CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~ Kimber ~
Aiko.
I ran across the room and threw myself into his arms and came utterly unglued.
“They’re dead. They’re dead. They’re dead.” I wept. It seemed the only words I could get out.
His arms felt so good, so strong around me, and I didn’t want to be strong anymore. I wanted to be weak. I wanted to be held and comforted.
Was Aiko the right person for that? He had only just come to our bed, but he had said he could easily fall for Rilen and Roran.
His hand stroked my hair, and I snapped my gaze to his. “Gods and stars, you’re all right. You’re not dead. You came back.”
His chuckle was a low rumble in his chest. “Indeed I did, princess.” He lowered his mouth to my ear. “Despite his best efforts, I am indeed returned.”
Gasping, I stepped back to get a good look at Aiko. “He didn’t…”
“I was not alone, my dearheart. The queen was of the mind to keep me safe. There was nothing we couldn’t handle. I was safe.” Aiko kissed my nose. “I am so sorry we’ve lost the twins.”
“I’d say she’s more than made up for their deaths, don’t you think?”
Dorian’s voice ripped through me, one part delicious seduction and one part shrieking anger at his words. I turned to face him, and he was there with a scowl on his face and disdain for me.
Neither of those should have been there. Rilen and Roran were his mates long before I was even born.
Where was his sorrow?
“I don’t feel like I’m finished yet.”
“Hi, this is all wonderful,” Gwen said, “but we need to get back to the stronghold. Immediately.”
I nodded, Aiko kept his arm around me, and we all climbed into several cars that were waiting for us. The drive was quiet, and it took a moment for me to realize that we were going the wrong way.
“What’s going on? The stronghold—”
Bel shook his head. “The airport is this way. We’re flying back. We don’t have time to drive anywhere. Hopefully, while we were gone, we’ve taken El Calafate and removed what remained of the army there.”
“We’ll know when we get on the plane,” Gwen said. She paused a moment. “Kimber, how the hell did you keep the Jeep running?”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
“It needed gas. You don’t have any money.”
“Oh.” I cleared my throat. “Well, fangs and a bloody sword riding in a Russian military vehicle seemed to be all the coin I needed.”
Gwen threw her head and back laughed as she walked away.
The plane was a sleek white rocket-like vehicle with two expansive wings and a tail. And as huge as it seemed to me, it wasn’t nearly as big as some of the other planes that were parked.
The roar of an engine far down the road from us was deafening and grew more so as it hurtled toward us. I hadn’t seen these before on the ground, nor how they rose into the sky. We’d simply ported from Hilton Head.
I had the feeling this was a more agreeable mode of travel to my stomach.
As the massive metal tube with wings reached just past the midway point, the engines screaming, the front lifted off the ground. Seconds later, the back wheels left the ground and began to ascend into the airplane's belly. I gasped when the whole thing tipped up at a startling angle and rose higher and higher into the air.
“And…we’re going to do that?” I asked Aiko.
