Echo Book 2

3. Phone

Malax carries me because my legs don't work.

Eriska puts me in a chair. "What the hell happened?"

"Nothing." Malax runs over to the boys.

"You going to talk?"

I shake my head and the ship stops. I'm staring at Earth. I think.

"This is our planet. We're going down. Everyone beat us here somehow. We even have extra people."

"Carry her. I don't think she can walk."

Malax picks me up and I wrap around him. "My boy."

He hugs me. "My girl."

"They're in shock. Let's go."

Eriska smiles. "What shocked you?"

"What if I have 8 mates?"

Tre takes me away from Malax as we get in the elevator. "He's going to puke."

Dipak nods. "I almost puked when I found out about you."

"I did puke when I found out about you."

"And then Tye."

They both, "UGH." Then we get on the shuttle.

Dipak shakes his head. "It doesn't change anything between the 2 of you. Nadine is mine. I know she's Tre's too. He will protect her above all else. She has 8 of us that do that. I want her to be safe. That's what matters. She's safe. Loved. Cared for. Happy. If something goes wrong, 1 of us can take her and disappear. The rest of us can deal with the issue and never have to worry about her."

"We communicate better than we used to. With 8 of us working to protect her, she's the safest person in the world. We love her and she loves us. Like Dipak said, she's happy."

"If she really does have more than 1 mate. You have to communicate. Don't get jealous of each other."

"Yea, when you fight it makes her unhappy. I hope you don't have 8. Every relationship has issues to work through. Watching her work through them with different men is so difficult."

Malax rubs his face. "Do you think Tim is?"

"We have no idea. I don't even see how he would know. We can't feel the bond until both people are adults. But he is acting like she's his. We'll run the test. That's all we can do."

Tre nods. "I don't see why he would lie. I think he's feeling something."

Dipak smirks. "Gas."

The boys crack up laughing.

Malax nearly falls off of the shuttle. "I'll be alright. That was shocking for breakfast."

"I'm carrying her. She's shaking, and you can't walk right."

Rye stares at the carriage. "We should have brought Eriska's car down."

"We'll get it later."

Tre carries me through some elevators and hallways. Then we end up in a big office a lot like Malax's.

"Sit down."

Malax sits and Tre puts me on him. I crack up laughing.

"What?"

"Traveled to a different galaxy to stare at nearly the same damn office."

Tim winks. "Yea, we just change seats when we do this. Then continue the conversation." I hide my face in Malax. "What happened?"

"She's scared of having 8 mates. She can't even walk. Malax is f****d up too." Eriska plops down and checks her phone. "My phone isn't connecting." She waves it above her head. "Why is it not working?"

"We don't have that here."

"What?"

"Whatever makes them work."

She jumps up. Then she spins around and finds a brain. "PUT INTERNET HERE NOW."

"Yes, ma'am."

She plops back down and rubs her eyes. "Now, we're all f****d up."

Rye nods. "Should have brought the car."

"RYE, FIX THE f*****g INTERNET. THE CAR ISN'T GOING TO DO SHIT."

"I CANNOT MAKE INTERNET OUT OF NOTHING, WOMAN." He rubs his eyes. "We need the car to look around."

"I AM GOING TO RUN IT UP YOUR ASS."

Omar stands up. "Dipak, they're in shock."

Thora smiles at me. "Nadine didn't have 8 mates. She had 10. 1 died and 1 was erased from existence."

I nod and feel myself falling.

I get picked up.

"WELL, YOU CAN'T DROP HER JACKASS." Thora's mad.

"I DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE." Malax is yelling too.

"Look here."

I look at Tim. Tye is holding me, and they are trying to get me to focus.

"AX, SIT DOWN BEFORE YOU FALL DOWN."

"Good girl."

I nod at Tim and they chuckle. Tye bounces me. "Let's get you some water, and we'll talk more."

"Ok."

He puts me in my own seat.

Eriska sits beside me. "They don't have internet."

"Even if they had the internet, we couldn't get on our internet. It wouldn't be the same."

"I never thought about it like that. I guess the phones are useless except when we're home."

"We can take pictures and stuff."

"Here." Tre gives us each a phone. "Your ship can make them for whoever you want. But it's a start. Still no internet. But you can call any of us. All of us are in there as contacts."

I pull my shirt out and take a picture of my boobs. I send it to Malax.

He smiles and texts back. -Take off the bra.-

"What did he say?" Eriska reads it and laughs. Then she takes a picture of her boobs. "Who are these people?"

"All of us, all of Kehlani's people."

"Who is Victor?"

"One of Kehlani's kings."

I hear the picture send and about die laughing.

