Mace had paid any attention.
Mace, with his goofy antics and upbeat sense of humor, had brought Blade back from the brink.
His work with DART had helped keep him busy, and then Scotty had joined the team.
And, just like that, the darkest days of his life had faded away.
No, he couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t lose anyone again.
“Logan?”
“Yeah?”
Blade gazed absently at the portrait over the great fireplace, an ancient painting of Thanatos.
It was slightly off-kilter, which meant that someone was messing with Regan’s OCD.
Probably Thanatos, but Logan and Amber sometimes got in on the fun.
Once, during a sleepover, Logan, Blade, Talon, and Sabre had gone on a spree, moving furniture and knickknacks slightly out of place, misaligning multiple light switches, and generally being dickheads.
Stryke had refused to participate and undid everything they’d done while they slept. He’d always been a wet blanket.
“When did you know Eva was the one?”
The tension in Logan’s expression melted away, his mouth curving into a secret smile. “After we slept together for the first time. There was just something about her. It felt right, I guess. Like it was meant to be.” He gave Blade a sheepish look. “Yeah, I’m a sap.”
Blade thought about his time with Scotty, how being inside her had felt so, so right. Like she was a part of him, and he of her.
“S’okay,” he said quietly. “I get it.”
Logan cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah? Anything you wanna tell me?”
“Nah.” Blade got back to clearing the space for the ritual. “Just curious.”
Logan gave him a speculative look, but he didn’t press. Good. Because Blade hadn’t sorted shit out in his own head, let alone well enough to talk about it.
But he knew one thing for sure: He’d come to a crossroads. He loved Scotty, and he was afraid to lose her. He was afraid to lose Mace too. And the horrible thing was, losing one or both wasn’t a matter of if. It was a matter of when.
Mace’s mouth watered at the savory scent of the white chicken chili wafting through the compound. Sabre cooked something for the entire household every Wednesday night, and no one missed dinner. Like his father, Eidolon, he was a great cook.
Usually, Scotty came, too, but she would be busy with Harvester’s reanimation. Assuming it worked.
Please let it work. Logan would be devastated if he lost Eva, and the Horsemen needed Harvester back.
“Yo, Mace.” Sabre replaced the lid on the giant pot of chili as Mace walked into the kitchen. “Will you keep an eye on this for a little while? I need to send Aleka some files that might help with the ritual.”
“You two are speaking?”
Sabre made a frustrated sound. “I’m her last resort when she needs something tested at a lab.”
“Why doesn’t she just ask Stryke?”
This time, the sound Sabre made was both amused and derisive. “She says Stryke is even more of an asshole than I am.”
She was right. But still. “What did you do? Come on. Spill already.”
Usually, Sabre just told them all to fuck off. Now, though, he paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder. “I didn’t do anything.”
That was the most he’d ever said about whatever had gone down with him and Aleka. Mace wasn’t letting this opportunity slide.
“So, what did she do?”
Angry gold flecks glittered in Sabre’s eyes. “She accused me of something and then refused to give me a chance to explain.”
“What did she accuse you of do—?”
The back door banged open, and Blade walked inside. He tossed down his bag and looked between Mace and Sabre. “Did I interrupt something?”
“Nope.” Sabre waved in both greeting and goodbye and took off for his quarters.
“Damn.” Mace lifted the lid off the pot and took a big, hungry whiff as Blade fetched a couple of beers from the fridge. Crux would be happy. He loved anything with green chilis. “I almost got him to tell me what happened with Aleka.”
“Seriously?”
Mace replaced the lid and turned to his buddy. “He said she accused him of something, but he didn’t say what.”
“Don’t know what he could have done,” Blade said as he opened the bottles and handed one to Mace. “Dude is as straitlaced as his dad.”
Mace laughed. “And he doesn’t even see it. I called him Eidolon Junior the other day, and he acted like I was an idiot.”
“You are an idiot.”
