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I EXPECTED TO SEE IKE guarding the door, but a little white mouse was waiting for us instead. He scurried over to Raina and stood up on his hind legs, holding his arms up to be picked up.
“Is he mine?” Raina asked in delight and bent down to pick him up.
“It sure looks like it,” I replied, heart swelling with love for my little sister’s kind gesture of welcome. I scanned my hand to open the door to find everyone waiting for us in the living room.
“This is a new record,” Brynn said with a grin. “It didn’t even take you a week to come home with your mate.”
“Everyone, this is Raina,” I said. She nodded at them nervously and stuck to my side like glue as I carried my gear to the kitchen.
“I’d love some tea,” Alex said and everyone else chimed in that they wanted coffee. Emma turned to watch us, fascinated by the new arrival.
“I’ll make it,” Raina replied, glad to have something to do.
“What happened to you earlier?” Nick asked, swiveling around on the couch to watch me put the groceries I’d brought home away. “I felt your panic even from here.”
“I almost died again,” I said, flicking a look at Raina to see her slant a glance at me in return. Now that I knew about the blessing, I had to let them all know about it as well. Can you scan them to see how many of us are affected by the blessing, I asked her.
Of course. It’s a good idea to see if you and Nick aren’t the only ones it was passed on to, she replied.
Raina was feeling much more settled by the time we’d made the drinks and arranged snacks on a plate. She followed me to the living room and placed her tray on the biggest coffee table. Hands darted out to grab the food I put down. In seconds, the mugs had been claimed and the plates were empty.
“Are you going to introduce us to your mate?” Syd asked with her mouth full, spitting crumbs everywhere. Harlan brushed them off his lap and smiled at her indulgently.
“That isn’t necessary,” Raina said as she took a seat next to me. “I know who you all are.”
“What are you going to call your mouse?” Yas asked, gesturing at the zombie that was sitting on my mate’s knee.
Raina scanned my mind to come up with a name. “Kappa,” she said, keeping with the Greek alphabet. “I love him already,” she added. “Thank you for the gift, Alex.”
My sister nodded, blushing slightly at being the center of attention. She and Raina were similar in a lot of ways and I knew they would get along. “Everyone on the squad gets their own zombie,” Alex said.
“I can sense that you can use magic,” Gedniah said with a slight frown. “Yet you do not appear to be like anyone else here.”
“I’m half fae,” she said and every jaw dropped. “My mother is a faery and my father was a werewolf. I imagine he’s long dead by now.” Her tone was chilly, indicating that she hadn’t been fond of him.
“How old are you?” Harlan asked in fascination.
“I was born over five hundred years ago. My mother came here to study foreign types of magic. She was in Europe when she was attacked by my father. She fled through a fae portal and ended up in this country. She gave birth to me, then went home when I was fifteen, shortly after I shifted for the first time.”
“Raina didn’t know she was half shifter,” I said at their shocked expressions that she’d been abandoned when she’d been so young. “She thought she was cursed.”
“I’m the one who’s cursed,” Alex joked to break the tension a bit. “How did you two meet?”
I told them about heading to Maine to investigate the magic user who’d turned out to be my true mate. Nick was understandably annoyed with me for going off on my own, but he couldn’t chastise me for it, since he’d done exactly the same thing. Somehow, we’d both found our mates and had come home alive.
“Can I see that beastie you encountered?” Crowmon asked, holding his hand out for my phone. I took it out and scrolled to the photos I’d taken of the snake, then tossed it to him. He examined the photos, then my phone was passed around to everyone else. “I’ve never seen anything like that before,” the trickster said with a shudder. “The ground around it was poisoned by its toxins.”
“It only took a few drops of its spit to almost kill me,” I said when my phone was passed back.
“I take it bonding with Raina saved you both?” Brynn said.
“Just like it did with Freya and me,” Nick said with a frown. “I still don’t get why that happened. Does anyone have any clues?”
“I might,” Raina said. “Can I scan you to verify my suspicions?”
Nick already trusted my mate and leaned across Freya to hold his hand out to her. “Go ahead,” he said.
She took it and delved into him. “May I?” she said to Freya next and released my brother’s hand. The Viking warrior allowed my mate to delve her.
“I’d like Raina to scan everyone, if that’s okay,” I said when she nodded at me surreptitiously.
They all knew something was up, but they didn’t ask us any questions yet. Raina stood up and worked her way through everyone. She even scanned our zombies. Ike studied her as she delved him and I wondered what was going through his head. He wasn’t like any other human who’d been raised from the dead before. He was still learning and adapting and he didn’t need to be given orders anymore.
“Well?” Brynn demanded when Raina took a seat next to me again. “What’s going on?”
Raina looked at me when I read her thoughts and I nodded at her to break the news to them. “Bonding with Liam saved my life, but it didn’t save his,” she said.
“Wow, that really clears that up,” Yas muttered sarcastically. I gave her a withering look I’d learned from Uncle Mark and she clamped her mouth shut.
“What did you sense, lass?” Crowmon asked curiously.
“Nearly everyone in this room has been blessed,” Raina said and received confused looks.
“What’s she talking about, bro?” Nick asked with a hint of alarm.
Raina looked at me and I took over. “It seems Lauryl’s blessing was stronger than we thought,” I told them. “Raina sensed that it was designed to be passed on to future generations.”
Alex was the first to grasp what I was saying. “Are you saying that we’re all immortal?” Her voice came out a few octaves higher than usual.
“That’s exactly what we’re saying,” my mate confirmed.
Stunned to silence, even Syd couldn’t think of anything to say for once.
“I guess that’s how I survived having my heart shredded by a silver bullet,” Nick said at last.
“And how we both survived being infected with vampire toxin,” Alex added shakily.
“You said nearly everyone in this room is blessed,” Crowmon pointed out. “Who isn’t on that list?”
“You, Yasmine and the zombies don’t have the blessing,” Raina replied. “It was passed from the older generation to their children. It’s passed to their true mates when they become bonded. It will continue to spread through our bloodlines.”
“So, Ike and I aren’t immortal?” Yas said in disappointment.
“All three of you are already immortal, in your own way,” Raina said. “Crowmon is a god, you’re an undead vampire and Ike is a zombie. The only way any of us, except for our zombies, can be killed now is by decapitation, or by an event that’s so catastrophic that not even our ashes can regenerate.”
Once again, stunned silence reigned at the bombshell she’d just dropped on us.
