by Ruby Raine
WITH BREAKFAST CLEANED up, the gang wasn't sure what to do with themselves. They were on a countdown to the big change, of becoming Garudian, and basically, waiting for a lot of other things and plans to fall into place.
Pop.
Golden light enveloped the kitchen.
"Mathew." Lucas darted over to his lover but stopped before embracing him. Mathew was a mess. He'd never seen him like this before. He looked—exhausted. "Take us home," Lucas told him gently, without making Mathew explain. And he didn't explain or argue, simply grabbed onto Lucas and popped them back to the manor leaving everyone else at the Howard Mansion befuddled.
At the manor, Mathew collapsed on Lucas' bed, inconsolable.
Lucas got his arms around him and brought him in close, so Mathew knew he wasn't alone and encouraged him to let out his frustrations.
It took a long while for Mathew's tears to ebb enough for him to speak. Being a Guardian wasn't so different from being human when it came to emotions.
"Markus," he finally sniffled out. "We searched and searched, every record we could find on my family. It showed my mother, and where she descended from, and me, of course, but not anything about my twin. And then it all started to make sense."
"What did?"
"My mother..."
Lucas sat them up a little and let Mathew gather himself. But a terrible dread was filling Lucas' mind with bad thoughts. Things that only now rattled his brain. He was still new to Mathew's world, but one fact hadn't dawned on him.
"Mathew—your mother, she was the Garudian in your bloodline, right?"
"Yes."
"Why haven't I met her?" he asked in painful slowness.
Mathew looked resigned to defeat. "Because she's not a Guardian." It was like his whole soul deflated at having to tell Lucas the truth. "My mother is a demon."
"Oh, wow, Mathew, that is—some heavy shit." Lucas felt like an idiot for not putting this together sooner. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize."
"It's not your fault, Lucas. I don't speak about it much. Ever really. Having this whole thing with Markus forced me to relive things I'd put behind me long ago."
"What's your mother's name?"
"Amara."
"Wait, isn’t that the name of the demon helping Markus..." Lucas trailed off. It made much more sense now.
"Lizzy remembered my mother's name," Mathew said with a sniffle. "I wasn't ready to face the truth that she was responsible for what was happening. That she was capable of stealing witches' blood, and murder."
"And stealing a brother you never even knew existed." Lucas wrapped his hand around Mathew's head and kissed him softly.
"Based on what we've gleaned from our history and from what happened in the attack that supposedly claimed my mother's life, our best guess is that she took Markus with her. I was a baby, so I can't confirm exactly what happened, but according to the records, my family was attacked by demons, my mother and twin killed, and my father and I fled. Ending up on The Demon Isle."
"Was it a set up?" Lucas almost didn't even want to voice the possibility. "I mean, did your mother plan it?"
"I don't know. I have few memories of my mother. My father never really spoke of her. I don't even know if she actually died that day. I've been imagining the worst scenarios, Lucas. So many different possible nightmares. Maybe she wasn't evil, and they forced her to turn evil in order to keep Markus with her. Maybe she was evil and planned the kidnapping. Whatever way it happened, my twin had no chance. He had no path to the light. He's only ever been in darkness."
"That is difficult to comprehend. Even with my family's history." The Deane's had a sordid history of their own, but in the end, none of them were responsible for the actions of others, only their own.
"Being a Guardian is the best thing that ever happened to me. I'd wish this outcome on anyone who deserved it. But we're not perfect, Lucas. Our humanity doesn't leave us just because death finds us, it stays with us, which means even though we are powerful and knowledgeable, and willing to fight evil, we forever keep some of those human frailties with us. demons were human once too. I don't understand evil. But I seriously do not understand how that humanity doesn’t eat at them, or give them pause, or..."
His body slumped into Lucas, who found no words worthy enough to warrant use. He simply held onto the man he loved with all his might until words began a natural flow out of him.
"That humanity is what makes me love you," Lucas whispered. "It makes me eager for the future. I think it makes you better, not weaker. And I think evil has a way of scraping away those layers and leaving behind only the bad stuff. Being a demon is to leave behind all humanity. Being a Guardian is to embrace it, and help it thrive. Perhaps, with time and the right conditions, a demon could be brought back into the light and have some of that humanity restored."
"Oh, Lucas. I hope you're right. Because I'm going to try to save him. My elders are unsure, but are willing to try based on the fact he was never given a choice as he should have been."
"And I'll help you, too."
"The most likely scenario," accepted Mathew, "is that my mother faked the whole attack. Maybe even being in love with my father. It was probably just a ploy to have a child and she ended up with two. But to strike my brother's existence from the Garudian records, that would require some powerful magic. I mean, magic like we've never seen before. Magic, like Rae, mysterious and powerful and unknown to us. Probably from the darkest corners of magic. My elders have tracked their bloodline down through the ages—we've never missed a Garudian birth, ever."
Lucas caught on to his lovers' unspoken fears.
"You're all wondering if you might have missed more." Lucas blew out a ragged breath in horror of that possibility.
"What if the demons have greater numbers than we know of? What if their army isn't something we can match? And now, they're working on an immunity to magic? They've been lying in wait, for the perfect time to strike. They may have been patiently building an army and putting all these plans into action, in secret, stealing others like they did my brother."
