Scent of the Heart

by Parker Williams

  The door to the hut burst open and Jake entered, his large form backlit by the bright sun. “What happened?” he demanded, his lips pulled back into a fearsome snarl.

  “Don’t know. Don’t have time to talk. I need you to kneel here next to me.”

  Without another question, Jake dropped to his knees. Casey placed a hand on Jake’s face. “He’s dying,” Casey whispered. “I need help and Hakiim is the only one I know who can tell me what I need to do.”

  “Do it.”

  Casey was the conduit to the spirit world, but Jake’s raw power gave him a needed boost when they worked in tandem. They slipped the borders between light and shadow, which Casey understood intimately by now. This time was different. Thick dark clouds covered the ground, clutching at their limbs like tar. Casey could sense a hunger in them, a desire to pull the living energy from their bodies.

  “This is wrong,” he whispered. “Nothing should be like this.”

  The spirit realm was normally a hazy place, a washed out image of reality, where those who passed on waited until they were judged worthy of acceptance into the next life, whatever that was. It was believed that those who were deemed honorable would be allowed to be with their family, while those who had done harm to others were doomed to wander until they truly repented. Overall, it reminded Casey of a dream. Something ephemeral, intangible.

  This place was more of a nightmare. Colors bled into the landscape, turning it from a gauzy gray to a blood red. Where there should have been people wandering, Casey saw nothing. He called to Hakiim, praying to the spirits to let him speak with his mentor, though the only answer was a howling wind that grew in intensity.

  “Something’s coming, Case,” Jake muttered, shifting to his jaguar form. In this realm, Jake was impossibly larger. The truest form of the Protector. His roar silenced even the wind for a moment. Then laughter bubbled up, surrounding them.

  “You don’t have any power here, Protector. It’s nice to see you again. It’s been a while.”

  The voice oozed with condescension and hatred. It sent a ripple of fear through Casey, and Jake regained his human form, his lips curled back in a fierce glower. “Elizar.”

  “You remember me. Lovely. I’m glad my death didn’t leave me forgotten.”

  Casey began a quiet protection chant. The air shimmered around him and Jake, solidifying into a thin layer around them.

  “That won’t do you any good here, Shaman. I control this place. And it’s all thanks to your friends.”

  “Explain,” Jake snarled.

  “No, I think not,” Elizar said, a note of finality in his tone.

  “I need to speak with Hakiim.” Casey tried to be defiant, but could hear the quaver of fear in his voice.

  Laughter boomed, threatening to deafen them. “Hakiim? You don’t remember your last visit here?”

  “I haven’t been here in months.”

  “You visited my realm after that fool Hakiim gave you express instructions not to. You died, and I sought your body for my own. Something tethered you to it, though, and I could not break that bond. This one, he whom you are trying to save? He will be mine. Soon he shall breathe his last, and then I will be reborn, ready to assume my place as the rightful ruler of the enclave.”

  “Over my dead body,” Jake hissed.

  “If that were the case, Protector, I wouldn’t need this whelp. Your body would suit me perfectly.”

  Jake whipped around to face Casey. “He’s got some kind of an artifact that was supposed to grant him the ability to take over a dead body while trapping the soul here.”

  “Yes, until that fool Kell lost to you in the arena. When you found us in the cell with Hakiim and the shaman, I was trying to find a way to take one of their bodies. The shaman was my first alternate, but his magic protected him. I settled on Hakiim, and was in the process of preparing him when you found us. I thought I could make it to the upstart Alpha, but you were much faster than I anticipated.”

  “Where’s your buddy Kell?” Jake’s growl vibrated through Casey.

  “He made an excellent meal. So full of rage and hatred, especially for you, Protector. He was the first one I consumed. It’s his anger that fuels me. The dark emotions are like nectar. They make me thirst for more.”

  Casey went silent for a moment, then exploded. “Where’s Hakiim?”

  The ground shuddered as Elizar sighed. “That one was such a disappointment. Almost no anger to sustain me. I doubt he would have been much use as a body if his spirit was this weak.”

