Mystik Warrior: (Dark Warrior Alliance Book 2) by Brenda Trim, Tami Julka

can deal with, but what kind of creatures are we talking about?”
    “Don’t be so sure about your abilities against her spells. While she doesn’t use black magic, she does combine light and dark forces, and that combination is sure to challenge you. You and Gerrick will need to pool your energy and use every resource at your disposal.”
    “That won’t be a problem. We’ve linked our energies for centuries, but we will need all our focus to be successful,” Gerrick replied. He was right. Jace needed to keep his head in the game. Ever since he had rescued Cailyn, his mind had been preoccupied with her, and he needed to be on his A-game if they were going to succeed.
    Instinctively, Jace’s finger traced the moon and nighthawk etched in his silver cuff. His father had given him the Cuff de Draiocht when he passed his stripling years, and his words came back to him. His father had told him that the cuff couldn’t be removed once it was placed on his wrist, and that it provided Jace with immense power. When Jace encountered new or stressful situations, all he had to do was touch the cuff and access what waited beneath the surface. Unfortunately, when he had been chained in Angelica’s dungeon, he was unable to access its power. He hoped it didn’t fail him now.
    “Let’s get Zander and Bhric and head out,” Jace told Gerrick. He was ready to be on the road.
    *****
    “Shit, Nikko,” Jace cursed at the council member flying the plane, “can you cruise at a higher altitude for fucks sake?” Jace barked as they hit another pocket of turbulence and his nausea surged again. Recalling the all-too-brief kiss he had shared with Cailyn wasn’t helping matters. It struck him that he had never felt ill for so long after an encounter with a female. Then again, he had never been aroused like he was at the merest thought of her. It didn’t help that images of her naked and spread on his bed plagued him about every five seconds.
    “Working on it Jace. Hey, can someone bring me one of those sandwiches and a drink?” Nikko hollered from the cockpit. Nikko was one of the most even-keeled males Jace knew, which was why he was the best suited to train new Dark Warriors.
    “Aye, but all you get is a coke because you did a shite-job of stocking the bar. What’s up with that? You knew we were going to be on the plane for several hours,” Bhric griped as he reclined in the pale leather seats.
    “Fuck you, lush. Do it yourself next time,” Nikko teased. Jace would bet his last dollar that Zander had told Nikko to remove all the alcohol from the plane given Bhric’s tendency to overindulge. Hoping to settle his stomach, Jace got up and made his way to the fridge and grabbed a soda.
    “I will. And, when I do I’ll bring some lasses along with the booze. Why do we even have a bed back there if I canna pound a willing nymph into the springs?” Bhric shot back.
    Jace also grabbed a sandwich then handed them both to Nikko before he sat back down. Unable to relax, he crossed and uncrossed his shit-kicker over his knee, pulling at a loose string on his faded blue jeans. Sweat dripped down his spine and his heart raced as images of him putting that bed to use with Cailyn filled his overactive imagination. He wanted to punch Bhric in the face for putting that image in his head. He was wrongly blaming the male, but he was okay with that.
    Needing a distraction, he ran through preparations in his mind. “Who is meeting us when we land?” he asked Zander.
    Zander finished off his food and lobbed the trash into the can in the corner. “Aison and Luke will meet us at Lakefront and take us back to Les Augres Manor.” Jace smiled at the mention of the New Orleans Dark Warrior compound. He hadn’t been there in at least a century.
    “I say we go straight to the voodoo shops Micah researched, not the manor,” Gerrick proposed. For once, Jace appreciated how focused Gerrick always was on the mission at hand. The warrior was the epitome