by Davis, Lia;
A laugh drew his attention to Khloe. “No. Lissa may be the docile twin, but she’s just as stubborn as I am. Besides, she’s like a mama bear. Wants to protect all those she’s claimed as hers. So Ayden is trying to talk her into staying at Maxville.”
With everyone gathered in the living room, Jagger nodded to Mathew, and Lex shifted closer to the kid in a protective manner. Desiree’s anxiety was making Lex twitchy. With everyone on edge, Lex wanted to get out of there, but they needed to finish this, end the war once and for all.
At least end Kahn’s reign in the Underworld.
Rolling his eyes, Jagger talked to the boy. “What do you know about Samoan’s plan?”
Mathew straightened his spine. “Samoan will use the Dark Sinew to control the Dark Divine and use them like an army. She said she would also use the humans and magickin to lead you into a trap where she’ll kill you.”
The kid shivered as if a chill had rippled up his spine. Lex stopped himself from reaching out to comfort him. Would Mathew accept his compassion if he did?
Zach cursed as he flopped down on the sofa and propped his sneakers on the coffee table. “She didn’t happen to tell you how she was going to trap us, did she?”
“No. Samoan is clever that way. She never shares what she is up to. Only what she wants you to know.” Mathew shifted from foot to foot.
Lex touched his arm. When the kid glanced up at him, Lex motioned to the chair in front of them. With a short nod, Mathew sat. Relief rolled off the boy, but he didn’t relax. Letting a low growl rumble from deep within, Lex spoke. “Samoan needs to be stopped. I say we set a little trap of our own.”
Chapter Eight
“I don’t know where I fit in.”
Desiree turned at Mathew’s soft-spoken words as she stepped out onto the back porch. He sat on the top step, looking out into the backyard.
Inhaling the cool, clean air, Desiree advanced forward and then sat on the step next to him. “Neither do I. Until recently, I worked alone to try and spoil Samoan’s plans. I didn’t believe the other Divinities would trust me to fight by their sides.”
From the corner of her eye, she caught her son’s stare. “What do you mean?”
Breathe. Don’t start tearing up. “Samoan used you to get me to help her. Which I pretended not to be able to do. She once had a small piece of Hecate’s Sinew—the one that holds the magic of the three worlds and of magickin. She wanted me to charge it. She hoped it would be as powerful as the original.”
He stiffened beside her. “Did you do it?”
“No. I got pissed at her, tired of being lied to and used, so I shattered it. Right in front of her.” Desiree tugged her sweater tighter around herself. “That was when I called Lex for help and confessed what I’d done.”
“You didn’t charge it, so you didn’t do anything wrong.” There was a catch in his voice.
“Before that, I had given her information on the Divinities. Especially after the Sinew was found and brought here. I was the one who told her there were Dark Divine in my coven. It was my fault that my home was attacked.” A tear slid down her cheek.
Mathew scooted closer to her so their arms touched. “I moved the Dark Divine power into the Dark Sinew.”
“I guessed as much.” There was no judgment in her tone. Why would she judge him? They were both traitors to their kind. Yet the Divinities had done nothing but accept her into their circle.
Silence settled between mother and son for several long moments. In a way, it was nice. Just sitting in the cool, late morning.
“What will they do with me?”
Desiree jerked her gaze to him. “What do you mean?”
“I am the reason Samoan has control of the Dark Divine and their power. I committed a crime.” Mathew’s blue eyes shone with unshed tears.
Movement at the door caught Desiree’s attention as Lydia exited the house followed by Khloe. Both women sat on the wood floor of the porch. Desiree and Mathew turned to them, and Lydia held out a hand. “I’m Lydia.”
Mathew glanced to Desiree as if unsure before shaking Lydia’s hand. “You’re a healer.” He narrowed his gaze and frowned. “And a cursed vampire.”
Lydia laughed. “Yes. Samoan finds ways to amuse herself.”
