Destiny Rising: Destiny Series: Book Two

by Cooke, CJ

  I followed him through the door into a small sitting room. There was a woman sat by the fire in a chair. She smiled at me as I came through the door and pointed me over to the chair opposite her. “Sit! Sit, sit, sit,” she said.

  I looked at the comfy looking armchair and sighed. I’d love nothing more than to sink into it, but I was covered in demon blood, and there was a fair amount of my own blood seeping out from my fighting leathers.

  “It’s probably better if I don’t,” I told her, looking down at the state of my clothes.

  “Never mind that dear, you just most likely saved our lives, the least we can do is let you sit down,” I heard a voice say behind me.

  When I turned around, I was pleased to see the voice belonged to Madame Nines. She walked into the room carrying a tray with tea and biscuits on. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw her. And feel relieved. I hadn’t seen her since the cave, and I was glad to see her looking like herself.

  Madame Nines came over and set up the teacups, fussing over pouring out tea for everyone and passing around the biscuits. I settled down onto the footstool, trying to keep as much blood off the furniture as I could. It also meant I didn’t need to shift, and I could keep my wings out. Hopefully, the fighting leathers I had on would keep my wounds bound tightly enough to stop the bleeding.

  “Are you sure you won’t let me look at your side Aria?” the Headmaster asked. “It looks painful, and at the very least we should clean and dress it.”

  “Thank you for your concern Headmaster, but I’m sure it will be fine. I’ll clean it up in the shower,” I said. It did feel better now I was sitting down.

  The Headmaster laughed sadly “I don’t think you need to call me that anymore. You should probably just call me Dominic.”

  “Why are you all here?” I asked, looking at the three of them sat around the cute little sitting room. “Everyone was supposed to relocate up the big house.”

  Dominic gave another laugh. “No, the pack was supposed to relocate up to the house. We are unfortunately not part of the pack,” he said, indicating to the three of them.

  “What? That’s ridiculous,” I said outraged. “Mind you, I’m not a member of the pack and Kyle’s father definitely doesn’t want me there.” I didn’t belong either, but I wasn’t going to start telling them all about my drama.

  Madame Nines had settled in the armchair next to me and patted my knee gently. “We’ll be moving on soon enough. But for now, we need to discuss you, Aria. And my sister here, Francesca, needs to speak with you. She’s a celestial kitsune like me, but she can see all the variations of the future.”

  “Okaaaay,” I said, looking at the woman in the room who I didn’t know. Apart from speaking to me when I first arrived, she hadn’t moved. She just sat in her chair and stared at the flames dancing in the fireplace. Every so often she would cock her head to the side a little as if she heard something the rest of us couldn’t

  “You have beautiful wings,” Francesca said, still staring into the flames. “It’s many centuries since I last saw a Valkyrie, but I’ve never seen one with such snow-white wings. I believe that grey is the usual colour.”

  “Valkyrie,” I said in shock. From what little I knew of them, I suppose that made sense. “I’m a Valkyrie.”

  “Much to discuss, much, much, much.” Francesca looked around the room and then settled her eyes back on me. “How much do you know of the demon wars?” she asked.

  “Demons came into this world. The Fae took them out and locked them away. Now they’re trying to get to the human realm through this realm.”

  “Essentially, yes. They’re trying to infiltrate the realms, but we don’t know why. No … no, no, no. A group is aiding them … opening the portals, but they can somehow screen themselves from my sight. But you, you are something they didn’t expect. You are going to be able to stop them, Aria. I don’t know how. Don’t know, don’t know, don’t know. Something blocks my vision, but I know only you can start the chain of events that will save us all. We are going to have to put the weight of the world on your shoulders, young Valkyrie, and we have to hope you will be able to sustain it,” she said staring into the flames of the fire and shaking her head like she was trying to shake something loose.

  “So,” I said, remembering to rein in the pissiness I could feel rising. “You need me to save the world, but you can’t tell me how to do it.”

  “In a nutshell dear,” Madame Nines said, passing me a plate of biscuits. “Don’t forget the timeline Frannie dear.”

