Stained Minds

by Helen Scott

  My mouth worked. “I-I didn’t.”

  “You didn’t know it was impossible or you didn’t slip into her mind?”

  A hiss sounded, and I dragged my gaze to Rhys. “Do not lie to Her Highness!”

  “I wasn’t!” I snapped back, suddenly sick and fucking tired of being bossed around. Growling under my breath, I retorted, “I didn’t know it was impossible and I was surprised when it worked. I didn’t expect it to.”

  “She just Awoke, so she is weaker than usual, but…” Another hum. “Interesting.”

  Then, she squinted at my brothers. “Which is the time walker?”

  I pointed to Cade and found myself relieved as fuck when she stepped over to him. Cade, because he’d been weaker before these fun and games, was in a daze, as though he didn’t even have the energy to do more than slouch over.

  She pressed her hand to the back of his head and stated, “Powerful, powerful. It almost worked too.”

  “What did?” Rhys asked. “Please, explain, Ma’am.”

  “She’s a weaver,” Elayne rasped, turning to Marcella. Her eyes turning shrewd as she stared at my mate. “She wove the moon, and this child almost made time move with it. Only nature herself stopped him, and the shadows ate him.”

  The shadows ate him?

  My mouth worked.

  “He is infected?” Drake demanded, his tone aghast.

  “Yes, but he will not weaken.”

  “He must be killed!” Rhys yelled.

  “Over my dead body,” I snarled, drawing their attention my way.

  Jasper’s tone was cool as he growled, “That can be arranged.”

  And not for the first time that day, my heart sank and the sensation of being too fucking young for this shitstorm overwhelmed me.

  Chapter Eleven

  Cade

  The touch was like a feather. So soft and gentle that it soothed the unending ache in my skull.

  I felt fingers in my hair and with the scent of Marcella in my nostrils, I tilted to maintain the proximity. Whenever Marcella was touching me, I felt better.

  Opening my eyes, I saw my woman.

  In fact…

  No.

  Not my woman.

  She just looked like her.

  Jerking back in surprise, I almost fell back against the ground, and seeing the tumble of people cast around the foyer, I blinked in bewilderment.

  “What’s happening?”

  “You’re changing.”

  “I am?” I stared at the woman who was so like Marcella that it confused me. I reached forward, intent on touching her, but she laughed, softly, gently, and grabbed my hand in hers.

  “You are. I am not yours, however, child. She is.” The female turned and I followed, seeing my mate and realizing just how alike Marcella and this stranger were. Then, I saw a woman, seemingly frozen in stone—no, ice. The woman was turning blue after all, but if I’d thought this stranger looked like Marcella, that was nothing to now.

  “There are two of them?” I rubbed my forehead where the ache beat like a hammer to my brain, and a memory glimmered. Close at hand and yet distant at the same time. “Yes. I remember now. Morgana.”

  “My sister.” She pursed her lips and stepped toward Marcella who seemed to be in some kind of stasis herself, except this one didn’t look painful—my mate wasn’t turning blue.

  The woman pressed a hand to Marcella’s belly and released a relieved sigh. “She is not with child yet, and she must stay that way. No matter Morgana’s insistence.” This time, she hissed. “Another babe born in her image is the last thing we need at such a delicate time.”

  “I don’t understand,” Drake intoned, his voice husky. “I thought she carried the child you wished to see born?”

  Elayne shook her head. “Marcella. Not any babes of her womb.” Stepping away, she approached me again and held out both hands, palm-side up. “This comes as much as a surprise to me as it does to you,” she informed me, then, like marionette dolls, Keiran and Raven were next to me, until we were sitting in a loose circle.

  “You are not my children. He is.” She jerked her chin at Gideon. “However, the shadows fall under my purview. They are neither dark nor light, not of this world or the other. Just as is the way with the walkers. Connect with me, and see your truth.”

