Power [The Angel Pack 11] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Maggie Walsh

  “Wait, what are you doing?” Lillian cried out frantically.

  “Who are you?” Micah growled. Lillian’s eyes went wide and Micah could see the shock and fear. “I’ll only ask once more before I give you to Lucifer to deal with. Who are you and what have you done to Lillian?”

  Micah watched as the fear in Lillian’s eyes changed to amusement. “So the Prime is actually smart as well as sexy. Who would have guessed? Usually you big, strong types are pretty brainless.”

  “Sloth,” Lucifer hissed in a deadly growl as his eyes turned pitch-black.

  “I guess we found our mole,” Crew added.

  “But how was he able to possess the human? I thought you all had protection wards tattooed on your bodies?” Duma asked.

  “We do, but that was before we brought Lillian into the house. I must admit, it never even dawned on me to ward her as well,” Micah answered.

  “Who?” Lucifer demanded as he walked to the demon, Sloth.

  Sloth, in Lillian’s body, turned to Lucifer, meeting his gaze. “Minos is my ruler. He will set us all free to roam the Earth and destroy all humans and paranormals alike. He will set us free from Hades’ grasp.”

  Lucifer gave Sloth an evil smile. “Guess your plans have changed.” He reached out and placed his palm on Lillian’s forehead, then thrust his hand hard, as he yelled, “Grab hold!”

  Immediately Lillian’s body jerked back hard, flying across the room. Nuriel and Laylen went with her, but held their footing. Lillian’s body slumped weightless in their grasp. The other Legion Warriors quickly moved forward and surrounded the evil creature that now stood where Lillian used to be. Micah’s lip went up in disgust from the sight of the demon. He was crouched down and bent over, with very long, spindly legs and arms. His torso was also extremely thin and long, and he was covered with the palest white skin Micah had ever seen. It was almost translucent. All his bones could be seen through his skin and poking out. A line of long spikes ran down his back. He had the feet of a pig, and hands that looked like horse hooves. His head was more human-like than not, but that, too, was deformed with a large forehead and pointed chin. His eye sockets were sunken in, and cold, soulless black eyes looked back at him.

  Sloth opened his mouth and hissed in Micah’s direction, and he could see the sharp, jagged teeth within, as well as a thin, snakelike tongue. “So what do we do with him?” Micah asked.

  “Leave Sloth to me. I’ll take care of him, you take care of Lillian, and make sure you get her the ward tattoo,” Lucifer instructed. “Legion.” Lucifer, Sloth, and the warriors holding the demon vanished.

  Micah turned his attention to Lillian. “Is she still breathing?”

  “Yeah, Micah. She’s just out of it,” Laylen answered and lifted Lillian into his arms. “I’ll take her to Aaron and have him check her over, but she may be out for a while.”

  “Thank you, Lay. Nuriel, thank you to you and your men for assisting.”

  “Of course, Micah. We’re here for you anytime. I’ll head back and see if Lord Lucifer needs my help. Yell if you need me.” Nuriel walked to the wall and placed his hand on it, then walked through.

  “We really need to make sure everyone that lives in this pack is protected from possession. We can’t have this happen again. Not after what happened with Crew and now this,” Micah stated.

  “Where do we start?” Christian asked.

  “With Josh and Zane both not here, I’m not sure. Maybe the fae warriors can help us with that until they get back.”

  “Weren’t you about to head to New Orleans?” Xavier asked.

  “Yes, but now with this, I think I need to stay here. I’ll be back in a little while. I’m heading there now to let them know what’s going on and then I’ll be back. Keep the home front safe,” Micah instructed, then walked to the wall himself, placed his hand upon it, and stepped through.

  * * * *

  Sage sat on the old beat-up couch, his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them, his head down as the tears ran freely and he rocked back and forth. “No. I don’t want to be evil,” he cried uncontrollably. “Please, gods. Please help me fight it. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’m so sorry I hurt my father and took his life. I didn’t mean it. I mean, I did, but I didn’t know that by wishing it that it would happen. Please. I just want to go home. I want to go back to the only family who has ever accepted me for who I am. I want to go home. Please, I just want to go home,” Sage begged as he fell apart, his body shaking violently.

