by Tamara White
“What?” The blood drains from my face. Talon would have to fight me?
“I know it’s not exactly the best news, considering just how amazing a fighter Talon Durand is, but that’s why I want you to be prepared. You could ask Nikoli, Devin, or Lincoln to take your place as a champion too, but something tells me you would be too stubborn to do so.”
Shit, she’s not wrong. Whether it’s the queen or Talon, it would be my fight, not theirs. It just feels weird to be fighting against my mate.
Lincoln grins at me with an evil glint in his eyes as if he knows the reason behind my hesitance and wants to goad me into lunging. “What’s wrong, killer? Afraid you can’t handle me?”
I stick my tongue out at him. “Not at all. I just wouldn’t want to see your pretty head lopped from your body.”
“Oh, big words. Why don’t we see just who the stronger one of us really is?” he mocks with a cocky smirk.
I glance over at my grandmother who watches us with amusement. I let one of my swords disappear into thin air, just as she wished. She has a smile on her face, and now I know exactly why she chose Linc. She knows as well as I do that he won’t hold back. He will challenge me to be better.
“Attack when she leaves herself open, wolf. Make her regret leaving herself defenseless.” My grandmother grins as she approaches me. “Now, where was I? Ah, that’s right. Talon sought out the leaders of the coven.” Jeannie uses her vampire speed to move behind me, grabbing me by my hair and holding her sword to my throat. “Emerald, if I was Maria, you would be dead.”
My eyes meet Kellan’s across the room, and my skin prickles as I feel something unfamiliar burning within me. My grandmother is still talking, but I no longer hear her as my eyes are fixed on the pale brown of Kellan’s as they burn brightly. It takes me a few seconds to recognize what’s burning under my skin, begging to be released. It’s magic, pure and powerful.
In the blink of a second, it explodes out of me.
My grandmother isn’t prepared for the force of the power and is sent flying from me, her sword leaving a long cut along my neck. Even as blood spills down my throat from the wound, I turn slowly. It’s like the room has slowed down as I meet my grandmother’s wide eyes. She props herself up in a sitting position against the wall, her eyes finally showing the fear she should feel in my presence.
When the magic around me calms enough so I can speak, I level my grandmother with a calculated look. “If you were Maria, you would have been dead the moment I set eyes on you. She took my soul-tie. She underestimates me, she thinks I am nothing more than a vampire princess, dependent on her mommy and daddy for help. But just like you, she has no clue what I’m capable of when it comes to those I love. If I have to destroy her whole damn coven, I will. Maybe it’s time you stop training me like a vampire and take into account that I am not just one species.”
I feel Lincoln’s presence before I hear him move and I duck, kicking my leg out to take him to the ground before straddling him with my sword aimed at his heart. “Come on, little wolf. You’re supposed to be Alpha. Surely I shouldn’t have been able to take you down that quick.”
Linc rises up, a wicked grin in place. “Or maybe I wanted you to take me down?” he suggests, his eyes on my lips and I fight for breath. Damn him and his wolf making me hotter than the sun. I bet he can scent the arousal wafting off me in waves.
“Alright, that’s enough you two. We still need to talk about this ball Maria has planned. From what those loyal to me have gathered, Maria will be inviting us at any moment and we need to talk about what must be done.” My grandmother chides as she holds out a hand for me to stand. I take it gratefully, letting my sword disappear as she pulls me to my feet.
No longer do her eyes show fear, and it leads me to question whether what I saw was even real. Can one go from being frightened to calm in a second? Even someone as strong as my grandmother. Surely there should still be a tinge of fear in the air but the scent is clean, nothing but the lingering arousal of Linc and me in the room.
When I’m no longer holding him down, Linc jumps to his feet and takes my hand with a smile. Sensing that whatever little training we’d begun is over, Nik and Dev edge closer, their presence felt behind me as I face Jeannie, waiting for her to speak.