  For the first time in days, I felt alive. More like my regular self. So much so that I only just realized how exhausted I’d been, how withdrawn and weary. It was the fact she’d healed me, that she’d made me feel better, that had me reaching out. Because I did, Keiran followed, but Raven didn’t.

  “Your sister is evil,” he stated grimly, bitterly. I was used to the tang of his anger at the world, but was this the best moment to reveal it? “Your Highness.” The tacked on words made the title seem more offensive than if he hadn’t bothered in the first place.

  Because we were of the same ilk, both rude bastards, I didn’t blame him, but I could hear Raven’s fear, heard it and wondered at it. Very little scared my brother, and yet, Raven was scared. I felt it.

  “She is,” came the cheerful confirmation. “But as with everything, there is balance. Not all is good, not all is bad. She has some good qualities.”

  “She does? She had my mate slaughter my brothers—”

  Elayne winced. “True. Morgana rules through fear.”

  “We’ve learned little about Merlin other than that he is evil. But so is she,” Raven snapped. “Which makes her better than the Maker, why?”

  “Because Morgana’s powers are a quarter of Merlin’s. As a unit, my siblings control what Merlin can harness alone. That is why he Sleeps, and that is why he must remain so.”

  Barclay

  “What makes you think he’s Awakening?” I rasped, and though I didn’t want to be at the center of this chick’s attention, I had to ask the question. All we’d heard so far were suppositions and guesswork. That wasn’t enough for me.

  In reality, I figured it was a testament to the fact we were all running on adrenaline that none of us had asked for proof. Something tangible. Without that, all of this was bullshit. Except, this variance of bullshit made the horror stories around a campfire look pretty.

  Elayne turned to me. “A wolf,” she whispered, a smile curving her lips that made me gulp. “Morgause must be delighted. She always did prefer the canines.”

  I scowled at that. Was she dissing me? Nobody liked us. Wolf shifters were like rats to other supernaturals.

  A hand grabbed my arm and I cut Darius a look, but he quickly shook his head as though sensing the shade I wanted to throw this witch’s way. Before I could say another word, a sound caught my attention.

  Tires on the long driveway of the property, gravel dispersing and whistling under the vehicle’s weight. The squeal of brakes.

  Shit.

  “What is it?” Darius asked, apparently sensing my distraction.

  “We have guests incoming,” I answered, as whispers of conversation over the noise of an engine filtered through to me.

  “The council,” Darius affirmed with a nod. “They were supposed to arrive later, but it figures they’d be early.”

  And like that, it was business as usual. Except for my brothers and I. We stared at each other in silence as the Ancients around us acted.

  In the blink of an eye, the Cavalry, Darius and the Sires departed, leaving us adrift, Cade without the revelation of his truth, and Marcella still slumped over on the ground like an unwanted pile of limbs.

  As I staggered to my feet to reach her, Darius reappeared, the prisoners in his thrall, all of them there save for Elizabeth. They looked far better than the last time I’d seen them—Maker, the scrawny one was back in one piece instead of resembling something that looked like beef jerky! As for the others, the Cavalry remained hidden, and where the Sires had gone, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know. How? That was another matter entirely.

  I mean Darius moving at top speed was one thing, but I could at least somewhat track the blur of h
is movements if I was concentrating. The Sires though? There was no blur when they moved, it was like they teleported more than anything else. They were just there one second and gone the next.

  I moved so I could watch the car pull up through the side window. A long, black town car stopped in front of the house with another behind it. The driver of the first got out and moved around the car at a quick pace so he could open the door for the occupants.

  A woman exited first, looking like she was either a Beyonce fan girl, or hoping to be the next Supreme. She wore a long black dress and wide-brimmed black hat, dark sunglasses, and dark lipstick. All I could think was how she must be boiling hot in the Nevada sun since it hadn’t set yet.

