Stained Minds Read online

  The earth seemed to greet me like an old friend and I wondered if that was because I was connected to Gid, even though he was unconscious. I sat down on the edge of a rocky outcrop and fished the phone from my pocket. Darius’s arrogance worked to my favor—no PIN and no fingerprint lock. Just a single swipe of the screen revealed its secrets to me. Scrolling through the contacts I saw so many names that I wondered how Darius kept them all straight, and I also recognized that this badly needed some kind of security measures to protect its secrets.

  The names on here?

  They could start and end wars.

  Maker.

  As soon as I found Rhys’s name, I dialed. I wasn’t interested in anyone else, just the one member of the Cavalry who could and would save my mate. For a price.

  My stomach was in my throat as I listened to the phone ring on the other end. I wasn’t sure which I wanted more—someone to pick up, or not because I hadn’t been spared tales of the boogeymen that were the Cavalry either.

  “Darius? What are you doing calling me again so soon?” a deep rumble of a voice answered.

  “Don’t hang up. I’m Darius’s mate,” I blurted. Silence met me on the other end. I took it as a relatively good sign and continued, “One of our brotherhood has been injured and isn’t recovering. It’s been over a week now with no change no matter what I do. I’m his Sixth and I can’t fix it. I am willing to owe you a favor.”

  “And why is Darius not calling himself?”

  “He’s indisposed and I’m taking care of it as his mate.” It technically wasn’t a lie. He was indisposed. After all, he was looking for me. I was definitely stretching the truth, though, and I wasn’t sure how wise that was with a member of the Cavalry.

  “You’re Darius’s mate and a Sixth to a brotherhood?”

  “Yes.”

  “Interesting,” he whispered, and I realized I’d given him ammunition that Darius had withheld from him. Obviously for a reason. Shit. “But what could you possibly have to offer me? A favor from a Sixth isn’t exactly something in high demand.”

  I took a deep breath and said four words that I wasn’t sure I had ever believed until that moment. But seeing was believing. In the darkness of night, it had been a game. A means of defending myself from bullies who longed to torment me. But I was no longer at Westbrook, and I was no longer alone.

  “I’m a shadow weaver.”

  Once again I was met with silence, but I could almost hear the wheels turning on the other end of the phone. After a moment, Rhys murmured, “You understand that this is something that may not be redeemed for a while? That this favor may be something that you find unpleasant or unsavory?”

  “I understand, but I need Gideon back on his feet. If you can’t fix him, then the favor is null and void.”

  “A negotiator? I like that,” Rhys practically purred at me. “The favor will be owed only upon the successful healing and waking of your brotherhood member, Gideon. Deal?”

  “Deal.” I exhaled slowly, trying not to let my nerves show through on the phone, but I had every reason to be nervous. I’d just made a deal with the devil. Now to pray that it worked.

  “I will be there in a few hours.”

  “I didn’t give you an address,” I commented before I could stop myself.

  A low, masculine chuckle sounded before he replied, “Cell phones are wonderful things. How’s that rocky ledge you’re sitting on? Comfy? I take it Darius doesn’t know you are making this call?”

  “No, but we already have a deal, don’t we?”

  “Of course, I just wanted to know if I was going to be walking into a situation with a happy Darius or a pissed Darius. I’m fine with pissed. Happy Darius weirds me out anyway. I’ll be there shortly.”

  He hung up and I sat there in stunned silence. Had I really just made a deal with the Cavalry behind my mate’s back? Behind my brotherhood’s back? Yes, but if it meant that I could bring Gideon back, then I wasn’t going to apologize for it. We needed him too much.

  I wasn’t sure if the guys could see it or not, but ever since the incident at the bank and everything going wrong, mainly thanks to me, the bonds between them had been frayed. Sooner or later they were going to snap, and that wasn’t something I would just sit by and watch happen. Even if it meant owing a favor to the boogeyman.

  Or, if it boiled down to it, the devil.

