“What are you thinking, Son?” Everet asked.
“We know the evil rove’s name. We know what he is,” Michael said. “That’s got to count for something, right? I mean, yesterday we didn’t know squat about this evil rove. Now we do. Aunty, you’ve got a huge library. Surely, you can learn more about the demon rove and how we can kill it.”
“Not everything can be killed, Michael,” Aunt Anastacia retorted.
“Are you saying the demon rove is unkillable?” Michael paled.
Aunt Anastacia refused to answer. Instead, she glanced at Emily. “I need twenty-four hours. I’ll look through my books and make some contacts. Both about the demon rove and how to deal with him, as well as your father and how to extract that information from him.”
“We might not have twenty-four hours,” Dad said, startling everyone. His voice was a throaty growl.
“It’s the best I can do, John,” Aunt Anastacia replied testily. “Besides, we have the Alfreds to deal with. That’s going to take us the whole day. First we have to amass. Then we have to siege. Then comes the war. After which we have to burn the roves to ashes. That can’t happen too easily.”
“We don’t have twenty-four hours,” Dad repeated. His eyes were going a shade redder.
“Dad, are you all right?” Emily asked.
Dad looked at her. “No, Emily, I’m not. Every second we spend here, I get this foreboding feeling. Like a presence is hovering over me.”
“Is it possible that the evil rove put some sort of listening or tracking device in him?” asked Kendrick.
Everyone turned to Aunt Anastacia for an answer.
Aunt Anastacia sighed. “It’s possible. I’ve done it before for the girls when they went to rescue Michael. So, he is definitely able to do so.”
“Well, did he do so?” asked Kendrick.
“If he did, I don’t know,” Anastacia retorted. “As I said earlier, his magic is beyond me.”
“Does that mean if brought face to face with him, you are unable to defeat him?” asked Michael.
“Perhaps.”
A slight chill settled down Emily’s chest. Aunt Anastacia was the most powerful supernatural of them all. Probably the most powerful in the army they were building. If she wasn’t sure she could take down the demon rove, then they were truly doomed.
“We’ll know more in twenty-four hours,” Michael said finally. “For now, we have a war to fight. Let’s move out.”
Once the meeting ended, Emily’s first move was to head over to her father to talk to him. But Aunt Anastacia beat her to it, and Everet was trying to get Emily’s attention as well.
“I’m going to go check up on my parents and bring them up to speed,” Joanna whispered into her ear before she left.
Emily angled toward Everet. Michael and the other vigilantes went into the armory section.
“I wanted to tell you about the night your mother died,” said Everet.
Emily growled. “If you’re looking for absolution, Mr. Winter, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place.” She couldn’t believe that the man could be playing this card when they were all probably going to die.
This is the best time to play the card, Honey, Selena said in her mind. Redemption is a powerful tool. Use it sometimes.
Emily groaned.
“No, it’s not about that.” Everet wrung his hands together uncomfortably, his knuckles turning white. “I just want you to know the truth. What really happened.”
Emily wasn’t sure she was emotionally ready to listen to Everet’s story. She needed a clear head if she was going to win at the Russos’ mansion tonight.
It wouldn’t hurt to listen to him, Selena cooed.
Why are you supporting him, though? Emily queried The Owl. Selena remained silent.
Emily folded her arms. “Make it quick.”
Everet didn’t mind her snappy tone. He started, “I grew up with your mom by my side. By the time we were old enough to know what it meant to be in love, we were in love. In spite of what my father did to her father. She didn’t hold it against me.”
He took a deep breath, preparing to say more. “When I discovered your mom’s true identity, I had a decision to make . . . but she made it for me. She left me, and I understand why she did it, but I never got over her. I was still in love with her. By the time I tried getting her back, she had fallen for one of our former classmates—a burly military guy—and they’d gotten married. That was your dad.”
“But that didn’t stop you, did it?” Emily intervened, angry.
