“He’s simply Syn. It’s hard to compare him to anyone else including us, his brothers.”
Maceo looked at her taking in her white hair and her electric blue eyes.
“I love your eyes.”
“Why?”
“Because eventually you will be able to channel power through them.”
“Oh.” So much for the brief thought he may be hitting on her. “Channel power?”
“Yes, your eyes snap already. Eventually you will store power in them almost like a battery and be able to access it whenever it’s needed. You will make a good match for Syn and him for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Maceo, what are you telling Alexa?” Syn walked out with a teasing smile on his face.
He was dressed in a pair of jeans with a pullover shirt in blue. He looked casual and hot to Alexa, but she couldn’t stop thinking about what his clothes hid. Her cheeks heated as she grabbed a pair of sneakers.
Taking the elevator down to the first floor, they walked across the big living room before going outside to where a jeep was waiting.
“You didn’t fly?” Syn asked.
“I didn’t want to risk my dragon around your mate until I was sure she was claimed. Something you haven’t done yet.”
Syn sighed and climbed into the jeep. They took off towards the river.
“I don’t understand. You have looked for mates for centuries and been unable to find one?” Alexa said.
“No, we didn’t look for mates while we were young. We just enjoyed flying around and being free. Then the years dragged, after a while we wanted to bond with another. Soon after that was when Mutufa and his magic hit and we became human. Years became centuries and being just human took its toll. Who could we invite into our lives? Finally, the change. Like humans,we grow and mature and finally we desire someone, our mate to spend our lives with.”
She nodded, noticing a black inky spill in the river where the mother and her son had played just yesterday.
“Syn?”
“I see it.”
“What could have done it?”
“Who, not what,” Maceo supplied as he stopped the jeep.
Alexa walked over to it, her arms outstretched as if she was picking up a feeling from it.
“It feels evil. How is that possible?”
“It’s not natural. Black magic.” Syn picked a flower looking at the petal that already showed signs of wilting.
It looked like an oil spill to her. One that didn’t seem to be spreading. He threw the flower into the goo. She watched as the flower arced high in the air as it got closer to the blackness on the river. A powerful darkness reached out from the center and engulfed the flower. It never touched the oil lying on the water.
Alexa stumbled back not wanting to get to close to whatever it was. Syn wrapped his arms around her.
“How do we stop it?” she asked them.
“We don’t,” Maceo answered. “It will grow and grow until it takes over the whole river.”
“That’s unacceptable, Syn what do we do?”
“There’s only one shot, but it’s dangerous. It will stop this but the attacks will continue, each one getting bigger.”
“All we can deal with is one attack at a time. Right now, it’s this one. Syn,” she turned to look into his eyes. “We have to make it safe for the people who use the river.” The smile on that mother’s face and the sound of her son’s laughter would haunt her if they couldn’t come back here.
“Maybe you need to know what you have to do, little warrior, before you make those statements. You will have to act as a conduit for my power. Within my body and the dragon’s body we have great power but can’t tap into the most potent part of it. That power belongs to my bonded mate. Although we are not bonded, our souls touched last night. I believe you can use a little of that power but it may be dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?”
“It could force a mate bond between us.”
She nodded. “I’ll take that chance.”
Syn looked at Maceo who shook his head and shrugged. He didn’t understand women any better than his brother did.
“All right.” He led her to a clearing and sat down. It was close to the river but far enough away to keep them safe from the power emanating from the oil-like spill. “Maceo will watch our bodies and pull you to safety if need be.”
His eyes were on his brother waiting for his acknowledgement. Maceo nodded his eyes before Syn looked at her again.
“You will need to relax and let me in.”
“Easy peasy.” She smiled at him.
Five minutes later, she was fidgeting; she could feel him at the barrier of her mind but relaxing wasn’t easy.
Syn sat totally still and waited. Finally, Alexa calmed down, reining in her fears to be examined another day. She closed her eyes and opened her mind.
