Chapter 25 – Tristan
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tristan
“That’s gunshots,” Owen said unnecessarily.
Everyone on the damn cobblestone street leading from the entrance heard gunfire coming from the nearby tunnel, which probably led to a cave.
“Kali and Zora are coming under attack, so that could be them,” I said as we approached the entrance of the cave, which looked like a long tunnel.
“McGregor!” a giant of a man boomed at us from across the street.
The guy was built like a tank, at least four inches taller than Owen, who was taller than all of us, and twice Owen’s size in width. He was flanked by about eight other men who were almost the same size. From their size and scent, it was apparent that they were wolves.
“I sent you a challenge, motherfucker!” the large wolf roared. “I demand satisfaction right here, right now!”
“Lowinski,” Owen drawled, “I have a few tiny pimples on my ass, and I don’t pay attention to them either.”
“You will fight me, or I will kill your little friends.” Lowinski’s voice shook with rage, and his crazed gaze was glassy with the effort to speak those few coherent words.
“Tell ya what, Lowinski. Come help us with the infestation in the tunnel over there, and I will give you that challenge above surface in front of my Pack in two days.”
Lowinski frowned. “That’s the Volkan gang’s dwelling.” He looked at us as if he was wondering about our sanity. “There are at least two hundred of them in there, armed and vicious as fuck. And they have hiding places in that damn cave that would not be found unless they wanted them to.”
Kali’s frantic plea reached out to me again. I didn’t wait around to find out if Owen convinced the dimwitted giant to come with us. Instead, I ran into the entrance of the cave. Unsurprisingly, the guys followed. We knew to be ready for anything.
“That one is our prisoner.” A deep male voice reached us as we moved stealthily deeper into the cave. “We don’t care what you do with the rest of them.”
“The first bastard who comes near us won’t live long enough to enjoy the experience,” Kali promised in a steely voice.
There was a chorus of masculine laughter.
“You can’t hope to take us on,” another male said condescendingly.
There was one gunshot, which was quickly followed by several stunned gasps.
“Like I said, if any of you even think of coming near us, I will put a bullet in your head,” Kali said in chilling cool.
We finally arrived in the open chamber of the cave. I struggled with the image before me. Standing against a far wall, Kali and Zora appeared to be trying to protect two women and a large male, who was slumped against the same wall with several visible bullet wounds to his stomach and his leg, while his shirt and pants were saturated with blood. Despite being compromised by the gunshot wounds, the guy looked unfazed and held a gun himself in an apparent attempt to help defend them. Kali was completely out-gunned and had no hope of defeating the fifty-odd men in front of her, but she glared defiantly back at them and maintained her protective stance over her charges.
Rage and fear, unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, exploded in me. I was blinded by it, and I could barely breathe with the clogging emotions coursing through me.
“Darius, how did you guys fuck up this badly?” I gritted out. My Italian accent was thick, and I could barely get the English words past my lips.
“Sir? Why…” Darius swallowed hard, fear permeated through every line in his body as he took in me, my brothers, Owen, and Aidan. “Why are you here?”
I knew these assholes from my more than year-long sabbatical down here. I had quite a few run-ins with this gang. And they knew better than to fuck with me. I could be very creative in killing with my bare hands.
“You have fucking guns pointed at my mate and my niece, and you’re asking why I’m here?”
“Sir, we didn’t know that they were yours.” Darius’ voice trembled at the sight of my gun pointed at him.
“ My fucking mate, Darius,” I growled, “and my fucking niece!”
Darius clumsily put his gun away and started backing away, while waving at his men to do the same. One or two were slow to lower their guns. I saw red and shot them in the head with cool precision. Everyone backed the fuck up real fast after that.
I looked at the two men with light brown hair, who were clearly not part of the gang, staring at me as if they were about to pee their pants. “Are these the dumbshits that brought you down here?” I asked Kali.
“Yup,” Kali said cheerfully. “They saved us the hassle of hunting them down later.”
“How obliging of them.” Before I could execute them, too, Owen beat me to the punch.
“I hate dumb and greedy wolves,” he griped.
“So why is Lowinski still alive?” Xander snarked.
“He and those idiots out there are my German cousins,” Owen admitted reluctantly.
“Papa!” Zora launched herself toward Luka, suddenly looking as young as she was.
“You are grounded for the next fucking ten years,” Luka choked out.
I wasn’t surprised at my brother’s emotional reunion with his daughter. He loved his family to distraction. They all did. And now that I had Kali, I completely understood their compulsion.
Kali and I closed the distance between us almost at the same time. She evaded my touch as I reached for her, however.
“I stink,” she whispered tearfully.
I ignored her attempts to keep me away, wrapped my arms around her waist, and yanked her to me.
