by Kim Loraine
All the air leaves my lungs at her admission. I truly never thought I’d hear those words from her and I was fine with that. Until now.
“You love me?”
She heaves a sigh and lets out a small laugh. “Yes, you idiot. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. You are the great love of my many lives.”
Before I can respond, a soft grunt of pain leaves her lips and she frowns, bringing her hands to her chest. “Izzy, what’s wrong?”
She doesn’t say a word, but her body begins to hum and she throws her head back as a flash of light fills the room, its source coming from her. When it dims, the air is sharp with the feel of magic and I hesitantly grip her hips.
“Mo leannan, what just happened?”
Her posture relaxes and she drops her head forward, the long curtain of her hair hiding the face I love so much. “I don’t really know. But…I feel different.”
I reach up and brush her hair behind her ear, needing to see in her eyes if she’s okay, but she won’t open them to me. “Look at me, little witch.”
My heart lurches when she opens her eyes. Instead of the odd copper they’d been, I see brilliant green. “Fuck,” I breathe.
“What?”
“Your eyes are green.”
She leaps off me and darts to the bathroom, where I’m sure she’s checking to see if I’m telling the truth. A startled cry leaves her and has me out of bed and on my way to her in an instant. I stand behind her, staring at her reflection in the mirror as she leans forward and assesses her irises.
“They haven’t been this color since I was added to the coven. These are my true mother’s eyes.” Tears well and spill down her cheeks. “I never thought I’d see them again, let alone reflected in me.”
“What does this mean?” I ask, gently holding her to me.
“I have no clue.”
23
Izzy
I can’t stop staring at my reflection. Green. I’d forgotten they were green. I joined the coven when I was sixteen, bound by blood magic along with Gwen and Helena. We’d been the newest members, proven our worth, been willing to sacrifice our old lives in order to embrace our destined natures. I can’t even remember what color Helena’s eyes were. Gwen’s were the crystal blue of a spring sky. I’ll never forget that because I’d watched them change.
I need to call them, but as I search the room, I recall my distinct lack of clothing and possessions after my first change last night.
“Bugger,” I mutter.
“What is it?” Grant asks as he steps out of the shower. God, he looks delicious with water beading on his bare chest as he reaches for the towel hanging on the wall. “Izzy?” I have to blink away my arousal and direct my focus anywhere but at his beautiful body.
“I don’t have my phone. I need to call my sisters.”
He strides out of the bathroom and across the room. Without a word, he pulls his phone from the pocket of his discarded jeans and tosses it at me. “Go on, then. I’m sure they’re worried about you.”
My hands shake with nerves as I dial Helena’s number.
“Helena’s phone.” A deep male voice makes my heart jump into my throat. “Who is this?”
“Where’s Helena?”
“Oh, she’s…busy at the moment. You must be her second sister. The blonde. We’ve been looking for you.” A shiver runs down my spine at the Scottish burr lacing his words.
“Lachlan,” I say, and Grant nearly leaps across the room for the phone.
“Let me ask you a question, witch. What are you doing with Grant’s phone?”
I force a laugh and use my magic to hold Grant off. He can’t ruin this by talking. “I ran into your friend last night. I have to admit, he gave quite a fight. Once or twice, I thought he might best me. In the end, he couldn’t resist my song. He was quite…entertaining. I thought I might keep him, but I’ve always wanted a fur coat, so…”
“You wicked bitch!” Lachlan screams across the line. “You’ll pay for that.”
Fear grips my chest at the sound of women crying out in pain. “Stop it. Don’t hurt them.”
“If you want a chance to save them, you can come face me.”
“Fine. Give me your location. I’ll be there.”
He rattles off an address and I fight the need to use every ounce of my magic to take myself there straight away. I can’t rush into this. I need weapons, a line of defense, and backup. I need an angel and a shifter at my side.
Once I hang up, I release my hold on Grant and the man comes barreling toward me. “What the fucking hell was that? You can’t just use your witchy power on me anytime you don’t want me interfering.”
