Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

W e didn't slow our sprint until we reached the edge of the forest. Here Orix drew the return orb from his pocket, readying to smash it.

I grabbed it off him and cradled it to my chest. "We can't leave without him."

"What?" Orix stared at me, stunned.

"Ubron. We are not leaving without him. He has Serath's body."

"He's one of them ," Curi said. "An infernal."

"Yes, and if he wanted to hurt us, he could have."

"How do you know that? He could have been trapped in Serath's body, unable to do anything."

But I knew it. God, how I knew it. I gritted my teeth. "Trust me on this, okay?"

"He just saved us," Levi pointed out, backing me up. "That's proof enough."

"He said you were his mate," Shar said. "Cameron…"

I couldn't do this right now. "When I consummated with Serath, I might have bonded to Ubron too. I don't know how it works. How messed up the connections are. But there is a connection." That much I couldn't deny.

"That seals it," Shar said. "We wait." She glanced about as if searching for something.

"What is it?"

"Derek."

"You think he's gone back to the wilds?"

"No. He's here. I can feel him through our bond. I just…I can't see him."

While my connection to Derek was weakening, hers was growing, as it should be. But the transition of him becoming his own entity, separate from me, able to fuel himself, to survive without needing me, was going to have some teething problems.

And I was totally distracting myself from the issue at hand. Ubron. Serath. Me.

Long minutes passed, and I was beginning to get antsy when we spotted Serath running toward us. My heart lifted then plummeted because that was Ubron, not Serath, and what the fuck should I be feeling right now?

"You waited," Ubron said.

"You saved us," Orix replied. "Now you owe us answers."

Ubron's gaze flicked to me. "Yes. I suppose I do."

I smashed the orb, splintering the world and taking us home.

Back at the tower, we surrounded Ubron, backing him into the lounge and into an armchair. Touron and the twins joined us, and Shar quickly filled them in on what had happened.

All the while, Ubron waited patiently, and I did my best to avoid eye contact with him because there was stuff swilling around in my head: a memory of last night and the hope that I was wrong.

Please let me be wrong.

"Talk," Orix demanded. "How are you still here?"

"I don't know," Ubron said. "Serath took the driver's seat somehow. But we don't have much time. You need to know that I am not a threat. My people are not your enemy. Something…someone has us under their control. We've tried to fight, but resistance causes pain and in some cases death. We're trapped in a cycle we have no control over. But the fact that my essence is free of this enemy's hold gives me hope."

"How did you get trapped?" Palia asked.

"You're infernal, right?" Curi said.

"Yes, I'm infernal. We were pulled into your world when the rift opened, torn out of our bodies, and before we could return, something other took hold of us. It was a web of some kind. One that bound us to it. There is a voice, and it tell us what we must do. If we disobey, there is excruciating pain that has led to the death of many of my people."

"How many of you are there?" Orix asked.

"There were scores of us, but now there are only a handful. We desired to go home, and the voice promised us freedom if we obeyed, but when we realized that going home would mean decimating this world, we tried to fight back, and then…Then there was the pain. We soon realized our lack of autonomy."

"This voice, this person controlling you, have you seen him?"

"No. And I was at a point where I had given up hope of fighting him. But now…" He looked at me with Serath's eyes, and my stomach trembled. "Now that hope has returned. Together we can overcome them." He leaned forward. "We have a common enemy. He needs this body, this host, for his plan to open the rift, and together you have the power to free us."

"What do you mean?"

"I have listened, and I have learned that your graynites, the real graynites that are bonded to shedim, have an alpha. One whom they are connected to mystically. If he dies, then the shedim lose their grip on their hosts. Your elite team has the power to end him."

"So?" Orix said.

"We too are graynites. But we are bound to this voice by a mystical web. Surely this means that you can free us too?"

"Kill the voice and free the infernals?" Orix said.

"Yes!" Ubron sat up straighter. "The voice cannot open the rift without this body."

"How does he plan to open it?" Levi asked.

"I do not know the mechanics, but I heard them speak of a machine. One they were perfecting. They called it The Channel."

"They can't use it without Serath," Palia said. "As long as we have him, the rift is safe."

"And we're sure there are no other Halle Sigmas?" Curi asked Orix. "We didn't know Romi was a sigma. Lionel hid that fact."

Something I'd neglected to ask him about.

"If there is another sigma, then they obviously don't know where he is any more than we do," Palia said. "They wouldn't be coming after Serath otherwise."

"Good point," Orix said.

"So we work on finding this linchpin and kill him…or her," Levi said. "That has to be our focus."

Ubron nodded. "Yes."

But I was done with this. Done with watching him use my mate's body like a pretty suit. Done with the intrusive thoughts that kept pushing at my psyche. "I want to speak to Serath."

He sighed. "You can't. Not yet. He's still unconscious. But soon."

"So you can only take control when Serath is unconscious?" Orix asked.

"Yes," Ubron said. "Unconscious or…asleep." His gaze flicked my way. The implication of his words sank in, confirming my awful suspicions, and my stomach dropped.

I cleared my throat, needing to know for certain. "And have we…you and I…Have we spoken before? When Serath was asleep?"

"Yes, we have." His tone was bland. Neutral even as claws of guilt burrowed beneath my skin.

"When?"

He swallowed hard. "Early this morning and two nights ago. I woke up to scout, and it woke you. We…talked."

"Cameron?" Shar touched my shoulder. "You've gone pale."

I couldn't let her know. Couldn't let any of them know. This was between me and my mate…mates. I was mated to him too. I couldn't deal with this. Not here in front of them all.