  Sparks flew from Casey’s eyes, his hair standing on end as rage whipped through him. “You can’t destroy a spirit. Where is he?”

  “You’ve still so much to learn, Shaman. The spirit realm grants the dead time to reflect, to accept their fate and move on. I don’t give them that opportunity. I pull them out of this place and keep them inside me, where their hatred and fear continue to feed me, allowing me to insinuate myself further into your reality. The turmoil of the enclave? My doing.”

  Elizar sounded so proud of what he’d done. Casey hated the fact that he was gloating.

  “Each death nourishes me. I crave more and found that I could influence people enough to override their innate attitudes. I can almost literally drive them to kill. If I can’t return to the land of the living, I’ll bring them all here, where they’ll sustain me for all eternity. Out there, I was human. In here, I’m a god.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “If you’re a god here, why do you want a body to return to the enclave?”

  “I miss flesh and the joys of the body. I want to feel again. To know that someone shudders when I enter them for the first time—”

  “When you raped them, you mean. No one ever went with you willingly,” Jake sneered.

  A sharp pain radiated throughout Casey as Elizar’s anger swept through the realm. “Hit a soft spot, did he? How does it feel to know that the only way anyone would ever touch you was when you forced them?”

  An enforced calm spread out, blanketing the area in a soft haze. Casey could imagine Elizar gritting his teeth when he spat out, “This new body will be whole and virile. Few will say no to me.”

  “And those who do will be taken against their will, right?” Casey could feel Jake’s anger as a tangible thing. A pure hatred that caused Elizar to purr.

  “Protector, you would serve me well. Between you and Kell, I could live for eternity in a new body.”

  Darkness oozed around Jake, swallowing him into its depths. As he disappeared, Casey sensed his fear and desperation. He plunged his hands into the inky depths, fighting the urge to pull away as numbing cold crept through Casey’s arms and into his body as it chilled him to his very soul.

  “Yes, Shaman, your fear is delicious. I would take you as well, if it wasn’t for that damnable tether. What magic resides in you that makes you immune to me? Perhaps if I tear your mind apart again, I will find out.”

  Casey recoiled from the slimy dark tentacles that were trying to worm their way into his mind. They reeked of decay and death. Souls cried out for release, including Jake’s. Through the touch, Casey sensed Jake’s anguish as it fed Elizar. He sought the tether that Elizar claimed he possessed, something to anchor him. A slender silver cord, no thicker than a hair, jutted out from his chest, and traveled into the distance. He grasped it and pulled with all his might. Relief shot through him as the ooze pulled away. He reached out wildly, desperate to feel Jake. When fingers touched his, he grabbed and jerked on the cord again, tearing them both free.

  Elizar screamed in what seemed a combination of pain and fury. Strands of oily black dripped from Casey as he huddled Jake’s shivering body to him. Casey kept a tight grip on the cord, wrapping it around his wrist. He prayed to the spirits to help them and rejoiced when the tether began to warm, slowly turning into a brilliant light that caused the shadows to fall back.

  Jake’s skin was like ice. He shivered harshly as Casey continued to follow the tether line, hoping it would
bring them both to safety. Whatever Elizar had become, Casey had little hope of stopping him if Jake was powerless. The winds raged, buffeting them, and Casey was barely able to inch along as he pulled Jake with him.

  “Run, Shaman. Know that I’ll have the boy, and that his dying thought will be that you failed him.”

  Casey gritted his teeth. Sev was counting on him, and he had been powerless to stop Elizar.

  ***

  Sev chewed his finger as he and Zak stood guard over their mates and Mikhail. The last time Casey and Jake went to the spirit realm they thrashed about and cried out. Now they sat deathly still, sweating profusely. Zak had gathered Sev up in his arms and stroked his back, murmuring soft words of encouragement. Sev never realized how much the enclave had lost out on by not having a true Alpha until this very moment. Even though Zak was not raised in this world, he had stepped into his role like a man born to it.

  “It will be all right,” Zak said softly. “Jake knows that if he does not come back to me, I will find him and hurt him.”

  Sev snuffled. He knew Zak was every bit as worried as him, but he put Sev’s feelings first.