“He can’t know about us. You know that as well as I.”
“He’s got them?”
I nod.
“Damn. He must’ve found them while we were seeing to your needs.”
That realization hadn’t escaped my notice. But heat or not, I would’ve been gone either way. I couldn’t protect them last night. “We need Tamiel.”
His jaw clenches and he runs a hand through his hair before sighing and nodding. “You’re right. We also need the element of surprise.”
“First, we need to get back to the cottage and get my stuff.”
“Aye. Let’s get on the road.”
Every minute we spend driving is another that keeps my sisters in danger. If we don’t hurry, Lachlan will kill them if he hasn’t already. What’s stopping him?
“Grant,” I say, watching him for any hint that he’s lying to me when he answers. “Why wouldn’t Lachlan kill Helena and Gwen before we get there?”
The thick cords of muscle in his forearms tense as he grips the steering wheel. “I don’t know. Can you sense them? Is there a way to tell if they’re dead?”
Closing my eyes, I try to find them, but just like when we were separated before, I can’t find them. It’s like they’ve been warded against me. I huff and run my hands through my hair. “No. I can’t sense them at all.”
My nerves gather in my belly as we pull onto the gravel road that leads to the cottage. We’re close to the end of this. I just hope I’m able to close the book with my own happy ending rather than yet another tragedy.
Grant parks the car and I’m out faster than I thought possible. It seems being a shifter gives me speed as well as strength.
“Tamiel!” I call. “Tamiel! I need you.” I feel like an idiot, standing out here screaming at the sky in search of a fallen angel, but I know of no other way to find him.
Sure enough, the air shifts and the handsome angel stands in front of me. “Ah, you survived. Well done, you.”
I can feel Grant’s presence like a protective warrior standing behind me. “She did.”
“No thanks to you, shifter.” Tamiel crosses his arms over his chest.
“I’m right here,” I say, forcing myself to contain the need to roll my eyes. “Now is not the time to argue over who did what. My sisters could be dead by now.”
The angel’s expression turns from playful to stricken. “What? No.”
“My pack has them,” Grant says, his tone tight and pained.
“And if they’re still alive, they’ve been warded. I can’t feel them.”
Tamiel closes his eyes and frowns. “Helena is alive.”
“How do you know?”
When he opens his eyes again, the pain in them is unmistakable. “Because she’s my soul mate and I’ve witnessed her death once before. I’d know if I lost her again. Now let’s make a plan of attack so we can bring your sister witches back.”
Grant
My pulse thrums in my veins, so fast I can feel it in my head. The compound looks the same as it always has. We work under the guise of an auto shop, lots of cars and motorbikes in the garage bays, outbuildings filled with tools and tires. To anyone passing by, it seems like we’re a legitimate business, fixing cars, changing tires, and we do all of that. But we also take contracts to clean up the world of the “other.”
Demons, witches, vampires, rogue shifters. We’ll take them out…for a price.
I make my way inside the fences, limping, feigning injury and weakness. If we’re going to get away with this, I have to be believable.
“Oi, who’s there?” The thick Cockney accent makes it clear very quickly the man who’s spotted me is Jax. He’s new to the pack, not too bright, but a fierce fighter.
“Jax, it’s me, Grant.” I shuffle toward him. “Goddamned witch tried to kill me. Did we get the others?”
He eyes me, his expression apprehensive. “How’d you get away?”
I heave a sigh and bring myself as close as possible before standing to my full height and taking him down with a swift uppercut. “I didn’t.”
After taking hold of the back of his shirt, I drag him around the corner and settle him between two stacks of tires. He’s going to have one hell of a headache when he wakes up, but the guy never did anything to me worth killing him over.
Striding inside the back door Jax had been guarding, I put on the injured escapee act once more and burst through the doors leading to the large training room housed in the center of the building. It looks like an underground fighting ring, all gray concrete walls and floor, no windows, fluorescent lighting hanging from the high ceiling. But it suits what we need it for. We don’t just train to keep fit, here we initiate new pack members, see to challenges for the alpha position, and mete out justice to those who commit crimes within the pack.