A pfft from Khloe drew their attention. The tips of her white-blonde hair were purple instead of the usual pink. “Samoan is crazy and must die.” She extended her hand to Mathew. “I’m Khloe.”
“A shifter.” Mathew smiled.
Khloe leaned in and returned his smile. “You’re a changeling. We’ll have to go hunting together sometime.”
“I don’t hunt meat. But I could run with you on the full moon.”
Khloe perked up. “Deal. Now, about your punishment.”
Hot dread burned Desiree’s gut. Before she could grab Mathew, Khloe caught her wrist. Then she looked at Mathew, held out her hand, and conjured a tray with four cups and a container of cream. “Hot chocolate.”
Relief hit Desiree in a wave. She slid her hand to Khloe’s and squeezed. The Divinity sighed. “Look. We’ve all done things that suck. Des, you tried to hurt Samoan’s plans more than you helped. You didn’t have a choice.”
Lydia spoke next. “As a mother, I understand why you thought you had to do what you did. That alone is why Hecate didn’t strip you of your powers.” She glanced to Mathew. “You were an innocent in all of this. Taken from your mom as a toddler and raised with demons. Samoan probably fed you garbage about how you would be helping the worlds.”
“She assumed the Divinities were out to destroy her and her mate.” Mathew snorted and added, “Which isn’t wrong. But she believed she was making a better place to live.”
Ha. Desiree fisted her hands. “The bitch is crazy. It would be a better place for her and her minions.”
Khloe nodded. “True, true. But it’s not like we can go back in time and change things. We have to go with the hand we are dealt and go from there.”
“I can.”
They all stared at Mathew. Desiree asked, “Can what?”
Mathew smiled. “Go back in time. With your and Lex’s help, a small group of us can go back and fix this.”
Desiree stared at him with interest. In theory, Mathew could do it. He was, after all, a full-blooded Porter and his power was unlike anything she’d felt. However, time travel went beyond portal hopping. “How? I mean, that would take an incredible amount of power and energy.”
“Whatever Samoan did to me to transform me into a changeling made my power stronger.” Mathew glanced down at his hands in his lap.
Reaching over and covering his hands, Desiree asked, “Have you done it before?”
A slow nod of his head was her answer. Good gods. They could go back and stop it all. But at what expense? Could they truly alter history to save the future?
“I think it’s worth talking to Noah about,” Khloe offered.
Desiree nodded. Yes, they needed the Elder’s insight. As a seer, he’d know better than they would.
The idea was crazy enough to work. Or it could fuck things up worse than they already were.
Lex studied the kid, who looked uneasy with the attention he drew. After making the announcement that he could time jump, the females brought him inside, and Khloe set up the video conferencing for Noah’s insight on time travel.
“How far back can you go?” Lex asked.
Mathew met his stare and shrugged. “Not sure. Never purposely tried it, really.”
Narrowing his gaze, Lex worked his jaw, his patience running thin. They needed to get to Samoan before she released her army.
Next to him, Desiree placed a hand on his arm. Instantly, he calmed. “You said you time traveled before.”
“Yes, once, by accident. A few years ago. I got mad at Samoan for punishing a Lackey teen for stealing bread. I just wished I could go back in time and save him from the beating. The next moment, I appeared next to him a few
moments before he took the bread.” Mathew shuddered. “I believe I can go back and destroy the stone they are using for the Dark Sinew. But I don’t know how far back I can go because I’ve never tested it.”
Everyone looked at Noah on the TV monitor. The Elder tapped his finger on the arm chair of his recliner. “Time travel is tricky. Anything you change will affect the future. It’s hard to pick the time to jump to. Everything happens for a reason.”
Zach Nodded. “Our alternative is to go with the plan to lure Samoan into her own trap. If that backfires, then we’ll go back.”
“Then we could get stuck in a cycle of trying to fix mistakes and never get anywhere.” Noah shook his head. “Well planned, the time travel could work. But you need to make sure you don’t interfere with anything but the objective.”