  “I can’t lose any of them, Alpha.”

  “We will not. I give you my word that everything will work out.”

  “Thank you for trying to comfort me, but we both know that you can’t promise something like that.”

  Zak clutched Sev by the back of the head and pulled back until their eyes locked. “Who am I?” he demanded.

  “Y-You’re my Alpha,” Sev stammered.

  “Then I give you my word as Alpha. This will be fixed.”

  A deep wheezing breath from Jake had them both scrambling toward their partners. Casey’s eyes were wide as his gaze flitted about the room. He jerked his hand away from Jake and Mikhail and struggled to his feet.

  “We need wards,” he gasped, then rushed from the house.

  Zak knelt by Jake, rubbing hands over his mate’s still form. Sev watched his Alpha’s brow furrow, assuming that Zak was trying to mind-speak to Jake. He could see teardrops glistening on Zak’s cheeks. He knelt down and took Mikhail’s hand in his. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t something Sev could fix, and he knew deep in his soul that he was going to lose his brother.

  Casey burst into the hut, clutching warded items in his hands. He frantically began hanging them near the doors, then lay one across Mikhail’s heaving chest. His breathing slowed, but his body remained rigid. Casey pushed a handful of charmed items into Sev’s hands, instructing him where to place them.

  “Hurry, Sev. Quick as you can.”

  Sev rushed about the room, hanging the shaman-blessed items where Casey had instructed him. Jake groaned and sat up, whimpering when Zak threw his arms around the broad shoulders.

  “Okay, that totally sucked,” he whispered, his voice harsh as if he had been screaming for hours on end. “Case?”

  “No time. Get up. I need help here. Go back to my house. In the cabinet near the window, bottom doors, you’ll find my materials for charms. I need you to grab that and bring it to me.”

  “Now, wait one minute,” Zak rumbled. “He is in no shape to—”

  “I don’t have time, Zak. He needs to get on his feet now,” Casey snapped. “You have to help him assemble the charms, and I’ll ward them so we can hang them around the enclave.”

  “Will this stop him?” Jake’s raspy voice croaked out.

  “No. It might slow him, but I don’t know how to stop him.”

  “Stop who?” Zak demanded.

  “Elizar.”

  “No,” Zak gasped. “This is not possible. He is dead. I killed him.”

  “There is so much more to life than we know, Alpha,” Casey stated. “And, apparently, more to death.”

  ***

  They worked through the night creating warded charms. Casey was dragging by the time he’d finished infusing them with his own magic. Sev worried that he was giving too much, but when he attempted to broach the subject, Casey shut him down by telling him he was trying to keep Mikhail from dying and being claimed by Elizar. That pushed Sev to work harder, trying to blend some of Casey’s tea for them all.

  By daybreak they had charms strewn throughout the enclave. Casey gave them one last bit of energy before he collapsed into a heap. Jake carried him to Sev’s hut and placed him near Mikhail. Zak had a couple of the servants attending both, giving them liquids and ensuring they were warm.

  “Can we not simply leave the enclave?” Zak asked.

  Jake shook his head. “No, he’s here already. He’s infected everyone. I don’t think trying to leave will stop that. We’re better off sticking together. Casey’s wards are going to help, but we need to find a way to fight back. He kicked my ass in the spirit realm, Zak. He would have absorbed me if it weren’t for Casey.”

  The Alpha shot a glance toward his friend. “Then I owe him more than I can ever repay,” he murmured, brushing a few stray hairs off Casey’s forehead. Sev growled, which earned him a brief smile from a now awake Casey.

  “Don’t try to turn me on right now. I’m kinda not in the mood.”

  Jake laughed. “Since when?”

  “Remember that kick to the balls I gave you? Remind me later I owe you another.”

  Casey sat up. His skin was sallow, and Sev had to restrain himself from pushing him down again. Casey stood, his knees wobbling, and lurched toward Mikhail. Sev rushed to his side and helped him kneel down next to his brother.

  “He’s breathing normally, but he’s so hot. I’ll put something together for Cyndil to use to cool him down. I saw something in the grimoire that will help, I think.”

