by S. L. Morgan
“We have to remove it,” Vannah said. “The demon thing tricked us, and it’s gone now, but we aren’t completely freed of it with this powerful mark it left on Dominic.”
“What do you need me to do?” Lusa asked.
“Right now, nothing,” Dom said. “Maybe you can make sure Jenna and I don’t somehow overpower everyone in the room to merge the damn wolves.” He sighed as he rubbed his forehead, looking as pale as a ghost. “This could go bad quickly since we’re playing with darkness again and have no idea how the hell a demon spawn marked me.”
“Wait,” I said. “Harrison was clear about me helping you.” I looked at Dom. “I need to do this.”
“You will succumb to what the mark wants, Jenna,” Ethan said.
“I have to get out of my head about it, then. I need to focus like Dom’s been doing this entire time all by himself. I need to hone in on removing it, and then,” I looked at Ethan, “I’ll put it in a bubble with all of its energy to be destroyed, and then you use your owl to take it out.”
“I can’t do that without shifting, Jenna,” Ethan confirmed.
“He’s right,” Dom said carefully as if the mark was listening to everything we were saying. He looked sweaty and dazed as he turned to Ethan. “He needs to be his owl for power and protection. We’ll try it tomorr—”
Like reading the pages to a book with a dead-giveaway plot, Dom passed out right in front of us.
“We have to fix him and now,” I said as Ethan caught his cousin, and I covered Dom’s face with my hands.
“He’s face-to-face with the demon.” Ethan’s eyes were white and severe. “I must get Dominic out.”
“Ethan,” I stopped him as he somehow cradled Dominic who was twice the build and weight of the owl shifter, “You’re not taking him out of this room alone.”
“Cover us with your shield,” Ethan ordered me.
“You said Dom was face-to-face with that demon. You’re picking up on the evil. What if Dom loses whatever battle he’s up against?”
“Then I will kill the host and the demon,” Ethan answered.
“E,” Lusa snapped. “You cannot kill Dominic.”
“Dominic will not die,” Ethan answered.
“We’re coming with you, or you’re letting me get rid of this mark. The mark is the reason he’s subconsciously in front of the demon, right?”
Ethan looked at me, “Jenna, you are not strong enough.”
“The three of us,” I looked at him, then Vannah. “We’re strong enough together.”
“I can pull his mind into a trance,” Lusa said. “Lay him on the sofa. E, you’re not doing this without giving us a chance to save him.”
“The mark is too powerful,” Ethan insisted.
“Let us try, Ethan Carter,” I demanded, seeing E’s devout need to do his duty as the owl and eliminate a strong supe who was being controlled by evil.
“If Dominic wakes up and is dark, I must finish him,” Ethan answered, carrying a limp Dom over to lay on the couch. “If Dominic and his wolf are controlled by evil that’s been hiding in plain sight this entire time,” Ethan shook his head, “he will kill even my owl.”
“That’s not going to happen, and we all know that. Dom worked hard to make sure you didn’t roast my butt when I was being controlled by the demon, so it’s my turn to save him from getting smoked by your owl.”
“My owl is good. I don’t want to hurt Dominic.” Ethan started to chant as if we had spun him out by calling him out like this.
“Yes, Ethan, your owl is pure and true. We know that,” I said, rubbing his arm. “Just give us a chance to help before your owl steps in. That’s all we’re asking.”
Ethan nodded and clasped my hand in his. “I love you and Dominic, Jenna.” He looked at me. “I am serious. I feel Dominic is not strong enough. He will—”
“Ethan,” Vannah said, “We’ve stepped in and destroyed the darkness before. We have to get this thing off of Dominic at the very least. If Jenna can draw it out, I’ll spell a holding cage around it, so it doesn’t infect any of us. We’ll go out to the balcony, and you can shift and destroy it as the owl.”
“I hope this works,” Ethan said.
