Christian looked at her in grave seriousness. “Seta gave me a guarantee that would not happen.”
Just as quickly as it had sparked to life, the little ray of warmth fizzled out as the cold truth sank in. “Meaning, she wouldn't allow me to tell.”
“No.” Christian replied with no emotion displayed on his face or in his tone.
A warm hand covered her own and she glanced up to see compassion in Jonah's hazel gaze. Her breath caught and she was sucked in by his gaze, her mind suddenly full of his image. Laughing, yelling, sleeping… Image after image of him filled her, like little lost pieces of memory. Then she saw him hovering over her, sweat dripping from his brow as he joined his body with hers in the most intimate way possible, whispering words of love…
“Morning, people. Everyone rested and ready to snuff out some fuglies?” Jake asked as he entered the room.
Jonah pulled his hand away and the images escaped with the loss of his touch. Malaika tried to pull them back, but they were good and truly gone. Still, the odd sense that she'd seen the images before lingered.
Malaika rubbed the spot where Jonah had touched her, and watched Jake cross the room to join them at the table, where he turned a chair around and straddled it, resting his elbows before him on the table. He wore a black T-shirt and jeans, his short hair wet from the shower. He glanced between Jonah and her, frowning slightly before asking Christian of Seta's whereabouts.
“She's with Rialto and Aria. After I told her the news of Malaika's vision, she thought it best to bring them here.”
“What vision?” Jonah asked, turning curious eyes on Malaika.
Before she could answer, Christian took Deja's hand and helped her down from her seat. “Once they arrive, you'll have much to discuss. I'll take Deja and see if we can't scrounge up any crayons, and perhaps a coloring book.” He smiled down at Deja, his hand smoothing down a frizzy braid, before turning his gaze back to Jake. Concern flared behind his eyes. “Jacob, if you need any—”
“I'm fine,” Jake said quickly, “and you know my name.”
“Of course.” Christian grinned, then nodded sharply. “Seta will be here soon with the others.”
“Sooner than you think,” the curvy vampire-witch announced as she entered the room, followed by a tall, muscular man with golden skin, dark eyes, and black hair secured at the nape of his neck. At his side was a gorgeous, light mocha-skinned woman with dazzling emerald green eyes and long, wavy brown hair. Malaika's eyes traveled down to her belly, round with child.
“Is this the couple you saw in your vision?” Seta asked, her voice parlaying her fear with a slight tremble. It was then that Malaika noticed the subtle similarities between Seta and the man. They could be brother and sister.
“Yes,” she answered, recalling the vision, and again feeling the sense that she'd had the vision long before she’d been accosted by the vampire at the abandoned building. That, along with the images she'd just had of Jonah, images she knew she'd seen before but somehow suppressed, unnerved her. Why would she forget these images? She turned her head toward Jonah to see him looking at the couple with his mouth hanging open.
“Come, Deja. Let's go find some way to amuse ourselves.” Christian touched Deja's shoulder and led her out of the room.
“We have much to discuss,” Seta announced, her voice shaky. The powerful vampire-witch placed a hand on her stomach while directing the two newcomers to sit at the table. The two sat in the vacant chairs between her and Jonah, and Seta sat at her right, between her and Jake. “Something strange is going on.”
“Yeah, like a vampire being pregnant,” Jonah said, blinking out of the shock he'd seemed to have fallen into. “You said he turned her.” He swiveled his head toward Jake. “How in the hell is she pregnant?”
Malaika studied the pair again, noting the strength rolling off of them, similar to the energy she felt from Seta and Christian. They were vampires. She was going to help a pair of vampires have a baby? The male vampire placed a large hand over the woman's smaller one and sent a quelling glare Jonah's way. Malaika frowned, wondering at the odd gesture, then understood as she took in Jonah's stiff shoulders and felt the anger, mixed with a trace of jealousy, he emitted. He was envious.
Malaika studied the female vampire again, her eyes growing hot. Damn Jonah. She so did not need a man in her life to be jealous about.
