by Rhys Lawless
The alpha didn’t indicate that he was happy to see us or engage with us in small talk. We needed to find out what was wrong before we pissed off one of the owners of the Crow.
I bit my lip and concentrated. He was only a few feet away from me, so it shouldn’t have put a strain on my empathy, and I still found it extremely hard that I could now do this without touching the person, but I tried to get into his emotions.
It was an invasion of privacy, and I was fully aware of that. That was the reason I didn’t like using my newly developed ability, but it proved particularly handy in reading situations. Annabel wasn’t too happy that I could read her mood from across the room, but she’d get used to it. She was stuck with me for the foreseeable future.
What are they doing here?
It wasn’t so much a question as a growl that I felt to the pit of my stomach. My spine felt it, and the hairs on my arms and neck stood in alertness.
“You are not welcome here,” he grunted, and his voice had the same effect as his thought.
Hew laughed it off.
“Since when?”
Nolan’s eyes narrowed, and he stared Hew right down. Hew’s gaze dropped to his lap.
Fuck! I thought. If he could get Hew to shut up and obey, I didn’t even want to know what effect he could have on me. But then again, I wasn’t a familiar. My mind and body didn’t play by the animal power politics that Hew and Nolan were subject to.
“Since now,” he rumbled, and Wade’s gaze lifted to meet Nolan’s.
“What’s going on, Nolan?” he asked him.
The way the wolf flipped his head towards Wade made my bones hurt. I could have sworn he looked like he could have snapped Wade in half, there and then.
“You need to go,” Nolan said.
“Why?” I asked, my voice nothing more than a whisper.
Nolan still heard it and stared me down.
“Because witches are no longer welcome here,” he said.
“What?” all three of us said at once.
“You heard me. All witches that aren’t mated are banned from the Crow.”
Hew creased his eyebrows. “I’m confused. What’s going on?”
“We’re done serving witches. You need to go,” he said between his teeth.
It was obvious he was trying to keep his cool. What wasn’t obvious was why.
He watched us, and so did the rest of the pack. Their eyes full of hostility and their arms crossed in front of their chests.
“We’re not going until you explain what the hell is going on.” Wade raised his voice.
The patrons of the pub went quiet. Why was everyone staring? Did they all know what was happening? No one looked like they were ready to intervene. I couldn’t blame them. Nolan was one of the owners. But that didn’t make it right for him to treat us this way with no explanation.
Three wolves stepped forward and grabbed our arms. The one that grabbed me tightened his grip so much that my hand went numb almost immediately.
“I don’t understand, Nolan. Why are you treating us this way?” Wade said.
“What’s going on?” Winston’s voice came from behind Nolan and the wolf stepped aside to look at him.
Nolan nodded at one of his packmates and they seized Winston too.
“Dude!” he shouted.
“Get them out of here,” Nolan shouted at his wolves.
The wolf that was holding me—Ricky, his name was—pulled me away and it was like being lifted by a crane. He could have snapped me like a twig.
“Stop,” I shouted and pushed Ricky’s strength back at him so he couldn’t move me. “Nolan, what has got into you?”
Nolan frowned. He inspected Hew, Winston, and Wade, who all looked as baffled as I must have looked, and finally, he turned to me. A few steps and he was in my face.
“Witches have been ruling the Nightcrawlers for far too long. And we let them. That is no more. The high council betrayed everyone’s trust and it cost the lives of hundreds of Nightcrawlers. Any protection and any help we used to give is now over. Effective immediately. We no longer take orders from witches.”
I’d known he was pissed off after Tower Bridge, but I hadn’t known he’d go to these lengths to show how much.
“What about your mates?” Wade asked. Rightfully so. Nolan wasn’t making any sense. How could he shut out witches when they were meant to be their perfect other halves? And what about those who hadn’t mated yet? Were they forbidden to meet witches?
“Mated witches are under our protection. They are Nightcrawlers,” he growled.
Wow. What a fucking hit that must be for Hew. Nolan was basically casting him away because he was a half-breed and telling him that it didn’t matter he was half-raven—in his eyes, he was a witch.
“That’s really shitty of you,” I said. “We’re all fighting the same battle—”
“No,” Nolan spat and sprayed me with his saliva. “We do not. It became very obvious that the witches only care about themselves. Where were they when Xtasy was attacked? Where were they when their ignited witches were wreaking havoc?”
I didn’t know how to answer him. It was an ugly truth, and I couldn’t blame him.
“Oh yes, that’s right. Having pointless meetings in their fucking tower. That’s where,” Nolan finished and nodded at his pack.
They started dragging us out. But I wasn’t done talking to him. I used my power to push past the wolf holding me and brought myself back to Nolan.
“You know we’re trying to change everything. You know we’ve been working hard to undo the damage the previous high council caused. We’re trying, Nolan. If you do this…if you do this, you’d be starting a war. And we don’t need that right now,” I said.
“You’re trying to change?” he asked, and I foolishly nodded. “Try harder, witch.” He opened his mouth and the growl that came out was inhuman. It was the beast inside him, and it gave me chills.
