“How in the hell are you possibly going to doze off with all this going on around you?” Ashley asked, truly stumped.
“My mom’s going to help with that.”
“What? How?”
“Remember all those times when you spent the night, and my mom yelled at us for getting to loud, and then next thing you know, we were down for the count? Tired, head hitting the pillows, done with the giggle-fest, off to dreamland?”
“Yeah, so?”
“That was my mom’s influence when she got tired of listening to us.”
“No way!” Ashley looked at my mom as we entered my room, and I plopped down on the bed. “That’s sneaky, and I’m not sure I approve, Eileen!”
“Honestly, I didn’t know you’d ever figured it out, Jess. I thought for sure I’d never hear the end of it when you did.” She looked at Ashley then, “and I’m sorry, but you girls can seriously test the limits of a parent’s patience with the things you talked about. Werewolf hearing is sometimes not a blessing.”
“Okay, point taken.” Ashley agreed as her face reddened a bit
“I didn’t figure it out until recently, and I’m not giving you any crap about it, because I’m hoping it will be helpful now.” My mother took a seat in the Papasan chair in the corner, while I fell back on the bed, and tried to relax. Ashley sat at the end of the bed, just looking back and forth between my mom and I. “That’s annoying, you know?”
“Well, I was wondering if she’s knocking me out too.”
“I can be very selective,” my mother told her, “but you might want to sit at the desk anyway, so you don’t accidently bump into Jess and bring her around.”
The world was grayed out and foggy as I searched for the white wolves. I had no clue how to get to them though. They had always pulled me in randomly. I kept thinking of Mikael, desperate to find him as I searched for a way into the white wolves. I ended up screaming out my frustrations into the soupy fog that surrounded me. That’s when I heard a voice, faintly, coming from somewhere in the background, where I couldn’t see.
“Focus on one. You can’t be in two places. Either chose the wolves or go to Mikael.” I knew the voice, and while I couldn’t see the witch who was in the background giving me guidance, I knew it was her.
“I’m not sure how. It isn’t working. I’m just stuck in this in between place.”
“My sister is preparing to do her worst to Mikael. You need to get there first. The wolves can’t tell you anything you don’t already know. Just focus, as you did when you thought something was wrong Jack. It will come to you. More importantly, you will go to Mikael, and be able to see what needs seeing.” The auburn haired witch was visible through the fog momentarily, and then she was fading back out, as if she had only been a figment to begin with.
I closed my eyes, focusing on Mikael, picturing his face, his scent, the way he touched me, his smile as he watched me from across the room, and the way he sat across from me so blissfully as we played with the puppies. “Please, take me to Mikael,” I whispered as I opened my eyes. The fog had thinned, moving off into the background as it often did in my visions. I wasn’t sure where I was. The building didn’t seem to be one that was in use. There were construction materials lying about everywhere, and fencing. No, not fencing, cages. There were cages all around me. I seemed to be in a center run with little rooms on either side. Some had caged frontages while others were still unfinished. It was sort of like the shelter where Mikael and I had played with the puppies, only this space was much larger. I continued looking around, trying to get my bearings until I heard voices just up and around the bend in the hall. I stayed back in the shadows as I peered around the corner. There was a woman with raven-black hair there, and she was focused in front of her at something I couldn’t see. Antoine stood next to her with a cruel smile on his face.
“What do you think? Will she come?”
“She’ll come, but there’s something…” the woman’s voice trailed off as she focused harder on whatever was in front of her.
“I’m hungry,” a familiar male voice announced. “You guys haven’t exactly been bringing me the best of meals out there in those grubby ass caves.” Zach came into view, walking towards me. “You promised I would be with Jessica by now. Can we get this show on the road already? I don’t even know what she sees in that loser. Seriously, he’s building a hotel for mutts here.” I wished I could become corporeal just long enough to ring Zach’s mangy neck, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I barely got out of the way before he passed right through me. He did, in fact pass through my left arm as he walked by. I watched him shiver as he did, so he had to feel something, but he kept going. “I’m looking for food,” he said out loud, as he muttered, “creepy damn place,” under his breath.
I took it as a good sign that he couldn’t see me, and I carefully rounded the corner, sticking to the wall as I got closer to where the raven-haired woman and Antoine stood. I needed to see what they were looking at. As I got closer, I noticed the woman’s attention venturing over to where I was, so I stopped, and chanced a glance over to the left, at what they’d been staring at. There, in the center of an open room that was still being worked on, was a cage that had my heartbeat quickening at first glance. It was nearly identical to the one Marcus had put me in when he kidnapped and tortured me. Someone was in the cage, and just coming to a sitting position, although he quickly learned that he wouldn’t be able to sit all the way up. Touching the bars burned, just as it had when Marcus put me inside them. The bars must have been treated with wolf’s bane too. I kept watching, until the person in the cage finally lifted his head, and glanced right over at me.
My heart was caught in my throat as I looked into Mikael’s bright emerald eyes. There was a flair of recognition as he noticed me, and then he turned his eyes to the two people standing before him. “Father,” he spat. “Sophia…” He was letting me know who we were dealing with here. I had thought that the witch who had visited me so often in my dreams, and twice in person, had been Estella Sophia Marquez, but she had been lying in order to gain my attention in the beginning. This must have been the true witch known as Sophia to so many. That made sense since she’d worked for Antoine before to break his bond with his first mate. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, father?”