  He sat like that in the dark for half an hour and the tears never slowed. His body started to get weak and tired from the anguish he felt. He was done with this life. He couldn’t do this anymore. He couldn’t live like this. Maybe if he killed himself then they would be safe. But what if he were gone? Where would the powers go? Would they then find Maddy? Would they claim him and make him evil? No, he couldn’t let that happen either. Maddy had had a shitty life growing up, too, but now he was happy. He had two wonderful mates that loved him and couldn’t live without him. Maddy had changed his life for the good. He pledged his allegiance to Micah, Jesse, and the council to fight for them to protect others, both human and paranormal. He was training to be an enforcer. No, he couldn’t do that to Maddy. Maddy deserved to have the happiness he finally found.

  “But what about me?” Sage choked out around the tears. “Don’t I deserve that, too? I have a mate now. I want to be happy. I want to get to know my mate and fall in love. I want to have what the other mated couples have. Gods!” Sage screamed out. “Please. I miss my mate. I felt so safe with him. I loved being in his arms and getting to know him. I love the way he made me feel. His kisses, his touch. I’m sorry. Gods, I am so sorry! If I could take it back, I would,”

  Sage rocked harder, trying to make the pain lessen, but it wasn’t working. Then thoughts of Slade swarmed his mind. Their meeting in the kitchen and his mate giving back to him as good as he gave. The man seemed to enjoy his wit and volleyed it back to him. In the short amount of time he had spent with his mate he had already developed a huge crush on him. The man was sexy as fuck, and he was so big, strong, and fierce, but he was also loving, gentle, and funny. Why couldn’t he have found Slade sooner? Why now to only be ripped away again? Was this his punishment for the evil that he had done? “Slade, I’m so sorry you got stuck with me. I’m sorry I left you, but I need to know that I won’t hurt you when the power takes me. Please let him move on. Please let him find another that will be right for him and make him happy.”

  “I already have found the one who is perfect for me and makes me happy.” Slade’s voice came to him in his head, causing Sage to flinch and look around the dark room. “You are my one and only mate, Sage, and I will not let you go. Do you hear me, mate? We claimed each other and now we belong together, and I will fight the heavens if I have to, to keep you in my arms. Don’t run from me, sweetness. Let me help you. I will protect you, I promise. Please, baby,” Slade begged.

  “But I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” Sage declared to the empty room.

  “I know, sweetness. And you won’t. We’ll find a way.”

  “But you can’t promise that, Slade. No one can. And I won’t risk any of your lives at my hands because of it.” The tears began to flow again as Sage thought of him being the cause of Slade’s pain.

  “Sage, don’t you think that we are already hurting? Seeing you go through this and feeling your pain and suffering is killing me inside. You are my mate and I need you. What do you think will happen to me if you do something drastic? I’ll tell you what will happen. I will be close behind you, baby, because I won’t be able to go on without you. The loss would be torment. I would never survive losing you. And what about Maddy and Raith? They took off after you immediately and are still out there trying to find a way to help you, to protect you. Don’t you think they would be hurting if they lost you? And how about Evan and your grandmother?”

  “She doesn’t want me!
She thinks I’m evil and disgusting!” Sage cried out, the tears falling stronger.

  “No, sweetness. That woman wasn’t your grandmother. She wasn’t the woman that I know would love you no matter what. Who would fight for you and only wants to see you happy. I don’t know what was wrong with her or why she acted like that and said all those horrible things, but think about it, Sage. You know her better than anyone. Did that sound like the woman who has loved you your whole life?”

  Sage thought about it for a moment. “No. The grandma I knew accepted me. When I was thirteen and I told her I thought I liked boys she told me the heart wants what the heart wants and that love was love no matter what the pairing.”

  “See. That doesn’t sound anything like the woman we just saw. I don’t know what was wrong with her, baby, but something wasn’t right inside her. I could feel it, see it, and smell it.”

