The Alpha's Pack (Kit Davenport Book 6)

by Tate James

  “Oh hey!” I exclaimed, recognizing the instructor. “I didn’t know you were helping us.”

  “Hey girl,” Amethyst sang back, flipping her green dreadlocks over her shoulder. “Okay, everyone practices that four more times while I chat with our fearless leader.”

  I grinned at the ancient Mage who barely looked a day over twenty-five, and she joined me in the hallway outside the classroom.

  “I’m glad to see you still in one piece, Kit girl,” she commented, hugging me like an old friend. “The stirrings in the lower ranks is not sounding pretty, so you bet I stuck my hand up to help when our leaders called for it.”

  I grimaced at the mention of what was to come. “Yeah, well, as soon as I kill my bio-mom, things should go back to normal.” I hesitated, wrinkling my nose. “Or as normal as possible with our existence slowly being leaked to the human world.”

  “Ouch,” Amethyst cringed. “Matricide, huh? I do not envy you that job. Good thing she was never an actual mom to you, right? That would have been way worse.”

  I snorted a laugh at her attempt at a silver lining and nodded. “Yeah, that would have been worse for sure. I honestly don’t even know if I can kill her, but I have to do something. She’s totally insane and hell-bent on enslaving the human race or some shit.”

  “Uh yeah, those plans never end well for everyone else. Well, we have your back anyway. I take it you came to see Lorna, seeing as you didn’t know I was here?” She grinned at me and nodded back to the class she had been teaching.

  “Seer chick?” I checked, seeing as Caleb couldn’t remember her name.

  “Yup, that’s her. Lorna Green, age eighteen, recruited by Omega three months ago. Her blood results indicated mage, but as with most human tests, they have their limitations, so they can’t differentiate what flavor of mage.” She looked a little proud. “We’ve made some good progress these past few days; she just needed more specialized tutoring than your boys could provide.”

  “That’s great to hear,” I told her with sincerity. “I’m glad you could help; I wouldn’t have the first clue with most of these species. There are creatures here I had never even heard of, let alone knew existed.”

  She grinned her understanding and opened the door to the classroom. “Lorna, babe? Can you pop out here? Grab your sketch pad too, hun.”

  “Sketch pad?” I raised my eyebrows to Amethyst, and she smiled.

  “You’ll see,” she promised me, and we waited while a white-blond, waiflike girl packed up her things and made her way out to us. “Lorna, I’m sure you met Kit when she did the whole magical cure-all, but for the sake of introductions... Lorna, Kit, Kit, Lorna.”

  “Nice to meet you, uh... ma’am?” The girl held out her hand for me to shake, and I cringed at the title as I took her hand.

  “Just Kit,” I pleaded. “I’m barely a few years older than you. Uh, I was wondering if I could have a chat with you about your new powers. Would that be okay?”

  She nodded, clutching her sketch pad and bag to her chest.

  “I’ll leave you to it before someone blows up the building,” Amethyst told us. “Let’s catch up later, Kit? If you get a break before saving the world.”

  “Sounds good,” I agreed. To Lorna, I indicated toward the door leading out to the lawn, and she followed me out to one of the park benches situated under a tree.

  There was a slight, awkward silence while I pondered what in the hell I was supposed to say next, but Lorna filled the pause for me. Thank fuck.

  “You want to know about the vision I’ve been having?” she guessed, placing her bag down on the grass and flipping open her sketch book.

  As she flicked past pages, I saw numbers scribbled over and over in heavy charcoal, but it was a landscape image that she finally settled on, handing over the book for me to take a closer look.

  “I guessed you would want to see this sooner or later,” Lorna admitted. “Amethyst has been amazing; she was the one who suggested I try drawing what I see. Can you believe it?” She giggled. “I could barely draw a stick man a few months ago, and now look.”

  I gaped at the drawing and at her confession, not really sure what to say to that.

  “Well, shit,” I eventually settled on. “You sure can draw now...”

  The image on my lap was captivating. It was me, there was no doubt about that. I stood in the middle of a huge, open expanse, and the look on my face as my hand clutched Ruptura was nothing short of terrifying, even to me.

