Bound by the Moon (The Ancients Series Book 4)

by Christine M. Butler

  I couldn’t help myself, I started to laugh. Once the delightfully nervous sound of it bubbled up from my body and spilled out to be echoed through the cavern, I couldn’t stop myself. It just kept coming, and it seemed to stop Louis in his tracks. He stared at me, stunned, as if he looked upon a mad woman. Perhaps, he did. “This is not the typical reaction one expects when they tell the victim that they are about to be sacrificed.” His voice gave nothing away, but his eyes, they expressed a multitude of things. Shock at my odd behavior, to be sure, but just under there I saw the seed of doubt start to take hold and grow.

  “This is not my first rodeo,” I blurted out in between bouts of hysterical laughter. “You aren’t even my scariest captor yet, but you do have one thing in common with all of them.”

  “Do tell…”

  “They were just as clueless as you are.” The laughter in my belly dried up then, and as I stood taller, more confident in what I was about to do, the rest of my plan began to unravel. “You’ve been draining the girls you thought were me, and judging from the stains on the dais, that’s where you’ve been hopefully waiting for the right results.”

  “All of this is very obvious, get to the point, before I put the point in you…” His fangs flashed out as his smile widened. I was a werewolf. Fangs were never a worry for me, and they didn’t put an ounce of extra fear in me now.

  “Had I actually been one of those girls you so thoughtlessly slaughtered, you would have killed all of your chances of ever getting that damned portal opened.”

  “Really?” Sarcasm dripped form that word. It was clear he didn’t believe me, yet.

  “Truly. I know the spell that binds me to this place. I suppose I should say, that binds this place to me. It’s not what you imagined it to be.”

  “I imagine nothing. I have a knowledgeable source on the matter. I know exactly how a blood bond works.”

  “Do you? This isn’t a typical blood bond. It’s a bloodline spell. Did you know that?” I could tell by the look on his face that he did not. And of course, that would be because it wasn’t. “The witch who sealed this place…” I started.

  “Layla,” he interrupted.

  “Layla, apparently wanted to make sure it stayed sealed. She bound the white wolf blood line to this place. The only way to gain entry is for me to willingly give up mine and my baby’s life.” I had been inching closer to baby Jack all the while as I spoke, and now, I reached down and picked him up. “I have to step on the dais, with my baby, and willing drop blood from both of us on there. It actually doesn’t take a lot, just a lot of determination to make it happen on my part.”

  “So, you’re telling me that you can open the portal and still live. I assume you want me to free you and your baby once you’ve done so for me?” He was the one nearly laughing now.

  “No. I’m not stupid. You’re going to kill us one way or the other. You are the monster, after all.”

  “Then what do you gain by telling me how to break the barrier?”

  “I gain this… I take the baby to the other side with me, peacefully, and hope that you will keep your word to leave my pack out of this. I don’t care about anyone else’s people, pack, or whatever you intend to harm. My pack stays safe, or you can kill me now, and give up on this portal ever opening. Remember, I will be opening a gateway to the dead that won’t be able to close again. I can come back through to make sure you kept your end of the bargain.”

  “I see.” Louis paced back and forth for a few minutes, while thinking. Meanwhile, I prepared by tucking aby Jack in close to me. I had fastened a sling around me before I left the house earlier, in anticipation of having to carry the baby back, or take him with me to the other side. According to Layla I would need for parts of the baby’s skin to be touching my own when I crossed over, otherwise he might be lost anyway. I made sure that Willows shirt was pulled up off the baby’s stomach and then I pulled mine out of the way too. One of his arms, and his belly were flush against my own skin then. Now, I just had to hope that this worked, for his sake.

  INTO THE FIRE

  “You offer yourself and your baby so that your pack may live?” Louis asked.

  “I will drop a little blood, and pull the baby with me into the portal. That is what opens the damn thing, since we are all that there is of our bloodline. In exchange for opening the gateway to the dead, my pack lives.”

