by Vivian Wood
“So… how do you know Mere Marie?” Gabriel asked, curious about the silent werebear piloting their vehicle. He looked vaguely military. Something about the way he held himself, tense and ready for trouble.
“I wouldn’t say we know each oth—”
There was a deafening crash as a car slammed into their SUV’s right front side, spinning it like a cheap top. Gabriel’s head hit the side window, turning his whole world white for several long seconds. He blinked until his vision returned, and then he saw Asher and Rhys cautiously climbing out of the front.
“You alright?” Gabriel asked Aeric, who grimaced as if in pain.
“Fine,” Aeric said.
“Aeric—”
“We’ve been set up,” Aeric said. “Look, Pere Mal’s men are coming for us. Get the fuck out of the car.”
Gabriel’s attention snapped outward, and he flung his door open and climbed out in time to see a dozen black-suited goons approaching. They were all heavily armed, but Gabriel was surprised at how few of them were present.
“Something’s not right,” he called to Rhys. “There aren’t enough of them! Why would Pere Mal only send a dozen men against us?”
Rhys nodded, looking uncertain. Pere Mal’s men swarmed, and for several long minutes Gabriel thought of nothing but the fight. He drew his sword and took down four attackers before running to aid Aeric, who was limping badly. Two men were harrying the blond Guardian, preying on his injuries from the car crash. Gabriel dispatched one immediately, freeing Aeric to fight off the other.
In the space of ten minutes, Pere Mal’s men were all dead or gone. They’d attacked the Guardians in a residential neighborhood, so curious humans were already heading toward the crash, drawn like flies to honey.
“We need to move,” Asher urged them. “Someone’s already called the police, I can promise you.”
“Not to the car,” Rhys said when they moved toward their vehicle. “They probably have a tracker on it. We need a different ride.”
To Gabriel’s surprise, Rhys pulled out his cell phone and managed to have a police van pull up curbside in less than five minutes.
“I don’t even want to know how you did this,” Asher muttered to Rhys, eyeing the police office officer who drove them back to the Manor at breakneck speed.
“We’re going to have to strip in the gymnasium and run a sweep over everything we’re wearing,” Aeric broke in. He eyed Asher with a suspicious glance. “And the new one will have to be questioned.”
“He took the oath, just like we did,” Rhys informed Aeric.
“He what!?” Gabriel sputtered. “Mere Marie didn’t tell us there was another Guardian!”
“I don’t think he’s a Guardian yet,” Rhys said, crossing his arms. “More like a potential recruit.”
“I’m right here,” Asher snapped. “I can hear you.”
Aeric regarded the stranger for a moment.
“If there is any other way you have to excuse your debt, do not join the Guardians,” Aeric told Asher. “She is the most fickle of mistresses.”
A muscle ticked in Asher’s jaw, but he didn’t respond, choosing instead to look out the window. They pulled up in front of the Manor and piled out.
Gabriel broke into a trot, suddenly eager to see Cassie. Rhys was right on his heels, but they both skidded to a halt when they crossed the Manor’s marble steps.
“Where are the wards?” Gabriel wondered, looking up to the mansion. It lay still and silent, making him wonder if Mere Marie was just tinkering with the warding spells that protected the Manor and its inhabitants.
“Shite,” Rhys said, breaking into a run.
The Guardians burst into the Manor at full speed, finding the door slightly ajar.
“Echo!” Rhys shouted. “Echo, where are you?”
Nothing.
“Cass! Duverjay!” Gabriel cried, warring with Rhys as they simultaneously pushed into the living room on the main floor. It was empty, though the French doors in the back were wide open. A glass tray of cut and prepared fruit lay on the floor, and Gabriel spotted Duverjay’s unconscious body next to it.
Crouching, next to the butler, Gabriel checked his pulse.
“He’s alive,” Gabriel told Rhys, who was already heading into the backyard.
“Go upstairs!” Rhys tossed over his shoulder.
Gabriel turned to obey, but he heard a soft noise from outside. He retraced his steps and walked outside, then followed Rhys to the gymnasium.
