by Scott, Helen
“This conversation makes my head hurt,” Cade grumbled.
“Be that as it may, we need to know that you will do as we ask so that we can meet with our siblings and work on securing Merlin,” Morgause firmly retorted.
“We will,” Darius said, choosing to speak for us all. While I didn’t much care, especially since I was in my wolf form, some of my brothers gave him a sharp look, and I got the feeling that they were none too happy about his affirmative response.
“The council needs to allow you the flexibility to move around in the world. Do not let them restrict you to a specific territory,” Arthur cautioned. “Get their approval and get out. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Though Morgause’s presence made it difficult for me to revert to my original form, I felt Marcella giving me a gentle push back into my skin.
Of course, where Marcella was concerned, a gentle push was like being hit by a two-ton truck going twenty miles over the speed limit.
I practically dove off a metaphorical cliff as I crash-landed into a shift.
When I stared up at the ceiling, naked as the day I was born, I huffed, “Thanks, Marcella.”
She appeared at my side in a second, with a blanket from the back of the sofa in her hand that she used to cover me up. When I caught her eyes, I saw there was no playfulness in her gaze. She was pissed I was naked in front of another woman.
Even if that woman was a Mother.
Maker.
My mate’s pursang was a hardass.
The silver flickered back and forth in her eyes until I was covered, then, when she controlled it, I murmured, “Thank you.”
She bowed her head, then jerked her chin to the side as though tension or stress urged her to stretch her neck. Cutting my brothers a look, I reached up and tapped at the dribbles of blood around her mouth.
No one could say that Marcella wasn’t a messy eater.
I’d seen human toddlers make less of a mess.
My lips almost curved at the thought, but only knowing how close her pursang was to the surface helped me refrain from smiling. My cock was bare and her hand was close. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how she’d punish me if I pissed her off.
Of course, no one could make my mate look more normal than the two siblings standing in the room as though they owned it. And hell, if they didn’t, who did? They ruled this territory as they ruled all others in their father’s stead.
Though unease continued to swirl inside me, because I knew trusting them would be foolhardy, I asked my Mother, “Do you know why Marcella is having trouble controlling her pursang?”
My mate tensed at my side, but the fact she remained quiet told me that she wasn’t angry at my asking the question.
Of course, asking it in front of the strangers, badass bikers who had more piercings and wore more leather than I’d had hot dinners, wasn’t ideal. But the fact they still breathed told me they weren’t nobodies. If the Sires could discuss their business in front of them, then I figured we could talk about Marcella’s lapses in control.
“She is changing,” Morgause told me, and shit, that wasn’t exactly helpful, was it?
“I should imagine she is with six mates to corral,” Keiran drawled, and when I turned to him, I saw that the bastard looked as though he hadn’t just been held unconscious, but had slept through a pleasant nap.
Typical.
Morgause shook her head at his words. “No. Changing in ways we can’t reveal. It is an evolution. She is sane, but her pursang is under extreme pressure. It is the other side of her that must endure, and she is breaking where she must learn to bend.”
I frowned at her as her words pinged around my head like a ricocheting bullet in a tunnel. “Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me these past few weeks have been exercises?”
Morgause pursed her lips. “I’m saying nothing of the sort.”
Arthur reached out and grabbed her arm. “Tell them, Sister. It does no harm now.”
I shook my head at his words, which were an admission in and of themselves, but at my side, Marcella began shaking. “You were sleeping,” I bit off. “How could you control anything?”
Arthur’s top lip curled up. “We have our ways.” He tipped his chin at the bikers and the ground.
“Did you know about this?” Marcella demanded, her voice a low rasp as she bit off the words at Darius, but the pursang was shaking his head.
“No, I damn well didn’t.” He growled. “This whole Kronos shit was a test, Henrick?”
The most ancient of the bikers shrugged. “It was technically killing two birds with one stone.”
“Explain,” Darius ground out, and while his anger was evident, so was his concern. I understood. Everything he’d ever thought to be the truth, wasn’t.
He’d told us upon meeting the Cavalry that they listened and adhered to the Sires’ orders. They did their bidding, while the Reapers? Didn’t. They were Merlin’s followers.
If this conversation was anything to go by, that was BS. And if Darius was out of the loop, then we might as well have been on Pluto for all the sense that made to me.
“Watch yourself, Enforcer. Your mate might be the Lady’s child, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen to your lip.”
Darius’s jaw flexed in anger, but he grunted, “Explain. Please.” If Henrick considered that polite, then he was a dumbass, but though the Ancient’s eyes narrowed with irritation, he didn’t lash out at Darius.
“Sylvester was always scum. We’ve been watching him for a long time, giving him enough rope to hang himself, but he never took the bait until recently. Until he heard news that his daughter escaped from Westbrook with an illegally purloined brotherhood.”
Marcella reached up and rubbed at her temple, but it didn’t escape my attention that she curled into my side, tucking her knees into me as though she was trying to get into my very skin. Even then, I had the feeling it wouldn’t be close enough.
“You set everything up?”
