Rouen Chronicles Box Set

by Raven Steele

“Just Gerald and his team. They are out patrolling.”

  “Patrolling for who?” Lauren asked. “And where’s Vincent? Shouldn’t he be here?”

  I cleared my throat and pulled over a stool to rest on, but one that was still high enough that everyone could see me. “I haven’t been honest with you, and for that I apologize, but I hope when I’m finished telling you the truth, you will understand why I am here.”

  I inhaled a deep breath. On my exhale, I said, “My real name is Isabella Moretti. And I used to belong to the Silver Moon pack until every last one of us was murdered by Dominic and his men. Except for me. And one more person.”

  There was a collective gasp and hushed voices throughout the room. I didn’t wait for them to ask questions. I simply started at the beginning. I told them of my pack’s history and protecting the Abydos. I explained, through a few tears, the day of the attack. I didn’t hold back when I explained how I was left to die in a well. And even more important, I admitted how I had been gifted from Kushin and how it had left me a Komira. I still wasn’t sure what that meant, but I was working on it.

  The room was silent as I spoke, mouths open, eyebrows lifted.

  I continued my story. My hunt for those who had murdered my family, and finally how I had found Dominic and Silas. I didn’t hold back when I admitted to manipulating my way into the pack so I could get close to their Alpha.

  I swallowed and waited for my pulse to slow before I continued. “I thought after killing those two, I’d leave town and finally live my life, but I discovered something horrible.” I looked up at them. “Dominic was working with someone extremely dangerous. Some of you saw what he and Silas kept in those secret rooms upstairs. But it wasn’t just his demented collections we found strange. Dominic had been working with Bodian Dynamics and outside packs, specifically the Linchen Pack, to create these strange soldier-like monsters out of supernaturals. They used a modified version of Scorpion’s Breath to help them. We still don’t have all of the details, but a lot of you saw these creatures in action the other night.”

  I looked around the room, noting many pale faces and heavy shoulders. “The pack is in trouble, and I can’t help but feel partly responsible for what’s happening here.” I closed my eyes briefly, trying to push through the heartache my next words would cause. “That’s why I’m leaving town.”

  Chapter 35

  The room burst into a chorus of shouts and disapprovals.

  “Briar—” Luke said, his tone hard.

  I quieted everyone down. “Trust me. It’s best this way. It’s me and the blood they want. Not the pack.”

  “But why you?” Samantha asked.

  “Because of my blood. They want to use it for some reason. We think it has something to do with Trianus.”

  At this, the room exploded with voices again. Some people said they didn’t believe in Trianus, while others argued it could exist. I only gave them a few minutes to talk before I interrupted them again. I needed to hurry through this so we could figure out what to do next.

  “Listen guys, if I leave, they will follow, and all of you will be safe.”

  “But what about you?” Gerald asked from the front door. I hadn’t seen him sneak in.

  “I’ll be okay. I’m used to life on the road.”

  “But you’re a Silver Claw,” Tammy said.

  I exhaled and lowered my gaze. “Am I?”

  “Yes,” Luke said. “Once a pack member, always a pack member.”

  Several in the group shouted approvals, but Lauren, the shifter who never liked me, stood. “This is bullshit. Do we really think she is one of us? She just admitted to sneaking her way into the pack and killing Silas and Dominic, our Alpha. She lied to us, and yet we are expected to believe her now?” She shook her head. “No way. My loyalty stands with our current Alpha. I want to hear his side.”

  I figured this would happen, and why shouldn’t it? Many of them had liked the power Dominic gave them in the city. Vincent may have been trying to change things, but he hadn’t done anything too drastic. But with me? They didn’t know what I’d do.

  “Dominic was psychotic,” Melissa said. She was a shifter who had once been part of the Greybacks before the Silver Claws had absorbed them. “I’m glad he’s dead. I want no part of any pack who kills their own or works with people that want to drug supernaturals. That’s jacked up.”

  Several others added their opinions. So far, the majority seemed to be siding with me.

  I looked up at them with pleading eyes. “Look, none of this matters. Vincent will come here for me. That thing with him… I don’t know how to fight it. And we’ve already lost so many members.”

  This quieted everyone, and the heavy stillness returned to the room. No one wanted to fight anymore. No one wanted to plan more funerals.

  “Let’s prepare,” Gerald said suddenly. He came to my side, opposite from Luke. “I’ve come to learn that we have friends all over. Powerful ones. Vampires helped us before. They can help us again. And witches. All of you must’ve noticed that a Morgan was fighting with us the other night. A Morgan! We are so much stronger than we think. And we can ask around about this smoke creature. Maybe it has a weakness.”

  “Water,” I blurted.

  Everyone looked at me. I told them about how the thing hadn’t followed me into the water. “I think it’s afraid of it.”

  “Good,” Luke said. “We can use that.”

  “Do we have any idea when it might come?” Samantha asked.

  I frowned. “I don’t, but I bet it will be soon. He might expect me to skip town, which I think I should still do. Please. I promise, it will follow.”

  Samantha stood up. “No.”

  Loxley, the youngest member of the pack, did the same. “No.”