The two witches are in the center of the room, both tied to pyres. Fucking pyres, like this is the middle ages. Helena catches my eyes, the dirty cloth tied around her mouth keeping her from saying anything, but she blinks a few times and I understand she knows we’re here for her. But Gwen is silent and stiff. Her eyes are closed tight, moving as though in the middle of a deep sleep.
“Lachlan,” I call, stumbling my way up to the bound women. “Jesus, Lachlan, I need your help.”
He comes out of the back office, brow creased in confusion. “Grant? The bitch said she killed you.”
I shake my head. “She tried. She thought she had me under her spell, but the siren song only works on a heart not claimed by another. I have a mate.”
“You do? Last I heard, your mate left you.”
Fuck. I’d forgotten about our little drunk heart to heart. “We’ve reconciled. She found me last night.”
“So…your mate found you, then the witch found you, captured you, and you escaped?”
It sounds fucking farfetched to me too. “I killed the witch. Ripped her lying throat out. She wasn’t expecting me to turn after she lured me away from my mate. When we got back to the witch’s cottage, I had to pretend to be under her spell, but after she used my phone to try and contact one of those two, I realized I had a chance. I shifted before she even hung up.”
My throat tightens and a curl of fear builds in my gut. Tristan. That bastard comes out from the office in Lachlan’s wake. He’s frowning, looking at me as though he recognizes me. But he shouldn't.
Instead of happiness, I see fear in Lachlan’s eyes. “You killed her?”
“That’s what I was supposed to do, wasn’t it?”
“Fuck,” he mutters, pacing the floor and compulsively running his hands through his hair. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“I don’t understand where I went wrong. We were hired to kill them. I killed one.”
Tristan puts his hand on Lachlan’s shoulder and I swear to God, the alpha of my pack nearly jumps out of his skin. He’s afraid of Tristan? “I did all the legwork for you, Lachlan. Since you couldn’t seem to do one simple thing. You were supposed to bring them in together, so they could die together.”
“You,” I say, acid in my words. “You betrayed her.”
He shoots me a deadly glare. “She betrayed me!” His eyes are wild and burning with rage. “Do you know what it’s like to watch the woman you love choose another man? She left me with nothing but a broken heart and a very intact love spell. When Calista brought me back, I thought maybe I could get Isolt to love me again. But no. You happened. I should have killed you when I had the chance.” He runs a hand through his hair and takes a deep breath. “The love potion I slipped her should have worked, but your fucking mating bond interfered. I had to dose her a second time and still, you managed to weasel your way into her heart.”
“You drugged her?”
A smirk curls his lips. “Fair trade, don’t you think?”
Then a soft grunt of pain leaves Lachlan, his eyes widen, and dark red blood trickles out of his mouth. He crumples to the cement floor even as I lunge for him. “Lachlan!”
Tristan lets out a dark chuckle and inspects the silver dagger in his hand. “That was easier than I thought it’d be. But he’s of no use to me now. The idiot dog.”
Fury races through me and a low growl radiates from my chest. I’m on the verge of turning, ready to tear his head from his body. But what feels like steel bands encircle me, holding me in place. Tristan holds his palm out toward me, a look of concentration on his face. He’s doing this.
“How are you doing this?” I manage through a chest so tight I can barely breathe.
Another fucking smirk. “Of the gifts Calista gave me, power might be my favorite.” He holds out his other hand and a ball of flame fills his palm. “Now, it is a shame you killed my Isolt. Or did you? I wonder. I really do need them all here.”
There’s definitely more to this story. My thoughts drift to Calista, and what she could possibly want them all together for. Tristan extinguishes the flame in his palm and pulls a black stone amulet from under his shirt and holds it out toward me.
“What is that?”
“They have to die together so their souls and all their power can be imprisoned inside this.”
