by CY Jones
“Siren, are you going to tell us what happened?” Hunter asks in a small voice. He’s hurt, I get it. There's a lot he doesn't know, but I still haven't wrapped my head around the situation yet, and I’m not ready to confide in them.
“I don’t want to talk about it right now,” I answer truthfully in a voice just as small.
“Ok well, we’ll let you rest. I’m sure when Silas and Hatter wake they will be in here,” Cody says, pulling Hunter away. Hunter gives me another sad look, but he obliges Cody and leaves.
Getting out of bed, I stumble over to Rowen’s side. Oreo blinks his eyes open, but he doesn’t say anything. The pain in his chocolate depths are identical to my own. Getting into bed with them, I lay on the other side of Rowen, holding him tight until I drift to sleep.
I wake to the sound of arguing outside the door. When I glance over Rowen’s prone body, I notice that Oreo is missing. In fact, Oreo is one of the participants in the argument
“I don’t care how she’s walking around with Rowen’s soul. All I care is that he’s still alive,” I hear Oreo shout.
“That’s just the grief talking. Do you think I wish to see my son dead? His time has come, and we don’t know the consequences of her prolonging his life,” Caleb shouts back.
“I don’t fucking care,” Oreo cries out, and the agony in his voice does me in. Out of everyone in this house he is the only one who understands my plight.
Having heard enough, I climb over Rowen’s body and leave the room. I thought with how loud they were arguing they were right outside the door, but they’re all gathered in the main living area downstairs. My supernatural hearing must be extra sensitive from being held dormant for so long. As soon as I enter the room all eyes turn towards me.
“Remy, you’re awake," Silas says, looking me over.
The dress I had on is gone. Ripped to shreds when I shifted. Instead I was wearing someone’s t-shirt, Hunter’s by the smell of it, which only hit mid thigh and cotton knickers, but still I walk confidently in the room.
“How did you guys find out about Row’s soul?” I question as I fold my arms across my chest.
All eyes turn to Maddie, and I know my answer.
Sighing, he walks over to me, and pushes a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“I’m a reaper, little bird. I knew what happened as soon as I saw that globe on your bed.”
“Then you know I need to choose?”
“I don’t know the details, but I do know you will not have been able to leave the void with his soul without making some kind of deal, and I confirmed that suspicion when I saw that marking behind your neck.”
“Can you tell us what happened, sweetheart?” Conner prods gently.
Taking a seat away from them, I tell them everything after the shooting. How I tapped into my spirit power to save Rowen’s soul by snatching it out of his body and pushing it into mine, and then giving it back to him. About the Reaper that confronted me, leaving out the small detail that the reaper is Maddie’s father. I tell them all the things the reaper told me, and the consequences behind keeping Row’s soul. Lastly I tell them about the deal we struck. When I’m done everyone is silent, and it's quite possible that Oreo looks even worse. Nothing I say will make a good argument to keep Rowen alive. The odds are stacked against us. All he has is the love of his sisters and his mate.
“I can’t do it. I can’t give him up,” I tell them in a small voice.
“But you have to,” Maddie says, and Oreo stands, throwing a small figurine from the side table at the wall, shattering it before storming out.
“You must understand that we’ll never ask you to do something we know will hurt you without reason. We’re at war now. Not with just O’Donnell, but a whole country and their armies. Supernaturals have been outed. Humans know about us now. Those who are suspected of being a supernatural are being turned into the police, and imprisoned Gods know where, I’m sure they’re not being treated humanely. Good people are losing their homes and their way of life. People are being raped, killed, and beaten in the street, and the supernaturals who are fighting back are not holding back their powers,” Conner explains.
“How will Rowen’s death solve all that?” I ask experated. “He’s just one man.”
“If Rowen dies then the code imbedded in your bodies will release. All O’Donnell’s horrible dealings will come to light. The Senator buying and raping young girls will come to light, and the US will not be able to stand by them any longer. We will be able to bring in our own people, and work on a plan to co-exist,” Caleb explains.
“Why can’t I save Rowen, and he can decode the thumb drive himself?” I counter, giving them another solution. Any solution that will allow Row to live.
“Because he doesn’t have it anymore,” Oreo says from the doorway.
“What do you mean he doesn’t have it anymore?” I growl.
“It was the price he had to pay to get your mates back,” he answers, and my whole world drops. Fucking Row. He knew O’Donnell wouldn’t trade just him for me and my mates, so he brought along the thumb drive to sweeten the deal. Too cocky to think that O’Donnell wouldn’t kill him after he got what he wanted.
“I can’t decide this right now,” I tell them, and the look on my face keeps them from pushing further. "Has anyone heard from Atlas?” I ask, changing the subject.
“No. Not since he left a couple of days ago. Do you by chance have any idea why he left?” Conner questions.
“Yes, he left to find me a cure,” I say vaguely.
“A cure for what?” Hunter growls.
“I’m pregnant with Blake Sampson’s child,” I say dropping the bomb, and then all hell breaks loose.