“I had to take matters into my own hands, because you wouldn’t get the ball rolling fast enough with the girl.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means, I needed you bonded with her weeks ago, and you couldn’t just take her from your brother with brute strength, or find some easier way to make her fall madly in love with you.” Antoine was rolling his eyes as he spoke
“It was clear after seeing Jessica and Evan together that they would make a true bond. That’s why you were needed. We threw you in the mix, to muck things up with them, and keep her from the true bond. It’s part of what has made the white wolves so powerful in past generations. Those who never found their true mates were more susceptible to influence.”
“Really? And what makes you think I wasn’t her true mate?”
Sophia laughed, as did Antoine. “Were you blind when you were around them?”
“Of course I wasn’t, but he was the first person she’d ever dated, and my brother is nothing if not charming. I didn’t see it, but maybe we were looking from different angles.” Mikael glanced in my direction discreetly again, but his eyes grew wide as I heard footfalls behind me. It was Zach coming back again.
“Oh, good, he’s awake. Can we get this over with now, so that Jessica can be mine?” When Zach walked right past me without acknowledging my presence Mikael gave me a questioning look, then focused on his father again.
“You’ve been working with this tool? To give Jessica to him?”
“Yes, well, you always have to have contingency plans. If breaking the bond between the two of you wouldn’t work to kill her, then I had to be able to give her to someone else and try a
gain, or at least weaken her with an ill-matched mating.”
“I don’t get it. You wanted me to bond with her, so you could try to kill her by breaking the bond? What kind of sense does that make? You met her before she came into power.”
“Yes, yes, I know, and at first I thought she would be controllable, once mated with Evan. It wasn’t until Sophia showed up and told me how much stronger she would be with a true mate that I had to change tactics, and throw your hat in the ring. That damn Marcus almost took care of the problem before it started. If only he hadn’t been such an incompetent fool.”
The witch closed in on the cage, and threw something on Mikael. It must have burned like hell, because he screamed out in surprise. I could hear the flesh of his arms sizzle as a growl erupted from him, and I felt an ache deep inside myself. I could do nothing, but watch though. Sophia was chanting something as she circled the cage Mikael was in, but when she got back around to where she started she stopped cold, and really looked at him. “Show me your eyes,” she hissed at him. Mikael flipped her off, and then continued trying to knock the rest of the burning fluid free of his other arm. “SHOW ME YOUR EYES!” She screamed at him then. I’m not sure why he looked up, if it was because of her tone, or if she used some form of power to force it, but he glared right up at her, and she backed away slowly. “Perfect.” She was laughing. “They were playing you for a fool, Antoine, my dear.”
“What are you talking about, Sophia?”
“First, there was all that talk of how I went to visit and warn the girl. I told you I never did it. And now, they’ve been telling you that they will not bond until the solstice, but it’s in his eyes. They’ve already bonded.”
Mikael sent a worried glance over towards me. I just shook my head, and put my finger to my lips. I wanted to speak to him, but I couldn’t take the chance that someone else would hear it. Sophia had already seemed to sense a presence here, even if she dismissed it once. I didn’t think I’d get that lucky if she heard a strange voice too. I continued watching as Sophia started sorting through some supplies she had laid out on a counter behind her.
“What do you mean they’ve already bonded?” Antoine was angry. He had to be getting a complex since he was supposed to be King, but was always the last to know.
“I can’t feel the bonds anymore, the ability was lost to me when I took Anya’s bond from you. Now, I can only see a ghost of it in their eyes. This is good news though. You’re sure that Evan was her true mate, and this one was just a convenient second place?” Mikael glanced back over at me as she said it.
I smiled at him, and put my hand over my heart, and mouthed the words, “you are my love.” He couldn’t gesture back, mouth words, or say anything to me, so he put his hand over his heart too, and went back to watching Sophia preparing some sort of witches brew. My heart ached for Mikael seeing him in that cage, but I couldn’t leave yet. As much as I wanted to tell the others where to find him, my gut kept telling me not yet. That instinct hadn’t failed me to date, so I wasn’t about to turn away from it. I stood there and watched as she prepared to do her unbinding spell, and I hoped like hell the other witch had been correct in that it couldn’t be broken.
“Can you break it then?” Antoine was almost bouncing in his giddy excitement. “Will she die?”
“I will break the bond. I don’t know if it will kill her.” Sophia answered sharply.
“Well, will it at least weaken her enough that she can be dealt with?”
“Yes, but you will have to keep Evan far away from her, if he really is her true mate.”
“There’s no worry about that. I actually called his old flame up a while back and arranged for her to get cozy with him. Apparently, Annabelle helped out with that and put in a call to her sister too, telling her she was lonely and needed a visit. My youngest son may have a supernatural ability to disobey my commands, but he’s always been weak where the women are concerned.”
Sophia looked at him oddly then. “He fell for an old flame that you put in front of him?”
“That’s what I just said.”