  I took two Viennese whirls and shoved one whole into my mouth. It was an excellent way of not saying something terrible to the sweet-looking old lady in front of me.

  “Blood moon,” she said, laughing gleefully. “We’ll all be dead by the blood moon. Dead, dead, dead.”

  “Two months,” the Headmaster, or rather Dominic, clarified.

  “Cool,” I said, stuffing the other biscuit into my mouth. No pressure then. As usual.

  “I know this is a lot to take in,” Dominic said. “We’ve been talking about what we think is the best course of action, and we think you should seek out the other Valkyrie to learn more about your magic. Valkyrie have very advanced battle magic, and all we can think is it would give you the advantage over the demons.”

  It was like these people had formed their own little Council and mapped out my life for me. Without even involving me.

  “So, let me get this straight,” I said, taking a deep drink from my tea. “You want me to go and find some lost tribe of Valkyrie, that no one has seen in centuries, and see if they’ll teach me how to use my magic. Then, I’m going to come back here and fight an entire army of demons for you, to basically save the entire world.”

  “Well, when you put it like that, it sounds a little unreasonable,” Madame Nines said.

  “The mother,” Francesca whispered into the fire. She glanced over her shoulder and gave me a quick smile before looking back into the flames. She was definitely wigging me out a bit. The way she seemed mostly crazy but then suddenly spoke in sentences before going back to crazy town was a little disorientating.

  “Mother?” I asked.

  “They may be able to tell you more about your birth mother,” Madame Nines clarified. “The Valkyrie gene passes down the female line.”

  I thought about what she’d said for a moment. They were clearly trying to tell me to skip off on a journey to discover my birth mother—the woman who’d abandoned me.

  “No,” I said simply and shrugged. I struggled to my feet, and the pain in my side briefly took my breath away. I needed to get a look at my wound before I lost too much blood. Unfortunately, that would mean going back to the big house, except that was where the pack was, including my mates, and I didn’t feel up to that drama right now. But my choices were slim.

  “Aria, we need to discuss what to do,” Dominic said, standing up with me.

  “No. You want to tell me what you need me to do for you. You don’t want to discuss anything. You don’t even want to ask me. You just expect me to do what you need to be done. Well, right now, I’m saying no. I’m injured. I’m in pain. I just lost one of my friends, and her funeral is tomorrow night. Between now and then, I’m done doing anything for anyone else.” I strode to the door when I paused with my hand on the door handle. “I wasn’t born here. I’m not part of this world. How much do you expect me to give, before anyone has the decency to ask me what I want to do?”

  I strode outside and spread my wings, taking to the air. It hurt like a bitch. Flying whilst wounded was not fun. This day was shit from one end to the other. And now I had to go back up to the big house and listen to their fucking excuses.

  The sun was starting to set by the time I was walking back up the steps into the house. There was no one waiting for me on the steps this time. I would’ve missed the pack meeting about the missing bodies. But then, I wasn’t part of the pack, so it’s not like I was invited. Walking to the stairs to go up to the room meant w
alking past the library door. I could already hear the voices inside, and I knew they were all in there, having one of their little manly meetings. Probably deciding to do nothing as usual. It was too much to hope I wouldn’t be seen and I heard the fucker Marcus call my name as I tried to walk past.

  Heaving a sigh of frustration, I looked down at my blood-splattered clothes. I didn’t want to shift my wings back until I was in the suite, and I could inspect my wound. I didn’t want to accidentally bleed out. Or maybe I did. It felt like it was turning into one of those days. No, I definitely didn’t, that would be too much like letting the fucker win.

  I walked into the library and was surprised to see not only Marcus, Wyatt and my guys inside but also Della and Isaac. The room fell quiet as everyone stared at me coated in a fresh layer of demon blood. None of my guys made a move to me, and that hurt more than I cared to admit.

  “You left again,” Marcus said.

  “Yep.”

