by Quinn Loftis
“This rotating ball of water and land will become ours. The humans will be nothing more than chattel. They are weak. In the food chain, the weak serve their purpose and then die. We will give them the choice. They can fall in line and accept their place in the new world, or they can perish.”
Sally watched his face as he spoke and saw something dangerous slip over it like a mask. It was almost as if he were possessed by something else, something so incredibly evil that he would literally do anything, absolutely anything, to accomplish his goal. He was a powerful supernatural being who had nothing to lose. Not really. He cared for no one other than himself. And this new world was worth everything to him. That made him very, very dangerous. She wondered if those working with him, such as Ludcarab, understood what kind of person they were dealing with. But then again, the elf king was probably just as evil.
“Don’t look so frightened,” Alston said, the mask suddenly gone. “You’re a supernatural being of sorts. You and yours will be allowed to have a place in the new world. You will be subject to the leaders of the Order, of course.”
“Of course,” Sally said dryly. “How many supernatural races do you already have represented?” She glanced at the three fae. She remembered seeing warlocks and pixies on the battlefield. So with the vampire, fae, and wolves, that was at least five of the races. Sally now knew there were sprites. There were also trolls and the draheim, which were basically dragons.
“What am I missing, Costin?” she asked through their bond.
“There are realms that are mostly water,” he said, sounding a little hesitant. She wasn’t surprised. For some reason, the males of their race felt like they were somehow protecting the females by keeping them in the dark about the supernaturals. “You, Jen, and Jacque have an uncanny ability to get yourselves into trouble,” he pointed out. “We don’t need you marching off looking for these other supernaturals. Your curiosity would get the best of you eventually.”
She couldn’t argue so she didn’t. “Water realm? Are we talking mer-people?”
“And selkies and sirens.”
“Sirens?” she knew her voice through their bond sounded high because she hadn’t been expecting that. “Like the kind that lure men to the seas and drown them?”
“Are there any other kind?”
“Have you ever met a siren?”
“I wouldn’t be alive if I had,” he said. “It takes a very strong wolf, an alpha, to resist the pull of a siren.”
“Has Vasile ever met one?” She really should be paying attention to Alston, who was still droning on in the background as she conversed through the bond with her mate. She could feel Costin’s agitation abating as they talked through their bond. The connection offered him comfort.
“That is something you would have to ask him. I am not nearly as old as he and some of the other males in our pack.”
“We are very close to having all of the races represented,” Alston said, his words bringing Sally out of her head and back into the room. “We only lack a few.”
“Why don’t you just take what you want?” Sally asked.
“Magic has rules,” he said, a frown marring his face. “Even the powerful have to follow those rules, though we do manage to get around some of them.”
“How do these rules apply to this situation?” Good grief. Getting information out of him is like trying to get taffy off your fingers.
He sighed and leaned back in his chair, crossing his leg over his thigh. “This spell requires all the participants to be willing. They cannot be forced to give up that which belongs to them. Your magic is a part of you. It is intertwined with your soul, which is why it is possible for you to have a soul bond with a Canis lupus. The spell is not a simple concoction. It requires knowledge of the power that each race wields and an understanding of how their magic actually works. I have been studying the supernatural races for hundreds of years. I am extremely knowledgeable about all of them. Not even my associates know what I do.”
He sounded smug as he said this, his chin rising a bit. Sally wondered if there was some type of division in their leadership. It would be a good thing if there was. Organizations with too many leaders who can’t make decisions and work together. They often collapsed in on themselves and made themselves easier to be defeated.
“I have to willingly let you use my magic to perform a spell that will enslave the human race and give supernaturals complete control of the world. Am I getting this right?” Sally tried not to fidget in her chair. She didn’t want to look nervous or scared, though she was flipping out inside because what other choice did she have? Alston would use Titus against her. She wouldn’t let Titus suffer, not even to save the world.
“You do what you have to do to stay well and come back to me,” Costin’s wolf rumbled in her mind.
She gave him a mental nod but continued to watch Alston.
“That is correct. The part I am still working on is whether I can store your magic. Or do I have to actually have you here for the spell?”
Okay, that did not sound good. Sally shifted and glanced back at the chair in the middle of the room. “Even if you somehow store it,” which again, did not sound cool at all, “don’t I still have to give it willingly?”
He cocked his head to the side as if really pondering her question. “That’s one of the questions that I’m hoping to have answered once I have your magic. Once it is no longer inside of you, does the will of the person really matter any longer?”
Alston said something in his language, and suddenly Sally was standing. She hadn’t made the conscious decision to stand, nor was she in control of the fact that she was now walking toward the creepy electric-chair-looking seat. It even had one of those things that went on your head.
“What are you doing?” She despised the fear she heard in her voice.
“Like any hypothesis, this must be tested.” Alston walked around until he stood in front of her. Sally felt her body being pushed down with invisible hands until she was fully seated.
She looked up at Tenia and saw that the female’s eyes were wide, and she was leaning forward but couldn’t move. Alston had bound her. “You said this chair wasn’t for me,” Sally pointed out.
