“Black clothing is impractical,” Roland, one of the new trainees told her. “Why would we wear black?”
“To go along with the fangs,” she told him, rolling her eyes for effect. “Why are you out during the day? Aren’t you worried about turning into a pile of ash?”
“Pile of ash?” Roland asked in confusion.
“Can I go?” the woman asked. “I’m not a vampire hunter, so I’m no threat in your little game, and I really need to find someone so we can get out of here.”
“Take your jacket off,” Connor instructed her, deciding they’d have to figure out if she was really crazy or just playing a game to throw them off later.
The woman hesitated before slipping off her jacket and letting it drop to the ground.
“Put your hands above your head and turn around,” Connor ordered. “Grab a collar,” he told Simon before walking over to search the woman. What he found came as the biggest surprise. She had no weapons—the holster was empty. “Why carry a holster and no gun?” he asked.
“I’d explain that to you, but I don’t think it would make any sense,” she replied. “At least, it’s not a total Terminator situation, so I didn’t show up here naked.”
“Terminator situation?” Simon asked.
“Never mind,” she told them. “We’re obviously not speaking the same language.”
Connor decided not to argue since most of what she’d said up to this point made very little sense. They’d question her further when they got her back to the settlement. When he was handed the collar, he quickly slipped it around her neck before putting the armband on his wrist.
“What the hell?” she demanded angrily, as she spun to face him. “You put a fucking collar on me like I’m some sort of dog?”
“It’s the best way to make sure you don’t try anything,” Connor explained. “Until you’re ready to talk about what you are and what you’re doing here, I think we’ll keep it on to be safe.”
“What are we going to do with her?” Simon asked.
“Take her back to the settlement and see if she’s more talkative there,” Connor replied, taking her arm to lead her to the jeep, with Simon at her back, still aiming the crossbow at her.
“The collar is not sexy, you jackass,” she grumbled at the empty space beside her. “It would be nice if you got me out of this situation.”
The woman continued to mutter and make threats to her invisible friend the entire walk to the jeep when a thought occurred to Connor. “Do you have a communication device on you?” He hadn’t found one when he’d searched her, but it was possible she was using one. Even though they didn’t have them, there were smaller devices a person could wear on their body in other parts of the world.
“No,” she replied. “I couldn’t bring one with me. It’s probably just as well since I’m sure my cell service doesn’t work here.”
With each new question, Connor understood even less about this strange woman.
“Cuff her hands to the loops in the jeep,” he told Roland before turning his attention to Simon.
“Do you think she’s with the jaguars?” Simon asked, looking over at the woman who now had three vampires arguing with her about the cuffs.
Connor laughed at the scene they were witnessing. “I’m beginning to think she might really be as crazy as she’s acting. She’s sure as hell entertaining.”
“So, you don’t think she’s one of the jaguars?” Simon asked.
“I’m not sure,” Connor admitted. “I can’t think of any other explanation. She certainly isn’t from around here. It’s too bad we don’t have a shapeshifter out with us. They’d be able to tell us what she is. Cam’s not at the island settlement, or I’d take her there to question her.”
“Layla may be able to help when she gets back from patrol. She’s still not great at determining exactly what people are by scent, but she can at least tell us if the woman is a shifter,” Simon suggested.
Connor nodded. “Good thinking. I am not looking forward to the ride back.”
“I don’t blame you,” Simon said with a laugh. “She looks pretty pissed about being collared and chained to the dash of your jeep. She also doesn’t seem the least bit afraid of you, so I suspect you’ll get an earful.”
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and she’ll calm down after she gets done yelling at the backseat of my jeep. It would be nice if she was quiet long enough for me to explain how the collar works, so she doesn’t get shocked,” Connor remarked before heading over to his jeep to drive the crazy woman back to the settlement.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Mitchell was losing his mind, a fact that became increasingly obvious as more memories from his human life returned. With the blood depravation in his early vampire days, it had been a struggle to keep his identity, and he’d only remembered the things he’d worked hard to remember. For whatever reason, some memories had suddenly decided to return, along with other things—abilities he wished he didn’t have.
