AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Either that was a good thing or a very, very bad thing. Zayde tried to think of something impersonal, like an old, wrinkly woman taking a shower. He’d once walked in on his grandmother just getting out of the shower, and it was a memory that still haunted him to this day.
Who knew a person could have miles and miles of wrinkles and liver spots in places they shouldn’t be? God bless his grandfather for still finding his wife so appealing, though his grandfather was just as wrinkly.
“Love makes you blind to imperfections.” Panahasi smirked.
“Dude, stop doing that!” Zayde pressed his hand over his heart. Then his jaw dropped when Panahasi threw his arm out and a swirling hole appeared. Like an actual vortex.
“We must go,” Panahasi said.
“I told you I’m not going anywhere with you, especially after you just did that freaky-deaky thing.”
“Which thing?” Panahasi seemed to be getting too much enjoyment out of this. “Reading your mind or opening a vortex?”
“Both,” Zayde said. Though he did feel a strange sense of comfort in Panahasi’s presence. Was that some sort of Jedi mind trick, for Panahasi to make people feel comfortable before he sucked their soul out? What if he was the one who’d attacked Denali?
“Kalin attacked Denali.” Panahasi no longer seemed amused. “Your mate sent me to retrieve you.”
Zayde whipped out his phone and tried to call his mate, but there was no answer.
“Zayde,” Panahasi said.
“How do you know my name?” Zayde tucked his phone back into his pocket. Oh right. The guy could read minds. Panahasi had probably snatched that from Zayde’s thoughts, though he hadn’t thought of his own name.
“Denali told me.”
“Or you highjacked it from my mind,” Zayde argued.
“Please.”
Zayde had a feeling Panahasi didn’t say that word too often. There was just something about him that said he commanded, not begged.
“If this is a trick, I swear I’ll make my soul taste like burned grilled cheese,” Zayde said before stepping forward. “So, I just walk into that hole? I’m not going to end up on the other side of the universe, am I?”
The smirk returned. “I promise you are safe.”
“Your promise means nothing to me since I don’t even know you.” Zayde hesitated. Was he really going to step through? Was he really willing to take that chance? For Denali, he would do anything, but Zayde didn’t know Panahasi. The guy could be lying his ass off.
“Look at me.”
Zayde looked up into Panahasi’s whiskey-colored eyes. Then he felt as if he was falling forward. Those eyes… He saw so much in them and nothing at all. It was the weirdest thing, something Zayde couldn’t explain. It was more of a sense of things. Of ages and ages of wisdom, of the world when it was first formed, void of people, except Panahasi. Of pain and heartache, of loneliness and pure joy. It was every emotion all rolled into one.
Before Zayde knew what he was doing, he was taking Panahasi’s hand and moving forward as if in a trance, a trance he couldn’t break out of. Zayde was calm and terrified at the same time as he walked right into the vortex.
Chapter Five
As Panahasi made his way through the underworld, he couldn’t believe the Keeper still wanted to meet in his decrepit office. Alric had found his mate and had a nice home in the suburbs, yet he still insisted they meet up in the room that looked as if it belonged in an episode of Tales from the Crypt.
Fortunately, Alric was already waiting for him when Panahasi arrived.
“Please tell me why on earth you pulled me down here,” the Keeper said.
“You’re the one who insisted we meet here,” Panahasi said.
“Old habits die hard, and for a guy my age, they die the hardest.” Alric took a seat behind his desk, which was filled with scrolls and burning candles and so much dust that Panahasi had an urge to sneeze. “Now tell me why we’re here.”
“Kalin.”
The Keeper rolled his eyes. “Boring subject. I locked that fool up more than two millennia ago. Why do you want to talk about him?”
