by Vivian Wood
A smirk lit Gabriel’s lips as he thought of the hours and hours of trying that had led up to his current mood of complete exhaustion, the same reason why Cassie was lying in what Gabriel fancied a deeply sated sleep. Sleep beckoned to Gabriel, too, but troubling thoughts kept him from succumbing.
Things between Cassie and him were mostly blissful; they only ever argued about the Guardians’ lack of progress in finding and dismantling the Birdcage. The Guardians had laid siege to three different houses now, trying to find Pere Mal’s secret prison.
He couldn’t exactly toss and turn lest he disturb his sleeping mate, but several scenes kept playing over and over in Gabriel’s mind: the Oracle’s words about Gabriel giving Cassie a child; the morning when Gabriel found his mother dead, taken in the night by scarlet fever; the moment when he’d run to tell his sister Caroline of their chance in fortune, only to find that he’d killed her in a moment of thoughtlessness.
Man. Bear. Sorcerer. Guardian. Mate. Gabriel was all of these things and more, but father?
His fists clenched and he drew in a deep breath, trying to keep himself calm. His mating bond with Cassie grew stronger by the day, and at times she was able to sense his moods without them even being in the same room together. He’d well and truly worn her out, wringing every drop of pleasure from both of them, and she deserved her rest.
That, and Gabriel couldn’t stand the thought of Cassie knowing of his doubts. It was as if the mere act of speaking aloud his misgivings would make him vulnerable to the darkest of his imaginings. He didn’t even have a child yet, couldn’t possibly, but that didn’t stop the fear from putting down roots in his heart.
On one hand, every man likely worried at the prospect of bringing a child into the world. It was a dangerous place, perhaps even moreso than the world in which Gabriel had been brought up. Cyber attacks, nuclear weapons, bioterrorism… the list went on and on. Add to that Gabriel’s own seeming inability to protect those he loved, and the prospect of fatherhood was frightening.
On the other hand, Gabriel was an Alpha Guardian. With his status came responsibility, and with that came conflict, which bred enemies. Even now, Pere Mal was surely out in the world somewhere, hiding in the shadows and plotting something horrifying. Gabriel had taken something from Pere Mal, who considered Cassie an ‘asset’. Surely the villain would not just forgive and forget, but Gabriel hadn’t the slightest idea how Pere Mal might strike back.
Letting a sigh escape his lips, Gabriel decided he would speak to Mere Marie about strengthening the wards on the house. Maybe they should even consider getting some guards for the Manor, for the times when the Guardians were all called away for a major Kith emergency.
“Gabe?” Cassie asked sleepily, peering up at him. “You okay?”
“Yeah, of course,” Gabriel said, feeling guilty.
“You’re sending me a lot of anxious vibes,” Cassie said, stifling a yawn.
“Just thinking. It’s nothing, really.”
“Mmmhmm,” Cassie said, patting his chest absently. “How about you roll over and I rub your back until you fall asleep?”
Her suggestion wasn’t the most glorifying thing he’d ever heard, but it warmed him from the inside out. He dropped a kiss to Cassie’s lips, wondering at how he’d gotten so lucky to have her as a mate.
“I’m alright, darling. I promise. You go back to sleep, alright?”
Cassie snuggled up to him again, tracing little circles on his chest with her fingertips. Slowly Gabriel relaxed, her touch soothing him until sleep could take hold. His worries slipped away like shadows before the sun. They would be back, surely as the day turned to night again and again. For the moment, though, he could just let go and savor the touch of his mate.
Gabriel rubbed his face, trying to pay attention to Rhys as the other Guardian went over their current knowledge about the Three Lights for what felt like the tenth time. He’d slept little, waking early to find Rhys and Aeric working downstairs, drinking coffee and trying to work out a possible timeline for Pere Mal’s future actions.
“There you three are,” Mere Marie said, strolling into the Manor’s living area, walking up to the conference table where the Guardians sat with purpose. Gabriel could already see that she was in a mood, stalking toward them with a glare.
