by Quinn Loftis
"That's not your decision to make, Cyn. You are the woman I've chosen to be my mate. You will come first, always. Don't argue with me. You won't win."
She snapped her mouth closed and placed a hand on his arm, flashing them from the underground back to the surface.
"What now?" she asked him.
"We keep hunting. If they took off in a hurry, they might have left prey behind, alive."
Cyn nodded. "Okay then. Let's hunt some vampires."
Chapter 18
"The human race has ruled for far too long. The supernatural races have lived in fear of being discovered for too long. We will unite the races and place the human vermin where they belong— at our feet." ~ Order of the Burning Claw
Alina threw down the dead body. The heart she'd just removed was still in her other hand. She released it and it too fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Her head swung around as she realized that they were no longer being swarmed. There were dead vampires lying everywhere. Her pack mates where breathing hard as they too looked around, as confused as she was.
"They’ve stopped coming?" Cypher asked as he stood up from a crouched fighting stance.
Decebel moved toward the doorway but Vasile placed a hand on his arm to stop him. "We aren't going to pursue."
Decebel frowned and then turned to see what everyone was staring at. In the middle of the room, the only place where no bodies were piled, two jackets lay on the ground covered in blood.
Alina’s eyes shot to her mates. "Jacque and Fane," she gasped.
"Peri, Sally, and Jen must be with them," Vasile said as he looked around the room. "Alston, do you mind getting us out of here. This battle will have to be finished another day."
The high fae held out his arms obligingly and the weary warriors each placed a hand on him.
"Jennifer says they're in the garden room at the Romania pack mansion," Decebel spoke up just before Alston flashed.
Alina felt Vasile’s hand grab hers and squeeze. "Everything is going to be alright, Mina."
"No, my love. I don’t think it is this time."
Jennifer had been through hell many, many times since she’d learned that there were werewolves in the world and that she just happened to be one of them. She’d endured being shoved in a hole, groped by an idiot, actual death, and nearly lost her daughter. But none of those things hurt her as badly as seeing her best friend’s unmoving, unbreathing body. None of those things made her feel as though something inside of her had been ripped and torn and shredded out of her. Jen thought she’d known what grief was, what loss was. She’d been a fool. Not until you hold someone you love with such intensity that their joy is your joy, their pain is your pain, their death is your death, do you truly understand loss.
Each beat of her heart felt like a betrayal to Jacque. Sounds where muffled to her and she couldn't see. The tears in her eyes were like cracks in glass, distorting her view. She was pacing and bouncing the little boy that belonged to her best friend, who couldn't hold him because she wasn't— Jen stopped the thought in its tracks. NO, she growled to herself. Rachel had gotten Fane and Jacque's baby breathing and out of danger. She could fix his parents too. She could. She had to.
She felt her mate’s presence as she turned and looked up. He was covered in blood. His face was hard as stone and expressionless as he met her eyes. His wolf peered back at her.
"Dec," she breathed out as her legs crumbled beneath her. She didn't hit the ground. Her mate had her in his arms, holding her just like she was holding Jacque's baby. He pulled her close and took deep breaths of her scent.
"I've got you," he told her gently.
Jen couldn't speak. There were no words for what she was feeling. So she did what she did best in a moment of crisis. She shut the emotions off and focused on tasks that needed to be done.
"I need a bottle, and formula, or even the breast milk I've got stored in the freezer. Could you set it out to thaw? And then go to the nursery in Jacque and Fane’s room and get some diapers and clothes for him."
"Are you sure you want me to leave you?" he asked as he pulled back to look down at her face.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and clenched her jaw. "I'll be fine. But Jacque will be pissed if she finds out I let her kid starve and freeze."
He set her on her feet and made sure she was steady before he released her. "I'll be right back." Decebel kissed her forehead before leaving to get the things she'd requested.
Jen looked down at the sleeping boy. His hair was auburn, like his moms. But his face was all Fane.
"Can I hold him?" Alina's voice came from behind her.
Jen turned around and met the Alpha female’s eyes. They were haunted, but not hopeless. Jen nodded. "Of course. Say hello to your grandbaby boy." She held up the wrapped baby and let Alina take him from her arms.
Jen felt hollow without the little boy in her arms. But, he was Alina's grandson, and the Alpha needed to look into the face of hope, with so much death surrounding them.
"Decebel has gone to get a bottle, diapers, and clothes for him," she told her.
Alina looked up from the baby to Jen. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Thank you, Jennifer. You are a worthy Alpha. But more importantly, you are a worthy friend."
Jen tried to smile, but her face had forgotten how. So she just nodded instead. Feeling like she was intruding on Alina’s moment, Jen stepped away and looked around the room for the first time. Rachel and Peri were both bending over the prone forms of Jacque and Fane. They'd laid them in a shallow pool of water, less than an inch deep. Rachel had begun explaining things but Jen couldn’t hear above the roar of blood in her ears.
