Jack stumbled, his direction right at us. Ezra and I each grabbed one of his hands, keeping him steadily tucked between the three of us. I didn’t understand the situation right then, but I knew it was deathly important to him, so I kept his hand in mine, holding it just as tightly as he did mine. His eyes were trained on the crowd, his lips thin as he watched the guards moving through the masses.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Pearl behind him.
With her steadying hands on Jack’s back and her jaw clenched, Pearl didn’t respond, also watching the crowd intently over my head.
It was like a jolt went through Jack as the guards stormed back through the entrance, carrying a fire Elemental, who looked barely coherent. Jack’s harsh inhale was audible and he dropped our hands, racing to them.
Again, I asked, “What’s going on?” I was so damn confused.
“Watch,” Pearl murmured quietly, pointing to them.
Jack reached the woman, and lifted his hand. His palm was glowing blue. The woman jolted in the guard’s arms, and raised one of her own hands, which was glowing red. Like magnets, their palms slammed together. A shower of blue and red sparkles burst from their connected hands, covering them in a circle.
“Oh, shit,” I mumbled stupidly, realizing what this was. “He’s found his mate.”
Jack spoke to his mate softly where he had carried her to our limo.
She sat inside it now, her brown eyes as big as saucers, regarding him in shock and wonder as he knelt outside the limo. She was twenty-one years old, had deep ebony skin, neon red ringlet hair, was just under six feet tall, and was all kinds of curvy. Her name was Nikki Williams, from the Washington, DC area, here to kick some Com ass. I could smell alcohol on her, which probably explained the ignorant act of throwing a fireball at the President’s tree. That was all I had gotten from her since she talked so softly…but, a mile a minute.
“Well,” I whispered where the three of us had stood back to give them some privacy. “Guess the Elementals of the world are out of luck.”
Ezra nodded, then cocked his head. “I’ve never actually seen an Elemental find their mate before. That was pretty remarkable.”
I nodded. “First time here, too.”
Pearl offered, “I saw it once before. Same thing happened when their magic touched. They actually fainted for, like, ten minutes, and then there were the sparkles of yellow and green.” She glanced to the news crews outside the gates. “Jack’s story is probably already being aired.”
Nikki smiled shyly at Jack when he said something.
I almost choked. God, the girl had a lot to learn to keep up with him.
Timid, he wasn’t, which he proved by kissing her right in front of everyone, and I did chuckle when he moved back, since she swayed like she was going to faint all over again.
“Oh, poor girl,” Pearl muttered.
Ezra grunted in agreement.
I continued snickering.
Jack kept rubbing his palm and pattering his feet, antsy as he glanced back toward the doors where he had left Nikki.
Squeezing his shoulder, I whispered, “Pull yourself together. This won’t take that long.”
The man had gone from petrified of finding his mate to protective of his mate in the blink of a shower of blue and red sparkles. King Fergus had ended up damn near dragging him away from the limo. Jack had only gone peacefully when at least five guards had been left with her. While she was locked inside an armored limo.
“It’s weird,” he mumbled, rubbing his palm. He glanced at me. “She’s pretty, huh?”
“Very. You’re a lucky man,” I stated honestly.
Ezra finished speaking with King Venclaire, turning to face us as we waited in the receptionist’s area outside the Oval Office, and stated bluntly, “Let’s see it.”
Pearl bounced on the balls of her feet. “Yes. Show us.”
Jack’s lips inched into a huge grin, and he unclenched his fist, palm toward the ceiling.
We tilted our heads over his hand. There was what looked like a tattooed red flame. It was faint, so you had to look closely, but it was there.
I squeezed his shoulder once more, this time in congratulations, but a thought occurred. My gaze turned to Pearl. “I’ve never seen your mark.” Mages also got tattooed mate marks, not bite marks like Shifters and Vampires.
Lifting her head from staring at Jack’s palm, Pearl blinked. “Oh.” Her cheeks pinked, but she covertly unbuttoned a tiny portion of her shirt near her belly button. She parted the material. Around her belly-button was a pale spiraling circle of gold. It reminded me of the mazes from the newspapers that I used to solve as a kid.
We bent, staring.
Ezra grinned, peering up at her. “What exactly were you two doing when your magics touched?” Mages also had to be skin-to-skin for the mark to form.
Her flush deepened, quickly buttoning her shirt. “Uh…”
Straightening, the three of us began to chuckle. Well, well. We now knew Pearl and Gideon did, in fact, have their kinks in the bedroom.
We were sitting along the wall of the Oval Office, and I couldn’t even be properly awed because Jack’s leg kept bouncing and his body kept jerking next to me.
I glanced around him to Ezra, who sat on the other side of him, and our eyes met.
His widened, clearly meaning: I have no flipping clue.
Sighing, and, even though it was rude as the President and a few Senators spoke with the Kings in the center of the room, I whispered against Jack’s ear, “You need to quit fidgeting.”
Jack jerked again and, to no one in particular, he mumbled, “Our gift is telepathy. I don’t know how to stop it. She’s nervous and scared,” he smirked, “and she thinks I’m hot.”
I was pretty sure two of the Kings heard his rant, and I whispered even quieter, “Concentrate on building a wall around your thoughts. For me, it was trees, but for you, try imagining a wall of water. A wall as tall as the sky is high, all around your mind. Explain this to her through your gift. It’ll probably be a wall of fire for her. You’ll still be able to hear her if she wants you to, and vice versa. You need to pay attention in here, and her distracting you isn’t helping.” It was harsh, but the truth.
He nodded slowly, and went still. He must have been communicating with her at first, because after a minute, he gazed blindly at the floor, somewhere far off in his own mind. He started panting quietly — it wasn’t easy to do at first — and maybe ten minutes later his large body relaxed against his chair. He wiped his brow, grinning at me sheepishly, and whispered, “Thanks.”