“Gabriel is filling us in on what Cassie discovered about the so-called Final Light,” Rhys said.
“I want you to suit up and go bust open the Birdcage,” Mere Marie said, looking disinterested. “Sitting here talking about unborn harbingers does nothing for me.”
“I imagine that if Pere Mal knows about the possibility of a creature that can decide the fate of the world, he’d be very interested in finding and cultivating that creature to do his bidding,” Gabriel pointed out.
Mere Marie’s lips thinned, but his mention of Pere Mal captured her interest.
“How does the Final Light decide the fate of the world, exactly?” she asked, her gaze focusing on Gabriel like a laser. Few people in the world had the power to make Gabriel squirm, but Mere Marie was one of them.
“The Apocrypha is unclear,” he admitted. “It just says that the, uh, child, will be dual-natured, born with traits of the mother and the father. Good and evil will wage battle over the child, and whichever sways the child will decide whether the human realm stays intact or falls into the rulership of the demons.”
“Ahhhhh,” Mere Marie said. “If Pere Mal knows about the Final Light, it would explain why he’s so eager to find the Gates of Guinee. If he opens the spirit realm, he may be able to use the spirits of his ancestors to take over. Then he’d have power, something to trade with whichever side wins over the Final Light.”
“He’s hedging his bets,” Gabriel said, putting the pieces together. “He believes that the demons may win, then. Otherwise, why work so hard? The status quo favors him now.”
Mere Marie glared at Gabriel, but again she was without retort.
“This is all very nice, and we should assume that he is searching for the Final Light. That doesn’t change the fact that I want you three up and ready to fight,” she said, slapping her palm against the tabletop. “The Birdcage comes apart, tonight.”
“Yes ma’am,” Gabriel and Rhys said, while Aeric merely nodded.
Mere Marie turned to walk away, then hesitated.
“I would be very careful evacuating the women from the Birdcage,” Mere Marie said. “Judging from the fact that two of you have already found your mates in the First and Second Lights, I have every reason to believe that the Third Light will soon make an appearance.”
Mere Marie stalked away, leaving Gabriel and Rhys looking at Aeric, whose mouth opened in a silent expression of shock. It took a few long seconds, but the Viking shoved himself up from the table, looking downright furious.
“Never!” Aeric declared. Then he strode out of the room, heading into the backyard and toward the gymnasium. Following Mere Marie’s orders to ready for battle, presumably.
Gabriel and Rhys glanced at each other for the barest moment before snickering with disbelief.
“I pity the woman stuck with him for a mate,” Rhys said, shaking his head as he rose to follow Aeric.
“If she’s anything like either of our mates, I pity him more,” Gabriel muttered.
“Jaysus, don’t let Echo hear you. She’s already pissed at me for not getting her anything for our three month anniversary. I didn’t even know that was a notable date!” Rhys lamented.
Gabriel arched a brow at his friend, then shook his head.
“I take it back. I pity the girls more,” Gabriel said, clapping Rhys on the back.
“Aye, fuck right off then,” Rhys said amiably as they reached the gymnasium.
As soon as they were fully outfitted in their black uniforms and tactical vests, swords sheathed and guns holstered, they went over their plan to take down the Birdcage one more time. Then they climbed into their SUV, and Gabriel was surprised to find a new face in the driver’s se
at. A dark-haired bear shifter awaited them, as big and fierce as any of the Guardians themselves. He was dressed in the same getup as Gabriel, minus the weapons.
“Who the hell are you?” Aeric barked, evidently just as shocked.
“Settle,” Rhys said, lifting a hand. “Mere Marie doesn’t want Duverjay driving us to missions anymore, so we have a little help now. This is Asher. Asher, Gabriel and Aeric.”
Asher looked in the rearview mirror and gave them a curt nod, then pulled the SUV out of the parking lot. Gabriel and Aeric went over their plan a final time, trying to catch any potential issues, and then silence lapsed for almost ten minutes.
“So… how do you know Mere Marie?” Gabriel asked, curious about the silent werebear piloting their vehicle. He looked vaguely military. Something about the way he held himself, tense and ready for trouble.