  “Just like that, a mother would sacrifice herself and her baby for the rest of her pack?”

  “Just like that?” I questioned him indignantly. Obviously, he was trying to figure out what sort of treachery I was offering. “No, not just like that. You already have the baby here. I knew when I came to get Willow that there wouldn’t be any hope for saving…” my voice trailed off as I conjured the exact way I would feel were it Willow in my arms that I was risking right now. “I came to be with her. I knew we wouldn’t make it home this time.” Tears actually spilled over and ran there course down my cheeks then. Still, I could see that he didn’t fully believe. “You lead your dark ones, and they follow. They do so out of fear, but fear brought on by respect for who and what you are. My people are no different. They fear the fact that I am something other than they are. Now, the women of my pack, and others, fear that if they look like me, they will also die in my place. I’ve been the captive before. My mate has been held captive as well, we’ve both been tortured, used, and abused while held in tiny little cages. The last time for me, while I was pregnant with Willow.” I hesitated as I blew a shaky breath from my body. “Call me selfish, but I would rather be here to take my baby peacefully from this world than see her undergo any of that torment. I’d rather go peacefully than go through another ounce of the madness again.”

  A slow smile spread across Louis’s face. “Ah, now, you’ve finally said something that I can believe in. Selfishness and cowardice. These are things that I understand in the weak. They are heavy motivators, are they not?” He actually chuckled then. “How does this work then?”

  I didn’t bother explaining. Instead, I figured show and tell was the better option. Raising my fingertip to my sharp canine, I ripped a spot open, and amped up both my nerves and adrenaline as all the dark ones at the edge of the room suddenly became very aware of the baby and I. I could smell the fresh coppery essence of my blood above that of the rotted old stench from the gunk that covered the dais. Apparently, the dark ones could too, and it was enticing. “Just a few drops,” I called out shakily, then flung the drops onto the dais as I moved myself and the baby to its center. “Then I ask that the portal be opened and accept the offering of bonded blood.” I did everything as I said it out loud, only my askance was given silently in my head. There, I was able to request the portal to open long enough to allow baby Jack and I through, and to seal again behind me. As I reached out with my mind a thin veil appeared just beyond the center of the dais. Everything grayed out on the other side of that veil, as it always appeared in my dreams, and I could smell the scent of lavender through the portal now as well.

  “Now what?” Louis asked.

  “Now, we step through the gateway into the beyond. Our sacrifice will open the portal.”

  “Fair warning, girly. If you step through that portal, and things don’t go as I planned, I will rip through your entire pack with my own teeth. My little minions won’t even get a taste, but I promise you that no one will escape my savagery.”

  Every muscle in my body tensed, and shook. There was no doubt in my mind that Louis was completely serious in that moment. I didn’t have much of a choice though. I knew he wouldn’t keep his promise to protect my pack. He was a monster, and I knew from personal experience that there was no bargaining with them. They took, they killed, and did everything in their power to take some more. What they never did was give back. I just hoped that while I was there, stepping through the veil, I could send out one last message to warn the others of his coming.

  I took one last unwavering look at the determination and anticipation painted o
n Louis’s face, and then I stepped backward through the gateway to the dead. Just like that, ice ran through my veins, baby Jack cried out too, so I knew I wasn’t alone in feeling the cold finality of the death plane. When I opened my eyes again the white wolves were there. They lined the back side of the dais, waiting patiently. This time, they were not one being sharing a body, they were many. Some appeared in their human forms, others were in their wolf form. It was an incredible site to behold as I took in all the lovely pure white wolves. The only difference in them were the eye colors they each wore. There were so many different shades of greens and blues. They all acknowledged, with that one shared glance, that I had just made the ultimate sacrifice to try to give my people a little time.

  “I need to contact Serena. Please, can you help me?” A nod came from one of the women towards the back, as she approached, I realized it was Aislynn, the first of us.

