“Tell that to she-hulk.”
“I’m sick of you calling me that!”
“If the shoe fits.”
“Enough!” Aaron said. “Frank, if you know where Damien is, if you know what’s going on, you need to fill us in. We can’t have secrets. Secrets will destroy our group and then she wins.”
“I know,” Frank said, taking a breath to calm himself. “And I’m sorry. But there’s more to this than just one secret.”
“So, what happens now?” Aaron asked.
“Now we get in the van, we head back to Amber’s mom’s place, and we don’t talk about anything until I can get some wards up. I think Damien’s keeping her busy enough that she won’t be listening to us right now, but I don’t know how long that’ll last.”
“He really is with her,” I said.
Frank nodded.
“And it was his idea?” I asked.
Again he nodded. “We don’t have a lot of time,” he said, “We have to go. Now.”
What choice did I have?
Chapter Twenty Two
“She’s stepping up her game,” Aaron said to Jackal, “Amber’s getting better and now this bitch is starting to make her moves.”
“You must have known this day would come,” she said.
“I did, just not… yet. The whole atmosphere has changed. Nature doesn’t like whatever this woman is, and whenever she acts it’s like the planet reacts.”
“I can feel it too, never smelled anything like this before.”
“It’s gonna get bad, Jackie. I’m telling you. This shit is going to spill over if we don’t beat it.”
“I’m not the one you need to convince. It’s your old man you need to talk to.”
“No,” Aaron said, “He made his choice. If he doesn’t want to get involved, then that’s on him.”
“It isn’t, it’s on us. We know what the threat really is. He doesn’t. If you want to convince the old wolf to help, you have to give it to him straight. No beating around the bush.”
“What does that mean?”
“Tell him the truth, Aaron. Don’t make this about the pack, make it about family.”
“His pack is his family.”
She fell silent for a moment and turned to look out of the kitchen window. The sky was greying again, and night was coming. “You’re the only person who calls me Jackie, you know that?”
Aaron shook his head. “I didn’t.”
“Not even your old man calls me Jackie. It’s like the name has been forgotten.”
“I won’t forget it.”
Jackal turned around to face him again and leaned up against the counter. Something about her smelled different, but he couldn’t figure out just what it was. It made sense that Damien entered his mind when he looked at her—he was on everyone’s mind—but… was it her smell that triggered this particular thought?
“If you’re dead, there’ll be no one around to call me Jackie anymore,” she said.
“That’s pretty fucking tragic,” Aaron said.
“So don’t get killed.” She fished her phone from her pocket and tossed it at Aaron. “Call him. Make it right. You know what you have to do.”
Aaron stared at the phone in his hand. He knew, deep down, what his father wanted—what he had always wanted—but Aaron didn’t know if he was ready to give it to him. He didn’t know if he would ever be ready. There was Amber to think about, and Frank and Damien. Aaron had friends, a pack… a family. But if he didn’t give his father what he wanted, none of that mattered.
He took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair, and dialed Marcus’ number.
After three rings, the phone picked up. “Jackal,” Marcus’ gruff old voice came through loud and clear, “Jesus Christ. What’s going on up there?”
“Marcus,” Aaron said.
There was a pause. “Son… I wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”
“Believe me, this wasn’t my idea.”
“She put you up to it?”
“Yeah.”
“So?”
Aaron’s eyes found Jackal. She nodded. Naturally, she could hear what was being said, even from way over there.
“I need your help,” Aaron said.
“We’ve been through this, son—”
“No. We haven’t. Not like this.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“I want you to tell me that you’ll round up the pack and ride up to meet me. If you leave now, you can make it by sun-up.”
“And leave our place unprotected? That can’t happen and you know it, Aaron. You’re smarter than that.”
“Leave someone behind. I don’t care who. But the rest of you need to come up here tonight.”
“Last I checked, I was Alpha of this pack. You don’t get to tell me or any of us what to do.”
“Dad,” Aaron said, pulling the family card, “Do you really think the shit I’m dealing with isn’t going to spill into your turf?”
“From all the way up in Northern CA? I doubt it.”
“If we can’t stop what’s coming, nowhere in the world will be safe.”
Another moment of silence passed. “I’ll take my chances.”
Aaron’s breathing began to quicken. His heart started to race behind his chest, thump-thump-thump. Jackal sensed this and approached. A gentle placement of her hand on his shoulder helped calm his nerves, but then he got that scent again. Damien? He regarded her from above, but then he remembered who he was on the phone with.
“You’d rather let your son die than leave your territory,” Aaron said.
“I would rather have my son in my pack, to follow in his family’s footsteps, but he’s too fucking stubborn.”
“Reminds me of someone,” Jackal said beneath her breath.
Aaron pressed his lips together, swallowed, and said, “I’ll join.”
“Join what?”
“Your pack. I’ll join your pack.”
“That’s all I wanted to hear.”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?”
“Maybe you think that now, but once you’re running with us you’ll understand what a fool you’ve been to try and run from this for as long as you have.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Aaron hung up and put the phone on the table. Jackal squeezed his shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said, “This will work out.”