  “Why is there no color in the landscape?” I asked her, inspecting it for some hint of where the hell it might be located. If this was a vision of what was to come, then knowing where instead of just when was doubly important.

  Lorna shrugged. “There was no color in my vision. Just... whiteness. For as far as the eye could see.”

  I frowned. “Like snow?”

  Lorna shook her head. “No, I wondered that too, but it doesn’t feel right. The vision didn’t feel cold, if that makes sense? Sorry it’s not more useful, but I just know that this”—she tapped the drawing—“happens on the date I kept writing down.” She flipped the page over to show the date scrawled over and over in charcoal.

  “Nothing to be sorry for, Lorna,” I assured her, placing my hand on her arm. “I really appreciate this. More than you know.”

  “Are you sure?” She chewed her lip and avoided my eye contact as her fingers fiddled with a scrap of paper. “I’ve been working really hard and Amethyst says I’m making good progress, but I’m worried I won’t get anything useful in time.”

  “I’m sure,” I promised. “This is better than we had before, right? I truly do appreciate it.”

  She gave me a brighter smile, seeming to be placated by my words.

  “Can I keep this?” I asked her, indicating the drawing of myself. “Maybe one of the guys can recognize the scenery or something.”

  “I’m sorry it’s not more detailed,” Lorna apologized again, and I shook my head to stop her.

  “It’s perfect. Even if it doesn’t help us, it’s an awesome picture that I can hang on my wall.” I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “If you do come up with anything else, you’ll let me know?”

  “Absolutely,” she agreed. “You know, you’re a lot nicer than that first night.”

  I grimaced at the night she would have first met me, when I was still in the grip of my own dark emotions and magic. “Yeah, I was going through some stuff and did some things I’m not super proud of,” I admitted. The memory of Doctor Florsheim’s skinned corpse flashed across my mind, and my stomach lurched. “I have to get back and make sure everyone on my team is still alive. You’d better head back into Amethyst’s class. She’s a pretty incredible Mage, you know?”

  “She’s the best,” Lorna agreed, grabbing her bag from the grass. “I’ll get her to call you if we work anything else out.”

  I sat on the bench a while longer after she had left, staring down at the drawing and trying to pull any clues from it. She was right that it probably wasn’t snow—the me in the picture didn’t wear warm clothes. But where else could it be?

  Stepping off the Omega jet, I shivered at the unexpected cold. “I thought Bolivia was warm.” I murmured to myself, and Wesley shook his head.

  “They still have seasons, sweetheart,” he informed me. “And we’re in the southern hemisphere, so it’s winter now.”

  “You’d think I could have Googled that before we came here,” I commented with a self-deprecating eye roll. Admittedly, I had a shitload on my mind at the moment, so checking the weather in La Paz wasn’t super high on my radar.

  “It’s just a refueling stop, then we’ll continue on to Uyuni to meet Jackson,” Finn told us, following me down the steps from the jet. “We’ve got about an hour or so if you want to visit the gift shop, but be quick about it.”

  He stormed across the tarmac without waiting for a response, and I glared at his back.

  “He’s been in a fantastic mood today,”
I muttered.

  Wesley sighed. “Yeah, I think maybe it’s just nerves about seeing his brother again. That’s my best guess anyway. Did you want to check out the terminal at all?”

  “No,” I replied. “I just wanted some fresh air, but it’s colder than I expected out here. I’ll head back on board.”

  “Cool, I just want to grab a fridge magnet from the gift shop, so I’ll be back in a few.” He seemed a little distracted as he said this, like he was confused by his own need to pick up cheesy souvenirs.

  I cocked my head at him in curiosity. He didn’t elaborate, so I headed back up the steps and onto the plane.

  The short transit stop flew by quickly, and we were soon landing at the small airport of Uyuni where Jackson had said someone would be meeting us. God forbid he just give us an address to get ourselves to; it all had to be cloak and dagger with him apparently.

  Then again, he had successfully hidden a prince of Hell for almost twenty years, so I guess his methods had some merit.

