"Come on, Lissa-love, just try it." Drew coaxed.
"Okay, but on my tombstone I want you to put that I thought this was a bad idea." I shoved myself onto the slope. I learned quickly that going down in a straight line is a terrible idea. My shrieks could be heard for miles and probably caused an avalanche or two as I hurtled down the steep side of the snowy mountain.
"Turn, baby!" Drew shouted as he made his way down behind me. I was shocked I could hear him over the sound of my own screaming. "Turn your body, Lissa!" Drew yelled. He'd seen the pile of rocks, just as I had, and I was skiing straight toward it. I turned—skidding for yards and flinging snow up in cascades as I slid down the slope. And then I flopped over in the snow after coming to an eventual stop. I lay there in cold, powdery snow, panting and shivering. I'd get myself up off the snow. I would. Someday. Drew came to a neat stop beside me.
"Need a hand?" he asked, pushing his goggles up and leaning down to get a look at my face.
"I need a stick," I said tartly.
"A stick?"
"To beat you and your brother with," I snapped.
"But you did pretty well for your first time. The turn was almost classic when you made it."
"Yeah? A classic lapse of good sense," I grumbled. "It ranks right up there with sticking forks in toasters and taking baths with hair dryers." Drew snickered. I started laughing. "Come on, you," he lifted me up, dusted most of the snow off me and we started again. "Turn your body from side to side," he was trying to get me to do things properly. Sometimes that worked. Sometimes. At other times, I went hurtling down the mountain in a straight line, shrieking, turning and falling. Thankfully, no trees were involved by the time I reached bottom.
"You think this is funny?" I lifted an eyebrow at Drake, who was waiting at the bottom with the others, trying not to snicker. He bellowed with laughter. "You could have started me on the bunny slopes but nooo, we had to prove our point, didn't we?" I glared at him. He laughed harder and the others were laughing, too. "Unbelievable," I grumped. Ignoring all of them, I turned myself to mist and went flying straight back up the mountain. It was better the second time, and by the sixth time I almost had the hang of it. I paid no attention to the others; they were going up and down with the greatest of ease. I had catching up to do.
"If I can't move tomorrow, it will be your fault," I pointed an accusing finger at the twins as we were folded home later.
"Come on, Lissy baby, you can't be mad at us forever," Drake hauled me over his shoulder and folded us to the hot tub. He removed our clothing with a thought and dumped me into bubbling water. I huddled between Drake and Drew when Crane, Dragon, Devin, Grace and Karzac all showed up later, getting in with us. Drake grinned. Maybe he was used to parading around naked in front of his parents and everybody else—I wasn't. I intended to mist out of the hot tub and see if they could track me down later.
"Lissa learned to ski today," Drew grinned.
"I did not learn to ski today; I learned not to kill myself while those contraptions were strapped to my feet," I said sarcastically. Devin laughed.
"She doesn't know how to have fun," Drake observed.
"You could have taken me bowling," I grumped. Grace laughed out loud. Karzac turned his head but I heard the snicker. "Don't laugh, you may have to fix my bruises later," I informed him. That did make him laugh—something that didn't happen very often.
"I'm going to bed, I'm tired," I announced a few minutes later.
"I can fold you to bed," Drew offered.
"I can mist myself to bed," I counter-offered.
"I'd prefer we both folded you to bed," Drake threw in a third option. He didn't wait for a reply; he went ahead and did it. He landed us in the floor instead of in the bed while we were still wet.
"My baby's tired." Drew Pulled in a huge towel and started working it over my body. I was tired—and achy, too—if I were honest. Killing Flakkar had worn me out and I didn't get my nap afterward before going to the ski slope.
"Come on, you just need to sleep," Drake said, pulling me toward the bed. "Karzac will beat our heads in if we try anything else. He's still sending me mindspeech, telling me how tired you look."
"Let me get my PJs," I said, going toward my closet.
"No," Drew said. "Don't put anything on, baby. I want the feel of your skin against me in the night." He had his arms around me, nuzzling my neck. Drake disappeared and Drew crawled under the sheet with me. "Go to sleep, love," Drew murmured against my temple. I fell asleep in his arms.
* * *Anybody with mindspeech would have been tossed out of bed that night when Spawn was shouted mentally. Drew was out of bed like a shot, Pulling leathers and blades in with barely a thought. He was going off to battle Ra'Ak spawn, and he was leaving me behind. I shouted as he disappeared. Well, it was time to see what I was made of. I threw on clothing as quickly as I could, Looked to see where Drew went and then working up the nerve, I folded for the first time ever. I landed in an open field on a world I couldn't name. I saw Drake, Drew, Charles and a multitude of Saa Thalarr, waiting for the approaching army of spawn.
