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Chapter 18
Lauren managed to hold it together in front of people, sitting on her tree limb. Her mother helped her levitate away from everyone and back into the underground mine, and she curled in a ball on the stone floor, squeezed her eyes shut, and put her hands over her ears, but it didn’t help. The bear and hawk could still see, and the bear could hear everything being said aboveground. She still got their input even when she shut down her own senses.
During the battle, Lauren’s new riders had worked with her as a team. She preferred close-up fighting with knives, but she knew how to handle a rifle, and she’d floated up into the trees and picked off the enemy, one by one, with no need of the scopes she’d had to make use of in the past. Before, she’d have needed a night vision scope to both help her see in the dark and bring things in the distance up close. Tonight, however, she’d been able to accurately zero in on people in the dark from seventy yards away with more clarity than any scope could’ve provided.
Too much clarity, because she’d seeneverythingwhen the bullets tore through the flesh of her targets.
And now, she could still see and smell and hear more than she should. She couldn’t make itshut up.
Her mother knew when to tell her to breathe, and when to be quiet, and Lauren was thankful her mom understood that what her daughter needed in that moment was as much silence as possible so she could try to find her center.
Lauren breathed in and out, focused on the way the air felt in her throat. In her lungs.
Everything that usually centered her, didn’t.
And then a cool hand touched her, andeverythingwent silent. No sound. No scent. Dim vision.
Thank you.She told the vampire. She recognized his energy, and this cool hand meant safety, rather than danger.
You need to eat, Shortstuff. I brought an energy bar for both of you.
“I’m not complaining,” Lauren told him, “but I need to know what you did.” She spoke aloud to make sure she could. “I can feel the vibrations of my voice, but I can’t hear it.”
I can shut the sensory part of your mind down without going into your memories or affecting your willpower, but I need physical touch to do it. From a distance, it would be an all-or-nothing thing.
I’m going to need you to show me how to do that, but later. For now, can you give me my sight back, then hearing, and then scent? I’ll let you know when I’m ready for the next.
She didn’t take long to reintegrate each channel of sensory input, so within five minutes, she stood, took a deep breath, and told him, “I assume you need us by your side out there. I’m ready.”
“Queenie just left with the truck carrying my injured vampires out of here. They’re on the way to a different cave, where the flock is also being taken. Ambrose is overseeing body removal and cleanup, and he has healthy vampires and shapeshifters to assist him. The various alphas are about to be delivered enough raw meat to feed the shapeshifters who had tochangedue to injuries. MySecundois acting as general manager, resolving issues as they arise.”
“Where do you need me?” Lauren asked.
“Ideally, you’ll walk the site with me and give input where you can. I need to oversee progress and check in with the various leaders, and that will include a conversation with Nick while I check on the shapeshifters he was in charge of.” He looked at Kirsten. “It’s important I be seen giving you a job, and you following orders. Do you understand?”
“Of course. I’m particularly suited to helping with body removal, as I can burn it to ash without an actual fire.”
* * * *
He’d worried a little about Lauren understanding, but he needn’t have, because she grasped it right away. “There can’t be a question that she was acting under your command when she killed Medved.”
“Precisely. While it will be good for you to be seen by my side, helping manage the clean-up, it isn’t as important you’re seen following my orders, though I’ll ask that you argue with me telepathically, please.”
“I saw Nick, and I could feel his anger and rage during the battle, but I can’t feel him anymore. Is he okay?”
The twisted, dark part of Gavin’s conscience wanted Nick to be out of the picture, but the part of him that cared for Lauren didn’t want her to lose her friend. Helluva thing.
Either way, he needed to be honest with Lauren, so he gave her what he knew. “He’s injured, but he’s up and taking care of his people. I don’t sense anything critical, though I imagine he’s going to need tochangeand heal before much longer.”
“Do we levitate up, or do you want mom to pop us back into the center of things?”
Gavin met Kirsten’s gaze. “I don’t want to assume your help.”
“Not a problem. Where do you want to appear out of thin air?”
“Near the wolves, then we can walk to the lions so Lauren can check on Nick.”
* * * *