My stomach turns at the thought. “What?”
“Calista will give me my life if I do this for her. I’m not going to die again because of Isolt. She ruined me once and if she won’t have me now, she’ll have no one.”
I shake my head before I realize what I’m doing. His hold on me is dwindling. “She never really wanted you.”
His eyes are wild and filled with righteous anger as he drops the stone to rest on his chest. With the flick of his wrist, the flame comes to life in his palm once more. “I’ll just have to make do with the two of them. They’ll never be able to be reunited anyway.”
“Why do you say that?”
He grins at me. “You say you killed Isolt? Calista told me she was the one who broke her curse, the crafty bitch. Too bad for her, she won’t be reborn now, her death is permanent.”
The only words that really register are that Izzy broke her curse. Her curse. That’s why her eyes changed color, why she feels different. Elation burns through me at the realization that I’ll get to keep her forever.
“Lachlan? When are we going to finish off these witches?” Rushton’s voice fills the room, echoing off the walls as he walks inside. He stops in his tracks, gaze going from Lachlan’s body to me, and then Tristan.
Tristan speaks up before I can. “He’s a traitor, Rushton. He killed your alpha and is under one of the witches’ spells.”
Rushton rounds on me. “I knew it. I bloody knew you were still bewitched by her.”
Tristan looks pleased, like this was his plan all along. He wants to bring us all down. It’s like a bloody Shakespeare tragedy. “You didn’t kill her did you?”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Izzy’s light tone has me turning my head, heart pounding for the danger she’s in.
“Izzy, stay back!” I shout.
“Not on your life.” My little witch is clothed head to toe in black leather, a fallen angel at her side. “We’ve come to play.”
The room fills with deep growls and out of the shadows I see the glow of six pairs of wolf eyes. My pack is here to watch, and they’ll attack if they need to. Izzy knows killing them means killing my family, and I can only hope they don’t give us a reason to hurt them. Lachlan h
ad been misled by Calista, and Rushton is his second in command. The new alpha now that Lachlan has been killed by someone who isn’t part of the pack. I have no doubt he thinks he’s doing the right thing here. It’s obvious I won’t convince him otherwise. But maybe the rest can be saved.
“Rushton, these witches are working with the archangel Gabriel himself. Tristan is manipulating you.” My words are tight but loud. I want my pack to hear the truth.
He laughs, harsh and bitter. “Did your whore of a witch tell you that after she sucked your cock? I bet you’d believe anything she told you after that.”
Anger rises to the surface, making my beast beg to be let out. “She’s not a whore. She’s my mate.”
Izzy has managed to get closer than I’d like. But I can’t stop her. I should know that by now. Tristan’s gaze swings to her, rage contorting his face. “No.” He returns his focus to me and grips my chest tighter. “You’re not going to live happily ever after, Isolt. I get the happy ending.”
A ball of white flame builds in her hand and before Tristan can react, she launches it at him. He screams in agony as he’s enveloped in the flame and turns to dust before my eyes. His hold on me releases and I can finally take a full breath.
Rushton snarls, drawing my attention to him. “I always knew there was something wrong with you. I should have killed you like I did to the rest of your family after I bit you.”
Blood rushes to my head as his words sink in. My family. He killed them. Rushton was the one who bit me as a child. “You…”
He looks Izzy up and down and shakes his head. “I never thought you’d dirty the pack like this.”
She cocks her hip and gives him a look that would ruin a weaker man. “Seems to me you’re the one dirtying the pack. Tell me, did Calista at least let you fuck her a few times before you handed her your balls?”
Eyes blazing with animalistic fury, Rushton lunges for her, shifting as he moves. No. I can’t let him hurt her. I dart to the side and let my beast take control, jumping between them. He starts circling me almost immediately, knowing he’ll have to go through me if he’s going to get to her. Izzy might be strong, but I won’t let her get involved any further if I can help it. She’s my mate, with or without the bond. It’s my job to protect her.