  Rhys

  The traffic parted for me as it always did. Cars suddenly diverting, taking side roads, merging into other lanes to let me drive past. The sheriffs ignored my two hundred miles per hour speed—why wouldn’t they? The sheep didn’t notice me, even if they were impressed with a Tesla that moved this fast.

  Perks of knowing the main man himself, Musk.

  Hey, someone had to protect the environment, and the sheep weren’t about to do it.

  The Cavalry—I never stopped wanting to throttle the piece of shit who’d given us that name—had been caring for the Earth back in the days when King Arthur had reigned over his territory as Merlin’s main man. We’d served the regent, and even if he was in a sleep that would make Sleeping Beauty tell the man to drink Red Bull, we would never cease serving him.

  I had beats in my ride that slipped past the endless white noise of people’s minds. Heading for a salsang stronghold didn’t only bring with it the promise of entertainment and a favor owed, but also, peace. Salsangs had shields, unlike the sheep, and therefore I didn’t mind being around them. Especially when the situation was as intriguing as this.

  The Cavalry knew all.

  Through the birds, from the wind itself, the sky that covered us all—we communed with it for a knowledge bank that not even Google could surpass. We were the chosen few the Sires had trusted with this ability, and in all these years hence, we had not let them down.

  Drake might be turning a bit weird with his penchant for piercing every squishy bit of his body but he, nor any of my brothers’ loyalty, was under question. We were as much Arthur’s men as we had been as snot-nosed youths.

  The sun was high in the sky when I made my way across the state line into Nevada. Las Vegas was my destination, but though I knew what to anticipate when I arrived, I was still curious.

  A Sixth with six mates?

  Unheard of.

  For that mate to be one as powerful as Darius?

  Impossible.

  And yet…she hadn’t been lying. She spoke the full truth.

  Intrigued was the word when my thoughts drifted to the female who could corral six males of such discordant powers.

  I knew Gideon. Had known his mother and, through her, the boy himself. He was astonishingly powerful, and he’d yet to tap into the well of gifts that the Maker had bestowed upon him. He was on the cusp, and that was why we kept an eye on him. Why we’d fed his location to Darius. There was no way we were about to lose one as promising as Gideon to a flurry of bad decisions.

  Although, having spoken with the female—when weren’t the ultimate of bad decisions about a female?—I could understand. Her need, her power, her strength had throbbed in her voice. I couldn’t imagine how she’d taken the phone from Darius, but that she managed it was even more intriguing. And then this promise of her shadow weaving?

  It was like offering a starving man a juicy burger. Was it any wonder my mouth was watering?

  I pulled up outside the house just before the afternoon broke into evening. The heat was still there, and it was one of the major reasons I hated this state. There was a lot of nature in Nevada, but most of it revolved around heat, and I was British born and bred—we weren’t accustomed to such warmth. It was in our veins to bitch about the weather.

  The second the door slammed closed, another opened, and a woman ran out of the house as though she were being chased.

  She wasn’t.

  She was alone, and yet there was such fear on her features that I reached out to steady her. My hands cupped the balls of her shoulders and my powers, as insidious as snakes, slipped down my arm
s, slithering from my palms to breach the borders between two entities.

  “What is it?”

  “You’re Rhys?”

  Her hair was like garnet. It gleamed in the sun, revealing as many shades as a good Beaujolais, sparkling gold glints here, blue/black there.

  “I am,” I told her, and before she could say another word, I listened to my powers since, when it counted, they were all I would and could believe in.

  The world came to a halt as I processed what I learned.

  My powers drifted down through Marcella’s body, connecting with the soil beneath the lawn she stood on, before digging deep into the ground and heading into the house, its very foundations touched by all my might.

  “They won’t speak,” I told her. “Torturing them will do no good, even if they deserve it.”

  She frowned at me, her eyes wide with distress. “We’re losing Gid.”

  Now that grabbed my attention.

  We’d kept the pup alive these many years, and we weren’t about to lose him now, dammit.

