Inevitable Darkness

by Cassandra Lawson

  “I’m glad you’re still alive,” Kish said softly.

  “Me too,” he admitted with a slight smile. “I think I was destined to meet you.”

  Kish wanted to scoff at his words, yet somehow, she also sensed they were meant to meet. She said nothing as they continued walking. After several minutes, she finally said, “I trust you.”

  Rowan’s smile lit up his entire face. “I promise you won’t regret giving me your trust.”

  Chapter 73

  By the time the other extermination teams arrived, Vexx was on edge, something she blamed on her connection to Mitchell. She sensed his unease. Granted, she’d also grown tired of spending time with her coven. How had she ever considered staying with them to avoid Jase? Now that she’d allowed him to mark her, she couldn’t even understand why she’d fought so hard against it. Very little had changed. Jase didn’t act any more possessive than before. In fact, he seemed more at ease, even playful.

  The last of the vampires had arrived, but they hadn’t brought any other shapeshifters with them. She’d heard that Connor had decided it would be better if they had fighters with experience using weapons, and he could be right. One team immediately headed out to clean up the Moon virus outbreak while the others planned for the imminent battle with the demons. Vexx nearly laughed when she realized the words imminent battle had been part of her inner musings. That seemed overly dramatic, even for her.

  “What are you doing sitting over here alone?” Kish asked as she approached.

  “Wishing I could go for a run,” Vexx admitted.

  Kish nodded her understanding. “Witches seem very in-tune with nature, yet they don’t go out very often.”

  “They practically live outside,” Vexx pointed out. The witch housing primarily consisted of tents on wooden foundations. Like the mage, witches drew power from nature. While both sides of Vexx loved being outside, she preferred her cabin in the cougar territory where she had more protection when the winds were biting cold. Not a full witch, she didn’t draw as much of her power from the elements.

  “The jaguar housing isn’t much different,” Kish remarked. “Is the cougar housing different?”

  Vexx nodded. “It’s colder than in the jaguar territory, so our cabins offer more protection.”

  “The witches don’t seem to mind the cold,” Kish said. “I’ve been thinking that I’d prefer to avoid being here when it gets any colder. I don’t have a warm mate to cuddle up with at night.”

  Vexx smiled at the reminder. “That’s one benefit of having a mate I hadn’t considered.”

  “How is it that the witches aren’t cold?” Kish asked.

  “Much like the mage, they don’t get hot or cold,” Vexx explained. “Unfortunately, I didn’t inherit that trait from my mother.”

  “Isn’t it annoying how we inherit all the bad traits from both sides?” Kish asked. “Why can’t we get all the good stuff?”

  “You seem to have gotten good traits from both sides,” Vexx pointed out. “You’re pretty damn badass.”

  Kish shrugged. “That all depends on one’s perspective.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Vexx agreed. “I’ve spent a large part of my life hating my witch side. It may seem like the witches stick close to home all the time, but that’s just because there are more potential threats at the moment. Witches like to wander in groups, and they never stay away from the coven for very long. My mom was different. She not only preferred to travel alone, she’d often return months later. It’s how she ended up meeting my father. She wasn’t supposed to travel quite as far as she did from home, but my mom was irresponsible, even by witch standards.”

  “Did you love her?” Kish asked.

  Vexx bit back a laugh. Of course, she’d loved her mother, and it seemed silly that anyone would ever question that. “Yes, but not the same way I love my father. My mom wasn’t there for me very often, and I didn’t know her as well as I would have liked.”

  “I wish I’d had that problem with my mom,” Kish replied softly.

  Vexx placed a tentative hand on Kish’s shoulder. Touch usually soothed a shifter when they were agitated. Kish wasn’t the only shifter she’d met who’d shied away from physical contact. Though rare, some shifters who’d been abused needed more space. It could be difficult for the shifter and those who cared for them since shifters wanted to offer comfort in the only way they knew how.