  “What…what does that mean?”

  “One of my powers is my elevated sense of smell. That’s one of the things that makes me good at my job. My full gift is all my senses are heightened, actually.”

  “So, what, you could smell her?”

  “Yes, Sage. I could smell something off about her scent, as well as see something inside her eyes that wasn’t human, and I could hear two heartbeats coming from her.”

  Sage dropped his feet to the floor and sat up straight. “Do you think it was one of them? The ones like Francis, the skinwalkers?”

  “I don’t know, sweetness. But I do know that Micah felt it too and he is taking care of it. He will make sure whatever it is it will release your grandmother and she will be fine. But my point is that that woman was not Lillian and those were not her words.”

  “So do you really think that wasn’t her?” Sage asked hopefully.

  “I would never lie to you, mate. Please trust me. Stop running and let me help you. I promise that together, along with your pack and family, we will find a way to make sure those powers won’t harm you. That they won’t control you and make you evil. Trust me,” Slade whispered the last part in his head.

  “Where are you? How can I hear you but not see you?”

  “It’s the mating link, baby. It is because of your wonderful wolf that we can do this, and I have never been happier in my life about that ability that the shifters have. And I’m right here. I’m with you.”

  Just then the door opened and the light from the hall blinded him. Sage squinted as he brought his hand up to block the light. A large figure stepped into the open doorway, but even in silhouette Sage knew it was his mate. Slade stepped into the room and came right to him, then knelt down on the floor in front of him. Slade reached out and cupped Sage’s cheek tenderly and Sage pressed his face into the touch. “Stop running from me, mate, and let me help you. Take strength from me and trust in me. Together we can fight this and we can win,” Slade said softly, but with conviction.

  “How did you get here? How did you find me?” Sage asked, his voice hiccupping from all the emotions still rolling through him.

  “Zane brought me. He had no problem following you. It just took us a bit to find the right storage room. Then I heard you scream inside my head and I remembered the mating link.”

  “I’m sorry that I ran and I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. I only wanted to keep you safe,” Sage said and reached out, taking Slade’s face between both hands. Slade closed his eyes and sighed.

  “We need to stand together, sweetness. It is no longer you against the world on your own. We are a team now,” Slade declared.

  “I know. I’m just so afraid,” Sage said on a sob, the tears returning.

  “Lux,” Slade demanded and the lights flicked on.

  Sage’s eyes opened wide and he gasped. “How did you do that?”

  Slade smiled mischievously. “I have some magic of my own.”

  “But how? You’re a vampire. A daywalker, right? Do you have more than one power?”

  Slade wiped the tears from Sage’s face and leaned in, brushing their lips together softly. He pulled back and wrapped his arms around Sage’s waist and lifted him as Slade shifted his position and sat on the couch, placing Sage on his lap. “First, yes I am a vampire, but I am not a daywalker. That is what everyone assumes because I am a vamp who can walk in the sun,” Slade explained.

  “But then how?” Sage asked in confusion.

  Slade gave him a big smile and reached up with one hand, grabbing his beautiful jet-black hair at the side and pulling it back. Sage gasped from the sight of Slade’s pointed ears. He brought his hand up and feathered his fingers over Slade’s ears. “Why didn’t I see these before? Surely I would have seen them when we made love?”

  “It’s the reason I keep my hair long, to keep them covered. And when the opportunity comes when they can become exposed, there is a spell I cast upon myself that camouflages them. I have only dropped that shield now so that you may see them.”

  “So you can cast spells? You actually have real magic?”

  “Yes. But unlike your magic, mine cannot be taken from me. It can be bound, but never taken away.”

  “So what are you exactly, fae?” Sage asked.

  “Very similar, but not. My father was a vampire and my mother was an elf. A sun elf to be exact. That is why my senses are enhanced and I can walk in the sun,” Slade explained.

  “Wow, I never met an elf before. Honestly, I didn’t think you guys were real. I thought you were just in stories or movies. Like Legolas from Lord of the Rings. Damn, he’s so hot.”