  I could see that they’d buried a hole in the sand where he’d last connected with nature—had claimed his Sixth at the same time, the overachiever—and, after sheltering it with one of those pop up gazebos, had pressed the druid into the earth, covering him like a child would bury their parent into the sand at the beach.

  “Not that bad of an idea,” I informed her. “Would have worked had you climbed in with him.”

  She gaped at me. “How do you know any of this?”

  “Imagine Gideon’s powers with nature and multiply them a thousandfold.” I hadn’t imparted much information, but that I’d imparted any at all stunned my own brotherhood who were thousands of miles away, listening in.

  I ignored them, even though the link with them was as live as the electricity on the pylons overhead, and watched as she processed that. “You’re druid?”

  That would satisfy her need for an answer, and as I didn’t want to gift her a truth she wouldn’t believe anyway, I dipped my chin in a silent yes but that silence allowed me to evade her question. I was so much more than anything she could even imagine.

  “Why did I need to be in the pit?” she asked, stunning me by grabbing my hand and dragging me into the house. “Because I’m his mate?”

  “Because you were the one who helped him reconnect with nature because he needs your blood,” I corrected, amused at the way I let her lead me about. A smile graced my lips as I was dragged through an expensively appointed house that I recognized as one of Darius’s many homes throughout the nation—you could always tell it was his because he had his sigil stamped everywhere like a dog would piss on the trees in his garden—and out of the luxurious living room into the yard itself.

  I saw the men gathered in the distance. Gideon had headed past the cultivated area to reconnect with the energies of the Earth, but the trouble was, there wasn’t enough in this area. Sand was filled with life, yes, but it wasn’t like the soil in the Pacific Northwest or the sand on a beach on the East Coast.

  “He keeps seizing,” she whispered, her pace increasing, “but he was wasting away in bed.”

  I looked up at the sun as she continued to drag me, as though I didn’t know our ultimate destination, and calculating the odds of it working, stated, “Remove the gazebo and we need to get him out of the sand.”

  Her head whipped around to gape at me. “But—”

  “But what?” I mocked. “You know what you’re doing, do you?”

  That shut her up. She nodded, her mouth firming into a grim line. “Understood.”

  As we approached the men who were all standing and squatting around the pit they’d dug for their brother, their attention turned to me before the female hollered, “We have to get him into the sun and out of the sand.”

  Four of the males jumped to attention at her words, but Darius? He stared at me with a stoniness I was more than accustomed to. The Cavalry wasn’t usually greeted with the welcome Darius’s mate had shown me.

  We were the boogeymen of our world. The name that was whispered in scary tales uttered around a campfire.

  We were not liked. And we preferred it that way.

  “What did she promise you?”

  “Nothing more than we usually request,” I informed him. “Just a favor owed. A favor from a shadow weaver,” I clarified, enjoying his wince. “Yes, she told me. Not that she needed to. Your mate is very honest. A fact I could come to appreciate.”

  His jaw would make granite look frail and his entire body tensed as he turned his attention my way. “You hurt her—”

  “Why would I wish to?” I retorted, annoyed at the presumption. “When do we hurt females?”

  Darius blew out a breath, and because I knew why he was so on edge, I clapped my hand to his back. We didn’t like each other, but there was a respect between us that I shared with few. There weren’t as many Ancients around as there had once been. The Cavalry was the most ancient, but males like Darius? Who’d seen the original Roman Emperors? There weren’t many remaining, and pissing off such old pursangs was never our intent.

  When I averted my attention to Gideon, I clucked my tongue at the way the boys—for they were boys to a male my age—were digging him free. Dropping into a low squat, I pressed my hand to the sand and sent power surging into the frail substance.

  Certain substances were weaker than others. Sand, in contrast to soil, required very little on my part to make it move. The material subsided to my strength, parting over the druid who was thinner than the last time I saw him. Thinner and with more tattoos.

