by A Lonergan
She ran her fingers over the top of a chair across from me before she reverently sat down. Maybe sitting at this table, where my father and his advisors had sit would instill some kind of respect in the rowdy men I loved to hate.
Micah looked around at all of my men and stayed standing until they had all sat down. He was showing them his own kind of respect as he realized this was an important day for my friends. They had grown up watching my father’s men as well. They knew how special this place was to me. He could probably feel it in the air.
Micah leaned forward in his chair. “My plan is rather simple and I have a feeling you won’t like it.”
My men and Tracey remained silent as he continued. “I am the only one that knows the ins and outs of his estate. I would go in, go to see Damian, and then get her out in the middle of the night. I would possibly need one person as backup or two waiting outside.”
“You’re right,” I leaned back and pinned him with a dark stare. “I don’t like it. But I also know I can’t get caught in that place if I’m what he’s after.”
“Knox and Archer will go with you.” I nodded to each of them. I hated saying it. “I’ll stay behind.”
Micah looked at the two men that were going to accompany him. “We will not be saving any others. The only one that matters is Jade. If you try to get away from that plan or try to go against me, I will leave you in the den of monsters.”
Chapter 40
Jade
The bruising on my neck had gotten worse just like I thought it would. Lucas came in from his hike and immediately skidded to a stop. “I leave for one afternoon and something has happened.”
I had thought about hiding it but I knew it would be no use. He would find out eventually. I finished off the chocolate pudding I had been snacking on. “It’s not a big deal.”
“You sound like a domestic abuse case and what’s worse? You look like one too.” He toed his shoes off before he climbed onto the bed next to me. His jaw ticked as he looked me over. “Is this all that happened?”
I nodded. What was I to say? There was no need to explain anything. We both knew Damian was the bad guy here, we had just forgotten how bad he was. He could have hurt me much worse.
“I see that look in your eye, Jade.” His voice cracked. “He’s not going to stop now. He put his mark on you. It will happen again.”
My anger got the best of me. Maybe it was because I wasn’t used to someone being so protective that wasn’t my parents but it reared its ugly head. “This isn’t the worst thing that has ever happened to me. You think Rafe was the first bad boy I had a run-in with? You think other guys didn’t beat me around?”
Lucas took a step away from me and his face fell. “Just because that happened to you doesn’t mean you deserve it.”
I closed my eyes as I felt the burning there intensify. “I know what I deserve now, but I want you to understand that I can handle this.”
He pressed his forehead against mine. “You’re playing with bigger monsters here, Jade.”
“Good thing I’m a monster too.”
Chapter 41
Tracey
Was this how my brother had felt when he was here? Like an outsider? I had always been an outsider with him, but now it was different. I was different. The world around me was different. Trying to make sense of it all just confused me further.
The pack was scared of me. I could see it on their faces, in their auras, and smell it in the air. The witch and the wolf. The only ones that didn’t see me that way were Rafe and the guardians. They still treated me the same, even though it was sometimes annoying. I was thankful for some bit of normalcy while I tried to get my bearings through all of this. It felt next to impossible but I held my chin up higher as I walked to Granny’s.
Carden was waiting for me at the front of the house. Today he was watering her garden. He shot me a sweet smile before he looked back down at his duties.
The rest of the pack didn’t want him here any more than they wanted me or the witch children running around. Though the witch children had started to grow on them more than I had or Carden. Some of the wolves were older than even Granny. Their immortality had served their bodies well but not their brains. They refused to grow in their thinking or understanding. Granny seemed to be the only progressive one out of the bunch.
“Good morning, Carden,” I tried to not sound grumpy. It wasn’t his fault he was here. But he helped Granny more than anyone else did and I knew that she appreciated him being around.
He bowed his head. “Good morning, Tracey, how are you feeling?” I tried to blink past the bright gold strands weaving around him but it was no use. No matter what Granny taught me about blocking auras and magic in the air wasn’t working. It was like my brain and wolf were entirely too stubborn. But I had faith in Granny. She was here in this pack for a reason. She had helped all of us since we were pups.
I waved my hand dismissively. “I’m feeling fine, thank you.”
The wood on the door was worn beneath my hand as I pushed it open. The first thing I noticed was the smell of artificial Mac & cheese cooking. I scrunched my nose in disgust. My granny would never. But when I turned around the corner in the hallway, toward the kitchen, I saw the culprit behind the fake cheese fiasco. My mother would have a fit. Mac & cheese was better when it was made from scratch. Granny had been the one that had taught her that.
A little blonde girl stood on a chair beside the stove while Granny twirled her finger in the air beside it. The spoon spun lazily in the pot. The little girl watched in awe. It was a party trick I knew well from when I was a child. Granny had always cooked with her magic. It was the one thing I had missed as I had gotten older.
They both turned to me at the same time. It wasn’t an unusual thing for the witch kids to be around her cottage, but not many were brave enough to step foot inside. Older witches and their strong auras were known to scare children off. I knew that all too well with my own brother. He had been terrified of Granny as he had grown into his power.
