Page 2 of A Lion's Heart
Tears streamed from her eyes. Eli didn’t look at her but he could smell them, salty and sad and something clenched inside his chest tightly.
“They’re dying,” she told him. “I saw Pete die. That white lion took him down.” Her breath hitched and more tears fell. “We couldn’t stop it.”
“No,” Eli told her. “We couldn’t.”
“What will happen now?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I really don’t know the answer to that question, Nivea.”
Then Eli moved and he lifted Nivea onto his lap, wrapping one strong arm around her waist, using his other to lift her face and cup her cheek. “All I know right here and right now is that I love you more than life itself. And I don’t ever want to lose you, not in battle, not because of some disagreement or lack of communication. I just want you, always.”
She looked at him through eyes blurred by tears, human eyes that had seen and experienced far too much in her young life. And he wanted to give her the world. Of course he didn’t know which world that would be, but Eli didn’t care. All he knew was that he was looking at his future, his life, the reason why he’d survived all that he had.
“I love you,” he told her again, touching his lips softly to hers. “I love you.”
She sighed into his kiss, whispering over his lips in response, “I love you, too.”
“We have not been able to contact Cole,” Rome said solemnly as he stood in front of what was left of his leadership team. “It is too soon to send a team out to search for him, but we will first thing in the morning. Ezra is in critical condition. Zach and a number of others are dead.”
At the table, Eli reached for Nivea’s hand. He’d seen his brother with tubes running all over him, eyes closed as he lay in the medically induced coma that Ary assured Eli would help him heal even faster than shifters normally did. It had taken a part of him to see his other half lying so still as if he were already dead, but he’d flattened his hand on his twin’s chest and felt his heart still beating. Nivea had stood right by his side, as Dawn had covered Eli’s hand with her own. For as much as Eli had been against his brother mating a human, he was at that moment happy that Ezra had found someone to love him the way he deserved to be loved. So he did not move when her hand rested on top of his and when Nivea leaned in, adding her hand on top of Dawn’s, his heart had swelled.
“We have been exposed,” Rome continued. “The humans now know without a doubt that there are Shadow Shifters living in this world with them. There will be repercussions for that revelation and there will most likely be more death.”
It was a solemn declaration, but one that was true nonetheless.
Nick and Ary stood stoically just behind Rome. Kalina sat in a chair to his right. Jax was ever present next to the First Female. X and Caprise who had sustained a pretty violent looking gash at her neck, stood to Rome’s other side, forming what, to Eli, would always be an impenetrable alliance. Baxter and Elder Alamar were all the way to the back, looking as grief stricken as the others felt.
“I’ll organize the recovery teams to go out at first light to search for the others that are missing,” Eli volunteered, wanting to take some of the stress off the Assembly Leader’s shoulders.
“I’ll help with that,” Bas said, speaking for the first time since returning to the tunnels and learning that Cole was missing.
“I’m going out to look for him myself,” Jace told the room in a tone that dared anyone to speak against him.
Nobody argued.
They would all go out to look for the Faction Leader.
“Right now it’s best if we try to get some rest,” Rome told them. “Teams will be assigned and briefed at five a.m. Then we’ll go out to search for survivors.”
“That’s not a good idea,” a new voice sounded throughout the room.
All eyes went to the man now standing in the doorway, the human that was familiar to some. He was surrounded by two shifters that had what looked like a death grip on his arms.
Nivea immediately stood. “What are you doing here?”
X and Nick both moved to the doorway to confront Agent Dorian Wilson.
“That’s a damned good question,” Nick said, staring into the man’s face.
“I was given directions,” Dorian told them. “By Rayna.”
“That bitch!” Nivea whispered and Caprise nodded her agreement.
“Hear what I have to say first,” Dorian insisted, his gaze seeking and resting on Rome. “You want to hear this before you decide how to proceed.”
At eleven a.m. on a Saturday morning, Eli walked behind his Assembly Leader as Roman Reynolds, Nick Delgado, Xavier Santos Markland, Sebastian Perry, Priya Drake and Agent Dorian Wilson were escorted into the Oval Office.
They crossed the room with solemn footsteps, their feet moving softly over the United States of America Presidential seal painted on the floor. Coming to a stop, Eli made sure to count each member of the Secret Service in the room. Their job was to guard President Wilson Reed, just as Eli’s was to guard Rome.