Everet bowed his head in shame. “I know I shouldn’t have. But I did. And I hate myself for it every day. It was a one-time thing, but we had a child, and, well, you know the rest of the story.”
“No, I don’t!” Emily lashed out. “You put her on that list . . . but you loved her!? That is messed up on so many levels!”
“I put her on the list only because I had to!” Everet defended himself. “I hid her identity from the other vigilantes as long as I could, but it came out eventually. And once I took over as chief, I made sure I never enforced it. I couldn’t do that to her.” He started to choke on his words as his eyes got glassy.
“How did she die?” asked Emily with zero sympathy. She was getting tired of his long tale.
Everet squared his shoulders and looked at her. “The night she died, contrary to what people think, I was in my house with my family. We weren’t hunting her because we already agreed to let her live in the town peacefully. That night, she called me. She wanted me to come out to the town’s square . . . that she was in trouble.
“Knowing her supernatural nature, I assumed it was a supernatural problem, and so I sounded the alarm. I immediately geared up and rushed to the town’s center—”
Emily could already see it play out in her mind. “But she was alone.”
“Yes, she was alone.” Everet’s voice shook. “She was kneeling down there, weeping. Her sister had been kidnapped . . . again.”
The pieces were fitting into place in Emily’s mind. All the bits of information she’d been getting all along. It was forming one big mosaic in her mind now. “The evil rove was coming for her next, and she couldn’t let it have her,” Emily said. She looked at Everet, and for once, didn’t see him as the intimidating vigilante boss who wanted to capture her and disembowel her—or even as the man who’d murdered her mother. She empathized with him as a victim of circumstance.
“Her sister was going to end up dead,” Everet concurred. “As was she. She couldn’t have that. She knew she had to be the one to go in order to save her sister.”
Emily sucked in air. “She asked you to kill her and to make it seem like vigilante action to make the evil rove think it was a coincidence.”
Everet’s eyes were already brimming with tears. The moment he nodded, the tears spilled out of his eyes. “I tried to stop her.” His voice was garbled with emotions. “I tried so hard. I swore I would protect her with my life. I swore the entire resources of the vigilante group to stopping this evil creature, but she was convinced that he would win in the end and that there was nothing anyone could do.”
Emily swallowed her own sob.
Everet took his time to get a grip on himself. He wiped away his tears and said in a clean, professional voice, “She didn’t want to do it herself. She was too afraid. She said she wanted me to do it. She wanted me to take the blame. She didn’t want people to see her as a coward. She took my knife, placed it in my hands, and forced the edge into her abdomen.”
It was too much for him, so Everet shut his eyes for a second. While his eyes were closed, he muttered, “She made no sound. She didn’t even scream.”
Everet opened his eyes. Looking Emily in the face, he said, “By now the sirens were already blaring as backup arrived. I went through the motions. I had to. I didn’t want her sacrifice to be in vain. I wanted you and Ana to be safe.”
Emily gazed back at him blankly.
“I’m not asking for your
forgiveness, Emily. I would do it all over again if it will keep you and your brother safe. I would give my life, even, to keep you both safe. I just want you to know the truth. That in the end, your mom was a hero. She gave her life for her sister, for you, for the world.”
Emily had not heard this part before. She didn’t know what to think or say. So she remained silent. After an extended awkward silence, Everet excused himself and went to the armory room to join the boys.
Emily stood there for another several minutes, her mind in a chaotic swirl of emotions and memories. The picture played clearly in her mind. She could see her mom kneeling at the town’s center. She could see the moon high up in the sky. She could see Everet barreling to her rescue, only to find out that she required him to help her make the ultimate sacrifice.
Emily couldn’t begin to imagine what Everet must have felt. The emotions and guilt he’d had to contend with all these years.
I’m sorry, Selena said. Selena’s voice kicked Emily out of her sad slump.
Me, too, Emily replied. But then she lifted her chin and stood up straighter. Time for payback.
