Stained Minds

by Helen Scott

  “You didn’t think to check on the bond yourself?” Barc growled at me, but I ignored him and sprawled beside Marcella on the bed.

  She stank of wolf and sex and blood. Fuck, she was better than a perfume store for those dreary humans who liked to cover themselves in the stuff.

  After I flipped him the bird, I beamed a grin at my woman. “You’re a sight for sore eyes.”

  “I’m sure I’m definitely a ‘sore sight,’” she quipped with a grimace, reaching up to pat her hair.

  Touched that she was trying to primp, I smirked and grabbed her hand. “You’re gorgeous. Just as you are.”

  Her nose wrinkled. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you being so charming?”

  I spread my fingers against my chest. “I’m offended. Are you saying I’m not charming?”

  “Well, the others might charm the birds from the trees, but you and Cade? I don’t think charming is a word that fits either of you.”

  I huffed. “We’re charming. It’s just not a variety that most understand.”

  She grinned and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “I wasn’t complaining. I just wondered what was going on.”

  Barclay snorted. “Yes, because you being kind has to be indicative of the world going to shit, Rav.”

  Glowering at him, I grated out, “Dickface.”

  “Better than furry dick,” he retorted, rolling out of bed and stretching.

  Marcella hummed, her gaze glued to his glutes. She even tilted her head as my bro walked out of the room toward the bathroom.

  “Enjoying the view?” I teased, grinning at her.

  She didn’t blush, just smirked at me. “Who could blame me?”

  “My dick don’t swing that way,” I informed her.

  “Shame,” she purred, reaching up to curve her arm around my neck. “Anyway, as much as I’d like you to distract me—”

  “As much as we’d both like me to distract us,” I corrected her, making her grin.

  “Yes, well…”

  I winked at her. “No reason. Just figured you were awake and I hadn’t seen you in ages.” I drew out the syllables in the last word. “I missed you,” I informed her, meaning every single word.

  Marcella’s eyes widened. “You did?”

  “I did.”

  My confirmation had her licking her lips as she stared at me, looking at me like I’d made the world rise and fall by uttering those three words.

  “Is something wrong?” I asked, frowning at her when she kept trying to speak and failed.

  “N-No, I just didn’t expect you to be so sweet.”

  A snort sounded from the door. “We don’t do sweet. Except with you.”

  This time, she sighed, and there was relief there. “You sound more normal, Cade.”

  My brother’s feet thudded against the floor as he stomped over, then he slipped onto the bed, sandwiching her between us in less than five seconds flat.

  “Normal is relative.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, it is, but after you were both pulling Sleeping Beauty acts, we’re all relieved that you’re awake.”

  Marcella bit her bottom lip. “What’s happening, guys? I know something must have gone down after I fell asleep that last time. With Elayne… I mean.” She gulped.

  “How much do you remember of before?” Cade questioned, but his voice was as soft as the fingers he used to trace shapes on her jaw.

  “Not a lot. Just… blood. A lot of blood. All over. I thought it was a nightmare, but it wasn’t, was it? Morgana made me do it.” She closed her eyes, but her head jerked to the left at the sound of the shower coming on in the bathroom. A shaky breath escaped her. “That sounds like such a cop-out.”

  I grunted. “Does it? We’re all in the hands of creatures who are far more powerful than we are, Marcella. I think we’re all freaking out about how much control they have over us.”

  “As well as why they’re interested in our brotherhood in particular,” Cade added grimly, his mouth turning low at the corners as he thought about that issue.

  “Why are they so focused on us?” Marcella whispered.

  “I’m not sure. Not even Darius knows.”

  “Can’t you speak with Rhys? With the Cavalry?”

  He shook his head. “They left. Don’t you remember?”

  “No, should I?” Her brow puckered with confusion, and I wondered if Elayne had done something to soften the memories of what had to be a horrific act of violence Marcella had perpetrated under Morgana’s command.