“I lied,” Alston said with absolutely no remorse. “Are you really surprised? If you pick up a snake, can you be shocked you get bitten? You knew what I was when you walked into this room.”
“I didn’t exactly have a choice,” Sally bit out as the straps on the arms of the chair began to wrap themselves around her wrists, moving up her arms until she was held from wrist to shoulder. As soon as she felt herself beginning to panic, she did the one thing she promised she wouldn’t. She slammed the bond shut. There was no way she was going to let Costin go through whatever it was that Alston had planned for her. She had to hope her mate would keep himself together because Titus was in his care and needed him.
The straps wrapped themselves around her legs all the way up to her thighs, continuing up until they crisscrossed her chest. Then a strap came across her forehead, slamming her against the back of the chair. Why on earth would she need this many restraints? Was this actually an electric chair? The helmet-looking thing moved of its own accord, floating up until she could no longer see it. But a moment later she felt it lowering until it completely covered Sally’s head.
She swallowed several times and took slow, deep breaths, trying to calm down. If she didn’t get herself under control, then no matter how tight the bond was locked down, Costin would feel her.
Alston reached behind the chair and retrieved a bundle of clear, open capsules, the size of her fingers, attached to thin tubing. He put one on each of her fingers.
“What the hell are those?” Sally growled.
“Much of your power comes through your hands because that’s how you heal. I decided that would be the best place to begin the syphoning.”
“I’m sorry, did you say syphoning?” She stumbled over her words because she couldn’t believe what s
he was hearing. Sally wasn’t able to see where the tubes ran because her head couldn’t move, and she could only look down so far.
“Exactly,” Alston said, looking oddly pleased at the sight of the tubes on her hands. Then he turned to Tenia, and his eyes narrowed. “You will stand here and monitor her. You made a promise to her that you should not have. Who are you to say whether she will remain unharmed?”
Sally watched the female’s face harden as she stared back at Alston. Tenia stumbled forward when Alston seemingly released her from the bind he’d had on her.
“I have eyes and ears everywhere, female,” he said to Tenia. “You’d do well to remember that and where your loyalties lie. If you help her in anyway, I will kill you myself.”
Alston then turned and looked at Sally. He held out a hand and said something else in his language. Sally’s back bowed away from the chair as a bolt of blinding white pain shot through her. It started at the center of her body and then exploded out through her limbs. The capsules on her fingers felt as if they were trying to suck the bones from her hands. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to focus on keeping the bond closed, picturing a steel door between her and Costin. The pain intensified, and her mouth opened to scream but nothing came out.
When she opened her eyes, they were watery with her tears, but she could still see Alston’s face. He shook his head at her. “I can’t have you screaming up a storm and getting everyone all excited. This is a compound full of predators, healer. They would love nothing more than to make you their prey.” He chuckled as if he’d made a funny joke and then, without another word, he left the room. The two male fae followed after him like good little puppies.
Sally’s eyes shifted to Tenia. The woman looked as if she was in as much pain as Sally was.
“I’m sorry,” Tenia mouthed, though no sound came from her.
Sally wanted to ask why she was apologizing. Did she really expect anything less from an organization that wanted to take over the world? If this female was so compassionate that she was apologizing to her enemy, then why on earth was she working with the Order? Sally couldn’t focus on her questions simply because the pain was intensifying, and it was taking everything inside of her to keep from crying out to her mate.
She squeezed her eyes tightly closed again, shutting out the female fae, and focused on every good memory she could think of. She tried to separate herself from the pain and almost smiled when she remembered the first time she saw Titus's little face.
She could do this. She could survive and come out whole on the other side. Of all the things she’d endured, this would not be the thing that broke her.
Chapter 8
“I’ve decided we should use the volcanoes all over the world as lakes of fire and throw all the Alstons, Ludcarabs, and the like into them. Also, I’d like to record their cries as their bodies hit the burning liquid and use them as my ringtone. No, none of this hell has affected me at all. I totally don’t need counseling.” ~Jen
* * *
Jen heard a loud thud against the wall she and Costin had been using for morse code to communicate. She glanced at Thia, who, by the grace of the Great Luna, was sound asleep. Jen hurried over to the wall and started knocking on it in a pattern to ask her question. She knew Sally was going to give her a ton of grief later because Jen had learned morse code and neither she nor Jacque knew about it.
“What’s happening over there?” Jen tapped out on the wall. She waited. And waited. Just when she was about to tap again, she got a response.
“They took Sally,” Costin responded.
“Mother of ducks,” Jen growled as she realized that Costin was probably about to completely lose control of his wolf. His only saving grace was Titus. Wait. He still has Titus, right? They might have taken Titus to get Sally to cooperate.
She tapped out her question.
“Titus is safe with me.”