She shuffled to her room, picked up her phone, and dialed Marion.
20
Marion was sprawled on top of the massive bed, uncomfortable as could be. What made him feel uncomfortable wasn’t the fact that the bed was obscenely plush—he wasn’t exactly from a poor background—it was the fact that it was a girl’s room.
The room he occupied had once belonged to Joanna Russo, and it was packed full with girls’ stuff. The box he’d salvaged from his house before the fire demon burned it to its foundation still lay in the corner.
He didn’t want to get used to this place, simply because he knew that it was about to fall before Emily’s army—that very night.
Yes, he knew about the siege. He knew about the plan. He knew that Emily was going to somehow amass an army of supernaturals and couple them with vigilantes to bring hellfire upon the Russos’ house. He knew it because his parents had told him, and his parents knew because the demon rove had told them.
This was one secret he knew that Emily and her team didn’t know. The demon rove had the power of premonition. He could see the future. He had the eyes of fate. He could see the end of every endeavor and every person. The demon rove had looked into the future and had seen that surely the world will come to an end, and he shall be victorious.
Marion had seen too many of the demon rove’s prophecies realized to even allow a shred of doubt that this one wouldn’t. When the demon rove had told him that he would not only fall in love with the Owl shifter, but that she was Marion’s fated mate, he hadn’t believed. But that was before he and his family had returned to their hometown of New Haven. Marion didn’t know Emily yet because the Alfreds had moved away from New Haven when he was only a baby.
When the demon rove had told them that Emily would bring fire to their mansion, twice, he hadn’t believed, and it had happened accordingly. But now, he knew better. When Father had come from meeting the demon rove in his lair at the edge of town just after the house burned down, he’d told them that the demon rove wanted them to stay put.
Because of the tracking spell within John Davies, Astaroth knew that Emily and Michael were coming to them. He had told them about the siege and that it would be successful. And that, in the end, the boy and girl would be his, and that they would die on his altar . . . tonight.
Marion didn’t doubt that this was true. He didn’t doubt that Astaroth would have Emily and Michael tonight. But he was beginning to doubt that Father really could bring back Emily after the sacrifice as he’d promised.
It’s one reason why Marion saw folly with Emily’s plan. Nothing she did mattered, especially when her foe was a man that could peer into time. It was an unwinnable battle. That’s why he hadn’t yielded to her pleas. Of course, he didn’t want to betray his family. But then, he knew that the war was unwinnable. No need to fight it, when you could surrender and seek a life after the end.
Marion had a life after the end. His family had a life after the end. There was no reason she couldn’t have a life after the end. Perhaps Father’s analysis was correct. Once Astaroth enacted Nadarog Maragog and controlled the beast, he could open the gates of hell and Emily’s soul could be brought back. He had nothing to worry about.
So why am I worried? Marion asked himself. There was something about the way Emily had spoken to him. She had told him that his father had deceived him. Would he believe the words of some girl over the words of his father?
But she wasn’t just some girl.
She was his fated mate.
And fated to die.
Marion knew from his supernatural studies that witches and warlocks didn’t usually have fated mates. But shifters did. So did werewolves and fae. Some vampires, too. But not roves like him.
So he never considered he would as well. But sometimes warlocks or witches—or even humans—could be a fated mate. Like, maybe to a mind-numbingly sexy blonde Owl shifter . . .
The second he got near her, he could feel it. The pull. The desire. He was hers, and she was his. And a few times, he could tell she felt it, too.
But it didn’t matter now because Astaroth was about to murder her. And then where would they be? No honeymoon in the Bahamas for them! Unless he could really get her back.
Marion tussled in bed. But what if Father lied to me? Marion wondered what the implications were. It would mean that Emily’s life would be permanently lost. It would mean that a lot of the other things he’d said about the world and why they were trying to end it were false, too.