Damien. There it was; hidden in her red hair like a secret. Aaron could smell him on her. He pulled her away and stared at her, wide-eyed. “You slept with Damien?” he asked.
She shrugged and smiled. “You mad, cousin?”
“I guess I have no right to be.”
“That’s correct. You don’t.”
“But, I mean, why… why Damien?”
“I don’t know. He’s kinda hot. Not you kinda hot, but you know… sexy in his own way. And he has that scar going for him, too.”
Aaron smiled and Jackal returned it, but his smile soon faded when he realized the gravity of the choice he had just made. When this was over, he would have to join his father’s pack and move to Nevada. Dying on his knees at Acheris’s hands seemed like an easier thing to deal with than the conversation he would need to have with Amber.
And if his father didn’t hurry, he would get his wish.
***
“Are you sure you want to be a part of this?” I asked my mom.
She was upstairs when we arrived at her place and I didn’t feel it right to leave her in the dark about what we were about to discuss, so I went to go and get her. Damien being gone still weighed heavily on my chest, but Frank had reassured me that they had a plan. What plan could possibly involve Damien accepting a deal was entirely beyond me, but I had to trust that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt any of us.
“I am,” she said. “I may be of use.”
I nodded and led her down the stairs where Aaron, Frank, and Jackal stood waiting. I could tell by the way he was standing that Frank didn
’t approve of me involving my mother, but if he was going to be cryptic about secret plans he had made behind my back he would have to accept my mother’s presence.
We crowded around the kitchen table, standing and sitting beneath the yellow light overhead, with the cuckoo clock again counting the seconds.
“So?” I asked.
Frank’s eyebrow went up. “I guess I should spill it, then.”
“Only if you’re sure she won’t be able to hear us,” Aaron said. He had his arms crossed and was standing by the door like a bouncer at a night club.
“She won’t,” Frank said, “Damien was her link to us. Now that he’s gone my magick will keep her out.”
Her link. I nodded. “Alright. Tell us what you know.”
“Shall I make us all tea?” My mom asked.
“Tea would be great,” Frank said.
My mom walked awkwardly around Jackal and Frank, and proceeded to fill the kettle.
Frank sat at the kitchen table, took a breath, and said, “Damien knew she would come for him.”
“He knew?” I asked.
“She had been visiting him in his sleep, in dreams. For how long I don’t know. Maybe it had been weeks or maybe it started the day we arrived at the cabin. But she found a way in through his… his pain.”
“Pain,” I echoed.
“Damien’s in pain, Amber. Emotional pain as well as physical. You haven’t seen it, but I’ve been with the guy this whole time. All that negativity must have allowed her a way to get to him, and through him she’s been able to spy on us. At least to some extent.”
“Jesus,” Aaron said.
“It gets worse,” Frank said, “Earlier today, while we were waiting for you, she came to him in his dream. She offered him Lily, told him she could bring her back because she had—even if it was by proxy—been the one to kill her.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said, “Not even Collette’s magick could bring someone back from the dead.”
“We don’t know the true extent of this woman’s power,” Frank said.
“But we know she’s a liar.”
“We do. And Damien isn’t stupid. He doesn’t believe she can really do that.”
“So why did he accept her deal?” Aaron asked. “I mean, he must have if he isn’t here.”
“Damien knew she would come back to make her offer again. She needed him. He had something she wanted.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
Frank arched his head over his shoulder, looked at my mom, and then looked back at me. “Damien’s got the demon locked away in some kind of internal prison. He didn’t tell me the specifics—said I wouldn’t like it. But wherever he’s kept it he’s been able to hide it from her.”
Cups clinked as my mom struggled with her trembling hands to prepare multiple cups of tea. I went to stand and help her, but Jackal got to her before I did. She probably felt as out of place in this conversation as my mom.
“Damien would have agreed to give her the demon if she would spare us,” Aaron said. “That’s the only way it could have gone down.”
“I think so,” Frank said. “I mean, we’re still intact aren’t we? And if she teleported him out of sight she must have been there in person to do it. Somehow we missed her.”
“It must have been magick,” I said, “She must have put a spell on us.”
“Maybe. But that doesn’t matter. The important thing is that Damien knew she would come and he wanted to let her take him… but not before I made sure I could track his location.”
“You know where he is?” I asked, practically springing out of my seat.
“I do,” Frank said, “To the inch.”
“Seattle…” I said, trailing off. “It must be that place I saw when I stepped through the portal.”
“The irony is that Damien’s a better diviner than I am. I can’t peer into his location and see through his eyes, so I don’t know what he’s doing right now.”
“Then we have to go get him,” I said, “The witches I met in Berlin are still ready to help us? They can open a portal.”
“I told them you were incapacitated and to be ready for our call,” Frank said, “The time difference is a little awkward, but they’re on standby.”
It made sense Frank had been in touch with them. We had been able to talk about everything that happened in Berlin in the time between Collette’s death and my incarceration. Maybe my giving him their contact information so that he could make contact with them in the event of my absence was fate preparing us for what was to come.
“So let’s do it!”
