by Jaymin Eve
I did as he said, focusing on his face and forcing myself to take long, deep breaths. I would not let this beat me; so many women had had it far worse. They hadn’t been saved. I needed to remember that.
“Time will rid those memories, Jessa. Don’t be so hard on yourself, you don’t have to be strong all the time.”
“There you go reading my mind again.” How did he do that?
He dropped his forehead against mine. “I can see it written across your face. You keep beating yourself up for what you consider your weakness. I know how hard it is to be strong all the time and not to know what to do when that falls away.” Lifting his face, he dropped a kiss to my forehead, in the same place his head had just rested. “What happened yesterday in no way diminishes your strength.”
“Thank you,” I whispered.
We were quiet for the next few minutes, and in that time the strain across Louis’ features increased.
“I can’t lock your energy away. It’s strong and has taken root, moving through your body, into your cells. It’s part of you in a way I can no longer separate. Our one chance is for me to cloak you. It will hide the energy from anyone searching for the dragon mark, but it’s not locked away. You can access the power, and if you do, they’ll be able to find you.”
“Why didn’t you just do that originally?”
He laughed. “We worried about a child having that much power, and you wouldn’t have had the restraint to stop yourself accessing it. Now hopefully your control is good enough for this. Remember, the Four will find you if you use your mark power.”
I nodded. Warning duly noted. There was a sharp jab, followed by what felt like tingles caressing their way up and down my body. Then Louis stepped back. I shook myself out. It was the strangest sensation, like he’d poured a second skin over my body.
“Going to take some getting used to,” I said, forcing myself not to scratch at my arms.
“The numb itchiness will die down shortly and the sensations will be much easier to deal with.”
I freaking hoped so. I was like thirty seconds from dropping to the ground and rolling around in the grass.
Our heads spun toward Stratford as the town siren started to blare. The alarm wasn’t used much. It was a signal for the townspeople to gather in the city center.
“Is that because of the Four?” I asked.
Louis nodded. “Yep, they’re infamous in the supernatural world. Their presence alone demands some fanfare. They’ll be wanting to search out the source of the mark energy.”
He linked his hand through mine and started to lead me into town. The itching sensation was subsiding, but still a little irritating.
“How powerful are they?” I was having trouble imagining what they were like. The fear their mere names created just didn’t ring true.
Louis turned his head, scanning the area. “Individually, they are no more powerful than your average alpha or race leader, less powerful than some I’d say. But their real strength lies in their ability to join and elevate the power of each other.”
I remembered Braxton saying the same thing. I rubbed my free hand over the smooth, worn denim of my jeans. The chill was increasing the further we got from Louis’ place. Luckily my metabolism was in fine form, or I’d probably be on my way to frostbitten feet.
“So this ability to connect and increase their power is the same that the Compasses are supposed to possess?”
Louis nodded. “Yes, quadruplets are so rare that everyone pretty much expects your boys will turn into carbon copies of the Four.”
I snorted. He regarded me silently for a moment. “Not going to happen,” I felt compelled to add.
The Four were cold-hearted dicks. You’d have to be to lock away babies. The Compasses would never be that. I’d kick the shit out of them if they even started looking in that power-crazy-dictator direction.
“Do you know the exact location of the mountain of Drago?” As soon as the question left my mouth, I wondered why I’d asked him that. I let loose way too many of my thoughts around him.
“It’s in Romania. The Krakov supernatural prison and Drago are both in the Carpathian Mountains.” He didn’t ask me why I wanted to know, so of course I felt the need to babble out my reasons.
“Braxton said that the king is supposed to rise at the end of this month and that he rests at Drago.” Again, Louis was quiet, not giving anything away, so I continued: “Have you heard this before?”
He exhaled lightly, but still more forceful than he usually breathed. “I’ve lived a long time and heard many stories about the rise of the king, but there is some truth to the thousand years. It was said that all dragon marked need to be in the mountain at the time of the rising. If they aren’t, there is a trigger inside the mark energy that will bring about their destruction.”
Great! That was just great.
“The dragon king was pretty big on his ‘You’re either with me or against me’ motto, and he must have figured that any not at Drago when he rises … well, they’d be against him.”
Of course they were. No wonder they’d cut his head off, he was crazier than the Four.
“Is he just supposed to just rise on his own?”
Louis stared off for a few moments, his face blank. “No,” he finally murmured. “There has to be a sacrifice, and there’s a ritual, but I don’t know what it entails.”
If Louis didn’t know, I wondered if anyone did.
“Why are these two women freeing the dragon marked?” I asked him, needing to understand.
His features hardened. “I have my suspicions, but in reality my guess is as good as yours.”
I was thinking that maybe there were some out there who knew the ritual, and I couldn’t figure out if they were freeing the marked for that reason or if they were looking for someone.
Entering the outer zone of the town, we started to move with the masses of people. When that siren rang, everyone responded, no matter what they were doing.
