by Scott, Helen
“What’s wrong, my love?” Darius inquired, concern wrinkling his brow now that he didn’t have to put on an act in front of Elizabeth.
Marcella took a deep breath and seemed to be counting something. I realized a moment later it was the steps that Raven had taken away from us, and by extension, Elizabeth.
“He is what’s wrong,” she snarled, jabbing a finger in Merlin’s direction before turning to face him. “He was dicking around in our heads while Raven, Keiran, and I were trying to talk Elizabeth into coming with us. He nearly put Keiran into a coma because he pulled Beth out of her dream too quickly, and I’m sure Raven has a splitting headache to go with it.” Marcella’s hand flew toward Keiran, almost hitting him in the face.
I was ashamed to notice that I hadn’t been paying that much attention to my brother, and only now saw how green around the gills he looked, or that he was leaning against the tree by the fence, something he would never normally do.
“What? You think you could have done that by yourself?” Merlin challenged with a slight sneer.
“We were working on it! We certainly didn’t need you butting in and hurting people on our own team. Or did you forget that we were supposed to be working together?” Marcella hissed angrily at him, her eyes flashing silver as her Vampire rushed to the fore.
“You think she would have come willingly? Ever? After everything she went through at the hands of your mates, at your own? Not so much, child. She was never going to cooperate without a little push. I gave her that push, let her forget what happened to her, and now she’s on our side. Easy. Keiran and Raven will both recover from whatever temporary harm I caused.” Merlin waved his hand dismissively, and it was dismissiveness that was like gas on a fire to Marcella’s temper.
“You were swinging your magical dick around like a sledgehammer when we needed a filet knife,” Marcella cried angrily, her voice becoming louder the more frustrated she became. Not a good thing when we were neck deep in enemy territory.
“What do you mean you gave her a push?” Darius asked, his tone almost apologetic as he interrupted his mate.
“Not that I need to explain it to you,” Merlin began with a huff of annoyance. “I secured her memories of what you did to her behind a wall, or in a box so to speak. It’s why she is fine walking with Raven right now. What Vampire, let alone human, would be okay walking side by side with someone who had mentally tortured them?”
“She doesn’t remember what happened?” Marcella exclaimed, horror sweeping over her features.
Merlin shook his head. “She never will either, if I don’t release the spell.”
“So you just decided to bulldoze your way into her head and take her memories without even thinking about getting permission. Am I understanding that right?” Marcella questioned, her voice a low growl, which was infinitely more dangerous than the frustration of seconds before.
“Chella,” I started, trying to smooth the situation over.
“Don’t defend him, Gid,” she said, cutting me off before I could put my foot in my mouth.
“I wasn’t going to defend him, merely suggest that we take this conversation somewhere safer for all of us.” It wasn’t a lie, I hadn’t been about to defend him per se, just try and nudge things to a more amicable conclusion.
“He has a point, love,” Darius agreed.
“Chella, we can berate Merlin as much as we want to in Reaper territory, but out here, we’re sitting ducks for the Cavalry. You know that. Let’s get gone,” Cade urged, clearly feeling the strain from the current situation.
He’d been practicing keeping his powers charged so that they could be used at a moment’s notice, but it was like he was working a muscle he hadn’t used before. It was going to take time and practice before it was something that was easy or natural to him, and time was one of those things we were rapidly running out of.
“Fine. We’ll meet you there,” she told Merlin, before turning on her heel and walking away.
“Guess you’re not riding with us,” Cade commented, with a barely suppressed grin as he walked past all of us toward the SUVs.
I watched as Merlin disappeared in a cloud of smoke that seemed overly dramatic when he’d been popping back and forth just a few minutes ago without so much as a puff of air.
“Drama queen,” Darius muttered, before heading off to catch up with Marcella.
Keiran and I followed slowly with Barclay bringing up the rear. I knew he hadn’t been responding to anything because he was too busy scenting the air for enemies. As we had learned before when we were in Nevada, the Cavalry could mask themselves from me, but rarely from Barclay. Damn wolf and his dog nose.
“You okay?” I asked Keiran, as we walked over the uneven ground toward the road.
“Yeah, just feel like I got hit by a bus full of linebackers, twice,” Keiran replied, sounding tired.
I knew it would be Darius and I doing most of the driving to the Reapers’ place, and I didn’t care, especially not if it gave Raven and Keir a chance to rest up. When we reached the road we could hear Darius already.
“You can’t just yell at him, he’s the Maker. What if he unmade you?” The unsophisticated turn of phrase was unlike Darius, which was how we all knew that he was really riled up.
Marcella lifted her hand up and began checking off her fingers as she spoke. “One, I’m one-third of his precious war fleet. He knows if he gets rid of me then he can’t win against the Lady. Two, without me, there’d be no you, and he would have no one supporting him. Even the Reapers would be questionable since they have a mate now, and that has a tendency to change loyalties. Three, if his children are hard to kill then so am I since I’m technically a Mother now, which means he can’t just unmake me. And, four, by all rights, Keiran should be dead after what Merlin pulled, and I’m ninety percent sure that the only reason he’s not is because of whatever status being a Mother has granted me, and that must go the same for all of you as well.” By the time she was done checking off three fingers and her thumb, there was only one finger left standing, and it told Darius exactly how she felt about being scolded.