  Her male companion looked like he’d grown up watching too many Vampire movies. He was in a four-piece suit, pants, waistcoat, jacket, and cape. Yes, cape. All of which was either black or dark red. I was surprised he didn’t hiss and scurry out of the sunlight. Again, I had to wonder how he wasn’t overheating in this climate. It was like no one had told them where they were going.

  “Grab a hold of each of the prisoners,” Darius instructed. “I’m letting them off their leash.”

  A pursang’s thrall was limited, nothing like in the movies, anyway, but I appreciated its powers as I saw the prisoners suddenly start to struggle now they were free.

  Taking note that they were under control and I wasn’t needed, and seeing that Marcella was still half-conscious as Darius strode toward the front door, I dragged my mate around the corner to the living room and placed her on the sofa so she looked like she was napping instead of passed out.

  Returning to the hall, I saw that Darius had opened the door, and the couple walked in, arm in arm, like something from an Addam’s Family convention. When he shut it behind them and came around to stand by us, he showed them a level of respect and deference that I wouldn’t have thought he was capable of.

  “Cordelia, Caspian, so nice to see you again. We have your guests ready as you can see. Is there—”

  “These are the ones responsible for the Kronos supply in the area?” Cordelia interrupted, as she removed the dark sunglasses, revealing eyes that were a deep red in color.

  Someone was a bad girl.

  The only way a pursang got eyes like that was if they lost control. My guess was, that was what had her working for the council. They were the only ones who could bring a pursang back after they went over the edge like that, which made sense since it was either that or put them down.

  An uncontrolled pursang was a danger to everyone, but especially to our way of life. After Dracula lost control back in the day and outed us to humans, we almost lost everything. It was one of the few bits of our history that we were taught at Eastbrook, and it was mainly so we knew that if we came up against a pursang that was lost to their bloodlust, we would just put them down without question, unless we were able to get them to the council somehow.

  Preserving the secrecy of our existence from humans was one of our primary goals in life as a brotherhood. The only goal that surpassed it was protecting our Sixth.

  I assumed Darius had answered her while I’d been lost in thought, but I watched as she evaluated each of the prisoners we held in front of us. One pursang and four humans. Raven held the pursang, Lucian, I think his name was, and he was the one who interested Cordelia the most. Caspian, on the other hand, just looked bored as all hell.

  “You willingly gave up your blood to create a drug that could expose us to humans?” she asked the male, and a small tremor worked through his body as she closed the distance between them.

  “I did it for love,” he murmured quietly, as though that could ever possibly excuse his actions to the council.

  “Stupid child. Love is a fallacy, one that will destroy you and your family if you let it. In fact, you’re lucky you have the family that you do. Once we get this taken care of, you will be able to return to them, but do not mistake this for leniency.

  “You have a long road to travel before that happens. It will be hard and you will think you will break, but if you persevere, then the council will reward you for your efforts by letting you see your family while you work off your debt to our society in their employ, just like I am.

  “Their methods may be brutal, they may change you forevermore, but they produce results as you can see.” Cordelia paused and looked meaningfully at him, showing off her blood-red eyes. The small tremor that had been going through him had turned into a full-on shake before he stilled when she shifted her interest, her gaze drifting over each of us now that he was suitably intimidated.

  I felt a shudder work its way down my own spine at the way death and madness shone out of her like a lighthouse on a stormy sea. She looked like it wouldn’t take much for her to crack and rain hell on Earth in the form of blood-soaked vengeance for any small, possibly even misconceived, slight.

  The woman was batshit. That was evident. And whatever the council had done to contain her madness sure as fuck wasn’t enough.

  If these poor bastards made it back to the council without becoming her mid-morning snack, I’d be stunned.

  “Take him out and put him in the car,” she ordered Rav.

  As he obeyed, bravery seemed to flood Lucian, making him twist and turn in Rav’s grip. It was ill-timed and ill-advised, but while my brother was wrestling to get him out of the door, there was nothing that could stop the screams that came out of his mouth. “Elizabeth, you fucking bitch! I’ll end you the next time I see you! Your life is mine! I own you, don’t you forget that!”

