“I’ll get you something, Sit tight,” Jack said, and disappeared out of the room, leaving Kurt looking at her, his expression telling her how bad she looked.
He took Jack’s place, kneeling on the floor. “Not the best way to be introduced to us,” he said, with a wry smile. “Don’t worry, I’m sure Jack will make Gareth pay for what he did to you.”
“I don’t need him to fight my battles,” she answered, not that she was in any condition to fight any battles right now.
“But you’re his mate, so he’ll want to.” Kurt lowered his voice and said, “Jack likes to protect people. It’s an innate quality he inherited from our mom. He’s a good man.”
“I get that,” she said, taking another sip of coffee. “Which is why I don’t think I’m the best person for him. It would be easier if I just took back the Dragon’s Tear and left him alone to find another mate.”
Kurt laughed. “If only it was that simple. You and Jack are fated mates; he is your one true love.” He grinned as she grimaced. “Yeah, you might not be feeling it right now, but you will.”
“Are you so sure?” she asked.
“Listen, fate never gets it wrong. And unless you think you are so unique that you can prove fate wrong, then yes, I believe you will love him one day.” Kurt shrugged. “Think of it as having a head start on most people. You know he’s the one for you, so you have to make it work.”
“Wow, are you a shrink or something?” Eva put her hand to her head, pressing her fingers against her temples.
Jack came back into the room; she felt his presence before she saw him. Kurt might be right, they did share a connection. But that didn’t mean they had to stay connected, Jack would be better off without her. However, the thought of leaving, of being on her own again, hit her in the solar plexus, a sense of longing covering her like a warm blanket.
The way Kurt and Jack interacted, the way they spoke to each other, and how they would most likely eat their brother’s cooking rather than offend him, made her wish to be a part of this. But they were opposites: she was a Night Hunter, whatever that was. They were the thing she was supposed to hunt. Yet as Jack placed a plate on her lap, on which sat a sandwich made with thick fresh bread and filled with chicken salad, she felt a lump in her throat.
He cared for her. Already she was being enveloped into his protective embrace. But she had a job to do, a task to complete. She had to get her mom back, if not because they were of the same blood, then because her mom could tell her who she was.
“Thank you,” Eva said, and took a bite, while Jack and Kurt watched. She wiped her mouth self-consciously. “It’s good.”
“I can make you some more.”
“No, this is great, thanks,” she answered.
“Helena is coming,” Kurt said, getting up and going the door.
“How did he know?” Eva asked. There had been no knock, no ringing of a door bell.
“Our senses are more acute. It’s to do with our other selves,” Jack explained. “Everyone walks differently, it’s almost like a fingerprint. And so we can tell who is approaching. If it’s someone we know well, or if it’s a stranger.”
“I see. Handy.” She finished her sandwich and wished she’d asked for more, but she hated feeling as if she owed Jack anything.”
“Helena is a witch,” Jack said, watching her reaction. “I want her to look at you. She will be able to give you something to restore your strength, and to help you sleep. Tomorrow, we can decide what we are going to do.”
Eva looked toward the door as a woman, dressed in a long purple dress embroidered with delicate purple flowers, came into the room. She eyed Eva with suspicion. Eva found it strangely comforting that Helena was not going to give her a free pass. This witch was as protective of the men in this house, as Jack was of Eva and his brothers.
“You are the Night Hunter?” Helena asked.
“Yes, but she is also my mate,” Jack said, a hint of warning in his voice.
Helena dismissed this and said, “That does not make her trustworthy. Yet.”
“Helena, I’m asking you to see if you can help her. She was set upon by the degetty…”
“Kurt told me.” Helena crouched down before Eva and touched her head, her fingers probing Eva’s skull. “She seems all in one piece. The degetty has not poisoned her, as far as I can tell. A good night’s sleep and you should feel better. A little stiff, but human, at least.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. Helena’s words were an insult, or at least a reminder to Jack that Eva was not one of them.
