Chapter 4

Tyler opened his eyes. "Senator Giles is on our side."

"Good," Klark replied.

Emily, who was in the backseat of a brand new Jeep, looked at him. They had abandoned the safe house at two that morning. She had been bleary eyed as she had stumbled to the car but she had gone with them. There really wasn't much else she could do.

Klark steadfastly refused to meet her eyes. Instead he watched the world pass them by out the window of the vehicle. There was something about him that called to her but she wasn't sure what it was.

Looking down where his arm rested against hers, she noticed the light silver glow that went from his arm to hers. It had been there last night when he kept her from helping Tyler in the kitchen. She had no clue what it meant but was determined to find out.

Rowan caught her gaze in the rearview mirror and held it for so long she thought he would wreck. He smiled, shifted his gaze, and easily merged into the next lane. It was an effortless maneuver that had her wondering if he really ever lost control.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"We have a contact in Jackson," he replied.

"If you want to call Nieman a contact," Tyler murmured.

"He's never let us down before," Klark replied.

The younger man shifted until his feet were on the dashboard. "I never said he didn't. I just think he's a second rate informant."

"He protected Aiden."

Rowan snorted inelegantly. "If you want to call telling us three seconds before the attack came. That doesn't inspire confidence in anyone."

Emily frowned. "Then why are you going to see him?"

"Nieman is my mom's nephew. He's always been good to the family but he's always straddled the fence. One day he's good and the next he's siding with the bad guys. We can't stay away from him because his Intel is always good. My sister doesn't know what to do with him," Klark explained.

"Why doesn't she deal with him?"

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Because he's our cousin and she doesn't want to cause strife in our family."

She tilted her head. "It seems your sister doesn't know what she wants."

Klark stiffened but it was Tyler who turned suddenly in his seat and glared at her. "You have no idea what you're talking about. Aiden is very in tune to her family and friends. She knows what we need even before we ask. It's who she is and how she works. Don't knock something until you understand it."

"That's enough, Tyler. We don't need to scare her anymore than she already is," Rowan scolded.

That shocked her somewhat. "How do you know I'm scared?"

"Your heart rate's elevated and there's a thin sheen of sweat on your skin."

She stared at him. How in the hell had this man read her without reading her thoughts? Or did he read her thoughts? They said they were some sort of super human. Maybe they could read thoughts. What else would they know?

"Rowan's the Healer. He sees everything. And we're telepaths. It's hard to hide from us," Klark stated. She turned her head to look at him, but he had turned back to the window.

Silence filled the interior of the car. Tyler sulked, Klark stared out the window, Emily picked at her nails, and Rowan drove. No one knew what to do. Emily was in shock because these guys knew she was scared and they could read her thoughts. That could be bad.

Klark found a doe running along the side of the road. She was so peaceful, unlike the inside of the car. Right now Tyler was causing the temperature to plummet due to his foul mood. Instinctively he pushed his heat away from his body.

His body was oversensitive. It was due to a combination of two things. First and primarily it was due to Emily's presence. He knew exactly who she was the moment she walked through the door hunting him.

Second he was injured and Rowan's healing power was coursing through him. Healers had the ability to fine-tune their energy to the injured person's. The power was potent and it made the patient's skin itch uncontrollably during the healing process. That was the reason he hadn't been wearing a shirt when Emily showed up.

A dull throb registered in his mind and he adjusted his body to accommodate it. When he did that, he bumped into Emily. Fire raced up his arm. He was lucky it didn't catch.

This was getting ridiculous. He remembered his brother telling him about when this happened to him. The same silver glow was seen on his skin and his power decided to act up. Jess hadn't cared but his power couldn't kill people with one touch.

"Easy, Pyro." Rowan's voice filtered gently into his mind. "The car's getting too hot."

Klark closed his eyes and thought of his nieces and nephews. When he was certain all the little flames were out, he opened them and met Rowan's eyes. They passed a sign that told him they were entering Jackson.

"Sorry," he replied.

"It happens. I know I was seeing stars when I met Camille. It settles down when you bind her to you."

"I don't want to subject her to any of this."

"Sorry, buddy. She already is. Now that you've touched her, your power is with her. Anyone who wishes can feel it and she can be targeted. Binding her will stop it. Why do you think Mikey and Aiden hide their families or train them?"