"They did not expect Rae," Lucas reminded. Although, one woman, demon killer or not, against an army of unknown size... it was a good thing the transformations were being done the next night. Time was of utmost importance, now more than ever.
Rae would need help to control the demon problem.
Lucas held Mathew against his chest and encouraged him to rest for a minute.
"Just for a few minutes," he agreed, soaking up the comfort of Lucas' arms. "I need to speak to Rae—I have her potion ready for the transformation. And I need to tell the others what we fear."
"Demon baby stealers..." Lucas growled out. The time to fight was now. The time to strengthen the Garudian bloodline was now. Even if the demons did have an unexpected army, Guardian's would soon have one of their own too.
CHAPTER 12
"OKAY, THAT ENDS OUR training session for the day," advised Rae. They'd been having a lesson in fighting demons in the backyard of the mansion, but the afternoon was turning to evening and it was nearly time for them all to head out on their patrols for Halloween night.
Mathew had arrived a while ago as well, with yet more potentially disturbing news. Not only was it likely his brother had been taken and raised by evil, but if they figured out some way to hide his existence from the official records, they might well have done it more than once. It only made them more on edge and even more eager to get the Garudian transformation underway.
One more night...
Tonight, they needed to protect the Isle as they'd always done.
But at they spread out across the Isle and took up their stations for the night, Charlie was smirking at his mate as she heckled some rude tourist who'd bumped into her accidentally.
"Watch it, asshole." She almost looked like she was going to charge the man. Charlie grasped her shoulder and dragged her close.
"Hey, what's going on?" it wasn't like her to be so easily riled to anger.
Okay, strike that, it was totally like her, but not so much in this way.
She closed her eyes, annoyed. "Sorry. Stupid wolf and human hormones ganging up big time today."
Charlie chuckled. His feisty mate was still adjusting to her new form even though they'd survived their second full moon shift together, this time without incident.
"I thought I'd worn you out enough last night to keep you—relaxed." Charlie lifted an eyebrow, amused.
"I guess you need to try harder." But the usual playfulness was missing from her voice and like she realized it as she was saying it, she apologized. "Shit. Sorry. I guess I feel like picking a damn fight today. Stupid hormones. You'll never have to deal with this." She glared like he was a lucky bastard who'd better not say the wrong thing or he'd pay the price, and right now, anything was the wrong thing to say.
The two were stationed near the ferry landing, keeping an eye out for anything unusual, just in case, while the tourists went about their fun unawares anything remotely dangerous or supernatural might really be lurking anywhere nearby.
In this case, though, they were concerned about demons. Entirely different scary ass thing.
"I'm going to—check in with the others." Charlie was getting a pretty good idea when his mate needed a little space. But he stopped when he caught Lizzy ogling someone's box of freshly popped kettle corn like she was going to snag it for herself. "How about we get you your own," he suggested, tearing her away before she had the chance to act.
She growled, and his features darkened.
"Do I need to spank the hormones into behaving?" he teased.
"This wolf gets hangry, I can't help it." And in the time it had taken to say that she morphed from hungry and angry to pouty. "Stupid wolf hormones are going to drive me crazy."
Charlie wrapped his arms around her and kissed her forehead. "Regret becoming a wolf?"
"Never. But the hormone overload can fuck off at this point."
Charlie chuckled and darted over to the popcorn cart and grabbed some freshly popped corn for his mate and they returned to keeping watch. So far, it was a normal Halloween. Charlie texted the group message they had going for a check in. All was quiet, and this should have put them at ease, but it didn't.
"We just have to remain vigilant and all that," said Lizzy as she crammed a handful of popcorn into her mouth. Charlie didn't know whether to laugh and turn her over his knee. But that was pretty much daily life with Lizzy and he wouldn't change a single thing.
Michael and Annie were making rounds between the popular tourist sites—like the lighthouses and giftshops outside of the main part of town. Emily, being pregnant, opted to remain at the mansion with Courtney to keep watch there. Emily hoped it was the safer of the options but had decided fewer risks to getting attacked was her best choice. They had the gargoyles assisting in keeping watch as well.
William and Melinda, Mack and her deputies, Lucas and Mathew, and Riley and Rae, were all doing security checks at various other places around the Isle, and downtown, where the majority of the fun was being had. They did their best to blend in and not look like they were clearly monitoring things—but even as the evening went on, the festivities still going strong and off without a hitch, they did not feel at ease.
There was something off. Or maybe after the last few weeks and all this demon business, they were more paranoid than they'd prefer. But they'd learned not to let their guard down, and to trust their own instincts.
And when Lizzy tossed her popcorn bag aside and straightened herself, invisible wolf hackles rising and prickling her skin, Charlie knew straight away they were right not to relax. There was something evil in the night chill of the air.
But it was when the locals and tourists began to hush and shudder and notice the same eerie aura that Charlie and Lizzy growled and went on high alert for an attack. Charlie shot off a text message but everyone else was already typing him at the same time... everyone was feeling the change. It was everywhere.
Demons.
All across the Isle.