  Two heavy-duty trucks met us outside the jet, and we all piled in for the drive to... wherever the hell we were going. It didn’t take long, though, for me to gasp in shock at what I was seeing through the truck window.

  “This is it,” I exclaimed. “This is where it all happens.”

  River, sitting beside me, saw what I was talking about and murmured a curse under his breath. “Of course, how did this not occur to any of us? It wasn’t snow... it was salt. The battle with Bridget will happen here on the Bolivian salt flats.”

  Turning to stare at him, my guts churned with a sickening mixture of nerves, anticipation, and relief. The unknown had kept me on edge more than I had really admitted, but now... well, now we knew we were in the right place.

  Now we just needed to win.

  Sucking a deep breath, I clenched my fists a few times to rein in my chaotic feelings. “All right, well now we know. I will activate my runes and call our army here.”

  “And Bridget?” River asked. “How do we know she’ll come?”

  I gave him a slightly smug smile. “Don’t worry about her; she’ll be here. She won’t be able to resist.”

  “Kitten,” he warned. “What does that mean?”

  Tapping the side of my nose I gave him a sly look. “I have a feeling I’ve got her more figured out than she realizes. Trust me, she’ll be here. But we need our side here first, so let’s get to work.”

  Sighing, River wrapped an arm around me. He tugged me in close to his body and held on like he was committing the shape of me to memory. “I always trust you, Kitten. But, shit, I worry.”

  27

  The location where Jackson was keeping Lachlan was actually ingenious. The heavy-duty trucks drove right across the salt flats for over an hour, well away from any curious human tourists and collateral damage. When we stopped, it was beside a raised lump of salt, like a salt hill? Salt dune? The specific terminology for this landform was escaping me.

  The man who slipped out of an almost invisible crack in the salt looked rough. Not old, because looking old was becoming a rare thing within magical beings, but he looked exhausted.

  Vic and Finn were both in the truck ahead, which had pulled up before ours, and so they were already greeting Jackson like old friends by the time I’d peeled my numb ass out of the seat I was in.

  “This is Kit,” Vic introduced me to the scraggly bearded mage. “My, er, daughter. I guess.”

  Jackson put out his hand for me to shake, his muddy brown eyes sharp and calculating as he inspected me. “Jesus, Vic, she’s the spitting image of Bride, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah well, don’t judge a book by its cover and all that,” I snapped, not liking being compared to my deadbeat bio-mom so soon after meeting the elusive former Blood Mage.

  An easy grin spread over his face, and he held his palms up defensively. “No offense intended. I assure you, there are no Bride fans here. Why don’t you all come inside? I’d feel more comfortable if we got down to business and then chatted afterward.” Glancing past me, he jerked his head in acknowledgement to someone. “Kiddo, good to see you still alive. Sorry about the lack of training. I’ve been a bit busy, you know?”

  “Uh-huh, sure.” Caleb barely acknowledged Jackson’s half-assed apology as he draped his hoodie over my shoulders and pulled the hood up over my hair. It was still warm from his body, and I snuggled into it gratefully.

  “You’re right,” I agreed with Jackson. “Let’s get this bond broken for Lachlan before we chat. I feel a bit too much like a target right now, especially knowing this is where it will all go down.”

  Jackson raised his bushy eyebrows at me in interest but stepped aside to indicate we should head inside his, er, cave. Or, home, I guess?

  The interior was totally not what one would expect from a salt cave, but then again... magic. It looked just like a normal apartment, except for the comatose demon on a table in the middle of the living room.

  “This is him, huh?” I asked rhetorically. It was fairly obvious that this was indeed Lachlan, prince of Hell, and my bio-mom’s third dianoch. Unless Jackson was in the habit of keeping comatose people in his house. “Not a very demonic name is it?” I pondered aloud. “Lachlan. Sounds more like a leprechaun.”

  “Oh, and you’re the expert, are you?” Finn asked in a dry voice, bumping my elbow and causing me to jump a little. “How many demons have you met? Or leprechauns for that matter?”

  “Fair point,” I conceded. “All right, let’s do this shit before we find out that our seer friend was wrong about the date or something.”

