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Calder nodded. “I can make water do all kinds of crazy things, and I’m still learning more.”
“Amazing,” Gio breathed and looked over at Lucien. “And yours?”
Lucien slid his hand out from under theirs and held it above the bed. With the snap of his fingers, tiny teardrops of flames appeared at the ends of his fingertips.
Gio immediately collapsed onto the bed in a fit of laughter. “Of course! Of course you’re attracted to each other. Fire and water!”
Lucien extinguished the flames and leaned across Calder, snagging a quick kiss. “Then what explains you?”
The man’s laughter was silenced and he actually gulped. “Me?”
“Yeah, you,” Calder chimed in. “Why do we work when you’re with us?”
Gio shook his head dismissively. “I just tell you that it’s okay for you to be together. And maybe I’m the guy who can’t get enough of either of you.”
It sounded like a dodge to Calder. There was more to it than that, but he didn’t press the issue when Gio seemed eager to move on. The sexy man kissed him and Lucien again before settling back on the bed.
“Those Girl Scouts today, those were pestilents?” Gio inquired.
“No, those were Girl Scouts under a mind-control spell,” Lucien corrected. “Clay, the Earth Weaver, and Baer, the Animal Weaver, are away trying to locate the final Weaver, who has been kidnapped by the pestilents.”
“They must have known that all the Weavers weren’t here. Thought they could get rid of one or more of us while we were split up,” Calder murmured.
“Probably,” Lucien agreed.
“But once you get that missing Weaver, you’ll be set to take care of the pestilents.”
Calder couldn’t look at Gio when he sounded so optimistic. He was afraid to even look at Lucien and see the same feeling of hopelessness reflected in his eyes. The soul mates they’d found already could make a difference, but would it be enough this time? Or would they fail again?
“What? What am I missing?” Gio demanded, his tone growing more frantic with each word.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve fought the pestilents,” Calder said. “We’ve been fighting them for thousands of years.”
“But…wait…you’re thousands of years old? No, that’s not right. Calder, you said that you’ve had your powers a short time. I don’t understand.”
“We’re reincarnated, Gio. We’ve died every time we fought the pestilents,” Lucien gently replied.
“You’ve died!” Gio was out of the bed in a flash, both of his hands shoved into his hair as he paced. “What the fuck do you mean you’ve died? Are you telling me that you’re expecting to die when you fight them again?”
Lucien climbed out of bed after him, his hand held out, but Gio skirted him, refusing to be comforted. “We’re hoping we won’t die this time.”
Calder winced and pushed himself upright, every muscle protesting and whining at the movement. He’d rather have both men snuggled against him. That had been damn nice, but it would have to wait because Gio was clearly upset.
“Hope? You better have a hell of a lot more than hope this time around if you’ve been doing this for thousands of years and keep dying,” Gio snapped.
“We do. We have soul mates,” Calder said.
Gio froze, his eyes locked on Calder in a look of open surprise. “Soul mates? Like cut from the same cloth, perfect match, forever kind of love soul mates?”
“Yeah, that kind of soul mate,” Calder said with a sigh. “Clay, Baer, and Grey have all found their mates, who have in turn received powers from their mates. Dane can heal. Wiley does magic and talks to animals.”
“Cort, who you met earlier, is starting to get too good at reading emotions and minds like his husband,” Lucien grumbled.
“And you two?” Gio asked, pointing from Calder to Lucien. “Have you…or…are you…”
Calder sighed and looked over at Lucien, who appeared to be just as torn.
“It’s complicated,” Lucien admitted softly. That was definitely one way of putting it.
Wincing, Calder held out his hand to Gio. “Please come back to bed. I’ll chase you through the house if I have to, but it felt really nice lying with you both.”
Gio’s worried expression thawed slightly. “You’d chase me in your underwear?”
“If I have to,” Calder stated without hesitation, though he’d rather not give Grey something else to wipe from the minds of the Girl Scouts if they were still lurking.
“I guess since you’re playing the sympathy card…”
“I can do that too!” Lucien twisted his arm to show the back of it. “I think I got a splinter here from all that flying wood thrown up from the bullets. And I’m developing a blister on my toe from running around in wet shoes.”
“Please, Gio. We need you,” Calder whined in his most pathetic voice.
Gio sighed, but it sort of sounded like a laugh as he moved to the bed. Lucien also hurried—despite his blister—and climbed into bed on the other side of Calder. This time, Gio was cuddled in even closer as his arm stretched over them both.
