by Aliya DalRae
Raven turned to the Warlord, his eyes sparking with the anticipation of hunting down the bastards who just wouldn’t leave him alone.
“What?”
Mason had risen from his comfortable chair in the sitting area and was standing by the roll top desk that stood prominent in the rustic office.
“There’re still the cats to contend with.”
Again, Raven was certain his Warlord was speaking ancient Greek. “For chrissakes, Mason, they’ll have to wait. We need to deal with this, and now! You know how dangerous the Sorcerers are. It can’t be delayed.”
“I do, Raven, but we’ve put the cats off as long as we can. They want their retribution, and to be frank, they deserve it. You and Nox will have to do your due diligence there, and the rest of the Legion will be put on full alert in search of this Uli person.”
“That won’t do,” Raven growled, but Mason didn’t budge.
“It will have to. You don’t get to choose when and where you are punished, Raven.”
“But…”
“No buts. In two days’ time, we will deliver Nox to the cats and you’re aware of your own arrangements. It will happen according to plan. There are five other Warriors and scores of Soldiers perfectly capable of conducting a search for one Sorcerer.”
Raven looked to Jessica—for support, her perspective, something—but she was looking at the floor. “Jessica?”
She jumped, and when she looked at him she did a poor job of hiding the contempt in her eyes.
“Jessica.”
“Would you like to tell me what’s going on with the cats?” she asked, but by the look on her face he would swear she already knew.
“Mason doesn’t trust me to receive my own punishment. He’s afraid I’ll kill them all, and he might not be wrong. Nox is taking the physical punishment, while I experience it through our familial bond.”
Jessica frowned. “Well, that sounds perfectly fair,”
Nox crossed the room and put a hand on her shoulder. Raven swallowed the growl in his throat when Nox touched his mind, the mental equivalent of his brother flicking him on the ear.
“I have my own sins to pay for, love,” Nox said to Jessica. “I have done things that are unforgivable, and I am as deserving of this punishment as Raven. The cats are in agreement, and the Primeval is willing to accept this as my sentence.”
“But you weren’t in control when you killed those girls. Fuhrmann compelled you to do it.”
“That makes me no less guilty, at least in the eyes of the Primeval. Nor mine, truth be told. It really is the only way.”
Jessica turned to Raven. “You’re really going to let him do this? Take the beating that’s meant for you?”
Raven dragged a hand through his hair, buying himself a moment to think. The fire in Jessica’s eyes sped the process along.
“We don’t really have a choice, Jessica. Despite recent events, my beast can’t be trusted to behave itself. There isn’t a male in this room who believes it can. The cats’ way is primitive, but Mason has convinced the Primeval to accept it as sentence enough for both races, and it really is the lesser of two evils. There is no jail for Vampires, no life sentence for breaking our prime law. It’s either this or execution—for the both of us. Which would you prefer?”
Jessica stepped away, a pink tear forming in the corner of her eye. When she spoke, it was not to Raven or Nox. It was Harrier she addressed.
“Will you be the one to deliver Nox to the cats?”
Harrier looked at Mason before answering. At his Warlord’s nod, he said, “If you like, little one.”
“And will you stay with him? Make sure nothing happens that isn’t supposed to?”
Harrier hesitated. “I’ll be with him as much as I can, and we will have Soldiers posted near him at all times. We won’t let things get out of hand, I promise you.”
This connection between Harrier and Jessica would take some getting used to. His reassurances seemed to satisfy her, though, so Raven chose to keep silent on the issue. For now.
“Okay,” she said, then looked between Raven and Nox. “Fine.”
Chapter Sixty-Seven
“N ow that we have that settled, there is the small issue of finding this blasted Sorcerer.”
Mason paced the room, handing out orders right and left, but I was too angry to focus. Nox had been kind enough to fill me in through our mental connection as to what the whole cat deal would entail, and I was so not happy.
I got it, I really did. They had to resolve the issue and this was probably the best way. But really, what Raven did, he chose to do. Nox had been under another creature’s control. Even though the actions were his, the intent was not. It was not fair on any level that he was taking the physical punishment while Raven got away with a little telepathic owie.
But, it was not for me to decide, and afraid I was about to vamp out, I tried to stuff it away.
Mason was talking to Rachel about the kids.
“Merlin has the burner phone and is doing what he can to trace the number they’ve been calling. I don’t imagine it will do any good. I’m sure he dumped his the minute he realized the children were here.”
“Right,” Rachel said. She’d joined the group in the middle of the room and stood worrying her hands together as the Warlord spoke.
“Talk to them, Rachel. See if you can get them to open up more about this Sorcerer. Find out his habits, his haunts. Is he here alone, or are there more of the bastards running around my town again?”
“I’ll try,” Rachel said, “but they’re very protective of him.”
“That’s because they don’t know who or what he is. Tell them. Get them to realize that he was using them.”
“Because that will make them feel oh, so much safer here.” Rachel was getting her ire up, and I didn’t blame her. I could feel her frustration, despite having thrown my shields back into place after my tacit conversation with Nox. She was as protective of them as they were of this Uli guy. And then there was the guilt. I don’t know why she felt responsible for her sister’s actions, but then again, I was still pretty new to the family.
