Chapter Seventeen - word count 2785 - Download PDF
17.
      Sorcha stood on the porch of the house, staring out at the mounting tops, and mentally planning her actions in the upcoming battle.  She had to remember what Netta said and use her Psy abilities to her best advantage.  There were several things she could do, the question was, would she remember them in the heat of battle while she was watching Kyle fight, because every time he went into the fray, Sorcha’s heart started palpitating.  
      She could watch anyone else fight and admire them for their skill and grace, but watching Kyle fight just frightened her.  Which made no sense, it wasn’t as if he could die again.  Okay, this was so not a train of thought she wanted to explore, it was going in a very bad direction, so back to thinking about possible battle tactics.  
      “Sorcha, I’m glad I found you here.”  Slade's dark voice made her jump, he reached out a large warm hand to steady her and smiled an apology.  
      “Would you like to sit?”  Slade motioned to the swing seat on the porch.  
      Sorcha nodded with a smile and went to sit on the swing, Slade sat down next to her then sighed, trying to decide where to start.  
      “I know you are an Omega.”  He pointed at her right wrist.  “But I don’t want you in this battle.”  He blurted out.  
      “What?”  Sorcha gasped indignantly.  
      “Wait before you rip me a new one.  Let me explain.” Slade held up a hand.  
      He better damn well explain, Sorcha didn’t let Kyle tell her what to do, and he was her frigging testosterone pumping shadow, Slade was going to get hurt if he tried to pull a cave man on her.  
      “You are a Walker, and from what Dar just told me the enemy is trying to get its hands on you.  You have to understand that Hendrik is poison he will do his best to take you and hand you over to them if the thinks he can benefit from it.  Even if he doesn’t know that they want you, his campaign to take over the pride would be significantly enhanced by your power, and don’t doubt for a minute that he’ll recognize what you are Sorcha.   So I want you to stay here with Gemma please.  Just for this one battle, and I’ll ask you to do it as a special favor to this pride.”   
      What could she say to that, it would be bitchy in the extreme and selfish on top of that to ignore his logic and deny his request.
      “Fine, I’ll stay with Gemma, I’m not going to say I like the idea, but I’ll stay.”  
      “Thank you Sorcha, you have the prides gratitude.”  He got up from the swing and turned to leave.
      “Slade.”  
      He turned to look at her.  
      “Just keep an eye on Kyle for me please.”  Sorcha wanted to snatch the words back as soon as they left her mouth, what on earth had possessed her to utter them in the first place!
      He smiled and nodded. “I’ll do that, but I don’t think he needs it.”  
      He walked back into the house, passing Gemma as she came out.  
      “Okay so I was eavesdropping.” Gemma remarked unrepentantly as she sat down on the swing next to Sorcha.  “I have great distraction for you while the others are out.  I know of this very secluded, very clear mountain pool with a little waterfall.  It will be cold but I’m sure a little cold wont kill us.”
      That sounded heavenly, even though it was winter, the idea of a crystal clear mountain pool made Sorcha smile and reminded her of her illegal meanderings in the mountains of Haven.  
      “I didn’t bring anything to swim in.”  Sorcha thought out loud disappointed that she couldn’t enjoy the mountain pool.
      “Sorcha, I’m Lycos, well part of me is.” Gemma grinned. “We Lycos aren’t all that bothered with clothes and modesty, but I promise not to look if you’re shy.”  Gemma made the last a conspiratorial whisper, which set Sorcha off laughing.  
      “Fine, lets wait for them to go then go find this mountain pool of yours.”  Sorcha grinned.  
      As if on queue the men stepped out of the house.  Their mood quiet because they were preparing for battle.
      Dirk pulled up to the front porch in a Jeep kicking up a cloud of dust as he spun the tires.  
      “Dirk quit being a show off!” Gemma yelled at him, he just grinned through the windshield and revved the engine.  
      Sorcha got up and moved over to Kyle.  “Are you going to be close enough to stay corporeal?”  
      “Don’t know.”  He shrugged.  “but I can fight without being solid so it’s not a big deal.”  He wouldn’t tell Sorcha, but Kyle was ecstatic that Slade had convinced her to stay, he worried too much when she was in the middle of a fight, it was distracting as hell.  
      Slade had told him there were always lions keeping a guard on Gemma from the distance, so he knew Sorcha would be safe here with Darius’s sister.  
      “Why?”  He grinned at her suddenly realizing she sounded concerned.  “Are you worried about me?  Would you miss me if I didn’t come back?”  
      Sorcha felt like hitting him, did he have to be so flip about it?  She was not going to admit anything after that comment.
      “No why would I worry, and if you don’t come back I wont have anyone haunting me.”  She smiled sweetly and turned to sit down on the swing again.  
      “Liar.”  He growled softly as he returned her smile.