Though her ‘bird’ amused me, I didn’t want them fighting, not when we already had one piece of the puzzle. We were getting closer to the finish line, I could feel it, but we wouldn’t survive if we stopped trusting each other.
“She’s right, Darius,” Keiran interjected before I could say a word. “When he yanked us out of the dreamscape that way, it hurt.” He swallowed. “He could have ruptured me from this world, connecting me more purely to that one. But I’m still standing.”
The rasp in his voice had me wincing. But I decided to focus on another of Marcella’s points. “Merlin would never risk hurting her, not when he’s so focused on taking down the Lady,” I argued.
“He doesn’t have to hurt her, just lock away some of her memories, or worse, her emotions. Merlin has never been a brawler from what I understand. He fights dirty, plays mental games, tests people to see who comes out swinging and who bides their time for revenge. All I’m saying is he’s not a dragon we want to poke.” Darius sighed as though his exclamation had winded him, and before letting us reply, climbed into the driver’s seat and left the rest of us to settle ourselves in the SUV.
Once my door was closed, the pursang pressed the button for the ignition and the engine rumbled to life. It was so quiet that none of us were concerned about being detected because of it, even though we had parked fairly close.
“Wait,” Marcella called from wherever she’d snuggled herself down behind me.
I heard the door open and turned to see what was going on, only to catch Marcella sprinting around the vehicle and opening the driver’s door.
“I’m sorry, I’m not angry at you. I was just scared because I thought we were going to lose Keiran as soon as we left the dreamscape.” She flung her arms around Darius’s waist and squeezed him tightly.
“It’s okay, Mate. You don’t have to justify your actions to me. I trust
you.” Those three magic words brought Marcella’s shoulders down from around her ears and had her leaning in to kiss Darius thoroughly before she nipped his lower lip, grinned, and dashed away.
Well, at least I wasn’t the one driving with a boner for once.
8
Rhys
As I peered into the lake, I saw the reflective surface of a woman who had only been able to speak with me mentally for over a dozen centuries.
There’d been a time when she’d roamed the same land as me, but when she’d locked the tyrant in the tree, had slammed him in there for what should have been an eternity, she’d drained herself to the point where she could no longer manifest outside of here, in her natural environs—the water.
But even then, that hadn’t lasted long.
Even in the water, her image faded in and out, disappearing as often as it appeared, but that was an improvement on before. At her peak strength, she could shift between lakes, using the water as a medium. Now she was stuck in this one, but had shifted from the lake nearest to us in Boston to home. Her ability to do that was further proof that Marcella was vital to our Lady being returned to her rightful place on this plane.
For thousands of years, she’d been too powerless to make much of a move, too drained from housing the evilness of Merlin’s spirit, but a few moments in Marcella’s body had recharged her in ways we couldn’t have anticipated.
“What is our next move, son of Bodin?”
I sighed at her name for me. I was never Rhys to her, always son of Bodin. And though I loved her, would always love her, she really needed to move with the times.
Even if that was a big ask where an ageless creature was concerned.
I ran my hand over my hair as I slouched down on the lake’s bank.
The others were in the mansion that sat at the center of the compound, hanging around and resting after the day’s activities.
Being the Cavalry was a lot harder than anyone truly realized.
We had many favors that were owed to us, and that took time to curate. Especially when human governments could rise and fall because of those deals we’d made.
“The situation in the Middle East is exacerbating pressures here,” I told her, my voice soft.
She only liked speaking with me because she said my other brothers were incapable of speaking gently.
The Lady was old-fashioned in this too.
She preferred to be treated like a damsel in distress, rather than the power-wielding queen she truly was.
But then, I didn’t have to appreciate her ways to worship at her altar.
“That’s good. It means eyes are averted from our situation.” Her image blinked in and out for a second, almost as though thinking drained even more of her energy to the point where she disappeared entirely.
Every time that happened, even though it was frequently, my heart would pound in terror. I wasn’t accustomed to feeling terror. Not when I was the one used to induce it in others. But the prospect of losing her was a nightmare.
“Yes, the council has reverted to type.”
“Meaning the boy managed to turn back time so successfully that the most powerful pursangs in the nation were totally unaware they were slaughtered?”
I could hear the musing in her voice, and knew she was impressed. Despite myself, I was jealous.
And fuck, I knew how crazy that was.
How insane.
When she looked at me with knowing eyes, my cheeks burned with heat. “Fear not, son of Bodin, you impress me just as much with your skills. But for one so young, you have to admit that what he did was surprising.”
“A nuisance, a devastating one,” I rasped. “Were it not for him, you’d have manifested by now.”
“And that I haven’t means that it was not my time. Not yet. But I’m patient. We all are, aren’t we?”
There was a warning thread to her tone that told me I had better be patient, and if I wasn’t, and if my brothers weren’t either, there’d be hell to pay.
