by CJ Cooke
I could feel Cassia’s presence in this space here with me, even if I couldn’t see her. She was holding back a lot of her magic, no doubt from the fear her shadow magic would harm Holly in some way. I still didn’t really understand a lot about the type of magic she had. Hell, I didn’t understand very much about my own magic. At least that knowledge was slowly starting to grow, though.
Cassia was busy filtering as much of the pain as she could from Holly to help her through the transition. I’d been doing the same, but while I was soothing her light with my own, I hadn’t been able to concentrate on much else, and Cassia had taken the majority of the burden. What I was managing was excruciating, and I couldn’t imagine what those poor women had been through in the past, just being left to thrash around on the ground while a pack of men stood and watched over their suffering.
“We’ve done all we can,” Cassia’s voice said, echoing around whatever this space was we seemed to inhabit.
“What if it isn’t enough?” I panicked, not ready to leave just yet. There had to be something else we could do.
“Her soul has already merged with the beast. It’s up to Holly now if she’s going to accept it,” Cassia told me sadly.
I watched the two lights slowly rolling around each other. The white of her soul seemed to hold a slight forest green tint to it. That had to be a good sign, surely. But the light wasn’t calm like it had been when I first found myself in this place. It was rolling around like the sea in a storm, flashes of a darker green, blazing through.
“It’s time, Calli,” Cassia’s voice spoke softly.
I reluctantly pulled out of the space we seemed to have found, giving one last final push of magic deep in the core of the white light as it seemed to continue with its battle. Cassia was right; we’d done everything we could.
With a gasp, like I was emerging from the sea, I fell back into my own body. All the sensations of real-life flooded into me as my eyes flew open, and I looked around with a slight feeling of panic.
Cassia arched her back with a groan, rubbing her lower back with a wince. I was kind of glad she’d had me sit the way I did now.
Holly was still leant back against my chest, and I dropped my hands from the sides of her face down to her shoulders. She was so pale, and if it weren’t for being able to see the slight movement of her chest when she breathed, I’d be convinced she was dead.
“Hols, Hols,” Nash gasped, pulling her from me and cradling her in his arms. “Why isn’t she waking up?” he sobbed, looking at me with such desperation it made me feel like the worst fucking person alive.
“I don’t know,” I whispered.
Nash dropped his face into the side of her neck, clinging to Holly as he rocked back and forth sobbing, “No, no, no, no, no.”
Aidan knelt at his side, wrapping an arm around his friend’s shoulders, “She’s still breathing, and she’s still fighting. Don’t mourn for her yet.”
Nash nodded with his face still buried against Holly’s neck. It was heartbreaking to watch. It felt so wrong, but he was also pack, and we would be with him for as long as he needed us.
“Come on,” Aidan spoke softly. “Let’s take her upstairs and get her comfortable.”
I looked around the room, my eyes falling on River and Grey speaking quietly by the window as they looked out. It was still dark outside, so at least not too much time had passed. It hadn’t felt like we’d been helping Holly for long. What if it wasn’t long enough?
Grey and River came over just as Aidan helped Nash stand with Holly in his arms. “Where’s Tanner?” I asked, looking around and realising he wasn’t here with us.
“Upstairs with the kids,” Grey told me before he flinched. “Sean was here earlier and he wasn’t happy when he found out what happened.”
Oh shit, that wasn’t going to be good.
“Where is he now?” I asked, not believing that he’d leave before I woke up.
Grey flinched again. “He had something he had to go and deal with, but he didn’t fill us in on what.” I didn’t have the energy to deal with this right now.
“How are you feeling?” Grey asked, coming and sitting on the floor beside me.
“Tired… guilty,” I added quietly.
“This wasn’t your fault, Calli,” River said, coming to take a seat on my other side.
Cassia scooted back to make some room as Hunter walked through the living room door. His face relaxed as soon as he saw her.
“Thank fuck,” he sighed, copying Grey and River, and dropping down to sit beside her.
Cassia scooted under his arm and curled up against his side in a loving gesture the rest of us weren’t familiar seeing from her. Hunter pulled her in tight, looking like he could relax now that she was back with him.
“You’re not a wolf,” I suddenly blurted out, making everyone look at me like I’d lost my damn mind.
“You just now working that out,” Cassia huffed sleepily.
“You’re Hunter’s mate, but you’re not a wolf,” I added, sounding possibly even more stupid, but it was making sense in my brain.
“Did you leave a little too much behind or something?” Cassia was looking at me like she was actually concerned now.
“And my mother wasn’t a wolf,” I added, but I was pretty much talking to myself now. “We told Holly that Nash’s wolf wouldn’t see her as his mate because she wasn’t a shifter. But that’s not true.” I didn’t know why I’d never realised it before.
Cassia opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak, Nash beat her to it.
“She is my mate,” he said, wonder lining his voice even if it did still hold a tint of sadness.
Everyone in the room turned to look at him so fast I didn’t know how we all managed to keep a straight face about it. I suppose it was the implication behind what he was saying.