Henrick wafted a hand. “The Kronos was already on its way out. The Malectos were well aware that no Ancients were using their product anymore. They held its original use up as a shield from the council so they could sell to humans. Slowly but surely, they were sending family members off along networks in the States, using their blood as the basis of the drug, and setting up labs in poor neighborhoods.”
“The President’s grandson died because of this mess.”
Henrick sighed. “He shouldn’t have gotten involved with the Malectos then, should he?”
Darius hissed, his hands balling into fists at his sides. “Why must everything be a joke to you? I’m the one who has to control the council. I’m the one who has to make excuses for all the petty shit you Ancients do.”
Sounded like my main man, D, had been the Ancients’ bitch for a hell of a long time. I shot him a considering look, because his anger? It wasn’t feigned. It was pure and raw.
“And you do it so well,” Henrick sneered.
“Children,” Morgause chided, “there is no need to quarrel.” The woman, her hair a delicate shade of red that was just a hint more golden than Marcella’s, stepped over toward me and my mate. Marcella remained curled into my side, even when Morgause crouched down beside us.
When she reached out, her fingers trailing down my woman’s arm, Marcella flinched, but that didn’t stop Morgause. “Child, we meant no harm. We had to draw your pursang out.”
“I don’t understand why you’d need to do that.”
“Because she is pursang, yes, which makes her of Morgana’s line, but she is so much more than that. She is not the first of her kind, nor will she be the last Descendant, but she is our hope for containing Merlin.”
“How can I do that when you can all control me like I’m a puppet?” Marcella rasped.
“You are young, and that is why we tested you. There are more tests ahead of you,” Morgause murmured sadly. “But you can endure them. You must endure them. You are
the only thing preventing the greatest evil imaginable roaming the world as though it were his playground.”
8
Henrick
“Where are we headed?”
“Boston.” I scowled at nothing as I muttered into my cell, “I fucking hate that place.”
“Get over it,” Robin retorted, because he liked to give me shit. Then, almost as a second thought, murmured, “Why do you have to go there? Thought the Descendant was in Cali.”
“Your memory is like a sieve. I’m not in fucking California,” I growled, and because I was mad at him, didn’t correct him.
We had more power than fucking Gandalf could imagine, and the bastard couldn’t read the ‘Post It’ notes I stuck on the fridge door.
Maker help me.
Robin huffed. “Okay, you’re not in California. Calm the fuck down.”
I ran a hand over my head, feeling the long-ish strands of hair that were in need of a cut. I wouldn’t have thought anything of it, but the sight of the forest ahead of me had me wanting to slip between the trees, allowing nature to absorb me until I didn’t give a fuck if my hair grew down to my ass.
Nature’s lure was always my hardest temptation. I fought it on a constant basis, and it was why we lived in the middle of a concrete jungle. The less nature around me, the more control I had. Still, it didn’t mean I didn’t miss it. I did. With an ache that I’d only felt one other time.
An hour ago, to be precise.
“There a reason you’re still on the line?” Robin retorted, obviously as pissed at me as I was with him. Not that he had reason to be annoyed. Not like me.
Bastard needed to start taking more notice of shit before I pressed a gun to his head.
Again.
Sometimes, having a bullet clear out the cobwebs was the only way to make Robin remember shit.
“I’m trying to figure out how to tell you something.”
Silence fell down the line. “Something good?” he asked eventually, his tone hopeful.
“Not sure.”
He grunted. “Animal, vegetable, or mineral?”
I ran a hand over my face. “Animal, I suppose.”
“Spit it out, Henrick. Come on. What’s going on?”
“I’m not even sure.” And I wasn’t lying. What I’d found when I’d come here wasn’t what I’d expected.
That wasn’t to say I wasn’t about to accept it with open arms.
When Merlin offered a gift, he usually went big or went home, and I’d never known him to ‘go home’ to this date.
It had been a routine job.
One of the council’s lines was producing drugs. Get involved, sully the network, destroy the market, eradicate the production.
Why?
All to get to one girl.
So much work for one woman.
It beggared belief but then, so much did in my life. For many years I’d endured, seen things few could even begin to imagine possible, and the Maker still had the habit of surprising me.
“I-I think I’ve found her.”
“Who?”
The dumb fuck. I ground my teeth together for a second. “Her,” I hissed. “The one.”
Robin blew out a breath. “You sure? You said ‘think’ and not ‘know.’”
“She was here, waiting with the Descendant.” I bit down on the inside of my cheek.
“To help her or to cause trouble?”
“I’m not sure.” And I wasn’t so it wasn’t a lie. “She’s LeFauvre.”
“Motherfucker!” Robin growled. “Not one of those scumbags.”
I took the hit because I understood his pain. Of all the council lines, there were families that made toadstools look like delicate lilies. That wasn’t to say that each line didn’t contain cunts, because they did. But some were worse than others. Two of those being the Malectos and the LeFauvres.
“Unfortunately, yes. I had her sent back to the clubhouse.”
“How? You knock her out?”
“No. Put her in the cage,” I told him. “It’s not like she can get out of the SUV unless we want her to. On the back of my bike is another matter entirely.”
