He nodded. “Hey.”
“You all right?”
He looked off into the distance, over the geyser basin. “Other than feeling pretty damn helpless and worried to death, sure. I’m just fucking peachy.”
She hooked an arm around his shoulders. “I’m sure we’ll get him back safely.”
“Honestly? I’m a little pissed at your hubby. I wish he’d let you go off into the field and help.”
She patted his arm. “I was, too, at first. Until he made a valid point that it’s better for me to be here helping keep an eye out and protecting everyone else. And the babies. I’m not a great tracker if I don’t know where someone is already. Lina’s probably a far better choice. Her powers are really coming together. It’s not bullshit when I say I think she’s far more powerful than I am. Maybe even more powerful than I was before I became Sir’s mate.”
Zack glanced at her. “Are you trying to make me feel better?”
“That depends. Is it working?”
“Not really. Sorry.”
She turned his arm palm up and went to lace her fingers through his when she really looked at his hand for the first time.
“What?” he asked.
She blinked, shocked. “Zack, what’s up with this?” She traced the faint lines in his palm, her soul chilling as she did. She felt little tingles of energy vibrate through her fingertip and ripple up her arm.
She knew that sigil.
“What? That?” He held his hand up. “That’s my little souvenir from Baba Yaga countless frakking years ago. From when she marked me as Lina’s Watcher in our first lives together.”
Callie couldn’t swallow. She had to force air into her lungs. “And Lina?”
He frowned as he nodded. “Yeah. She’s got the same markings, only on her left palm. We’re a matched set. Why?”
Callie jumped up from the stoop and ran into the lodge. Wyatt, Oscar, Doug, and Wally all leapt to their feet at her entrance. She raced over to the sofas in front of the fireplace.
On a comforter spread out on the floor, the Beasts were sound asleep, BettLynn peacefully snuggled between them. She’d shifted back into human form at some point during her nap.
Mai sat up straight. “What’s wrong? Did they find him? Is he okay?”
Callie ignored her and knelt on the blanket. As carefully as she could without waking the babies, she separated their hands and examined their palms.
Zack had followed her inside, standing over her.
“Callie, you’re scaring me,” Zack warned.
Callie felt the breath sucked out of her as she examined the babies’ hands. Sure enough, BettLynn had sigils on both palms. Luka had a matching mark on his left palm, while George bore the mark on his right.
Identical to the sigil on Zack’s palm.
She fell back on her ass, eyes wide.
Mai stepped forward. “Callie? What’s wrong? What did you see?”
“She’s seeing broken threads from the past rewoven into the present,” Lacey spoke from the doorway.
Everyone turned to stare at her. The old Seer, looking world-weary, walked over to join them.
“But what does that mean?” Mai asked, stepping around the blanket to stand in front of the older woman.
Lacey didn’t take her eyes off the babies sleeping on the blanket. With a sad smile, she said, “Remember our talk with Arnost?”
Callie let out a gasp and clapped a hand across her mouth to stifle it.
Mai looked confused. “I don’t understand. We talked about Bertholde.”
Lacey pulled out her iPhone and scrolled through it for a moment. When she found what she was looking for, she held it up for them to see.
Mai leaned in and it was her turn to gasp. “What?”
The screen displayed a picture of Bertholde. In it, her beautiful emerald green eyes were clearly visible.
Eyes the same color as BettLynn’s.
Lacey slowly nodded. “It would seem there’s a very good reason you can’t separate those three babies without them complaining. They’ve been separated long enough. Now, they’re together again.”
Callie shakily climbed to her feet and turned her back to everyone. She couldn’t think straight and had to mutter the chant out loud to take her to Babs’ house.
It shocked her to actually find her sister in the kitchen, in her matron guise. “Yes?”
“Why?” Callie asked, her voice barely a whisper.
“Why what?”
Callie strode forward, in her sister’s face. “They’re babies for chrissake! Infants!”
Her sister’s gaze narrowed. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”
“Drop the fucking bullshit, Babs. I saw the sigil on Zack’s hand and he told me about the one on Lina’s. It doesn’t take a genius to put it together. I saw the sigils on the babies’ hands.” She jabbed a finger in her sister’s face. “There’s only one of two people who could have put them there, and I know damn well it wasn’t me.”
Baba Yaga crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the counter. “Love as true as theirs deserves another chance. Just as it did with Zack and Lina. And Lina and her men.”
Callie stared at her eldest sister in stunned disbelief. “What did you do?” she whispered. “How did you tamper with her soul and implant her there? It was more than that, though, wasn’t it? Because her eyes are the same color. They’re just like…”
The implications threatened to shatter her mind.
“Somehow, you manipulated time, didn’t you?”
