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

by Lenore Wolfe

  “Roman said that he saw Morgi on the bluff behind Constantine and his men—before he had managed to close the doorway last night,” she said.

  Dara frowned. “How did she get out there? I thought she had been left behind with Justice’s unconscious sisters?”

  Mira gave her a confused look and nodded. “She was. Roman said that she had not returned through his doorway, so he has no idea how he could have seen her back on the other side.”

  Dara raised her brows in surprise. “It would seem that our witch has more powers than we know,” she said.

  Mira nodded. “So it would seem.”

  “Amar!” Dara called.

  Amar appeared right inside the room this time, now that she didn’t have to hide the fact that she was doing so from Jes.

  It still surprised the heck out of Jes to see her do so.

  “What is with Morgi?” Dara asked, not bothering to explain what she was asking.

  Amar shrugged. “She’s a powerful witch,” she answered. “How do you think that Constantine and his army of vamps did not get back to the shack before Dracon and Justice?”

  That had the sisters frowning.

  Amar nodded. “She kept them lost until the men could get you three out of there.”

  That one gave the sisters something to think about. Not only had she been able to cross back—without the use of one of Roman’s doorways—she had been able to confuse someone as powerful as Constantine.

  What kind of witch could have managed such a feat?

  Jes was sitting at the window, later on that night, staring at Grandmother Moon. Those feelings were back, and as Jes sat thinking about the night before, she became even more determined to have a talk with Justice.

  Though they had not actually located Justice’s parents, Lucius had been correct about where they might locate the vaccines. His parents had known that Lucius would figure it out. They had left the vaccines there for them to find.

  Since that moment, a plan had broken—like a dam had burst within Jes’s mind—the dam that had held back the last of what she would need to know. A plan was taking full form within her head. The plan was taking shape, and she had to find out if he thought it would work.

  It had come to her when she had been having a soda—she had taken one look at the straw she was using with which to drink her soda… and suddenly she knew how they could use the vaccine.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Jes and Justice

  Justice had put hundreds of workers together to make the blowguns—weapons that certain human tribes had used—and for the use of which they had dipped their darts into poison. These darts, the ones that would be needed to give the vaccines to the fledgling vamps, were specially prepared to inject the necessary amount of vaccine. They had been specifically prepared to inject the vaccine with very little pressure.

  He picked up a dart, careful not to prick himself. Who knew what this stuff did?

  Jes’s plan had been brilliant. He knew where she was getting her intel, but it still never ceased to amaze him.

  He shook his head. They had somehow made it this far—against an old vamp that had lived through almost two millennia of war. They now had the vaccine—the means to actually destroy him.

  And they also had a means of actually injecting the vaccine into the vamps.

  But what they did not have was important and vital—the missing information about the vaccine itself.

  Justice carefully set the blowgun dart back into the box with the rest.

  The small crew that had been left behind to work with the vaccine had been able to give them one piece of information that might be good news—yet it had come with a warning.

  Justice didn’t dare to hope that the first piece might actually prove itself true

  But the second part—he could only shake his head.

  They had said that there were no real tests of any long-term effects of this vaccine. The job of simply keeping it out of the hands of their enemy—who had been actively working to get his hands on it ever since he had been told of its existence—had prevented them from performing such tests.

  They knew nothing about how it would affect the fledgling vamps—other than it might possibly kill them outright.

  Yet, killing fledgling vamps was something they had already been forced to do.

  This alternative might actually save them.

  But at what cost?

  They didn’t know what the vaccine would actually do. Even if they had been able to do the necessary testing, Justice couldn’t imagine who they might have tested it on anyway.

  Who was going to volunteer for a test with those sorts of risks?

  A fledgling vamp?

  Ha! Justice thought. Not likely!

  And if they had been forced to choose a test subject, how could anyone have justified the test? Wasn’t that exactly the type of thing that the Fae found wrong about what the humans were capable of doing?

  Wasn’t that why the humans had not been allowed to know that they most certainly were not alone on Mother Earth? Because they would run tests on the other races—out of fear?

  Fear was a dangerous thing. It caused living beings to justify horrific acts.

  The one test subject that had shown just exactly how dangerous the vaccine might be for the vamps, had also proven that it might be a Godsend for the humans.

  And that most certainly had not been done on purpose.

  They had administered the vaccine to a volunteer—a human—a vampire hunter who knew about the different races—thinking that it would protect the human.

  And it had.