Which probably explained some of the states of undress I was seeing around me. There were naked shifters, who’d clearly been out for a run, and then a few couples who were clad only in their underwear. Of course they’d had time to grab clothes – not to mention the bins were scattered everywhere – but we really didn’t sweat nudity the same way the human population seemed to. Besides a few shy exceptions, most of them wouldn’t have thought anything of their appearance. Certainly not enough to stop and look for clothes.
The city center was already half filled. There were too many of us to fit into the town hall so we’d congregate out here around the fountain. Louis and I started to move closer to the front. Not that I thought being near the Four was a great idea, but I wanted to find my family and I knew the council leaders would be at the forefront. We didn’t have to push, people moved aside for us – okay, mostly Louis, but a girl could dream.
Power, glorious power.
At least the tingles of his cloaking had died right down to almost nothing. After a few minutes of dodging the crowds, my nose crinkled at all of the scents assailing me. I noticed my father standing off to the right. That was where we needed to go. I lowered my head, ready to plow my way through the last few meters. I was almost there when Louis grabbed my arm and halted me.
“I’m not sure what is going to happen right now,” he said, keeping his voice low. “If it goes down in the way I hope, then everything will be fine, and you won’t have to worry. But if things skew off track, you need to listen to my instructions and follow each one, without question. You will just have to trust me.” He dropped a kiss on my cheek. “I’ve got to go and check on something now, but I’ll find you again.”
I was opening my mouth to ask him what the hell he was talking about, when he disappeared. Like literally, into thin air. Burnt umber coated the inside of my nostrils, the scent filling my senses. He’d used some pretty powerful magic just then.
Pushing down the tendrils of icy fear and worry, I stomped the rest of the way. I
was just about at my family when a figure caught my eye. He was tall, casting a shadow as he stood off to the side of the fountain. Despite the fact that there were supernaturals everywhere, he stood in his own space. Melly. He had both arms by his side, fists tightly clenched. He was staring at me through the crowd and his expression was hard. This wasn’t exactly anything new, but in that extended moment the huge shifter reminded me of something … or more importantly someone – the bear who had attacked me inside Vanguard. He’d worn the same expression, and said I was collateral damage in a war I knew nothing about. I’d just assumed that was to do with Jonathon, but what if it hadn’t been, what if there was more to Melly’s hatred of me?
I was distracted from my thoughts by Mischa grabbing my hand and dragging me across to the edge of our group. When I turned my head back to the spot again, the bear shifter was gone. So freaky.
Jonathon leaned in close to me.
“Are we all good?” he asked. I could see by the serious expression and hard blue eyes that he was stressed.
I bit at my lip. “Well, the power is too strong for Louis to lock away again, so he put like a cloaking around me. Hopefully it’s enough.” As long as the dragon didn’t decide to burst free.
Jonathon ran his eyes over me, and then reached out and touched me. “I can’t sense anything unusual about you, but then I don’t have the tracking skills of the Four. I hope Louis knows what he is doing.”
Lienda gripped his forearm tight enough that every knuckle stood out on her hand. “I don’t want to risk it. We need to run.”
Jonathon pulled her closer. “If we run, they will ask questions, and then the Four will come for us and they always find those they hunt. We need to play the game and stay calm.”
I wondered where the Compasses were. Usually they would be front and center during something like this.
“Are they bringing in someone to replace Kristoff?” I asked Dad.
He was staring out over the crowd, trying to keep an eye on what was happening.
“Not until after the trial. He can’t be stripped of his position unless he is found guilty.”
Slimy bastard would probably find a way to get out of this one too.
The noise started to die down around us, and even craning my neck gave me no better view of what was happening. I was tense, my hands clenched into fists, my nails biting into the soft pads. Where were the Compasses? And what had Louis taken off to do. I felt as if I was getting bits and pieces of a story and the ending was going to shock the shit out of me when it came. Silence was descending across the thousands of Stratford residents crammed into the town center. The Four were coming, I could feel their power moving along the wind.
Then they were there, standing atop the lip on the fountain, heads above the crowd. I couldn’t stop the gasp which fell from my lips. Thankfully, I was just one of many who either gasped, screamed, or coughed at their appearance. So no attention was drawn in my direction.
Unlike the Compasses, these quads were identical, from their dark red hair right down to their stormy gray eyes. They were dressed similarly, in black military style clothes and thick shit-kicker boots. They wore identical cold, hard expressions. Could their parents even tell them apart? No wonder they were known as the Four, there seemed to be no individuality about them at all.
And they were mutha-effing-scary.
They stood there and stared out into the crowd, all four sets of eyes scanning us. Silence echoed around the space, minus the thousands of hearts beating and the rapid breathing thing that Mischa seemed to be doing. The girl was about five seconds from hyperventilating.
Number Two opened his mouth. “We are here because there have been reports of dragon marked in Stratford.” The gray eyes continued to bore into the crowd. “If you are harboring these fugitives, you need to stop. Now.” There was a crap-ton of force behind that last order.
Three took over the speech. “The council wants to keep from you the fact that the recent prison breakouts were dragon marked. Every single one was a marked. They are free now to bring about the rise of the king. We cannot let this happen.”
