The Seven: Four tales of passion, danger and love

by Ciana Stone

  She returned to her seat. Grace stared at her for a moment, in complete shock and fascination. “Oh my god. You mean, you…you love Severin?”

  “Yes, very much.”

  Grace turned her head. She couldn’t look at Nyah, or Walker for that matter. How was she going to tell either of them what had happened with the changeling she’d thought was Walker? Or that she’d spoken with Severin and been told that Nyah was a danger to her and Walker as well?

  A Changeling? Did she completely believe it herself? She’d sensed something off and had ignored it. Why? Was she so desperate for Walker’s love that she had stopped listening to herself and ignoring her own instincts?

  “Grace?”

  Walker’s voice, followed by the touch of his hand on her thigh, forced her to turn her head and look at him.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She opened her mouth, closed it, shook her head and stood. “I have to tell you something. Both of you and…and, god please don’t hate—”

  Walker was on his feet, pulling her into the comfort of his arms before she could finish the sentence. “Grace, whatever it is—”

  “Don’t. Please.” She pulled away from him. “Not until you hear. Remember when I got our date night mixed up?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, the reason I did is because I thought you had come over Thursday night. I thought I…we… I thought we…”

  She couldn’t force herself to say it, but the look on his face told her that already his anger was rising.

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying someone else was there. He looked like you. Exactly like you. And he—he said he loved me and and…”

  “You had sex with him." Nyah filled in the blank.

  “No! But I kissed him. I thought it was you, Walker. I swear on my parents’ graves, I thought it was you.”

  “Son of a bitch!”

  Walker’s shout had the definite undertones of a dragon threatening to emerge, and his eyes flashed hot and brilliant. “This is the guy—the one with the psycho dog?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Walker’s hands tightened into fists. “Did you sleep with him?”

  “No. I just kissed him. I told you, I thought—”

  “Bullshit!”

  Grace saw the scales forming on the side of his face. His anger was prompting the change. Nyah must have seen it too because she rose and hurried to Walker. “Listen to me. Walker. Look at me.”

  He finally stopped glowering at Grace and turned his eyes to Nyah.

  “Severin has great power.” She spoke in a placating manner. “I have no doubt that Grace is telling the truth. She thought it was you. She loves you. She would never have willingly betrayed you. She was tricked. Severin sent a changeling to her. Walker? Are you listening to me?”

  The room was silent for a long time, the only sound that of his harsh breath. Finally, he nodded and stomped across the room to the window. He stood there with his back to them. Grace looked at Nyah and Nyah shook her head, gesturing to the sofa.

  Grace hesitated, cut a look in Walker’s direction, then claimed her seat. She didn’t blame him for being angry. She was angry with herself. She should have seen through the ruse before he kissed her.

  Caught up in guilt and grief, she wasn’t aware Walker had moved until she felt his weight settle on the couch beside her. His arm went around her shoulder to pull her against him and she turned toward him.

  “I’m sorry. I swear to everything holy, I’d never intentionally betray you, Walker. I just—I just let what he said—that you love me—I’m sorry.”

  “I know.” His voice was raspy, but no longer tinted with the rumble of the dragon. She looked up at him and he smiled at her. “Don’t cry baby. I believe you.”

  “You do?”

  He nodded and gave her another smile. Relief washed over her so strong that it took her remaining strength and she sagged against him. “I love you, Walker. I really do.”

  “I love you,” he whispered against her hair then kissed the top of her head. “And I am going to kill Severin.”

  Grace jerked upright at the same moment Nyah gasped.

  “You cannot,” Nyah said.

  “You mean he can’t be killed?”

  “No, I mean—”

  “Then he can be killed?”

  “Well, yes it is possible but he has great power and—”

  “How?”

  Grace looked from him to Nyah. “Yeah, how?”

  Nyah shook her head. “I cannot—will not give you the key to his destruction.”

  Grace felt Walker tense and hurried to address Nyah. “Okay, but there has to be something we can do. I mean can’t you just… I don’t know, turn him or something? I mean, if you really do care about him, then what if you did get together? How bad could it be? He wouldn’t kill you or anything would he?”

  “No, I doubt that he would, but we cannot be certain. Should we abandon our posts, our powers would be unleased upon this world. Every creature prone to Darkness would be imbued with his power, and likewise those prone to Light filled with mine. And there would be war. War such as this world has never seen—war that would not end until there was but one left standing. Life on this world would end.”

  Grace fell back against the cushions, her heart hammering. “Oh my god. That’s…”

  “Bullshit.” Walker finished her sentence. “Absolutely and completely off the charts crazy. You don’t expect us to believe that, do you?”

  Nyah regarded him in silence for a long moment. “Believe as you will. You asked. I answered.”

  “How can you know that’s true?” Walked demanded.

  Nyah opened her mouth, then closed it.

  “Well?"

  “To be honest, I don’t know.”

  “Ha! See. There is always a way. And if he wants—wait, if he loves you, then why did he—what does he want with Grace?”

  “He used her to hurt me.”