“You want me to call the others home?”
“I think it might be wise,” I said cautiously.
“You know the other motherfuckers found their mate too, right?”
“Yeah. I remember. One of those strung out chemists.” I snorted out a laugh. “We all know how much Rhys loathes drugs. That should be fun for her while she’s coming down.”
“Withdrawals suck anyway. With him glowering over you as you suffer has to be a cruel twist of fate,” Robin agreed, but I could hear the smirk in his voice.
None of us liked Rhys.
That dislike went back a dozen or more centuries. Back in the day when Arthur had ruled what was now called Somerset with an iron fist, Rhys and I had ridden together under his banner. As had my fellow Reapers and Rhys’s Cavalry.
As his Knights of the Round Table, we’d been the first council to rule under Arthur’s reign. Our kin now sat upon those same seats, but they were many times removed. One of the cunts on the Cavalry had originally sired the Malectos. Unfortunately for us, my brother Jameson had sired the LeFauvres.
“This is happening too quickly. First, the Descendant makes an appearance, then the Sires awaken, and now the Cavalry has their woman, and we have ours… It’s fishy.”
He wasn’t wrong, which meant this situation was truly beyond the pale. “It’s more than fucking fishy,” I growled. “It’s fucked up, and it means there’s going to be more shit falling down on us before things get better.”
The Maker never gave so generously without there being a cost.
If I’d learned anything in my very long life, I’d learned that while he did give with all his heart, those gifts came with a price tag that was beyond costly.
Still, it wasn’t his fault; that was why I served him to this day.
“What do we do?”
“We’re taking up with the Descendant now that we’ve found her.” I was ashamed to admit that until I’d seen the light in her, I hadn’t realized who the girl was.
Of course, calling her a girl wasn’t exactly fair. She was definitely a female, and she was, without a doubt, going through some withdrawals of her own.
I just didn’t think her mates were aware of that.
“The forest calling you?”
I grunted. “What do you think?” Releasing a sigh, because it wasn’t his fault I wanted nothing more than to go for a run, I mumbled, “I have to go.”
“Yeah. I know. I’ll gather the others. When they meet her, what do you want to do with her?”
“She’s a captive until we all claim her,” I reminded him.
“I know. She’ll remain that way until we choose to do so.”
I snorted. “You can’t seriously tell me that you think you could walk away from her?”
“We’ve lived without her this long,” Robin stated grimly, “we can continue to live without her if we must.”
My brow puckered at that. “Why would we? She was gifted to us for a reason.”
“Most likely as payment for something horrendous that’s about to fall our way,” he grumbled. “You know how this shit works.”
Because he wasn’t wrong, and because I’d thought that myself, I just grunted. Either it was payment or the catalyst for a cluster fuck to explode around us, the Maker’s gifts never came in peace.
“She might be useful.”
“Perhaps. We’ll see. I’ll call the brothers back. Tell me if you want us to ride out to meet with you.”
“I will.”
“Enjoy Boston,” Robin said with a snicker. “Have some Boston Cream Pie on me.”
Grunting, I stated, “If I get one, I’ll shove it in your fucking face.” Disconnecting the call without another word, I shoved the phone in my pocket and stared out at the forest.
“Still evading its call, I see.”
I didn’t t
ense because I knew Darius had been listening. He was the one bastard on the council I didn’t loathe. His line was halfway decent… Not surprising, considering it was mine.
“Of course. I’m not about to get torn up in there. I have work to do.”
Darius stepped closer to me, staring out into the pitch-black at my side. He didn’t speak for a few moments, even though I knew he wanted to, but I appreciated his respect in waiting for me to say, “Speak.”
He sighed. “What’s happening here, Henrick?”
“You know as much as I do. The Sires keep much close to their chest, as you well know considering you’ve been doing their bidding for as long as you’ve been alive.”
I heard him grind his teeth. “This is different. My mate’s involved now.”
“As you just heard, so is mine.”
“I’ve claimed mine,” Darius argued. “Robin is talking of tossing her back as though she were trash.”
“She is LeFauvre.” It went without saying that to us, she was trash. I let out a short laugh. “Amazing, isn’t it? The Cavalry and the Reapers have served for as long as we have, perhaps not as selflessly as we ought, but with much dedication, and we’re rewarded with two less than worthy mates for our pains.”
Darius didn’t reply immediately, but when he did, his words were measured. “I have no reason to like Lily. She terrorized my mate as a child at Westbrook.”
“That fits the LeFauvre’s standards.” Figured my One would be a bitch. The thought had me sighing because, in truth, didn’t we need a bitch to reign at our sides over the grand sprawl that was the Reapers?
“She is powerful. If you join with her, she will empower you.”
“Why are you speaking on her behalf if your mate loathes her?”
“Because I read her reports. She is a Sixth born to deal with Shifters.”
I stiffened at that. “Darius—”
He cleared his throat before I could interrupt further and stated, “Elizabeth fell on the wrong path. She is one of our squires’ daughters.”
“Drugs took her. Corrupted her. To Rhys, she is trash.”
My words were hard, but they were cold facts.