  “I am sorry that you were lost, and with this little one too, Jessica.”

  “Who are you talking to?” A voice boomed from behind me.

  I jumped, startled by the sound of Louis in this place. I turned to look, and noticed he watched me with a great deal of anticipation. I had been about to tell the white wolves that I needed to warn her, but thankfully I think they anticipated that. Had I said it aloud, it would have been all over.

  “You still stand upon the dais, Jessica. He can still see you, although he can’t see beyond that, to us.”

  A smile spread across my face as a plan formed. I whispered to her, “warn Serena, he’s coming, and he’s pissed.” Then I turned to look back out into the land of the living. Louis stood there waiting. “The portal is open.” I reached my hand forward and touched his cheek quickly to show that it was. He knew better than to get on the dais himself, so he didn’t bother to move closer. I jerked my hand back to the other side as it began to burn. I didn’t want him to see that I couldn’t actually come and go freely. “Who would you like for me to send over?”

  “I don’t want you to send anyone. I want the portal to be free flowing. Open it all the way, get off the dais, Jessica St Marks De’Lune. Step back, and away to allow for the spirits to enter this realm.”

  The Willow tree that stood just a few inches from him swayed in a breeze that was not evident in the rest of the cave on his side, but it was on mine. Tiny hairs that got caught up in the breath of the undead, tipped up to tickle my nose. I swatted them back down defiantly as I looked out at Louis, and his minions who had moved in ever closer to the portal. No doubt, they all anticipated seeing some of the people they had lost over the centuries.

  “There’s no one over here waiting.”

  “Then who were you talking to, girl?”

  “I was talking to my ancestors. They are all that awaits the other side of this portal. Would you like me to send them through to you?” It was a bluff, but I saw the fear spike in his eyes then. He didn’t feel he had a lot to fear from one White Wolf, but from an entire familial line of them… We could wreak havoc on the world if we could actually move freely between the living and the dead.

  “You are the only one stopping that from happening, Jessica.” Aislynn called out from behind me. “Your will alone controls that portal. What would you have it do? Who would you grant access to that kind of power?”

  “I could go back?”

  “Yes, but you would come out in the same place you went in. He would still be there.”

  “I can see the others now,” I tipped my head back over my shoulder indicating curious souls who were moving our way, probably sensing that the portal was opened.

  “Send them through to me, wolf girl.” Louis was becoming very anxious on the other side. There was a mixture of anticipation and a little anxiety that I was pretty sure didn’t have anything to do with whether or not I was going to uphold my end of the bargain. That got me thinking.

  “Some of these souls don’t look too happy to see you.” He blanched a bit as the words left my mouth. ‘Gotcha!’ I thought. “Are you certain you really want me to open this portal? The souls that are gathering look hungry, and I don’t mean in a, ‘let’s go get a combo meal together,’ kind of way. I’m getting all kinds of vengeance vibes here.”

  “You’re bluffing!” Louis bellowed it, and the cavern around him picked up the sound, and reverberating it in a scary echoing effect that I would feel in my bones for years to come, living or dead.

  “I wish I were, because these things are creeping me out a bit. I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure if they can hurt me or not, but if they do to try to get to you… well…”

  “You’re already dead if you’re on their side, what do I care if they torture your soul?”

  “You care, because if I take one step off this dais, the portal closes forever. It becomes sealed with my final death. Right now, I am hovering in-between worlds. It hurts like a bitch too! Seriously, like pins and needles in your limbs that just won’t go away times about one hundred.”

  “You step off that dais before my people are returned to me, and I swear to you right now, that I will hunt each of your people down. I will kill them slowly. I will gnaw on their bones.”

  “Yeah, yeah… you’ll wear their skulls as a Halloween mask, and play with their entrails. I get it. Seriously, is there some sort of ‘how to be an effective monster’ school that all of you guys attend? It’s really a bit ridiculous.”

  “JESSICA!” Another wicked echo crashed through the cavern, bringing dust and debris down with it.