Jen sighed. Then she heard another hard thud against the wall. Her relief was short lived as there was another thud and then another, each one getting harder and harder. It wasn’t morse code. It sounded like he was trying to kick the freaking wall down. Jen had to do something to calm him down. Costin might get to the point that he doesn’t even realize he’s scaring his son, and he’d never forgive himself for that. Maybe if he hadn’t lost Sally for those months while she’d been missing, he could handle this better. But the pain of that experience was much too fresh.
Jen tapped out another message. “What is Titus doing?” she asked, hoping to shift his focus from Sally to his son.
“He’s talking to the angel.”
Jen’s eyes narrowed, and her head tilted as if that would somehow make her able to see through the wall. The Great Luna was there?
“I can’t see her,” Costin tapped out, as if he could read Jen’s mind.
“He’s okay.”
“He’s better than I am.”
“She’s going to be fine,” Jen told him, hoping she wasn’t lying to him.
“She shut down the bond.”
“Shit, damn, shit,” Jen spit out, glancing over at Thia to make sure the girl was still asleep. The last thing she needed was her yelling, “Shit” at Decebel the minute they saw him again. If Sally shut the bond, that meant things were royally fudged up.
“All I can feel is a dull ache,” Costin tapped against the wall. “She’s in pain. They’re hurting her, and I can’t do a damn thing about it. Again.”
Jen’s forehead thudded against the wall as she laid her palm flat against it, wishing she could somehow comfort her friend's mate. The males of their race took the duty to protect their mates to the extreme, and when they felt as though they’d failed, it was soul shattering to them.
“Sally is strong,” Jen tapped out. “She will get through whatever it is that’s happening.” And I will kill those who have harmed her, she thought, but didn’t tap that out.
“Why her, Jen?” Costin asked, his tapping a little softer, as if he was tired. “She’s so good. She’s kind-hearted, gentle, and willing to do anything for anyone. Why the bloody hell does this horrible stuff keep happening to her? She’s good. She doesn’t deserve it.”
Jen’s forehead was still pressed against the wall as she considered how to respond. How many times had she thought that same thing? Why did horrible things happen to good people? She reached out to the Great Luna, asking for the wisdom to know how to help Costin, and then tapped out a response.
“I don’t think it has anything to do with how good she is or what she deserves. I think it has to do with how she handles it and then what she does with the experience when she survives it.” She paused and tried to get her words sorted because she didn’t want to provoke him or make him despair. “Vasile has told us all that fire purifies silver. It’s what makes it shine and turns it beautiful. We have to go through fire, too. Sally has been through a lot of fire. It has refined her and made her strong. She’s not the same person as she was before. She’s better. And she will use all that she has been through to help others.” It took a while for Jen to get all that tapped out. Morse code wasn’t the most efficient way of communicating, but when she was finally finished, she sat and breathed in and out slowly, praying Costin would not give in to his wolf’s need for blood.
After what felt like forever, there was tapping in return. “I don’t know how long I can do this.”
Jen’s heart broke. Even though she couldn’t hear his voice, or see his face, she knew how broken he was. She remembered what he’d looked like while Sally had been in Ocean Side. She knew how close Vasile and Decebel had come to having to put him down. “You can do it for as long as you need to,” Jen responded. “Because Sally is going to need you to have your shit together when she comes back to you. And she is coming back. Do you hear me, Costin?” Jen was putting some force behind her taps because she felt as if she was losing him. She might not be an alpha anymore, but she was dominant, and she didn’t give up on those who were hers. Sally was hers, which made
Costin hers, too. “You’re not alone,” Jen tapped out. “I’m right here. I’ll sit on this side of the wall, and we can talk this way for as long as you need to about anything that will help keep you sane. We can teach Titus morse code, and probably Thia, too, because she’s a genius.”
A minute later Costin responded. “Thank you, Jennifer.”
Jen shut her eyes as a tear slipped down her cheek. She let out a deep breath. “We’re pack, dimple boy. Pack sticks together no matter what. To hell and back, I’ll burn with you if that’s what it takes to get Sally back.” Jen didn’t think it would take that. Alston would return her to Costin and Titus. If Alston needed her, then he’d want to keep her somewhat happy, and that happiness would revolve solely around those she loved. Titus and Costin being at the top of that list.
“Is Titus still talking to the angel?” Jen tapped out.
“He’s doing sign language.”
Jen snorted. Of course the four-year-old was doing sign language, because why wouldn’t he? She’d have to teach Thia sign language. She couldn’t have Sally’s kid one-upping hers. Damn, her pride had no shame. She had their kids in a mental competition while Sally went through who knew what. “She would expect nothing less,” Jen muttered as she turned and pressed her back to the wall.
“You still with me?” She knocked.
“I’m taking bets on how long it will take you to teach Thia sign language now that you know Titus knows it,” Costin tapped out.
“Butthead.” Jen chuckled and leaned her head back. Even her best friends' mates knew her too well.
“Is Costin okay?” Decebel’s voice filled her head. She’d felt him in her mind and had known he’d been listening in. She was used to it and didn’t blame him. She needed his closeness just as much as he needed hers.
“I think so. That morse code you taught me is coming in handy.”
“I told you it would.” She could hear the smugness in his voice.