  Several others followed suit, including all of the former Greybacks. It made my chest expand to see how many of them would stand by my side. I inhaled a hitched breath. This is what it meant to have friends. Family. I blinked a few times to prevent my eyes from watering. Luke placed a warm hand on my back.

  “This is stupid,” Lauren said. “I’m out.”

  No one tried to stop her. A few more followed after her. And there were at least half a dozen others who looked torn.

  “It’s okay,” I said to them. “You have to do what’s best for you. We can’t ask any more to risk their lives.”

  “Will vampires really fight with us?” one of them asked.

  I shrugged. “They might.”

  “At least one will,” a voice said from the doorway.

  Everyone turned. Samira walked into the room with Lynx. I had been so busy talking that I failed to notice their arrival. Samira wasn’t wearing her glasses, which made me even more nervous.

  Lynx hurried over and gave me a hug. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded.

  “Tell me what happened,” Samira ordered, her brows drawn together, something I didn’t see often.

  Luke motioned his head toward the kitchen. “I’ll fill you in.”

  While Luke repeated everything I had told the pack, Gerald began to give out orders. He ordered every spigot loaded with a hose. He ordered others to bring up weapons, especially when I told them there was a chance another pack could attack us. I wouldn’t put it past Brutus to fight against us.

  In fact, that could be why Vincent wasn’t here already; he was waiting for them to arrive.

  Everyone divided up and set to their assigned tasks, and they did it eagerly. I think they all welcomed the distraction. It helped to not think about Jerry and the others.

  I walked outside with Gerald, Luke, and a few others to survey the back yard. We needed places we could hide behind, in case the Linchen Pack came at us with weapons. Gerald offered up several suggestions.

  I was about to add my own, when I caught a familiar scent blowing in on the slight breeze. Inhaling again, I glanced to my left. At the edge of the forest, nearly engulfed in its darkness, stood Angel. We stared at each other for a fe
w intense seconds, and then he was gone.

  I pressed my hand to my stomach, surprised by the emotions I felt.

  Whatever was between us, I couldn’t deny the connection. It was strong, like mine and Luke’s, but different, too.

  “Everything okay?” Luke asked from behind me.

  I turned around. “Are we making the right decision?”

  “Yes.” He pulled me into his chest.

  “Are you sure you aren’t just saying this because of how you feel about me? We’re risking a lot of lives.”

  “They had a choice. And for the record, I would do this for any of the others, too. I know you’ve never really been in a pack, but this is what packs are for. It’s called pack loyalty, and we are stronger for it.”

  Samira and Lynx joined us. Samira surveyed the area, while Lynx watched me anxiously.

  “Think you can deal with this while we go into the basement?” I asked Luke. “I need Lynx’s help protecting the blood, and maybe Samira knows something that can be helpful too.”

  He nodded and let me go.

  “Follow me,” I said to my roommates.

  I rubbed at the tightness in my throat and headed downstairs with them behind me. I was about to put my trust in a witch and a vampire I’d only known a short time. But in that time, I’d grown close to them. Hell, I’d even consider them my best friends. Samira and her desperate attempts to avoid emotions. Something told me that wasn’t what was really going on inside her. Maybe when this was all over, I could get her to shed that cold shell of hers.

  Then there was Lynx. I glanced back at her. She gave me a nervous smile. Even in the midst of brimstone and hellfire, she still managed to see the good in everything and everyone. She was the sun to Samira’s moon. Both of them brought out the best in me. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.

  I just hoped neither of them died trying to help me.

  In the basement, I walked to the boiler room and opened the door to complete darkness. “I have a confession.”

  “You’re going to kill us now,” Samira said, straight faced.

  I reared back, surprised. “Did you just make a joke?”

  “Was it funny?”

  I thought about it. “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Then yes.” Samira walked past me into the dark room. “What are we doing here? It feels strange.”

  I pulled Lynx inside. She yelped and turned on her phone. Dim light barely reached her face. She rubbed at her arms. “Feels like static electricity.”

  Closing the door, I said, “There’s something I haven’t told you both.”

  They stared, waiting expectantly.

  “I have the Abydos.”

  Neither of them said anything, but they didn’t look surprised either.

  “I wondered,” Lynx said.

  It was me who was shocked. “How did you know I had it?”

  “Because you are the last surviving member of the Silver Moon pack,” Samira said. “Of course, you would know where it is. Is it safe?”

  “Sort of.” I told them everything about Luke and I retrieving it from the cave and how a shifter had almost found it. They both glanced at each other when I mentioned the part about him dying suddenly.

  I looked at Lynx. “That had to have been a powerful witch to do that kind of magic, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Can you think of anyone that strong?”

  She rolled her lips into her teeth, as if to keep words from coming out.

  “Lynx?” Samira asked.

  “It’s nothing,” she said quickly. “I just hope my mother had nothing to do with it.”

  “Is she that powerful?”

  “I don’t think so, but now that she’s on the Ministry, she has a lot more connections.”

  “See what you can find out,” I said, “but in the meantime, I was hoping you could further protect the Abydos somehow with magic.”

  She lifted her eyebrows. “It’s in here?”