      “I am not!” Sorcha sounded indignant.  Kyle winked at her and turned back to the other men.  
      “We ready to roll?”  Ross asked, doing his best to stop his eyes wandering to Gemma.  She wasn’t returning the curtsy, he could feel her eyes burning his skin.  He wanted to get out of there pronto.  
      “Yes, lets go.”  Slade said as he moved down the porch steps and swung into the passenger seat of the jeep.  
      “Be careful!”  Gemma yelled after them as Dirk pulled off leaving a cloud of dust behind them.  
      “Give me a second I’m going to fetch some towels then we can go to the pool.”  Gemma didn’t wait for a response before running into the house.  
      
      They drove steadily uphill on a dirt road for a half an hour, until they reached a point where it was impossible to drive any further.  Dirk stopped the Jeep and killed the engine.  
      “From here we’re on foot.” Slade slid out the passenger seat.  “It’s not too far at least, just over that ridge.  Expect an attack, and expect it to be sudden, they’ve been watching us for the last fifteen minutes at least.”  
      Darius nodded and followed his cousins as they moved up the ridge, Kyle and Ross right behind.  
      It took them another twenty minutes to get over the ridge, what they saw when they got to the top made Kyle wish Sorcha had been with, the entire valley floor was covered with wild flowers, mostly little dirty pink ones with four petals, but there was a scattering of other colors.  Kyle was sure this image would have taken Sorcha’s breath away.
      “That is Kissanthiem, the little pink flower, but we need the root.  That’s the part that is used in potions.”  Slade explained.  
      “Lets get too it then.”  Darius spoke and moved forward.  “How much do we need?”  
      “Get the roots of one plant, we don’t want Murdock having any of this stuff in stock.”  Ross warned, as he scanned the surrounding area waiting for the attack he could feel was coming.  
      The valley reverberated with a deafening roar.  The Lycos instinctively covered their ears to protect their sensitive hearing.  The area erupted with hyenas and lions.  
      “Gah, I hate werehyenas.”  Kyle shuddered and he dropped into a fighting crouch.  
      “They want to mess with a leopard, lets show them what we can do.”  Ross loaded claws then stretched his mouth extending his canines to a pair of wicked looking fangs.  “Now its on.” He lisped around them, Ross was planning on taking out some serious frustration on the attackers.  
      Dirk howled with laughter.  “I like the way you guys think.”  And flowed into his lion form.  
      The rogue lycos attacked viciously, but in the end it wasn’t much of  fight.  Darius scanned the lions for Hendrik and spotted the distinctive black maned lion, he moved with supernatural speed attacking and ripping claws into the lycos’s animal form.  The lion had no chance, Darius made quick work of him then stood over the dying lycos.
      “You will never try and take what is not yours to take again Hendrik.  I am alpha I am Omega and you are dead!”  He spat on the Lycos and walked off.  
      The rest of the hyenas and lions fled when their leader fell.  
      “Damn it Dar, you made them run away!”  Kyle bitched.  “I was just starting to have fun.”  
      “Just get the damn roots so we can get back to the house.” Darius ordered as he started back to the jeep.
      “Bossy much?”  Kyle yelled after him, but bent to extract the roots from an area clear of blood.  He was also anxious to get back to the house.  He had an urge to make sure that Sorcha was okay.  
      
      Sorcha broke the surface of the water and drew in a deep breath.  
      “This is simply heavenly, thank you for bringing me here Gemma.”  
      “Don’t mention it, I had an ulterior motive.”  The other woman smiled from the waterfall she’d just been swimming under.  
      “Oh and what could that be?”  Sorcha asked rising an eyebrow.
      “I wanted to quiz you about Ross.”  Gemma admitted with no guilt.  
      “I think I’m going to disappoint you.”  Sorcha admitted with a laugh. “I barely know Ross.  Why are you so interested?  I mean despite the obvious that he is a handsome man.”  
      Gemma snorted then laughed when she nearly chocked.  “Handsome is not the adjective I’d use to describe Ross.”  
      “I’m almost scared to ask.”  Sorcha raised an eyebrow.
      Gemma grinned “Devine, sexy, hot, yummy, oh-my-god-he-makes-my-knees-week but the biggest word I’d like to use when I describe Ross would be - mine!”  
      Sorcha laughed.  “Good luck with that, because you’re going to have to get past your brother first.”  
      “Don’t think that will be a problem.”  Gemma grinned.  “What about you and Kyle.”  
      Sorcha’s eyes widened.  “What about Kyle?”
      “Nooo, I asked what about you and Kyle.  How long have you been a couple.”  
      “We aren’t a couple, and we never will be.  Kyle is a ghost.”  Sorcha chocked out, nearly loosing her rhythm treading water.  
      “He looks real enough to me, what’s the problem?”