“Well,” I smiled at everyone, nervous as hell as to what was going on with Dom and what the next few minutes held, “Ethan sounds confident, so let’s get this show on the road. Harrison told me I could help Dom. I’m going to believe that the biggest bullshitter in history is right about me being the one to help Dom and his wolf. They know everything, so he can’t be wrong.”
“Then let’s get this going,” Vannah said, gathering mine and E’s free hands in hers. “If and when this works, I would like to know more about this Harrison person you’re talking about.”
I nodded and closed my eyes. I gripped Ethan’s hand tightly, holding him here with me, unwilling to let him go after Dominic and kill him if this didn’t work.
I had to mentally go into Dominic’s head, remove this mark from him, and hope that I didn’t bring anything else on that we knew would prematurely bring the killings back to the school. More than that, I had to hope none of us would get infected, or the owl would be taking all of our butts out.
Chapter Twenty-Three
All my ideas, thoughts, and determination stalled the minute I heard a guttural sound come from my right. Ethan. My eyes popped open to see Lusa pulling E out of mine and Vannah’s clutches. He was in attack mode, and nothing was going to stop him from going after whatever in the hell he’d connected with and saw in Dominic.
Dom growled out some weird words, and I knew we were in the middle of a sudden shit storm.
“Jenna, take my hands,” Vannah said sternly.
“Ethan,” I looked at him fighting Lusa. “Stop it! Now!” I growled to the owl who wanted nothing more than to destroy the evil that was thick and very present in this room.
“He must be taken,” Ethan said as Lusa shoved him down on the couch while he stayed caught in some trance with Dom.
“You will not kill Dominic, owl,” she said in a way-too-convincing, soothing vamp voice. “You will calm down, and you will rest. Sleep,” she kept repeating in her compulsion voice.
“Do you think it will work?” I whispered to Vannah.
“I think you need to pull it together now while Lusa is playing with his mind. Owls can’t be held for very long, and especially when they are ready to shift to kill evil.”
“I have to get into his mind like he got into mine,” I said to Vannah.
“Ethan helped us get him into your mind,” I heard her voice rise with panic. “He’s out of the game. He’s sensing what I’m sensing. Dom is being controlled by that mark.”
“Then help me get into his mind with my powers, and I’ll help him fight this thing away.”
“Jenna,” Vannah jerked my hand to get me to pay attention to her, “can you even sense what’s going on with Dom right now? This is all mental, evil residual energy. It’s not real, yet it’s turning his mental state evil. It’s a residual spell or something. That demon marked him with a ticking time-bomb, and it just went off.”
“I can’t feel anything he’s going through,” I said with fear. “What the hell do I do?”
“You work with me. I can feel it. Your genetics must be stalled out by your wolf being concerned for her mate or something.” She nodded, “We have to give him strength.”
“Wait,” I said. “It’s the mark. I have to remove it.”
I felt a rush of energy hit me so suddenly that it was like a blast of wind came into the room and almost knocked me over.
“Jenna,” I heard Ethan’s authoritative voice. “You will touch the mark. You will take the power I’m feeling, and pull it from him, and then release it to me.”
Ethan was still restrained by Lusa on each shoulder, but I could tell he was fighting his instinct to kill Dominic. Hope. That was something the other oracle didn’t have, but Ethan—thank God—did. He had hope that I could do this.
I knelt at Dom’s side and slid his shirt up, bringing my hand to rest on the mark that was now hotter-than-hell. I felt the sting go through my hands, but it was muted by the energy that was streaming in my system like I’d been plugged into some fairy magic outlet. I let the magic—which was now driven by my wolf—take over and brought my fingers to trace the mark that was threatening to blister my fingertips the longer I kept my hand on it.
I inhaled and felt a violent surge of new energy heat up my insides and move toward my fingers. This was the energy I needed to draw this thing out of my mate. My wolf—in my mind’s eye—nodded, guiding me through this process.
With each breath I took, I felt new energy passing through me, and then a foreign, cold, barren sensation overwhelmed me. I focused on my wolf as I watched her. She was in an electric blue form with purple waves of light streaming over her outlined appearance as she faced a red and green energy that wanted her. This was a freak show, but it was all so surreal that it was mesmerizing at the same time. My wolf was stopping the mark from planting itself in me as I worked to pull the energy out of Dominic.