Echo was huddled just inside the gym’s thick steel door, which was battered and bent as if it were made of the thinnest layer of aluminum. Rhys knelt, pulling his mate into his lap, nuzzling and stroking her as she sobbed.
“They just, they just took her!” Echo cried.
“Took who? Mere Marie?” Gabriel asked.
“No, Cassie. They took Cassie,” Echo whimpered. “They tried to take me too, but I locked myself in here until they gave up.”
Gabriel sprang to his feet, looking around wildly. Though he’d heard Echo’s words all too well, that didn’t stop him from racing back to the house and searching the Manor floor by floor in a panic.
“Gabriel, you must stop,” Aeric said when Gabriel tried unsuccessfully to break into Mere Marie’s quarters on the top floor. “She’s not in there.”
“Where’s Mere Marie?” Gabriel demanded to know, leaning against the solid oak door and sinking to the floor. “How could she leave the Manor unprotected?”
“She couldn’t know that Pere Mal would manage to get inside,” Aeric said. Gabriel could see the wisdom of the Viking’s words, but logic was useless to him just now.
“What am I going to do?” Gabriel asked, raking his hands through his hair. “I have to find her, Aeric. She’s my responsibility, and I failed her.”
Aeric huffed a sigh.
“I would start by scrying for her, don’t you think?” the blond Guardian suggested. “Better now than later. I have the best scrying mirror in my library. Grab something of hers, something personal, and we’ll do some location spells.”
“Right,” Gabriel said, trying to pull himself together. He needed to be practical and level-headed, though all he could think of right now was killing Pere Mal with his bare hands in the most bloody, visceral way possible. “I’ll be down in a minute. Let me just find something of Cassie’s…”
Aeric nodded and disappeared, and Gabriel headed into his bedroom. He stopped and picked up one of Cassie’s favorite blouses, then laid it aside. Not personal enough. He stalked into the bathroom and lit on her hairbrush, which was about as personal as one could get. He moved to pick it up from the sink, then clumsily knocked it off the counter and sent it spinning across the marble floor.
Gabriel pursued it with a grumble of complaint, crouching down to pick it up. He paused, spotting a long piece of plastic lying on the floor next to the trash can. Sort of like a toothbrush, but without bristles. He picked it up and turned it over.
“Hormone Level Indicator,” he read the stick’s markings aloud, noting the little box at the end. There was a big blue + sign in the box, but Gabriel couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He frowned and tossed it in the trash. Only then did Gabriel see the packaging. Early Pregnancy Test, the box read.
The hairbrush fell from his hand, forgotten.
Cassie was… pregnant?
Chapter Twelve
The first sensation that Cassie felt was, strangely enough, numbness. She drifted in a hazy fog of it, her mind slowly unfurling from the perfectly blank state of unconsciousness.
Then came the pain.
Cassie sucked in a breath and surfaced to find herself bound tight from shoulder to foot, arms crossed over her chest like a pharaoh awaiting burial. Thin corded rope bit into her wrists, hips, and ankles. The ropes cut at her sensitive skin in some places and deprived her fingers and toes of blood, which explained the numbness and pain.
She was standing upright, her back pressed against cool, rough stone. Her feet wer
e bare, and she wore nothing but the thin silk robe she’d worn at the Manor… and a blindfold. That much was new. How had she come to be wearing a blindfold?
It took a moment, but Cassie got it. The abduction came back to her, or at least a small snippet. She remembered accepting a tray of hot green tea from Daisy, the Manor’s new maid. She remembered wincing when the tea made her mouth and throat go numb. She remembered seeing a man in a dark suit, her brain slowing and slowing as she struggled to get away, to understand why the man was picking her up and taking her away…
Just the thought of the bitter herbs that had been slipped into her tea made her stomach turn. She retched dryly, unable to move. Once the moment of nausea passed, her first thought was the baby. Would the herbs hurt the baby?
Her abductors had better hope not, or there would be a world of pain in store for them. Death, actually. Cassie had never killed a human or Kith creature before, only demons, but exceptions would be made. She could actually imagine the taste of their blood on her tongue, which made her stomach growl. Which, in turn, disgusted her and led to another useless round of retching.
