Seven Wardens: Books 5-7

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Is it me, or does something smell delicious?" Jared asked as Macey's men walked back into the kitchen.

Luc and Macey exchanged a panicked glance as Jared stepped towards the cakes sitting on the counter. She had to admit they looked tasty, if she didn't ponder too much on what was in them.

The incubus didn't think twice about it and picked one of them up, bringing it to his mouth.

"No!" Macey shouted, making everyone in the room jump. "They're blood cakes," she explained.

Jared's eyes widened as what she'd said sunk in. He dropped the blood cake hastily and pushed it even further away, a disgusted look on his face.

"You couldn't have told me that sooner?" he asked as Flint, Cam, and Rónán chuckled away behind him, clearly amused by his almost misfortune.

"I didn't think you'd actually eat it." Macey smothered her smile with her hand.

"It smells too damn good," Jared grumbled.

"We just followed the recipe," she responded.

Jared eyed the cakes as if they would bite him.

"They do smell far better than they should," Flint admitted.

"It's the spices," Luc replied.

"Maybe put a label on them next time," Jared grumbled.

"Oh yes, next time I make food with our congealed blood, I'll write out a nutrition table to go with it."

Macey shrugged, not understanding what the big deal was. He'd known they were going to make blood cakes, it shouldn't surprise him they'd done just that.

"That would be appreciated."

"Did you get what you needed?" Macey asked, eyeing them all to see if they had any paper bags with them. Or anything else to suggest they might have some waffles hiding. She could do with them after how her day had turned out.

"Yes, though the right kind of sage was difficult to track down," Cam said.

"How many types of sage are there?" Macey could only think of the one people cooked with and all that would come in would be dried or fresh.

"Hundreds," Flint said dramatically.

"What do we even need it for?" she asked.

"To trap the Mahoun's siblings once we have them," Cam answered instantly. "It's not just as easy as luring them to us."

"Of course it isn't." Macey rolled her eyes, hating the complications that always seemed to come with their position as Wardens.

"But with this, we should be able to trap them while we defeat them."

"Will we be able to use it to separate them too?" Plans flew through Macey's mind. If they didn't have to defeat all of them at once, then it could be a deal breaker.

"Potentially," Cam admitted. "But we'll have to plan it carefully or we won't be able to pull it off. Or we'll scare them off."

"They really don't like sage then?"

"No." It was Rónán who spoke this time. "I can't say I'm particularly a fan of it either."

"Why not?" Cam turned to him with a frown on his face. "I didn't think selkies were affected by it."

"Oh, we're not. I just don't like the taste but one of the women who made the bread really loved it, so we had to eat a lot of it as a child."

"That's no fun." Macey thought back to all the things she'd been forced to eat that she didn't like during her childhood. Why did people do that? It seemed cruel.

"It's really not," Rónán replied.

"Okay, enough about what we do and don't like to eat," Jared interrupted. "What do we do now?"

"Sleep," Cam responded.

"I can think of a few better things." Jared winked at Macey and a blush rose to her cheeks at the implications. That would be a good use of their time.

"No." Luc's face said there was no arguing with what he was about to say. "All of us need our strength for tomorrow. It's going to take everything and more to do what you need to."

Macey scowled but didn't say anything, she couldn't when she knew he was right. "Has anyone got hold of Amber and Izban?" she asked them all.

Luc shook his head. "I'm going to get them tomorrow morning. They know we need them but they want one more night of their break together."

Macey nodded. She could understand that. She'd have liked to have spent more time with her men without having to do anything crazy like saving the world, too, but that never seemed to happen. Instead, they had stolen moments of pleasure in a life full of none stop action. At least she had that. From what other people had said, the past Wardens hadn't had that luxury. They'd just been seven humans picked at random and forced to take on the task of saving the world. There hadn't been any romance from what she'd heard either.

"Thank you." She nodded then shifted from side to side. With so many people in the kitchen, she was suddenly feeling rather awkward and out of place. It didn't matter that four of them knew her as intimately as any man could, it was the other one making her feel at odds with herself.

Not for the first time, she found herself wondering where Luc fit into her life and their mission. He wasn't a Warden. Nor had he been with them when they'd defeated the first of the Mahoun's siblings like the others. That, and his infuriating need to be as cryptic as Malan.

"Right, we should all get going," she muttered and turned to leave the kitchen and the awkwardness she was creating in her own mind. "I'm going to go for a swim," she added as an afterthought.

"Can I come with you?" Rónán asked.

She nodded instantly. Swimming would help clear her head and Rónán being there would make it that much more enjoyable. They walked down the corridor, knowing the house would fill the pool with the right kind of water before they even got there. She was starting to get used to the way the house worked and had to admit she loved it.

"Are you okay? You didn't look too comfortable in there?" Rónán placed a hand on her lower back.

She leaned into him, enjoying the reassuring feel of his palm against her.

"Just overwhelmed," she admitted. "Everything seems to be happening at once and I'm not sure what to do with any of that."

"I get that. I felt the same when I first met you. What the six of you are doing is truly amazing and being around you is kind of intimidating. But being a part of that is an honour. Being let into your inner circle, even more so. Thank you for taking a chance on me."

A weak smile played at Macey's lips.

"Macey, a word?"

Her smile disappeared as she turned back to Luc, who'd followed them unnoticed.

"What do you want?" she asked, sounding harsher than she meant to. It wasn't Luc's fault that she didn't know how to feel about him. It wasn't his fault that her emotions were all over the place, not to mention her hormones. That reminded her, wasn't her period due soon? That was going to be fun, being surrounded by four sexy guys while not being able to have as much fun as she wanted to.

"Could we talk for a minute?" Luc asked, his expression serious.