Sophia turned on him quickly when he snapped at her. “You think a man who found his true mate would have his head so easily turned?”
“My son has always had a soft spot for the women, and a particularly strong jealousy of his brother. Combine the two, and it seems effortless.” Antoine was laughing. Sophia was not.
“You are a fool.” She turned with her concoction then, and walked over to Mikael. “I’m afraid this is going to hurt quite a bit. If you stay strong, you will live. If you give in to the pain, you will surely die as your mother did.”
I was determined at that point that I would be the one to kill that bitch. I’m pretty sure Mikael was thinking the same thing though, so I was probably going to have to stand in line for the honor. I watched in horror as she began applying the goop she had in the bowl to her own face. I had assumed it would be applied to him. As I watched, in sheer train wreck style fascination, the woman in front of me transformed into me. It wasn’t really me, but her face was like looking into a mirror. It was eerie. Mikael must have thought so too, because he looked back at me then, just for a moment to reassure himself that I was there. She cut her wrist at that point, and began chanting words that I no longer understood. They were from a different language.
I watched in horror as a thick, tar-black shadow emerged from the witch and then slithered across the floor towards the bars of the cages. It contorted and squeezed its shape in between them, to go settle itself around Mikael. He sat, still as stone, looking completely disgusted by the feel of the shadow wrapping around him. Mikael didn’t appear to be in pain, and I wasn’t sure if I could feel pain from my body when I was in a vision state. Sophia, on the other hand, wasn’t looking too good. After a few more minutes of horrible, screech laden chanting, she clutched her stomach and doubled over.
Mikael was able to catch her hand as she stumbled too close to the cage. She snatched at it, trying to jerk free of his grasp, but it wasn’t working. Then, I heard a snap and a blood curdling scream went echoing through the mostly empty animal rescue building. He’d broken her wrist, at the very least.
“Do something about this!” She shouted over to Antoine. “He’s your son.”
Antoine grabbed the cup of liquid that Sophia had used on Mikael earlier and walked closer to the cage. He splashed some liquid from a cup directly on Mikael, and I heard that same sizzle from earlier, everywhere it made contact. He inadvertently released his hold on Sophia and she scrambled back from the cage, and his reach, quickly enough to avoid being hurt again.
“He will pay for this,” she yelped as she cradled her arm in her opposite hand.
“Yes, yes, in the meantime, is it done? He didn’t seem to be in as much pain as I remember.” Antoine was worried, and not about the fact that Sophia got herself hurt.
“No, it didn’t work. You bet on the wrong son. He is her true mate, and they have a soul-share bond. There is nothing that can be done to break it.”
“Then we use him as bait. She will come.” Antoine lashed out in a disgusted tone.
“If she comes, she will come with an army.” Sophia pointed out as she wrapped her arm with some fabric from her bag of tricks.
“Then, I guess we better be prepared for that. The good news is, Malachai tells me they already sent scouts out everywhere they thought we would be. Apparently, no one else knew about this place either. That’s to our benefit. It means they won’t know where to look for him. So, we can pick the place where we set him to lure her in. We’ll fortify, and be ready. I will get a hold of Malachai, and have him start preparing.”
I moved to the other side of the hall, where I had been hiding. When I finally got Mikael’s attention I mouthed, “I will be back soon.” He shook his head adamantly, trying to tell me no. “YES! I will bring help.” He was still shaking his head. “I love you.” Mikael drooped further in the cage. He had heard what they were planning, and he knew I’d
be in danger.
“What about me? I thought you had another plan, in case this one fails.”
“I always have another plan…” The edges of my vision were already graying out, lost to the fog. I tried to hang on to it, in order to find out where we’d be able to catch up with Zach, but I couldn’t grab hold again. “Will she be going with me again?”
“Yes, she has to now, to recuperate.” Antoine’s voice rang out, and that was the last I heard as a hand rocked my shoulder back and forth, and I came back to reality.
“Jess?” The familiar deep voice made me smile. “Jess, are you back with us?”
“Yes, Evan, but we have to go. They’re going to move him soon, and they will have a trap laid out once they do.”
“Where do they have him? Asi says they’ve searched everywhere.”
“He’s at the rescue.”
“What?”
“Mikael was building an animal rescue, you know, for dogs.”
Evan actually laughed. “Of course he was. That big sap. It’s always those damn dogs that get him in trouble.” He said it with love, and a certain reverence, so I let the comment go. “Do you have any clue where he was building the rescue?”
“Um, no, but I know how to find out.”
I dialed the shelter, “Hi, may I speak with Jackie, please?” I only had to wait a moment before her jovial voice greeted me.
“This is Jackie, how may I help you?”
“Jackie, hi. This is Jessica St. Marks. We met when Mikael brought me by on a date.”
“Of course, how are you sweetie?”
“I’m good. Listen, I wanted to surprise Mikael with a romantic dinner, and he’s working late out at the rescue trying to get it ready.”
“I bet he is, those damn contractors have him a couple weeks behind now.”
“Yeah, I know, and he refused to take me out there until it’s finished, but I think he really needs this. He’s kind of in the dumps about the delays.”
The Ancients Series Page 47