“They need to know,” Mason was saying. “They need to understand what they’ve been complicit to.”
“I’ll not threaten them!”
Mason sighed and brought his pacing to a halt in front of my aunt. “I didn’t mean that you should. But you must convince them that this Sorcerer is not their friend. He is a murdering bastard from a blood-thirsty race, and he needs to be stopped at all costs.”
Mason grabbed a file folder from his desk and stormed out the door, throwing an order for the Warriors to meet him in the War Room over his shoulder as he left.
“Right,” Rachel muttered at his back. “That won’t frighten them in the slightest.”
Chapter Sixty-Eight
O nce Rachel received word from the household staff that her new rooms were ready, she collected the children and escorted them home.
Rather than leave them to their own devices, Rachel had opted to have her own things moved into a larger suite, where the three of them could reside as a family. Talon and Phire each had their own room, which she would encourage them to decorate as they saw fit. Anything she could do to make up for her sister’s deplorable mothering skills, Rachel would do. Her niece and nephew would never again know what it meant to be without. Not clothing, not food, and most definitely not the proper love of family.
She felt her eyes spark briefly but put it away. This was a happy occasion, and despite her orders from that vexing Warlord, she would see to it that the children were comfortable before dropping the bomb about the Sorcerer.
Phire came bouncing into the living room after spending the last twenty minutes in her room.
“Ohmigod, Aunt Rachel! You’re not going to believe this! There is a television in my room! An actual television, and it gets all the channels, even the movie ones!”
Talon was close behind, and he wore an equally enthusiastic smile. “Mine has
a gaming console! I saw it in a store once where I was stealing food for Phire and me. These kids were playing this awesome game with knights and dragons and it was so cool! Now there is one in my own room!”
Rachel let the comment about stealing food slide by. She really didn’t want to think about what these children had done to survive. Had her sister just brought them to her to begin with, none of this would have happened. If she ever saw that woman again…
Her thoughts were interrupted by a flurry of scrawny arms wrapping her in a group hug as the children buried their ginger heads in her middle. She smiled as they prattled on, thanking her over and over again for their good fortune.
Rachel just wanted to cry.
She stowed that away as well, and as the children continued their excited chatter, she led them to the sofa and offered them something to drink.
“Do you really have blood in the refrigerator?” Talon asked, ever the skeptic.
“If it’s stocked as I asked,” Rachel said, checking the contents. “And it is. Is that what you would like?” This surprised her, as blood was the one thing they’d had in great supply, at least in recent months.
“No,” Talon said. “I was just curious. Is there soda?”
Rachel laughed. “Yes, there is, a variety it seems. Pick your poison.”
Both children requested Mountain Dew, naturally, and she grabbed a can a piece for them. For herself, she chose a mini bottle of merlot to soothe her nerves for the upcoming conversation.
They all settled on the sofa, a comfortable sectional arrangement perfect for her small family, and Rachel took a long sip of wine, straight from the bottle.
The children were full of questions, about the Legion, the Warriors, and Phire was especially curious about Harrier. Rachel answered each of their queries as best she could, laughing at their reactions to her stories about their uncle. Harrier didn’t know it yet, but it seemed he had quite a fan in young Sapphire.
When the conversation lulled, Rachel stuck a hesitant toe into the abyss of a subject she’d been avoiding.
“Can I ask you a few questions,” she said, easing into it.
“Sure,” Phire said, taking a sip of her second can of soda and curling her legs underneath her. Thank gods caffeine didn’t affect Vampires as it did human children.
“Can you tell me more about how you came to be here?” Rachel asked.
Talon made a small, warning noise in his throat, but Phire ignored him.
“What do you want to know? I mean, she took us to Detroit—where you were supposed to be,” she said. Rachel tried not to feel guilty as the girl continued. “When we couldn’t find you, she brought us here. She dropped us at that ice cream store in town and that’s the last we saw of her. All she told us was that Aunt Rachel was going to pick us up, and that we should wait for you right there.”
“She never called me.”
“Oh, we figured that out,” Talon said, his eyes narrowed. “But that didn’t help us much, now did it?”
“I am truly sorry,” Rachel said. “You have to know I would have never left you on your own.”
“We do, Aunt Rachel,” Phire chimed in, tossing a shut-your-mouth glare at her brother. “We can tell you just want us to be happy. Right, Talon?”
“Sure, whatever.” That boy was going to be a tough nut to crack.
“So, how was it you ended up with Uli, then?” Rachel asked after another sip of wine.
“He found us at the ice cream place,” Talon said, leaning toward Rachel with a flash of fang. “If he hadn’t, then we’d probably be dead by now, no thanks to you lot.”
“Talon, stop!” Phire’s eyes were wide, flicking back and forth between her brother and her aunt.
“It’s okay,” Rachel said. “I understand. Did he ever give any indication what he was doing here? What he did for a living? Anything like that?”
“All he said was that he had business in town, and that we were in the perfect position to help him out,” Phire said.