“It’s working,” Vannah’s voice broke through my trance, and I almost blew the whole thing.
I resisted the urge to break any further, and the power grouped back together and focused on my wolf. I wanted to see the progress I was making, but I couldn’t let my eyes see what was in front of me. I saw only my wolf, her powers, and the menacing force that was coming after us now.
Bubble, Jenna. Put it in a bubble, I thought as the dark residual energy came in like a blast, feeling like it was charring my insides. A void, a sense of death, and a longing for Dominic I couldn’t explain washed over me. It was destroying my focus.
“Here,” I suddenly saw Vannah. She was holding her hand out in a white void with yellow and green sparks outlining her. “This!” She eyed a transparent sphere. “Come to me, and I will help you draw it into this.”
“What the hell?” I said in shock, still feeling these emotions and now being shaken that I was looking at my best friend like this in some mental, magical way.
“Hurry. We’re doing this together now. Ethan is waiting.”
I nodded, and in some weird mystical enchantment, I walked toward Vannah—floated toward Vannah—and my hand went through the sphere. It was magnified by the energy the ball was taking out of me. I watched my wolf stalk toward the darkness inside me like it was shoving it out of my body.
“It’s working! You’re doing it, Jenna,” I heard Vannah, bringing my eyes from my internal sight of the wolf and back to whatever place she and I were in. “No matter the pain, endure it. This will be the hardest—”
I felt like I was going to throw up, all while I started blacking out and losing my ability to breathe. My wolf disappeared, and so did the beautiful streams of light that my magic seemed to carry with it. Now, Vannah was gone. I was in some barren darkness, and I felt so grief-stricken that I wanted to cry, scream, and claw my way out. The loneliness was indescribable, and strangely enough, it was painful…painful enough that I wished for death.
It felt like days had passed before my eyes reopened in reality, facing the inside of a white porcelain toilet. I was on my knees, and I felt the spasm in my stomach as I started throwing up blood.
“Bring her to Ethan,” I heard Lusa say. “He can help. Dom can’t.”
“Ethan will have to come to her. She’s been like this since Ethan turned into the owl, destroyed that energy, and came back.”
I felt a hand grip my arm and pull me up, but I couldn’t open my eyes. My stomach spasms went away almost instantly, and then I was in the grips of Ethan, being held tightly against his chest.
“You’re safe, Jenna. Dominic is safe. I will always protect you,” he said softly.
As Ethan continued to chant these healing words into my mind, I saw my wolf again—depressed—but alive and well. Then, there was my magic, and I watched as it strangely returned to the area where it was locked up safely in my mind.
That’s when I started sobbing in defeat. I felt Ethan pull me tighter, and I collapsed against my sweet, owl friend. I was deflated, and I wished more than anything for that power to come back and stay present with me and my wolf. Why did it have to leave me every time? Why did it work only when it wanted to? I had no control over it. If anything, my fairy-witch genetics controlled me. It determined whether it would work or not.
I was so screwed, and I felt it. My magic was hiding inside me, my wolf was sensing something seriously wrong with Dominic’s wolf, and I was so weak by this point I could have slept for days.
“Her magic is gone,” Vannah said. “I can’t sense it anymore.”
“She has no control over it. She’s exhausted now, and her magic knows it’s not needed. It’s left her dominant shifter genetics to heal her from the energy it took for her to use the magic,” Ethan said, and I felt myself being laid down on a bed, or a couch? Who knew? All I knew was that I was nowhere near Dominic…if Dom was even in the same room as me.
An hour could have passed, a day, three days, and I wouldn’t know. I was so weak, and I couldn’t remember ever feeling so awful.
I’d just pulled off the most amazing act, and I couldn’t take credit for it. It was almost like I had a miniature fairy living inside me, and it dictated when I could use my magic genes.
