by Aliya DalRae
“It’s over,” Raven said, dragging his hand through his hair. “Fuhrmann’s gone.”
Chapter One Hundred Two
T he raid on Ulrich Fuhrmann’s hidey hole was a complete cluster fuck.
We were all gathered in Mason’s office: me, Raven and Nox, Rachel and Harrier and the two kids.
Mason was livid. Honestly, I’d never seen him like this. He was pacing the room furiously, his hands balled in fists by his sides and he even had a couple of hairs out of place. It was something to see.
“What were you thinking?” He was yelling at the kids, of course, who had single-handedly (double-handedly?) ruined any chance they had of taking out the Sorcerer who had cost Nox his eye.
Harrier and Rachel took it in turns to stand between Mason and the children, though I really couldn’t see the Warlord doing physical harm to the two. They were in trouble, no doubt about it, but Mason wasn’t the kind of guy who would clamp a couple of twelve-year-olds in the stocks. I didn’t think.
“Uli was our friend and you were trying to kill him!”
I had to give it to that Talon kid. He had guts. Not sure now was the time to prove it though. Relatives or no, these two were so not my problem. Raven, Nox and I chose to stand aside and let the grownups hash things out.
Mason wasn’t in the mood for back-talk either. He somehow got between Harrier and the boy and stood toe-to-toe with the kid, bright silver light sparking from his normally calm grey eyes.
“That man is no one’s friend, boy, and you would do well to recognize that.”
Talon stared back at the Warlord, his eyes giving off a bit of green spark of their own.
“We took you in,” Mason was saying as he loomed over Talon. “Gave you food, clothes, shelter for chrissakes, and you nearly got us all killed. You nearly got yourselves killed!”
And there was the crux of it.
I spared a glance at the elder twins standing next to me. Raven’s jaw was clenching, causing his temples to rise and fall with each grind of his teeth, and Nox was staring at the floor.
I knew they blamed themselves, but what could they have done? I reminded Raven that Helmut Fuhrmann had been able to dematerialize with me at the gravel pit and there had been M-bombs going off all over the place. The bombs hadn’t stopped him leaving then, and they probably wouldn’t have done any good against the escape of the most recent Fuhrmann.
Plus, the children’s safety was tantamount. Had anything happened to the two of them, there would have been no living with my aunt and uncle, and we all knew it.
Mason had drawn away from Talon and resumed his pacing. “I’d like to throw the both of you in that cell we made for Raven down on Sub T3. Shove your meals through a cat flap, no visitors, nothing. Just the two of you alone with your thoughts as Merlin watches you day and night on one of a dozen cameras.”
“Mason,” Rachel gasped, and I heard my uncle growl.
“Thirty days, confined to quarters.” Mason ground to a halt in front of Rachel, daring her to contradict his edict. “During that time, you will study every word ever written about the Primeval, the Legion and the Vampire race as a whole. You will not watch television or play games. You will not enjoy yourselves in any way whatsoever. Am I clear?”
Four sets of eyes stared at the Warlord. I think it was the “no TV” that did it.
Rachel recovered first, drawing Talon and Phire to her with an arm around each. She cleared her throat, trying her best to sound as though she had some level of authority. “I think that’s fair,” she said, and the children groaned. She turned them to her and knelt to look them in the eye.
“You have to understand the gravity of what you’ve done. I tried to explain to you the seriousness of the situation, and I blame myself for not being clear. However, you must be responsible for your own actions.”
Phire, who hadn’t said a word, looked over her shoulder at Nox, then back at our Aunt. “Did Uli really take Nox’s eye?” she asked. She sounded so much younger than her actual age.
“Yes,” Rachel said, her voice shaky with an emotion I couldn’t place. “He…”
Nox raised his head and spoke. “Phire?”
The girl turned to him but pressed herself into Rachel’s arms.
“What your friend did to me was much worse than taking a dagger to my eye.”