“Normally, vampires can't reproduce,” Jake clarified. “Rialto and Aria are… special.”
“How so?” Malaika asked, curious. If she was supposed to be there for the birth, she should know all the details.
Jake took a deep breath and glanced Seta's way. “There's this story—”
“Prophesy,” Seta interjected. “The Blood Revelation.”
The name rang a bell in Malaika's mind. She'd heard it before, she knew, but couldn't place where.
“To sum things up,” Jake continued, “three sets of… special people were chosen forever ago to mate, and create even more special children. One of these children, the Child of Light, will save the world from Satan's wrath.”
“My son, Rialto, and his wife—” Seta nodded her head in the direction of the vampires—“are one of the chosen sets. The child Aria is carrying will be one of the three special children.”
“Your son?” Malaika gasped, studying the man again. He grinned and nodded.
“I was nineteen years old when I was changed into a vampire,” Seta explained. “He had just been weaned. I turned him many years later.”
“And now I'm supposed to help deliver your grandchild.”
“According to your vision, and the one I recently had, yes. And somehow the vampire who attacked you knows, which means we are all in danger.”
Jonah alternated his gaze between Malaika's paling face, and Seta's frown, acid churning in his gut. Slowly, he turned his head toward his brother. Jake quickly cast his gaze down, unable to meet his eyes. “There's more, isn't there? Why else would all of us be in danger?”
“Tell him, Jake.” Seta's tone was firm, assertive. A warning that if he didn't, she would.
Jake glared at her and licked his lips. He took in a deep breath and released it slowly before at last meeting Jonah's gaze. “Nyla and I are one of the other sets.”
The bottom of Jonah's stomach seemed to fall right out onto the floor. Jake was a slayer, a fact he'd advised him of the prior day. He had some kind of a psychic radar to help him find supernatural creatures and kill them. No big deal. He was still human. But as for the other piece of the set…. “What is she?”
“She's my wife,” Jake all but growled, his hand clenched into a fist, “and her name is Nyla.”
“You know what I mean, Jake. You said these chosen people were special. How special is she, and don't say 'very' or something else to avoid answering the question.”
“She's a shape-shifter with vampiric traits, and your nephew might be, too.”
Jonah blinked, running Jake's words through his head again. Vampiric traits. Okay, he could deal with that. It probably meant she had an allergy to sun and drank blood. So did Christian and Seta. He kind of liked Christian, and although Seta was the last person on the planet he'd ever cross, he did trust her to a point. Shape-shifter? Those beasts who'd attacked his partner and put her in the hospital, unable to even talk, were shape-shifters. They were animals. Beasts. And his brother was married to one? He'd had sex with one? Was going to have one as his offspring? “Tell me you're screwing with me, Jake.”
“I'm not.” A nerve ticked in Jake's jaw. “You're the only family I really have, Joe. I need you to accept this.”
A wave of guilt swept over Jonah, but all he had to do to get rid of it was remember the damage done to Ronnie's throat. “Accept that you've decided to procreate with the same kind of beast who nearly killed my partner?”
“Nyla isn't that type of shape-shifter!” Jake's bellow reverberated off the walls. “She's not some filthy lycanthrope.”
“She still turns into an a
nimal, correct?”
“I know mortals who are more of an animal than her.”
“Nice way of avoiding a direct answer. What is she? Tiger? Wolf? Hyena?” He knew the hyena mention was a low blow, but something propelled him to say it anyway. Just to be mean. His brother, his own flesh and blood, had ignored him for months, gotten married without so much as a notice, aimed a gun on Malaika just for being a witch, but all the time he'd been with a shape-shifter? Unbelievable.
“Actually, I'm a Pantherian.”