Kali hissed in pain.
It was only then that I noticed her left arm soaked with blood and held limply at her side. “What the fuck?”
“I killed the idiot that shot me, remember?” she mumbled, already grasping that I was ready to go ape-shit crazy to find the bastard who hurt her and make him pay. “Just get me to the surface. I will heal.”
I held her gaze for a few seconds before I swung her into my arms, high against my chest as I marched toward the exit.
I opened my telepathic communication to include my brothers, the wolves, Kali, and Zora.
Me: “Kali is hurt. I need to get her to the surface.”
Luka: “Xander, get Zora’s professor friend up. He will need to be healed.”
Owen: “Aidan and I should take the girls directly to their dorms and wipe their memories.”
Luka: “That will be best.”
Zora: “They shouldn’t remember what happened here.”
Xander: “Were they hurt?”
Zora: “Our attackers tried to rape them, but Dr. McKenna stopped them, and they shot him for his efforts. Aunt Kali came in then and killed them.”
Me: “Let’s get out of here.”
I left with Kali in my arms. Luka held Zora. Owen and Aidan picked up each of Zora’s female friends, while Xander and Drako carried out Zora’s professor between them. The professor was huge, and his injuries looked possibly fatal if he’s not taken to a hospital or get a healing hand soon. Yeah, with Xander carrying him, he would be healed as soon as we exited the elevator to the Chamber, and he wouldn’t know how. Hopefully, he would think that exiting the Chamber did that. Or maybe not. The intelligence radiating from the professor’s intense blue gaze warned me that the guy wasn’t going to be so easily fooled.
Sure enough, as soon as we exited the elevator, the professor stood away from Xander and Drako, giving them a penetrating stare before swinging his gaze to Zora. And then, when Owen and Aidan teleported the women out of there, the professor didn’t even bat an eyebrow.
Instead, he said coolly, while looking at Zora steadily, “There is much you have not disclosed about your family.”
Me: “Xander, did you heal him that fast, or is this guy an immortal as well?”
Xander: “I didn’t have a chance to heal him or wipe his memory yet, but it appears that as soon as he exited the elevator, he was instantly healed.”
Zora: “Is he an immortal?”
Luka: “You mean, you don’t know?!
Luka’s yell made all of us wince.
Zora: “He is my professor. I didn’t sense any immortal abilities in him.”
Drako: “You are correct. He has no immortal scent or markers, but it appears that he has abilities, nonetheless. I can feel the power radiating from him.”
“You can all speak out loud because I can sense the telepathic communications going on around me,” the professor drawled.
“What are you?” Drako asked.
“A mortal, but I’m sensing that you’re not.” The professor appeared relaxed but had the intense scrutiny of a scientist.
“This is not a conversation we need to have here.” I was impatient to get Kali home. Now that we were out of the Chamber, I could feel the pain that she was in more acutely. She might be fast healing, but she wasn’t healing fast enough to avoid the pain from her gunshot wound.
“Will you let me heal you?” Xander asked Kali.
“No, I’m already feeling better,” Kali dismissed. “I just want to get home and take a shower.”
“Go, we will take the professor back to our place and have a chat,” Luka offered, appearing significantly calmer than he had been a moment ago. “He’s not an immortal; he’s a science project.”
Luka: “We will decide whether to wipe his mind after our chat.”
Xander: “Sounds like there is a lot we need to learn about him.”
“How do you know what I am or am not?” the professor asked curiously.
Luka shrugged. “I read your mind.” And then he laughed at the professor’s stunned look.
“Can you really?” The professor was back to being a fascinated scientist.
I didn’t wait around to hear the rest of their conversation. I teleported Kali to my house, more specifically, my bedroom on my island off of Rome, Soulless Island.
I sat her on my bed and immediately dropped to my knees to unlace her work boots.
“No, Tristan.” Kali stood from the bed and tried to edge away from me. “My clothes are a mess, and I stink. Just point me to the bathroom. I will clean up myself.”
Through our link I could feel her embarrassment and genuine reluctance to even be seen by me when she was so unkempt. I got to my feet and pulled her against me. “I don’t think you understand , amata mia .” My voice sounded hoarse even to my own ears. Emotions clogged my throat. “I can’t let you out of my sight right now. For twelve hours, I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t know if you were hurt or not. Fuck, I didn’t know if you were alive or dead. Don’t ask me to leave you or not touch you.” My voice trembled with emotion. I ruthlessly blinked away the blood tears. “I can’t...I can’t do it. Don’t ask it of me.”
“But I smell, Tristan. I just need to take a shower, and then I’ll be all yours.”
I swung her into my arms wordlessly and strode toward my ensuite bathroom.