  “That is very reckless,” Samira said, shaking her head in disapproval. “It should be with the Ames de la Terra. They have ways of protecting it.”

  “I don’t know the Ames de la whatever, so until I do, the blood stays with me. What do you say, Lynx? Can you help?”

  She gave me a small smile. “I think I know something that could work. Where is it?”

  “Just around the corner.” I guided them to the back and around the wall. “It’s inside this boiler.”

  Lynx ran her fingers across the rusted metal. “This was a good place to put it. The metal will help to mask the magic.”

  “Great. What are you thinking of doing?” I asked her.

  “I’m going to redirect its energy to another part of the city. Anyone searching for it will follow its trail.”

  I patted her on the shoulder. “Perfect! Exactly what I was thinking.”

  “My magic should last awhile, even if we are up against a powerful witch. It’s hard to track another witch’s magic, if you don’t know them. Sort of like knowing their scent.”

  “How do you know this witch doesn’t know you?” Samira asked.

  Lynx frowned. “You think this person could be close to us? Or are you saying this has something to do with my family?”

  “Either.”

  Lynx folded her arms. “My family is a lot of things, but they don’t want to rule humans and drug supernaturals.”

  I ran my finger along the metal of the boiler. “When we went to her house, your mother asked me for the Abydos.”

  “She did?”

  “She said the Ministry wanted to destroy it, but I’m not sure I believe her.”

  “See? My mom isn’t that bad.”

  Both Samira and I gave her a sharp look and she sighed, exasperated. “Well, not that bad, anyways.”

  “She had you tortured, Lynx,” I said.

  “By your hands.” She glared at me and with the intense look came a powerful energy in the room, enough to shake the boiler next to it.

  I lifted my hands in surrender. “You’re right. None of us are innocent. What’s important is that we,” I motioned my hand between all three of us, “stick together and trust each other.” I sucked in a deep breath. “This is hard for me to admit, but I trust you guys explicitly. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have told you about the Abydos.”

  Lynx stepped forward and made a shooing motion with her hand. “Then, go away. Let me work my magic.”

  “I’ll stay with her.” Samira gave me a nod. “You go.”

  Walking away from the Abydos was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I glanced back just once, hoping I was making the right decision. If not, I might’ve just started the end of the world.

  Chapter 36

  Not knowing when Vincent might show up, we did our best to prepare. Every day, Gerald sent out a team of shifters to search for Vincent. It kept the ones who still questioned me satisfied; even they had to admit it was strange that our Alpha had disappeared without a word.

  During this time, we solidified our relationships with the Nocs. Mateo agreed to help us if we fell under attack, but, of course, that could only happen if we were attacked after sunset. For the last two nights, he’d sent over a dozen vampires to stand guard. Our pack wasn’t so resistant to them like they had been in the swamps.

  It wasn’t just the vampires who were helping us, but Roma too. When she found out the trouble we were in, she reached out to the witch community, one I didn’t know existed outside of Lynx’s family. Several of them had come over earlier in the morning to set protection spells all along the property. If anyone supernatural, other than our pack members and any vampires currently on the property, tried to come within two hundred yards of the mansion, an alarm would sound. They also set up scattered, invisible barriers where we could take cover and fire our own weapons. It was clear by the way they acted around Roma, their eyes downcast and their eagerness to please her, that she held a position of power among them. There was a lot I still didn’t know abou
t her.

  During this break, Samira trained with me several hours each night until we were both exhausted. I had told her about feeling the heart of my Komira powers buried deep within my consciousness, and being unable to access it.

  “Something inside you is holding you back,” she said. “Find out what that is and soon.”

  I wished I knew.

  Tonight were the funerals for our fallen members. Seven large wooden piles had been erected. Seven fires would burn tonight. I was told it was the highest death toll they’d had in a fight since the day the Silver Claws became a pack.

  Food had been brought in and lots of alcohol. Mateo provided triple the vampire guards so our shifters could all mourn together. So far, working with them had been good for both species.

  Mateo’s drug production had been on hold until he figured out who was stealing from him, although I’d heard a rumor he had begun selling his drugs to humans in a neighboring town. Something would have to be done about that. But not now.

  I stood in the back yard as Gerald and a few others lit the funeral pyres. I rubbed at my arms even though it wasn’t cold. The cold came for another reason. I hated funerals.

  Luke came up next to me and handed me a beer.

  I shook my head. “No thanks. I need a clear mind.”

  “Just one.”

  I sighed and accepted it. “What if we are attacked tonight?”

  “Then we’ll be ready, but hopefully Vincent has more taste than to attack at a funeral. These were men he knew very well, after all.”

  “I hope you’re right.” I drank a long swig, my eyes tracking a vampire on the edge of the forest, a rifle on his back. They must’ve just arrived. “Is Samira still here?”

  “She’s out front with Mateo.”

  “Mateo came?”

  “He wants to pay his respects too. He said some of our shifters saved a couple of their vampires.”

  “That’s nice of him,” I whispered. I wondered if Angel might show up. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in a few days.

  Luke stepped closer to me so his arm touched mine. “Why don’t you get some rest? This won’t start for another two hours.”