“Here. Drink this, you will sleep.” Helena handed Eva a small vial of red liquid.
“I’ll be fine.” The mention of poison put Eva on her guard.
Helena laughed. “I am sworn to protect the squad, of which Jack is the leader. If I harmed you, that would harm him. You are safe, from me at least. And while you are under Jack’s roof, you are his guest, and so no one will harm you… Unless in self-defense.”
“Helena is right.” Jack nodded. “Take the sleeping draft. I will watch over you tonight.”
Helena let out a short snort. “You might be the one needing protection.”
“Not now, Helena,” Jack said. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”
“Indeed. There is much to talk about.” She stood and then looked down at Eva, her eyes narrowing. “I can see no easy way out of this.”
“Out of what?” Eva asked.
“Through the ages, your kind have hunted ours. To your people, you will become an abomination. The mate of a shifter…”
“Helena, not now,” Jack warned.
Eva stood too, thrusting her chin forward defiantly. “I do not have people.”
“Oh, my child, we all have people. Some we know, some we don’t. But we all have blood, and blood connects blood.”
“I have been disconnected from my blood, since I was dumped as a baby. I don’t think they will come looking for me now,” Eva said.
“Someone came looking for you,” Helena said. “Didn’t they?”
“No one with my blood.” Eva was digging herself into a hole. Of course, this all had to do with her blood, with whom she was. It was like a rumor being spread around, one that involved her, and she was the last to know.
“Not with your blood, but because of your blood.” Helena stepped back and let her body language soften. “I am not your enemy, Evaine.”
Eva looked at her quickly. How did the witch know her full name? Kurt had called her Eva over the phone. Damn, she was paranoid. “I’m not your enemy either, Helena. Thank you for the sleeping draft.”
“You are welcome.” Helena turned to Jack. “We should all get some rest. I’ll come over tomorrow, and we can decide what to do.”
“There is only one thing to do,” Eva said. “I need the Dragon’s Tear so that I can exchange it for my mom.”
“I know what you want, Evaine. But that does not mean it is the right path.” Helena held up her hand. “Enough. Sleep. We talk in the morning.”
The witch left the room. Eva simmered quietly, her hand gripping the vial tightly. This was going to be harder than she thought. Jack might have agreed to help her rescue her mom; however, Eva suspected, stealing the Dragon’s Tear back and giving it to the men who held her mom was not the plan his people would want to follow.
Fair enough. She would see what happened in the morning, and if they didn’t agree, she would take the stone back herself. Mate or no mate, she owed these people nothing. They’d stolen the Dragon’s Tear from her in the first place; it had been hers. It had shown itself to her.
Maybe it belonged to her blood, and that was why she was the only one who could retrieve it. In which case, she had every right to take all necessary action to regain her spoils.
Chapter Eight – Jack
“Take my bed.” Jack led his mate into his bedroom. This wasn’t how he imagined them spending their first night together. Eva would take the sleeping draft and spend the night in his bed, w
hile Jack slept in a chair in the corner. Although his body was buzzing so much at being close to his mate, he doubted he would ever sleep.
Normally when he was this hyped up, he would go bear and run through the forest, leaving his fox tracks in his wake. That was not happening tonight. His place was here, by his mate’s side, and here he would stay.
“Are you sure? I could sleep on the floor.” She looked dead on her feet; he was sure she would keel over and sleep for hours even without the sleeping draft, but he was going to make sure she took it anyway. It would knock her out, which meant he wouldn’t have to worry about her trying to retrieve the Dragon’s Tear alone.
Yes, he’d seen the look in her eye. He knew what she was thinking, and he wasn’t going to let her go on a suicide mission. Tomorrow, they would work together and formulate a plan.
To go against the Council, his bear pointed out.
Yes, to go against the Council. But we may get lucky and the Council will never know. They’ve probably stowed it in some deep, dark room by now, and all we have to do is steal it back.