He pressed his face against the window. "I hate this."

He jerked when flames erupted on his elbow. Turning his head, he caught Emily staring at him.

"What are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"What makes you think we were talking?" he asked.

She gave him a droll stare. "You've done it before. If you can control fire, you can talk mentally."

"It's called telepathy, dear," Rowan supplied. Klark glared at him. "She's very intuitive. You might as well be honest."

He sighed and hit his fist against the window. "There's something among our people known as a bondmate. The signs are silver glow on the skin and enhanced senses, even more so than normal."

She tilted her head at him. "Meaning…?"

"What he's saying is the reason your skin is glowing when you're touching him is because you're his bondmate," Tyler stated rather bluntly as he played on his phone.

Klark kicked the back of the seat with his good feet. "Thanks a lot, dumbass."

"You take too long."

"At least I have more tact than you do."

"Wait," Emily said. She shook her head briefly and looked back at him. "What does it mean exactly?"

"It means he can bind you to him without you consent," Tyler said.

"Tyler!" Klark threw the blue roll of towels at his head. He couldn't throw his usual flames at him so he settled for the cleaning products.

"But he won't because his mother raised him to be a gentleman," Rowan replied immediately, trying to ease the situation between the two men. "Tyler, you may be pissed but you have to quit saying idiotic things. Klark, if you won't answer, we have free reign to do so." When Klark didn't seem as if he was going to answer, Rowan turned his attention to Emily. "Do you want to understand what we're talking about?"

Emily looked between Klark and Tyler. Both men were seething at each other and the situation. She looked back at Rowan and nodded. "Yeah, I want to know."

Rowan nodded. "Each man and woman among our people has one person they will spend the rest of his or her life with. The signals to one of us that our other half has been found are glowing skin, silver or gold depend on what faction we belong, and heightened powers. It makes that point in our lives extremely volatile."

"We're uncontrollable," Klark mumbled.

Rowan got on the exit ramp. "We are uncontrollable to an extent. Usually we have a good grasp on our powers, but during this time, we can be monsters. It's the job of the bondmate to help us for the rest of our lives. You can't get out of it. It's a lifelong commitment. Kind of like a marriage."

Marriage wasn't her thing. She had seen what had happened when two people lost the love for each other. It tore them apart. If they had kids it was much worse for the children than the parents. It was the kids who felt as if the failure of the parents' marriage was their faults when it wasn't. Sometimes two people had a whirlwind courtship and end up married before they realize they can't stand the other person. It made for a shitty life.

No, Emily was never going to get married.

"Can a bond be broken?" she asked.

Tyler sighed and shifted has position. He was still annoyed but it had calmed a bit. "A bond can be broken but it's painful. It feels as if your entire person is being ripped apart from the inside out. The bond is as much mentally as it is emotionally. You form a telepathic bond as well as a physical one. A normal human can feel when their mate is hurt or upset without having to be near them. This is not something we play around with because it is so sacred the Court members who don't have bondmates can get jealous of the ones who do. If a bondmate suddenly wants to break the bond, it can tear a rift between the Court member and his or her friends."

Emily caught the pan in his voice. She leaned forward in her seat. "Did that happen to you? The bond breaking, I mean?"

He looked over his shoulder and shook his head. "No, it wasn't me. I had a twin brother but he was killed five years ago. He had a mate none of us knew about when we should have. We can sense when others of our kind mate but we didn't sense it with him. When he died, their bond shattered. She went crazy and tried to murder a child two years ago. And it wasn't just any child. It was the child of our Queen."

He turned his head to look out the window. "Klark won't force the bond on you. He'll let you choose. But if you choose him, you'll have to give up everything you know so you can help him and us. We're coming on hard times and we're going to need every person we can get."

Her eyes slanted to Klark. He was staring at Tyler with a sad look n his eyes.

Something had happened, something more than what Tyler had divulged. Tyler's brother had done something or his brother's mate had done something even more drastic than what had been explained.

Then there was the concept about a bondmate bond. She would have to give up her job as a bounty hunter to follow him. Would she have to do what he said? If this bond thing was so important, why couldn't he find another person and leave her be? If it was so important, why didn't he already have a mate? The questions plagued her as they entered Jackson.