“Amber,” Aaron said, “This is dangerous. We may know where Damien is but we don’t know anything about the place he’s in. We’d be going in blind. We need to be clever about this.”
“Aaron’s right,” Jackal said. She went around the table and placed a cup of tea on it for every one of us. “Never fight an enemy on their home turf, that’s just asking for it.”
“So, what?” I asked, “We do nothing?”
“We need to prepare ourselves,” Frank said, “Set up magick defenses, ready ourselves for a trap, and expect the worst.”
“I’ll go first,” Aaron said.
“Aaron, no!” I said, “You aren’t a witch. If she has magick wards like the ones Frank set up for me, they’ll rip you apart the moment you set foot out of that portal.”
“So protect me, then,” he said, “If anyone’s going to be taking the first beating in this, it’s going to be me.”
“Ahem,” Jackal said.
“I mean it,” Aaron said, “This is purely about size. If they protect me, I should be able to take whatever comes.”
“You don’t know the extent of her power, Aaron,” I said.
“Damien is my friend too,” Aaron said, “My pack. I’ll take the hit for him.”
I smiled at him then, but the smile wasn’t one of gratitude. It was one of pride. Hearing him speak like that about a man I was once intimate with, a man I now also considered a friend, always made me feel good. It reminded me how Aaron wasn’t a jealous person in his heart. It told me he trusted me; Damien too.
“I’ll call the witches,” Frank said, whipping his phone out of his pocket.
There was a flash of light, a grumble of thunder, and then each and every one of the lights in the house exploded in a shower of sparks and shards of glass. My hands went up and I ducked low to avoid the sparks and the glass. Aaron yelled for everyone to get down, a scream fell out of my mom’s throat like a reflex, and when it was done all that was left was the sound of distant, rolling thunder and the harsh breaths of five people.
“What the hell was that?” Jackal said.
“Sounded like a damned lightning bolt hit the house,” Frank said.
“I should check the fuses,” my mom said.
“No,” I said, “It wasn’t that…”
Aaron found my eyes and I could see, reflected in him, my own worry. This hadn’t been a random act of God. We both knew it, sensed it, felt it in our hearts. It was like we were in sync. “We have to get out of here,” Aaron said.
“Out? And go where?” my mom asked.
“Anywhere,” I said, standing. And when I looked at my mom, who was still standing by the kitchen window, I saw something which turned my insides to ice. Ice so cold it burned and stuck to the soft tissue around it. Aaron saw me backing up, face stricken with terror, and caught me as I tripped over the chair I had been sitting on.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I pointed. Frank was already looking out the window, his hands balling into fists. “We have company,” he said.
***
“You said they would be safe!” Damien said.
“I lied,” Acheris said, “Sorry, sweetheart.”
Damien struggled but the leather restraints tying his arms and legs to a stone wall were too strong for him to break free from, and his magick was useless in here.
Acheris approached and unsheathed a blade
from her belt. It was a short, sharp, and wavy thing—a kris inscribed with runes he couldn’t decipher—the kind of blade a single kiss from wouldn’t hurt, but would easily kill a man. She licked the sharp side of the blade and split her tongue in half. Blood trickled down her lower lip, her chin, and onto her black robe. She then sliced Damien’s shirt open, exposing his wounded chest, and licked the longest, deepest gash, smearing her blood all over his skin.
His head whipped back. A hot moan escaped his mouth as a kind of supernatural pain overwhelmed his senses to the point that it crossed the line into pleasure. Damien’s knees gave way and he felt himself drop, but the restraints held him up.
“Where is it?” Acheris asked. Her chin and neck were red with blood.
“You lied to me.”
“Get over it. Tell me what I want to know and I’ll make sure you’re compensated.”
Damien looked up at her, into her black eyes, and said “You’ll have to do better than that if you want to get anything out of me.”
“I think I can do better than that,” she said, “And when I’m done, I’ll have that old demon you’re hiding and the Red Witch.”
Acheris grinned, and while she hadn’t touched him, another dose of pleasure came in tall, frothing waves Damien couldn’t steer his ship away from. Something was happening to him. To his chest. He could feel it. Damien would have to lean into the storm and bear the brunt of it or be drowned by it, but whatever Acheris had done to him was already in motion and he was powerless to stop it.
At least she hadn’t noticed he was carrying Frank’s pentacle pendant around his neck.
***
I rushed to the front door of the house and made sure it was shut. Aaron came up behind me with Jackal, my mom, and Frank in tow.
“How many of them did you see?” I asked.
“Six,” Frank said, “Maybe seven.”
“Jesus,” Aaron said.
“Jesus what?” Jackal asked, “Who’s out there?”
I peered out into the yard from behind the curtain. The sky had completely darkened now, thunder was still rolling, and the occasional bolt of lightning would snap down and light the horizon in shades of blue and purple. All I had seen the last time I looked were shapes—hooded shapes—standing in the field, but I didn’t need to see more than that to know who they were, who had sent them, and what they wanted. Only now there was nothing out there but the impression of sycamores against the night.
The Amber Lee Boxed Set Page 102