by L. M. French
I asked the most pressing question I had. “Why can’t I see?”
I felt her smile. “Because you’ve yet to open your eyes, dear.”
Relief shot through me like a bolt of whiskey. I tried to open my eyes, but nothing happened. I frowned. “Sestie?”
It was then that the hands on my forehead and stomach moved to my eyes to peel what felt like tape away from my skin. It was then I realized I had something roughly the size of a checkers piece on top of both my eyelids.
As the hands left my face my eyes opened, and I got my first look at my surroundings. I couldn’t hold back a wince as I realized I was in Sai’s bedroom. It had been more than twenty years and it was still too soon. My brain just wasn’t ready to let go of that trauma.
I found Sestie on my right still softly stroking the top of my hand. Shifting my gaze to the left I found a gnarled, wrinkled excuse for a priest.
A figure shifted at the foot of the bed drawing my attention. There was no pillow under my head, so I had to lever myself up on my elbows to see who it was.
A short shock of blood-red hair topped an angular face and big baby blues that danced as Pike grinned at me. “Back from the ether, I see.”
The old curmudgeon frowned fiercely in Pike’s direction. I smiled however, delighted to see Pike who ranked in my top five favorite people ever. He reached down and squeezed my foot as if to emphasize the welcome back.
It was then I realized that not only was I not wearing boots, I wasn’t wearing anything at all. But for a thin sheet I appeared to be stark naked.
I blushed against my will and tucked the sheet under my arms so as not to accidentally show off my not so worldly goods.
Sestie seemed to understand my unease. “Your clothes were sorely damaged, but your boots survived. I've left new shirt and trousers with them in the bath.”
Rising to her feet she gestured to the door that led to a sitting room of sorts. “Why don’t we give Veda a moment of privacy to attend her needs.”
Grumpy looked like he swallowed a lemon but complied, his long white robes swished around his feet as he moved away.
Pike lingered; his lean frame braced against the wall eyeing me like he had something to say but was waiting for privacy. Sestie gave him a pointed look and something passed between them before she gave a minute shake of her head.
Pike’s jaw clenched but he pushed off the wall and meandered towards the door. Something was up there, and the feeling only intensified as he speared me with a look over his shoulder.
“There now, I shall keep them pacified whilst you bathe and clothe yourself.” At some point Sestie had stopped trying to acclimate to modern vernacular. It was kinda sad. She was sorta frozen with that formal stick up her ass and it affected everything that came out of her mouth.
She began to turn away and I grabbed her hand to stop her. Something had been bothering me since I’d woken, and I didn’t want the others around when I asked.
Once I had her attention, I found myself hedging. “Do you know where I was?”
She nodded slowly. “There were rumors Ivory was holding you for displaying unstable behaviors in his district.”
Her voice was matter of fact which was disturbing for a number of reasons. I mean we weren't particularly close, but a little dismay would've gone a long way. I shook it off and continued. “Why didn’t Sai come for me?”
Her eyes, a deep rich green, shined ever-so-briefly with tears. “I don’t know, Veda.”
It was a promise made to an orphan who wasn’t an orphan just unwanted. On the day he gave me my seal Sai made a promise to go with it. His personal symbol, the scorpion, had been embedded into my skin. It was a piece of his magic and a direct link between us so that if my life depended on it, he could always find me. Speaking of....
“Where is he?”
Sestie turned her head away, her honey blonde hair hiding her face.
“Sestie?”
She lowered herself back into the chair she’d occupied when I woke, folding her hands and refolding them.
Her behavior was making me nervous, and my stomach was getting the sick feeling it did when I ate a whole bag of marshmallows. “Sestie, where is Sai?”
Her eyes lifted to mine and the tears that had glinted there before spilled over. “He’s gone. He’s just gone. No one knows where. He’s missing, Veda. Sai’s missing.”
My heart began to pound as I absorbed this bit of information with more than a little shock. Missing? How do you lose one of the most powerful beings in the world? How do you lose a King?