She felt Syn slip into her mind smooth as silk. The barrier bowed back letting him through before it reestablished itself. She sighed in relief; the thought of being mentally vulnerable to someone who knew how to enter minds was a little intimidating.
“Hi.”
“Hi, yourself.” She smiled at him. His mind was laid bare before her and he was proud. He didn’t even try to hide the dirty raw parts of himself not that she was trying to look too close. She had her own dirty raw parts that were on display.
She waited for him to pry, to dig, to even wander around but he didn’t. He stayed close to the way he entered as he settled down in her mind.
“Is this what it will be like if we bond? The constant ability to know each other’s most intimate thoughts.”
“No hiding, no cheating, no running away. Nothing but openness.”
“That’s a little scary.”
“No, Little Warrior, that’s a lot scary. I’m shaking in my boots being here with you like this. I ask myself what if it was like this forever.”
“Well, what if it was forever?”
He leaned back and looked at her. “Look at me, Alexa. I’m an open book. I have nowhere to run. I want this. I didn’t have to merge with you, you wouldn’t have known there was a way unless we mate bonded. I’m not hiding anything from you now, so why should sharing your mind be that hard of a stretch for me? Besides the usual male secrecy.”
He gave her a blinding smile to let her know he was teasing. She settled back, liking the feeling of his mind merging with hers.
“What do we have to do?”
“Until we mate bond your eyes are your power source. You’ll need to look at what you’re trying to effect. We’re going to engulf the darkness in a ball of light that will slowly eat through it until it disappears.”
“Where will this happen?”
“The light will lift it up into the atmosphere where it won’t be able to harm anyone.”
Taking several deep breaths, she calmed herself. You can do it ran through her mind as she focused on her center. Looking for something to hold onto to keep her firmly planted in what she could do, she was at a lost. Then she felt Syn’s warm embrace around her and she lost herself in it, allowing him to be the anchor she needed to do what only she could do.
“I’m ready. So all I have to do is look at it?”
“It’s not that simple. You have to connect with me, allow my power to run through your body.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t we already connected.”
“Yes, but it’s not a true mate bond. So we are jury-rigging this.” Alexa looked at him and laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“I just can’t imagine that you’ve ever had to jury-rig anything”
He smiled at her warming her heart “You’re right, but there is a first time for everything. Look deep within me; there is a greenish-blue light that zips through me. It will one day be your power if you choose correctly.”
“Choose correctly?”
“Power is not easily given or shared, you must prove yourself worthy of it. Even though I protect this power and it belongs to you, you will have to work for it. That is the only way you will ever prove yourself worthy of the transfer.”
That was a thought for another day. Now she needed to clean the river for families and wildlife.
She found herself moving closer and disappearing further into his mind. He shivered as she passed his desire for her, but he refused to try to hide it or move it out of the way. Trust, what a novel concept when she stopped trusting many years ago.
That power he spoke of zinged past her checking her out, judging her worthiness before it sped away.
It looked like she was standing in a huge cavern but the walls were rounded and smooth with a rough floor. There were huge stalagmites that the power was using to bounce off and there would be a danger to her if she hit one of them.
“I see it, what now?”
“The fun part, you have to capture a sliver of it in your hands and hold on.”
“Are you serious?”
She could feel his smile surrounding her. He was serious. She stood still until it came closer to her. When it hit her legs, she reached out to grab it but it moved too fast. There was haunting laughter in her ears as if it were teasing her.
“Can’t you slow it down?”
“Sorry, I’m the keeper of the power but you are the wielder.”
This time she waited and when it got close enough to touch her, she jumped for it. It pulled away at twice the speed leaving her sprawled on her belly. The power stopped to laugh as Syn laughed.
“And this is why males shouldn’t have power.” She grumbled as she stood and dusted herself off.
She rushed after it stopping abruptly so as not to hit into the huge stalagmite rising from the cavern floor. This was getting old fast.