“How?”
“He used his magic to compel someone else to do it for him. Now there is a girl out there who must live with the fact that she jammed a cursed scalpel into my eye, blinding me…”
“Nox,” Rachel warned.
Nox spared a swift glance at Rachel before returning his attention to Phire. “I’m sorry to be graphic.”
Phire exchanged a look with her brother, then turned back to Nox. “I’m sorry,” she said. “About your eye and about getting in the way. It’ll never happen again.” Talon quickly nodded his agreement, and Nox bowed to them before walking out the door.
Chapter One Hundred Three
R aven and I took our leave as well. Seemed like anything left to say would be between the Warlord and Harrier and Rachel.
Besides, Raven was exhausted. Once again, the curse that Sylva Fuhrmann had placed upon him all those years ago had reared its ugly head, leaving Raven feeling impotent and useless.
We sauntered back to Raven’s suite, arms wrapped around each other, each lost in our own thoughts.
When we reached his door, he hesitated before opening it.
“Jessica, we need to talk.”
Well, that sounded ominous.
“Okay,” I said, “but can’t we do it inside?”
“Of course,” he muttered, then let us in.
I planted myself in my favorite corner of the sofa while he went to the kitchen to retrieve a couple of beers. Apparently, this was going to be one of those talks.
I took what he offered, screwed off the cap, and took a long drink. “What’s on your mind?”
Raven didn’t sit, but rather took up a round of pacing to rival his Warlord. After a moment, he stopped in front of the fireplace and turned to face me. There was a tear in his shirt, and his hair was a mess of tangles that fell around his shoulders in a black cloud.
“I love you,” he said, and I laughed.
“I know that.”
“Right, but I realized something before that mess of a mission tonight. I just haven’t had a chance to talk to you about it.”
“Okay,” I said again. “We have time now.” He obviously wasn’t going to join me on the sofa, so I angled myself to where I could see him better.
Raven took a deep breath and blew it out, a lock of hair lifting from his forehead as he held his hands out to me, palms up.
“I forgive you.”
I didn’t know what to say, but since he hurried on I was able to take a minute to think about how to respond.
“I know we’ve already reconciled.”
“And then some,” I mumbled.
“But that was the beast inside of me, telling me to get the hell over it.”
I nodded, and he went on.
“After everything we’ve been through, Jessica?” He shook his head and let his hands fall to his sides. “When I realized I was once again at the mercy of one of those gods-forsaken Sorcerers, I knew that we had to make things right, you and me.
“I hated what you did with Malcolm,” he said. “Still hate it.”
I stared at my fingers, not wanting to see Raven’s face as he talked about my indiscretion.
“But, Jessica? You’re my world.”
I looked up, my mouth forming a soft “O” at the sight of the crimson tear trickling down my Vampire’s scruffy jaw.
“I want you with me. Today, tomorrow, a million tomorrows. For the rest of my life, Jessica, I want you by my side.”
I swallowed the rock that was laying in the back of my throat and blinked away a tear or two of my own.
Raven crossed the room and held out his hand to me. When I took it, he pulled me
to my feet and wrapped an arm around me. Then he traced the path of my tear and lifted my chin so I could look him in the eye.
“I know I’m guilty of some pretty awful shit.” When I tried to look away Raven caught my chin and raised it again. “I know,” he whispered. “And there is nothing I can do to make up for that. What you did was bad. What I did was, well, unforgiveable. Still, I have to ask. Do you think you will ever be able to? Forgive me, that is?”
I placed my palms on Raven’s chest and gave a gentle push. He let me go, but through the Link I felt the ball that tightened in the pit of his stomach.
I put some distance between us, grabbing my beer as I passed the coffee table. Another long drink that nearly emptied the bottle bought me a piece of time to think. I walked to the window and stared out at the forest, the trees a portrait of shadow in the light of the waning moon.
I couldn’t bring myself to look at Raven when I said, “Malcolm was…special to me.”