Marion tried not to think about it too much. His soul had become bound too tightly to Emily’s to even conceive a reality where she was irreversibly lost to him. He didn’t even want to consider it.
Then Marion realized he was holding his breath. He relaxed his shoulders and let it out softly. He shook his head and allowed a small smile.
“You’re being paranoid,” Marion told himself.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” another voice replied.
Marion snapped up and saw Alice standing in the shadows. She was almost blotted out by the darkness of the corner.
Marion frowned. “What the hell, Alice?”
She stepped into the subdued reddish light coming in from the tinted windows to the side. She was dressed in a white shirt tucked into a black skirt. Her black hair was arranged back in a ponytail, and she had makeup on her twelve-year-old-looking face, which made her look doubly scary. She was also chewing gum, and her eyes were crackling with murderous energy.
A wide grin divided her face in two. Dear God, his sister truly looked maniacal. “Hey, Marion, whatcha doing?”
“Get out of my room, Alice!” Marion roared, in spite of himself. “I’m not joking.”
Alice seemed to deflate, her smile morphing into a scowl. She headed for the door, shoulders slack. “No need to be nasty, yo.”
“Out!” Marion yelled, pointing at the door. “I won’t say it again.”
Alice stopped at the door and turned to glance at him. The electricity in her eyes seemed to intensify. “What if I said no?” she asked with a deadly tone. “Can you make me?” She was inviting trouble.
Alice had a tempestuous personality. And after she was turned, the Alfred family had no choice but to allow her antics. Bend to her will. Not enrage her. But now Marion was in no mood to be messed with.
He snapped out of the bed. “Wanna try me?” The air became charged with power.
Alice’s lips curled up at the edges. “Why yes, Dear Brother, I do.”
As Alice stared pointedly into his eyes, Marion felt the urge to lash out with an attack simply fade away completely.
The girl tilted her head to the side. “What were you saying?”
Marion blinked. His head feeling fuzzy. “I can’t remember.” What the heck? Wasn’t he just mad at her a second ago? Now he couldn’t remember why.
“You can’t fight vampire compulsi
on, Dumbass,” she hissed and walked out of his room.
Compulsion? Dammit! His sister had done it again! Luckily, he was a pretty powerful rove, so his sister could only compel him fully when she held eye contact with him. But he hated her for it. Using it on her own brother was crossing a line.
It was then that his phone rang. He frowned, wondering who else would be awake to call him at such an hour. He pulled the phone out of his pocket and checked.
It was Emily?!
Marion’s heart pounded into his throat as he answered the call. “Hey, Em—”
“Listen to me, you little piece of shit!” Emily spat into his ears, shocking him to his core. “I’m coming for you. I’m coming for your family. And I’m going to burn you all down until there’s nothing left of you. Just like there’s nothing left of that rove and team of supernaturals you sent to kill us after we left you.”
Marion would have sworn his heart stopped beating for a second.
“Rina’s death is on you. And I’m coming to avenge her.”
The line went dead.
He looked at the phone, and there was only one word that came to his mind. Chandler. And just like that, everything unraveled. His faith in his parents. His trust in Astaroth. Everything.
“Chandler!” Marion screamed as he marched out of his room and down the hallway to Chandler’s. They both had rooms on the third floor.
He found Chandler on his bed, listening to music, with earbuds in his ears. He hadn’t heard Marion’s scream. But the moment Marion marched into the room, Chandler snapped up to a sitting position.
Chandler took one look at Marion and smiled his stupid, goofy-ass grin. “Tell me, did the team at least make it back?”
Marion shook his head. “I trusted you. How dare you betray me?” he growled under his breath.
Chandler put his phone and earbuds aside and slid to the edge of the bed. “Dad asked me to. He didn’t trust you with the girl. Astaroth told him she’s your fated mate—and I was like, whaaaat??? Anyway, he wanted me to take care of things.”
Born to Raise Hell: The Owl Shifter Chronicles Book Three Page 16