Talon glared at his sister, but she went on. “I don’t think he had a job, really. He spent most of his time looking for new places for us to stay and making sure we had plenty of blood.” She shrugged and lifted the soda can to her lips, then lowered it. “He did say that the Legion owed him.”
“Sapphire.” It was a warning.
“Stuff it, Talon. Obviously, something’s happening here. If you want to risk them throwing us out because you’re too stubborn to help, that’s fine. But I like this place, and Uli bailed on us when the Legion Soldiers came to take us away. Where did he disappear to? Did he help us when we needed it? No. So you can either help me help Aunt Rachel, or you can blow it out your ears. Either way, get off my back.”
Rachel stifled a laugh. The look on Talon’s face spoke volumes. He was definitely not used to his sister siding against him. Time for her to return the peace.
“Really, Talon,” Rachel said, “I do understand your loyalty, but I’m afraid you have been basing it on misinformation. Your friend, Uli, is not at all what he portrayed himself to be. I think you’re both old enough to understand exactly what it is we’re dealing with here, but I’m afraid you’re not going to like it. Do you want to know the truth?”
The children exchanged a wide-eyed look, then as one, turned their gazes to Rachel and nodded.
Chapter Sixty-Nine
K ythryn was edgy. The punishment ritual was due to start the next night, and she had mixed feelings about it. The Overlord had been good enough to explain the unusual circumstances surrounding the whole deal, what with that twin taking the place of the asshole who killed Malcolm. While it all made sense, in a Machiavellian sort of way, it still pissed her right off.
She really didn’t give a shit what the twin had done or why he needed to pay for it, and she was skeptical about the Vampires’ assertions that Raven would suffer too. But Brandt assured her he would not let that bastard go unpunished, and he was the Overlord, so she just let it be.
Of course, she had every intention of taking her pain and suffering out on whoever they put in front of her. She had a lot of aching going on in her heart, and damned if she was going to pass on a chance to work out some of her frustrations, even if it was on a look-alike.
Reaching into the Polar King bag sitting on the car seat beside her, Kythryn pulled out a hot, crispy, nugget of mystery poultry, and her mind took a turn in another direction. Oh, she was still contemplating Vampires and such, but this one was a different matter.
Memories of that giant russet-haired monster driving away and leaving her in the snow had her shoving the entire nugget into her mouth as a mental protest. She burned her tongue in the process, but damned if she was gonna spit it out.
How dare he leave her stranded like that? Were all Vampires assholes and jerks? She didn’t have a lot of experience with the race, but what she did have didn’t paint them in a very good light.
Still, there was that one moment when they were in the Hummer together, when he’d been right in her face. Her heart had been doing a trampoline act, and she’d thought for sure he was about to kiss her. Her anger and frustration told her she would have slapped his stupid face. However, the dreams she’d been having were making already restless nights even more unbearable by spelling out a whole ‘nother scenario. Memories of the most recent dream had her squirming in her seat.
A tapping on the car window made her jump, resulting in a reflexive squeezing of her thighs against the pop she’d been holding between her legs. The top flipped off in a gush of ice cold cola, which then soaked into her jeans leaving her shivering and pissed. Could the day get any worse?
A man was standing there, his arms folded against his chest, holding together a thin jacket that couldn’t have been doing much to fight off the frigid temps. She cracked the window to see what he wanted.
“Are you Kythryn Flannigan?”
“Who wants to know?” she asked, wondering why the man looked so familiar. He had long, white hair tied up in
a tail, and pale skin that was verging on transparent.
“I’m a friend,” he said.
Kythryn rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, I’ve already got plenty of friends, so…” She reached for the button to raise the window, but he stuck his fingers in the scant opening. “Hey!”
“You are a Shifter, correct? Feline?”
What the hell? How could he know that?
“Look, mister, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The Vampires killed your kinsman, did they not?” Kythryn had her finger on the button to raise the window again, but released it just shy of squishing his bony-white digits.
“Yeah, so what’s it to you?”
“Don’t you want retribution? A little…payback, if you will?” He had an accent, and it, too, was familiar, though she couldn’t place why.
“I do,” she said, shaking off the sense of déjà vu. “And it’s coming. Tomorrow I’ll get my pound of flesh and then some.”
“Wouldn’t you like more? An eye for an eye, maybe?”
Kythryn studied him a moment. “Who are you?” she asked again.
“I’m someone who wants to help.”
When she allowed herself to look the man in the eye, she relaxed. Of course. He was only trying to help.
“What did you have in mind?”
The man spoke to her, and she listened long and hard. His words were foreign, but she understood each and every one. He wanted to help her, and she was going to help him. At the end of it, he handed a small package through the window, then turned and walked away.
Kythryn stashed the package in the deep pocket of her winter coat, then reached for the bag on the passenger seat that contained her lunch.
Why can’t they ever get these things hot? she thought, as she bit into a cold chicken nugget. With a shrug, she stuffed the rest of it into her mouth, cranked up the heater another notch to dry off her jeans, and then headed for home, thoughts of a certain rusty-haired Vampire tugging at her brain like an annoying kid begging for attention.