The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One)

by Lenore Wolfe

  They stepped up the protective chant they had continued at all times to whisper beneath their breath—not even loud enough to be heard by even their own ears—while clasping each other’s hands tightly within the protection of their circle.

  Roman was there, beside the Sisters of Three, waiting for when the sisters would need him.

  They could see Justice’s sisters just outside the shack, though they were virtually invisible to their enemies. They held silver bows and white arrows, which were trimmed in white feathers. Both their bows and their arrows were intricately painted in silver with powerful symbols, and the arrowhead tips had been dipped in an herbal potion. Justice’s sisters were likewise dressed in white. White boots, made of leather, came up past their knees. They also wore white capes, trimmed in silver symbols like their weapons, which hung down to their calves.

  They were as silent—and as beautiful—as the silver shadows of the moon, slipping through the trees.

  They were each standing at an opening into the cabin, whether it be a door or window. They reminded Jes of Goddesses—perhaps the Three Fates, or maybe even the Valkyries.

  The Sisters of Three increased the speed of their chant, muttering it under their breath with increased power and intensity, for they knew—it was now their time to act.

  They could see Justice move his body carefully out of the way of the door, without blocking the window to his right. He knew his third sister was poised to let her arrow fly from a window toward the back of the shack and to his left.

  Constantine was so arrogant that he never questioned his ability to defeat any enemy, much less an enemy he considered a boy, like Justice. After all, he had been doing battle with his enemies for centuries.

  It had become almost too easy for him.

  Why else would he place himself with an open window nearly to his back?

  The Sisters of Three watched the exchange between Justice and the old vamp, watched as Dracon came through the door.

  And they saw the vamps pour from the woods in flocks.

  The sisters let go of each other’s hands long enough to grab the potions. They saw Justice’s sisters expertly shoot their arrows at the incoming vamps, neatly piercing the vamps’ hearts.

  They never missed.

  But they couldn’t stop all of the vamps who poured from the darkened protection of the woods. There were just too many of them. Jes, Mira, and Dara were keenly aware that, no matter how hard they tried, Justice’s sisters could no longer reach him—or Dracon.

  The vamps couldn’t see Justice’s sisters—so they remained unharmed for now.

  But now it was up to Jes, Mira, and Dara.

  They quickly began to chant their spell as they stepped through Roman’s doorway and appeared in front of the shack. They moved to form a circle around the perimeter of the cabin and threw their potions high over the shack, then crossed through Roman’s doorway back to their original place where, again clasping hands, they chanted the rest of their spell, temporarily binding their enemies and blinding them to their movements.

  Roman had stayed behind with Justice and Dracon.

  Seconds later, they saw Justice and Dracon disappear from the cabin.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Jes and Justice

  Justice came to Jes in the twilight hours of the night. The danger of what they had done that night only heightened the intensity of their emotions as they made love. Justice ran his fingers over her naked flesh. The moon was shining through the window, laying silver tracks across her skin which his lips traced until she begged for more. He kissed the tears that spilled down her face, and made love to her.

  It was some time later when they slipped into the shower, then wrapped themselves in large, fluffy towels and fell into the bed. They both lay there, holding each other, each caught up in their own thoughts.

  It had been an unbelievable night.

  Jes almost couldn’t believe that they had actually come out of that meeting safely. And she knew they were in more danger than ever because of it.

  Now Constantine knew exactly their abilities, of what they were capable—and he was probably very angry for the knowing. It was only the sisters’ protection spell that currently kept him from knowing what they were doing, and it had taken all their will to keep him in the dark.

  He wouldn’t fall for their plans again so easily—or for the use of one of Roman’s doorways, either. He’d been around much too long for such tricks to work twice.

  It had taken all the power the sisters had to keep him from sensing it this time—and that was probably because he had hardly been paying attention.

  Jes shuddered. It had been amazing. The sisters had sensed, right toward the last, the consciousness of Constantine—and he had come dangerously close to sensing theirs. Only his incredible arrogance had kept him from doing so. It had blinded him.

  He likely wouldn’t underestimate them again.

  Jes cuddled up next to Justice, and he slipped his arm around her. She snuggled into his shoulder, and he held her head to his chest and kissed her forehead with a tenderness that made her weep.

  After a long while, they both drifted off to sleep.

  Jes woke to the dark of the night. She sensed that Justice was up, dressing. He came to her and kissed her in a leisurely manner. She sat up and hugged him to her, knowing it might be several nights before she saw him again. And then he silently slipped out into the hall.