He’d always seen things that shouldn’t be there, even when he’d been human, but now things were getting stranger. People kept telling him to keep it a secret because he was very powerful, and it was safest if he didn’t attract the attention of anyone who would be threatened by him, like the Fae. Mitchell didn’t feel powerful. He was a turned vampire who couldn’t go more than a few hours without blood without having his heart stop beating. If that happened, he’d become a mindless killer. To avoid that outcome, he was ruled by the alarms on his phone, warning him when he needed more blood. He couldn’t even leave the settlement without making sure he had access to blood while he was away. Those limitations made him feel weak, yet others insisted he wasn’t. They believed he might be Fae, and even though he couldn’t explain why, he knew there was something more to him. Saying he was part Fae and part human didn’t feel right. Something deep inside him rebelled against the idea. Although, he was willing to admit he might just be refusing to accept the possibility because of his hatred of most Fae.
After his most recent admission to Kyleigh only moments ago, he could tell even she finally doubted his sanity. He’d been waiting for her to respond for too long. She’d opened her mouth to speak but closed it and just stared at him for a long time.
“I’ve lost my mind,” he stated in a flat voice.
“I don’t think you’ve lost your mind,” Kyleigh assured him. “What exactly do you mean when you say you’re dreaming of Hell?”
He’d chosen to talk to Kyleigh about this because she reacted best to his admissions. She was half-Fae and had lived a large part of her life as a servant of the Fae, helping the dead pass to the next realm. She’d also been the one to tell him there was no Hell and that evil souls were simply devoured after death instead of passing on to the next realm.
“I’m dreaming of a place, and it’s called Hell,” he began hesitantly. “There are demons and fallen angels. I dream of it every night, and sometimes, I see images of Hell during the day.”
“They’re just dreams, Mitchell,” she assured him. “There is no Hell. I’m pretty sure the concept was created by churches to keep people in line, but evil souls are definitely not tormented for an eternity in Hell. You already know evil souls are destroyed after death.”
“This place wasn’t evil,” he explained. “I’ve been there, Kyleigh. Not just in my dreams. I’ve been there at some point, but it’s almost like I was someone else when I was there. It doesn’t make any sense to me, but I have no doubt I’ve been to Hell.”
Kyleigh didn’t respond, just considered his words.
“You think I’m crazy, don’t you? You’re just trying to be nice by saying I’m not crazy.” He was terrified she’d confirm his fear that he was losing his mind. He’d researched delusions online and learned that he was definitely having delusions, since no matter how impossible he told himself it was, he believed his dreams were true.
“No, I don’t think you’re crazy,” she assured him. “I just hate that I don’t know how t
o help you. We’ve known all along you were more than human before you were turned, and I think we’ve all been assuming Fae because that’s what we know. Maybe there’s something else I don’t know about.”
“I’d like to go see Zane,” he told her, knowing his request would be met with resistance. With the recent attacks, no one was allowed to leave the settlement, and Zane hadn’t visited them recently. “He knows more about me than anyone else, and I think talking to him might help me figure this out.”
“Why would Zane know more about you?” she asked, looking genuinely confused, not that he blamed her for her confusion. While she knew Mitchell had dreamt of Zane and Lexi when they’d been stuck in the past, she didn’t know the extent of his dreams.
Up to that point, he’d never discussed it with Zane, insisting it was better if he found out on his own, but Mitchell knew he’d been somehow involved with Zane’s return. He’d also heard that Zane had become nearly obsessed with finding the mage, Winter, so he had to assume she was also involved in some way, making Mitchell wonder what his connection was to her.
“I can’t explain it,” he began. “Zane knows more about what I’m capable of. Do you remember how you once told me time isn’t linear?”
