by Ariel Marie
This time Geyus spoke. “Imorn Vlajamar, seventy-five years young. He was a seasoned witch from the Stoneflag Coven of South Carolina. He was last seen leaving their coven’s meeting. He lived and worked among the humans. He owned what the humans would call a ‘Chinese Herb shop’. He did not show up the next day to open his store. Employees were concerned when they could not reach him. The police went to his home. His home was ransacked. Blood was everywhere and again, no body. The local authorities described the scene as something from ‘the movies’.” Geyus sighed and took off his glasses and sat them down on the table.
We continue for another hour and a half, going over all of the information on all of the cases. I take notes and ask questions here and there. I have a lot of information. My grandmother has arranged for us to meet with the local wolf Alpha later this evening. We’re hoping by sharing information amongst each other, we will be able to help each other.
I wonder if the werewolf I came across last night belongs to this pack. I tried speaking to the werewolf with the blue and brown eyes. He was a massive black wolf with a white patch of fur in the shape of a diamond. I knew instantly that he was a shifter. For some reason, I was drawn to him. There was a pull to him that made me want to get to know him. I’ve never felt that type of attraction to anyone before. Even with Christian, we were friends first before it moved to something more.
I went to the tree to think and soak up the moon rays. I tend to be a night owl and the moon enhances a witch’s powers. The beautiful red maple tree is the perfect place to soak up the moon rays at night. It’s the perfect place to relax in the daytime due to the shade that is created by its massive branches that are filled with the large green leaves. When I am in the human realm my witch power becomes stronger.
After the failed attempt of a conversation with the beautiful wolf, I flashed back to my room at my grandmother’s house and fell asleep that night wondering if I would ever meet that blue/brown-eyed wolf in his human form.
Chapter Five
~Colin~
Azura, the High Priestess of the Witches, wants to meet with me tonight. She must want to discuss the missing supernaturals. She suggested her place for the meeting. Our meeting is for eight p.m. and we are a little early. We took two black Chevy trucks, both with heavy tint on the windows. All of our vehicles are armored against silver bullets to protect us should we come under fire.
I have brought five of my most trusted wolves with me for this meeting. Reed, Dante and Gunnar are behind us in the other truck. Alec is riding with Devyn and me. They all belong to the Diamond Pack. Members of the pack are chosen to be members of the Legion because of their skill and dedication to protecting our people. We are treating this meeting with the Witches like it is a mission. Everyone is serious and thinking of what we can possibly learn so we can try to find the missing wolves.
“Do you think we will find out anything helpful from the Witches?” Alec asks from the back seat. Alec Finlay has been my best friend since we were pups. We met the summer we turned five years old. His parents had left their old pack where the Alpha was a mean son of a bitch and was not taking care of his pack. Alec’s parents wanted a better living environment and moved to join our pack. We became fast friends and are as close as brothers.
“We can compare notes and see if there truly are similarities. I think it would be best to share information. At this point, anything can help since we keep running into dead ends,” I say as we turn into the Văduva’s driveway. Alec nods his head looking out the back window.
We travel down the driveway for a little over a mile before we actually reach the main house. The house stands four stories high. It is a beautiful old mansion. It has a roundabout driveway where we can park the two SUVs in the front of the house. In the middle of the roundabout, there is a round stone fountain with a statue. The Văduva mansion is made of all brick, with a large stone staircase that leads to a large heavy black wooden door. The landscaping is perfectly manicured. We get out of the trucks and meet over by my truck.
“Reed, Gunnar and Dante, I want you guys to stay out here to make sure we don’t have any trouble. Do a perimeter check of the outside. Devyn and Alec you will come with me,” I instruct. They nod their heads. I do not have to worry about anyone interrupting the meeting. An older balding human dressed in a butler suit answers the door. His eyes widen slightly when he sees the three huge men with bulging muscles standing on the doorstep.
“May I help you, sir?” he asks opening the door wider.