  She didn’t go back to sleep for some time. She couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had happened out in the woods, under the silver witness of Grandmother Moon. It raised the hair on the back of her neck.

  And she knew that it had been merely a dance—compared to what was bound to take place very soon now. She could only hope they would be ready.

  She frowned. What concerned her most was that more than half of them were merely children compared to the experience that Constantine brought to this war.

  Out of all of them, he was the oldest.

  There likely wasn’t much he hadn’t seen.

  That made him a difficult enemy to beat. He had not lived through so many enemies for no reason—he would not be easy to defeat.

  It was late in the afternoon the next day and Jes was, once again, waiting for Justice. It seemed as though she were always waiting for Justice.

  She paced the room, waiting.

  She flopped onto the bed—waiting.

  She understood why it was so—why it was the way it was. Justice had serious responsibilities to the People—and Jes would never take him away from their people. But that didn’t make it any easier to always have to wait. In some ways it actually made it more difficult—because she had no idea when any of this would settle down—and life could go back to something that resembled normal.

  Jes went still. What exactly did that even mean? She had to wonder what normal would even look like. She had an idea that nothing about her life had ever been normal.

  And she had a feeling that if her life was to somehow begin to resemble normalcy—she might sabotage it to bring it back to what she had become accustomed to.

  She shook her head. She sounded like a trauma junkie.

  Besides, she was realistic and she knew that her life, as she had known it, would never again come close to anything she had once considered normal—not ever.

  Jes didn’t want to seem selfish. The man she had thought of as her father, for all these years, had betrayed them all. She knew she wasn’t responsible for that fact. But she still felt responsible somehow. She knew she shouldn’t, and she wasn’t going to take that on. She knew better.

  But she also didn’t want to add to what had become a very difficult situation.

  She didn’t feel she really had the right to even feel irritated with always having to wait.

  The mere idea of becoming irritated felt…selfish—and childish—with all that was going on right now, all of which was so much bigger than her relationship with Justice. The foundation of ever
ything they had built was in danger. The very existence that the humans, Fae, Jaguar People and, yes, even the vamps, enjoyed was being threatened.

  There was no place that existed that would not be touched, if these rogue factions managed to win this war.

  These vamps had found their start in Land of the Fae, when they had refused to die. And they had learned to bridge the spirit world with the human body—but a body that craved blood to live.

  In a way, they had found a way to live between the worlds. And now, they also refused to live according to the rules of the more ancient civilization from which they had sprung forth.

  Jes stilled as a feeling crawled over her. Something about all of this bothered her. But she didn’t have any idea what. She had a feeling she was supposed to know something. She had the feeling that the answers to their dilemma with Constantine were hidden somewhere deep inside her. But she didn’t have any idea what it was she was supposed to know.

  She moved as restlessness stole its way through her limbs, anxious to speak with Justice, to talk to him about these feelings.

  And waiting wasn’t part of the plan.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Jes

  Jes sat with her legs folded in front of her, her ring fingers and thumbs touching together in a classic meditation pose. She was meditating, just as her sisters were. They needed this—especially after last night. But that needed recovery wasn’t actually why they were currently meditating: they were meditating now to listen to the spirit world for answers, answers that would tell them how to deal with Constantine.

  They were listening for their ancestors, so that they might help to lead them toward victory. They were listening for the wisdom of the ancients.

  Jes had yet to find time alone with Justice since earlier that morning, when he had kissed her so thoroughly: a kiss she could still feel.

  She shook her head, trying to push away her lusty thoughts.

  After facing Constantine, the sisters knew they were going to have to put all their concentration into finding a way to defeat him. It was going to take all of them.

  But mainly, for Jes anyway, she was meditating on that elusive thread of her thoughts—a strong gut feeling that was telling her she should be following something through—if only she knew what that something was, she was supposed do—and to what end?

  Justice’s sisters were back at their hand-to-hand combat training—driven now more than ever to hone their skills. Jes didn’t have much time to practice her hand-to-hand combat skills at the moment, but she was careful to put any time she could into it. She had a feeling it was going to come down to a lot of hand-to-hand combat at some point. She had a feeling that the day would come when she would need those physical skills, even beyond the magickal skills she was learning in her role with the Sisters of Three.

  And she didn’t want to neglect any part of her training.

  She realized that she had, once again, let her thoughts drift. She had already had to bring her consciousness back into focus several times, and move it toward a gentle blackness—and blankness—so she could listen.