The little girl had the audacity to turn her nose up at me. “And who are you?”
I barked out a laugh. “Excuse me?”
The child hopped down from the stool and pinned me with an indifferent stare. “Your aura is strange. It’s not like the rest of the witches.”
Then in my mind. “Why are you so different? What is it? What can I find in your head?”
I slammed down the mental wards Granny had taught me to put up. She blinked rapidly. “I wasn’t finished.”
“If you don’t learn some manners, you’ll be tossed out onto your head and the last thing you’ll be worried about is other people’s minds,” I snarled.
“Already going head to head with the little she-devil, I see,” Carden said from the doorway.
I had to calm the wolf inside of me. “You could have warned me.”
“And miss that look on your face? I don’t think so. She’s a spitfire, isn’t she?” Carden leaned against the doorframe and grinned.
The little girl’s brown eyes watched him just as warily as they watched me. “My name is Valentina, not spitfire.”
“It’s nice to meet you Valentina, but if you don’t stay out of my head, you’ll learn to regret it.”
Granny lifted her eyebrow at the small girl. “You heard her.” Her eyes moved to mine. “We are working on her manners and the use of consent. She isn’t used to either. In the hell they were kept in, she had to use her magic to protect the other children. She would rifle through memories to see who was a friend and who was foe.”
My lips twisted. “Don’t forget, I’m the one that rescued you.”
Valentina smiled softly. “I will not forget but I know not everyone is to be trusted.”
Granny grinned. “She is only worried about self-preservation.” She ran her hand down the girl’s straight blonde hair. “Fix yourself some lunch and we will begin our lessons. I have requested a few grimoires from the archives. I should be able to help
you with this unusual and incredible magic.” She winked.
Granny motioned me to follow her. Carden bowed his head to her as we passed. “I’ll try to keep her out of trouble.”
“I don’t think you’ll be enough to do that,” I muttered.
Granny snickered and I felt this overwhelming emotion inside of my chest. The kind of emotion that makes you want to hug the other person.
“Who is the kid?” I asked when we got to the tree line that split my Granny’s cottage from my parents’ property. She wasn’t a wolf so she wasn’t permitted to own land with the pack but my parents had given her enough land to do what she needed then planted enough trees to give her the privacy she craved after my grandfather passed away.
“Her mother was the one that sacrificed herself so the kids could be found,” My heart was immediately in my throat. “She will have nowhere to go. I can’t find a coven that has mind jumpers.”
“Mind jumpers?”
Granny sighed. “Yes, she can take over a person’s mind, read their thoughts, and go through their memories. She is a rare witch. No coven will take her in when the children go back to their parents. They will be too afraid of what she is, what she can do.”
I frowned. “And you won’t be afraid?”
Granny smiled. “No, she is no worse than you or your brother. Her power is different, not bad. I am doing what I can to teach her about it. If I can find another like her, it would help but I don’t think there are any.”
“Must you always take on the outsiders?” My mind immediately went to Carden. He had been offered a place in the pack, he had sworn to the Alpha, but he had stayed glued to my grandmother all the same.
“The only way that child will be dangerous is if she doesn’t know love. When she finds out what happened to her mother, there is no telling how she will react. She is going to need allies in this world. I don’t think she was ever with a coven before they forced her with all of these children.”
I pressed my hands against my face. “She hasn’t told you?”
Granny shrugged. “Why would she? She owes me nothing.”
I shook my head. “Fine, but you need to get more information on her before this becomes more permanent.”
Granny lifted one eyebrow in contempt. “Are you telling me this as my granddaughter or someone with higher authority in the pack?”
I clenched my jaw. “I don’t know why I’m telling you at all. She’s dangerous, so just be careful.”
Granny touched my jaw and forced me to look at her. “If you think I haven’t faced off with her kind before, then you would be naive. I have come across much more danger in my entire life than that child. I faced off against the pack you love so dearly. I took down an entire army when the witches of my first coven were hunted. I have evaded spies, the mafia, and plenty of other magic races that are now long gone.”
“Why do you care so much?” My throat was thick. I didn’t know why I cared so much. What was the child to me? Nothing. There was a whisper in the back of my head that said she would take my granny from me. It was jealousy rearing its ugliness. Granny noticed it at the same time I did. Her brows softened and she took a step closer to me. She held her hands out and I was immediately in her arms. She smelled like lavender and mint today. Thankfully there was none of that fake cheese smell clinging to her.
“I care because I see you and your brother in her eyes.” Her voice broke as she held me. “I see a child that needs me, needs us. I don’t know why I feel connected to her like I do but I know she will bring change to the witch community.”
I pulled back slightly. “What is wrong with the witches?”
Granny pressed her lips together. “There are many things wrong with them. They live on power highs. They no longer care if the world knows what they are. We once lived in secret for a reason but now most of them are getting caught. Either they want to be caught or they don’t know any better.”
“But that doesn’t concern us.” I tried to reason with her.
Granny raised both brows this time. “You don’t think so? What do you think will happen when the witches are captured or they are all gone?” She poked my chest. “You will be hunted next. My own children and grandchildren will face another war, another witch trials. I can’t stand to see history repeat itself but it will.”
