Exile: Sídhí Summer Camp #3 (16 page)

Her soft laughter warmed his heart, but the
musical sound didn’t help other areas. In fact, the delighted sound
made matters much worse.

“If we can’t practice kissing, how about a
different kind of activity?” she asked, unsheathing the large
hunting knife she kept hidden on her back.

“I figured you lost that when the kraken
attacked,” he said, gingerly taking the curved knife into his hand.
Touching a fairy-enhanced synth blade, without its owner’s
permission, could have serious consequences, serious as in being
thrown across the field when the fairy charm didn’t recognize
him.

She opened her mouth and snapped it shut.
Giving him a look of frustration, she finally answered him, “I
won’t lie to you, but I can’t explain how I got Bowie back, not
yet. Okay?”

He noticed worry lines pinching the skin
between her eyes and growled. Gently kissing his way across the
smooth skin of her cheek, he nuzzled the bottom of her ear. “That’s
perfectly fine, if you’ll stop frowning.”

She chuckled. “You do love giving orders,
don’t you?”

“Hey,” he said, grinning at her, “some people
are simply born to give orders.”

She shook her head. “I think you have…”

Violence filled her eyes, and she roared her
sister’s name in fury, “Miranda!”

Jerking away from him, a sword of pure synth
crystal appeared in her hand. A nano-second later, she
disappeared.

Blood pounded through his head. Swallowing
hard, he stared at the empty space. The hair along the back of his
neck rose in warning and he shuddered. His mind skittered around
the truth, stubbornly refusing to wrap around what he had just
witnessed.

Chi’Kehra
, the word whispered through
his mind, bringing to life a red-haze of warning every vampire
possessed.

The last Chi’Kehra had left a mental scar no
vampire would ever forget. For thousands of years, stories had been
whispered around campfires about the dead elvish monarch, truthful
stories repeated to warn the newest generation of vampires.

The ancient Chi’Kehra had been insane,
believing vampires were evil. The old elf waged a stealthy war
against Nick’s race. At first, there was no sign of an army, only
horrifying disasters that, at first glance, appeared to be
natural.

The campfire stories that had bothered Nick
the most included massive sinkholes; the sinkholes would suddenly
appear, swallowing entire towns of vampires, killing men, women,
and children.

Sarah - minus the crystal sword - reappeared.
Her look of intense fury hadn’t lessened. Her fierce gaze locked
with his.

His mind splintered as thoughts, going a
million times faster than the speed of light, whirled through his
head. Keeping Bowie at his side, he surged forward, wrapping his
free arm around her.

“What happened?” he asked. Kissing the top of
her head, corn-silk hair muffled his strangled question.

She sucked in a harsh breath and a terrifying
growl rumbled from her chest. He belatedly realized she was not
trembling with worry she was shaking with pure, undiluted fury.

Chi’Kehra
! His instinct bellowed a
little louder, demanding his attention. With her in his arms, his
sixth sense was nearly impossible to ignore. His hand clenched
around the hilt of the foot long knife.

Pulling back, he looked into her blazing
eyes. “You screamed Miranda’s name. Tell me what happened to your
sister,” he ordered.

“She’s gone. I can sense her, nearly touch
her, but it’s like something is blocking me.”

Mac, the wretched phoenix, picked that moment
to appear beside them.

Nick snarled a warning at the man.

“No,” Sarah said, touching Nick’s chest, “we
don’t have time. I watched an elf kidnap Miranda. I’ve got to go
home and gather a search party.”

Mac cursed.

Nick nodded his agreement. Stepping back, he
flipped Bowie around, slipping the curved tip under the restrictive
bracelet. The synth blade would slice through the silver like
butter.

“Wait,” Sarah touched his arm.

“I’m going with you,” he said firmly, not
willing to let her out of his sight.

She shook her head gently. “I need you to
cover for me.” Turning toward the phoenix, her eyes narrowed. “I
want you to stay with Nick.”

The man’s eyes turned silver. “You are my
liege, not the boy.”

“The boy, as you call him,” she growled,
baring extended fangs, “is my mate. Protect him.”

Briefly, she turned and gently touched her
fingers to Nick’s cheek, silently begging him to understand.