Lex sighed. “Only change what we absolutely want to be changed. So we can’t go back too far. Less impact on the future.”
“I agree,” Ayden said as he sat down next to Zach. “I personally want to see where she is headed with her plan. Lure her into a trap. Then, if we can, take her out. Use the time travel as a last resort.”
“If my visions become reality, we may have to go with plan B.” Noah sighed. The Elder looked tired, like he hadn’t slept for days. Maybe weeks.
Once the video feed had been turned off, Ayden spoke to no one in particular. “Papa’s dreams are filled with visions of an apocalypse. He won’t go into details with any of us. I’m guessing he doesn’t want to shift our focus.”
Khloe placed a hand on her brother-in-law’s shoulder as if lending him support while leaning into Jagger. “I feel something dark coming. But I agree with Papa. What do we fix if we don’t know what to fix?”
Lex caught Desiree slipping out of the room, so he took that opportunity to get her alone to talk. He followed her to the kitchen table in front of a double window looking out into the backyard. “Are you okay?”
She glanced at him and offered a weak smile. “I need to call my mom, but don’t know what to say to her.”
Longing to be close to her family slammed into his awareness. Taking her hand, he tugged her to a stand and kissed her quickly on the lips. “Call her and tell her you are on your way with a surprise.”
She stepped into him and hugged him tightly. “I lied to them.”
He placed an index finger under her chin and lifted her gaze to his. “I may have only met your mother briefly, but she has a forgiving soul.”
A small smile formed. “She does. Will you come with me?”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chapter Nine
Desiree wiped her clammy hands on her jeans after she, Lex, and Mathew materialized in her Oceanway Coven home. She’d chosen her home first because she didn’t want anyone but her mom to see Mathew. In case his dark presence disturbed some of the residents.
Gods, I’m going to be ill. Her stomach felt as if there were a million butterflies fighting for real estate.
If she were honest with herself, it wasn’t Mathew’s changeling or dark powers that worried her. It was facing her mother after lying to her and the whole coven for eight years. Telling them that Mathew had died from an illness he didn’t have.
Before leaving the Divinity House, she’d called her mom and asked her to meet. Knowing her mom, she would be earlier than the ten minutes Desiree had stated.
A light knock sounded on the door. Desiree’s heart rate sped up. Lex framed her face in his warm, large hands. “It will be okay.”
When she nodded, he placed a tender kiss on her lips and then stepped aside for her to answer the door.
The worst that could happen was her mother asking her to leave the coven. She guessed she could live in the Underworld with Lex. Or get them a place on the river. Maybe the same building where Khloe and Zach had their condos.
“Are you going to let your mother in?”
Lex’s low-toned whisper in her ear snapped her out of her thoughts. Taking a breath, she moved to the door, exhaling as she opened it. “Hi, Mom.”
Eleese raised her brows, then glanced over her shoulder to Lex. A frown formed but quickly disappeared. Damn. Another secret. Well, her mating Lex wasn’t a secret. She just hadn’t had the opportunity to tell her mother.
“Please, come in. There is so much I need to tell you.”
“Yes, but Noah kept me up-to-date on the war and you and Lex being trapped in the Underworld.” Her mom stepped inside then tugged her into a tight hug. “I thought I’d lost you.”
There was a sob in her voice, triggering Desiree’s own waterworks. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she hugged her mom back and inhaled her rosemary scent. “I’m so sorry.”
Eleese pulled out of the embrace and searched her face. “No matter what you did, I will still love you.”
Desiree nodded and led her mother into the living room. Mathew sat on the window seat facing the back yard. His head lifted from the book in his hand and he stared at Eleese. A knowing flashed in his wild gaze as he stood, setting the book carefully on the seat.
Desiree’s mom gasped and covered her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes. “Is this…Mathew?”
“It is, Mama. Samoan…she took him. I lied, and Samoan took him.” A sob escaped her.
Lex wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Samoan used and manipulated Desiree to steal Mathew from her.”