The wolf I had overpowered gained back control and led me to the door. Wade pursed his lips as they kicked us out. As soon as I’d dusted myself off and turned around, two cyclopes were standing at the door, their muscles bare in the night, showing us the consequence of trying to get in again.
If trolls were the strongest Nightcrawler species, cyclopes were a close second. There was no chance we could get through. There was no point in even trying. We weren’t welcome and that was that.
“Un-fucking-believable,” Winston cried, straightening the sleeves of his jacket.
“He’s insane,” Wade agreed.
I turned to Hew, who just let out a dejected, “Yeah,” and started to walk away from the Crow.
“Are you okay, baby?” Winston rushed to his side, and we fell into pace right behind them.
Hew shrugged.
“I’ll never be good enough for them, will I? Not for him, not for my brothers, not for anyone.”
“You’re good enough for me, silly,” Winston said and reached out to give him a tender kiss.
“Do you guys want to go somewhere else?” I asked them.
There were loads of bars we could go to. Nolan’s pack might have had power, but he couldn’t ban us from every bar in London.
“I’m not in the mood anymore,” Hew said and gave me a kiss on the cheek and a weak hug. Before he let me go, I made sure to squeeze him back in a warm embrace.
Don’t let them get to you, buddy, I told him and tried to give him some positive vibes.
“Thanks,” he muttered and left with Winston in tail.
“Well, that was something,” Wade said.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into Nolan, but I need to warn Ash and Graham. This is gonna turn ugly really quick,” I said.
Wade dug his hands into his pockets and asked why. We walked away from the Crow and towards an indeterminate—as of yet—destination.
“Because Nightcrawlers are an integral part of the system. We use them for protection, spying, backup, so many things,” I said. “Things will fall apart
without them.”
“Maybe they have a point, then,” Wade said, and I wasn’t sure what he meant. “How many Nightcrawlers do you have on the high council?”
The answer was easy, but it didn’t come out with ease.
“None,” I said.
“So, you use them for all these things, yet they have no representatives on the board that decides everyone’s fate? I’d be pissed, too, if I were them.”
He was right. I’d never thought of that. I’d never had any reason too. Until now. Was I part of the problem? I’d never been on the high council, but I’d always known there were issues with it. Yet, never had I done anything about it. The fact that it had never occurred to me that Nightcrawlers should be part of the decision-making shocked me. Was my privilege showing? And what could I do to fix things?
“Ash wants me to have more say now. He wants me on the high council, but it just…it feels wrong to join it. I’ve been so peeved with them for years, and after what the old council did, I don’t want to be associated with them.”
My words didn’t make much sense, and I realized I should have probably not spoken them aloud until I could process what I was getting at.
“But Ash and Graham are now in charge. And they said they want to change things. Don’t you want to be part of this change?” Wade asked.
Did I? I didn’t know. Sometimes it was easier to blame my problems on the high council. But I couldn’t do that anymore. And I’d always wanted things to change. Ash had given me an opportunity to be part of it. To rebuild the high council from the bottom up.
“I guess—” I started.
A hair-raising scream broke the relative silence of the London evening. Wade and I looked at each other.
“What was that?” he asked.
Instead of answering, I closed my eyes and focused in on myself and my power. It was like fishing. You had to grab the rod, make sure you had a steady hand, and then throw it out into the water.
Or maybe it wasn’t like fishing. Who the fuck knows? I’d never been so I had no fucking clue how it worked.
My mind reached out to everyone in our proximity, looking for the source of the scream.
It caught something.
No. She’s gonna kill her. No. No.
My whole body shivered, and I lost my balance. Wade put his hands around me and helped me back up.
“Someone’s in danger.” I panted. Around the corner.
I was too weak to speak while I was still connected to whoever was debilitated by their own fear, but I didn’t want to let them go. What would happen if I did? No, I didn’t even want to picture it. I sent the person some warmth and courage, any of it that I had left, and only when my knees had strengthened and I could stand on my own again did I let the person go, and I ran.
Wade followed behind me, blade in hand, ready to attack. I reached for a spell on my spellbook and braced myself.
A woman was standing in the middle of the street, her hands holding her shoulders and her head arched all the way to the back. Wade slowly approached her and asked her if she was okay. She didn’t respond.
I looked up and found what she was so focused on. A pair of dangling legs over the ledge of the four-story building. And a witch fighting for her life. There was a hand around her neck, holding her in the air. I took a few steps back to look at the culprit—a vampire.
“We were just walking and next thing I know this bitch came out and grabbed her. And now she’s going to kill her,” the witch standing beside me screeched. “I…I can’t stop her. Please help me.”
The vampire was a blonde and pale beauty with a bitter face. At least as far as I could tell. Had she not been holding the other witch in the air, I would have thrown my chaos spell at her, but if I did that, I risked the vampire dropping her. My best shot was reaching out to them both.
“Wade, get her out of here,” I said without looking at him.
“No. I’m not leaving you. I want to help.”
I didn’t have time to argue. The more time passed, the higher the chance she would drop her. I reached out to the vampire.