She nodded. “It’s not, partly because so many other dimensions exist. There are an infinite number of possible outcomes for every tiny action, and sometimes, there is a break that causes a new dimension to form. Those dimensions can overlap each other.”
“Maybe I’m seeing into one of those dimensions,” he suggested. “Or maybe I’m just seeing into a different realm, like the Fae realm.”
Kyleigh looked terrified at the prospect. “I hope that’s not the case. I don’t want the Fae to hurt you.”
“The alternative is that I’m going crazy,” Mitchell told her.
Kyleigh wrapped her arms around him and sighed. “There’s this big part of me that hopes you are going crazy. I really don’t like the idea of the Fae taking any interest in you.”
“Neither do I,” Mitchell agreed. “There’s also this part of me that keeps insisting I couldn’t have been more than human before. Wouldn’t that mean my parents were more than human, too?”
“I would assume as much. It’s always possible they were something more than human and just didn’t tell you,” Kyleigh explained. “It’s also possible there was some repressed gene that popped up.”
“Please, Kyleigh. I need to see Zane. I need to figure this out before I lose my mind.”
Kyleigh hesitated before nodding. “We’ll go talk to Connor and Ian. They should both be back from their patrols soon.”
Connor and Ian would both be resistant to letting him go to the lynx community, but he hoped they’d agree or find a way to get Zane to come to him. Both were very overprotective of him, a big change from when they’d first met. Mitchell had come to them as an enemy, having been part of an attack on their settlement. Ian had been the one to take him in and become a father to him after Mitchell had lost his own parents. At the time, he hadn’t been sure he wanted to live, despite how hard he’d fought death. Becoming a vampire had been forced on him, and he still had nightmares about his time in captivity. He’d grown up fearing vampires. Right after his change, he’d seen himself as a monster who would be better off dead. Now, he understood he had a greater purpose, even if he wasn’t sure what that purpose was yet.
They made it to the training center just as Connor and Simon were removing the cuffs from a woman sitting in the front seat of a jeep. The woman looked seriously pissed.
There were a couple of things Mitchell found odd about the situation. First, the woman seemed to glow, and he had a hard time stopping himself from walking toward her, almost craving her light. Her bluish green hair was a color he’d never seen, and Mitchell knew without a doubt that her natural hair color was a golden shade that glowed in the sunlight. What he found strangest of all was the man who’d been sitting in the back of the jeep just moments ago. Mitchell wouldn’t trust that man at his back, yet he’d been left in the back of the jeep with no restraints while the woman was cuffed. Standing a few inches taller than Simon, the shirtless man looked around. He had a rough and dangerous quality to him, with longish hair and a beard. He also seemed oddly familiar, so it was possible the man was an ally of Connor’s, but he didn’t think that was the case.
“Connor!” Kyleigh called out.
Connor stopped to look at her, but the angry woman from the jeep didn’t give him a chance to respond to Kyleigh.
“Can you take this stupid dog collar off now that I’m here?” the woman asked.
The shirtless man leaned in to run a finger along the edge. “I like it on you. I still say we should get one of these, Serenity. It’s sexy as fuck.”
“Shut up, Legion!” the woman ground out. “They think I’m crazy enough without you making this worse.”
“This is a really bad time, Kyleigh,” Connor replied. “We just found this woman wandering around alone, and based on her strange clothing, I assume she’s one of the jaguars. We’re hoping Layla can confirm that before we start questioning her.”
“Serenity isn’t alone,” Mitchell argued. “That huge guy, Legion, is with her.”
Legion’s head snapped up, and he suddenly seemed much less amused as he approached Mitchell.
“You see me?” Legion asked.
“Of course, I see you,” Mitchell snapped. “Everyone sees you.” Except, he suddenly realized everyone didn’t see the man standing in front of him. That was why they hadn’t been guarding him. Mitchell noticed that the strange woman also seemed fascinated with him. Her attention focused on him, and he squinted as his eyes adjusted to the light emanating from her body.