“I didn’t believe Queen Maria would call a challenge in the middle of the ball, but now that you have survived an attempt on your life by a poison, which is practically impossible to recover from, well, I think she’ll challenge you at a time when you least expect it, and I think she will most definitely use Talon to do it in an effort to throw you off.”
My eyes widen and my heart pounds in my chest. “Can he really not back out? He’s my soul-tie. She took him before our bonds reconnected is all. Surely there’s something we can do to stop him from doing such a thing.”
She smiles sadly at me, and I can tell that even though she sees the heartache this is causing, there’s no way out of it. “I know this is not the best news, considering how weak you’re bound to be after everything, but I am worried for you, my dear. If Maria does indeed invite us like I expect, then it will mean there is a very real chance when you face the queen for battle, it may be your soul-tie you are faced with. Do you think you can handle that? Could you fight to the death if it came down to your life or his?”
“He wouldn’t fight me. He would die before hurting me,” I argue, certainty in my words, but there’s a little niggling of doubt worming its way into my heart.
“Maybe. But you need to be prepared for the possibility that without your soul-tie intact, he will have no choice but to kill you. He would have to have a fully connected tie to be able to thwart his maker’s commands, and Maria knows that. She will get great joy in making him kill you.”
“So how do I stop that from happening? How do I make sure Talon doesn’t kill me if we don’t have a more concrete tie?”
“Seriously, Mer? You find him during the ball, fuck his brains out, and boom, soul-tie restored.” My gaze swings to Britt who’s sitting up while Kellan hovers by her side, obviously wanting to help her but also not wanting to cause her pain with his touch. I meet her laughing eyes and she winks, causing me to giggle and abandon everyone else as I rush to her side.
“Geez, you gave me a heart attack, Britt!” I pull her to me tightly, practically squeezing the life out of her and she chuckles softly. “Sorry, but I was a little surprised seeing the three angels I saw in another dimension.” I pull back guiltily and she sighs.
“What do you know, Mer? I recognize guilt a mile away.”
“Um, well...”
I can’t meet her eyes as I speak the words, rushing out, “I kind of died and talked to your mother. Turns out your angels are actually your destined.”
I hold my breath as my gaze rises slowly to see the utter shock in her eyes. She glances over at the three of them with such longing before she shuts down, hiding all her emotions from everyone. It makes me feel horrible for what her mother put her through.
Her eyes meet mine icily. “Tell me everything.”
Twenty-Four
Memories
Emerald
Britt paces back and forth across the bedroom, her eyes wild with barely controlled fury.
“Right. Okay then. I’m going to stab you through the heart at the same time I kill myself, then we’re going to that damn in-between place. Together, we’ll conjure up some magic and find a way to bring my mother back from the dead just so I can throttle her lying ass!” She picks up a lamp from the bedside table, and throws it at the wall where her husbands all stood minutes ago.
“How the fuck could she do this to me? She took away years of my life!”
“B, please calm down—” Blaine’s cut off by the death glare she sends his way.
She points an accusing finger at him as she stalks across the room to stand directly in front of him, jabbing him in the chest repeatedly until he has no choice but to back up into the wall.
“I swear to Lu
cifer, if you tell me to calm down one more time, I will castrate you!”
I watch on, enraptured, with a gleeful smile on my face. I truly missed the fire my girl holds. It sucks that this was the way it all rose back up, but I’m glad because she needs some fire to help her work through all she’s learned.
I confessed everything to her, told her of the memories I saw in the in-between, what her mother had done, and explained the connection she holds with her three angels. The only thing I’ve yet to do is give her those lost memories back and tell her who her father is.
And I am shit scared to do so. She won’t be angry at me, I hope, but either way, I’m terrified of her reaction. She has no magic, thankfully, because I could just imagine the rampage she would go on if she did. She’s thrown a lamp already, what other damage could she reap if she actually had the power to do so?
“How do I give you your memories back?” I ask, before I lose the courage to do so.