Cassie waited it out, then focused on her surroundings. She wiggled her feet, quickly realizing that she stood in grass. She writhed against her restraints, trying to get free, and was rewarded with a low chuckle.
Icy gooseflesh spread over her entire body. She knew that voice, knew it all too well.
“Pere Mal,” Cassie groaned.
The blindfold was yanked off her head, and she blinked into the bright moonlit night. All around her were towering crypts and statues guarding graves. Cassie shivered, a shudder of pure fright invading her veins.
“I was wondering when you’d wake, Oracle.” Pere Mal regarded her with a chilling smile, and Cassie stared back at him in confusion.
“Where am I?” she asked. “Jesus, is this a friggin’ cemetery? Why are we in a cemetery at night? Oh god, am I tied to someone’s grave marker?”
She tested her bonds again, though she knew her chance of escape was nil. Sure enough, she was tied to a massive stone cross.
“Cassandra, Cassandra. You disappoint me,” Pere Mal tsked. “Do you not recognize the Gates of Guinee when you see them? We are in St. Louis Cemetery, at the Third Gate. You should know, as often as we discussed the Gates.” He paused for another long moment while Cassie tried to piece together his words, then went on, “You were one of my favorite assets, you know. I kept you in much better style than most.”
Cassie’s upper lip curled with disgust.
“I’m a person, not a possession, you sick jerk. You can’t just keep a human being in captivity. It’s wrong.”
Pere Mal’s eyebrows raised in what seemed like earnest surprise.
“My dear, we made an agreement. You wanted to leave the blood brothel. I wanted you to give me visions. A bargain was struck!”
“I was a child when I said yes, and I was facing death. How many years did you expect me to serve you without complaint?” Cassie asked, fury boiling in her veins.
“I expected you to fulfill the terms of our agreement as we negotiated it. You signed a contract, Cassandra. If everyone were to put aside their own contracts so easily, the world would be a hard place.” Before Cassie could reply, Pere Mal went on, “It matters not. You have proven to me that your word is worthless. Therefore, I am revoking my end of the bargain, as you have yours.”
“You’re what?” Cassie asked.
“Returning you to the brothel,” Pere Mal said. Stepping closer, he ran a finger along her bare arm, tracing her scars. “Usually I would just take what I want and leave you to your pathetic little life, but you’ve been dishonorable. You’ve grown so pretty since they last drank from you, Cassandra. I think the Vampires will welcome you back with open arms, don’t you?”
To her shame, Cassie began to wretch again. Her stomach had never been so sensitive before, and now it was betraying all her fear to her worst enemy.
“Morning sickness?” Pere Mal asked, patting her arm.
Cassie stilled, her eyes slowly dragging up to meet his.
“What did you say?” she asked.
“It’s funny that they call it morning sickness, isn’t it? I’ve heard it can happen at any time of the day or night. Near midnight, for instance,” Pere Mal said, pointing up at the full moon.
“I— I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Cassie sputtered.
“Liar. And a poor one, at that.” Pere Mal checked his elegant platinum wrist watch and tsked again. “We’re running out of time. I was so hoping that your Guardian would appear in time to see the show, but I think he’s too slow. Pity.”
Pere Mal put two fingers to his lips and gave a shrill whistle, summoning several dark-robed figures forward from the shadows.
“What are you doing?” Cassie asked, tucking her wrists against the stone cross and trying to rub the rope against it, hoping to wear it away and free herself. It was useless, of course; she didn’t have nearly that kind of time.
“I can’t just give the Oracle to the Vampires,” Pere Mal said, clicking his tongue. “I’ll need to remove her and place her in a… more willing vessel.”
He clapped his hands and another pair of dark-robed men appeared, carrying an unconscious woman. She was slight and pale, her raven locks spilling down over the thin white dress she wore.
“Alice!” Cassie cried, tears springing to her eyes when she saw her friend lying limp and seemingly lifeless.
Pere Mal’s eyes widened for a moment, then he bared his teeth at Cassie.