  It was only when the human was bit by a vamp that they had learned the vaccine had… other ramifications: the ones that Lucius had told them about when they had used it with Mia—to try to bring down Constantine.

  When they had discovered this, well … no vamp they knew had been a willing test subject. Instead, they had actively worked to make an antidote. It was when they had made the antidote that they had discovered a vaccine that could increase the powers that the vampires already had so significantly that it would give the vamp god-like powers—at least, he would appear like a god to the humans.

  They wouldn’t have any more choice.

  Powerful vamps, who sought the power only to control—beings like Constantine—would make their choices for them.

  Still, Justice knew that Constantine was not in this only for power—but primarily for the challenge of it.

  He was bored.

  He did this because he sought an enemy that was so powerful—they might actually make Constantine work to win a battle. He did this only for the thrill of a perhaps gaining a worthy enemy, who might actually prove to challenge him.

  And that was what made him a very dangerous vamp.

  Yet, if this vaccine were to get into the wrong hands… There would be others who would seek to gain this power. History had always proven that true. And whoever these others were, they might not stop with simply starting wars—or winning battles.

  No. Other beings would likely seek out the vaccine for the same reason the vamp sought it out now—to rule mankind like a god—become a modern-day Zeus.

  As Justice was thinking about these things, he found himself walking toward the Sisters of Three’s ritual room and was soon standing in front of their door. The guard—who sat in his chair against the wall at the end of the hall, about ten or twelve feet away—watched him, probably wondering why Justice was just standing there staring at the door.

  Justice gave him a hard stare until the guard looked away, and then he knocked lightly on the door.

  He knew they were as prepared as they could possibly be, but after the way that Constantine had swatted them aside during last battle, he wasn’t going to take a sure victory for granted. It was five in the morning. The sun was about to come up. And he was standing in front the Sisters of Three’s ritual room door waiting to see Jes.

  The sisters had finished their ritual, and they
opened the door for him. Micah was just coming down the hallway, and he and Mira quickly left, hand-in-hand. Dara took one look at Justice and headed down the hall to find Dracon.

  Justice moved inside the ritual room doorway and closed the door upon the guard sitting out in the hall. He had no sooner closed the door then he picked Jes up, kissing her with such intensity that she moaned out loud.

  She ran her hands up his back. He had never kissed her like this before, always careful not to invoke this type of power into their time together. She had almost been afraid of what would happen when he came to her with the intensity of the Jaguar.

  Almost.

  This was her mate. This was what bound them like nothing else could. This was the call of the Jaguar.

  He picked her up, tossing her onto the bed, and she came up on all fours, tearing the sheets with her claws, fighting to stay human, while half of her embraced the animal energy he was arousing in her.

  All of her welcomed him when he entered her, screaming her desire. And it was getting dark before her sisters were able to reenter the ritual room.

  Chapter Fifty

  Jes

  Jes closed her eyes. Ever since Justice had connected with Mia—she could also feel her. Jes turned and faced the window. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something had changed. She had tried, several times, to talk to Mia about it, but it hadn’t done any good. She couldn’t get Mia to talk about what was bothering her.

  Jes didn’t know what had happened. But something was different about her best friend.

  She turned toward the opposite wall. She should be sleeping. Instead, all she could do was toss and turn. Yet, who could blame her?

  She wondered if Justice had felt it too.

  She didn’t have the heart to bring it up to him. She was sad. She didn’t want to worry him about his sister, not after Constantine had kicked all of their butts all over the hillside that day so that now Justice had to worry about what would happen when they met up with him next.

  Whenever she closed her eyes, she could sense Mia, and it was like a shadow had fallen over her friend. Frankly it scared her a bit. It wasn’t natural, as humans would consider natural; but then humans felt that anything they couldn’t see—or more specifically anything they couldn’t understand—was in some way unnatural.

  However, this felt more as though something were trying to warn her, not threaten her.

  But warn her about what?

  What was it that she was missing? Or should she ask, what was it that she didn’t understand?

  The harder she tried to concentrate on it, the farther away it seemed to slip, until she started to believe she had imagined it all.

  She wanted to ask her sisters about it. But how was she supposed to ask her sisters to help, when she didn’t know what it was she needed help with?

  Jes hadn’t managed to pull herself out of the slump she had sunk into, even though the sun was shining high in the sky when she had decided to take a walk. She enjoyed watching the sun dapple the grass through the leaves as the wind twisted them, the sun peaking through—and the wind chasing light and shadow across the meadow.