“Ozias-”
“Cannot track him.”
That wasn’t possible. Ozias was as unique as they came. A Daenali wolf born of the Red Raven he could find anyone so long as he’d tasted their blood. Kinda gross but when you were desperate it was kind of an acceptable trade. Sestie wore an everphial of Sai’s blood for just that purpose. Everphial’s were sorta mystical vials that kept its contents fresh and bloody.
Like all powerful beings, Sai had his share of enemies so measures had to be taken just in case.
I twisted the sheet in my hands. “If Ozias can’t track him does that mean hes...” Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
“Dead?” she asked.
I wanted to kick my feet and struggled with impatience. “Yes, dead. Does this mean he’s dead?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Impatience struggled back.
“What do you know?” I regretted the words instantly, but the damage was done. Insulting someone was like passing gas in public, while regrettable it still stunk.
The effect my careless words on her was readily apparent as her golden locks melted into green strands and her skin paled to a milky white. Patterns wove down her face and arms like vines writhing angrily.
Yeah, I sucked.
“We know that he took dominion of a vessel and he’s not returned. We know that even he cannot sustain this indefinitely,” she seethed. “And we know that our last link to him is gone.”
This was bad. Very bad. One of Sai’s abilities was to separate his being, his aura, from his body and impose it upon another, sort of possession if you will. Although temporary it was dangerous. Sai's mortality would be linked to that of his host.
Sestie had apparently done some deep breathing exercises and gotten herself under control. Her hair fell in perfect blonde waves around her golden face. While both were stunning, staring at her made it easy to forget she was a goddess in her own right. Worshipped eons ago her people had died out or grown away from the faith that had tethered her to her lands. She had traveled far and wide before coming to the new world. Here she’d found a new home and had been reborn as Sestie, Consort to the King.
Still, being tied to the cycles of birth and rebirth, a fertility goddess, you didn’t expect her to scare the crap out of you.
Not that I blamed her, her agitation was understandable. If Sai’s host were killed, he would die with him. Finding him was of paramount importance, nothing else could matter.
“Sestie, how did you find me if it wasn’t Sai?”
She smiled maliciously. “Ivory was given... incentive to track Vaughn. That morcai demon contacted the wolves when you both disappeared through the gate.”
Guilt mingled with relief and washed through me. Frank was okay. My friend didn’t die for me.
Sestie stood preparing to leave when I asked, “Why go through all that trouble when you need everyone capable looking for Sai?”
She took my hand in hers stroking it gently as she had when I awoke. “We had hoped to use your connection to Sai to track his aura.”
We know that our last link to him is gone.
Her earlier words hit me between the eyes. She’d meant me. But I was right here.
She smiled, amused and I realized I‘d spoken out loud. “Yes, you are here. But you are no longer connected to our King.”
My denial was swift and vehement. And I choked on it as s
he turned my hand over, exposing my seal. Shock rendered me numb as my eyes traced the light and colors that swirled like a tiny galaxy, the smallest piece of the ether trapped within my seal.
Sai’s scorpion was gone and with it the magic that linked us.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Veda
I lingered in the shower, washing away blood and ash leaving my skin smooth and unmarred but for the scar on my wrist where Ivory’s knife had been. Even my shoulder had healed completely but I was pretty sure that was Soon’s doing.
I dressed in a white button up shirt with billowy sleeves and trousers which thankfully turned out to be a pair of black high waisted jeans before sliding my feet into my boots. They were worn and scarred but putting them on and feeling the familiar grooves in the soles helped center me.
Sitting on a dressing stool, I brushed my hair back from my face to dry. The brush slipped from my fingers as I studied my seal, turning it this way and that cataloging the changes. The colors spiraled out from the center until two tiny stars trailed the outer edges. Like my scorpion had moved the stars did too, slowly but constantly in a perfectly choreographed clockwise motion.