I hated everything about this, but all I could do is sob like I’d just found out Dominic had died. Shit! That’s what it felt like. He was gone. His wolf—gone. There was nothing left, and my eyelids were so damn heavy I couldn’t open them. My vocal cords felt charred, and I couldn’t speak. My entire body was so numb that I had no idea what was going on.
“Jenna, sleep,” I heard Lusa’s soothing vamp voice work to compel me. “Everything is fine. You’re safe.”
“She’s feeling the trouble Dominic is in with his wolf,” Ethan said. “Work harder to compel her to sleep like he is.”
WTF?
“Work harder!” Ethan ordered Lusa. “She’s fighting your compulsion.”
“Dominic is safe.” Lusa started using the words that she knew would compel me to relax.
“You’ll be with him after you rest and heal.”
That was all it took, and this torment, or whatever the hell I was going through, subsided. As if I’d taken a sleeping pill, my mind shut off, and my body relaxed into a perfect sleep. It was over, and I knew Dom was safe.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I was roused awake by a cool breeze blowing over my face and a loose strand of hair tickling at my nose like the tip of a feather, but my blissful state disappeared as quickly as it came once I felt my wolf’s loneliness and despair. A spasm twisted my stomach so tight that I choked out a cry of pain.
“Damn it,” I said, looking around Dom’s immaculate room. I had to blink twice when I saw Dom rush to my side in a vamp blur from the other side of the door.
I inhaled deeply his masculine scent when he pulled me into his arms, and I buried my face in his neck. “God, I thought you died or something.”
“I’m not a hundred percent, but I’m here,” he said in a reassuring voice.
I pulled back, still feeling the void my wolf was experiencing with his.
“Dom, what happened?” I asked, seeing his solemn eyes. “Did I take on the void you felt after the magic bond was severed between our wolves?”
Dom’s cheek seemed to flutter when his jaw tightened, and he glanced at the floor. “No,” he answered. “You didn’t take anything on. In fact, you all succeeded in removing that mark from me.”
“How long has it been?” I questioned, seeing his change of clothes into jeans and a white tee. “Why are you dressed like we’re not at IA?”
He parted his lips in a forced smile. “It’s only been a couple of hours. It’s close to two in the morning. We’re still at school, and I’m dressed like this because it was the closest thing to throw on.” He rubbed my back, “How are you feeling? They said you were viole
ntly sick after pulling that mark off me.”
“I feel like your wolf is lost to me,” I said, ignoring his question and hoping to God we weren’t going down this road again. “This isn’t a Jenna removed the mark, and now we’re no longer fated mates again, is it?”
Dom sighed. “This is far from that.” He pressed his lips against my forehead, “We do, however, have an issue with my wolf.”
“What the hell is it this time?” I asked, pulling myself up to stand next to where he was sitting on the bed. “I thought removing that mark would fix all of this. What’s the problem with your wolf?”
“Come on.” He stood and took my hand. “We’re all trying to figure that part out too.”
I followed Dom out to the living area where Vannah, Lusa, and Ethan had looks of concern on their faces, and they were patiently waiting for me to join them with Dom.
“To get you caught up,” Dom started, sitting on a small couch, and pulling me to settle in next to him, “Somehow, my wolf and I are disconnected from each other. I can’t feel the wolf any longer,” he eyed me, “and from what you’ve told me, neither can you.”
“Oh, this has to be the most ridiculous problem we’ve been blasted with yet. I’m not buying this bullshit.”
“It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not,” Vannah said. “Whatever happened while removing that mark, it separated Dom’s inner wolf from him.”
“What the hell have I done?” I asked in shock, looking at Dom who was nodding in agreement with Vannah.
Dom pursed his lips in concentration. “Who knows, Jen. The whole merge we did to extract that spawn from your mind was pretty much a mutated form of magic. Vannah and Ethan created that on their own, using ancient spells to get me into your mind and merge our wolves the way they did. Somehow, that spawn left its mark on my wolf and me, and it seems as though it left a consequence for removing it too.”