“Colin MacKenzie to see Azura.”
“Yes, of course, we are expecting you. Please, come in.” He opens the door fully to allow us to enter the home.
We are in a large foyer with white and light brown marble floors. The house is trimmed with dark oak. In the foyer is a massive staircase to the left that leads to the upper level. The walls are painted an off white with famous paintings hanging here and there. I’m sure if one were to check the authenticity of the paintings, they would discover that they are the originals.
“My name is Henry. Please follow me. I will place you in the study where you are to meet with Mrs. Văduva. I’ll seat you gentlemen and then go get the lady of the house.” We follow him as he begins walking down the hallway past the oak staircase.
“Alfred does exist!” Devyn mutters. With our keen sense of hearing, I have no problem picking up what he said. I turn around and give him stern look to let him know that this is serious. Henry seats us in the study. The study is an enormous two-story room; to the left is a window that overlooks the gardens on the side of the house. There is massive desk that overlooks the windows. There is a table to the right and along the walls are dark oak bookcases filled with many leather bound books that look centuries old. There are a couple of leather couches in the room with one along the wall near her desk, along with two chairs that face the desk.
Alec drops down on the leather couch. Devyn sits in one of the chairs at the table. I walk over to look out a side window that looks out into the yard.
“You want to go for a run tonight?” Alec asks.
“Hell yeah! Two nights in a row would be awesome,” Devyn comments, stretching in his chair.
“Depends.” My thoughts are on the little black-haired beauty from last night. Maybe if we do go out for another run, it would be possible that I could run into her again. Looking wouldn’t hurt. My wolf certainly perks up at the thought of seeing her again.
The door opens and Azura breezes into the room. She’s a small woman of Romanian heritage. Her long dark hair with the gray streak is pulled back in a bun. Her familiar looking green eyes reveal her age and wisdom. She is dressed in a long sleeve, flowing black and blue dress.
“Hello, Colin.” She comes over and shakes my hand. “Devyn, Alec.” She nods to Devyn and Alec. She gestures for me to have a seat in a chair in front of her desk while she walks around the desk to sit her desk chair.
“Thank you for coming. I appreciate it since it was on such short notice and I’m sure you are very busy.” She shifts to get comfortable in her chair. Azura is one of the most powerful witches, if she requests your presence you better make sure you make it.
“No problem. I think it would be great to share information and work together,” I say leaning forward a little in my chair. Anything that we can learn today could help us with the missing wolves. We’ve been hitting a wall lately in our investigations.
“I’m waiting on one someone – Ah, here she is,” Azura says as the door opens.
At that exact moment I hear the door open and the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and the scent of apricots hits my nostrils. I know who it is without even turning. I have thought of nothing else but her. I cannot believe she is here. My brothers and Alec would never let me live it down if they knew how much she has filled my mind. They know my philosophy on relationships with the fairer sex. I can also sense that Alec and Devyn both have paused what they are doing and are holding their breaths. I finally turn to loo
k at the door and there she stands. My chest feels as if an elephant is sitting on it.
Fuck me.
She looks even better than I remember. Black leather knee-high boots, her perfectly sculpted legs are encased in black leather pants with a tight grey long sleeve V-neck shirt. Her long black curly hair is left loose to fall past her shoulders. I just want to reach out and grab it, to feel how silky smooth it is. She has her marauder clipped to her belt and I can see her katana peeking over the top of her head. I can’t help but stare at her while she pauses halfway across the room staring right back at me. I look over at Devyn and Alec and they are both mesmerized by her. I can feel my wolf whining, straining to get to her.
Mate.
This one word could break me. No, she can’t be my mate! I shake my head and immediately wipe all emotions from my face. No one can know how drawn to her I am.