Angry chatter started around the residents. Now I was seeing where all the rumors had come from. I’d wondered how all the prisoners and guards had seemed to know the breakouts were from a secret room and that they were marked. The Four had been making sure everyone knew; they wanted people to rally against this. They were trying to stir up trouble so no one would keep the marked a secret.
Number Four had a low, strong voice. “You are all probably wondering why the marked are imprisoned and not killed. The simple fact is that we are yet to find a weapon that can kill the marked. For all intents and purposes, they’re immortal, which makes it doubly important that they are locked away again.”
I choked on my tongue or something like that. I had to cover my mouth to halt the harsh barking cough trying to flee.
Immortal. Mischa and I exchanged glances. Well shit, sounds as if I don’t have to worry about death anymore. Wish I’d known that when Vlad had me.
Chapter 17
It was time for Number One, who looked to be the hardest of all, to speak: “There are two female dragon marked, very old and very powerful, breaking free marked from prisons worldwide. They’re searching for the two to match them. Together these four will mark the points on the compass that will free the king.”
Compass points. Was that part of the ritual?
Number One stepped a little in front of his brothers, the first time they had broken rank from their stance. “We cannot let these four join together. We cannot let the king rise. He will have a legion of immortal soldiers at his beck and call and he will destroy us all.”
Shit, he even had me convinced that the dragon marked were going to take over the world, and I was one of them. I continued spinning my head around the zone, trying to find the boys. It was very unlike them to not be with me or their family. Since I could see Jack and Jo close by, I knew they weren’t with their parents.
I smiled as I noticed the little boy huddled close to the vampire-sorceress’ side. Jo had an arm tightly wrapped around his shoulders as if she could keep him safe with her love alone. I was glad that Louis had managed to spell Nash’s mark and energy. He was too young to be able to access any of it yet, and for now he was undetectable from the Four. Once this thousand year thing passed, he might actually have a shot at a decent life. And if no dragon king rose, well, my hope was that the dragon marked would be free from this constant persecution.
I was a dreamer.
The First stepped back to join his brothers. “You have five minutes.” The four of them crossed their arms over their broad chests and raised their chins in unison.
Gah, that was like the freakiest thing ever, robotic almost.
Mischa and I had our hands tightly linked. Jonathon and Lienda were close to us also. The minutes passed in a slow blur of motion. There were no noises and no one stepped forward to offer up any dragon marked.
I turned my head out into the crowd again. I was starting to jitter on the spot and I knew I had to stop it. If I continued to act like a guilty dick, the Four were going to find me with absolutely no help from anyone. And where the effing hell were the Compasses? I was going to throat punch each of them when they appeared, worrying me like this. It was, well … very annoying. Yeah, let’s go with annoying.
Then I was going to hug the hell out of them. So the order of actions was clear: throat punch, then hug.
Spinning back to the fountain, my eyes widened and I felt more shivers caress my body. Where the hell had the Four gone? There was space where they’d been standing and I had not heard or sensed them move at all. My fidgeting was getting worse. Something told me they were searching the crowd. They were going to find us. I just knew it.
“Stay calm, Jessa.” Jonathon loaned me some of his power, easing my nerves. “You will be fine. I would never let anything happen to you or Mischa.”
His words were low and calming
and yet I was not calmed at all. If anything, my nerves were increasing. Freeing my hands, I spun around and started to blindly push my way through the crowd. I knew drawing attention to myself in this manner was dangerous, but the fear was choking me. I needed to shift into my wolf. Problem being, my dragon was also stirring. She’d unfurled herself and was nudging at the thin, flimsy barrier that surrounded her now. I could almost scent the smoke from her nostrils, the shimmer from the scales and fur that coated her skin. She was just under my skin the way my wolf often was. If I lost control of her now, the Four would be on me faster than Maximus when he scented a sexy vamp girl.
People got out of my way, and finally I made it to the edge of the crowd, which, thankfully was close to the forest. I was going to be able to run, shed the human skin and be a wolf for a while. I hoped, too, that would ease the tumult of my dragon. I sighed as the cool dark of the forest canopy surrounded me. The earthy scent, a mix of dirt, plants, and flowers flowed over me, and in itself this was soothing.
“Going somewhere?”
The low voice came from the shadows and froze me to the spot. I straightened as I prepared for them to emerge. Sure enough, the Four stepped free from where they had been hidden in my forest. My beautiful forest now tainted by them.
One of them, no idea which, came at me from the east. The others fanned out to the other points. North, south, and west.
East started speaking. “We sent out a little energy. It stirs the dragon mark, causes fear and unease.” They seemed so casual as they closed in on me. “You’re a strong girl. We can feel the power under your skin. You could have resisted had you known.” He tilted his head to the side, sizing me up like a predator. “Which is why we like to minimize the information on dragon marked. Knowledge is power.”
“I’m not dragon marked,” I said, and I was grateful that my voice didn’t shake.
The west one bared his teeth at me. “There’s no point in lying, we have no doubt you’re the one we’re hunting.”