Before, Dragon and I had only battled a few dozen. These numbered in the thousands. "What the fuck?" I muttered to myself as I stared in disbelief.
"An entire planet deemed not worth saving, taken by the Ra'Ak and a good number of them turned," Radomir settled beside me, with Devin at his side. "The Ra'Ak find this amusing, transporting armies of their spawn to innocent worlds to wage war against us, hoping to injure or kill any one of us," he added. "We cannot allow a single one to escape, as even one can destroy the population."
"They've hidden Ra'Ak warriors in their midst at times, too," Devin sighed, shaking her head at the approaching spawn. They were a quarter mile away, and the fields around us were seething with their mass. We were being surrounded. "They hope to take us unawares, and they've nearly succeeded, many times," Devin added.
"Fuckers," I mumbled. Two huge birds flew over our heads—one a dark gray, the other white with black-tipped feathers.
"Crane and Gracie," Radomir nodded toward the birds. "They'll pop heads from spawn using their claws."
"Sounds good," I nodded grimly. "I'm going to mist. See ya." I misted away.
It was only seconds before the spawn attacked. The giant birds screamed overhead as they swooped in, taking heads. Drake, Drew, Dragon and three other Falchani warriors unsheathed blades and began lopping heads. A giant Snow Leopard snarled and leapt. A Black Gryphon screeched and attacked. A nine-foot Unicorn ran her deadly horn through anything that came close. I, claws forming only, swept through the advancing army, removing heads and leaving spawn to dust behind me.
"Baby, how did you get here?" Drew was running hands over me while Drake looked on, waiting for his brother to say whether I was injured. It had taken four hours to destroy the spawn army.
"Hey, I tried folding. It worked. I'm okay," I did my best to reassure my Falchani.
"Young Falchani, take your mate home," Karzac growled beside us. "She needs rest."
"We're going, then." Drake must have folded us; Drew lifted me up and I didn't argue—I was tired, just as Karzac said. I fell asleep in the shower while the twins cleaned me up—I couldn't keep my eyes open. And I slept most of the next day, too, before Drew woke me with a kiss.
"Dad says we're getting leathers for you and a tattoo if you want one," Drew gave me a lazy smile and kissed me again.
"No on the tattoo," I mumbled, thinking I probably looked like hell.
"You look beautiful. And unless you tell me no, I'm about to fuck you until you scream my name," Drew nuzzled my neck before kissing me again.
"You think so?" I mumbled between kisses.
"Oh, yeah," he murmured, his mouth settling on a nipple. He did. Twice, at least.
* * *
Drake and Drew were off sparring with their father and the other Falchani when I slid off the bed the following morning. It was the best I could do; I was a little stiff. A hot shower helped and I dressed in walking shorts and a tank top before pulling socks and athletic shoes onto my feet. It was Friday, I discovered, and I forced myself out my bedroom door, down a flight of stairs and through the maze of hallways that led to the kitchen. I was almost limbered up by the time I got there.
"Coffee?" Mike was there, puttering around the kitchen.
"Hi, hon," I said, sitting down at the island. "Coffee would be very nice." Jamie walked in while I sipped my coffee laced with cream and sugar. "Today is laundry day," Jamie grinned at me.
"You guys don't have to wait on me hand and foot," I said, looking at him and Mike. Jamie had an arm draped around Mike's shoulders.
"It's our job, and we like it," Mike informed me. "Do not thwart us in our mission to feed, clothe and clean." He had a fist in the air, like a superhero. That made me laugh. "Besides, you wouldn't believe how much we get paid or the health benefits attached or the vacation time we get," Jamie added. "Plus, we get to see shit that even sci-fi fans never get to see. I've even been folded here and there, a couple of times. You should see the beach house on their private planet."
"Uh-huh," I said. "And you now know that vampires and werewolves are real, too, I suppose."
"Oh, yeah," Mike sighed happily. He fixed breakfast for me while Jamie went off to collect laundry from all the bedrooms, including mine.
Five gates were taken care of that Friday. The Flakkar were nesting close together on those five worlds—large populations lived near them and were suffering losses, though the Flakkar nests were smaller in number than what I'd dealt with earlier. Seventy nesting pairs spaced across five worlds. I was exhausted by the time I finished.