Yep, he was born ready for that.
Walker males were pretty on point when it came to overprotecting the heck out of their mates, but still I had to check – it was Lucy. She was slightly more breakable than the rest of us and I couldn’t live without her. I forced myself not to close my eyes as the last stone sputtered and died out. Fighting the instinctual fear of what type of Que-freaky-guardian-creature might spring out at us.
There was an extended pause, as if the room wasn’t quite sure what to do, and then – nothing happened. Brace stole away the last of the energy rattling around inside me, but I barely noticed I was so focused on the space which had been previously barred from us. The room was open now, ready for us to start exploring.
“That was certainly anti-climactic,” Lucy trilled. “I was expecting a massive explosion, followed by flying harpies and spiders.”
I grinned. “You really thought Que would have harpies and spiders guarding his secret lair?”
She shrugged. “That’s what I would have.”
I straightened minutely, allowing my tense muscles to stretch and extend out from the position they’d been locked in during the energy drain. I felt no internal discomfort from my newly acquired power. I simply had to shut the door on my filing cabinet and it was all sitting nice and neatly, waiting for me to pull it out when I needed it. So freaking awesome.
Laughter sounded in my head. Yes, Brace said as he finally understood how I’d managed to take so much of the crystals’ power. That is quite awesome, as you put it. Not that it’s any surprise to me; your awesomeness seems to be expanding daily.
What can I say? It’s great to be me … I trailed off for a prolonged pause. If you discount the fact that billions of entities, seven worlds, friends and family are all relying on me to keep them from being dissolved into a mass of energy. And I have no idea how to do that. Yeah … it’s just great to be me.
Sigh. I couldn’t think about the responsibility. It was truly crushing. The fear. It coated my tongue and sent waves of an acid-type burn through my body. Here and now. I had to just focus on the here and now, or I’d be insane long before the last tether fell.
Brace took my hand and pulled me in to his side. You’re not alone, sweetheart. Never alone.
Damn, now all of sudden I felt like superwoman or something. And my surge of confidence was about to come in handy; we were going into the room. Our first steps were cautious, but knowing time was our enemy, we didn’t delay any longer. The five of us moved further into the area.
“What the hell is this room?” Lucy trilled, her feet just off the ground, her wings barely moving.
Brace, who had been staring hard at something on the left wall, was the one to answer. His voice bit out, laced with the kind of steel forged in the fires of hell. “This is where he kept his equipment. The devices used to bend us to his will. To break us.”
As I fully comprehended his words, a sudden burst of absolute fury rocked through me. I knew that Brace had suffered at the hands of his father, but something told me it was even worse than I had imagined. And I had a great imagination.
My mate left my side then, striding forward to that wall he’d barely taken his eyes from. That side of the room was composed of built-in ceiling-high shelves. There were at least a dozen strange devices slotted into each of the storage areas, and I could not have even told you what one was. Brace reached out – and I doubted that anyone else noticed – but I saw the slight tremble of his hand. I was so killing Que. Dude was a dead Walker.
Brace scooped up a metal object. It sort of resembled a toaster, but one that had about fifteen coat hangers attached to it.
Colton, who stood right behind me, did his wolf growl. “I remember that friggin’ thing; attacked me in my sleep one night.”
Brace wasn’t speaking. He simply stared at the device in his hands, and then I felt the shift in the air. Before I could speak or lurch forward to reach him, he shut down the connection in our minds.
Power exploded from him.
He must have clued Colton in on his plans, because a barrier was erected around us moments before the blast. Through the visible waves of energy I was relieved to see that another shimmery barrier surrounded the two tanks of Walker, which were about ten feet from us.
Brace! I shouted for him as I tried cracking through the wall between us. Brace had me locked out with a cold and brutal strength, which I had not even a fraction of power to dissolve. He didn’t want me to know his thoughts right then, and even though I wanted to know everything about him, I was sort of glad not to be reliving his torture with him. Brace might not have been in this room before, but the weapons clearly held memories. Unhappy memories.