  “How? I mean sure, you care about her, but how would that hurt you?”

  “Because she is my daughter.”

  “Say what?”

  “No.” Grace shook her head. “That’s not true. I had a mom and she died when I was—”

  “Your father told you she died,” Nyah interrupted. “And that she had no family and so you never knew your grandparents or any of her family. He told you she was an orphan, as was he.”

  “Yes. Was that all a lie?”

  “Yes and no. Your father had a specific genetic code, one compatible with mine. I knew that I could breed with him. So I did. But I did not count on his instability. When I left him, he—”

  “Fell apart.” Grace did not try to hide the bitterness. “He lost it. Started drinking and drank himself to death.” She jumped up, suddenly infuriated. “You did that to him. To me! If you are my mother then screw you. You walked out on me and my life was shit and you didn’t care.”

  Grace couldn’t take the idea that what Nyah said was true. She’d spent her entire life convincing herself that her mother was a wonderful woman who had died of some mysterious illness and if she had lived, Grace’s life would have been so different, happy and filled with love.

  To be told that she’d had a mother all along, but one who had no interest in her, one that could turn her back and walk away without a second thought… Well, that was too much.

  She ran out of the house and across the yard to the shelter of an old oak.

  Walker jumped to his feet and challenged Nyah. “If you’re telling the truth, then fuck you, lady. Stay the hell away from Grace, you hear me? I won’t let you hurt her. I’ll kill you and that bastard, Severin.”

  He ran out to where Grace had her hands covering her face, sobbing into them. “It’s okay.” Walker wrapped her in his arms. “It’s okay, baby, I’m here.”

  “She’s lying,” Grace choked out the words. “She has to be.”

  Walker didn’t know whether to
argue or agree. Truth was, he had a hard time buying anything Nyah had told them, despite the way she’d transformed or the fact that her ink had changed him and Grace.

  Maybe he just didn’t want to believe. Whatever the case, that wasn’t what mattered right now. Grace was hurting and all he could think about was how to comfort her. “It’s okay,” he whispered into her hair. “I’m here. I’ve got you. It’s going to be okay.”

  “Indeed it is.” Nyah’s voice had them both jerking and looking in the direction of her voice.

  “I did abandon you, Grace. With intent. I knew your life would be difficult and while it pained me, I knew it had to be. You needed to be strong and resilient, to be able to stand on your own. You needed to be capable of becoming a warrior.”

  “A warrior for what?” Grace said, hiccupped back a sob, then wiped her eyes and squared her shoulders. “To fight some insane imaginary battle you have cooked up in your head?”

  “To protect this world and the people you love. Your mate and your children. To be there for those who seek you out needing sanctuary and comfort. Only one who has known fear, despair, or loneliness understands those who seek solace against it.”

  Walker sensed the change in Grace at those words, and felt it himself. Grace pulled back. “I know you’re playing me and I’m stupid enough to fall for it, but don’t think for a minute that this means I forgive you, because I don’t. I never will.”

  “Nor will I ask for it. But I will ask for your help so that we might stop Severin from wrecking havoc on the people in this area before it is too late,” Nyah said.

  Grace looked up at Walker. “I stand with you,” she said. She didn’t believe Nyah. Not for an instant. But she wasn’t sure she believed Severin either. At this point, the only thing she did believe was that she loved Walker and wanted to protect him.

  The only way she knew to do that was to deceive both Nyah and Severin, and that might prove deadly. But she had to try. So she looked at Walker and he nodded.

  “And I stand with you,” he said. “Tell me what you want to do and that’s what we’ll do.”

  She nodded and faced Nyah once more. “We’ll help you, but when it’s done I want you to leave here and I don’t want to see you again.”

  “As you wish. Now, if you will, please come back inside. We have much to accomplish and little time. What Severin did to you must be undone.”

  “No,” Grace said, surprising Walker.

  “No?”

  “No. I think we should leave it.”

  “As long as it is there, you are connected to him,” Nyah said. “You will feel his pull and sense his whereabouts. He will call to you and you will feel that call, feel the urge to succumb.”

  “I know.” Grace looked at Walker.

  All at once he seemed to understood and so argued her case to Nyah. “Maybe that’s a good thing. If Grace can sense him, then even if you can’t contain him, she’ll always know where he is, know where we need to be vigilant.”

  Nyah was silent for a few moments. “It will be difficult for Grace. Severin is seductive and powerful. He will use all of his power to beacon her to him.”

  “That’s it,” Grace said, and when Walker looked at her in confusion she explained, “Don’t you get it? He inked me to establish a connection. If we can round up his followers—as many as possible and contain them—Nyah can ink them, establish her own connection and exert her own control.”

  Walker grinned at her. “That’s actually pretty smart.” He looked at Nyah. “What do you think?”

  She smiled. “What is the old saying? Tit for tat? I think it has merit. But gathering together all of his followers in one place is too massive an undertaking. It will have to be accomplished in stages.”

  “Then we start where we are,” Walker said. “We figure a way to round up everyone under his control in this area. Draw them all somewhere it won’t be noticed.”

