“So, this is how it’s supposed to be?” Cordelia snapped, her tongue lashing. Her eyes flared as her gaze raked over everyone in the room. The look did not soften when she took in Nora. Only when she saw Javier did they see the break in her façade.
His heart flipped inside his chest, but Javier took the spike of fear and twisted it into his own weapon. He would not live bowing to this woman. There was a better future that awaited him. It was like the night before Nora lost her magic. He wanted to wake to her by his side each morning. He wanted to try again at the date he’d promised her.
None of that included Cordelia.
Vance flinched, refusing to meet the woman’s eyes. He knew what awaited him if this failed. Had Cordelia ever used the souls of her own when they betrayed her? Or, would this be a new experience for both of them? Javier didn’t wait to find out.
He tightened the salt crusted rope and tied it behind her back. He prayed to whomever was listening in on their plight that the salt of the rope would hold. As he lifted her from the floor, she reached for whatever power was stored inside her. Cordelia squirmed with panic when nothing came to her call.
“Are you going to murder me?” Cordelia asked, her voice thick with fear. No matter how she tried to hide it, the witch was finally afraid.
Javier waited for her to slip into his mind and turn him against those in the room. He glanced to Vance, almost apologetically, but her voice never rose. It allowed him to let out a breath of relief. The rope truly did work, cutting her off even though she held his soul.
“We’re going to wait right here until Sydney gets back,” Javier informed her as he set her on the ground.
Vance quickly stepped up with his bag of salt and poured a circle around her. It was added protection against her if she found any loopholes in their rope trick. Sure, she could step out of the circle, but Javier found a place near Nora and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. His eyes bored into Cordelia’s.
No more would he be her creature. No more would she slither into his mind. No more would he be used to hurt. His wolf rose through him, the voice steadily growing stronger. The presence of the long silent beast filled him with joy. It growled at the witch, angry at what she’d made it do. Their mate suffered. Their sister almost suffered.
But, both Javier and his wolf agreed. They would not stoop to her level.
“If you don’t plan on killing me now, then you know this will never be over.” Cordelia grinned. The only thing missing from that predatorial smile was a mouthful of sharp teeth. Her gaze flicked to Nora. Wheels were spinning in her mind, and Javier feared where they might take her.
“I won’t become your beast,” Javier told her. “And, if I were to kill you, I’d become the monster you always wanted.”
Her gaze flicked back to him. “If I die, I own you. If I live, I own you. Either way, you find no peace in this life.”
The wolf roared. Its song thundered in his ears. He would not be owned. Never again would anyone other than Nora hold any part of him.
“You are a packless beast, wandering this earth with no purpose. I could give you that purpose. I could give you protection. Everything you seek, you could find in me.” Her voice crooned. It begged him to listen.
He shook his head. The wolf would not let him hear. It still howled, on and on like it had in the barn. Javier glanced to Vance. The man watched him with concern hidden behind a wall of deference. Javier waited for the two of them to betray him, but Vance only collapsed onto the floor. He looked to Nora, still sleeping peacefully on the bench.
Javier would not give into the woman’s threats. He knew his weaknesses. There was a cavernous emptiness inside him that she waited to fill with her power. The fact that he was not formally tied to any pack left him weak. There was an open bond she could grasp and turn to her advantage. Javier wondered if he should have joined the small pack growing here in the mountains but didn’t think he deserved them.
This fight was his, one of revenge and retribution. The one they fought had been selfless. He wished he could be more like them. They were what this world needed more of. As long as he stood, he would be there to make sure nothing took them from this world. Perhaps that was a part of his path of vengeance. Cordelia not only hurt him, but she would hunt this pack until they were nothing more than her puppets.
He pulled his lips back from his teeth. Cordelia sat quietly, unnerving everyone in the room. What spun through her mind? She was planning something, but he was not so smart as to figure it out.