I heard him growl, but when I turned around he had schooled his face into the perfect mask of innocence.
“I had already pushed him out of my life,” I said.
“But the baby…”
“Yeah, the baby was another matter. If I hadn’t been pregnant, none of this would have happened. Of course, then I would have just been a big fat liar, which really doesn’t make me any better.
“But Raven, you killed him. I may not have wanted him in my life anymore, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t want him to have one of his own. You took that from him, and he’ll never get it back.”
Raven dropped his eyes and stared at some spot on the floor. When he looked up again, I was standing in front of him.
“I love you, Raven. I have loved you since long before we ever met, and it’s the kind of love that doesn’t go away. If I were still human? Well, totally human? I probably would have walked away and never looked back. There would have been a hole inside of me, especially after the baby died, that nothing in that non-magical realm would ever have been able to fill. But I would have done it, without a doubt.”
I watched Raven’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. “But you’re not human,” he whispered.
“No,” I said. “I’m not. I’m not just visiting this world of murder and mayhem, anymore. I’m a part of it.”
I pulled my hair into a tail and let if fall around my shoulders as I stared at the ceiling, trying to find the words to express how I felt.
“Nothing about this way of life makes sense to me,” I said. “The killing and the torture, the way you deal with people who break your laws? There is nothing gentle about being a Vampire, Raven. No slap on the wrist, those kids notwithstanding. You’ve got a different way of handling things. It’s primitive and it’s awful, and it’s going to take me at least a full human lifetime to understand it, if I ever do.”
Raven dragged a hand through his hair and focused on something over my shoulder. I placed a hand on his cheek and turned his attention back to me.
“I guess that’s something I’m going to have to learn to accept,” I said. “As Dorothy would say, I’m not in Kansas anymore. I don’t have the luxury of prancing down the Yellow Brick Road. Of looking for a world where simply clicking my heels together will take me back to the safety of my own back yard.”
Raven lifted his hands between us, showed me his palms. I placed my own against his, then laced our fingers together.
“Do I forgive you for killing Malcolm? Right now? That’s probably still a no. But can I?” I looked at our linked hands, a physical representation of the metaphysical Link that would bind us for eternity.
I raised my eyes to meet Raven’s and said, “We have forever to find out.”
Epilogue
F ireworks blossomed across the sky above my property, reds, whites and blues as well as a variety of purples that I had put in a special request for.
Once again, I found myself surrounded by all of the people who made up my little corner of the world. Tas and Perry were throwing a football back and forth between them, while Tas schooled Perry on what he considered “real” football. Perry laughed and gave the ball a little extra something-something that left Tas shaking his hands.
Alex had been playing with them in the beginning, but things were getting rough, even by Vampire standards. At that point he decided to join me and Piper on the blanket where we sat sprawled out watching the Fourth of July display.
Talon and Phire were over by the bonfire, totally focused as Harrier showed them the finer points of roasting hotdogs on a stick. My uncle had taken great pains at finding green sapling twigs that were just the right length and thickness for safe roasting. He’d then toiled for an hour, shaving the points down until they were just so.
Rachel laughed as she caught a marshmallow on fire, then blew it out, bypassing the mystery meat for a good old-fashioned S’more.
My dad was manning the grill completely focused on his job as several fat steaks sizzled over the gas fire. He insisted that hotdogs were not fit food for a proper Werewolf and was more than happy to educate us as to the whys and what fors of it.
Meanwhile, my mother made sure that the potato and macaroni salad bowls stayed full, and that there was plenty of sliced watermelon to go around.
My sister, Allie, ran through the yard with a sparkler in her hand. She waved it around like a magic wand and made wishes on each and every spark as though she’d found her own personal source of falling stars.