      “It’s… complicated.”  Sorcha hedged.  
      Gemma smiled understanding, Sorcha didn’t want to admit that she had a thing for Kyle.  Not everyone realized what they wanted like Gemma did, she’d been accused of willfulness since childhood, but when something or someone was worth having why sit back and wait?  Gemma decided to let Sorcha off the hook… for now.  
      “I’ve had enough cold water.”  She swam to the edge of the water and climbed out onto some rocks grabbing a towel she dried off unselfconsciously and dressed again.  “Are you coming?”
      Sorcha almost said yes, but she was enjoying the water too much to get out, even if she was a little cold.  “I’ll stay a little longer.  I can teleport back to the house when I’m ready.”   
      “Okay, I’ll see you back at the house then.” Gemma waved goodbye and left.
      Sorcha smiled contently, happy for the little bit of solitude and floated on her back enjoying the water.  
      
      “Where the fuck is she?”  Kyle roared.  He’d been through the house three times and Sorcha was nowhere to be found.  
      “Relax Kyle I’m sure she’s off with Gemma somewhere.” Darius tried to calm the irate Lycos down.  
      “Damn Kyle, use your head and go to her, didn’t you say you could follow her to Haven without her help.”  Ross remarked from his seat on the steps of the porch.  
      Kyle pulled a face then rolled his eyes at his own stupidity, and felt for her essence, going to her the minute he sensed it.  He was terrified she’d been taken and was being hurt or held captive.  
      What he found when he materialized nearly brought him to his knees.  
      He was standing at the edge of a mountain pool, it was a beautiful place secluded with a small waterfall and lots of trees.  He took all of this in absently not really paying attention because his full focus was on Sorcha as she climbed out of the water gloriously naked.  She picked up a large towel and shook it out so she could dry her skin.    
      He must have made some sound, maybe he groaned he wasn’t sure, because she spun around and promptly let out a shriek.  
      “Kyle for god sake, start wearing a bell or something!”  
      The smile that curved his lips was pure sensuality.  
      “Now why would I do that when appearing quietly gets me a view like this?”  
      Sorcha gasped when she realized she wasn’t wearing anything.
      “Turn around!”  She demanded, when Kyle carried on staring and didn’t turn she repeated herself “I asked you to turn around.”  Sorcha was trying to get the towel around her and hide what needed hiding at the same time.  
      “I’m trying to Sorcha, but you being naked is distracting me.”  
      Sorcha wanted to scream at him, now was not the time for his warped sense of humor
      “I’m going to hurt you if you don’t turn around now Kyle.”  
      He stalked towards her instead, he had to get near her, he had to touch her, because right now he was so hard that it hurt to walk.
      She held out a warning hand clutching the towel to her with the other.  If Kyle got near her there was no way she’d be able to deny him any more.  The look in his eyes already had heat pooling in her stomach, and lower, oh god, so much lower.  She needed to warn him off before he got near enough to touch her.
      “Kyle you aren’t touching me your covered in blood.”  
      Kyle looked down at his blood-splattered shirt and simply made it disappear, he considered loosing the pants as well, but he didn’t want to completely freak her out.  There would be time to get rid of that later, but right now he was going to take Sorcha into his arms and make love to her.  
      Oh god, he wasn’t going to stop.  That’s as far as Sorcha got with her though before Kyle was there and pulling her roughly into his arms.  He slid his hand into her hair to hold her head close, slipping his free hand along her ribs he shivered at the coolness of her skin.  Then dipped his head and started kissing her.  
      Sorcha was lost.  No other kiss they had shared compared to the passion and heat in this one touch of his lips to hers.  She didn’t want to fight him any more, she knew she wouldn’t be able to.  
      Damn it woman, remember you don’t want to loose your virginity to a ghost.  
      The voice of reason in her head reminded her.  
      She was going to fight him, she had to try.  Sorcha started to push Kyle away.  
      He broke the kiss and murmured the words that she knew sealed her fate.
      “God Sorcha, I need you.” His voice hoarse with passion and his eyes glowing with it.  
      There was no way she wanted him to stop, he needed her, and she needed that.  Sorcha groaned and offered her lips up to Kyle.
      He dipped his head again capturing her lips in a kiss that made her week.  Sliding his hand up her ribs he hooked his thumb under the weight of her breasts and slid his fingers around to cover it, stroking his thumb up the underside of here breast and across her taunt nipple.  He heard Sorcha gasp at the sensation and realized that it was the first time she’d ever been touched like that.  
      The thought was like a bucket of cold water.  Kyle let go of Sorcha and stepped back so quickly he had to reach out to steady her when she swayed.  
      “God Sorcha, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think… I don’t know why…  I’ll meet you back at the house.”  He vanished.  
      He vanished!  Sorcha stared at the spot Kyle had been standing and felt like crying.
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