She looked away from them to see Cypher staring at his mate’s daughter in horror. The warlock king looked broken. Alston was standing off to the side discussing something intently with Vasile who kept shooting worried looks between his mate and the place where his son lay. Jen turned in a circle, looking for the final person who’d been on their mission. She knew where Drake was, she knew where Costin, Cyn, and Nissa were, but where the hell was Sally?
Decebel came hurrying back into the room and she pointed to Alina. "Give her the bottle and set the other stuff down on that bench. Then, we need to talk."
Decebel walked over to where Jen had taken refuge between two very large trees. "What is it Jennifer?"
"Where is Sally?" she asked softly.
Decebel growled. "I thought she was with you."
Jen shook her head. "She didn't flash with us. She was left with you all. Things were crazy when Rachel and Peri started working on—" She pointed towards her friend and her mate. "I couldn't ask Peri to go back. She's holding Fane and Jacque here, like literally using her immortality to keep them alive."
Decebel blinked several times as his hand pressed against his forehead. "When everything cleared and the vamps quit coming, the only thing left were some bloody clothes. Sally was not there."
Jen closed her eyes. This couldn't be happening. She could not lose both her best friends at the same time. "We have to find her."
Decebel looked around and pointed to Alston. "He can take us to Costin. There's nothing we can do here right now."
Jen agreed, though part of her didn't want leave the room—as though her presence was keeping her best friend from slipping away.
Decebel took her hand and lead her to where the high fae stood. Vasile had left him and was now holding his grandson with Alina sitting next to him.
"Can you please take us to the Serbia mansion?" Decebel asked curtly.
Alston didn't ask why. He simply held out his arm. They placed their hands on it and disappeared with the fae.
Alston left them in the foyer of the Serbia mansion with a nod and nothing else.
"This is," Jen started, but stopped when she heard pounding footsteps headed straight for them. She looked behind her and saw Costin. His eyes were wild with the wolf and he looked like he was in excruciating pain.
"Where is she? Where'
s my mate?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," Jen said, watching him closely.
Costin closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's not there. She's just gone. I can’t feel her through the bond. I can’t hear her or talk to her. It’s like she never existed."
"What?" Decebel’s eyes narrowed and began to glow.
"I can't sense her at all. I am alone—in here" —he tapped his head— "and here." Then he tapped his chest.
Jen didn't know what to do so she told Costin everything that had happened from the moment they entered the coven following Drake.
"Decebel said when the fighting ended, she wasn't there. He thought she was with me but she didn't flash with us."
Jen paused and shot a quick look past Costin, then placed a hand on his arm to get his attention. “Where is Titus?”
He seemed to have to think about it but then said, “He’s asleep. He wore himself out playing. I haven’t let him know that anything is wrong. I don’t know what I’m going to tell him.” His breathing started to quicken as Jen saw that Costin was realizing that it wasn’t just him he had to worry about anymore. He now had a child who would want to know where his new mommy was.
“We will help you,” Jen told him, allowing a little of the power endowed to her as Alpha to seep into her words. “Titus will be okay, Costin. He’s resilient, and he’s got one of the best dads a kid could ask for.” She didn’t know if her words helped, but she’d just keep reminding him and hoping that maybe if she said it enough it would somehow ease some worry.
Costin was at a loss. He didn't have anyone to kill, he didn't have any idea where to begin looking for her and it was his fault for not being there to protect her. And he had a three year old who needed them. Not just him, he needed Sally as well.
"Does Peri know she's missing?" he asked, his voice was rough with emotion.
"She's got enough on her plate for the moment trying to keep Fane and Jacque alive," Jen said. He could tell she was trying not to sound uncaring.
"So we literally have no idea where to even begin looking for her." His heart felt as though it just might stop beating at any moment.
"Not right now," Jen agreed. "But we will find her." She grabbed his hand and met his eyes. "We will find her."
Titus opened his eyes and saw that he was in the pretty garden that he’d been in once before. It was a dream, but it felt so real, so safe.
“Little one,” a sweet, soft voice spoke from behind him.
He turned and smiled up at the woman who’d visited him the last time he’d been in the same garden. She’d been the angel who told him that his new mommy and daddy were going to be coming to get him.
“Hi, angel,” he said. “You were right. My mommy and daddy did come.”
The angel knelt down in front of him. Her eyes were kind and her smile was real, like she wanted him to be just as happy as she was. It wasn’t one of those fake smiles that big people sometimes tried to do.
“They are precious to me, Titus, just as you are. You have been so very brave in all that you have endured.”
“What’s endured?” he asked.
“It means you have gotten through something difficult.” She reached out a hand and he took it without hesitation. “The world my children live in is one that has much darkness in it.”
Titus knew what darkness she was talking about. He’d seen darkness, felt it, and as the angel had said, he’d endured it.
“Unfortunately there will be more darkness to contend with.” She pulled him to her and then stood and led him to a bench. The angel picked him up and set him on the bench before sitting down next to him. “Your mommy and daddy are going to have trials to endure. Your daddy is a strong man. He is kind and loving and he is going to need you.”
“Me?” Titus couldn’t imagine how his new daddy could possibly need him. He was just a little kid.
She nodded. “You, little one, are the light in his life. Just like Sally is.”