Britt turns her back on Blaine and gives me a sly grin. “Well, if I had my magic, I could just do it myself.”
I’m about to reply and tell her how I’m not that stupid, when Alistair speaks. He takes a step away from Hunter and Chase, his gaze leveled on Brittany. “Actually, you couldn’t. Your mother engineered her memory spell so only someone tied to you by blood could give them back. Your aunt could have if she knew they had been altered, but other than that, Emerald is the only other one who can.”
Britt glares at Alistair like he just killed her puppy.
Rather than try and appease her, though, he turns to me. “I can walk you through it if you’d like?”
I smile, grateful for his help, because while the boys told me most magic is instinctual, I’m absolutely clueless about what to do right now. “That would be awesome, thank you.”
He comes to stand before Britt and me, his hands clasped in front of him.
Brittany grins over at me and holds her left hand out airily. “Well, Mer? I’m waiting for my ring!” she announces in a high, prissy tone and I snort at her humor. Okay, maybe the position the three of us are in does make it look a little like Alistair is marrying us.
“Bitch please, if anyone in this duo is getting a ring, it would be me,” I respond with a wink.
She pouts at me, dropping her hand. “So you get to be the one wearing a ring on your finger and a princess? I don’t think that’s fair.”
“Or maybe we could both wear rings. Then technically it would make you my princess so you could wear a tiara too,” I suggest with a grin.
Her eyes widen and she claps gleefully. “Yes! Let’s do that! I would totally make the best vampire princess ever!”
I chuckle, imagining Britt as my wife and a vampire princess. She’d make all vampires bow to her power despite the fact she’s a witch. And she’d love every damn second of it.
“You two are very strange,” Chase murmurs, having come closer to watch what will happen.
Britt simply pokes her tongue out at him before giving Alistair her attention. “Okay, oh wise master, what do we do to get my memories back?”
His lip twitches in amusement before he shuts down all emotion and turns his attention wholly to me. “Emerald, you need to press your hands to Brittany’s temples, as Hunter did with you. Once you do that, imagine her mind has only one entry, a simple door with a simple lock. You’ll need to seek out the source of the lock and once you do, there will be a way to unlock it, but only you can do it. Some people see the lock as a number combination, others see it as a padlock and they are the key.”
Huh? All I heard was gibberish. I stare into Britt’s brown eyes and take a deep breath. “Did you understand that?”
“Surprisingly, yes. He wants you to enter my mind. The door and key metaphor will be the way to unlock my memories.” She gives Alistair an annoyed look. “What he should have said is to concentrate on my thoughts, to get into my head. That feeling you get when you hear thoughts from others? Focus on that to get into my mind. When you’re in my head, there will be a patch, or maybe a cloud, something that when you look at it, it immediately deters you from it. That’s the spell my mom would have placed. Knowing her, she wouldn’t want anyone to stumble across it, so it may take a bit of concentration for you to focus on the thing she doesn’t want you to see.”
Oh, well that makes a hell of a lot more sense. Focus on the spot you can’t see. “You realize that made just about as much sense as he did, right?” I say, flicking my head at Alistair with an exaggerated eye roll.
She smirks, but quickly sobers at the realization of how serious this is. I’m about to take a dive into her mind with no clue what damage it could do.
Britt grips my shoulders, meeting my eyes with determination and a soft smile. “Trust me, Mer. Magic will help you when you need it. Once you find the locked away memories, you’ll just know what to do.”
I sigh, hoping she’s right. “Okay, then let’s do this.”
She nods resolutely, letting her hands drop. I reach up and place my hands over her head, my thumbs connecting with her temples. I close my eyes to concentrate and try not to focus on the number of people watching me.
I can do this.
I’m not sure how long I stand there, trying to connect to Britt’s mind, when I finally break in. Her deep thoughts vary, but the most prominent ones at the surface are all questioning why her mother did this, what purpose it held, and why she’s so drawn to the three Eternal Guardians.