Jonah, along with the others at the table, turned their heads toward the entry way to see Jake's wife approach. She was beautiful. Even though he now knew what she was, Jonah couldn't dispute that fact. He could see why his brother would be attracted to the violet-eyed woman with the long, flowing black hair. Despite the rounded belly she currently had beneath the black, snug-fitting T-shirt and leggings she wore, he could tell she probably had a nice figure. But still, knowing she could turn into an animal…
“Our animal form is the panther,” she announced as she crossed the room to stand behind Jake, placing her hands on his shoulders. Jake visibly relaxed a little, and Jonah remembered him saying something about her having empathic abilities. “But, we can also take on the appearance of a black cat.”
She narrowed her eyes on him, and tilted her head to the side as if awaiting a challenge. She blinked those big, violet eyes and realization slammed into Jonah's gut. Jake had a cat that'd followed him around since he was just a kid, since the night his best friend had been killed in an alley by a pack of vampires. He'd always joked with his brother about how jealous the cat was, scratching any woman who got close to him. A black cat with big violet eyes. “Holy—You're Alley!”
“That's correct,” she said, “and you've held me in your lap and petted me in my animal form. Do you still find me a threat?”
He looked between Alley—Nyla—and Jake, remembering the damned cat who always seemed to know just what they were saying. And no damn wonder! “This is too much. I can't deal with this right now.” Jonah scooted his chair back, ready to leave.
“Stay right where you are, Jonah Porter.” Seta's tone warned him he would regret disobeying her direct command, so he stilled. “As I stated earlier, we have much to discuss. The Blood Revelation tells of these special pairings. It also tells of how every evil thing on this earth will try to stop these special children from being born.”
Jonah looked at Nyla, let his gaze travel down to the bump encasing his future nephew, and swallowed hard. The baby growing inside her might well turn into a freaking panther, but it was still his brother's child. That made it his blood, regardless of how screwed up the child was. And Aria… He glanced at her rounded belly, too, not giving a damn that Rialto narrowed his eyes on him. He'd liked the woman a lot, had ended up pinned on a wall and beaten while trying to protect her. He wouldn't wish to see her child harmed, either. “What do I have to do with any of this?” he asked in honest curiosity. “I'm just a homicide detective.”
“A homicide detective who just happens to know four very sought-after people,” Malaika said in a near whisper, and wiped a tear from her eye. “Jonah, I think we're the reason why the vampires and were-hyenas are killing people. They're doing it to draw us out, and lead them to the chosen mates. If these babies don't make it to birth, it's because of us.”
TEN
Every set of eyes in the room focused on her. Malaika wiped away another tear, feeling extremely uncomfortable under the weight of so many gazes.
“Why do you believe that?” Seta asked softly, and Malaika turned toward her.
“Because I… I'm remembering things.”
“Such as?”
Malaika cast a glance at Jake, noted she had his full attention despite his obvious turmoil over Jonah's reaction to finding out the truth about his wife and unborn child. “When I was accosted by that vampire, he demanded I tell him where the child was at, and I had this image in my head of helping Aria give birth. It was such a familiar vision. I know I've had it before, a long time ago.”
She looked back toward Seta and caught the frown marring the beautiful woman's face. “And just today… I've caught images, more like flashes, really, of Jonah.” She looked forward, catching Jonah's gaze. “They were images I'd had before but somehow suppressed because until this morning, I had no idea they'd ever occurred.”
“Malaika, I need full access to your mind.”
Malaika turned her head toward Seta again. “All I blocked from you last time was Craig's existence and my suspicions that he was at those crime scenes. I've admitted all that to you now.”
“Yes, darling, but you may have inadvertently kept me from finding out what he did to you to make you suppress important information.”
“What do you mean?”
“Craig may have just recently become a prannie,” Jake jumped in, “but he would have always been psychic. The fact that you never knew, and now you're having these flashes confirms a theory I've been hashing on since last night.”
“What theory is that?”
Jake looked at Seta, receiving a nod from the vampire-witch. “I think he always knew what you were, and because you didn't know what you were, you were easy prey for him. He milked your mind for all it was worth, and did one hell of a mind-jack on you.”