“I wouldn’t say we know each oth—”
There was a deafening crash as a car slammed into their SUV’s right front side, spinning it like a cheap top. Gabriel’s head hit the side window, turning his whole world white for several long seconds. He blinked until his vision returned, and then he saw Asher and Rhys cautiously climbing out of the front.
“You alright?” Gabriel asked Aeric, who grimaced as if in pain.
“Fine,” Aeric said.
“Aeric—”
“We’ve been set up,” Aeric said. “Look, Pere Mal’s men are coming for us. Get the fuck out of the car.”
Gabriel’s attention snapped outward, and he flung his door open and climbed out in time to see a dozen black-suited goons approaching. They were all heavily armed, but Gabriel was surprised at how few of them were present.
“Something’s not right,” he called to Rhys. “There aren’t enough of them! Why would Pere Mal only send a dozen men against us?”
Rhys nodded, looking uncertain. Pere Mal’s men swarmed, and for several long minutes Gabriel thought of nothing but the fight. He drew his sword and took down four attackers before running to aid Aeric, who was limping badly. Two men were harrying the blond Guardian, preying on his injuries from the car crash. Gabriel dispatched one immediately, freeing Aeric to fight off the other.
In the space of ten minutes, Pere Mal’s men were all dead or gone. They’d attacked the Guardians in a residential neighborhood, so curious humans were already heading toward the crash, drawn like flies to honey.
“We need to move,” Asher urged them. “Someone’s already called the police, I can promise you.”
“Not to the car,” Rhys said when they moved toward their vehicle. “They probably have a tracker on it. We need a different ride.”
To Gabriel’s surprise, Rhys pulled out his cell phone and managed to have a police van pull up curbside in less than five minutes.
“I don’t even want to know how you did this,” Asher muttered to Rhys, eyeing the police office officer who drove them back to the Manor at breakneck speed.
“We’re going to have to strip in the gymnasium and run a sweep over everything we’re wearing,” Aeric broke in. He eyed Asher with a suspicious glance. “And the new one will have to be questioned.”
“He took the oath, just like we did,” Rhys informed Aeric.
“He what!?” Gabriel sputtered. “Mere Marie didn’t tell us there was another Guardian!”
“I don’t think he’s a Guardian yet,” Rhys said, crossing his arms. “More like a potential recruit.”
“I’m right here,” Asher snapped. “I can hear you.”
Aeric regarded the stranger for a moment.
“If there is any other way you have to excuse your debt, do not join the Guardians,” Aeric told Asher. “She is the most fickle of mistresses.”
A muscle ticked in Asher’s jaw, but he didn’t respond, choosing instead to look out the window. They pulled up in front of the Manor and piled out.
Gabriel broke into a trot, suddenly eager to see Cassie. Rhys was right on his heels, but they both skidded to a halt when they crossed the Manor’s marble steps.
“Where are the wards?” Gabriel wondered, looking up to the mansion. It lay still and silent, making him wonder if Mere Marie was just tinkering with the warding spells that protected the Manor and its inhabitants.
“Shite,” Rhys said, breaking into a run.
The Guardians burst into the Manor at full speed, finding the door slightly ajar.
“Echo!” Rhys shouted. “Echo, where are you?”
Nothing.
“Cass! Duverjay!” Gabriel cried, warring with Rhys as they simultaneously pushed into the living room on the main floor. It was empty, though the French doors in the back were wide open. A glass tray of cut and prepared fruit lay on the floor, and Gabriel spotted Duverjay’s unconscious body next to it.
Crouching, next to the butler, Gabriel checked his pulse.
“He’s alive,” Gabriel told Rhys, who was already heading into the backyard.
“Go upstairs!” Rhys tossed over his shoulder.
Gabriel turned to obey, but he heard a soft noise from outside. He retraced his steps and walked outside, then followed Rhys to the gymnasium.
Echo was huddled just inside the gym’s thick steel door, which was battered and bent as if it were made of the thinnest layer of aluminum. Rhys knelt, pulling his mate into his lap, nuzzling and stroking her as she sobbed.