“How did you plan on taking me to the human law offices?” Cordelia began. She leaned back in her circle of salt. Javier tensed, thinking she might move, but she stayed where she was. “Did you think you could take me in wearing a salted rope? The human law offices wouldn’t understand measures like that. They’d replace it with steel cuffs that wouldn’t stop me.”
“Shush, woman. We’re waiting.”
“Waiting for what? Like I said, there’s no version of this that leaves me behind bars. You aren’t going to kill me because you want to believe you can be a good man again. Vance isn’t going to do it. Nora is unconscious, not that she’d hurt her own mother.”
Javier snarled. “You tried to kill her.”
Cordelia didn’t bat an eye. “Those who betray me seldom stand long. Ask her father.”
He glanced to his mate, hoping she was still unconscious and hadn’t heard her mother’s confession. Cordelia raged through everyone that surrounded her, blood or not. Nothing meant more to her than power. Javier worried she was right. Once the salt rope was unbound for steel cuffs, they would be at her mercy again.
Nothing stood between the two of them, not while she held his soul in her grip. He no longer wanted it back as a new one grew in its place, but her connection to it granted her access to his mind. It would take little for her to turn Javier against Nora and Sydney.
He felt like a liability. One slip and he would destroy everything that had come to mean something to him. The pack here, the family he realized he wanted to become a part of, would suffer at his hand. He glanced to Cordelia and wondered if she wanted him to kill her. It would be so easy to walk over and snap her neck.
But, he would not be the villain of this story. Cordelia had already written her story in blood and souls. There was no redemption for her, but there would be justice. He just needed to figure out how to remove her powers first.
Javier heard the sound of tires on gravel outside. It seemed Sydney worked quickly. Yet, when he turned to pull aside the curtain, it was not Sydney’s SUV that he saw outside. Instead, two men jumped from the truck, guns in hand. His stomach turned, the thought of returning to his cage only second to the fear that enveloped him when he realized Nora was still passed out.
Javier lurched toward his mate, but the witch was quicker. The rope fell away from her body and slithered toward the floor. The world stopped as her fingers touched Nora’s skin. His mate’s eyes snapped open just in time for Javier to watch them blink out of existence.
He faltered, unsteady on his feet. Vance approached him, but anger twisted his body and soul. He roared at the human man for his betrayal. Vance took it all in stride, jaw clenched tight. Vance tried to tell Javier he had nothing to do with the rope, but the shifter was beyond listening.
As much as Javier feared the silver bound cage he’d been trapped in for years, his wolf demanded he find Nora. Javier agreed and scented the air while men whispered to each other outside. They were moments away from bursting through the doors. Javier felt miles away from his mate.
One thing at a time, he reminded the wolf. They could not search for their mate if there were hunters on their tail. The wolf turned toward the voices of the hunters with a hungry grin and agreed for the moment. Once they were taken care of, the wolf would take over.
All Javier could do was agree with his beast as his feet slid apart in a fighting stance. He had to hope that Cordelia would not kill Nora. Not yet, at least. She was the witch�
�s bargaining chip in this situation.
***
Nora staggered, suddenly finding herself on her feet. Her brain was still foggy from the small amount of tranquilizer that’d penetrated her system. It left her wobbly and slow. Her hands fumbled to find purchase as her body teetered.
Through her blurry vision, all Nora could see was her mother’s hungry grin. The witch looked as though she’d just won a battle of the minds as she brushed flakes of white off her shoulders. Nora’s head throbbed.
“You never know who’s on your side unless you give them false information to use against you. It works wonderfully every time. Worked with your father.”
“Where the hell are we?” Nora asked, truly hoping the answer was not actually Hell.
All around them, the world shivered with shadows. A chill crept over her skin and, for once, the pain in her stomach was nonexistent. While she should have been grateful, it worried her. Nora wasn’t ready to die. There were years left to live, days left in her life to experience with Javier.