"I'm fine, just exhausted and…shocked."

"I should lie down," Ubron said. "Serath will wake soon, and he will have questions."

"You can take the sofa here," Orix said.

"No." I licked my lips. "He should get into his bed. We want to minimize how disoriented Serath will be. I'll speak to him first and then bring him here. Okay?" Everyone stared at me, and for a moment I was sure they could see right through me. See the dirty things I'd done. "You work on figuring out how the faction could have known we would be at the building tonight."

That was enough to get them talking among themselves. I jerked my chin at Ubron then hurried out of the room.

He'd find me. He knew where our bedroom was.

Breathe, Cameron. Just breathe. You weren't to know. You didn't know. It's not your fault.

But I should have known. How could I have not seen it? Sensed it? Questioned it?

Oh god, I'd liked it.

"Cameron?"

"Don't say my name like that."

"I don't understand…Like what?"

I grit my teeth. "Like it matters to you."

"It does matter. You matter. You're my mate."

"Don't say that!" I spun to face him. "You should have stopped." Stopped touching me. Stopped kissing me. Stopped making me feel good.

"I know. I…This is my fault." He dropped his chin. "I should have walked away. I was selfish, telling myself that I needed to maintain the ruse. Telling myself that as long as I didn't take you fully then it was all right."

I squeezed my eyes shut as the memory of last night was chased by the night before. I'd abandoned myself to him. Enjoyed it, thinking it was Serath. I'd been fooled. What kind of mate was I?

"It's not your fault," he said. "We have a bond too…you and I, your beast and mine."

"You have a beast?"

"I do." His eyes lit up, and he took a step closer. "My beast and Serath's are connected now. It's…new and different and I…I'm sorry for any hurt I've caused."

I wanted to be mad at him. To blame everything on him, but how could I in good conscience do that? If what he was telling us was true, then he was a victim too. Trapped in a body that wasn't his own, in a world that wasn't his home, and now in a bond with me that he hadn't chosen.

If anyone had something to be upset about, it was him.

"Cameron, I swear to you I will not touch you intimately again. I will ignore our bond, and I will find a way to vacate your true mate's body."

"And what if you can't?"

A muscle feathered in his jaw. "Then we will find a way to coexist." He swayed on his feet, and I rushed forward to brace him on instinct. "Serath is waking," he said. "I must lie down."

I helped him to the bed, where he stretched, his eyelids fluttering as he tried to keep them open. "Tell him…tell him that I am sorry…" Sleep took him, and his breathing evened out. A few moments later, his eyes snapped open, and he sat up, panic etched across his features. "Cameron!" His gaze was wild and unfocused.

Serath was back. "It's all right. I'm here. I'm safe. We're both safe."

His breathing slowed as he took in our surroundings before focusing on me. "Fuck." He cupped my face and kissed me hard on the mouth. My mate. My Serath.

I kissed him back, eyes burning under the weight of what I was about to tell him.

He broke the kiss abruptly. "Cameron, how did we get back? What happened?"

And here it was. The moment. Best to just say it. "Ubron never left." His eyes flared with comprehension, the muscles in his arms tensing beneath my hands. "And he saved us all."

I spilled the beans, words falling over words until I was spent. Until he knew it all. About how Ubron had gotten the other graynites to stand down, about how the infernals were trapped in a web by a voice, and then…then I told him about the two nights I'd spent with Ubron. Those words were hard, stilted, my throat aching, pulse pounding because what was he going to think of me?

He was still and silent for several moments after, and it took every ounce of self-control not to ask him what he was thinking. Not to demand that he say something, anything. I let him process and waited with heavy, guilty breaths.

"You didn't know," he said finally. "I understand that, but him…" His mouth twisted. "He knew and he…" He took a ragged breath and looked down at his hands. "He used my body to take pleasure from you."

"He's sorry."

The rage in Serath's eyes pulled me up short.

I should have kept my mouth shut. "I'm sorry."

He made a gruff sound that was part sob, part growl. "Dammit." He tugged me into his arms and crushed me to his chest. "This is so fucked up. Cameron, I'm so sorry. I failed to protect you, and he…he abused you."

I'd explained it all to him. All except one teeny vital detail. "Serath, I…I liked it. I liked what he did."

"Because you thought it was me."

"Yes, I did, but also because…" Oh god, how did I say this?

He pushed me away slightly to study my expression. "Because what?"

"It seems like I'm mated to him too."

He slow-blinked. "Which is why you didn't feel the difference."

How was he so calm? "Yes, and I think it's also why he didn't completely refrain."

A clear growl spilled up his throat. "Don't. I can't even—" He pushed me away and climbed off the bed. "You can't be near me. Not at night. Not when he might?—"

"He won't. Not again. He vowed it."

"You trust him? You trust him because you feel the mate bond too?"

There was no denying it. Not to him. "Yes. But we can find a way to break it. We will find a way to break it."

He looked away, shoulders bunching, fists clenching.

"Serath…please."

"It's not you. It's not us. It's…I need to speak with him."

"How?"

He climbed back onto the bed and lay down. "Inside. In my mind. I can find him."

"Are you sure?"

"No. But I have to try, and if he's as much of an ally as he claims to be, then he'll meet me halfway." He reached up and stroked my cheek. "Go. I'll come find you."

I didn't want to leave him, but our bond felt strained, and my gut told me that he needed some space.

I lifted his hand to my lips and kissed his palm. "I love you."

"I love you too, and whatever happens, we'll figure it out."

I had to believe that.