Coven's End: Jillian (Coven's End Series Book 4)

by Lia Davis

  "Shit, son. You’re a mess."

  I wanted to tell her she could’ve prevented all of it, but my brain chose that moment to black out.

  When I woke, my hands gripped her wrist, and I was drinking blood from her wrist at an alarming pace. I tried to make myself let go, but I couldn’t. It was unlike anything I’d ever tasted. There was no desire, no orgasm. Just peace and comfort.

  "This is how I fed you as a baby," she whispered as she smoothed my hair back from my face. "You were a greedy eater then, too. Drink it all, I’ll make more. Your father wouldn’t have you weakened."

  I furrowed my brows at her and continued to pull on her vein.

  "We’ve been watching, as much as we could. The situation down there is tense. A few of your father’s brothers have moved in, and they have aspirations of leadership."

  Dad’s brothers. More angels had fallen? Damn. That really wasn’t good. They’d talk about supporting him, but they’d just be trying to usurp his throne.

  "If I’d known Trinity was mated to a psycho and that she is a psycho…" She didn’t finish her sentence. "Well, I don’t have time to deal with her right now. You’re going to have to do it. Find her and kill her immediately. You have my blessing to take over the coven."

  She shook her head. "I’m sorry, the Collective. I don’t know yet how I feel about that, but it’s your headache now, not mine."

  I grunted and unclamped my lips from her wrist. "How’d you know to come?"

  She pushed her bleeding arm back to my lips. "This is likely the only time you’ll get this opportunity. Use it. To answer your question, you’re my son. Of course I knew. I felt the ax nearly kill you. So did your father. He looked at me and said one word."

  "What word?" I mumbled around her arm.

  "Go."

  She stroked my cheek for a few moments. "Okay. That’s all. Any more and I won’t make it back to your father so he can help me heal quickly."

  I let her go and sat up beside her on the bed. She’d moved me while I was unconscious.

  "Now, I think my blood will make you stronger and faster, but I suspect it’s temporary." She stood, brushing off the skirt of her ruined dress. "You’re doing a wonderful job."

  My eyes wanted to roll, but I managed to stop them. "How about you tell me where Trinity is?"

  She picked at imaginary lint on her abdomen while ignoring the blood-soaked hem. It was a sign that she was uncomfortable. "I’m not...allowed." She drew out the last word as if it disgusted her to let it roll across her tongue.

  "So you know. But you can’t say?"

  She grunted delicately. "I have my eye on you. And your wolf."

  "Don’t let her die because you don’t like her."

  Lilith straightened her spine and if I didn’t know better, I’d say she stomped her foot under the floofy gown. "On the contrary, son." She spoke to me like she had when I was a kid. I’d really pissed her off. "I told you I’ve got my eyes on you. I’ve been watching." Her face softened and she allowed the tips of her lips to curl up. "I like her. A lot. She’s strong and doesn’t let you get away with anything. And I like you with her. You’re learning to think of her first, not yourself. That will help you lead our people more competently."

  "As I was saying." She sniffed. "You’re doing a wonderful job. Your father and I are very proud of you."

  "He’s proud of me?" I asked dryly. "I’ve never even met the man."

  "He is. He told me so himself." She stood awkwardly for a moment. "Well, goodbye. I’ll be watching."

  She tapped her heel three times and a portal opened in front of her. The other side of the window showed a large room filled with opulent and pretentious furniture. As soon as she stepped through, it snapped shut with a whoosh.

  I sank back on the bed. I’d have to nearly die more often. That was the most motherly I’d ever seen her.

  Voss

  As soon as the door to the suite opened, all three of us were awake. We’d only been sleeping in one bed for a matter of weeks, but it had felt wrong not having Kane there and we’d been tossing and turning.

  "Kane?" Jillian asked in a sleepy voice. "Why do I smell blood?"

  "I’m here." He sounded weary. I turned on the light and jumped out of bed. He was covered in blood, head to toe.