  “Like here,” Grace added. “We lure them here.”

  “Yes, that may work,” Nyah agreed, and once again turned toward the house. This time, Grace and Walker followed.

  Chapter Eight

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Walker gave Grace’s hand a squeeze as they walked along the lakeside.

  “No, but I don’t see another way.”

  “I don’t mean luring Severin, I mean the whole damn thing. Do you really buy into all this? I mean, we’ve all heard about The Seven and I know they exist but I’ve never met one and a Vampire is one thing. This transformation thing…that’s something else entirely.”

  Grace considered the question for a few moments. Had she not seen and met people who could transform into animals or creature of myth, she would have said no. But she had. She’d seen these people and the abilities they possessed.

  If there were people who walked the Dark Path with equal power, then they were dangerous. Not simply because of their abilities but because their way did not adhere to a strict moral code. They saw humans as something less than themselves and therefore expendable.

  That was terrifying.

  “You know what we can do. And we’re just now learning our powers. There are people a lot older and more skilled than we. Imagine what they could do to the people here.”

  “I know.” Walker stopped and faced her. “I get all that. I do. But I’m not convinced that we can pull this off. What if something goes wrong? What if Severin doesn’t take the bait but decides to just snatch you off the street, or out of your apartment, or—”

  “Walker, don’t. We can second guess all day but it won’t change anything. This is the safest way for everyone. We have to try.”

  “And if we succeed?”

  “Then we do what you suggested. We get in your truck and go somewhere far from here. Start over and hope we can keep what we are a secret and not run into any of Nyah’s or Severin’s followers.”

  He pulled her to him, enveloping her in a tight hug. “I love you, Grace.”

  “And I love you." She squeezed a little tighter, taking comfort in the feel of his arms around her.

  They remained as they were for several minutes before she pulled away. “I have to go. I’ll see you at Nyah’s in an hour.”

  “If you’re one minute late, I’m coming to find you.”

  “I’ll be there. Just make sure she has everything ready.”

  Walker gave her a lingering kiss that spoke of promises and fear. When he released her, she smiled at him. “One hour.”

  He nodded and walked away. She watched him cross the grass to where he’d parked his truck on the side of the street. When he pulled away, she took out her phone and dialed the number she’d obtained from Nyah.

  Severin answered on the second ring. “Yes?”

  “This is Grace.”

  “To what do I owe the honor of your call, Grace?”

  “Mistrust.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Mistrust. I think maybe you’re right. Maybe Nyah is lying to me and I need the truth.”

  “To?”

  “A lot of things. Most importantly…is she my mother?”

  There was a long silence, so long she thought maybe the call had dropped. “What would lead you to believe that she might be?”

  Grace let out the breath she’d been holding. “I don’t want to talk about it on the phone. Meet me in person.”

  “Where?”

  Grace gave him the address of Nyah’s estate and again held her breath. Did he know the address was Nyah’s?

  “Fine. When?”

  “One hour.”

  “I will be there.”

  “See you then.”

  She ended the call then placed another. Nyah answered on the first ring. “He’ll be there in an hour.”

  “We will be ready.”

  “You better be.” Grace ended the call and stood there for a moment, looking out over the surface of the water.

  Tonight would change everything. Either they would succeed in determining who the threat was
and neutralizing it, or they might just wind up dead. She hoped with everything in her they succeeded .If they did, tomorrow she and Walker would disappear and start over.

  And maybe, just maybe, there would be a chance at that happily ever after.

  *****

  Grace was standing in the driveway waiting when the car pulled up. The man who has been masquerading as the puppy, Phobos, got out of the car via the driver’s door and opened the back passenger door. Severin stepped out and Grace greeted him.

  “Thanks for coming. Let’s go inside.”

  He took only two steps before stopping. “She is inside.”

  Grace stopped. She should have known he would sense Nyah’s presence. Now what?

  “Why don’t we take a walk, Grace? It appears to be a lovely estate and there are things we must discuss.”

  “Like what?”

  “Walk with me.”

  Grace hesitated for a moment, then nodded and fell in step with Severin as he started toward the rear of the estate.

  “What makes you think Nyah is your mother?"

  Grace didn’t see any benefit in lying. “She told me.”

  “And I suppose she also told you that she is a Guardian of the Light, consigned to that fate by her vengeful mate?”

  Grace stopped and looked at him in surprise and he smiled. “Yes, of course she did.”

  “Well, why shouldn’t she? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

  Severin started walking again and after a moment she hurried to catch up with him. “Well?”

  “As is most often the case, there is both truth and lie to the tale.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Truth. She and I did have an affair. Once, a very long time ago. I was in love with her. Foolishly and blindly in love. She had no interest in me. It was my brother she wanted. And it was my brother she mated. She became a princess, destined to rule by his side.

  “I was bereft at the rejection, but loved my brother and he was in love with her. But he was as mated to his duty as to her. When we came to this realm, after we were established and the operation was in progress, he turned his attention to other matters, leaving me in charge.