Nash stood there, cradling Holly’s unconscious form in his arms, staring down at her like she was the most precious thing in the world. I’d seen him look at her with love in his eyes before, but this was so much more. It was like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing in front of him.
“Then it must be working,” Aidan said, looking at me like somehow I was supposed to have all the answers. “If his wolf recognises her as his mate, then she must have transitioned.”
I just shrugged. I was past the point of feeling tired now, and I didn’t know how to tell someone, yet again, that I didn’t have the answer.
“Let’s get her upstairs and check on her wou...”
Everyone, apart from Cassia, suddenly stopped and turned to the window.
“What the fuck now?” Grey sighed as we all felt the tingle of the wards being breached.
“What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.
“Wells was here this morning. I’ll tell you all about it later,” Grey told me as he strode towards the living room door.
“This morning?” I asked.
At the same time, Cassia asked, “How long were we under?”
“Nearly a full twenty-four hours,” Hunter told her.
“It felt like an hour at the most,” I gasped.
“Speak for yourself,” Cassia grumbled. “I think I felt every agonising second of it.”
Hunter pulled her tightly against his side. Aidan and Nash gently carried Holly upstairs, while the rest of us followed Grey out onto the front porch. The sight we were met with had us all rushing down the steps to help.
Davion staggered into sight. His clothes were torn, and he was bleeding from a cut above his cheek. He was carrying someone over his shoulder, and another man was leaning heavily against him, limping with a look of pain on his face. Another person walked slightly behind them with someone cradled in his arms.
All of them were bloodied, and staggering like they were moments away from dropping to the ground and not getting up.
Grey went to take the man from Davion’s shoulder when we reached them, but he shook his head.
“James will nee
d to be contained somewhere. He is still not quite past the thirst.”
I gasped as I took in the sight of the man hanging limply over his shoulder—James.
“We have a cage in the basement we use for out of control shifters. It’s not exactly comfortable, but it will do the job,” Grey told him.
The man who had been leaning against Davion suddenly dropped, his eyes rolling back in his head as he lost consciousness. River was there to catch him, and he and Hunter each slung an arm over their shoulders as they carried him back to the house.
“Do you need any help?” I asked the man behind Davion, who I hadn’t met before.
He eyed me suspiciously before he gave one shake of his head and looked to Davion.
“Let’s get everyone inside,” Grey told Davion. “You don’t look like you’ve got much left in you.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for coming here, I just… I just didn’t know what else to do,” Davion told him quietly. It was so unlike the cocky vampire I was used to it worried me more than the state they were all in. They looked like they’d been through hell.
“You don’t need to apologise, Davion,” Grey said gruffly. “We consider you a friend of the pack. You helped us in the past, and our door is always open to you.”
Davion looked surprised at the declaration. I guess when you’re a vampire, it wasn't something you’re used to hearing.
When we got inside the house, we were greeted by three curious little faces staring down the stairs at us.
“Calli!” Jacob cried, flying down them and throwing himself into my arms. I would bet anything that the two following impacts I felt were Abby and Coby adding themselves to the group hug. The third one confused me, but when I felt Tanner’s arms close around me, it added up.
“It looks like you’ve not been without your own troubles,” Davion said, looking at me strangely as I straightened up.
That was when I realised I was covered in Holly’s blood. It had soaked into my shirt where she’d leaned against me and over the course of the day had dried, setting my shirt into a crusty mess. I cringed looking down at Jacob, seeing the flakes of dried blood on him. Quickly pulling it off him before he could realise what it was, I herded the kids into the kitchen, away from what was happening.
Grey and Davion took James down to the basement, Davion still refusing any help from Grey along the way.
“Can you manage up the stairs?” Tanner asked the loan vampire, who was standing cradling his companion protectively against his chest. He gave Tanner one terse nod, and even though he seemed confident, I doubted he still had the strength to make it. Either way, with the living room coated in a liberal amount of Holly’s blood, we didn’t really have anywhere we could make them comfortable downstairs apart from the library, and they weren’t all going to fit in there.
Tanner led the way upstairs, and the guys followed, half carrying and half dragged the enormous unconscious vampire they’d caught earlier.
What the hell had happened to them?
“Let’s get some food and drinks sorted out for everyone,” I told the kids, at a complete loss at what to do.
My stomach growled loudly, and I had no idea how long it had been since I last ate, but my body was complaining about it now.
“There’s lasagna in the fridge,” Jacob told me cheerfully.
“The guys made lasagna?” This was the weirdest day I’d ever experienced.
“No, Jean did.” Jacob’s little shoulders shrugged, and his face scrunched up in confusion like he didn’t see what the big deal was.
Yeah, that seemed more like it.
Cassia and I loaded plates up with lasagna and garlic bread and stuck them in the microwave to warm up while making the kids some snack plates and drinks. In a last-ditch effort to try and make up for the sheer amount of pizza we’d eaten recently, I added salad to my plate before sitting down with the kids and starting to eat.