Mathew spoke next. “Samoan told me my family was dead. That I was an orphan.”
Eleese held out a hand. “The last time I saw you, you were two, and very ill.”
“Please, let’s sit down.” Lex motioned to the sofa and chair around a glass coffee table.
Desiree and her mom nodded and took a seat on the sofa. Mathew seemed uneasy. However, when Desiree patted the seat next to her, he smiled and sat down.
Covering his hand with hers, Desiree told her mother the whole story from the time she’d met Samoan to when Desiree first saw Mathew in the Underworld. When she was done talking, she felt lighter, as if spilling the secrets she’d carried for so long had finally lifted some weight off her; no more lies weighing her down.
Her mom turned sideways on the sofa and cupped Desiree’s face. “I wish you would have come to me sooner. Especially about Mathew’s father being a Porter.”
“There was nothing you could have done. Nothing anybody could do.”
“Not true. Sometimes, when a child is born with a mix of powerful genes—in this case, a mother who is a Divinity-Porter mix and a warlock father who was also a Porter—then the powers within will fight each other for dominance.” Eleese kissed Desiree on the forehead, then sat back before continuing. “You never went through the power struggle. I figured your Porter side wasn’t strong enough to matter since your father was only a quarter.”
Lex nodded from the chair across from them. “But with Desiree’s Divine gift to connect to the spirit world, mixed with the element of Spirit, her Porter half would see no reason to fight. It would work together with her Divine power. That’s why she is so powerful.”
Meeting her mate’s stare, Desiree almost laughed. One side of his mouth twisted as if he fought a smile. His eyes held some kind of pride in them. Like the light bulb had flicked on. “I never thought of it like that.” She faced her mom again. “So, Mathew wasn’t dying due to the transformation. His Porter half was fighting him.”
Her mom smiled widely and reached a hand across Desiree to Mathew. “He did transform.”
“Into a changeling,” Desiree added.
Eleese winced and groaned. “I hate that word. It’s what the demons used to call shapeshifting witches. It’s meant to be an insult. The cursed child left in place of another.” She rolled her eyes and leaned into Desiree while squeezing Mathew’s hand. “He’s a shifter, like me.”
Mathew gasped. “You can take any form?”
“Yes. It is my Divine gift.”
“Cool. I’ve never met anyone lik
e me.” Mathew scooted closer, sandwiching Desiree between him and her mom.
After a moment, Eleese stood and asked Mathew, “Would you like a tour of the coven? That way, you can familiarize yourself. Oh, and see the school.”
Mathew stood, a wide smile on his face. “I’d love to. But I finished high school classes a few months ago.”
“You did?” Desiree and Eleese said at the same time.
“Yep. Online classes. You know, the virtual school.”
Desiree frowned even though she was happy that he was so bright. While at the same time, he was so much older in experiences than any magickin kid his age. “Matty, when this is over, I promise you will learn to be a kid. You’ll make friends, laugh, play, and get into trouble.”
Her son laughed and launched himself at her, hugging her tightly around the waist. With a heavy heart and tears in her eyes, Desiree hugged him back and kissed the top of his head.
After a few moments, he looked up at her. “I think I’m going to like it here.”
“I hope you do. Now, go get to know your grandma.”
“Thank you.” He squeezed her one more time before leaving with her mom.
Lex stood and moved behind her. He brushed her hair from her neck and placed a kiss on the tender curve to her shoulder. “Someone needs to release some bottled up energy.”
His low growl made her weak in the knees. Her sex throbbed with need. Turning in his arms, she captured his mouth in a demanding kiss. He returned it, matching the raw command. His fingers gripped her ass and dug into her cheeks.
When his tongue ran across the seam of her lips, she opened and welcomed the invasion. One of his fangs pricked her tongue, and the sweet tang of her blood in his mouth was oddly arousing.
She ran her hand under his shirt and over the hard, ridged muscles of his chest. A groan escaped him as he pulled back from the kiss, yanked the shirt over his head, and tossed it to the floor.