“Of course you two know each other somehow,” Pere Mal hissed. “Troublemakers, the pair of you. Well no more. After tonight, I will remove two problems from my life. Permanently.”
Cassie tried to be calm, reminding herself that the Oracle would rise to protect her the moment it sensed a threat to her life. She made herself be still and quiet as Pere Mal’s men laid Alice out on the ground, her body looking more frail than ever as they cleansed and anointed her.
“What are you going to do to her?” Cassie blurted out after a few minutes, unable to contain herself.
“To her?” Pere Mal asked. “Nothing she doesn’t deserve. She will be unharmed, physically. You, on the other hand…”
Pere Mal brandished a long, wicked-looking dagger.
“I’m going to take everything from you, little Cassandra. By the time I throw you to the Vampires, you’ll long for death,” Pere Mal informed her.
Pere Mal reached out and ran the dagger’s tip along her jaw and throat, but he didn’t break the skin. Cassie closed her eyes and tried to summon the Oracle, but Pere Mal broke her concentration.
“The Oracle can’t protect you now, Cassandra. You’re not the one she’s guarding anymore.”
Cassie stared at him, uncomprehending.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Your child, Cassandra. Honestly, I thought you were smart enough to know that the Oracle will pass on to your daughter.”
Daughter.
The word hit Cassie like a punch to the gut, and she burst into tears. What the hell was Pere Mal talking about? Worse, what was he going to do with her baby?
“Crying won’t help,” Pere Mal said, checking his watch again. “In less than a quarter of an hour, the ceremony begins. The Gates will open, the spirits will come to my aid, and then I will have what I want.”
“And what’s that?” Cassie asked through her tears.
“You gave the Oracle new life,” Pere Mal said, cocking his head as he considered Cassie’s prone body. “In doing so, you gave her a soul, a spirit. Now I will simply separate spirit from flesh,” he said, pointing his dagger at Cassie’s stomach.
“No,” she breathed, a sick comprehension flooding her brain. “No, you can’t!”
“Yes. And then my ancestral spirits will guide the Oracle to her new Vessel,” he said, pointing at Alice’s still form.
“You’d kill my child?” Cassie asked, then began to beg. “You
want the Oracle that badly? Take me instead. Take me, use my child as insurance. I won’t ever run from you again.”
Pere Mal gave another low chuckle, and Cassie’s heart lurched.
“We’ve already established that your word means nothing to me, Cassandra. Just as empty my lovely Alice’s promises,” he said, turning to gaze at Alice.
Something about the way he said her name triggered a thought in the far back of Cassie’s mind, but she couldn’t put it together just now.
“Pere Mal, please,” she cried. “I’ll do anything, anything!”
He merely sighed.
“All you can do is wait,” he said, turning and walking over to confer in low tones with one of the robed men.
Cassie swallowed back a sob, tears slicking her face and neck now. Gabriel and the other Guardians were nowhere to be seen, and it seemed that no help was forthcoming.
She’d had her mate for less than three months, her child for a fraction of that. How could she possibly lose them both now, when she’d only just found them?
Closing her eyes, Cassie did the only thing she could think of: she prayed.
Chapter Thirteen
“Damn,” Aeric said, peering into the scrying mirror over Gabriel’s shoulder.
“Two results,” Gabriel muttered, shaking his head. “Pere Mal is hiding Cassie’s location somehow. An occlusion spell, maybe.”
“How do we decide which one to go to first?” Rhys asked, pacing the floor a few feet away. When Rhys and Asher had shown up, Gabriel opted to bring the scrying mirror downstairs to the conference table, giving them all a little room to breathe and move about. Four huge guys in Aeric’s quarters quickly proved uncomfortable.
“Flip a coin,” Asher suggested. Gabriel turned and regarded the brawny former soldier, frowning at how casually Asher was sprawled out over one of the Manor’s couches. He looked utterly unconcerned, as if the abduction of Gabriel’s mate meant nothing. True, he’d only told Rhys about the pregnancy test, but it wouldn’t kill Asher to look as if he recognized the direness of the situation.