Sighing I rose and replaced the brush I’d borrowed before moving to the bathroom door.
When Ivory had me shackled and at his mercy, I’d thought my day had hit rock bottom. The fact that having my hand almost cut off didn’t top my list of Worst Things Ever left me reluctant to leave the sanctuary the bathroom represented.
No sooner had I emerged from the bathroom that I heard loud voices arguing from the sitting room. I stopped in my tracks, my ears trying to decipher the angry words but had no luck.
Straightening my shoulders, I continued to the door and out into the sitting room. As soon as my presence registered the shouting stopped and everyone turned to stare at me in unison.
Awk-ward.
Sestie stood inches from Bay, Alpha of the Daenali wolves and head of his clan. Her hand was still raised where she’d been doing her best to drill a hole through his chest with her finger.
I took a moment to admire her fearlessness. Bay towered over her with a six and a half foot tall, two-hundred-and-somethin’-pound frame. His hair and eyes were the same shade of black and every inch from there to his toes was cut with hard muscle and documented in ink. He’d been Sai’s fiercest warrior and close friend for centuries and the centuries had been kind to him.
Phin, short for Phineas, sat in one of the chairs adjacent to his commander, his head in his hands as if weary of the whole situation.
Get in line, buddy.
Pike offered me a smile from his place next to the sideboard. I looked around and found the room empty but for the five of us.
I cleared my throat. “Have you learned anything new?”
Bay’s crack of laughter was harsh and reminded me of Ivory. My stomach clenched.
He marched towards me ignoring Sestie’s protest. I stepped back but he kept coming backing me up against the door jamb. “You want to know what we’ve learned, Sentinel?”
I nodded refusing to let him see how nervous he made me.
“We learned saving you was a waste of time.” He bent his knees bringing his eyes directly in line with my own. “We learned you are now more useless than you were before.”
I felt my belly quiver as I fought to control my expression. Bay’s words cut deep, echoing the identical words that still haunted me.
“Bay.” Phineas stood behind him; his forest eyes soft as they watched me, but I ignored him.
Bay threw me another look of contempt before he spun away. Phin ran his hands over his dark hair in a sheepish gesture.
Where Bay had always looked at me like I was something he’d scraped off his boot, Phin had treated me with respect and affection. His hair was pulled up today in a man-bun exposing his face in its earth-shattering entirety. Even the scar that ran across his nose and face didn’t diminish the beauty underneath.
Wolves rarely tolerated humans as anything but a fuck or food and as half-human I didn’t rank much higher. That Sai held me in high esteem, had even let me into his inner circle, had chapped Bay’s ass since I was a teenager. As a half-human I fell into a unique category that left me permanently untrustworthy in many eyes.
The day Sai had given me my seal, something no one else carried, not even Sestie, Bay had gone nuclear. Going as far as to threaten to kill me to end the idiocy.
Sounds harsh, but many agreed.
Only Sai’s acceptance had provided me protections others like me didn’t have. Human half-breeds, halflings if you were feeling politically correct, were considered a danger to themselves and others. Half-breed humans had a bad habit of becoming unstable. Like white jacket, hide the kitchen knives unstable. Humans and preternatural didn’t mix well even organically.
I’d done my best to grow thicker skin and let Bay’s constant hostility roll off me, like water off a duck's back. It seemed to irritate him when I didn’t react the way he expected and If I broke down every time someone had decided I was too worthless to live I’d have spent my entire life in therapy. I was trying to avoid the men in the white coats.
Besides, Sai had been the one constant in my life as I came into my sentinel abilities. My connection to the moon had disturbed my guardian, a fact I found ironic since she’d spawned Ivory. In my case, she seemed to fear some latent wolf DNA lay dormant in my genes.
Senevia was a priestess of the Timorii, like four removed with respect for purity. She and her mate, Urey, had been a bonded pair until he was killed in the war. This made her a natural enemy of wolves. Treaty or no.