  “We’re here to help if you need us,” Wesley assured me, touching my shoulder lightly, then stepping out of the way.

  I shook my head. “Should be fine; it was easy enough to break Vic’s bond. Just... rinse and repeat.”

  “That’s the idea,” Vic murmured, coming to stand on the opposite side of his unconscious friend. “Go for it, girl. But remember that with or without the bond, Bride will know where we are the instant Lachy awakens.”

  “I’m counting on it,” I muttered, flexing my fingers and then gripping hold of the blood red Ruptura Amulet. My eyelids fluttered shut, and I blocked out all the sounds around me, focusing on my own, pure Ban Dia magic and letting it fill my being.

  Only when I was sure that I was ready, I reached out for the glowing rope of Lachlan’s bond, and just like I had with Vic’s, set that baby alight with flames from my amulet.

  Like with Vic’s release, the instant my magical fire touched the rope, my mind was filled with the blood-curdling screams of dying magic, and I needed to resist the urge to clap my hands over my ears to block it out. This was no physical sound, though, and it wouldn’t stop until the rope was burned right through or I dropped my hold on the amulet.

  “Come on, you bastard,” I growled under my breath, watching inside my mind as the cord writhed and contorted like a living thing being burned at the pyre. While Vic’s bond had been old and frayed from years of neglect and disuse, the same couldn’t be said for Lachlan’s. It was clear that Bridget had been pumping a whole crap-ton of power into this bond, which was probably why Vic had said she would know where we were. The second it snapped fully, she would get almost like a GPS ping. How I knew this, I had no idea. Sometimes my magic just supplied information to me... or perhaps it was my imagination filling in the gaps.

  My fingers gripped tighter to the stone at my throat, and I ramped up the intensity of the flames down the magical cord, steeling myself against the horrific sounds of dying magic.

  Eventually, it was done. I watched within my mind as the charred ends of the bond fell away from one another and glittering ash sprinkled Lachlan’s body before I released my grip on the destructive magic.

  “It’s done,” I announced with slightly more drama than I had intended. To be fair, my ears were ringing from the screams of magic, and I thought I was speaking a lot quieter than I evidently was, given the shocked looks on everyone’s faces... or the fact
that when River said something, his lips were moving but I wasn’t hearing any words.

  “I need a minute,” I announced, trying to lower my voice a little.

  Jackson indicated to a door off the kitchen, and Caleb gripped me gently by the arm to balance me as I wobbled my way through to a small bedroom.

  “Are you okay, Kitty Kat?” he asked me, crouching to make eye contact as I sat on the edge of the bed. Or that was what I guessed he’d said from the movement of his lips and facial expression. Damn, how long had that screaming been going for? It hadn’t been anywhere near so bad when I’d torched Vic’s bond.

  “Yeah, I just need a moment to recover,” I told him. “That was harder.”

  He gave me a smile of understanding, gripping my hands in his and rubbing them with his thumbs. He started to say something, but my lip-reading skills were subpar at best. I just wasn’t following any of it so I held up a palm to quiet him.

  “Cal, hon. I have no idea what you’re saying. Give me a sec for this ringing in my ears to fade.” Truthfully, it was already subsiding, and I could feel the tingling pull of magic where our hands touched speeding the process along.

  He gave me a smile and an eyeroll, then tugged me close for a kiss. It started out a fairly innocent sort of kiss, but when the healing magic gripped hold, it quickly turned passionate.

  “Ahem.” A very fake cough interrupted us, and I glanced up to the doorway.

  “Oh yay, my hearing is back to normal,” I commented, grinning at Austin, who stood with his arms folded and an eyebrow raised at the two of us. “Thanks, Cal.” I smacked another quick kiss on his lips and accepted his hand when he stood to pull me up.

  “Everything okay?” Austin asked us, his concerned eyes raking all over me and then returning to my face. “Or did you just need to sneak away for a makeout?”

  “Can it be both?” his twin countered, with a lazy smile.

  Austin shook his head but didn’t look annoyed. Probably because it was a move he’d pull himself. “Come on, Lachlan is awake.”