With a twist of her lips, she began to stalk after her power. “Listen here, you belong to me. Yeah, I know I’m not mate bonded to him yet but that changes nothing. You’re mine. On top of that, we have a river to save and a mom and son who need to play together. So I don’t care if you like it or not, we are going to beat Mutufa and his minions together.”
She backed her power up into a corner that she was sure didn’t use to be here. She eyed it as it squirmed, making false starts to get away from her. She lowered her hand intent on catching it. It shot over her head. Her other hand reached up, tingling with the small thread she caught.
“Watch out, I’m smarter than you thought.” She opened her hand to see a small marbled size bit of power clinging to her hand.
“Is this enough, Syn?” She grinned when he nodded.
Making sure not to drop what she had in her hand she made her way over to him and took a seat.
“What now?”
“Now we link.”
He put his hand in hers, the power trapped between them. It began to spread until it covered their hands and then spread up their arms. It continued spreading until it finally covered their bodies in a greenish blue mist.
“Now open your eyes, Alexa, and focus on the darkness.”
She did as told, being back in her body was a shock but what she was seeing with her eyes needed her whole attention. The darkness was waving through the haze covering her eyes. What she thought was static was actually moving. It was sinking downward looking for the bottom of the river, where it would begin to move outward polluting the water and killing the plants.
“You have to encapsulate it, Alexa. You can’t miss a drop or it will grow and spread again.”
“I understand.”
“Focus on pushing this power you feel out through your eyes. You can do it, your eyes are a conduit. They will always focus and fire my power, your power, our power.” His voice faded.
“Syn? What’s wrong?”
“Growing weak, you have to do it now.”
Chin up, Alexa, you can do this.
Pep talk over she imagined taking the power that surround their bodies and transferring it to her eyes through a long flowing clear tube she pictured. When it reached her eyes, it came out forming a circle as if she were blowing a huge bubble.
You can do this.
Sparks of power hit her eyes and she smiled. A spark turned into a tidal wave. She pushed it out watching the circle of light she was creating. It drifted lazily still connected to her. She directed it to the darkness.
The darkness howled as it was exposed to her power. It twisted and turned trying to escape. The circle began to envelope the darkness sinking itself into the river. She went deeper and wider than the darkness not wanting to miss a drop of it.
“Now close the circle and let it go.” Syn’s voice whispered in her head reminding her why she was doing this.
The power was heady. She didn’t want to let it go. The need to stay joined with it sat on her shoulders like a shawl, warm and comforting.
“Let it go Alexa, you can’t keep it. When we mate bond it will all be yours forever. Let this small piece go.”
She resisted the call to keep the power. With a quick thought, she sealed the circle and cut it away from her. It floated up in the air taking the darkness with it. She watched as it began to close tighter around the darkness, eating through it.
“You did it.”
She focused on Syn. With a frown, she explored her mind to find she was alone within the confines of it. Alone and lonely.
“Congratulations, Alexa, I must say I had my doubts, but you and Syn pulled off a miracle.”
“Thank you. We did it, Syn.” She threw herself into his arm and kissed him soundly.
“For kisses like that I would take on Mutufa’s minions any day.” He chuckled and held her closer.
She looked over to the lake. “I can’t see the circle anymore.”
“It’s high in the atmosphere doing the job you told it to do.”
“What happens to the power once it’s done?”
“It comes back. Power never dies. It will come back to me so that you can use it when again when needed.”
She stood up and stumbled but caught herself. “I’m weak but not as bad as I’ve been.”
“You’re getting stronger, slowly building reserves.” Syn stood and put his arm around her.
Turning he looked at his brother. “Let’s go feed my hungry mate.”
*~*~*~*
Alexa stood on the balcony overlooking the land. “Syneca.”
“My whole name? I must be in trouble.”
“Maybe. I want to fly.”
“Your wish is my command.” He jumped on the railing standing there for a moment then he dived off.
A shocked sound came out of her mouth as she looked over. He soared upward looking beautiful against the red sun slowly sinking into the earth.