Thirty-One
Ultimatum
Atlas
It’s been a rough couple of days. The trip to the troll market was useless, and now I have no clue how to track Saraphena down. I have a couple of my contacts out asking around, but so far they have come up empty. I’m about to head back to the airport to take a flight back to Washington to be with Remy when a strange text with an address comes across my phone. The number is unknown, but somehow I know it's from Saraphenia. Jumping into my car, I speed to the address. I’ve already wasted enough time looking for the prophet. When I get to the building I see it's a small tattoo parlor smack dab in the center of a small shopping center. When I push the door open a receptionist with bright pink hair and eyes greets me. I can smell that she’s a pixie, and with her smaller stature and unusual eyes I’m sure my nose is right.
"You don’t look like the type that usually comes here. Do you have an appointment?” She asks as she glances over my body with a hungry look. Pixies are known for being flirts and sleeping around. Before Remy, I would have taken the small, pretty pixie and fucked her into oblivion after my close of business, but now I only have eyes for a foul mouth wolf with a body to die for.
“I’m looking for Saraphenia. Is she here?” I inquire.
“Depends, who’s asking?”
“It’s ok Jewel. Send him back,” Saraphenia yells from one of the rooms in the back.
Giving the pixie a smug smile, I stroll past her and into the last office in the back.
“Atlas,” Saraphenia says, greeting me.
She’s sitting at a metal desk working on some elaborate drawing. Her long red hair is piled on her head, and just like this shop she’s currently channeling the emo grunge look with a ripped midriff top and stone wash skinny jeans.
“Do you know why I’m here?” I ask her as I take a seat on the tattoo chair. The only free chair in the office.
“You know, I find it easier to draw things out as I see them. Each vision changes with the smallest of decisions, making the drawing grow until you have such a beautiful and breathtaking work of art in front of you,” she replies instead of answering my question.
“Did you not understand what I asked?” I question through clenched teeth. I do not have time for the crazy ramblings she’s kno
wn for.
She doesn’t answer. Instead she continues to doodle on the paper before her, pushing my anger even further. Fed up with her bullshit, I stand prepared to leave. I will have to find someone else to help Remy.
“I have what you’re looking for, but it comes with a price you can’t pay,” she says just as I take a step out the door.
“What do you mean? I have more money then you can think of. I’m sure there isn’t a price too high.”
“I said you can’t pay it, but she can,” crazy pants replies.
“What is it? Remy will do anything to be rid of this baby,” I tell her.
“Are you sure, balance keeper? Some prices can be too high. Even for The Liberator,” she says cryptically.
"What are you talking about? Look I don’t have time for this. Are you going to give me the cure or not?” I question.
“Tell Remy, I have a bargain for her. One that only she can fulfill. After seven days, the seed growing inside her cannot be reversed. There will be no cure, and no one who will be able to help her. I have what she needs, but she will have to do something for me first. Bring her here, and I will give her what she wants if she decides to pay the price.”
“And what price is that?” I ask confused.
“There's a reason why you weren’t able to find me until now. Certain events had to happen first. The players of the game had to choose their paths. O’Donnell has chosen his. Blake Sampson has chosen his, and Remy...Remy is still in limbo. Her future has not yet been set in stone, and it’s built on a road of agony and pain. Only when she destroys what she loves most will she finally be free,” she rambles.
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask confused.
“The price I’m asking is her brother’s death,” she answers, and I wish she didn’t. She is right. There is such a thing as a price being too high.
“Remy will never pay that. You have to know that?”
“The Liberator has a destiny. One she can no longer run from. She’s in LA now. In a beach home cloaked in my magic to keep hidden. Go to her, and tell her what I said, and she will be the one to decide the fate of us all.”
Still in shock, I take the post it with the address, and the paper with the drawing she was working on. She seemed insistent on giving it to me.
“Whose future is this?” I ask staring down at the drawing horrified. On it is Remy looking as beautiful as the day I met her with a baseball team worth of children. You would think the drawing would be peaceful knowing she’s blessed to have such a future, but all around the children is nothing but blood, death, and destruction. Far to gruesome for innocent eyes. The details are astonishing, but it's the infant child cradled in Remy’s arms that catches my attention the most. The one with my facial features as he lies dead in Remy’s arms.
“Yours, if the path Remy chooses to take is the wrong one,” she answers, and I walk away.
When I step back into the waiting area I catch the pixie girl from before staring attentively at the small tv bracketed to the wall. CNN is playing, but it’s the caption flashing across the screen that catches my attention. Supernaturals are real.
“Turn that up,” I say, and she quickly presses the volume on the remote.
This is not a drill. Supernaturals are real. The entire US is going into a statewide emergency. We urge the public to not panic. Any being that you suspect of being supernatural should be reported to the proper authorities immediately. Do not engage them. They are armed and extremely dangerous. A helpline has been set up for those needing immediate assistance. Stay tuned for the presidential address on this issue.
“It has begun,” Saraphenia says from the threshold of the doorway before turning back to her office. What the actual fuck is going on?