Mason had even decided to join us tonight, the beautiful display of color in the sky all his doing. I don’t think the Warlord was over the fact that Ulrich Fuhrmann had escaped his grasp, but the thing about the Legion? They would live to fight another day. Should Fuhrmann decide to show his face in Fallen Cross again, I had no doubt that Mason and the boys would be ready for him.
Raven joined me on the blanket, handed me a hotdog—extra burnt and smothered in pickle relish and onions—and reached out a hand to rub my expanding belly. I smiled and leaned in for a kiss, which he was happy to provide, but only before I bit into that “god-awful concoction.”
The baby was due in November, ironically, but not even that odd timing could dampen the excitement Raven and I shared.
Allon, who had graciously declined the invitation to join us this evening, assured us that since my body had completed its transition, there should be no problems with the pregnancy. So far, he’d been right. We celebrated every day our little one lived inside of me and took great advantage of Raven’s ability to hear that tiny heartbeat. I think he used that as an excuse to lay his head on my stomach, checking on her at least twenty times a day, but I didn’t mind.
We talked about getting married, Raven and me. Not that it was something that Vampires did, not in the human sense anyway. Still, I thought it would be nice to have a human ceremony as well as the Vampire one Rachel had been more than happy to fill me in on.
However, we were in no hurry to make it legal. With the Link binding us, it couldn’t get any more official than that, at least not to us. And so, we decided to put off anything formal until after our little one joined us in the world.
As for the rest, well, we would just have to see what the future held for us.
A cluster of chrysanthemum sparks exploded overhead to a chorus of oohs and ahs. I grinned at Raven, the hotdog poised at my lips for the first excellent bite.
Raven grabbed my wrist and moved the hotdog aside, replacing it with his lips. The kiss was deep and passionate, full of all the promises an eternity had to offer, and as our tongues danced, my eyes sparked bright and clear. Raven’s lips formed a smile against mine, and his amethyst spark danced with the pure white of my own, our colors competing with the fireworks as they lit up the midnight sky.
~~~~~
L eonard Brandt sat in his favorite chair before a blazing fire, a book propped in the crook of his crossed leg. He had memory of turning the pages, though whatever it was he had read remained a mystery. Tonight, his mind was on other things.
Most of the Clowder had shifted and was out in the forest enjoying the power of the full moon. While the Overlord might have preferred to be with his Shifter family for their monthly celebration of the silver orb, tonight he waited.
The Goddess had paid him a visit as he slept, invading his dreams as she did on occasion, and informing him that he would be receiving a visitor soon. She advised him to prepare, and so Leonard had.
These visits were infrequent, yet they happened more often than Leonard would have preferred. Still, it was a gift from the Goddess, one that most of his kind thought of as myth, an old wives’ tale, as it were. Only the Overlords knew the true nature of the gift, and it fell upon him to deliver it unto the visitor.
At the sound of the cat flap settling into place, Leonard closed the book and gently placed it on the low table in front of him. Settling back into the comfort of his reading chair, he waited for the visitor to reveal himself.
Not too much time passed before a large tabby cat, black stripes painting his silver coat, sniffed its way to the rug by the fire. There, the visitor sat facing the Warlord and began cleaning the pads of his forepaw.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the Overlord said, admiring the newcomer’s composure. “The Goddess told me you would be coming soon.”
The cat gave a soft meow in greeting, followed by a rumbling purr that emanated from his chest as he continued his ablutions.
Leonard chuckled. “It’s nice to see you too, my friend. When you have finished your bath, and are feeling up to shifting, we can continue our chat. There is much I must tell you before you sleep, for once you close your human eyes, all that you have experienced prior to tonight will be lost to you.
The cat’s nonchalant air faded at the Overlord’s words. Before he knew it, the large feline was in his lap, front paws planted on Leonard’s chest, bright eyes in desperate search of an explanation.
“I’m sorry,” Leonard said, stroking the soft fur on the animal’s back. “It is the way of it, I’m afraid. But don’t worry. You will have a happy life with us, I promise you.”