  "What the fuck?" My voice roused Quin the rest of the way, and Jillian was already out of bed and looking Kane over.

  "What happened?" She jerked his shirt off and ushered him into the bathroom.

  "I’m okay, calm down." Poor Kane tried to fend her off, but he was screwed. She wouldn’t be happy until she’d inspected every inch of him.

  "Give in and let her look you over," I said from the bathroom doorway. "It’ll go faster than fighting her."

  "Trinity was there. I don’t know how she could’ve possibly known I’d be going, but she was already in the apartment when I got there."

  "Do you think she was camping out, waiting for you?" Quin asked.

  "Probably. Unless we have someone in the house that’s turned on us, she either followed me and somehow got upstairs before me, or she was already there."

  Jillian grunted as she turned him in circles, running her hands over his skin. "I doubt you wouldn’t see her following you. Could she run fast enough to do it on foot?"

  "Yes, but I would’ve sensed the movement. I had the windows down. I don’t think she followed."

  I’d been clearing the house at night of everyone but family. It was our headquarters, but we were in too much danger. "Nobody is in the house tonight. Someone could’ve seen you leave and told her."

  "Well, however she got there, she took me totally by surprise. We’ve been searching for her and Emerson for weeks without a peep. We’ve become complacent, or at least, I was. I barely dodged in time to save my life."

  "How’d you get out, get healed?" Quin and I exchanged looks. We shouldn’t have let him go alone.

  Jillian jumped to her feet. She’d been pulling off his boots. "Whose blood did you drink?" Her face was dark and deadly.

  "Calm down! I was down, head nearly severed. I mean, it was a close thing. She was poised to finish the job, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do." His face was stricken as he remembered. "Then, my mom walked out of Hell through a damn portal." His expression changed to one of disbelief. "I’m still shocked. I would’ve bet she’d never do something like that." He went on to tell us about his mom’s getup and how she’d treated him.

  He grimaced at me over Jillian’s head as she pulled his pants down.

  "C’mon, Quin, this isn’t going to be something we need to be around for." I chuckled. "Or maybe we do, but we already had our fun."

  Quin snorted and followed me out. It was nearly midnight, but once I’d been woken up, I had no desire to go back to sleep. I walked into the living area and plopped down on the couch as the faint sound of the shower reached my ears.

  We turned on the TV, scrolling until we found a late-night show about the human Korean war, one of us on each couch. A couple of hours passed by, and Quin had been snoring for at least half the time. I’d just begun to drift off when an alarm on my phone blared back in our bedroom where I’d left it on the bedside table.

  "Voss!" Kane threw the door open.

  "I know. It’s my dad." We ran for clothes, all of us dressing as quickly as possible. Once we knew my father was tied to Trinity, we’d set his house up with alarms so we’d know if he returned. They were all hidden and silent. The hope was that we could arrive before he knew we were coming.

  We called the enforcers. There were officers that lived much closer to my childhood home than the manor we were currently living in. They could make it there faster.

  Unfortunately, it did no good. We arrived to a brightly illuminated house and a grumpy lieutenant. "He was gone by the time I got here. We searched the house thoroughly."

  "Thank you, Holmes. Dismissed." I let the poor man get back to his bed. "You can take your team with you."

  He nodd
ed and left. We’d made sure our enforcers had all known not to enter the property without a team. Nobody needed to be attacked by Trinity or Emerson while alone. Too bad we hadn’t extended the same warning to Kane.

  We separated and searched the house. "I’ll check his bedroom. There’s a hiding place there I want to see." He had a loose floorboard under his bed I was pretty sure he didn’t realize I knew about. If it was empty, he’d been back. When we’d set up the alarms, it had been full of cash and guns. We’d left them so he wouldn’t suspect the alarms.

  I pushed the bed out of the way and pried up the board. The hole underneath was bare, except for a single piece of paper. I unfolded it and my shoulders slumped as I read the words. He was always one step ahead of me, the bastard.

  You’ll regret turning on your blood.