I rifle through her mind, looking for some kind of cloud, or a patch of darkness. Hell, I even look for a hidden magic door in need of a special key, but I find nothing out of the ordinary. When I’m about to give up, I see something in the corner of my eye—a large red button floating in the space with the words “DO NOT PRESS” engraved on it.
As quickly as I saw it, it disappears, leaving me to wonder if it even existed at all. I concentrate, the button appears again, and I’m immediately drawn to it.
Something about a button saying not to press it is very appealing. Who knows what will happen, though. I mean, it says not to press it, but here I am contemplating doing that very thing. What if it’s some kind of self-destruct switch?
For all I know, Britt is thinking of it and is playing a joke on me.
I approach it, intent on pressing the button. It’s seems like one hell of a bad idea, but magic swarms into my non-corporeal hand and with it, I push the red button.
For a second nothing happens, and I wonder if it was indeed a joke from Britt, but then suddenly, a profound pain pierces my skull.
The gates on Britt’s mind have crashed open and I instantly regret letting her memories free. All the emotion that floods her body has leaked through our connection. I work to extract myself from her mind, unable to cope with such overwhelming agony.
I can’t even imagine what Kellan is feeling right now. He must be feeling all I am and more, seeing as he’s an empath.
Betrayal, fury, love, sorrow, joy, and despair, followed by an emptiness that has gone unanswered until now. All of that is in Britt’s mind and heart right at this moment.
I’m finally able to free myself enough to pull my hands away from Britt’s temples, and tears are streaming down my cheeks from the emotions coursing through me.
I try to tamp down the emotions she’s projecting, to smother the incredible amount of love she holds for the three Eternal Guardians. The power behind it is so unbelievably unbreakable, it feels very much like the connection I share with my mate and soul-ties, only more. She’s lived her life cut off from those emotions, as well as the memories that go with them.
Shit. This is going to get extremely complicated for her and the men in her life.
I stare at Britt as everything crashes through her, while she struggles to come to terms with everything she is reliving. A tear trails down her cheek and my heart breaks for her.
She looks so lost by all the memories filling her head, so it doesn’t surprise me one bit when she suddenly spins and bolts from t
he room.
All her guys, as well as the Guardians, move to follow her. My magic fills the room, freezing them in place.
“No.” I shake my head as I meet the eyes of each of the guys—her husbands and her Guardians. “Just let her get through this first. Let her process. I’ll go with her and keep her safe, but for now, you all need to back off.”
I give Nikoli a beseeching look, begging with my eyes for him to let me go. “She needs me.”
He doesn’t try to keep me with them, simply nodding. “I know. Go.”
My grandmother grabs me by the arm as I hurry to follow after my friend. “If you leave the hotel, be careful. Trust no one in this city. Not even Talon.” I nod once, letting her know I understand her warning and take off through the suite.
I hear the suite door and pull on my speed to catch up with Britt in the hall. She doesn’t say anything, simply heads to the elevator with tears falling down her face. I remain quiet, knowing there’s nothing I can say right now. She needs to make sense of this, but she also needs me here when she needs to vent, to rave at the shit that has happened, to understand how drastically her life has changed. She now knows her father was responsible for her mother’s death. That her father was from a world unlike this. That he tried to take her. And that he was the one to possess Dastian.
Once the elevator reaches our floor and opens, we climb in and I press the lobby button, sure she just wants to walk around right now and process. Thankfully, neither of us need to worry about the vampires right now, because the sun is still out. It’s not far off from setting, but we at least have a few hours to ourselves.
We reach the lobby with no one else getting on the elevator when I remember that I don’t have any euros on me. Damn, I should have raided the stash my mom stuffed in my bag.
When we step out of the elevator, I notice my mate off to the side. Britt is oblivious as I wrap an arm around her and guide her to where Lincoln stands. The fact he beat us down here and doesn’t even look slightly winded has me bristling a little. Even with my speed, I’d look exhausted.