On my sixteenth birthday she’d declared me grown and sent me on my way with a few hundred dollars in cash and the keys to my scooter. With no family and no real idea what it meant to be homeless I’d gone to a favorite place of mine in the world. Or at least up until that point.
Callio Lake was part of a reserve and, even with my sentinel gift, getting there wasn’t a snap. Not a lot of doors lying around the wetlands. I had to stash my scooter in a busy parking lot where it wouldn’t stand out but was relatively safe from theft. It hadn’t taken me long to reach the gate I discovered in the public library restroom.
I’d gone through the ladies' room door and came out in some kind of utility shack bordering the reserve. I’d barely arrived, preparing to eat a meal of beef jerky and protein bars as I wandered when I'd sensed a presence. Spinning around I nearly overbalanced myself before recognition hit me. “Sai?”
He stood silently among the trees and Spanish moss while moonlight fell on the seemingly calm waters. The night around us filled with organic music compliments of the creatures in the bayou. His gaze was kind and compassionate. And accepting. He smiled and it was a father's smile.
Everything I had Sai had given me. I still didn’t know why and to be honest I hadn't asked. I'd just taken what was offered to me, my job, his acceptance, and most importantly his seal. It had taken a part of Sai to make it-another secret- although some like Bay suspected the truth. He’d sacrificed a part of himself for me and I could do no less.
I might’ve been a mutt among pedigrees, but I was a loyal mutt.
I turned to Sestie, prepared to beg if I had to in order to stay and help. Her expression was as apologetic as her words were awkward. “Veda... it's just that- well you see-” her eyes dropped to my hands balled into tight fists. “Without your seal intact your presence here is...superfluous.”
A nice way of saying a waste of time.
Ozias entered the room as I was edging out the door. Our arms brushed, fire uncurled in my belly, and I jerked away slamming my shoulder into the wall.
He froze where he was in the doorway turning towards me. I ignored his stare as I half-walked half-jogged down the hall away from them.
Ozias
THE TRANSFORMATION of Veda’s seal was a game changer. We’d taken for granted that we had more than one concrete way to track Sai. To say Bay didn’t take it well was like calling a hu
rricane a rainy day.
As I neared the sitting room, I could hear Sestie’s scolding tone and Bay’s deeper but no less scathing rumble. Those two were like oil and water. He’d never trusted the female and didn’t mind showing it.
Entering the room, I immediately dodged Veda’s retreating body as she backed out the door. I dodged her as best I could, but our arms brushed, and I felt a jolt of energy jump between us.
Head on a swivel, I watched as she bolted from the sitting room and stalked away. A hum was ringing through my head and I knew it was remnants of the power that had jumped between us.
Sestie stormed past me breaking me out of the mini trance I’d fallen into.
Bay threw a look my way. “The priest?”
I shook my head.
Phineas eyed me. “Everything okay, brother?”
I glanced over my shoulder where I’d collide with Veda. “Did you notice anything peculiar about the Sentinel?”
“Aside from her seal?” Phin tipped his head, likely replaying his interactions with the young female. His roots lead straight back to sacred stones and medicine wheels. Legendary was how the pack described his intuition. Hunches, gut feelings, he’d get an itch to follow it and he was almost never wrong. “What made you ask?”
“Her energy is...different. Louder.” Like mouthfeel for your aura, it was hard to describe.
Bay tuned into our conversation and frowned. “Louder how?”
I stuffed my hands in my pocket and tried to think of a way to describe it. “Like the difference between a gentle breeze and a howling wind. I brushed against her and our auras collided. It was powerful.”
Emerick strode in. “One hound and a couple of errant wolves are in the pound. The wolves are claiming to be members of the Vernon clan and demanding to see Lennox.”
“They say anything else?”
“Veda went crazy and attacked Vaughn.”
“Right after she ripped her own clothes off?” Bay’s voice held cold-blooded murder.