“Colin, I would like to introduce you to my granddaughter, Princess Arlina Waldmar. Lina, this is Colin MacKenzie, Alpha of the Diamond Pack and Leader of the Legion.” She stands and comes around the table to hug Arlina. She entwines her arm with Arlina’s and turns her in Alec and Devyn’s direction. “Over here is Devyn MacKenzie and Alec Finlay, both are members of the Diamond Pack and the Legion.”
Alec and Devyn scramble to come over and shake her hand. I shoot both of them looks telling them to back off. I slowly stand and extend my hand to her as she turns to me. My large hand engulfs her tiny one. Looking down into her beautiful green eyes, a man could get lost. A small jolt of electricity runs up my arm and I pull back abruptly.
“Hello again,” she says. “It was you last night. The rude wolf who didn’t want to speak.” She cocks her head to the side.
“Shifting would have left me naked,” I snap, then wince on the inside. “How did you know that it was me?”
“Your eyes. There are not too many people with two different eye colors. And it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen a naked man,” she says sarcastically, her smile fading. Damn, I didn’t mean to make her stop smiling. My wolf growls in my head sensing that she’s not happy. He wants to make her smile and see her happy.
“Arlina! You two have met before?” Azura asks, looking at both of us.
“Yes, grandmother. I went to my favorite tree up on the hill last night and a large black wolf was there and I knew he was a shifter. I tried to make light conversation just to be nice but he didn’t shift to speak to me. No big deal,” Arlina explains to everyone.
“Wait, Princess Waldmar?” Alec asks in awe. “As in the Princess of the Light Fae, Powerful Witch, Warrior Princess, Member of the Guardians?“
“Yes, yes, yes, yes and yes.” She laughs, looking up to the ceiling, counting her yeses. We all move over to the table and have a seat. Azura smiles. She beams with pride for her granddaughter.
“Will you marry me?” Alec asks with the biggest smile and holds out both arms. She laughs. “I’m your biggest fan!” He wiggles his eyebrows up and down.
Devyn chokes back laughter as I give Alec my death stare. My death stare has been known to make grown men piss themselves. Alec seems immune to it now since he’s just mesmerized by Arlina. His eyes haven’t left her yet. My wolf is actually jealous! My wolf is pacing, agitated and not happy Alec is paying so much attention to Arlina. And she seems to like the attention. My wolf growls on the inside. I should be the one making her smile.
Mine. The voice whispers again.
“I’m sorry, we just met! Can we get to know each other first?” Arlina giggles flirting back with Alec.
“Can we please discuss what we came for?” I snap. I have the strong urge to punch Alec in the face. He’s been my friend since childhood and I want to pummel his face. My wolf is feeling very aggressive towards Arlina and doesn’t want any other male looking at her much less flirting with her. It’s getting hard trying to ignore the words that keep replaying in my head, mine and mate.
For the next hour we get down to business. Azura discusses the witches disappearances, I discuss the wolves and Arlina shares the Fae information. We’re all getting tired from sitting. Alec covers a yawn. Arlina stands from the table and begins pacing back and forth in front of the large windows.
“There has to be something that they all have in common. These cannot be random disappearances. Our people just don’t disappear!” She comes back to stand at the table staring at one of the files.
“What do we know about the Vampires who are missing?” Devyn asks.
“I haven’t had any recent contact with Dorian yet. We will need to make contact with him and get him to meet with us.” Azura replies looking out the window from her seat at the table.
“What is the common theme of all the disappearances?” Arlina asks no one in particular still staring down at the files.
“All of the reports state that there was blood all over the crime scenes. With the wolves’ crime scenes, the Legion investigated those and at each one, one of the Legion members picked up the scent of brimstone.” Alec pauses while staring off at his files. “All the blood definitely means that all of them put a fight,” Alec throws out as Azura runs over to one of her bookcases frantically looking for a book, muttering to herself.
“Grandmother, what is it?” Arlina goes and stands with her grandmother while Azura is searching her bookshelves.