  She’d somehow managed to slay all of her mates, as well as the Cavalry. That wasn’t something anyone would forget in a hurry. Not without help anyway. And considering none of us remembered jack? We’d definitely been fucked with by those bitches

  Cade dropped a kiss to Marcella’s cheek. “The council came and took our prisoners away. At the same time, they left with Elizabeth.”

  Her eyes flashed. “They took her? She won’t be punished?”

  “I have a feeling that being their mate is a punishment in and of itself,” I grumbled. “Duplicitous bastards.”

  “They were, weren’t they?” she whispered. “Why did they keep lying to us?”

  “They weren’t as pure as they’d have us believe,” Cade gritted out, then he reached over and bopped Marcella on the nose with his index finger. “As it stands, now you’re awake, we have to return to Westbrook.”

  Her mouth dropped open. “What? Why?”

  “When we first arrived,” I explained, “Gideon had a weird feeling about the place. Elayne confirmed that he’s Sleeping somewhere near the Academy.”

  She frowned. “Through the bond, I experienced something similar when we joined in the yard.”

  I tilted my head to the side. “So, one rests here? In the city?” I asked Cade, not Marcella.

  “Not our problem,” was his brisk reply. “Elayne said Morgause would Awaken on her own. Arthur is another issue.”

  Marcella grabbed his hand. “What’s going on? We have to Awaken Arthur? Why?”

  He shrugged. “Elayne asked us to. If we’re to keep Morgana away from you, to stop her shit stirring and messing with all of us, she asked us to Awaken him.”

  She started gnawing on her bottom lip. “Guys, I don’t have a good feeling about this. I thought that was the last thing we’d want—all four of the Sires to be alive and kicking again.”

  “You think we do?” I retorted with a snort. “It stinks of bad juju, but what the fuck can we do? We can’t have the Mother of Vampires visiting us every time she gets a hard-on to see you.”

  “I don’t understand any of this,” she whispered, drawing herself up into a sitting position. With her back to the headrest, her arms loosely cupping her knees, she looked vulnerable as hell.

  After we’d left Westbrook, she’d been anything but vulnerable. She’d come into her powers, had come into herself, and it figured that talk of that fucking place would have her reverting back to the scared student we’d rescued from that dump all those weeks ago.

  “There is much we can understand,” I reasoned, moving to sit next to her. I pressed my hand to her knee and squeezed. “In this, we just have to go with the flow.”

  “Even if that means us returning to the scene of the crime? Dammit, Raven,” she hissed. “Keiran put Winterborn in a sleeping coma there! The man still lives!”

  I shrugged. “So? He’ll die soon enough. We’re there on bigger orders than that, and with Darius at our side, you know we’re untouchable.”

  She clenched her jaw. “You’re not listening.”

  Sighing, I told her, “I am. But you’re freaking out because that place is your equivalent of the boogeyman’s lair. It isn’t to us.”

  Cade mimicked my change in position and sat up too. “He’s right, Marcella. There’s no reason to fret about the Academy. About finding Arthur, though?” He grunted. “I’m not particularly looking forward to that myself.”

  She continued gnawing on her bottom lip. “How do we e
ven Awaken him?”

  “Elayne dropped some shit about his sons being able to stir him.” I shrugged. “Figure Keir, Cade, and I will have to pull some voodoo to get his ass out of bed.”

  Marcella fell quiet at that. “Where are the others?”

  “We’ve been preparing to leave.”

  “You were just waiting on me?”

  I hated the shakiness in her voice, even if I could understand it. “Yeah. You needed to sleep, and the last thing we want is for you to be anything other than in fighting form.”

  The shower cut off as I spoke, and she scrabbled upright, her tits and ass bouncing as she clambered off the bed. Just as she had with Barclay, Cade and I enjoyed the view as she headed for the bathroom, murmuring, “Then it’s time to get ready to leave.” She spoke mostly to herself, but I cut Cade a look and saw his jaw clench.