“They just, they just took her!” Echo cried.
“Took who? Mere Marie?” Gabriel asked.
“No, Cassie. They took Cassie,” Echo whimpered. “They tried to take me too, but I locked myself in here until they gave up.”
Gabriel sprang to his feet, looking around wildly. Though he’d heard Echo’s words all too well, that didn’t stop him from racing back to the house and searching the Manor floor by floor in a panic.
“Gabriel, you must stop,” Aeric said when Gabriel tried unsuccessfully to break into Mere Marie’s quarters on the top floor. “She’s not in there.”
“Where’s Mere Marie?” Gabriel demanded to know, leaning against the solid oak door and sinking to the floor. “How could she leave the Manor unprotected?”
“She couldn’t know that Pere Mal would manage to get inside,” Aeric said. Gabriel could see the wisdom of the Viking’s words, but logic was useless to him just now.
“What am I going to do?” Gabriel asked, raking his hands through his hair. “I have to find her, Aeric. She’s my responsibility, and I failed her.”
Aeric huffed a sigh.
“I would start by scrying for her, don’t you think?” the blond Guardian suggested. “Better now than later. I have the best scrying mirror in my library. Grab something of hers, something personal, and we’ll do some location spells.”
“Right,” Gabriel said, trying to pull himself together. He needed to be practical and level-headed, though all he could think of right now was killing Pere Mal with his bare hands in the most bloody, visceral way possible. “I’ll be down in a minute. Let me just find something of Cassie’s…”
Aeric nodded and disappeared, and Gabriel headed into his bedroom. He stopped and picked up one of Cassie’s favorite blouses, then laid it aside. Not personal enough. He stalked into the bathroom and lit on her hairbrush, which was about as personal as one could get. He moved to pick it up from the sink, then clumsily knocked it off the counter and sent it spinning across the marble floor.
Gabriel pursued it with a grumble of complaint, crouching down to pick it up. He paused, spotting a long piece of plastic lying on the floor next to the trash can. Sort of like a toothbrush, but without bristles. He picked it up and turned it over.
“Hormone Level Indicator,” he read the stick’s markings aloud, noting the little box at the end. There was a big blue + sign in the box, but Gabriel couldn’t make heads or tails of it. He frowned and tossed it in the trash. Only then did Gabriel see the packaging. Early Pregnancy Test, the box read.
The hairbrush fell from his hand, forgotten.
Cassie was… pregnant?
&n
bsp; 12
The first sensation that Cassie felt was, strangely enough, numbness. She drifted in a hazy fog of it, her mind slowly unfurling from the perfectly blank state of unconsciousness.
Then came the pain.
Cassie sucked in a breath and surfaced to find herself bound tight from shoulder to foot, arms crossed over her chest like a pharaoh awaiting burial. Thin corded rope bit into her wrists, hips, and ankles. The ropes cut at her sensitive skin in some places and deprived her fingers and toes of blood, which explained the numbness and pain.
She was standing upright, her back pressed against cool, rough stone. Her feet were bare, and she wore nothing but the thin silk robe she’d worn at the Manor… and a blindfold. That much was new. How had she come to be wearing a blindfold?
It took a moment, but Cassie got it. The abduction came back to her, or at least a small snippet. She remembered accepting a tray of hot green tea from Daisy, the Manor’s new maid. She remembered wincing when the tea made her mouth and throat go numb. She remembered seeing a man in a dark suit, her brain slowing and slowing as she struggled to get away, to understand why the man was picking her up and taking her away…
Just the thought of the bitter herbs that had been slipped into her tea made her stomach turn. She retched dryly, unable to move. Once the moment of nausea passed, her first thought was the baby. Would the herbs hurt the baby?
Her abductors had better hope not, or there would be a world of pain in store for them. Death, actually. Cassie had never killed a human or Kith creature before, only demons, but exceptions would be made. She could actually imagine the taste of their blood on her tongue, which made her stomach growl. Which, in turn, disgusted her and led to another useless round of retching.