What do you want? Why are you doing this? I asked her.
She looked around her, confusion drawn across her face. Her body felt jumpy, and I pushed hard to reassure both witch and vampire so that she didn’t drop her.
Who the fuck was that? she wondered to herself.
Please, whatever your dispute with her, don’t do this. We can resolve this, I begged, and the vampire looked down and stared at me.
You! Get out of my head. There’s nothing to resolve, she thought, and her fingers tried to curl open, but I didn’t let her.
You won’t kill her on my watch, I told her.
How… she thought and looked at the witch in front of her. An empath.
Before I could stop her, she punched herself in the stomach, which made me lose my connection with her, and she loosened her grip on the witch.
It all happened in seconds. One moment she was held by the vampire, the next she was tumbling down and I couldn’t stop it. Her body landed right at my feet with a loud, bone-cracking sound. The witch that had been watching from the ground screamed.
I couldn’t turn. How could I look her in the eye? I could have done more. Could have held on to the vampire harder. There must have been a spell I could have used. But…
It was too late now. Her friend was dead.
Something blurred my vision and the blonde vampire appeared in front of me.
“You shouldn’t have done that, witch. You’ll be next,” she said and ran off, disappearing in a blink.
“Maya,” the witch Wade held on to cried and dropped to her knees to tend to her friend’s dead body.
Wade let her and he came up to me.
“What…what just happened?” I mumbled.
“I don’t know, baby. I don’t know.” He took me in his arms, and I paused, allowing his warmth to give me some relief.
No, no, no, baby. Maya, open your eyes. I heard in my head and the witch’s shock sobered me up, and I pulled away from Wade. I wasn’t the one in need of relief. It was her. She had just lost her partner. And it was all my fault.
“It’s not your fault,” Wade whispered in my ear.
I wished I could believe him. It was hard to, though, when the evidence of my failed attempt was bleeding in front of me.
“You don’t think Nolan…” Wade said.
I shook my head. This wasn’t Nolan. Nolan was a lot of things, but he wasn’t a murderer. He had a vendetta against the witches, but he wouldn’t kill us.
“It’s Christian. It’s got to be. He’s back, isn’t he?” I blurted.
The color washed off Wade’s face, and I could tell he was trying to fight his fear off so he could be the strong one for me, but he couldn’t.
Could I blame him? He had suffered under Christian’s rule. The dhampir was a dangerous creature, and he had already destroyed too many lives. He was conniving. Gods knew what he was capable of.
“We’ll get him,” I promised.
I didn’t know if it was an empty promise. I didn’t know if we could stop him a second time, especially when the first time had cost us so much. But I would do my damned best to find him and put an end to him.
Five
Wade
It’s pointless. It’s all pointless.
What good was it being a witch if you couldn’t change a thing? I couldn’t bring the dead witch back to life, and I couldn’t stop Caleb from feeling guilty. My power was useless against anything other than a witch’s attack, so I couldn’t even have done anything to stop this, and if I had, I couldn’t fight a vampire off.
Was I the worst witch in the history of witches or what? They should give me a badge for being the most useless one of them all. I didn’t know about wearing it with pride, but I would accept it.
Because I was useless. Even Winston had said it, and it was rich coming from him, but it was still true. Hew had tried to be nice about it, but even he�
�d admitted it. And Caleb had said it during practice.
I might as well give up now and submit to the next danger that came my way.
“Are you all right?” Caleb asked me in the cab. “Why are you blocking me?”
Because the shit that was going on in my head was too ugly to be seen.
“I’m just feeling…down. I don’t want to make you feel any worse than you already are.”
He squeezed my hand and kissed the back of my palm. I loved him too much to let him see my mess.
The light from the dawning sun blinded me, and I turned away from it and from Caleb’s stare. It had turned out such a long night. Waiting for the high council response team. For them to process the scene and take statements. To call Ash and go through the events again. I had started to lose hope of ever seeing my home again until they let us go.
“Wade, don’t shut me out. We’re both feeling guilty about what happened. I know I am. But you don’t need to put up a front for me.”
I wasn’t putting up a front. That’s not what I was doing.
“I let her down. And you too,” I said.
He touched my chin with his fingers and turned my head so he could look at me.
“You didn’t let me down. What are you talking about?”
“If I’d been able to cast a spell, I could have done something.”
“Wade, I had the chance to cast a spell, but I didn’t, because she could have dropped her,” he said. “Stop beating yourself up over it.”
I didn’t say anything. He had a point, but it didn’t make me feel any better about the situation. What was Christian’s game? And why was he all of a sudden working with vampires when he hadn’t before?
Was it even him that was hiding behind it? We had been fooled before. Maybe he was dead and someone had taken his body to throw us off their own track and put us on a false trail.
“Here will be fine,” Caleb said to the cabbie and leaned in to pay him in cash.
He made to open the door, but I didn’t react.
“Are you coming?” he asked, waving a hand in front of me.
I shook my head and looked him in the eyes.
“It’s better if I go home. I…” I started, and Caleb had already dropped his shoulders in defeat. “I’m not going to be very good company.”