  “She’s scared,” I told him softly. “Only the fuck knows what Morgana did to her to make her act that way, only the fuck knows what Elayne erased and decided to keep lingering to haunt her.”

  Cade shook his head. “This is shit.”

  I snorted—my brother, now that he was out of the stupor of being ‘shadow-tainted,’ was back to being his usual laconic self. We were still figuring out what the fuck shadow-tainted meant, and Darius was even in the dark on that one, but I was just glad he didn’t need to sleep all the fucking time.

  “You’re telling me,” I replied with a grunt. “Shit is an understatement. But we’re working on Elayne’s orders—”

  “And that’s why it’s shit. Who’s to say she’s benevolent? Who’s to say we’re not doing the wrong thing here? They said that Merlin’s the bad guy, what if they are? What Morgana did… does that seem like something anyone good would do?”

  “No, but thy God is a jealous God ring any bells?” I cocked a brow at him. “Come on, you know the deities of all the religions in the world are all whacked. Whether it’s plagues, droughts, or an inability to keep it in their pants around pretty women, none of them are all that good.”

  He gnawed on his bottom lip for a second, apparently contemplating what I was saying, then he grunted. “I hate being controlled by someone else.”

  “We’ve always been yanked around on someone else’s strings, Cade. You know that as well as I do.”

  “Doesn’t mean I hate it any fucking less.”

  It wasn’t like I could argue with him, was it? I hated it just as much, but our priorities had suddenly shifted.

  No longer were we on fact-finding missions. Trying to figure out the lay of the land was a luxury that we couldn’t afford anymore.

  For whatever reason, Morgana was interested in our woman, and that interest was capable of taking a very dark and a very grim turn. If it meant kissing Lucifer’s ass, I’d do whatever I could to protect Marcella from Morgana.

  She was the boogeyman now, and that boogeyman had her sights set firmly on my mate. Keeping her safe had always been the priority, but with this particular threat hanging overhead? Shit had got real. Very, very fast.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lilly

  I stared out of the bay windows and onto the drive ahead.

  I hated this place. Hated it with a passion. I’d thought I’d had my ticket out of here weeks ago, but that bitch Marcella had robbed me of my brotherhood, and until the next round of trials in a month, I’d be stuck here, waiting.

  Waiting. Me.

  I was LeFauvre. My father was a mage, for fuck’s sake. My brother was the Enforcer of our line! My direct relatives both held council positions and here I was, fucking waiting because some scrawny Cinderella had enticed my brothers to her side.

  Bitterness welled inside me, and as I stared out into the distance, I let it burn in my gut.

  Marcella had always been a thorn in my side.

  She was a nobody.

  A dirty thrall’s spawn.

  Yet here she was.

  Able to keep up with me, best me in all the challenges.

  The Masters loathed her because they were scared of her. Scared of what she could do.

  What was I?

  Chopped fucking liver?

  My brother could order the executions of a thousand men without an ounce of retribution from the council, my father was an ancient with more knowledge than an encyclopedia on our race, and yet the Masters feared her and not me.

  My lips turned white as I firmed them.

  I didn’t like my purpose here today. Didn’t like it one bit, even if it was against her.

  Julian had informed me that Marcella and her brotherhood were returning to the Academy, and that the second they set foot on the grounds, I was to call him.

  I didn’t appreciate being an errand boy for my brother, but Julian frightened me, and I’d already disappointed him by failing to bond with the Maximus brotherhood he’d had his heart set on for me.

  I might be LeFauvre, I might be important in our world, but every LeFauvre paid their way. There was no heavy weight that wasn’t tossed loose. We incurred the costs, and I’d already failed in that—keeping Julian happy was, as a result, my only goal at the moment.

  Wearing a path in the library carpet was the sum total of the past few hours. Nerves and excitement, fear and confusion, had me on edge. I didn’t know what Julian was about, but I knew it wasn’t on the council books. If it were, he wouldn’t have brought me in to handle this. He’d have someone else here waiting on Marcella’s return.