“This is certainly a surprise,” Legion told him. “You seem familiar, but we’ve never met.”
“I feel the same,” Mitchell admitted. Kyleigh clutched his hand, probably thinking he’d really lost his mind this time.
Legion studied him for a moment before speaking again. “I get the impression you have no idea what you are, little Halfling.”
“Legion,” Serenity called out, and Legion turned to give her a fond smile that made him seem much less intimidating. “Either bring him over here, or get me over there. You’ve had your fun letting them all think I’m crazy, but the kid is scared and you’re making it worse. Why don’t you prove to everyone you’re really here so we can try to help instead of making his life more difficult?”
Legion looked annoyed by her request. “You are both capable of walking without my help.”
“We’re also the crazy people who are talking to someone nobody else can see. I’m already annoyed with you for letting me be dragged off by vampires. Something tells me you knew there were vampires here before I did and still chose not to warn me. I’m also about ready to lose it if I don’t get this collar off, so I suggest you stop pushing your luck.” Serenity ended her rant with a huff and a string of muttered curses against demons.
Legion seemed to be thoroughly enjoying her threats. “But you look good in that collar, baby. I wasn’t kidding about getting one of our own.”
“Legion,” she said in a warning tone.
“I think you’re my safest bet, Halfling,” he told Mitchell with a grin. “You’re probably thinking she’s helpless, but Serenity can take care of herself. She looks like she wants to stab my balls or some painful shit like that.”
Legion reached out a hand, and Mitchell just stared at it. All around him, people were talking frantically, but their voices sounded far off. Kyleigh was holding his arm, trying to get his attention, but all he could focus on was Legion’s hand.
“You’ll understand what you are once I pull you from this dimension for a short time,” Legion explained. “It’s hard to see the bigger picture when you’re stuck with only one reality.”
Legion’s words made very little sense to Mitchell, but he felt a burning need to understand. When Mitchell placed his hand in Legion’s, the world spun ar
ound him. His visions and dreams blurred together. It was almost as if he were walking in a tunnel that was between places, between times. He’d seen similar tunnels in dreams, and it felt safe and familiar. The muted voices of his friends faded as he moved toward Serenity. Once he was standing directly in front of her, Legion released his hand, and the world faded back in.
“What the fuck just happened?” Simon asked, eyes wide with shock.
“How did you get over here?” Connor asked Mitchell calmly.
“I walked,” Mitchell explained. “Legion held my hand and led me over here. I didn’t really walk in this dimension, but I’m not sure I can explain how it happened.”
“Do you know what you are?” Serenity asked.
“Yes,” Mitchell replied. “I’m a demon.”
“Half-demon,” Legion corrected.
“Yes, half-demon,” Serenity agreed.
“No,” Kyleigh argued, sounding somewhere between angry and terrified. “Mitchell is good. Demons are dark Fae. There is no way Mitchell is a dark Fae.”
“Dark Fae can have good off-spring,” Simon reminded her. “Lexi’s father is as bad as they come, but Lexi turned out fine, except for her questionable taste in men.”
Kyleigh sighed. “You don’t understand. Arawn isn’t a dark Fae. He’s just a very bad Fae. Some of the stuff he’s done could certainly make one believe he’s dark Fae, but he’s definitely not. There’s a difference. Dark Fae are incapable of good.”
Legion laughed, and Serenity reached behind her to smack his bare belly. “Demons are not Fae. I understand why some people might think that since it’s so rare for anyone to see a demon. They prefer to stay in their own realm. If they’re here, it’s usually as a punishment, and they’re only visible to a few seers and those with angel blood—fallen or not.”
“Did you just say angel blood?” Simon asked. “Now, you’re telling me there are angels? Like flying around with pretty wings angels?”
“Like Serenity,” Mitchell added.
Untamed Winter Page 27