  Spotting the one on his finger, for I knew what that one meant, I shot a look at the female’s and saw she had a matching tattoo on hers, if not a similar design.

  In a pair of boxers, I could see the male was wasting away, and when I looked at the brotherhood and their female, I saw they were all gaping at me and my abilities.

  Ignoring them, I stood and directed, “Marcella, you have tried to feed him, yes?”

  “Many times,” she whispered brokenly, her hands shaking as she wrapped them around her belly.

  “Have you drained him?”

  “Drained him?” The two words were repeated by each of the brothers, but Darius released a sigh.

  “I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that.”

  “Why would we drain him? Marcella, who the fuck is this?”

  “Cade, swearing will do no one any good,” I informed him sternly.

  “How do you know my name?”

  “How do I know that draining Gideon is all that will save him?” I moved my hands out, palms up, and tilted my head back to let the god-awful sun touch my face. “I just do.”

  Marcella gulped. Audibly. “We need to do as he says.”

  “Finally, someone with sense.”

  Darius growled, “Grow up, Rhys.”

  “I did that a long time ago,” I retorted, and watched as the brothers did as their Sixth ordered. I wondered if they realized how she pulled on their chords, made them act for her, but as I studied them more, I saw the relationship was far more symbiotic than others I had seen.

  “She is not like the others,” Darius confirmed, as though he could read my thoughts. Which he couldn’t.

  “No, this I am seeing.”

  “They’re not blindly obedient to her, but they do listen. I believe that is the tie that binds them at work, not her trying to coerce them.”

  Pondering his words, I watched as Marcella grabbed a knife from a holster she had on her hip. For endless seconds, she stared down at her mate, then she closed her eyes and dropped to her knees at his side. With one hand, she grabbed his arm, turned it over and stared at it as though the answers to the universe could be found there.

  My patience began to wear thin as she pressed the tip of the knife to Gideon’s skin, but didn’t actually bury it into his flesh. When I made to speak, Darius grabbed my arm and shot me a look. Though I sighed my irritation, I complied, and watched thirty seconds later
as she sliced into Gideon’s forearm. From wrist to shoulder.

  Blood immediately oozed but it wasn’t red, rich as rubies. It was black.

  I tutted. “Poison.”

  The group’s focus shifted my way. “No!” Marcella cried. “We’ve tortured them for answers. There was no mention of poison, and there was no way they could lie to us.”

  “I’ve seen what you’ve done,” I replied, my tone light, for I didn’t judge any of them.

  Purveyors of drugs were scum. Those who fabricated it, knowing what havoc they were sowing? They were the lowest of the low in my mind. They dealt in broken dreams, lost hopes, and shattered families.

  No, the creatures in the basement deserved their suffering.

  “We’d have found him an antidote if we’d known it was poison,” Darius ground out.

  I shook my head. “You were looking in the wrong place for the poison,” I told them, my words simple. “You were seeking some substance that could have brushed the knife that stabbed Gideon. You weren’t looking elsewhere for what they were producing in that laboratory of theirs.”

  Darius frowned at me. “You mean the drug itself?”

  “Which is formed from pursangs’ blood, is it not?” Disgusting drug. I huffed out my distaste at the aberration, and murmured, “The blood was tainted. Kronos touched the knife, but the Kronos itself was impure. He is stuck in a dirty high, and the length of time he’s been cocooned in that hell has tainted his own pursang blood.”

  “What do we do?” Marcella demanded, and though her eyes were full of terror, the command in her voice amused me enough to answer where, from anyone else, I’d have ignored her.

  “You shall wait until his blood runs clear. Feed him. All of you. Darius included. You are his link to this plane. Me? I shall go and speak with these lab rats you have in the basement. Discuss their supply chain with them.” Then I grinned. “This is looking to be far more exciting than I’d initially anticipated.”

  Though Darius grunted at my words, the others just gaped at me. I shrugged then moved away from their small gathering, my destination the basement where the scum were captured.