Putting the address Saraphenia gave me in my GPS, I speed back to Remy’s as fast as I can. It’s pure pandemonium outside, and it takes me longer to get there than I like. Despite what the news report said, people are panicking. There's riots in the streets, and mobs of people breaking into store fronts. It’s too much madness for the police alone to handle. I’ll never understand humans first response to something that they don’t understand is to get violent and start looting. It’s fucking ridiculous, and we’re supposed to be the monsters they fear. Once I hit the freeway I pick up speed, and it doesn’t take me long to get to the house. I don’t bother knocking this time. I doubt the door will be locked if the house is spelled.
As soon as I walk in the sound of arguing reaches my ears. Walking down the hall I turn into a massive living area where everyone is gathered, each with their own looks of shock and anger on their faces.
“The world is coming to an end outside, what can possibly be going on in here?” I ask, breaking through their arguing.
“Atlas,” Remy says running up to me. This has to be the happiest she has ever been to see me since we’ve met.
“Ok, what’s going on?” I ask, holding her to me. She’s in nothing but a t-shirt, and she has the strong scent of blood and death on her. Plus there's the fact that she’s here and not in Washington with O’Donnell.
“She was telling us all about why you left. What I want to know is why you didn’t tell us?” Caleb growls.
He may be Remy’s father, but I’ll be damned if the pup keeps talking to me like some second class citizen.
“I don’t report to you, wolf,” I growl back.
“Well maybe if you would have said something, things would have ended up differently. That my son wouldn’t be upstairs dying right now, because he thought he could deal with that sick fuck O’Donnell,” he croaks out.
“Atlas being there wouldn’t have made a difference. O'Donnell already said he wasn’t selling him to me,” Remy pipes in, holding onto me tighter.
“You guys need to explain what the hell is going on,” I grumble, as I move me and Remy to an empty seat, and situate her comfortably on my lap.
So that’s what they do. For the next hour they all explain what the fuck been going on in my two day absence, and now everything that bat shit crazy clairvoyant said is starting to make sense. Poor Remy. She has been through the ringer. At the time I thought leaving her to find a cure was a good idea. That O’Donnell wouldn’t do anything extreme after my warning, but I was wrong, and Remy is the one paying the price for it.
“Did you at least find a cure?” Silas asks. He sounds as happy about Remy growing someone else's child as the rest of us.
“Yes and no,” I answer, and Remy stiffens in my arms. I wish I can give her a simple answer with everything she’s been through, but the one I have will only bring her more grief.
“Well, which one is it?” Hunter growls.
Remy looks up at me expectantly, and I fall deep into her turquoise eyes. So strong and filled with fire. She will need that fire to survive what’s to come.
“Saraphenia said that she has the cure,” I hear myself saying.
“Well then that’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Cody inquires.
“She also said that after seven days time Remy’s situation will be permanent, and there's no one else who will be able to help her.”
“I still don’t see the problem. We’ll take her to Saraphina now and get it over with. Oreo, I’m sure you can get your crazy pants sister to stay put, or better yet come here,” Hunter says making plans, and Oreo gives the wolf a dirty look. I’m sure he knows his sister is crazy, but he doesn’t want to hear other people telling him so.
“That’s not the problem,” I interrupt.
“Then what’s the problem?” Remy asks in a small voice.
“It’s what she wants in return.”
“Which is?” Conner prods.
Sighing, I kiss Remy on the forehead. Once I tell her I know she’s going to jump ship. With the decision of her brother’s fate already looming over her head, she is not going to want to hear she’s going to have to choose between her brother or bringing this psychos baby into the world.
“She said she will give you
the cure in exchange for your brother’s life,” I reply. The room grows so quiet you can hear a pin drop. Not one to disappoint, my little firecracker immediately jumps off my lap, and stomps away.
“Well hell,” Hatter mutters.
“So what now? Is it really that bad out there?” Cody asks.
“Yes, probably worse than what you’re thinking. They have news broadcast instructing them to turn people in if they’re suspected of being supernatural. No one is safe. Not even the humans. It’s like the Salem Witch Trials all over again out there. Whatever Remy decides she needs to do it indoors, especially if O’Donnell, and Blake Sampson are leading the charge.”
At my words Oreo leaves out of the same door as Remy. I know he and Phantom are mates, and all this is probably hard on the incubus. No one goes after him. Instead we all stay back and try to come up with a plan using the details we know. I show them the picture of the future Saraphina left me with, and they too wonder what decision Remy will make. One thing I am sure of is that this is her decision. None of us can make it for her, and the aftermath of each choice no matter what it is will hurt her, and we will have to be there to bring her back from the darkness. We may not have mated yet, but she is mine, and there's nothing I wouldn’t do for her.
Thirty-Two
Liberator
Oreo
I blink myself to the tattoo shop Atlas just left. Unlike them, I can find my sister wherever she is, whether it’s here, or the other side of the veil.
“Hello, little brother,” she says in greeting, not at all surprised to see me.
“Why can’t you just give Remy the cure? Why does it have to be my mate for the life of an abomination?”
“You know why. For the sake of the world you must do what needs to be done. You must uphold your vow to your mate.”
Of course she knows about that. She knows fucking everything. That's why many prophets go insane, because they know to damn much, but not my Rowen. He embraced the madness, and made it his own. He knew how this story will play out, yet he went ahead with the plan anyway. Stupid, cocky fool. I both hate and love him at the same time.