Page 50 of A Touch Of Death

I nod and clench my jaw tight. I'll never be rid of the memory of those haunted mismatched eyes looking up at me. The lost look in her face that I wanted nothing more than to remove. Her cries still echo in my head, the feel of her tears sinking into my shirt still as fresh as if it happened a mere second ago. I've never wanted to remove a person's grief as badly as I did then. I've never wanted to take on another person's pain and carry the weight of their agony until Novia broke down in front of me.

"Yeah, man. Think that just about crushed me," Spencer comments, roughly snatching his cap off his head and spearing his hand through his hair.

Ezra keeps quiet, heading to sit at the kitchen island. Despite his silence, I know how much it affected him to see Novia in so much pain. I also know how much the bond is affecting him and where his thoughts always turn to any time our connections to Novia are mentioned. With all I learned from Novia's thoughts today, with her mother telling her we're all bonded to her just as much as she is to us, there has been a niggle in the back of my mind suggesting that perhaps I've been wrong about demons finding their perfect equal. Maybe it's something I should look into, especially if it will remove the dejected look on Ezra's face that he doesn't think I can see.

"So... what do we do now?" Nix asks, stretching out on the couch.

"We should probably learn what the fuck those bastards are up to in that facility, for starters. If they were ballsy enough to come after Novia again, then they obviously still need her. But why? What could they possibly want with her?" Spencer asks, moving to sit in the armchair.

"They know her blood differs from any otherfaethey captured. They didn't know what made her different, though I'm sure seeing her phase has given them an inkling of an idea. They don't know the full extent, though. After five years of imprisonment, they were only able to deduce that Novia was different. She was able to endure more, stay conscious longer than others," I tell them, folding my arms over my chest while my mind runs a mile a minute. "I have no doubt they had plans to focus their efforts on Novia. To discover what she was capable of. Camelle mentioned a war, and I believe these humans are looking for weapons and power sources that will aid them in being successful at destroying allNaturals. Novia would make an excellent asset, more so now that they realise they had a fae who could disappear from one spot and appear in another."

Spencer nods and says, "That would make sense. Of course, they'd still want her. It was only to experiment on before and they still chased her down, then imagine what they'd be willing to do to get to her now."

A grim silence settles in the room at that declaration. The mage isn't wrong at all. They'll come after her harder than ever now that one of her secrets was revealed.

"Back to these weapons and power sources. Those weren't ordinary bullets Spencer and Novia were shot with. What are they making them with? How are they making them? How the fuck did they successfully create something that knocked our girl unconscious for almost eight days straight?" Nix growls, fury seeping into his words the more he talks. His animals are agitated, needing to be closer to Novia and not understanding why they're down here instead. It's making Nix frustrated, and his anger only builds with his frustration.

Do you need to run for a while? I can feel your animals pacing without having to invade your mind. It won't do any good to have you restless and unsettled.

Nix sighs as soon as I finish projecting my thoughts, but he nods. Without further words, he lifts himself from the couch and shifts into a ridiculously large white tiger. He has grey stripes and a pink nose, but this animal is bigger than his wolf, and his wolf reaches my hip when he's on four legs.

I walk towards the front door, opening it wide enough for the giant cat to slip past and vanish into the woods. I watch until he's out of sight, the flash of his tail the last thing I see before he vanishes.

"The bond?" Spencer asks, watching the door close and then snapping his attention to where I move to sit on the couch opposite him.

I nod, sparing a quick glance at Ezra and catching him tensing before settling again. "Yes. It's affecting him more since he contains so many animals. Seems they've all taken a strong liking to our littlefae, and they're growing increasingly agitated the longer the bond goes ignored. They're restless now because they want to be where Novia is."

Spencer bobs his head in understanding before shifting the conversation back to the issue at hand. "Nix has a point. How are they making these weapons?"

"Naturals." The gravelly whispered word is easy to catch in the quiet of the room, but Ezra doesn't move or turn around to speak to us.

I share a look with Spencer before asking, "What do you mean?"

It's then Ezra turns on his seat. "Do you honestly believe Novia and the rest of her kind are the only Naturals that were captured? The only Naturals that reside unwillingly in that hellhole? Because I can assure you, if they have bullets that burnt Novia the way they did, then those sick fucks are harbouring more than one race of Natural. It took me some time to work it out, but the only Natural with the power to burn any living being with a single touch and make it feel as though their entire body was lit on fire are full-blooded demons. Only a rare group of full-blooded demons can burn you with a brush of a finger. They have a higher demon in their midst and are using their power to forge near-indestructible weaponry."

I stare at the incubus with my mouth parted in shock. Of course. That would make so much sense. How did we not realise this sooner? If they have a higher demon, then that would mean... they have more captured Naturals in that facility.

Spencer comes to the same conclusion at the same time I do. "The fae aren't the only ones who've been captured. You have to be right about that. But the fae were the only ones who were captured as a whole. Not a single fae was left behind. Why?"

"I'm beginning to think these humans know more than we've been led to believe. They clearly know of the existence of higher demons despite their rarity." I pause before speaking the thought that comes to me next. "What's to say the humans haven't heard rumours of the prophecy? It would make sense to capture every fae they could to find the one the prophecy spoke of."

Ezra nods, his lips thinning as his eyes flick to the hallway and back again. "They didn't know what they were looking for, but then they realised Novia's blood was different. I'd bet my life on them figuring out she could be the one that would take them down. That would make sense as to why they want her so desperately. I mean, they sent eight lackeys with that scarred fuck just to retrieve one fae. And they'll go after her more now that they realise even that wasn't enough to catch her."

"Fuck," Spencer says. His face has paled significantly, and concern is palpable in the air. My worry contributes to that, too. "So, what do we do? How do we keep Novia safe and take down that facility?"

Ezra doesn't seem to have an answer, so Spencer swings his gaze to me. I ignore his stare and think about how we can protect Novia while we finally rid the world of this facility. "We'll have to take extreme caution with destroying the facility. One wrong move could havean unknown number of Naturals killed. We need to remember there are more Naturals at risk than Novia. She's our main priority, but we need to tread carefully if we want to save the others and take down these humans."

I look at Spencer and see him nodding his head in agreement. When my eyes move to Ezra, it's to find him looking distracted. He's rubbing at his chest with furrowed eyebrows, lost in thought.

"Ezra, are you alright?" I ask.

I don't receive an answer. Instead, his head tilts to the side, and the hand rubbing at his chest grows more vigorous. Spencer's head suddenly snaps up, and before I can dive into his or Ezra's mind, the front door slams open, and a furious looking Nix storms into the room. His muscles are taut with tension and his breathing is barely controlled.

"Where the fuck is she?" he growls, sounding more animal than man.

My eyes widen when I realise I can feel a tugging in my chest. It suddenly dawns on me that Ezra must have been focusing on the same feeling. But if there's a tugging in my chest, that would mean...

I'm bolting towards Novia's room without answering Nix. My vampire speed has me standing in her room in a matter of seconds, Nix directly behind me, followed by the mage and incubus.

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