  “We can discuss your state in a moment. Isaac has raised a serious accusation against you. He says you threatened him to stay away from his mate. Della has corroborated his account. Do you care to make any comment in your defence?” he asked with a satisfied smirk on his face.

  “Not really,” I said. “I don’t think I need to explain myself to a rapist. They’re beneath me.” Marcus went so red he looked like he was about to explode. “Let’s look at it this way, shall we. Britt told me that you ‘gave her’ to Isaac because he told you she was his fated mated.” I raised an eyebrow at the fucker to let him know this was actually a question.

  “That is correct,” he confirmed through gritted teeth.

  “And what happens when one of those fated mates dies?” I asked.

  Marcus, who was growing redder by the second, didn’t say anything. It was Wyatt who answered the question for me. “The remaining shifter’s wolf is driven mad by grief, and we usually end up having to put that wolf down.”

  I gave Isaac a poignant look. “He doesn’t look mad to me. A bit rapey, but definitely not mad. Now, Isaac, would you care to make any comment in your defence?” I asked with a smirk on my face.

  “I … must have been mistaken,” he said sheepishly.

  “Well, I’ll leave you to deal with the wannabe rapist. I need to shower.” I turned to leave, and I was surprised when Wyatt asked the question that stopped me leaving.

  “How many did you find?”

  “Four, about fifteen minutes out from the house. One of them got away. You might want to get on that,” I said striding out of the room. Nothing was going to stop me this time.

  I made it up to the room and into the bathroom without anyone stopping me. My mates didn’t even immediately follow me. I suppose now they were back with the pack, they had other more important things. Other women. I’d never thought I would turn into this kind of jealous woman if I ever found myself in a relationship, but the image of Sykes with his hand on that woman’s knee kept running through my mind. If I saw her right now, I would definitely stab her. He was my mate, and she dared to touch him. He dared to touch her. Who knew where the stabbing was going to stop?

  I walked straight into the bathroom when I got to the suite. I hadn’t seen myself before now, and now I caught a glimpse in the mirror, I was surprised they hadn’t asked me more questions down in the library.

  I had splatters of demon blood all over me. It was even across my face. I gathered some clean hand towels and washcloths by the sink before I took a deep breath and pulled my wings back in. The pain was excruciating, and I couldn’t help crying out and falling against the sink as the pain took over. My magic flared in response, and my anger spiralled with it. Gritting my teeth, I forced it back down deeper inside me. I could feel my warm blood trickle down my side as I took deep breathes to ride out the waves of pain and burning magic, trying to fight its way free.

  I’d been right, my leathers were binding the wound and slowing the bleeding before. Unzipping my jacket and taking it off felt like possibly the hardest thing I’d ever done in my life. By the end, I was panting through the pain and leaning heavily against the sink. I could feel the sweat gathering on my brow.

  When I worked up the courage, I lifted my shirt and carefully pulled it off before I looked in the mirror to check out the damage. My hands were shaking from the pain, and the strain my raging magic was taking on me.

  There were four deep gouge marks about six inches long down my side. The ends of the gouges weren’t too bad, but, in the middle, over my rib cage, they were deep enough you could see bones. Whilst I was still bleeding, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was even though I was currently staring at my ribs. It was whiter than I thought it would be. I may, possibly, be starting to experience the side effects of blood loss, I thought with a sudden urge to giggle. I ran one of the washcloths under the warm tap and gently started to clean the wound. I really hoped I didn’t get demon blood in it. That would just be nasty!

  It was as I stood like this, trying to gently clean away my blood, that Caleb found me as he burst through the door with a panicked look on his face. When he saw me standing there in just my leather trousers and a black lacy bra, it was like he didn’t know what he was supposed to be looking at. He soon zoomed in on the bloody wound at my side though.

  “I was walking past, and I smelt blood,” he said, in what I assumed was some kind of apology.

  “Yeah, I got a bit banged up,” I said with a giggle. The blood loss was hitting me hard. And just to prove that my legs went wobbly and my knees gave out from under me.

  Being the gentleman he was, Caleb caught me before I could hit the floor and then carried me out into the lounge and sat me down on the sofa. He ran back into the bathroom and grabbed the clean towels I’d gathered.

