Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 146530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146530 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 733(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Kyle stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I really like her, Jonas. And I thought for sure she was your match. You’ve got to have someone who can handle you. I never thought there was a woman alive who could do it, but I have to agree with Jeff. Camellia not only can handle you, but I think she can seriously kick your ass. Do you even have any idea what she’s capable of?”
“She’s capable of hearing you, I know that much,” Jonas assured. “So if you don’t want to get zapped, stop acting crazy. I like my woman feisty. She has every right to be upset at me. I should have come clean with how many soldiers we might run into. Crawley gave that up and I didn’t tell her. I told her we’d be partners, that means keeping her in the loop.”
“You were protecting her. We have the right to protect our women,” Jeff decreed, raising his voice to the normal range and glaring at the back of Camellia’s head.
The moment the words were finished coming out of his mouth, she raised one hand over her head, fingers poised in the classic sign, flipping him off. At the same time, just briefly, fireflies danced in the night, sparking little lights all around Jeff’s body. They never seemed to actually land on him, but he winced and then jumped to one side and then the other.
“Cut it out, you little monster.”
Camellia turned around slowly, looking very innocent—too innocent. “Are you addressing me, Jeff? What are you accusing me of?”
“You know darn well what you did.”
“Other than wanting to kick Jonas, which I haven’t done,” she replied in a pious voice, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Kyle burst out laughing. “You aren’t going to win this one. None of us are.” He held up his hands in surrender. “I had no idea there was a battalion either until Crawley let it slip in questioning. We’re all guilty of wanting to protect you, Camellia. Maybe ‘want’ is not the right word. ‘Need’ might be better.”
She tilted her chin at him. “Because you need a healer for the teams.”
Kyle looked genuinely puzzled. “A healer for the teams?” he echoed, sounding as puzzled as he looked. “No, babe. Because it’s you.”
Jeff nodded. “Don’t want to lose you any more than Jonas does. He might think you’re the love of his life, but we know you are.”
“Even though I can kick his ass?”
Jonas loved the amusement in her voice. That was his Camellia, her moods mercurial. Passionate. One minute hot with temper, the next full-on laughter. That was coming, he could feel it.
“He often needs his ass kicked,” Jeff admitted.
Jonas’s protest was lost before he could voice it. Camellia burst out laughing, the sound contagious. Beautiful. Impossible to resist.
A wolf howled in the distance. An owl screeched as if it missed its prey. That was their warning system, and they all sobered in an instant. It was time for the fog to start rolling in across the mountain. They would have to leave the safety of the garden. Jonas really hated taking Camellia with him, but at the same time, he knew she was right. If he didn’t, his attention would be divided. He wouldn’t stop worrying that he’d made the wrong decision.
She wrapped her hand around the thickest branch of the largest Middlemist Red Camellia shrub and stood there for a long moment, head bowed. Jonas went to her, both hands fitting on either side of hers, caging her in, opening his mind to hers.
At once, he felt the expansion of Camellia’s reach across the forest. It wasn’t confined to the garden and the plants there. She had tapped into the trees and brush, the flowers and shrubs, fern, fungi and even moss. All of those plants were connected through the underground network and the ruler of them—Red.
Camellia was very accepting and accepted. Nothing in the forest network questioned her presence because she was no threat to them. Jonas buried his mind in hers. Once connected to her, their shared Middlemist Red properties allowed the neurons in their bodies to sync up so that he could see the way the nutrients moved from her to him and him to her—shared so all their nerve endings lit up as the process took place.
The liquid energy from Camellia was an interesting deep shade of pink, not red but a brilliant pink, while his was a dark purple. The two distinct streams of nutrients moved together, flowing in the proper direction because for once, he wasn’t raging. They moved together in harmony, stretching beyond the human body to find the veins of the mycelium beneath the ground.
I need warmth from the surface to cool rapidly and one hundred percent humidity to be achieved. The skies are clear tonight, and there is little to no wind. Red will have to have the plants help with that. I can’t do it. They have to.