Swallowing, I nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” I wasn’t totally oblivious to the Lady’s nature. She was not as benevolent as we preached to the masses.
Being her closest confidantes, her soldiers and right-hand men, enabled us to see the side of her that was akin to Merlin’s evil ways.
She had a temper, a sharp biting one that filled even the hardiest man with terror because, with her powers, she was capable of turning us all into mice at her whim.
Being around her was to be in danger, and I wasn’t sure if she knew her followers, her acolytes were just as wary of her as Merlin’s were of him.
Whatever she was, born of the light or not, she was a deity. And deities, as I’d come to learn a very long time ago, were not to be trusted.
“I think I need to see him. Speak with him. Mayhap I can transfer him to our cause.”
I shook my head. “They’re not aligned with any cause.”
The water rippled with her agitation at my failing to agree with her. “What say you? I felt the walls around the prison I constructed for the beast fall. He was there. They all were. The Descendant too. They must be stopped.”
To compound her words, the lake suddenly surged and a wave appeared that barreled its way to shore.
Exactly where I was sitting.
Just before it hit, seconds before, I whispered, “Apologies, ma’am,” and like that, the water dispersed and the wave disappeared as though it had never been there. As though it had never existed.
And considering it was a body of water that was usually still, that was exactly how it should be.
Once again reminded of her powers, I was hard pressed not to cower before her might.
Even though I was striving for a day where she could roam these lands as freely as she had once upon a time, I truly feared for when that might happen.
Especially since Merlin was now free.
How the hell had they broken through her guards?
That was what I wanted to know.
And why had they gone to him?
I knew Darius had links to the Reapers, but he had ties to us as well. Why had he aligned with their side and not ours?
What, in the Lady’s name, had made him Merlin’s puppet and not the Lady’s?
And as mean as that was, it was the truth. We were all their puppets, all a means to their end.
Surely it wasn’t for the female. We had a mate too now, but she never reflected on my loyalty to the Lady.
“Someone’s here.”
The words had my shoulders dropping in surprise. “Who? One of my brothers?”
A wave appeared again, but it was more of a splash, one that dampened my feet and had me grunting at my now wet sneakers. “Hush,” she rasped.
For a second, I allowed the silence to overtake us and enjoyed the quiet of the area. We rarely used this compound, but when we did, I was always comfortable here and disliked having to part from it, but as the Cavalry, we were needed all over the States. Hell, all over the world.
The only reason why the lot of us had come back to what was our version of HQ, was because we were keeping Elizabeth here.
Elizabeth was pretty much a nonentity in our lives, a gift that we neither wanted nor truly knew what to do with.
The Lady insisted that she was important to our cause, and that was why she’d tied her to us. She was angered that we hadn’t claimed her, hadn’t made her ours, but Elizabeth was an addict. Worse than that, she was a procurer and purveyor of the damn stuff she was addicted to.
If the Lady had wanted to gift us our worst nightmares, then she’d truly worked her wiles on that.
During the times of the first Crusades, when all my brothers and I had headed off to what was now the Middle East, a lot of our kin had fallen to the lure of the poppy. It was where our loathing of drugs was born.
As I watched Elizabeth go through her withdrawals of Kronos, I wondered more and more why the fuck the Lady would give us such a mate. Why she was punishing us when, for all
these years, we’d been true to her, loyal and faithful to her cause.
“He’s here,” she hissed, stirring the surface of the water with a million bubbles, as though it was boiling from her rage.
“Who is? The time walker?” I demanded, confused, but still leaping to my feet.
The Lady said we needed him, that she needed to speak with him, so bring him to her I would.
“Yes, but the ass is here too. So close…” Another hiss, more bubbles, and this time the lake began looking like a fucking hot tub. It was beyond a joke, in fact, how much she agitated the water.
“Go and get him. Bring him to me,” she seethed, and with a jolt, I sensed something.
Something strange.
The link between Elizabeth and me.
It was… fading?
What the fuck?
My being surged from ice-cold frozen to molten hot, and I began to run. As I approached the back of the house, I saw sudden lights springing into being. Though all of us rarely slept, we kept the lights off because it wasn’t necessary—we could see in the dark. Nonetheless, the lights were on for a reason, and I had a feeling that reason was exactly the one that had me skipping from a run to a sprint.
Elizabeth.
She was gone.
And though we knew who had her, the question was why?
❖
Keiran
My brain felt like it was about to implode. As though someone had scooped it out of my skull, shoved it in a stand mixer, and had decided to use it as the principle ingredient in a batch of sugar fucking cookies.
Dammit to hell, my temples felt like they were like eggshells, willing to crack at the tiniest of pressures.
And each bump and toss of the SUV over the forest road had me wanting to weep in distress.
I was not a weeper.
I wasn’t the kind of guy who cried.
To be truthful, no Eastbrook boy was. We were reared in hardship, forged out of misery. The only hope we had within those harrowing walls was that time passed, and soon enough, we’d be spat out into the killing machines that were brotherhoods. Even then, when we were tossed into the big bad world, it wasn’t to any softness.