Cautiously, as if afraid of what she might find, Nora searched the dark space for Walter’s face. What would she do if she saw him? Could she explain to him that she’d moved on? Of course, she could. Her love for him remained, but it was its own thing, apart from her feelings for Javier. While her mate bond was overwhelming and granted her a sense of wholeness, Nora could recognize Walter’s love for what it was.
It’d been the thing that helped her live up until now.
“Oh, don’t be dramatic,” Cordelia snapped. “We’re in the basement.”
Nora’s jaw dropped, and she spun to find the stairs that would lead to the first floor. Before she could move, Cordelia grasped her wrist.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Let me go,” Nora growled. If she had sharp teeth or claws to fight with, she could have escaped. Instead, she was only an injured human woman.
Cordelia rolled her eyes in the dark. “We’re between worlds right now. Even if you went upstairs, they wouldn’t be able to see or hear you.”
Nora’s arm dropped from Cordelia’s grasp. “Well, what was the point of this? Did you bring me here as some sort of hostage? Because I can tell you right now I’m not going to go quietly.”
“I brought you here to see if you would strike a new deal with me.”
My mother is the devil, Nora thought. Her attempt to weasel her way out of the corner the pack had pushed her into was flimsy. The only reason she wanted to barter again was because she saw the end of her road. It wasn’t like Nora would allow them to burn her alive like they did in days of old.
“You have nothing I want,” Nora declared, defiantly jutting her chin.
The smile that curled over her mother’s mouth was infuriating.
“You might still have his soul, but that won’t last forever. Sooner or later, it will return to him.” She could not let her mother lie to her. Not over this. Nora had to be stronger than she’d ever been before. Remembering the way the gun wavered in her hand when she’d pointed it at Sydney, Nora realized she’d never wanted to hurt the woman. “This is going to end with you dead, one way or another.”
The declaration made Nora’s soul lighter, as if realizing for the first time that she would not have to be chained to her mother forever. There was a life, a possibility, that would not include Cordelia and the shadow she cast over Nora’s life.
Cordelia seemed to register Nora’s epiphany. Hope turned to a glittering anger in the woman’s eyes. “I thought after I killed your husband that you would see the way things needed to be, but I was wrong about you. My daughter would always be a disappointment.”
Red flashed over Nora’s vision. Her mother’s words slammed into her soul with an earth-shattering force. Her mouth went dry and the words stuck in her throat. Cordelia had confessed to having a hand in Walter’s death. It hadn’t been a sudden heart attack, but a hex.
“How dare you,” Nora growled. As much as Nora hated her life, she knew Cordelia was the mastermind that orchestrated every horrific event around her daughter. Her stomach should have turned, she should have felt sick, but Nora felt righteous instead. She was going to find a way to burn this witch.
Nora bided her time, waiting for her mother to show her hand. She had to have brought them there, this in-between realm, for a reason. Slowly, the fog in her mind faded and Nora was able to piece together the situation.
“Vance betrayed you. He and my mate were able to corner you, and you got scared.”
Cordelia’s eyes flashed with hot anger. Her lips pulled back from her teeth. Nora waited for her tongue to lash out another confession of evil, but it seemed the witch could not find one through the haze of indignation. It brought a smile to Nora’s lips. Even if she was trapped in some hellish in-between, she could be happy that her mother had been trapped, if only for a moment.
“I still don’t understand why you brought me. Do you still think I’ll help you? Warning: the brainwash wore off and I don’t think you can renew it.” Nora moved to put her hands on her hips, strangely aware of the lack of pain in her stomach. “You’re powerless. Face it.”
But, the look Cordelia turned on her daughter was anything but powerless. Nora caught the flash of her own, golden magic and felt a sickening longing before Cordelia twisted it with the soul-magic. Together, the power slammed into Nora. If she didn’t feel pain before, she certainly felt it now.
Nora did not feel the stitches in her stomach or the skull-throbbing ache of the tranquilizer. Instead, she felt her body ablaze with electric fire. Her soul was being pulled from her body, forcefully detached inch by burning inch. Nora screamed, but there was no one around to hear as the sound shook the realm.