“Can’t the council of the witches keep them from doing this?”
Granny took a deep breath. “The council of witches has been gone for a long time. The archives lay empty. Something is coming and I don’t want you to have to face it alone.”
Chapter 42
Jade
Damian didn’t come around again since his angry outburst. I didn’t expect him to but there were whispers around the grounds that he was finally losing it. That something big had happened and now he felt like he was losing the game. I listened as intently as I could but with the wolfsbane still in my system, it was hard to hear. Getting too close to the other wolves was not a good idea either.
I was walking back to our room when I heard the first crash. I ducked down low and crawled to the wall. My arms were overstretched above my head, afraid one of the cinderblocks in the ceiling would crush me if this was an attack. But after a few minutes, there wasn’t another and I stood up carefully. My knees wobbled as I made my way to our door. Just a few more steps and I would be there.
Another crash had me diving for the floor again. This time the crashing was followed by the ground shaking and loud screaming. Except it wasn’t screams of terror or fear. These were screams of rage. I crawled across the floor when I heard the shout clear as day.
“You let them escape!” Damian’s roar rattled the doors.
There was a whimper before a door down the hall slammed open and a person went hurtling out of the room. He smashed into the wall with a sickening thud. He rolled into a heap on the floor before he tried to stand up. His legs shook as he took a step forward but it didn’t matter. A blast of light came from the bedroom and all that was left of the man after a few seconds was a pile of ash. There wasn’t even enough time to be shocked or horrified. One minute he was there, then the next he was gone. I didn’t bother with getting off of the floor as I crawled the rest of the way to the bedroom. I don’t know how I managed to open the door or even get into the bed. All I remembered was waking up the next morning with Lucas rubbing my back in soothing circles.
“Three witches are gone,” he whispered into the darkness.
I leaned over the side of the bed and my stomach emptied onto the rug. I didn’t know what caused it. Maybe it was the horror over what was happening. Maybe it was Nalia’s ruthlessness being gone. I had killed two wolves without blinking. Who was this girl vomiting on the carpet?
“I’m no better than he is,” I whispered when I was done throwing up. My voice shook and my throat ached but somehow the words made it out.
He clucked his tongue. “That isn’t true. You took care of people that were evil. He is killing people that are innocent. He is a murderer. Those wolves would have killed you if you hadn’t killed them. You have to establish a pack dynamic. Even here. You’re the Alpha.”
His words didn’t make me feel any better. In fact, they made me feel worse.
“Alpha?” I choked on the word.
“You established that dominance here. Damian doesn’t have that. He doesn’t have a wolf. All he has is fear.”
It only got worse. Every single person walked on eggshells. The witches that came to clean up the vomit didn’t even bother with taking the rug out. They caught it on fire. The breeze from the balcony took away the smoke and ash while we waited for them to finish. They were too afraid of how he would react to my vomit. He would take it out on them. We all knew it. They shook in fear as they cleaned the bathroom. The toilet brush clanging against the toilet was the only indicator that they were scared out of their minds. I was sure Damian was playing roulette with who would be next. We all waited on pins and needles.
I hadn’t gotten o
ut of bed when the door splintered open. I clutched the blankets to my chest as Lucas flew out of the bathroom with his toothbrush still in his mouth. Damian stood in the now bare doorway. Crisscross scars marked his bare chest and pajama pants were low on his hips. His eyes were wide and glassy. He didn’t wait for me to get out of bed, instead, he marched to where I was and pulled me from the blankets. He didn’t care about what I was wearing. His eyes didn’t take in how indecent I was. All he cared about was dragging me out of the room. His grip around my wrist caused me to wince as I stumbled behind him down the hall.
Lucas raced behind us. I shook my head ferociously. I could fight him off. I wasn’t starving myself, even if the wolfsbane was strong within me. I worked out in our room every night. I did pull-ups and sit-ups in the bathroom doorway. I tried my best to keep my strength up for the moment he came for me.
“Where are you taking her?” Lucas shouted behind us. At least he had stopped following. I could try to protect myself but I didn’t know if I could protect Lucas. Damian didn’t bother with answering, he only picked up his pace. When we hit the stairwell, that’s where I didn’t fare too well. My legs collapsed under me with just about every step. When Damian was over my struggles, he stopped before he yanked me over his shoulder. I yelped as he went down the stairs at a much faster pace. My hair had fallen out of its bun and was now a curtain in front of my face.
We kept descending and with all the jostling and hair in my face, I couldn’t see where we were going. Only that the light in the room kept getting dimmer.
Between the smell and the darkness, I knew nothing good would come out of this. Why hadn’t I fought while he was trying to get me down the stairs? Why had I just gone with him?
Because he would have taken it out on Lucas. A voice whispered in my mind. I fought back a shiver as my body slid from his shoulder. We were in a dungeon of some sort. The smell of blood and mildew hit me. I had to fight everything in me to not throw up again. What had he been doing down here? The smells were too fresh for this to be an old forgotten place.
