Elora reached up and took his hands from her face and held them in hers. She understood what Cush was saying, but it didn’t take away the feelings churning inside of her, feelings that she didn’t feel totally in control of. The clearing of a throat had her turning to look at Tony.

“So you have dark-elf blood then?” he asked.

Lisa spoke before Elora could answer. “I was a Chosen to a dark elf, and Elora and Oakley are products of that mating.”

“Wait,” Elora swung around to face her brother as a thought suddenly hit her. “Why aren’t you trembling like a junkie? You have dark-elf blood running through your corrupt little veins too.”

Oakley shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean I feel a little off, like I’ve just drunk a Red Bull. Kind of geared up, ya know? But that’s all.”

“Oakley, you are older than Elora?” Tony asked.

Oakley nodded.

“And have you experienced more in life?”

Oakley grinned. “Is that your polite way of asking if I’ve tapped…”

“Oakley!” Lisa interrupted sharply.

“What? He asked,” he said pointing to Tony.

Tony rolled his eyes. “If Oakley has, uh what’s the word I’m looking for? If he has…”

“Oh, good grief. I’m seventeen, not a freaking child. Are you saying that because Oakley has had sex and probably done other things we really don’t want the details on, that for some reason it’s easier for him being here? And since I have not…”

“You’re a virgin?” she heard Cush’s voice rumble in her mind pulling her up short. She turned and looked at him. Her forehead scrunched up as she asked, “Do you really want to have that conversation right now?” She motioned to the room full of people.

“Later then,” he told her sternly.

She turned back to Tony, not wanting to even think about the conversation that would be happening between her and Cush. “So it’s harder for me because…”

“Because you haven’t given into that part of yourself,” he finished for her.

“But shouldn’t that make it easier?” she asked. “I mean if you’ve never had chocolate it wouldn’t be hard to turn it down because you wouldn’t know what you are missing, right? So why is this different?”

“Because it’s not a matter of you knowing you are missing out on something,” Tony explained. “It’s in your very nature. It’s a part of who you are and you will fight that part of you for the rest of your life, or you will give into it.”

Elora shivered under the ominous sound of his words. “Well, that’s a bummer.”

“Not exactly,” he responded.

“What do youmean?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“You are a dark elf, yet you are the Chosen to a light-elf warrior,” Tony told her. “I know a lot of dark elves, and none of them have a light-elf Chosen. Something is going on in the Elfin realm. Whether that something is indeed a bummer remains to be seen.”

“What do you know?” Cush spoke up as he pulled Elora back to his side.

Tony’s eyes narrowed at the warrior. “Can I ask first what your intentions are?”

“Dude, you are employed by the freaking dark elves,” Elora huffed. “I think we should be the ones worried about intentions.”

“Just as you were born into what you are, I was born into what I am. I did not choose this life. It was given to me and I made the best of it.”

“And now?” Cush asked.

“Now I find that there are things that I just can’t turn a blind eye to any longer.”

Cush watched the human male closely, trying to determine if there was any deceit in his words. But all he could see in the man was a weary resolve. It would have to be enough to trust him, because they didn’t really have any other options.

“We need to find the source of the Rapture,” he finally voiced the plan he had been quietly working out in his head, “so that we can destroy it. It’s not enough to just get it out of the casinos,” he continued. “We need to stop production at the source.”

Tony nodded. “Like killing the queen in a hive.”

“What about the portals?” Rin asked.

“It might be beneficial to leave them closed for now,” Cush explained. “Right now Lorsan has no way to send more of his own through, unless he opens them back up. But that would allow our people through as well. So if we leave them closed, all we have to contend with are the ones already here.”

“How many are there?” Lisa asked.

“There’s no way to know that,” Tony answered. “But I do know where the Rapture is being made.”

When he didn’t continue Elora rolled her eyes. “Do we have to beg?”

Tony’s eyes narrowed on her. “You don’t have to, but I’m not saying it wouldn’t be nice to watch.”

Cush let out a low growl at the human. “Remember who she is?” He warned him.

Tony held up his hands. “Sorry, hazard of the job and sort of a habit.”

“What?” Elora asked, obviously confused by the exchange between the two males.

“In my line of work, flirting is just part of it. I mean nothing by it,” Tony explained to her but directed his last comment to Cush.

“Regardless,” Cush grumbled, “save your flirting for other females.”