  Vexx opened her mouth to speak but hesitated. What could she say? If she said she was sorry for what had happened to Kish, Kish might snap at her for offering what she perceived as pity. She couldn’t very well claim to understand. Finally, she decided to say, “Your mother should have been born a werewolf.”

  Kish cocked her head to the side in confusion. “A werewolf? Why a werewolf?”

  “Because she was a bitch,” Vexx replied.

  Kish laughed. “Yes, that’s very true. She hadn’t spoken to me in close to a year before her death, and I didn’t miss her. Growing up, it made me sad. I saw how other families behaved. My mother wasn’t all that loving with any of her children, but they all still felt like she cared about them in her own way. My brothers treated me horribly to impress her.”

  “Assholes,” Vexx muttered.

  Kish smiled. “Yes, they were. I didn’t understand why none of them liked me when I was younger. Until my sister was born, I even thought it might have been because I’m female.”

  “Why would you think that?” Vexx asked. “I’ve never met a shifter who had a gender preference when it came to their young.”

  “Some jaguars prefer males,” Kish explained. “Wolf and lion shifters can be like that, too.”

  “It’s hard for me to imagine since my dad seems fine having only female offspring,” Vexx explained. “I’m not sure he ever had a preference.”

  “When my sister was born, I realized I was mistaken about my mom’s gender preference,” Kish admitted with a bitter laugh. “She seemed thrilled to finally have a female child with her mate. She always doted on my sister, as did my brothers.”

  “Did you ever resent your sister?” Vexx asked. “I think I would have.”

  Kish shook her head. “Moon is sweet, and even as a baby, she made me feel loved. My mom only let me around her because I was often the only one who could calm my sister down when she was crying. Once my mom no longer needed me, she tried keeping me away, but Moon is stubborn.”

  “I’m glad you had her,” Vexx said softly. “No one should have to feel as alone as you did, and I’d hate to see what would have happened without your sister.”

  Kish’s eyes turned cold. “We wouldn’t be having this conversation. Without my sister, I would have turned into a complete monster. I would have destroyed those bastards who brought me here. Fear that my sister would be hurt made me obey them. No one knew she mattered to me. When others were around, I pretended she was an annoyance to protect her. The leader believed I was afraid he’d kill my mother, and I let him believe that. There were times I was tempted to tell him to go ahead and kill her.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Vexx asked.

  Kish shrugged. “When I was really young, I hoped my mother would start loving me if I behaved and followed the leader’s orders. Later, I was just afraid of how it would affect Moon.”

  “You’ve been a good sister. It seems you not only kept Moon alive, but you tried to keep her happy,” Vexx remarked.

  “At the very least, I kept her from being used by others to hurt me,” Kish added. “Who knows what would have happened to her? They might have made her as jaded as my mother, or they might have destroyed her. I suspect it would have been the latter since Moon has a kind heart, unlike the rest of my family.”

  “What are the two of you doing so far from the settlement?” Jase asked as he and Mitchell approached.

  Vexx looked around, surprised by how far they’d walked. She could barely make out the homes in the distance. They were still within the protected coven lands, so she wasn’t too wo
rried about it. “I guess we got caught up in our conversation and stopped paying attention to where we were.”

  “You seem to be getting along well,” Mitchell remarked, his eyes on Kish as if expecting her to snap at him.

  Kish shrugged. “We aren’t trying to kill each other.”

  “It’s still early,” Vexx added.

  “Give us an hour,” Kish stated. “You never know how these things will play out.”

  Jase and Mitchell stared at Kish for several beats before Mitchell blinked twice and said, “I never know how to react when you try being funny, Kish.”

  “Me neither,” Jase agreed.

  “That says a lot for how bad my sense of humor is,” Kish muttered.

  “It’s not you,” Vexx assured her. “Jase has a stick up his ass, and Mitchell acts more dour around him.”

  “Is that so?” Jase asked as he slowly advanced on her.

  “Yes,” Vexx confirmed with a grin. “You’re cranky and have absolutely no sense of humor.”