  “This is going to hurt,” he said as he pushed one of the towels against my side and I screamed.

  The door to the room burst open, and my three mates ran inside. A vicious growl tore through Kyle as he saw me half-naked lying back on the sofa with Caleb leaning over me. Thankfully before anything happened, Caleb shouted “Where were you? Get a medic kit.”

  Liam’s eyes widened as he realised what was happening, and then he ran out of the room. Hopefully, to get the medic kit. I really should have thought about that earlier. I was stupid to not just ask for help earlier. I let my anger and stubbornness get the better of me.

  “We were … it’s a long story,” Kyle tried to explain as he knelt next to Caleb’s side. “How bad is it?”

  In response, Caleb lifted the side of the towel, and Kyle hissed when he saw the damage. I, on the other hand, grunted in pain as Caleb put pressure back on the wound. Kyle looked me in the eyes, and I could see the apology there. It wasn’t his fault. I looked over at the doorway and saw Sykes had left. He’d left me without saying a word. A single tear fell out of my eye, but I didn’t let myself fall any further into that pit. Now was not the time to let it take me.

  “It’s going to need stitches,” Caleb said, drawing my attention back to him. I just nodded.

  Only seconds later, Liam ran back through the door with what looked like a fishing tackle box and Wyatt close on his heels. I hoped they had something better than a fishing line in there.

  Wyatt grabbed the box and knelt next to Caleb. He opened up the lid and started to pull things out which, of all places, he began to lie out on my stomach. “How bad is it?” He asked Caleb.

  “It’s pretty bad. She’s going to need some morphine before we start stitching it up,” Caleb said, lifting the towel and everyone peered underneath again.

  “No morphine,” I gritted out. I needed this pain. I needed it to stop my magic from spiralling too hot. I needed the pain to put me under. I didn’t know what would happen to the burning magic if I took the painkillers. While I was under a roof with the remainders of the pack, now was not the time to find out.

  “Aria, this many stitches without pain killers is going to be extremely painful,” Caleb said, trying to reason with me.
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  “I can deal with pain. Now stop being a pussy and just stitch it up,” I snapped. I realised I was taking my bad mood out on him, but I had a hole in my side, so I was pretty much going to do what I wanted.

  “Just give her the drugs,” Wyatt said, pulling a syringe out of the kit.

  Just as he was about to stab me in the leg with it, I grabbed his wrist and stopped him. He looked me in the eye, and I could see he was about to have Caleb restrain me and stab me with it anyway. I gritted my teeth together, hating that I was going to have to admit this, especially to him. “I am barely controlling my magic right now. I can’t risk what will happen if you give that to me.”

  He at least had the decency to look conflicted. The fact he was trying to force it on me was pissing me off, but the rage flowing through my system was probably the main reason for that. I could appreciate he was just trying to save me from the pain. He gave me a brief nod and put the syringe away. Then he pulled off the belt from his trousers, folded it in half and held the leather in front of my mouth. “You’re going to want to bite down on this,” he said.

  Caleb looked like he was about to throw up when Wyatt passed him the needle. “You need to stay as still as you can. If you move too much, you could tear the stitches, and I’ll have to start again. I’ll try and go as quick as I can.”

  I thought the anticipation was the worst. I breathed deeply, feeling my nostrils flare with each inhale. My teeth were set firm in the leather. When Caleb first pushed the needle through my flesh, I realised the waiting had been the easy part.

  I think I might have faded in and out of consciousness a few times, but I stayed as still as a statue. By the time Caleb was tying off the last stitch, Kyle was holding my hand, his face as white as a sheet and his teeth gritted tight. Wyatt had prepared a large dressing already. Caleb got to his feet and went to the bathroom to wash the blood off his hands, while Wyatt efficiently cleaned around the now-closed wound and placed the dressing over the top. He reached up and took the belt from my mouth, frowning at the deep teeth marks in the leather. I would have laughed, but I was exhausted and didn’t have it in me.