"I really need to swim," Macey complained, but when he saw his face fall even further, she sighed and turned to Rónán. "You go on, I'll be with you in a moment."

The selkie nodded and left them, heading towards the swimming pool that was calling Macey's name.

She faced Luc again. "What's the problem?"

He looked around as if to make sure that nobody was listening in.

"I've been asked to leave."

For a moment, Macey's heart stopped. "What? By whom?"

Had one of her men become jealous? Was there some rivalry going on behind the scenes that she wasn't aware of?

Luc's eyes turned sad. "By my superiors. They are going to assign you a new daimon. I failed their tests."

"Tests?" Macey was confused, her mind racing faster than she could fathom.

He sighed. "I've become too emotionally involved. We're not supposed to do that. We're supposed to guide and advise, but never overstep the line. Even if it only happens in our minds."

He looked so sad that Macey was tempted to reach out to him, but she resisted that urge. He looked like he was barely holding it together already.

"I don't want anyone else," she said softly. "Not that I need a guide, but if I did, I would want it to be you."

He averted his eyes. "And that's precisely why I need to leave and face my punishment."

Macey looked up in alarm. "Wait, what? Punishment? Why?"

"Daimons are trained to have excellent control of their minds and bodies. We cannot be examples and guides without our minds being pure. For us, not only our actions count but also our thoughts. I have had thoughts that go against the rules of my people and for that, I need to be punished."

She could almost feel her heartbreak. He looked so sad, so lost.

"What thoughts?" she asked, although she could imagine. She wanted to hear it from him. She wanted to know whether it had been just her imagination.

"Does it need saying?"

She nodded. "Yes. Unless you can get punished for it even further."

"No, it won't make any difference. But I think you know already."

"Say it," she begged. "Say it and stay."

"I can't," he whispered. "It's wrong."

She grabbed his arms, just about managing to hold in her anger. She wanted to shake him for giving in so easily. For not fighting.

"It's not wrong. Can't you just ignore them? Stop being my guide and just be Luc, my friend?"

"Your friend?" he repeated quietly. "Is that what I am?"

She locked eyes with him, her gaze a challenge. "You tell me."

He blinked but kept his eyes fixed on hers. "I'm not sure. We shouldn't even be having this conversation."

"Tell me," she said again. "Please."

He groaned. "If I wasn't a daimon - your daimon - I'd like to be more than a friend. Much more. But I can't change who I am. I can't change the rules." He broke eye contact and looked at the floor. "I'm going to have to leave, Macey. They will send someone else, someone more experienced who won't succumb to his weakness like I did."

This time, she actually shook him by the shoulders.

"You are not weak, you hear me? This is not a weakness, it's a strength. You're able to help me much more by being my friend. f**k the rules. I'm not going to let you leave."

His lips quivered into a smirk. "I don't think you're going to be able to stop me."

And just like that, he disappeared into thin air, leaving nothing but his scent.

Macey dived into the pool while still dressed. She needed the water. The cool water that was going to calm her mind, her heart. She was close to exploding, her anger bubbling beneath the surface. If she wasn't careful, she was going to break something. Or hurt someone. Luc's superiors, preferably, whoever they were. He'd never even mentioned them until today, but now, he was gone and she wasn't sure if she'd ever get to see him again.

Rónán swam towards her, his chestnut seal fur shimmering in the water. They weren't able to communicate when he was in this form, but he bumped his snout against her hip as if asking what was going on.

She shook her head and undressed, struggling to get out of her wet clothes that were clinging to her body. She didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted to forget and push away the anger that was making it hard to breathe. If Luc was here, he'd tell her to be calm and to think rationally. But he wasn't here. That was the point. He'd left her, just after he told her that he wanted to be more than just her friend. She'd been dreaming of him for a while now, thinking about adding him to her group of men. He would have fit in well. She was sure the others wouldn't mind him either. They'd accepted Rónán, waves, they'd even told her to make him hers.

She didn't bother taking off her underwear. She shifted, feeling the satisfying rip of the fabric as her body grew and scales covered her skin. Instead of diving right away, she kept her head above the water's surface, enjoying the burn as her gills started to crave oxygen. Rónán bumped into her again.

She closed her eyes and dived to the bottom of the pool. It wasn't quite the same as being at the bottom of a lake, but it was better than nothing. She lay down onto the tiled ground and closed her eyes. The water gently moved against her, a gentle hug that she was grateful for. The antenna on her forehead picked up Rónán's approaching form before she felt him lay down beside her. His seal was almost as big as herself and probably at least as wide. He snuggled against her, his fur touching her scales. He was so much warmer than the water around him and she imagined some of his heat reaching her heart, flowing into the broken pieces of it that Luc's departure had shattered.

They lay there for a long time, their breathing the only movement. In her mind, Macey was replaying the conversation she'd had with Luc. All this time, she'd been wondering about what he was to her. Whether she had feelings about him. Only now that he had gone was she able to admit to herself that there were indeed feelings. Lots of them. So many that it made her want to kill the people who'd taken Luc away from her.

Rónán seemed to notice her agitation and gently rubbed his body against hers. It made Macey calm down a little. It wasn't as if she was alone. She had four amazing men, all of them standing beside her no matter what. Even Rónán, who wasn't actually one of the Wardens. She couldn't put her love for him down to some kind of magic Warden bond. No, it was real, natural attraction, the same she'd now realised she felt for Luc.

Blasting waves. She was an i***t. Why didn't she realise this before? Why was her heart too stupid to understand what it was feeling? She needed to do something. She couldn't just give him up.

Suddenly, defeating a bunch of evil beings didn't seem as much of a priority. Luc was more important.