  Jase looked at Mitchell. “Do you see how my mate disrespects me?”

  Mitchell laughed. “Don’t pretend you don’t love it.”

  “Or that she’s not simply stating the facts as the world sees them,” Kish added.

  A bark of laughter escaped Mitchell’s lips. “You really do have a biting sense of humor.”

  “I like it,” Vexx agreed. “Especially when it’s aimed at Jase.”

  Jase started toward her again, his lips curling into a slow, sexy grin that faded as the wind carried Zane’s scent their direction.

  Zane raced out of the bushes with Lexi by his side. “The demons have been spotted.”

  Chapter 74

  Tension hummed through Mitchell’s veins at Zane’s announcement. “How far from here?”

  “Close to Treasure Island,” Zane replied.

  Mitchell cursed under his breath, hoping none of Abram’s people were hurt. Abram was working guard detail with the other vampires outside the witch land, so he would have been with Zane when they learned about the demons. As much as Abram tried pretending he considered everyone on Treasure Island expendable, he felt deeply responsible for their safety and well-being.

  “They only popped in for a less than a minute,” Lexi added. “They must have someone who’s good at tracking magic. It sounds like they only left the portal long enough to feel for Kish’s magic.”

  “I’m glad they didn’t linger close to our home,” Mitchell stated. The consensus seemed to be that the longer they stayed in an area, especially if Kish used magic there, the easier it would be to track her.

  “Someone from my clan likely told them about you taking me before they died,” Kish stated.

  “I’m sorry about your clan,” Zane told her, his amber eyes filled with sympathy.

  “I’m not,” Vexx stated, shocking those around her. “They were all retched excuses for shifters.”

  “Vexx is right,” Kish agreed. “We were talking about my fa—my clan. I was telling her how they treated me. If I’m still alive when this is all over, I’m not sure where I’ll go, but I’m glad I’ll never have to return to the place I grew up. That may make me sound heartless, but those people wanted me to become a monster.”

  Mitchell noted the way Kish averted her eyes slightly whenever she said she didn’t care about the deaths of the members of her clan. He didn’t doubt that she felt nothing more than relief when it came to many of them, but he sensed she’d been affected on a deeper level than she cared to admit. Children had died, and he’d gotten to know Kish well enough to realize that would bother her.

  “Do you think Moon knows about what happened to our clan?” Kish asked, doing nothing to hide her concern. “She had friends and loved many members there. I can’t believe I didn’t think to ask you before.”

  “No one has told her yet,” Mitchell assured her. “When we learned of it, we decided to let you tell her when you’re ready.”

  “Thank you,” Kish replied. “What’s our next step? We’ve all been training, but no one’s told me what our actual plan is?”

  “Decide on the time and place for the fight, and then lure them there,” Jase replied. “Between you and Mitchell, you should have enough demon magic to act like a homing signal.”

  “From there, we have to hope we’re strong enough to fight them off,” Mitchell added, not entirely confident everything would be okay.

  “We’ll be fine,” Vexx assured him. “We’re all good fighters, and we’ll have the advantage of picking the spot for the fight. Kish may even be able to drain the energy from some of them.”

  “I don’t think it works with demons,” Kish reminded them. “I tried with Mitchell already.”

  “That could just mean it won’t work on the Fae,” Jase pointed out.

  “Legion seems to think they’re after you for what you can do, and draining power is your big skill,” Mitchell reminded her. “I guess that happens with powerful half-breeds.”

  “Then you may be able to do it, too,” Vexx pointed out.

  Mitchell shrugged. “Who knows? For now, I think it’s best if I focus on my Fae magic and my fighting skills. My demon magic is too unpredictable. I prefer to avoid a meltdown.”

  “And that’s why I’m going to give you blood right after you send out the beacon,” Zane announced. “We’ll have to do it the boring way in the interest in time.”

  Mitchell flashed him a grin. “I’ll make it up to you later.”

  “Promise me you’ll say that when Abram is around,” Zane said with a grin of his own. “I’d love to see his face.”