  She liked the peaceful feel of the warm sun, and watching the people move around the city as they carried on with their day: the bikers pedaling along, young couples out shopping, old couples holding hands, and always someone out taking a dog for a walk.

  The city was bustling, oblivious to anything—or to anyone, as it was in this case—that might be lurking to take them with that violence that could only be born from the need to harm.

  Someone—like Constantine.

  And whatever it was he had done to Mia.

  Jes scowled. She was more convinced than ever that he had done something to Mia. She didn’t know what that something was; she only knew that he had done something.

  She could feel it.

  It was like an elusive thread—tugging at her mind—leaving her with the feeling that if she could just grab hold of that loose thread, she could unravel the whole sordid puzzle.

  And she was certain it was sordid.

  She had the feeling that Constantine was a lot more evil than any of them had believed. So far everyone had given him the respect he had earned; everyone thought of him as a great conqueror. They respected for his prowess, someone who wielded a lot of power, who could be victorious in any fight.

  But Jes had a feeling he had lulled them all. Perhaps this is what had really earned him his reputation. Perhaps, he played an open battle, an open war, the kind of war that humans were used to—while he had a much more sinister plan going on than the simple takeover of the humans for his own personal blood bank.

  Perhaps the battle he really fought—was one that wasn’t so easily seen.

  As if turning humans into his own private cattle herd, and turning the rest of the world into his slaves, wasn’t an evil-enough plan.

  And yet, she just couldn’t shake the feeling that he had been leading them on, letting each battle play out like chess pieces on a chessboard, while he played out a much deeper, and darker, plan behind the scenes.

  And if she was right, then this was so much worse than any of them could have imagined.

  But then, how did those who didn’t possess an evil mind ever imagine what went on inside of that mind? It was almost impossible for someone normal to imagine the workings of a mind that only developed the most sinister of plans.

  The average, living being never truly thought that way—couldn’t imagine how anyone could. It usually took a great, rude awakening—and living through a nightmarish situation—to teach someone of what atrocities evil was truly capable.

  No one wanted to think about those things. It felt too horrible. Yet, how else could you fight something that was capable of such horror, other than by taking yourself to a deep, dark place: a place where you could imagine the horror that the average mind couldn’t conjure.

  Things of which Constantine was easily capable—of that Jes had no doubt.

  What had they let Mia get herself into?

  Jes found herself in front of the lake before she even realized the direction in which she had traveled. She stood there now, staring out across the lake, wondering—not for the first time—how it was that a fresh lake this size could smell so much like the ocean, let alone how it looked so much like one, since you couldn’t see across it and the waves rolled in like any ocean beach she had ever seen.

  The sheer size of it made her feel as though she was standing on the beach staring at the ocean, and it was one of the finest attractions that Chicago offered.

  Jes wasn’t crazy about cities generally.

  But she was crazy about this one.

  The Windy City just had this wonderful feel to it, and she had fallen in love with it over time, until one day she realized that if she were to never see it again, she might never again feel so complete.

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Justice

  Jes and Justice sat together on long sun loungers on the back porch, under the awning where it provided a little shade, late in the afternoon of the next day. Justice had learned that the Alliance had managed to corner Jes’s father.

  And that his parents were finally coming home.

  He had just relayed the message to Jes, and then he started staring at something unseen in the back yard. Jes sat there in the silence for several moments, left to wonder why he wasn’t smiling—why he didn’t seem happy to hear this.

  This was welcomed news—wasn’t it?

  She didn’t intrude on Justice’s thoughts. She just sat there and kept the silence he seemed to need at the moment.

  Maybe it wasn’t that simple. Maybe he had mixed emotions about this news. Wouldn’t she?

  Jes had long since stopped calling the man she had known all of her life as her father, ‘father’. He was not her father. And he had killed her mother… sister. Whatever… She welcomed the opportunity to confront him. She had told Justice this only yesterday.

  Aft
er a long time, he reached over and took her hand.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. She squeezed his hand. “It’s been a long time since you saw your parents.”

  “They were gone—years before they actually disappeared,” he murmured—almost, it seemed, out of habit.

  “You’ve said that before,” she whispered gently. “But didn’t we figure out that it was because of my father’s deception?” She squeezed his hand tighter. “Didn’t we decide that it was him—putting pressure on them when they had been trying to prepare you for fulfilling the prophecy… that caused them to become sidetracked from you all—perhaps in trying to deal with the ramifications of this threat?”