Why? What did they want?
The tourists tried to shake it off, thinking it was just part of the spooky charm—but even in trying to play off the dreadful feeling, their hearts knew it was something more than just getting spooked. They began to slip closer to town. Strength in numbers and all that—or basic human common sense in staying safe and whatever was happening, things did not feel safe.
"Mack," answered Charlie as her number rang his phone.
"What the fuck's going on?"
"Demons, Mack. They're everywhere."
"Do I order a God dang evacuation?"
Lizzy pipped in. "No. Won't do any good. Try to get people to downtown and keep them there." Hopefully, they'd be able to keep the demons and any fight to the outskirts and away from innocents.
Mack agreed and disconnected.
Rae and Riley texted that they'd be staying downtown to protect the unaware people from any demon attacks, while a moment later, Mathew and Lucas popped into the woods nearby Charlie and Lizzy and came striding over as William vampire sped he and Melinda to meet them as well. Annie and Michael were not answering and that was getting everyone's hackles raised.
Courtney was on the phone a second later. "We're staying at the mansion. In case it's a distraction, plus Emily is hoping not to fight."
"Yes. Keep Emily safe," Lizzy told her. "We need to protect her baby. She shouldn't fight unless she feels comfortable with that. God knows I wouldn't want to unless I had no choice." And that idea surprised Lizzy. She supposed it was a vicarious motherly explosion for her friend, or for her future self. She hadn't given it much thought, but the idea of being in a battle with a precious one inside of her was scarier than she'd imagined.
She always thought she'd do her witchy duties while pregnant, but now, she'd need to give that some serious thought. The fighting parts of the job, at least. Was being in the fight a necessary risk? And one she was willing to take?
Charlie nudged a loving embrace into her mind—he'd never want her to put herself in harm's way, either, but he'd also never tell her what to do or order her not to even though his wolf would always prefer to be the protector. And she adored him for that. But it was also a conversation for another night.
Their surroundings grew eerily quiet as the tourists, in their own inherent drive for self-preservation, wound their way back towards the center of downtown and fortune alley, where most of the festivities were taking place. Hopefully, Mack and her deputies, Riley and Rae would keep them safe.
"That, or we just made it easier for the demons," Melinda said snidely, as they had no way of knowing their plans or intentions.
Ring! Ring!
Charlie's phone rang. "It's Michael," he announced, relieved. "Hey. Where are you?"
"Out in White Pines," Michael replied via Charlie's speaker phone. "We were doing a check of the park and followed two suspicious looking men to where the Power Source used to be."
"Checking to make sure it really isn't there any longer, I'd wager," Charlie said.
"You said two men," interjected William.
"Yeah," Annie answered. "Not demons. We're thinking two of the humans in their new army."
"Which is why we did not engage," said Michael. "We don't know what magical immunity or powers they have now."
Shouts echoed from downtown and stopped their conversation dead as they morphed fast into screams and panic.
"Michael, something's happening downtown," Charlie warned before hanging up abruptly, and after it was a mad dash to find Mack, Riley, and Rae.
The group muddled through the confused crowd of costumed tourists until they found Rae and Riley—he had one hand covering his opposite arm, and there was blood.
"They're trying to get Deane blood," Riley told them all.
"We didn't use magic to fight them off," says Rae. "Too many people around." To tourists, it looked like some crazy person with a knife trying to attack someone—although that excuse did
not explain the blanket of fear and dread that had covered the Isle.
"Was it Dominic?" asked Melinda.
"No. Human, though. A woman. She's gone now."
"Did she get your blood?" Charlie asked Riley.
"No. I grabbed the knife from her, it's in my pocket."
Charlie scrambled to get them to a quieter and darker alley and used his healing gift to seal up Riley's wound. It worked, and a minute later he was thanking Charlie and stretching his arm to see the wound gone.
"Seeing as the dread hasn't lifted, the demons are still close," said Rae.
"They're not giving up on getting Deane blood." Lizzy scowled looking ready to fight.
"Riley, Lucas, and Lizzy, you should be taken to safety," Rae insisted.
"No way. I'm fighting." Was Lizzy's first response.
"We cannot let them get what they came for," Mathew argued. "We can't let them get your blood."
Lizzy growled and looked like she was about to throw a fit.
"I don't just run away because some asshole wants my blood."
Charlie went to intervene, but something shocking snagged his attention.
Lucas approached her. "Rae is right this time, Lizzy. If they get our blood and become immune to our magic, that's not going to be good for anyone."
"So, what? We run and hide every time someone attacks?" Lizzy argued. She spun to her mate expecting him to back her up, but Charlie had a strange look on his face and had shut his mind off to her.
What the hell?
Voices and shouts drew their attention and they saw a crowd running in fright.
Annie and Michael appeared out of nowhere—she'd vampire sped them rather than drive as it was faster. Michael shook off the feeling of his body trying to catch up with itself as the others assessed the situation.
Mathew grabbed Riley and Lucas, determined to take them somewhere demons could not find them and hoped Lizzy would come to her senses fast. But there was argument and fury on her breath as she accosted her mate for not accepting that she was staying, when Charlie did the one thing he promised he'd never do.