  “Shut up,” Rav grated out as he finally pulled him over the threshold. Seeing how Lucian, acting like his foot had been caught in a bear trap, was trying to get out of Raven’s hold, I ran over to help my brother contain him. Pursangs were strong motherfuckers in a rage, and Lucian was both angry and terrified—the worse combination imaginable.

  Before we could get him in the car, Caspian was there, right in our faces. “Who is Elizabeth?”

  “The stupid whore I did this for,” he spat.

  “And she’s still here?” Caspian asked, glancing at me. I kept my face as neutral as possible while he was able to see me.

  “She’s in the basement, hiding out like a bitch since she’s got these fuckers wrapped around her little finger,” Lucian snarled.

  “Is that true?” Caspian demanded as he turned to Darius.

  Apparently neither I nor Rav were pursang enough to answer, not that it surprised me to be dismissed this way.

  “No, she died when they were robbing the bank; he just won’t let go of her memory. Wishful thinking on the part of a child I’m afraid,” Darius replied, the lie spilling off his tongue like the smoothest silk.

  Before Lucian could start spouting off anything else that might get us in trouble, Rav and I eyed one another and shoved him into the car and closed the door. He pulled at the handle, trying to open the door, but the child lock worked against him because it wasn’t budging and he was trying hard enough to shake the whole car. There was nothing I could, or would, do to help him since he had been doing exactly what he’d been accused of.

  “Can you calm him the fuck down?” I rasped at Raven.

  “I can, but not for long.” He reached up and rubbed his temple. “After what just happened…”

  I reached over and grabbed his shoulder, squeezing, I whispered, “Try.”

  Within seconds, Raven’s face was flashing with pain, but Lucian had shut the hell up. In fact, as I squinted through the tinted windows, I saw he was slumped over.

  Good.

  With him contained for the moment, we left him and walked inside, just in time to see Caspian coming up from the basement stairs.

  He shook his head at Cordelia. “The place is empty.”

  “Stupid child,” she muttered, then to Darius complained, “What else can we expect from someone who gifts his blood to create drugs?”

  “Please, put the rest of them in the second car,” Caspian ordered, apparent
ly satisfied with whatever he had seen, or thought he’d seen, in the basement.

  Was that the Cavalry at work? One of them was like Marcella, after all. They could weave shadows. Or had they really taken Elizabeth away?

  “Can we get out of this hellhole now?” Cordelia inquired as my brothers traipsed out with their human baggage in tow. Her hand came up and she delicately wiped sweat from her brow, frowning at the moisture on her fingers in disgust.

  “We have what we came for, so I see no reason to stay,” Caspian responded with a nod.

  “Thank the Maker,” Cordelia muttered under her breath before turning to Darius. “Pleasure to see you again as always, Darius.”

  Within the next couple of minutes, they were all gone—Cordelia, Caspian, all of the prisoners minus Elizabeth—and suddenly my brain was processing the fact that we had all just died.

  Suddenly, with the banging of the door as it closed, I realized why Marcella was half-conscious as, all around us, the illusion faded. She’d made this place look impeccably clean when it was anything but. Smears of blood covered the floor, stairs, and handrails. The whole place stank of death and terror.

  There was a thumping sound that had me rushing over to the lounge, and I saw she’d fallen on the ground, off the sofa, but was hauling herself up onto her feet. I went to help her, but before I could reach her, Darius called out, “Don’t touch her. Marcella’s still in heat, and if you do, you’ll feel the pull of her need. We need to get her back to bed where she can rest and recover.”

  “I’mfinepromise,” Marcella mumbled, as though it was all one word. It made her sound drunk, and I had a feeling that was not something she had ever been.

  “It’s okay, sweetness, we know. Just let us take care of you,” Cade whispered, his voice so lucid that it stunned me, and I realized for the first time since I had woken up just how awake he was. It was almost like someone had flipped a switch and turned him back to himself.