  Slade chuckled as he smiled at his mate. “Yes he is. And Hollywood did get a little right about elves. They are mostly ethereal looking and small. Most have wings and long hair. All have pointed ears. And besides the hair on our heads, eyebrows, and groin, we are hairless. But depending on which elf troupe you are from is how we can tell each other apart. Wood elves are flighty and sex crazed. They generally have brown hair and green eyes. Moon elves usually have white hair and light gray eyes and they have translucent wings so light they can barely be seen. The sun elf has golden hair and yellow eyes and heightened senses.”

  “But you have jet-black hair and cobalt-blue eyes, and I would never consider you small. And where are your wings?” Sage watched as Slade’s eyes filled with sadness and got this far-off look. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry and bring up bad memories.”

  Slade focused on him and gave Sage a sad smile. “You’re my mate. You can never pry and you have every right to want to know everything about me. When my mother fell in love with a vampire, her elders gave her a choice. She could either walk away from him or them, but she couldn’t have both. So my mother chose my father. They moved away from the troupe and had a happy life together. They had me about a year after she left the elves. Right away my mother knew I was different, and I had mixed genes from both of them. Both my parents raised me to know about each of their species, but also about all paranormals. They were afraid because I would be considered a hybrid, that others would want to use me, or kill me. We lived far away from all paranormals, in the wilderness of Alaska. But when I was thirteen my father was killed.

  “He went out to go hunt for food for us and he was shot by a hunter. My father always hunted at night because, one, he was a vampire, and, two, he would be safe from humans discovering him. Even though we lived in the middle of nowhere, there were still hunters that came close at times. After we lost Dad, Mom and I had a hard time surviving off the land. I started to go out and hunt, but a few times human hunters found me and thought I was a kid who was lost in the wilderness. When I would explain that I lived close by and was only out looking for animals, they wanted to know why I didn’t have any weapons. It just started getting too complicated and too many people started asking questions about the woman and child in the woods.

  “Mom didn’t know what else to do, so she brought us back to her troupe. They were elated that she returned and was no longer with my father, but they were not happy about my even being alive. They said they would take us b
ack into the fold, but my mother would have to wed an elf of their choosing. If she wanted to come back and have their protection for both of us, then that was the deal. So she took it. I told her not to. That we could find another place, but she fought me. She said that we couldn’t be near humans because they would find out what she was. She could use her magic to hide her wings, but not all day. It would drain her. And the way I was developing she was afraid of the humans finding out about me as well. So that meant we had to live away from humans. She wanted the safety of the troupe and a place for me to grow freely, so she accepted.

  “But it was its own hell. Nothing like you had to grow up with, but it wasn’t all happiness and roses either. They all knew I was different and treated me like a freak. Not one of them was nice to me, ever. I only put up with it for my mother. After fifty years there and them using me to do everything from hunting for everyone, plowing fields, and guarding the troupe, they all became lazy. They called on me to do pretty much everything, because I was so much bigger, stronger, and faster than any of them. I was even banned from using my magic. Mother would go off into the woods with me in secret and continue to teach me.”

  Sage smiled and ran his hand across Slade’s chest. “Your mom sounds like she was an amazing woman.”

  Slade returned the smile. “Yes, she was,” he agreed, “And she would have loved you.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really. How could she not love someone as wonderful as you?”

  Sage blushed from Slade’s compliment and he smiled, but then the smile fell from his lips and his eyes filled with sadness. “Then they found out about our training in the woods, and they took her away. They lied and tried to tell me she just disappeared and no one knew where she went, but my mother would never do that. She would never leave me like that.”

  “How did they find out?” Sage asked as he shifted his weight so he was facing Slade more.

  “On one of our outings in the woods, we both smelled one of the village lasses. When we looked for her we couldn’t find her, but both of us knew she had been there. Her scent was very strong. So we decided to hold off on our lessons for a while just in case, but two days later my mother was gone. I spent a year tracking her. They kept moving her from troupe to troupe. They even hid her with some of the other elf breeds.”