Without tripping their wards, his bear said.
“Here.” He ignored his bear and went to the closet, pulling out a shirt and some sweat pants. “To sleep in. I’ll wash your clothes, and have them dry for the morning.”
Eva was about to protest, when she looked down and saw the mud, and blood, streaked across her clothes. She touched her fingers to the black smears. “Degetty blood.”
“Yes. You caught him good.” He moved to stand beside her. “If it’s any consolation, when that degetty eventually gets free—and I have no doubt he will, he’s too powerful to be bound against his will for eternity. When he gets free, he will come after Gareth and make him pay for what he made him do.”
“They are that bad?” she asked.
“Degetty aren’t exactly bad. They wish us no harm. But they do not like being enslaved and used. Gareth forced his degetty to fight you. You cut him. He will remember. They always remember.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” she said, sitting down heavily on the bed. Eva put her face in her hands. “I always hated my life. It held no meaning. I always thought, dreamed, that one day it would change. Now I wish I was back at my boring job, in my empty apartment.”
“Hey, once this is over, I will teach you what you need to know. I will always be by your side.” He took her hand and kissed her palm. “Forever, we are bound.”
She pulled away from him and stood up. “Can I shower? I have blood and mud and goodness knows what else in my hair.”
“Yes. In there.” He pointed to a door leading off the bedroom. “Kick your clothes out the door, and I’ll wash them.”
“Sure.” She walked wearily to the bathroom, went in, and closed the door behind her. Jack tried to keep his mind off the thoughts that invaded his head. His mate was only feet away, and she was taking her clothes off.
The door opened, and he kept his arse on the bed, while she shoved her clothes out of the bathroom. When the door clicked shut, he got up, retrieved the clothes, and left the room, heading to the kitchen. If he put them on to wash now, he could hang them outside, and they would be dry by the morning. The warm summer breeze would see to that.
“How is she?” Kurt asked. His brother was doing the dishes, while Liam sat at the kitchen table drinking a beer. He got up, went to the fridge and passed a bottle to Jack.
“She’s good, all things considered.” He took the bottle. “Thanks.”
“Part of me is jealous you have found your mate, part of me feels sorry for you,” Liam said.
“I get what you’re saying,” Jack said, putting her clothes in the washer and adding detergent. “But this is fate, isn’t it? It’s for a reason.”
“I’m trying to figure out the reason,” Liam said. “Because all I can see right now is we are going to piss off the Council.”
“Which is why I want to leave you all out of it,” Jack said.
“Wait, no way. We are in this together. Brothers in arms.” Kurt turned around, his wet hands dripping soapy suds on the floor. “Don’t even think of doing this alone.”
Jack chuckled. “Now I know how I sounded when I told Eva the exact same thing.” He pushed his hair back off his face. He needed a shower too.
“We’re in this together. You know Helena will stand by us too. And what can the Council do? It’s not as if they can dump the squad? Who are they going to send in to do their grunt work, if they don’t have us?” Liam said reasonably.
“The Council doesn’t think like that. They’ll punish first, and deal with the repercussions afterward. Anyhow, they pulled Roman from somewhere to make up numbers when Ollie left. We are never indispensable. They can replace us if they want.”
“Good, then we can please ourselves, run in the forest, and work when it suits us,” Liam said, but they all knew life would not be that simple. They would lose their home, and possibly their business.
Ollie had been a squad member for the last four years, brought in when they went up against a nest of vampires over in Salisbury. They thought it would be ironic to take over the cathedral, and feed off those who came to pray. The Council thought otherwise; their goal was always to keep humans ignorant of the Otherworld.
Ollie had fit in well with the squad. Quiet and dependable, he stayed with them, living in one of the houses in the enclave. Things changed when he found his mate. She moved in with him, Claire was her name, a lion shifter from a small pride way up in the north of England. But she didn’t settle, and missed her family. The Council had reluctantly agreed to transfer Ollie.