  After a long while, she received a strong feeling of a pull toward Jared. She opened her eyes. She needed to see Jared. And she needed to see him—now.

  She met Jared near the edge of the meadow. She watched him walk across the grass toward her. She had told him where he could park his car, near the river, when she had spoken to him on the phone, and where exactly she had been hanging out lately, and to where he would have to walk to meet her in the meadow.

  After she had snuck out the day she’d gone to see the gangbanger, when she’d had Jared drive her, he had been gone from Second Wind, working with a different group. She had been meaning to find out if this was something he had chosen to do—or if it had been something Justice had sent him off to do in punishment for helping her. She didn’t want to think of what she would do if he had been put there against his will. But she’d been so busy with her training that she’d never had the chance to look into it. Jes wasn’t one for allowing anyone to make her decisions for her, and heaven help Justice if he’d… persuaded her old partner to leave.

  She wasn’t going to respond well if Justice had made any decisions for her—or for her former partner—but she really didn’t believe he would do such a thing, so she was even more anxious to hear why Jared had left.

  She wouldn’t tolerate overbearing, controlling tactics—from anyone—so she figured she just needed to hear Jared tell her that he had left because he had something he needed to do. But what could have made him take off like that—and not tell her?

  When she started wondering about that, the nagging feeling came back, which led her to believe that whatever it was that had caused him to leave—must also be involved in why she felt driven to see him now.

  Jes had asked him to meet her in the meadow just past the manor. She wasn’t sneaking, exactly: it was only through the trees. She went there to walk several times a week. It was the only break she ever received from feeling herself tied to this manor.

  She just had found that she didn’t want to explain to everyone why she had asked to see him—and so suddenly—mostly because she didn’t have an explanation for it.

  She’d just a strong feeling that not everyone should know she was having this meeting.

  She didn’t know why she felt that way—certainly didn’t understand it—but she always followed her gut, or at least tried to.

  And then, she also felt a need to protect Justice—and she’d had the distinct feeling that her talking to Jared made him distinctly uncomfortable. She would do anything to spare Justice’s feelings. Not that this—sneaking out and meeting Jared surreptitiously—would make him feel any better if he found out.

  It would probably make it much worse.

  But she needed to do it this way.

  Besides, the main dangers they faced didn’t tend to walk around in the woods during the day—not that danger didn’t lurk during the day, but it was significantly decreased.

  Only a few vamps had found ways to move around during the day. And even then, most didn’t often choose to do so.

  Dracon, for example, could move around during the day when he chose. She had realized, after she had found him in her room that morning with the others, when she had been assaulted by her father’s old witch, that Dracon was making a conscious choice not to get caught out in the sunshine.

  His avoidance of the sun ran more along the lines of an aversion than a necessity, since the sun didn’t seem capable of killing him. She didn’t blame him; it wasn’t surprising, after all. Most vamps naturally avoided the sun; even if they had found a way to move around in it, they would at least try to stay out of its direct rays.

  Jes and Jared sat on a log near the edge of the meadow. She listened carefully when he answered her question about what he’d been up to.

  That nagging feeling was back, stronger than ever, and she had to force herself to concentrate on what he was saying.

  He told her that after he had brought her back that day—the day she’d had him sneak her off the compound—he had chosen to go. He had been thinking about everything he had learned, and he had realized that if vampires were real, then the vampire hunters were likely real too.

  He’d gone to Dracon to find out how to find them.

  Dracon had been around a long time. He knew exactly where to find them. So with Justice’s permission, he’d set up a training program for vampire hunters.

  Now, the vampire hunters were showing up from all over the place, which is why he hadn’t had any time to get together and talk with her about it. He’d been too busy trying to get them all organized. He now had an army of several hundred vampire hunters amassed.

  Jes was blown away—both by what he’d been up to and by Justice’s generosity—and she was doubly impressed with the fact that Dracon had actually helped him find vampire hunters.

  She was happy to learn what her partner had been doing, but for the life of
her she couldn’t figure out what it had to do with her, except that the feeling she’d been trying to understand was now at a full-blown clangor within her midsection.

  What was it she was missing? Why had she been so strongly pulled to see Jared?

  She searched her mind and heart as Jared talked, but she just couldn’t figure it out.

  Jared had stood and begun pacing when he reached the frustrating part of his story. He told her that in spite of all the help Justice had given him in training the vampire hunters, he couldn’t get Justice to agree to allow them a part in actually fighting the vampires.