He still had to soothe Mercury back into sleep a few times when he heard the curious snuffle of his highly sensitive hailee awakening in his mind.
He finally looked around, frowning. “Is this everyone?”
Cain chuckled. “Probably not, but for now.”
He looked at his twin Triton and raised an eyebrow. Talon was about to lose his shit.
Triton cleared his throat. “I think we all wanted to simply assemble for the moment to talk about this situation.”
“Uh-huh. You act like it’s your situation to talk about.”
“Hey, back off.” Kami glared at him. “It isoursituation to talk about. We all live here with our kids.”
Talon growled low. “But it’s my hailee, and maybe I don’t want you talking about whether or not you shouldusehim to jump back and forth and get stones.”
Cain gave him a look of gentle reprimand. “You know better than that, Talon. We would never ask him to do anything without his full cooperation. And there would be no pressure or guilt, either.”
He stood down because he knew it was true. His shoulder slumped a little bit. “I’m just full of adrenaline, you know?”
“Of course we do.” That came from his brother, whose hand landed on his shoulder. “Trust me, I have ranted and raved and roared around this place more than probably anyone else here.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Jack can be a hefty roar kind of guy when he wants to be,” Kami said.
Cain gave them all an arch look, his gaze traveling from one to the other of them. “All of you alphas can be difficult to deal with and hard on the nerves.”
“Hey, not me.” Reno studied his knuckles. “I’m as easy-going as they come.”
Kami fell over laughing, literally rolling around on the couch in hysterics, slapping his leg. It was quite a performance, and Talon had to admit he admired it.
Reno scowled at his mate and then stuck out his tongue, which made Kami raise an eyebrow and stop laughing. “Promise?”
“Ew.” That was from Boone, who shook his head. “Can we get back on track here? Durango and I are not even sure what we’re talking about here. Really. Not one hundred percent.”
“Talon’s new mate, his hailee, Mercury, has the ability to slide as he calls it, between dimensions, and come out somewhere else. For example, his heartstone, or at least the one that Kami heard singing to him, was in Turkey. But rather than waste time getting on a plane and going to Turkey and dealing with passports and trying to get through immigration, they just slid there holding on to Mercury.”
Cain did have a talent for a succinct explanation. He supposed that was part and parcel of being a seer. You had to tell people about shit all the time.
“You’re shitting me.” Durango just sort of stared at them. “Man, Cain, that’s freaking wild.”
Cain nodded, “It is. It’s wild, and I’m not sure exactly what to do as far as protecting him. So our number one priority is protection.”
“For you, yeah.” Kami nodded, chewed on his bottom lip. “Maybe. But for me, I want to know why.”
“Why, what?” Talon asked.
“Why they did this to him. What is it that they were hiding? Because if you can make somebody happy and use them, you do it. You make them happy and you use them. And you do this over and over and over again. We all know it.” Kami’s lips tightened. “The simple fact is that these big keeps don’t get to be these big, old, ancient keeps by being stupid.”
Talon just sort of stood there for a second trying to figure this out. “You’re not suggesting that Mercury is doing something nefarious by being here?”
“No, I’m suggesting that somebody else is doing something nefarious by his being here. I think someone is going to use him to get in here and get to somebody else.” Kami shrugged, so pragmatic.
Triton snarled, danger filling the air. “That’s how they’re going to try to get through the bubble that the Ancients gave us. By sliding in with him.”
Talon shook his head, anger rising in the pit of his belly. “Mercury would never do anything to harm any children, you know that.”
“What would he do to save some?” That was Reno. “Seriously, we’re going to have to be careful. He’s not particularly savvy.”
“Stop it.” They all looked up at the voice, and Mercury stood there, holding a stone, clinging to it. “I thought I was home.”