  He didn’t like that I was helping the hunt for him. He was completely unhinged. He hadn’t been the same since the day of the attack that crippled him years ago. What he didn’t know was that if given the chance, I’d kill him.

  5

  Kane

  I'd never had to sit down and watch people eat so often in my life. Humans and lycans were slaves to food. Three or more times a day, they had to find it, cook it, consume it. It was the biggest waste of time. How did they get anything done, ever?

  Being around Jillian was the highlight of my life, though, and made it worth it to sit by them at the table while they ate. My sappy emotions when I was near her worried me, though. I feared weakness, sensitivity. She'd definitely become a huge vulnerability.

  However, Mom said Jillian was good for me. Could she have meant that together, the four of us were stronger? Lilith did have a cryptic way of saying and suggesting things.

  One thing was for sure, I could no longer imagine life without the three lycans sitting at the table with me.

  Jillian, Voss, and Quin, my new mates. I didn't think of it as just Jillian anymore. Thanks to our unusual circumstances, I was connected to all three of them for the rest of my considerably long life. It was hard to be jealous of the two males who loved her as much as I did. Who would put their lives in harm’s way to protect her.

  "We're all mates," I said suddenly, surprising myself.

  "Come again?" Quin said, fork halfway to his mouth. Voss chewed slowly, squinting at me, and Jillian beamed. She knew what I meant, but she remained silent.

  "I mean, we're mated to Jillian, but we're all going to be together. Constantly. I know none of us are attracted to each other, but still, in my mind, we're all mated."

  I smiled at Jillian as I felt her squeeze my leg under the table. "I think that's wonderful."

  Quin glanced to Jillian and back to me. "I hadn't thought of it that way. Voss is like my brother. I assumed with time, you'd become that as well."

  The thought of being a brother to a lycan didn't repulse me as it once would've. I'd learned what a warm and welcoming people they were, once prejudices were put aside. "I'm okay with us becoming brothers."

  "You don't have to define it, either." Jillian started clearing the table, but Voss jumped up to beat her to it.

  My thoughts were transfixed on how changed my life had become, and how I would deal with being a part of a unit instead of just me. Once it would've been me and Trinity. I swallowed down my bitterness. That was over. She'd betrayed me. It was done.

  A whirring sound caused my ear to tingle. I tracked it and moved as fast as I could. It all happened in seconds, but with my speed, I managed to jump in front of Jillian just in time. An arrow shot through the open kitchen window and buried itself in my shoulder, just above my collarbone.

  Gritting my teeth and pushing the pain away, I ran out the unlocked door, as fast as I could toward the direction the arrow had traveled.

  I stopped running once I was sure I was past the point an arrow could be shot and scanned the area. Nobody was there.

  Jillian, Voss, and Quin followed, Quin with a phone to his ear, alerting the enforcers that were supposed to be on the property at all times.

  "Kane, we need to get that out of you." Jillian ripped my shirt, removing it in one swoop. The arrow was embedded deep, and pain radiated from the wound.

  "In a minute. Let's see if we can learn anything first."

  We turned back and searched the area. There wasn't a single clue to be found. "Let's retrace our steps and try again. Can you try your special ability, Jillian?"

  "I already did. It wasn't a big enough event to trigger it, I guess." She looked frustrated.

  Voss kept his eyes on the vicinity. "I want to get her under cover. Obviously, Trinity and my dad have decided to amp this up and try to take us out."

  "Why an arrow though? That won't kill any of us." As the words left my mouth, my throat went dry. "Oh." Suddenly the ground was moving. Or was I moving? I couldn't tell. Either way, standing upright wasn't happening for much longer. "Help."

  The next thing I knew, I was looking up at the sky. Voss had ahold of me under the shoulders, and Quin had my feet. "What, not strong enough to carry me bridal style?" I chuckled at my joke, clenching my teeth against the pain of Voss holding me under my arms.

  Quin snorted. "You're growing on us, man, but we're not there, yet."