  Sev was torn. His brother’s life lay in the balance, but he couldn’t lose both his mate and Mikhail. Casey turned to him, put a hand on his face. “I’m not letting him go, Sev. You need to know that. He’s my family, too, and I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure he’s safe.”

  “I can’t lose you,” Sev whispered.

  Casey peered into his eyes and Sev knew love, felt it to the very core of his being. His heart sang, filled with joy, even while worry clutched at his stomach. When Casey kissed him, a soft, gentle peck, Sev steeled himself that whatever came, he would face it with his mate.

  “Okay, the wards aren’t going to keep Elizar out. Maybe if I’d done it weeks ago, but he’s insinuated himself into the people, and the only way to fight is on the spiritual plane, which I know I won’t win. Even with Jake’s added strength, we almost didn’t make it out.”

  “So what should we do?” Jake queried.

  “Tell me about this item he had.”

  “He said it would give him the ability to take a body at the point of death and force the spirit out, then allow him to overtake it and have it as his own. He didn’t say what it was or where he kept it.”

  “We need to find that and destroy it. It’s what holds him to this plane. When Zak killed him, he must have transferred his essence to the item. Without a body, a portion of him moved on, but a part of him stayed here. He’s not whole.”

  Zak groaned. “If he is not whole, then what will he be like when he is? If he is this powerful now—”

  “I don’t think that’s the case. I’m guessing that he’s drawing energy from both places to supplement himself, which builds on what he’s got. If we can force the two halves together, I think we’re going to cut off his supply.”

  “That’s a big ‘if,’ Case,” Jake answered.

  “I got nothing else.”

  “Where do we start looking?” Sev asked.

  “We are going to tear the Alpha’s house apart. Elizar could have stashed it in any number of cubbyholes. You are going to stay here with your brothers. I need to know that you’re safe, and I can’t focus my magic if you’re in danger.”

  Sev puffed up his chest as his face burned in anger. “I survived for twenty years with Elizar when he was the usurper to the title of Alpha. Hakiim died. You died. Which one of us is better equipped?”

  E
motions danced over Casey’s features. Sev had struck an unfair blow, but he wouldn’t be cut off like this, not even by his mate.

  “Please, baby,” Casey whispered, cupping Sev’s cheek. “Don’t do this. Not now. I know you’re hurt and angry, and you can kick my ass when this is over and done with, but for now, please, stay with Mikhail.”

  “I won’t. My place is by your—”

  “Your place is where I tell you to be, Tsvetok,” Zak said, his voice like ice. “Do not forget who is the Alpha here.”

  “No, Alpha. Of course not.”

  Sev bowed, but his stomach ached as he tried to fight against the compulsion Zak was using. When Zak placed a hand on his shoulder, Sev flinched.

  “Your place is by your family’s side. If Elizar truly is trying to gain control of Mikhail, you may be the only one who can keep your brother focused enough to fight him. If you honestly wish to be with Casey, I will not force you to stay here. You have the right, but I ask you, please help us by being where you are needed the most.”

  Sev was conflicted. Between Casey’s imploring gaze, and his brother lying at his feet, he felt the decision was made for him. “I’ll stay with Mikky, Alpha.”

  Casey kissed Sev on the cheek. “Thank you. I swear, I’ll make it up to you.”

  “You can do that by rescuing our people. And coming back to me.”

  Casey gave his best cocky grin. “Oh, you know I’m coming back. My family needs me.”

  Sev’s heart practically flew at the declaration. He grabbed Casey’s neck and pulled him in for a kiss, mewling his need for his mate, trying to pour as much feeling into it as he could, needing Casey to understand how much he meant to all of them.

  “Wow,” Casey exclaimed as they broke the kiss. “Yeah, coming back for more of those.”

  Sev smiled at the flush running up Casey’s neck. Casey leaned forward and whispered in Sev’s ear, “The feelings are mutual, I swear.”

  “We will wait here until your return, Casey. Then we will tear the Alpha’s compound to kindling if that is what it takes,” Zak snarled.