  By calling him, I was potentially signing her death warrant. If I didn’t, I was signing my own.

  I hated her, but I didn’t want her dead. Even if I’d always fought to the death in challenges.

  Everyone comes across someone in their life that is better than them, when they themselves have always ruled their particular roost.

  That was Marcella to me.

  I’d cheated in the past, cheated to beat her, to cow her into submission, but it had taken the past few weeks without her to realize how low the bar was set in this year’s class.

  The other potential Sixths were useless, and I missed Marcella. Missed testing myself against her. She was a worthy opponent. One who I intended on beating in the future on my own merit.

  But if I called my brother, the likelihood of her future wasn’t a certainty, and therein lay the problem.

  “Lilly? Why are you still in here?”

  I shot Master Lycian a glance. “I’m studying.” I put enough LeFauvre disdain into the biting words to make the librarian flush.

  “Of course. Well, I’m going to have my lunch. You may remain here if you wish.”

  “Thank you,” I told him coolly, turning around in dismissal. Students weren’t allowed in here without a Master present, but I always did follow my own rules.

  When the door closed behind him, I sat down on the window seat and stared out onto the manicured grounds.

  I had no idea why Marcella was returning, and had even less idea how Julian knew she was, but it didn’t bode well, and everything inside me was screaming for caution while duty and discipline knew I had no choice.

  Five minutes later, as though I’d conjured them myself with my fretting, the gates opened and my stomach sank.

  An SUV appeared in the distance, and I could see the gravel beneath its tires part under the vehicle’s weight.

  Decision time.

  Marcella

  Being back here was as much of a nightmare as I’d anticipated.

  Just being on the grounds was enough to have everything inside me closing up like I’d been shoved into the deep freezer. My mates kept trying to cheer me up, but there was nothing that could ease this intense disquiet that had me in its thrall.

  Something was not right here.

  It never had been, and it never would be.

  The only consolation was that we didn’t head for the Academy itself, but for the area where Gideon had sensed a malignant ‘presence’ on the grounds all those months ago. We drove off the drive and across the rolling fields to an area
where I’d often run while training.

  This place was the only home I’d ever truly known. I’d been sheltered, fed, and taught—all of it begrudgingly—but it was the last place I’d ever wanted to return to.

  Hey.

  I jolted at the sound of Barclay’s voice in my head. What?

  Your home is with us now.

  Staring at him, I swallowed. What?

  You’re projecting, sweetheart, Raven murmured this time, and for the gazillionth time in two days, his kindness set me aback.

  Cade and he were acerbic. Biting. They weren’t gentle and calm, but they were treating me with kid gloves, and I wasn’t sure whether I was grateful for it or whether it irritated the hell out of me.

  I hate this place.

  You have every reason to, Darius soothed. And once we awaken the Sire, we will be on our way.

  I wanted to shake my head, wanted to scream that he was being naïve, they were being naïve, but I couldn’t. Didn’t. I had no proof. No reason for that belief. I just felt like doom was approaching. Like a nagging ache, a gnawing nervousness in my bones was taking over me like leprosy, eating into me in a way I’d never experienced before.

  It was like a thousand spiders were crawling over me. Like I was buried in a pit with rats.

  The level of fear I was experiencing was unreasonable and yet, I felt it nonetheless.

  I wasn’t accustomed to feeling fear. Unease, yes. Mostly at this place. But even after I’d been terrorized for years, I’d grown acclimated to the torment of the other girls. I hadn’t feared it. Hadn’t even feared Lilly with her wicked ways. I’d just… adapted.

  But this went beyond that.

  Morgana had done something to me. I felt certain of it. I felt it in my very marrow, but I couldn’t say how or what she’d done. Just knew that I was changed, and it wasn’t for the better.

  Westbrook, for all it had never been a haven, was a beautiful building set on lush grounds. I’d always felt comfortable in the gardens and the land beyond, and now I wondered how that could be when Arthur was resting here. Surely, as Gideon had, I should have felt the gross power of his presence?