Jerking his head in agreement, he choked back
a snarl. “Don’t take unnecessary chances.”

“So bossy,” she said softly. A whisper of a
smile touched her lips and she disappeared.

The two men, one nearly twenty, the other
thousands of years older, glared at each other.

Mac stomped across the small clearing.
Turning, he flared his wings wide. “Don’t get yourself killed or
she’ll blame me.” With those mocking words, he surged into the
sky.

Sarah searched non-stop for her sister. For twenty-four hours, she
mentally scanned the world over. No matter how hard she had tried,
she couldn’t find her sister, not even when she scanned for the
teeny-tiny bit of synth crystal she had embedded under sister’s
skin.

It was as if Miranda had disappeared from the
face of the Earth and all the Sídhí valleys combined. That left a
single option, a theory that made Sarah’s blood run cold.

Deep down, Sarah had known from the very
beginning what had happened. Her sister had been captured by an
enemy far worse than any dhark lord of the empire could ever be.
Sarah had known it the instant she watched an elf pull her
struggling sister through an open gateway, a gate that snapped shut
behind them.

No one, not the dragons, not even she could
create a gateway out of thin air.

She had tried to follow the power signature
of the gate, but something, or someone, had blocked her every
attempt.

All the details added up to one horrifying
fact: there was another Chi’Kehra, one with a lot more knowledge
than she had.

Sarah didn’t doubt for an instant that
Miranda’s kidnapping had been planned. The pureblood Chi’Kehra saw
Sarah as competition, an enemy that had to be removed any way
possible, even if it meant kidnapping an innocent
seventeen-year-old girl.

Knowing she was spinning her wheels, she
returned to camp a few hours after midnight. After five hours of
fitful sleep, worry for Miranda had her staring blindly toward the
lake, wishing she could do something, anything to turn the clock
backward.

Clenching the wooden railing that wrapped
around the cabin’s rear deck, a cold feeling of foreboding
slithered up her spine.

The squeaky screen door slammed shut, and
almost like magic, her black mood melted into the back of her mind,
not forgotten simply put on a backburner to simmer.

Heart fluttering, her lips curved in
anticipation.

Nick’s strong hands wrapped around her bare
arms, sliding his warm palms up the back of her arms until his
fingers caressed her shoulders. Leaning forward, he gently kissed
her exposed neck.

“Did you find her?” he asked, concern laced
his voice.

“No,” she said unhappily, leaning into the
heat of his body. “My guards and family are hunting for her.” Even
though it wouldn’t do a bit of good, she - once again - mentally
added to herself.

“What are you doing in a bikini? One, I might
add, that bares way too much of your lovely skin,” he said in a
soft growl, while his lips traced an imaginary line up the side of
her neck.

As he teased her gently, obviously trying to
lessen her noticeable worry, she felt a sense of relief. After a
full day, and two nights of sleep, he still wanted her. The strands
between them pulled tighter. Heart in her eyes, she turned in his
arms.

His fathomless black eyes stared into hers.
“Your eyes are black,” he stated needlessly.

“Yes, they are,” she wrapped her arms firmly
around him, not caring who might be watching, because she needed
his touch more than a bird needed the open sky. “I heard Beth and
Brianna talking about the beach. If we go there later in the day, I
knew I’d burn to a crisp so I decided to get a little early morning
sun.”

“The only way we’ll go is if you agree to
some heavy duty suntan lotion and a lot of time in the shade,” he
ordered.

At her raised eyebrow, he smiled arrogantly.
“We can take turns being bossy. This is my turn.”

Hugging him tight, she hid her grin of
pleasure against his neck.

“Well, then I guess I must agree with your
orders, but that means you have to help me rub the sunscreen
on.”

“Try stopping me,” he growled softly. He
searched her eyes, before touching his lips to hers gently.
Groaning, he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss until her skin
felt on fire.

Before she was ready, he raised his head.

She wanted to argue, but he dropped another
quick kiss on her swollen lips, and said, “By the way, good
morning.”

“Good morning,” she said breathlessly,
pleased to note, his breathing seemed just as erratic.

“We’ve got breakfast ready,” Katie called
from the kitchen area.

