I landed on my knees in the sand. I could feel him, everything about who he was. As our marks intertwined, so did our energy and souls. The mind blocks we’d kept in place were negated, our thoughts and memories smashing together in a destructive and intimate fashion, as if they had been straining forever to reach each other. I recoiled from the alien nature of his thoughts, and at the same time sought desperately to understand.
Then his feelings flooded through me, and I gasped, my heart swelling. I could never understand the depth of emotion he felt for me, the hundreds of years he’d searched, growing weary, lonely. His love and emotional tie to me eclipsed every thought in his mind, like I was his very soul, ingrained in the essence of who he was.
And underlying that was the confusion about his father, his guilt over not questioning things, of being a good little soldier.
I’d just delved even deeper, immersing myself in all that was Brace, when he cut me off, slowing the flooding tide of emotions. He was gaining a little control, although he was moving toward me.
Josian intercepted him.
“Brace!” His shouted words were dull, though they did register in our minds. “You have to fight the melding. The challenge still stands. You cannot lose her now.”
“How is this possible?” the blond Walker snarled.
My distracted mind almost missed the flash of the knife in his hand. He stabbed out at Josian then, so quickly I couldn’t track the movement.
“We have not had a Walker melding in millennia.” His fury echoed.
I almost protested as Brace took a step away from me. I could feel him gathering control, separating our minds. I shivered as the sensation of loneliness engulfed me, and yet I could also feel his unwavering presence through my entire essence.
At least now I felt separated enough to concentrate on my father’s fight. In my distracted state I’d missed the weapon Josian had produced, also a dagger-shaped knife. Both men drew blood with their first slice. Traktin landed a large gash to Josian’s left bicep, only to look down and realize he was bleeding profusely from a wound above his ribs. Josian hadn’t missed his mark.
Talina and I were suddenly thrown backwards from the group. We ended up about ten feet away, and although I expected to hit the ground hard our landing was cushioned.
“What the hell just happened?” Talina clutched my arm as we scrambled to our feet.
“I have no idea, but don’t let me go to Brace,” I said.
I knew I might need help staying away from him.
It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m always here now.
I jumped as words echoed in my mind.
What. Was. That?
We melded, the ultimate joining of mates. I haven’t heard of it happening in hundreds of years.
His chuckle echoed around my brain.
But of course you are writing the book on bringing back the lost Walker traits.
I pulled my focus out of my head for a moment. Josian and Traktin were involved in some type of weird duel right now, and I wanted to pay close attention. I didn’t give two shits about Walker rules. If I had to save my Dad I would.
Laughter echoed.
I think I am going to enjoy hearing your inner thoughts.
I groaned.
Get out of my mind. It’s rude. I’m going to figure out how to block you.
More laughter.
I look forward to you trying.
And then he gave me some privacy – I could feel Brace still occupied a small section of my mind, but mostly he was gone. That was not fair; how did he do that?
I focused again on the fight. For some reason the men were still going head-to-head with small weapons. Sweat flung off Josian as he sliced Traktin across his chest. It was high on the left side, but deep enough to shoot off small arcs of blood. The beach where they were dancing was decorated in large patches of red. I’d had enough fight classes to see true skills before me. I’m guessing these men had learned to fight with weapons ... well, at the dawn of weapons. Actually, for all I knew, they were the inventors of weapons.
I could never battle a Walker. There was no way to compete with that amount of knowledge.
I gasped as Josian dodged an obvious jab, only to find himself struck hard in the chest. In a sly move Traktin had pulled out another knife with his left hand, and Josian now had a deep stab wound above his heart.
My heart stuttered as he faltered, just a slight stumble. I stifled my scream of warning as Traktin took advantage of this weakness to go for Josian’s throat, his hand whipping around so quickly that all I could track was the glint of silver blade as it headed for my father. But before the blade could hit its target, Josian fell to his knees.
The kill-shot sliced through empty air. Then Josian dived sideways, brought his knife up from underneath, slicing through the light clothing that Traktin wore and eviscerating him. As his super-sharp blade sliced the man from navel to throat, Josian ended up in a shower of blood.
It had been a ploy: Josian had pretended to be hurt to gain advantage.
I’d have to kick him later for that added heart attack.