Jack walked to the back door and looked out, breathing in the scent of the forest. He could never imagine leaving here, but then he had been born and raised in this small collection of houses. This was his home, but if Eva couldn’t settle here, if she insisted they moved, he would go. Jack placed his hand over his heart. It was no longer his. It, like the rest of him, belonged to Evaine Doe.
“Maybe we should show the Council how it would be if we weren’t at their beck and call.” Thoughts of mutiny erupted from Jack’s uncertainty over his future. His family would accept Eva, but the Council might try to drive her out once they learned she was a Night Hunter.
“You mean go on strike?” Liam asked. “I like the sound of that.”
“They need us. Yet they treat us like we’re nothing. Look at Gareth and that damn degetty of his. Who is going to have to go in and deal with it when it turns on the idiot who buys it off Gareth? And his father, who should know better, helped pull something so powerful from the Underworld. They don’t give a shit about us.” Jack’s temper was rising, as if a dam had been breached inside his mind. Maybe the Council had bound him, and Eva had freed him from it. A lover’s touch.
“It’s always been us and them,” Liam said. “Down through the ages. The druids have grown rich while we do their grunt work.”
“Then let’s change the balance of power. Make them see us as equals.” Jack turned back to look at his brothers. “There was a ward on the gully, they want it for something. We’re going to have to steal it. But if we survive, then I’m thinking it’s time we make a new deal with the Council. We have a right to know everything that goes on. They lock us out, and make decisions that affect us all. If we never make a stand, this is how it will always be, for us, our children, and our children’s children.”
“You want to go to war with them?” Liam asked.
“No. But there must be a way of getting their respect. Once we have mates. And children. I want them to have choices.”
“This is their choice,” Kurt pointed out. “It’s what our father, and our uncle did. It’s what their father, and their grandfather before them, did.”
“And that’s it?” Jack shook his head. “Why shouldn’t we have a seat on the Council? Why shouldn’t Helena? Why is it just druids?”
“Because they can blast our arses out of this world,” Liam said.
“Then let the
m deal with the dangers of this world. Let them spend their time hunting degetty or trolls, or chasing people who break their wards.” Jack tipped up his bottle of beer and drained it. He’d never challenged the Council before in any way. It seemed the arrival of his mate was already starting to make ripples. Speaking of his mate…
He put his empty bottle down on the counter and went to check on Eva. Jack hesitated outside the bedroom door. What if she wasn’t dressed? Should he knock?
He raised his hand and tapped gently. No answer. He didn’t knock again. Pushing the door open a crack, he looked over to the bed. She was asleep.
Jack went into the room, and crossed over to the bed, checking that she was actually asleep and not fooling him. The empty vial was on the nightstand, but she could have tipped it down the sink for all he knew.
The rise and fall of her chest told him she was asleep, or a very good actress. He watched her for a few minutes, wanting to reach out and touch her, to feel that buzz of electricity that passed between them, but he didn’t want to disturb her.
Satisfied she was asleep, he hit the shower, washing his hair and toweling himself dry. Then he settled down into the chair in the corner of the room, trying to get his big body comfy. It wasn’t happening, but it was a small price to pay to spend the night in the company of his mate.
Even if he would rather have been lying next to her in his bed. There was always tomorrow, or the night after that. And every night from now until one of them left this mortal world.
Chapter Nine – Evaine
When she woke it was late. It took her a few minutes to realize where she was. Blaming Helena’s sleeping draft for her fuzzy head, she rolled over and sat up slowly. A wave of nausea hit her; she needed food.
Eva dragged herself out of bed, noting that the chair in the corner was empty of her protector. In his place were her clothes, all neatly washed and folded. The man would make a great house-husband. Eva smiled. Jack would make a great husband, period. If she were in the market for one.
Bear my Fate (Hero Mine Book 1) Page 6