“A mind-jack?” Malaika trembled with anger, unsure whether it was directed at Craig or herself for being so stupid.
“He stole important information from your mind and suppressed that information deep in your psyche so you'd never know,” Seta explained.
That bastard. Malaika fisted her hand until her short nails bit into her flesh. “But I'm remembering now.”
“You're beginning to accept the enormity of what you are. You've acknowledged yourself as a witch, which has strengthened you. Once I tutor you in basic magic, your power will increase even more.” Seta sighed, the sound full of desperate hope. “Malaika, if I can delve into your psyche and find the information lost to you, it would save us valuable time. It could save lives.”
Two innocent little lives. Malaika looked at Aria's belly once more, swallowing against the fear climbing her throat. How was she supposed to help the woman—vampire—give birth? Sure, she'd had a baby herself, but that had been in a hospital with a team of professionals while drugged on an epidural. But she had to. And she had to do whatever was necessary to make sure that child—and Jake's child—made it safely into the world. “I'll do it, and then I want you to teach me how to fight against that vampire, and Craig.”
“We will.”
Malaika wheeled her head around at the sound of her grandmother's soft, withered voice. The older woman stood two feet away from her in a long, loose brown dress, a multicolored scarf wrapped around her head. “Grandma Mahdi.”
She nodded, a serene smile spread on her lips. “It is time I taught my granddaughter what she should have always known.”
“And I will help.” Seta rose from her chair and gestured for Malaika to stand.
“You see my grandmother, too?”
“Yes, dear, and together she and I will help you to find out just what has been done to you.”
Malaika turned toward the others to see them looking in the direction of her grandmother, but not really seeing. Jonah gave her a curious look before turning his face away and running a hand through his hair. He'd clearly had more of the supernatural than he could wrap his mind around for one day, but she knew he was going to have to suck it up and deal with it. “My grandmother warned me that Craig intends to kill you,” she announced, regaining his focus. “I suggest getting over your unease with this situation and working closely with your brother. He loves you, and he'll protect you.”
With that, she turned and followed Seta and her dead grandmother out of the room.
“What happened in Hicksville?” Jonah asked after a long, uncomfortable silence had proven too much for him to take.
“Joe.”
“Answer the damn quest
ion, Jake. I had to worry about you for nine damn months after the FBI went down there and found the whole town bathed in blood, and you didn't so much as call and tell me you were alive.” His voice rose with each word. “Now you just throw it in my lap that you've married a Pantherian, whatever that truly is, and you're having some child that will be hunted, unless the forces of evil keep it from being born, and I'm just supposed to smile and accept everything, but you can't answer a few fucking questions?”
Rialto stood and helped Aria out of her seat. “Ladies, maybe the two of you can get to know each other a little better in a less hostile area.”
Jake reached up and twined his fingers with Nyla's. “It's okay, baby. Go on with Aria and chat.”
Reluctantly, she let go and, with a warning glare aimed right for Jonah, stepped away from the table to leave the room with Aria.
“You are brothers by blood and by love,” the Spanish-Italian vampire said in a disapproving tone. “Resolve whatever this is that lies between you so we can figure out just how bad this situation is and protect our loved ones.”
“You don't know—”
“I know every cell of your brother's body is programmed for killing my kind, but instead of following through with his natural instinct, he walked side by side with us to save you from that demon's clutches last year. For that alone, you should show him more respect.”
Jake looked curiously at the vampire.
“That's right, slayer, I gave you a compliment.”
“Well, don't expect my undying gratitude,” Jake replied. “I still remember the feel of your boot against my head.”
“I believe that was for threatening to kill my mother. You very well deserved it.”
Jake shrugged, nonchalant.
“I just want to know the truth,” Jonah cut in. “I'm tired of all the secrets.”
“I just told you the truth, and now you look at me like the rest of the family does,” Jake said slowly, as though measuring each word. “You're all I have, Joe. You, Nyla, and my son. I need you to accept them.”
Witch's Net Page 16