  “Okay, geez. I’m just trying to give you fair warning, which by the way, is a lot more than you’d ever give someone like me. There are some angry souls here, and they are going to be out for blood when they cross over, but hey, who am I to stop them since you’re the one who put me in this predicament to begin with.”

  “If they are enemies of mine, I put them there once, and I will be able to do it again.”

  Laughter from the wolves behind me made me turn and look. “What?” I asked them.

  “If these beings were to cross through the portal they wouldn’t be living things. They would be wraiths, and he has never seen the fury of a wraith hell bent on vengeance.” One of the wolves told me. “That is why the portals were closed to begin with. The only ones who could put the wraiths back were the witches, and even then, only one had the guts to do it. It leached some of the life from her with each one she put back here.”

  “Layla?” I questioned.

  “Yes, Layla. She did not inherit her moonbeam appearance. She earned it from her many battles with the dead. That thing out there would be eaten alive. Unfortunately, so would anyone else who crossed their path. Wraith-spirits, unless harnessed as a guardian spirit, will target anyone and everyone to get their vengeance. The problem is, their pain is insatiable. Those with gifts such as Layla’s are rare. As luck would have it, they are also the only ones who have been known to stop the wraiths.”

  “Well, if nothing else, I am getting an education over here.” The tingling sensation was growing worse in my limbs. Jack was beginning to wail again, and I knew that meant he was feeling it too. I couldn’t stay on this dais much longer. It was beginning to hurt too much. “Have you gotten through to her?” I asked Aislynn.

  “Yes. They know, and they have a plan.”

  “Okay.” I turned back to Louis then. “I can’t hold this portal much longer. It hurts.”

  “I don’t care if hurts for eternity, you know what I will do if I don’t get my way.”

  “Your way will see all of you dead anyway, but I can tell you this. I will not unleash a bunch of hell-bent crazy souls on the world because you think you can control them in some private army venture, or whatever the hell it is you have planned. There was one more thing about the sacrifice that you probably should have known.”

  “And what is that, little wolf girl?”

  “It is all about will.”

  “Who is Will?”

  “Not who. It all comes down to my will. If I will t
he portal open, it is. If I will it shut, it shuts. If I will it sealed forever, that’s what happens.”

  If a person could blow steam out of their ears, cartoon style, Louis would have been blowing his top at that point. “YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!” More dust and debris fell around the cavern as I watched. I wondered for a moment if he would actually cause a collapse.

  I didn’t answer. I heard a voice behind me whisper, “If you step off, there will be no going back, Jessica.”

  “If I don’t step off, I will just end up here anyway.”

  “JESSICA!” Louis yelled out.

  My ears popped as the pressure changed, and the icy tingles coalesced over my entire body with one violent shiver as I stepped off the dais and down to the floor on the side of the dead. I could now sense the anger in some of the souls. They had been waiting for a release that wasn’t going to come now.

  “You sealed the portal.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

  “I did. How could I knowingly unleash any more horrors into that world?” I looked down at the baby who was squirming around in the sling attaching him to my body. “I’m just sorry I couldn’t get you home to your mommy first,” I whispered to him. I turned to look out past the dais into the rest of the cavern. I could no longer see the other side. I didn’t know if Louis was still there, throwing a hissy fit, or if he went to go make good on his promise to destroy my family.

  “Do you think they’ll be all right?” I asked the other wolves who were hovering around me, trying to give comfort.

  “They were warned, and it sounded as though they had a solid plan. All we can do is hope, pray, and wait.”

  “Okay.” So, I sat there, running my fingers over the eternally smooth skin of the baby in my arms. I wished I could give him back to Sierra. I wished that I could hold my Willow one more time. Looking back over the past few days, I hadn’t been able to devote enough time to just sitting in peace with her. My baby would grow up not knowing her mommy and that broke my heart into a million tiny little pieces. I wanted to at least see her one more time.