“So why does he need me to be a light if he has mommy?”
“He needs you because your mommy is fighting the darkness now, as we speak.”
Titus frowned. “Why? She’s so good. Why does she have to endure?” He didn’t want to be angry at the angel, but he didn’t understand.
The angel wrapped an arm around him and he felt safe. “She has to endure because she can and she will. And when someone walks through the fire and comes out okay on the other side, they then can help others who will face the same thing.” When he just continued to look at her she spoke again. “For instance, you have fallen and scraped your knee before.”
He nodded.
“So you know how much it hurts. If your daddy fell and scraped his knee you would be able to understand how he was feeling and let him know that though it hurt right then, it would get better because yours got better.”
“So my mommy is going to help other people fight darkness because she will fight it and be okay?”
The angel nodded. “Yes, little one, she will fight it and she will be okay. But like a scraped knee is painful for a time, it will be painful for your daddy and you while she is gone. But I want you to hear me now. I am always here. All you have to do is say my name, and I will hear you. You will not endure this alone, Titus. You are loved. You are precious.”
“What if I’m scared?” Titus was trying to be brave.
“It’s okay to be scared. You can tell your daddy, or you can tell me. And there are others you will get to know who will become very special people to you and you can even tell them.” The angel pulled him closer in a tight hug. “I am so very glad to know you, Titus and I love you so very much.”
Titus could feel her love. It was like drinking hot chocolate, it warmed him up everywhere inside of him. “Sleep well, little one,” the angel told him and then the garden slipped away and he fell into a deep sleep.
"Will she have any memories of her old life?" Skender asked the man who was standing over Sally's sleeping form.
"No. I'm giving her a completely new life. There will be nothing left that could trigger any past memories."
"So she's just going to think she's someone else?"
"Her name will remain the same because the name is attached to the soul. Changing it would alert her on a subconscious level that something was wrong. But everything else—all of her childhood memories, who her parents were, how they died— will be fabricated. I am literally giving her a new life, one in which she is unaware of the supernatural world. Nor will she have any idea what she herself is."
"How long do we wait until introducing her back into it? Skender asked.
"A month or two. Let her live in her new life for a little while. Let it settle into her. Then we can begin to woo the healer to our cause, slowly, of course."
"And if her mate somehow finds her? What then?"
"He won’t. But if he does, we will deal with him." The man stood and stepped away. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Skender. "That's her address. Take her to her home. Put her in her bed. And when she wakes up, Sally's new life begins."
Lilly's hands shook as she picked up the phone and dialed Cypher’s cell. The dream, the vision, whatever it had been, was fading fast and she needed to tell her mate what she'd seen.
"Lilly," his voice came through the phone.
"Is she alive?" she asked without preamble.
"Peri and Rachel are doing their best," he said quietly.
Lilly took deep breaths through her nose, trying to keep herself under control. "I had a vision. I don’t know what it means."
"Tell me."
"I saw each race of supernaturals. I saw fire burning everything. I saw Sally lying with her eyes open, blood, and across her chest was a claw mark."
"Did you recognize anyone else?" he asked her, his voice was tight with anger.
"No. Do you know what it means?"
"I'm not entirely sure but I have an idea. I'll need to discuss it wi
th Peri and Vasile. If I'm right, things are going to get complicated."
"And if you're wrong?"
"Pray that I am, Little One. I'll see if one of the fae can come get you so you can be here with Jacque. And I imagine you want to meet your grandson."
A tear trailed down Lilly's cheek. She'd seen her grandson in a vision. She'd seen other things in that same vision, but she would not think of those things. Just because she'd seen it, didn't mean it would necessarily happen.
"Yes, I would very much like to be near my daughter and meet my grandson."
Peri stood with her feet in the water where Jacque and Fane lay. Rachel had been infusing the water with healing herbs. She also thought that if they needed it, the water would be a good conduit to help the flow of their magic. As soon as Peri had flashed them into the garden, the five fae stones had appeared at her feet. She didn’t question it; she simply took the stones and spread them out in the water, and began pulling on their power to enhance her own.
Peri had a hand on each of her patient’s chests and she was pulsing electric shocks of power into them to keep their hearts moving. The power that she was drawing on was more than just her fae powers; it was her own immortality, the well of endless life that she’d been blessed with. It was not something she’d ever done before, and didn’t know exactly how she was doing it. She’d just simply decided that these two weren’t going to die and she was going to do whatever it took to keep them here with their new child. If it sucked her dry and left her with nothing, she would gladly make that sacrifice.
Rachel had explained that Jacque needed blood. She’d lost too much and her body couldn’t make red blood cells fast enough to replenish what she’d lost, despite being half werewolf. So the race was on to find some blood, and a method in which to get it into her body. They still had some of Cynthia’s medical things and Peri had requested Gavril make himself useful and search Cynthia’s old lab. Rachel had used her cell phone, which she only owned because three American girls had said it was high time for Rachel to step into the 21st century. Those were their words. Rachel had used the cell phone to find pictures of the things Gavril should be looking for.
