Four-Letter Words by Evans, Gabrielle (top 10 books of all time .txt) 📗

his ear and waited several seconds before a smile brightened his features. “Hey, Aslan. I could use your help.” He paused, presumably to listen to the other man’s response. “No, no, Torren’s fine. I just need you to talk to him. Um, try to say something meaningful.”

Then he pressed the phone into Torren’s hand and indicated he should talk. “Hello?” Torren practically sang into the phone. He danced from foot to foot, still wiggling his hips suggestively as he listened to his mate. Suddenly, the smug look slid off his face, and he stilled completely. The witch blinked several times before sagging forward, forcing Thane to catch him before he fell to the ground.

“Hey, caro,” Torren whispered, the emotion thick in his voice as he clutched the phone like a lifeline. “Yeah, I’m okay. Don’t worry. I’ll be home soon. Tell Wren I love him, and give him a big hug…You know I do…Yep…Love you, baby.”

Thane took the phone Torren handed to him and tucked it into his pocket. “Better?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he say?”

Torren shook his head and began dusting the sand from his clothes. “Okay, so where do we go from here?”

It wasn’t his place to tell, but with his heightened auditory senses, Zasha had heard every word. He recognized them as the same words Thane had spoken the night they’d claimed each other. While he still didn’t know what they meant, he understood the importance. If Torren wanted to keep the conversation private, however, Zasha would respect that.

“Here’s the deal,” Lynk answered Torren’s question as he appeared at Zasha’s side. “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I think we’re here.”

“There’s nothing here,” Torren argued. “This can’t be right.”

“Not here.” Lynk pointed down at his toes. “There.” His arm lifted so that he was pointing right into the middle of the lake. “Under the water.”

Chapter Twelve

As it turned out, Lynk was right. Thane wasn’t looking forward to wading out into the cold waters, but he also didn’t see any other alternatives. “This is insane.”

“We did the magic,” Lynk reminded him. “This is it.”

They had indeed twinned their magic, sending out pulses in search of any unusual energy. Everything that bounced back to them—and it was some damn big bounces—indicated that what they sought lay at the bottom of the dark lake.

It also explained why only he and his brothers had been affected by the protective enchantments. No one other than a witch would be able to reach the hidden circle without drowning, so there was no reason to protect against humans or other types of paranormals. If not for the help of their friends and mates, the Braddocks probably would have never made it this far. Unfortunately, they’d have no choice but to continue on alone unless someone produced an answer quickly.

The last hour and half had been spent discussing possible options and trying to find an alternate way into the hiding place that wouldn’t exclude more than half of their team. Mostly, they’d just talked themselves around in circles, and no one had been able to produce another logical course of action.

The time taken to pull him and his brothers out from under the enchantments had eaten into a good portion of the night. The descent down the side of the cliff had also taken time off their ticking clock. Barely more than an hour remained until midnight, and if they were going in alone, they’d need the added power of the witching hour if they hoped to walk out alive.

Thane couldn’t be sure how many witches waited for them beneath the lake, but judging by the level of energy saturating the area, he had to assume they were vastly outnumbered. He and his brothers were the most powerful of their kind, even stronger together, but they did have their limits. That also wasn’t to say that other witches were weak, either, and being outnumbered by only a small number could be fatal.

“Are you going to just dive out into the water, swim to the bottom, and hope for the best?” Zasha threw his hands into the air and scoffed. “Look, I may not know a lot about magic, but I do know something about breathing. There is no way those witches are hiding down in those salt mines.”

“Oh, they’re down there,” Thane assured his mate. “Creating a barrier spell to keep out the water is pretty elementary magic. It’s like inflating a balloon and stepping inside it.” It was a spell even a beginner witch could cast. “There has to be a way inside, almost like a doorway.”

“Right,” Lynk added thoughtfully as he began pacing the shore. “There has to be a way inside, and they wouldn’t want to drag prisoners through the water to get them there.” He held both hands out in front of him, waving them through the air in slow, circular motions.

“Exactly,” Raith chimed in, joining Lynk near the water and waving his own hands back and forth. “It needs to be easy for them to access, but not so easy anyone can find it.”

The metaphorical light bulb lit up, and Thane swore he even heard a ding. There was a lot of ground to cover, though, and time seemed to be moving twice as fast as it should. “Everyone spread out,” he ordered. “Stay close to the water and look for anything that feels out of place. You might not see anything, but you should feel it.”

No one argued or stopped to question his orders. Fanning out around the lake, the men shuffled through the sand, mimicking Raith and Lynk as they lifted their hands out in front of them as though searching for the light switch in a dark room. Even the Delaneys prowled through the night, growling and chuffing in their shifted forms.

Damn, those werewolves were huge.

“Hey, guys,” Raven called from several hundred yards down the shoreline. “I think I found something.” Even from the distance, Thane could clearly see the smirk on the vampire’s face. His