  Mitchell was surprised by how quickly the others seemed to be warming up to Abram. They’d gone from threatening to kill him to teasing him. As he looked around, he saw the others all appeared optimistic about the upcoming battle. He wasn’t feeling quite that certain of their victory.

  Sensing his distress, Vexx placed a hand on his forearm. “We’re going to be fine. Everyone is ready.”

  “As ready as they can be,” Jase added.

  “It wouldn’t hurt if Legion made an appearance,” Mitchell grumbled. “We’re fighting demons, and I didn’t even get half the information I wanted the last time I saw him.”

  As if on cue, a portal opened, and Kish watched with wide eyes. When Serenity stepped out alone, Kish’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen you before,” she said in a bored tone. “You must be Serenity.”

  Serenity smiled as she continued walking toward them. “I am, and you must be Kishara.”

  Kish said nothing in response, so Mitchell decided to get to the point. “Please, tell me you’re here to give us more information on how to fight demons.”

  “That’s why I’m here,” Serenity replied, her eyes still on Kish. “Legion wanted to be here to help and to meet you.”

  Kish shrugged. “It’s probably for the best. My other brothers were real bastards, so I think I’m better off without adding any more family.” She paused before flashing Mitchell a rare smile. “Other than Mitchell that is. I am thankful that Legion forced Mitchell to be part of my life. As far as Legion goes, I meant what I said about being better off without him.”

  Serenity nodded, looking sad but not arguing.

  “That is a fucked-up response,” Vexx snapped. “Kish keeps getting fucked over by everyone in her life. Is it any wonder we have to fight so hard to get her to trust us? Especially when the brother who claims to care about her so much is constantly missing.”

  Kish flashed Vexx the briefest of smiles. “Thank you.”

  Serenity sighed. “I’m not about to argue that Legion cares about you because I can see how his actions leave you with doubts. For now, I’m going to focus on giving you as much information as I can on how to defeat the demons. I’ve fought demons before. There are several types, but they will all look human in this realm. They’ll also have limited magical abilities. From what Legion told me, it’s much harder to fight them in Hell where they have more power to draw on.”
>
  “What kinds of weapons will they have?” Mitchell asked.

  “That’s an area where you’re lucky,” Serenity replied. “They need to look for weapons in this realm, so they won’t have anything you haven’t seen. They can’t bring weapons through more complex portals, meaning they’ll be limited to weapons they can get close to here.”

  “Why is there a limitation on weapons, but we can still go through with our clothes on?” Mitchell asked.

  “You might be able to bring weapons through your own portals since you draw on your Fae magic to open a portal,” Serenity explained. “At least, that’s what Legion believes. He doesn’t know as much about the Fae.”

  “That still doesn’t answer the question about clothing,” Mitchell pointed out.

  Serenity nodded and considered her words before speaking. “This is always hard for me because I was never a religious person. I didn’t believe in Heaven or Hell. Now, I’m bound to a demon for all eternity, and I know a lot more than I wanted to about both. The universe needs checks and balances to run smoothly. When the balance is off, dimensions are destroyed. To keep that balance, some higher forces added magical limitations to prevent any one group from causing too many problems.”

  “So, there is a God, and he or she decided that demons shouldn’t be able to travel far with weapons, but they don’t want them popping out naked,” Vexx deduced.

  Serenity laughed at her description. “It’s not quite that simple. Each side wants to avoid the destruction of a dimension. They lose people, and it creates chaos. One thing I’ve learned from Legion is that both angels and demons like order. They helped build all of these safeguards, and one of them was the no weapons in portals rule. Legion isn’t sure which side came up with that one, but it doesn’t matter.”

  “So, you’re going to teach us how to fight demons?” Zane asked as he sized up Serenity.

  “Do you doubt my abilities?” she asked.

  Zane shook his head. “No, I’m just curious to see what you’ve got. Let’s get started now. Who knows how long we have until the demons get here?”