Astonishing.
Unbelievable.
Spectacular.
But, no, it didn’t turn me on, the sensation diminishing as he withdrew his finger.
I cleared my throat hard, glancing to him. “That’s cool, but no go.”
Blue eyebrows slammed together, his brown eyes swinging to Ezra.
Ezra sighed. “I’ve known people who were mated before, and I agree with her.”
“Humor me.” Jack was glaring, but his fingers were tapping on his leg.
Ezra chuckled, and his nostrils flared. Inhaling deeply, he held the breath in, testing the air, scenting for emotions. He shook his head, exhaling. “Surprised, yes, but not stimulated.”
Jack cursed, turning on the bench seat to face the front. “God, I pray my mate’s not a spirit.” The mysterious, white-haired spirit Elementals were the rarest breed of Elementals, to the point that I hadn’t even seen one in my life.
Flexing my fingers on the steering wheel, I sucked in an immense breath of the night air rushing in through the open window as the remnants of Jack’s magic dissipated from the cab. As I watched the trees go by, I wondered if Dominic had been as troubled as Jack before mating me. He didn’t act it now — not at all — but in the few short months we had been together I had never asked him that question, never even pondered the thought before now.
Unexpectedly, an impression interrupted my musings.
My eyebrows furrowed as I felt…extreme worry.
Not my own emotion, either.
Jack murmured, “Ezra, maybe you…” He was still chatting, but I didn’t listen.
Dominic? I asked privately, speculating that the little experiment had gone through to him. He probably wouldn’t be thrilled about it, but he wouldn’t be too upset, either, his emotion not entirely reasonable. Plus, he had never done that whole finger-touch-thing to me before and I was planning to ask him to. I would have to tell him how I knew in the first place. But, right now, I had to figure out what was wrong with him. What’s going on?
He didn’t respond, and I started slowing the truck. “Dominic?” I asked both mentally and physically, and Jack glanced in my direction while Ezra stiffened next to me. “Dominic?” I could feel even more worry rushing from him. I shouted mentally and physically, “ANSWER ME!”
I jerked on the brakes when his reply came.
Under attack, he responded quickly. Call the Kings.
Sucking in a harsh breath, I asked both aloud and privately, “Who’s attacking?”
Both men in my cab froze.
No reply.
I screamed as slicing agony hammered through my skull.
Love you, Dominic whispered into the pain.
Deafening silence.
Hands on my head, I sucked air as the pressure inside my skull died suddenly, but a new one began in my chest. My eyes burned, wetting instantly, my hands grabbing my shirt, my chest. “Dominic!” I screamed aloud and privately, true panic, fear, and pain consuming me, my entire body trembling. “Dominic!”
Jack and Ezra were already on their cell phones talking to the Kings, understanding the gist of my one-way conversation, even as I sucked in another breath before yelling in dread. Pure emptiness poured into my soul. I was on the brink of passing out from it but, just as suddenly as the emptiness had filled me, I bowed against the seatbelt, screaming as a rush of magic hit me.
Ezra grabbed me with his massive arm, dropping his cell to jerk the truck into park.
I could barely feel his hands while I was seared.
Cooked alive from an influx of power.
I convulsed.
Shrieked.
Chapter Four
My face soaked with searing tears, Jack and Ezra shouted at me, holding me on their laps in the cab of my truck after they had wrangled our seatbelts off. Powered magic scalded through my chest. I could scarcely keep my eyes open. I couldn’t speak and was barely able to breathe as I continued shivering, crying out through clenched teeth. Only instinct had me keeping my lips over my teeth, my bitty fangs extended.
Trying to keep me contained, Jack fumbled with his cell, yelling into the receiver, “I don’t know what’s wrong with her!”
“Headlights behind us,” Ezra rumbled over my sobs, lifting me against his chest in a bone-cracking hold, his heartbeat accelerated against my cheek.
Vaguely, I heard tires screeching, a car stopping next to us and, only a beat later, Pearl’s concerned voice through the open window. “Is everything alright?”
“No!” Jack bellowed, his voice stressed in bewilderment as I jerked against them, another whimper fleeing past my pinched lips. “We think Dominic was attacked, and something’s wrong with Lily!”
“Oh my God!” Pearl cried. A car door slamming. Heels swiftly clicking on blacktop.
“Wait!” Ezra hollered, his body predatory still against me. “Pearl, get back in your car!”
A gunshot echoed through the night, vibrating, heavy with implication. I knew the unmistakable, forbidding sound now after taking my weapons classes. Too bad I was in too much damn agony to feel any of the shocked anxiety weighing severely in the cab. I would gladly take that over this torture.
Pearl screamed instantaneously, profoundly suffering, echoing my own heaving cries.
“Fuck,” Ezra rumbled harshly, slipping farther down on the seat, taking me with him as at least five more rounds fired sharply, my truck wobbling to the right, then the left, jerking hard. Almost instantly, more shots erupted, sounding like they hit Pearl’s car. “They took our tires.” Ezra yanked me against him completely, lifting my legs off Jack and ordering him, “Get Pearl. She took a hit to the shoulder.”
I could still hear her crying outside my truck somewhere. Blinking my eyes open, I saw Jack’s eyes glow brown; my eyes stuck on his frightening expression. Power began swirling inside the cab, lifting my hair and taking from me the little bit of breath I could get. He threw the door open, jumping outside and, suddenly, a wall of blue water surrounded him in a tight circle from head to toe. The water moved like a waterfall, but in reverse, a constant rage of liquid rushing upward on the outside and possibly traveling downward on the inside, rotating, but I couldn’t see inside to tell; Jack was completely unseen inside the protection.
“Christ,” Ezra muttered, yanking the door closed as the circular wall of water raced around the front of my truck, a radiant, shiny aqua in my headlights. More shots fired, the noise louder than before, and Ezra smashed me on the seat, covering my body with his. He grabbed for his cell on the floor, and we both heard Pearl cry out in pain, hopefully just from Jack aiding her.