Sarah raised her eyes to his, questioning him
silently as to why Katie was cooking breakfast and not their cabin
mother.

“Ella disappeared and the dragons didn’t send
a replacement so Katie and Emily took over cooking duty. Everyone
else has been rotating through clean-up duty. Well, everyone is
helping except Clarisse and no one has seen her or Harry since we
returned from the hike.”

Eyes narrowed in thought, she turned toward
the cabin. Along, with the disappearance of Ella, their dorm
mother, Clarisse’s disappearance was one more question for Guardian
Alexander when - or if - he ever showed up. She was quickly losing
patience with the dragons.

Brushing his fingers along her jawline, Nick
claimed her attention. “Not that I’m complaining, because you are
gorgeous with black eyes, but I miss your ruby-red gaze.”

Curling her fingers around his free hand, she
smiled at him. Love and pain filled her. Love for the young man who
seemed to adore her, pain for the loss they shared.

Breakfast was a unique experience. The girls
made a huge omelet and biscuits. At least, an omelet was what they
called the egg concoction. It certainly didn’t look like any of the
pictures she’d ever seen.

“Sarah, just try it,” Katie said with a
huff.

“I’m not really very hungry. I was thinking
about a biscuit and jelly,” she answered calmly, avoiding looking
at the bowl of yellow stuff.

Katie snorted. “The omelet might look
horrible, but it tastes great. We mixed in grilled jalapeno pepper
sausage, tater tots, mushrooms, and grated Colby cheese.”

Nick bravely scooped a large spoonful onto
his plate.

“I’m sure it’s great. It looks very, um,
fluffy,” Sarah said, watching in grossed-out horror as Nick took
his first bite.

Grown Sídhí, unless they were pregnant or
poisoned, didn’t get sick but she knew there was a first time for
everything.

As Nick chewed, pleasure spread across his
face. He grabbed a biscuit and buttered it quickly. Without
pausing, he scooped a smaller amount of the omelet from the skillet
sitting in the middle of the table.

“Nick,” she said warningly, as he dumped the
spoonful on her plate. “I won’t be coerced.”

“They went to the trouble of cooking. Try it
before curling up that pert nose of yours,” he said with an
encouraging smile.

Never let it be said that she was afraid of
anything.

She aimed a look of disgruntlement at Nick
then Katie, who was still waiting for her to try the awful mixture.
Grumbling about keeping family happy, she cut a small bite and
shoved it in her mouth with all the enthusiasm of eating a dead
skrivett.

A mixture of flavors exploded across her
tongue, making her eyes widen in surprise.

Her eyes flickered from Katie’s knowing grin
to Emily, who was picking at her plate of food. “This is really
good,” Sarah said honestly, reaching for the spoon to add a bit
more to her plate. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Katie said, digging into
her own eggs.

After breakfast, Sarah helped with cleanup.
As soon as it was finished, they gathered around the table to
discuss the day’s possible activity.

“There’s always the beach,” Beth said,
casting a brief glance at Mitch.

The big halfling grunted. “I’d rather not be
blinded by a stubble-covered body.”

“Stubble? You know perfectly well that Sídhí
do not have lower body hair, and I don’t have fur when I’m in my
human form,” Beth said, snarling through her teeth. Leaning
forward, the young shifter glared at him with the promise of
violence in her eyes. “I wear shorts every day. Are you blind? Have
you seen any fur?”

Tilting his chair backward, he crossed his
arms. “I figure you’ll slip up soon enough. Then I’ll go blind when
you shove your hairy butt in my face.”

Beth slapped her palm on the table. The noise
of her rumbling growl was the only sound in the eating area.

“Okay,” Katie said hastily, obviously trying
to keep the peace, “any other ideas of what we can do today?”

No one spoke.

As long as Sarah spent her day with Nick, she
didn’t care what they did.

Beth was too busy glaring daggers at Mitch
who was gazing intently out the window. It was as if the
muscle-bound guy knew ignoring the girl was just making her
angrier.

“The lake is fine with me,” Jared said,
pitching his two cents into the discussion.

“How about checking out the jet skis?” Nick
asked, glancing at Sarah’s face.