While the pain tried to devour her, Nora wished something would surge from the darkness and devour her mother all in one bite. She waited for alien monsters or the tormented souls of those Cordelia had hurt, but nothing happened. No one stopped the witch as she folded Nora’s soul in on itself and tucked it in the back of Nora’s mind. Trapped inside herself, Nora’s body slumped. Before it could fall, Cordelia caught her, bit her own thumb, and traced a sigil on Nora’s forehead in blood.
She watched with revulsion as Cordelia’s soul entered Nora’s body through the painted sigil. Nora shook the walls of her mental prison, but they wouldn’t budge. Nora had no power to fight against Cordelia’s invasion. Weak and powerless, she struggled to hold onto hope. Nora had to believe Javier would see the difference. He would not be fooled by Cordelia’s farce.
Chapter Fifteen
Two hunters stormed the farmhouse. Javier’s mind reeled, part of him still searching for Nora everywhere he looked. Vance scrambled to his feet beside him. Javier shifted, expecting the man to finally turn against him.
“I can stop them,” Vance breathed. “At least, I think I can.”
Javier growled. It was the best he could do while his mind and heart raced so wildly. Where had the witch taken his mate? There was no chance she could slip into his mind while he worried about his mate. He’d rather tear the world apart than let the woman’s words slither into his mind.
Vance paused, as if he knew Javier would kill him if he took one wrong step. He threw his hands into the air. “This doesn’t have to end in a fight.”
Javier lifted a brow. They both remembered Benny. If the other hunters were anything like Benny, there was no avoiding it. Vance’s lips tightened. Javier was almost thankful he hadn’t killed the human man. He might not be completely awful.
The hunters must have known what was happening, some unspoken warning from Cordelia going out while Javier thought her bound, because they broke through the door. Iron gun barrels scanned the room.
While Javier pressed his back against the wall, Vance stepped toward them. He offered a disarming smile, one that might make a woman’s panties drop someday, and launched into an explanation. Vance’s words cut a story familiar to Javier, but somehow brighter. He detailed how Javier had several chances to
kill him and hadn’t. He told his cousins about the horror Cordelia unleashed upon her own daughter.
Even nearly soul-less Javier was moved by the story, but the hunters didn’t take it well. One jumped forward. His fist collided with Vance’s jaw. Their eyes connected as Vance’s face snapped sideways. Javier offered Vance a smirk before stepping out from behind the door.
His strike was stronger. It made the hunter stagger back. He slammed into his cousin, both fumbling back into the yard. Javier stormed out after them. They struggled to find their footing, the guns rising again.
He could feel the tingle of silver along his skin. He looked down to see a trickle of crimson falling down his arm. They’d woven silver wire around their arms, over the sleeves of their jackets. Small spikes stuck out like barbed wire.
Javier cursed. If they wore silver, the guns would be loaded with it, too. Cordelia hadn’t ordered it, but these hunters were done with Javier and his pack. They were too much trouble, as if proving their views of shifters. He wanted to shout that he wasn’t the monster, but they raised the barrels in his direction again.
There was no time to convince them he wasn’t a monster. He had to strike. Javier ducked to the left. The barrels followed him in a smooth arc. His heart flipped. One tug of a finger and he would be dead. Still, he kept moving. As long as they could not get a shot at his head or heart, he could keep fighting.
Nora was still missing. He couldn’t afford to stop until he’d found his mate. Jaiver refused to fail her. It wasn’t an option. He would wade through silver wire to find her and bring her back. He would face as many silver bullets as he needed to ensure she was safe again.
Nora had already sacrificed too much for him. It was his turn to give back.
A shot rang through the air. He felt it graze past his cheek. His stomach tightened. That was close. Still, Javier didn’t stop. Blood trickled from his arm, from the graze on his cheek. It burned, but only added to the fire inside him.
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