“Lina, the connection is brimstone. The wolves smelling capability is better than that of the witches or the Fae. At the witches or Fae crime scenes, we would not have detected the scent. We don’t know if that scent was detected at the places where they were last seen but since there are at least six wolves missing, and they all had the scent of brimstone, we must start with that.” She finds a large dark brown book that has ancient relics engraved in the leather cover. She plops it down on the table and starts quickly flipping the pages of the book. We all gather around her to get a look at the book.
“Brimstone, brimstone.... sulfa...” I say out loud trying to figure out the connection.
“Demons!” Arlina and Azura exclaim at the same time as Azura finds the page she is looking for.
“When a demon is around a faint hint of sulfa or brimstone will be in the air,” Azura explains.
“Shit! Demons haven’t been able to come to this realm in forever!” Devyn exclaims while looking around the room.
“That is not true. Demons come to the human realm. They shouldn’t be allowed to come but they have help,” Azura corrects. She silently reads from the page she found. I look down at the page and it is written in some ancient language. We wait patiently for her to finish. She looks up at Arlina. “This isn’t good. “
Arlina looks at the page and must be able to read the language too. “I must speak with the last people who saw the wolves before they disappeared.”
“No,” I say quickly. No way is she going around interviewing other wolves. Most wolves have become hesitant to speak to outsiders.
“I don’t need your permission.” She looks me straight in the eye. My wolf bristles at the challenge. I’m not used to anyone defying me.
“Like hell you don’t. I’m in charge of the Legion, the law enforcers of the wolves! That means I am charged with protecting the wolves. Just in case you forgot!” I growl at her, feeling the need to protect her from the unknown. There is no telling what would happen to her if she were to go alone.
“I need to talk to them!” She steps closer to me with her hands on her hips, staring up at me, challenging me. “I can talk with them and with their permission, I might be able to retrieve the memories that they may be blocking or may have been erased. You said that all of the people who last saw the victims have no memory or can’t remember much from the day the victims went missing.”
She fiercely looks up at me, her eyes darkening, daring me to say no again. No one challenges me. Not ever, or at least no one who lived to talk about. I can feel her power radiating from her. She’s fierce and powerful and I can see why they call her the Warrior Princess. Devyn and Alec exchange
glances and look back at us like they are watching a Ping-Pong match.
“Can you truly do that?” I ask with a raised eyebrow. My respect is growing for her the longer I am in her presence. From what I’ve heard about the Fae, retrieving someone’s memories is really rare.
“Yes, I can. I can retrieve memories from someone, especially if someone blocked them so that the person cannot remember them.”
“Fine, but I will go with you.” She raises an eyebrow at me. Azura whispers something in her ear. She pauses and just stares at me for a few seconds before answering.
“Fine.”
Chapter Six
~Lina~
Something is screaming in my ear like a banshee. I open my eyes and realize it’s my alarm clock going off. I huff and roll over towards it and glare at the alarm clock. It reads a little after six a.m. I narrow my eyes at it, watch it rise up in the air and throw it against the wall with my Fae power. It shuts up. I smile, snuggling back in my bed. But it’s pointless, I sigh and sit up knowing that if I lay here much longer, I will probably go back to sleep. It is rare and a treat for me to sleep in when I’m home in Faery.
I sit up on the side of my bed, brushing the hair from my face. I can’t help but think of the delicious dream I had last night of a certain tall, blue/brown-eyed Alpha. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. Seeing him in his human form just took my breath away. The power that radiated from him, his eyes, his build, just everything about him, made me want to lock him in a room so I can have my way with him. Our little argument yesterday got me hot and bothered. When he shook my hand, I thought I would embarrass myself. My knees shook so bad. I just knew they were going to give out.
After grabbing a quick shower, I dry my hair and put it in a high pony tail, put on light make-up and throw my clothes on. Since I’m on official Guardian business, I throw on my Guardian cargo pants and a white long sleeve t-shirt with my black combat boots.