  "We need to let the enforcers take care of this." Jillian waved, but from my angle, I couldn't see who she was signaling. Trying to look made me nauseated. I was pretty sure that was what the feeling was. My stomach felt like the entire ocean was contained inside it, and there was a storm on the water. "I've never felt anything like this."

  "What?" Voss looked down at me. " Is it poison?"

  "It must be. It took it a while to work, though."

  "His body might've fought it off as long as it could." Quin adjusted my legs in his arms. "Honestly, this would be easier bridal style."

  I chuckled but made no sound. What the fuck? My vocal cords weren't working. I tried to talk, but nothing came out. I couldn't even get air to make sound as it exited my mouth. The goons carrying me hadn't even noticed. They were chatting to each other as they carried me toward... I didn't know where they were taking me.

  My pain levels were steadily notching up and up. I couldn't talk. Taking in slow and even breaths, I tried to calm down.

  Jillian came into my line of sight again. I reached for her arm, trying not to panic. If I panicked, I’d lose it and start lashing out. She noticed my efforts to grab her arm and stopped. I mouthed wordlessly at her, widening my eyes.

  "What’s wrong?"

  I pointed at my throat and mouth.

  "You can’t speak?" She didn’t wait for me to answer. "Hurry, guys. I want to give him some blood. Go to our suite, we can stay in the living room. There’s no windows or anything in there. I also had the enforcers put the entire compound on lockdown. They’re searching the property now and trying to figure out who got in and how."

  They moved faster, into the house and up the many stairs to our suite of rooms. Once there, they put me on the couch. Jillian grabbed a knife from her stash of weapons and cut her wrist with a wince. "Drink. I know you don’t like to drink like this, but I was afraid your teeth would transmit the poison. Plus I really don’t need to lose myself in a massive orgasm right now."

  A chuckle died in my throat as I wrapped my lips around her wrist, pulling on her vein. The nausea in my stomach calmed almost immediately. As I drank, my head cleared, and I tried clearing my throat as I drank.

  It worked. My voice was back. I pulled away from Jillian. "Bandage that," I commanded her.

  "Oh, stop. It’ll heal quickly on its own, you know that."

  "You lost your voice?" Voss asked as he typed away on his phone. "I’m having someone pick up the arrow. Your bartender friend. He’s on his way here to get it from the guards at the gate. He’s going to study the poison and see if he can figure out what it was."

  "The arrow was meant for me" Jillian fussed over me, but I was pretty much back to normal.

  "This has to end." I turned to Voss. "He’s your father
. Where is he?"

  His jaw tightened. "I don’t know. If I did, I would tell you. I would’ve told you long ago."

  We sat in silence, each of us trying to think of any possibility we hadn’t already been over. "At least we know they’re still in the area," Jillian said.

  "Yeah, and both times we’ve spotted them, I almost died." I was feeling a little grumpy at being targeted. No, a lot grumpy. Downright pissed off. "Trinity really wants me dead."

  "Today was supposed to be me, if that helps." Jillian grinned at me. "I’m glad you’re okay."

  "I’m glad I heard it coming. Whatever this poison is, if it was meant for you, it was likely lethal to lycans."

  "It’s probably some derivation of wolfsbane, and it was probably my dad." Voss hung his head. "It’s a well-kept secret. Wolfsbane kills us, and fast. Most people think it’s some sort of pop culture myth, but it’s real."

  Quin and Jillian looked at Voss in shock. "Seriously?" Quin shook his head. "Your dad?"

  "He’s really good with a bow and arrow."

  "Why didn’t you mention this before?" I asked.

  "Because I didn’t smell him. But he could’ve found a way to mask his scent, or hired someone. Who knows?" He stood and walked to the bookshelves that held a multitude of books and DVDs. I doubted he was actually reading titles.

  "So, now what?"

  "What about a witch?" Jillian sounded so hopeful. "Can’t they do tracking spells?"

  "They hate vampires." I knew from personal experience. There were witches out there that would work with vamps, but none in the area that I knew of.

  "Yeah, but my dad can talk them into it, he knows several."