"WOMAN, YOU BETTER HAVE A BRA ON."

"I DO." She lifts her shirt.

"WOMAN."

"I sent my boobs to Victor too." I crack up, laughing.

"WHAT?"

Omar jumps up. "We need to have a conversation..."

"I want a picture."

"About appropriate things to send pictures of."

Tim's message goes off twice. Me and Eriska lose it.

Omar rubs his eyes. "Dipak, run the test. I don't know."

I take a picture of my foot and send it to Dipak when he's not looking. He checks his phone and I laugh so hard.

Eriska picks up her phone. "I haven't sent him my boobs yet." The picture sends so fast.

I fall off my chair. I cannot stop.

"Thank you for the boob picture, Eriska, and the foot picture, Echo."

She smacks me with paper. "You suck."

I pull it together and stand up. "You sent it so fast."

"Sir, Victor, Tobias, and Elek are here to see the table."

"Of course they are. Send them in."

Victor smiles when he comes in. "Why don't more girls start conversations like that?"

"I'm Tobias. Please add me to your mailing list."

We send the pictures to Tobias.

"I'm Elek. You better f*****g not add me."

"Sir, the magicians are here."

"Send them in."

Tye's phone goes off, and he tries to check it too fast. It flies onto the center of the table, and he jumps for it. "It's only a foot."

I nearly die. "He sounded so sad."

"Why is there even a foot picture going around? That's not right." The phone goes off again. "I got boobs now. Thank you, babydoll."

Nadine laughs. "Any time."

Dipak rubs his face. "Thank you for coming in so quickly. We are potentially dealing with multiple mates again."

"No problem, sir. Can we set up on your desk?"

"That's fine. Echo, can you come over here?"

I dive under the table.

"No. She's going to do it from under the table. You can deal with that." Eriska sends another message.

"Can 1 of you?"

Tye falls under the table and pushes me out. Then Tim picks me up. He carries me over to the desk.

"Hi sweetie, do you understand what we're doing?"

I bury my face in his shoulder.

"She understands."

"We are searching for purple. If you get purple, that man is your soulmate. Any other color is not a match. How many are we testing, Dipak?"

"2. Also, she is human."

I start to shake.

"That will not alter the test."

"You're alright. It's only a little blood. Tye, can you get ready to heal her?"

"Yea."

They get out a knife and I start sobbing. Tim bounces me. "You're ok. Just a little blood. Don't look."

I bury my face in his neck. I feel the knife slice my hand and I cry harder. Then it feels better really fast. I check it fast and it's better.

Tye laughs. "We're magicians. I'm a healer. Are you ok?"

I wipe my face and nod.

Tim puts me down and Malax comes over. The boys get their blood taken too. Then the magicians say some weird words over a cup.

I peek in as it turns purple. "Malax is your soulmate."

I give him a hug. He seems relieved.

I watch the next cup get stirred.

"Timin is your soulmate."

Blackness.

"You're alright."

"Good catch, Tye."

"Yea, I've watched my woman pass out too many times because of that. I figured she'd go down. She's coming back quickly though." He puts me in a chair at the conference table.

"Alden's on his way. He's going to let you out of the vows. You have to leave your planets with them though."

Tobias shakes his head. "I'm not f*****g taking them."

"Me either." Victor tosses his phone on the table.

"Can I feel your head, sweetie?"

A nice lady smiles at me. "Yea."

"Thank you. I'm Ylle."

"I'm Echo."

"It's nice to meet you. This dragon is out cold. I cannot wake it up. She might be the strongest. I'll figure it out in a few weeks."

"Dragon?"

"We're dragons, sweetie."

I stare at her until she turns into a 10-foot tall dragon. It has big black wings. Then I dive over the table. I take out Rye and Tre during my landing.

Rye gets up. "Let's get the car and go for a drive."

"What the hell is the car going to do? You i***t. Sit down." Eriska shakes her head.

"That's a dragon, sweetie."

"Come here, baby."

I run to Malax and curl up on his lap.

"We're ok. Let's relax."

Omar stands up. "That's enough for today. I'm taking the 5 of them up to their ship. They need time to be calm. There are too many people and too much going on."

"NO. LET'S GO TO A RESORT. WE CAN ALL BE CALM." Nadine runs into the elevator.

"That's not going to help. It's too much."

A lady I don't know stands up. "Omar, the ship is too much for them. Everything is a shock. A resort is best. Give them a few rooms together. Let them have lunch and stare at the walls. They'll have ground under them when they're ready to walk."

Kane nods and pats her butt. "Mary's right. And I've seen their world. The resorts are the closest we can come to it."

"They're that advanced?"

"More."

Tye stands up. "Let's go to my island."