We all sat around the table silently eating. Even the kids didn’t seem all that in the mood to speak. All I could think about was Holly and if she was going to make it through this. I probably should’ve gotten showered and changed rather than sitting here eating with the thin layer of blood my front was coated with, but I was starving, and we needed eyes on the kids. Plus, I wanted to know what the hell had happened to Davion’s clan.
The kids disappeared upstairs after a little while, probably bored of sitting in silence with us. I couldn’t blame them. We needed to make sure they were getting enough attention and not being shoved upstairs all the time. But again, we just needed to get through this madness first.
Cassia cleared our plates away and returned with a bottle of wine, and two glasses in what could only be described as the best idea anyone had ever had in the history of ideas. As she was pouring us each a glass, she looked at me curiously.
“The magic you took down that Shadow Demon with wasn’t just from the moonlight funnel,” she said slowly, watching me like she was gauging my reaction.
“I know,” I sighed, picking up the glass and taking a deep drink. “It felt different, stronger, but I have no idea what I did.”
And wasn’t that just the theme of the story when it came to me and my magic? We still needed to figure out what the hell had happened with Coby when I’d healed him and assess if he truly had come into his wolf. I needed to start making a list; maybe I’d order myself a planner or something. We needed some stuff for the library and the homeschool anyway.
“I have an idea, but I need to look into it. Do you mind if I use the library?” she asked, dropping her eyes to the table as if she couldn’t bear to look at me when I gave her a response.
“Cassia, you are pack now. You don’t have to ask if you can use the library,” I reassured her. “We need to find a way for you to be able to actually pick up a book yourself though,” I joked.
She shrugged her shoulders, and I knew it was because of how she’d been treated in the coven. It would take her time to get used to the fact that not only did she have a home here, but she wasn’t a burden. She was part of our family now.
“I’m going to go and get changed, and then I’ll come back and start looking into some things. Can you let Hunter know I’ve gone back to the cabin?” she asked quietly before standing up and starting to move away.
“Of course, but, Cassia, you don’t have to leave. You know you’re welcome here, right?”
I was concerned about her. She seemed to be settling in with Hunter. In fact, they seemed very happy together. Most days, she seemed fine, but every so often, she’d appear to withdraw. I couldn’t decide if she was uncertain of herself or if it was the pack she was having difficulties with.
She nodded but didn’t say anything before she turned and strode out of the room. Finding myself alone, I topped up my wine and then decided to head to the laundry room. Stripping off my shirt, I grabbed a clean one out of the laundry in exchange. I still needed a shower, but I wanted an update on what was happening before I went upstairs to do that. As soon as I was in sight of wherever I was sleeping tonight, there was no way I was going to make it back downstairs, and I needed to know what was happening first.
Once I felt slightly less gross, I headed to the library and settled in at the desk where the iPad was plugged in and charging—no time like the present to get organised. I ordered an insane amount of stationery from one of my favourite brands and then opened up the app I’d used to take notes from the pack meeting. I still needed to speak with Nash about the system Grey wanted to put in place for the pack. With everything that Holly was going through at the moment, Nash would be out of action for a while, and if I could take this off his plate, at least I’d feel like I was helping. I was looking into some software when Grey and Davion found me in the library.
“Sweetheart, don’t take this the wrong way, but what the hell?” Grey sighed. “Why are you working? You should be asleep.”
“I wanted to know what was going on, but as soon as I’m up to speed, I promise you th
e only place I’m going is bed,” I told him and boy did I mean it because I was barely keeping my eyes open right now.
Davion dropped down into one of the sofas with a sigh of exhaustion, and I tried not to visibly cringe at the sight of him covered in blood and sitting on the brand-new couch. Thank God for the wipe-clean nature of leather, right!
“That sounds like an excellent plan,” he said wearily. “You go first, I just… I need a moment.” His voice caught, and he sounded close to tears. This was not the Davion I knew, and my gut was telling me that whatever he had to tell us was going to be bad, so very bad.
Grey sat down on the other sofa, and I slipped off the desk chair and went to join him. It wasn’t the best idea. As soon as I was comfortable and curled up against him, fighting the need to sleep was going to be even harder, but I wanted to be with my mate right now.
After I’d snuggled in under his arm, Grey started to explain. “We took steps towards dealing with the shadow demon problem last night. We summoned one to the pack because we had an idea of how to destroy it. But it didn’t exactly go to plan. Someone was injured, but we were able to take out the shadow demon. Calli destroyed it.”
It was a very abridged version, but we could go into the details later.
“Last night?” Davion said distractedly, his face wrinkling in thought. “Have you seen any shadow demons in the area? Around Arbington or the pack, before then?”
“Yes, actually. We found one the other night at the edge of the wards. It seemed almost like it couldn’t get across. And then the other day, Calli was out with one of our pack members, and they saw one in the parking lot examining their truck,” Grey told him.
“And on either occasion, there wasn’t an attack?” Davion seemed almost like he didn’t believe what he was hearing.
“The second one killed a human man. But on both occasions, it was just Aidan and me. We didn’t have anyone with us that was shadow touched.”