Mace tapped his beer against Blade’s bottle in salute. “Love you too, bro.” Blade smiled, but it was half-hearted. “What’s up? You seem distracted.”
Blade propped his hip against the counter and stared absently out the window for a moment before speaking. “I went with Logan to help set up for the Harvester ritual. I feel bad for him. He’s terrified he’s going to lose Eva.”
“I can’t imagine what he’s going through.” Heck, Mace didn’t even want to try to imagine it. Nope. He preferred to keep negative emotions like fear and sorrow at arm’s length.
“I can,” Blade said roughly. “I thought we were going to lose Scotty on the way to the oil rig.”
The terror Mace had suppressed since that day surfaced like one of the sea demons that had grabbed her off the boat. How easily she could have been dragged to the ocean floor and torn apart. Immortality only went so far. If they hadn’t been able to wrench her free, she’d have been gone forever.
Mace slammed his bottle down. “I don’t like to think about that.”
“It’s all I can think about lately,” Blade murmured.
The sound of simmering chili filled the room, alongside a sudden, oppressive mood.
Mace was afraid to ask. But he had to.
“What’s really going on, Blade?”
Blade lifted his gaze to Mace’s, his dark eyes troubled. “I want her, Mace.”
It was as if an infection had been lanced, releasing the poison. Months—if not years—of lying to themselves had come to an end. In a way, it was a relief. Everything was out in the open now. Or, it would be, once Mace confessed as well.
“I know,” he said. “So do I.”
“Fuck.” Blade sank down onto a barstool, his hands in his hair as if he wanted to tear it out.
“She’s all I can think about. I can’t be with anyone else…
not even Masumi. I’ve been shooting myself up with so much suppressant that my balls are going to fall off or some shit.
” He barked out a bitter laugh. “I used to think Stryke was a fool for using suppressants until he almost died. Now, I’m standing at the edge of that same hellmouth. ”
Mace got it. He so got it. “I’ve been doing the same,” he admitted.
But he’d only needed one injection since being with Scotty.
Blade was a week in, a point where the injections would be barely effective.
He had to be strung out. And now that Mace was paying attention, yeah, Blade’s hands were shaking. “Scotty is the only female I want.”
“We can’t continue like this.” Blade looked up. “It’ll kill us both.”
He was right. The injections would, eventually, kill them. But so would having sex with another female who wasn’t Scotty…just in a different way. “So, what do we do?”
Blade blew out a long, ragged breath. “She has to make a choice. She’s got to choose one of us, so the other can move on.”
Mace stared at his friend—his friend who had lost his mind. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah.”
The lid on the pot of chili began to rattle, but Mace ignored it, unable to comprehend Blade’s line of thought. “Are you saying you’d be okay with her choosing me? Like, totally cool? No problem?”
Blade white-knuckled his beer. “Obviously, I want her to choose me,” he said, his voice and fingers relaxing in slow increments as he spoke. “But, Mace, I’d rather she be with you than some rando. At least my two best friends would be happy, and I could stop obsessing.”
It made sense, but Mace was still having a hard time processing it. “I think it’s better if we’re all on the same team, still friends, and everything is back the way it was.”
“You know that’s not possible,” Blade said quietly. And yeah, Mace did know that. But sometimes, he was really good at glossing over the bad stuff and burying his head in the sand.
“You’re just like Dad.”
Talon had said that to Mace more times than he could count, often when Mace did exactly what he was doing now: burying his head in the sand. So sure, good old Talon had a point sometimes, but Mace also excelled at ignoring his brother.
Woodenly, Mace went to the stove. “So, what do we say to Scotty?”
“We tell her what we just talked about.”
Mace tasted the chili, not because he was hungry but because he needed a distraction. “You don’t think we’ll be blindsiding her?”
“She’s smarter than both of us combined. She knows we need to do something.”
No doubt Blade was right. And the chili needed more salt. “Let’s do it, then. Let her know we need to see her.”
And then, gods help them all.