The matron’s right eyebrow arched. “Not exactly. Even you should know better than that. Don’t ask how things came to be unless you truly wish to know. And before you go off on another wild tangent, Mai’s Clan’s roots stem from old European roots on the dragon Seer side.”
Callie couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with her. “Babies! Little fricking babies!”
She shrugged. “They have free will. They can always choose differently later in life.”
“Like hell they can.” She ran a hand through her hair. “How the fuck am I supposed to tell Lina and Mai they might as well get used to being in-laws?”
She shrugged. “They are far closer than that already, being part of the new Triad. Our replacements.”
Callie’s eyes widened. Babs could have sucker-punched her in the breadbasket and it wouldn’t have shocked her that much. “What?”
“Oh, come now. They told you that. I had the talk with Elain a couple of months ago, before Christmas.”
“But…” She sat on one of the barstools. It was that or risk falling on her ass. “We’re not dead. I thought you were just yanking her chain and preparing them to take over one day.”
“We don’t need to be dead.” A smug, knowing grin crossed her face. “You couldn’t figure it out? I thought you were smarter than that. Brighde has Oscar. You have Daniel. You have both mated with mortal-born men. Our Triad no longer exists, but for balance to remain there has to be a new one. Lina, Elain, and Mai are the new Triad. Why do you think I would tell them they are the new Triad if ours still existed?”
“But they’re mortal-born, and so are their men.”
“So we were born, sister. Or has it been too many eons hence your memory fails you?” She stared at Callie. “They were mated before becoming the Triad. Their mates are now part of their energy, not diverted by it.”
“You had a mortal-born guy. He was your baby daddy for chrissake.”
“But the two of you still remained strong. And he was ripped from me far too soon.” Her expression grew dark. “My energy had not decreased enough to weaken the Triad. If anything, my anger and grief made me stronger.” She studied Callie. “And then there was the curse placed upon you.”
Callie blinked as she tried to wrap her mind around that. “Why the fuck didn’t you say something? You pretended not to know.”
“I didn’t know. I didn’t know exactly what had happened. All I knew was a shadow had suddenly
drifted into your soul. Despite your ragings, you know I am not omnipotent nor am I omniscient. You know my role, sister. You know what I am and am not allowed to do.”
“Did you do it? Did you tell someone or give someone the info to do it to me?”
She raised a hand to her. “That I did not do. When Daniel first came to me about the nightmares, I honestly did not know what was causing them. I had forgotten about the shadow, because it was many eons ago when it happened. It did not seem to effect you in any other way, didn’t impede your powers or interfere with your duties.”
“You’re telling me it just simply slipped your freaking mind?”
“I have more to worry about than my sisters and what they are up to, unless it’s something directly transecting my actions. Besides, it seems as if it was all resolved with no harm coming to anyone.”
“You are unbe-fucking-lievable. So just like that, the gig is up?”
“The Triad, yes. For us. Rightfully so. You know as well as I do when we were appointed to the Triad it was to take over from ones even older than us who wished to move on. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing is permanent. New energy must be brought into play. By the embers dies the fire, unless new fuel is added. The Triad cannot be allowed to die, either.”
Callie, stunned, held onto the counter for support, afraid the weight of the information might knock her off the barstool.
“Oh, come now. This cannot come as a surprise to you. You knew very well what accepting a mortal-born as your mate meant to the future of the Triad. And it’s not like all of your powers are gone. You held them far too long to lose them all like that, if that’s what’s upsetting you.” She smirked. “Or did it simply slip your mind that our Triad was only temporary?”
Callie jabbed a finger at her. “Fuck you! You think you can screw with people’s lives and get away with it?”
“Careful. Now you’re sounding like Gigi.”
She blinked again. “What? She knew you were doing this?”
“She knew some of what I have done, which in all truth is nothing more than restoring balance, order.” She shrugged. “I have not tampered with free will.”
“Oh, keep telling yourself that if it’ll help you sleep at night, Babs, but yeah, you have.”
“Am I not still here?” She held out her arms, palms up. “The Goddess of All has not seen fit to remove me. Neither have any of the Elders.” She jabbed a finger at Callie in return. “I am restoring justice. The way things should have been. For Lina and for Bertholde and for Z—” She pulled herself up short.
Callie sat up. “Who? Who were you about to say? Zack?”
Baba Yaga waved the question away. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Like hell it doesn’t…” She’d been so caught up in recent matters that she hadn’t thought much about Elain’s other revelations from right before Christmas. “Oh…fuck. Zack was your guy. The one the cockatrice murdered.”
She didn’t respond.
Not trusting her legs at first, Callie carefully slipped from the stool, holding on to the counter until she ascertained her knees wouldn’t buckle from the weight of the revelation. “Zack was the father of your children. And he has no memory of that. And you’ve spent all these centuries and more tinkering with things so you could engineer a final showdown to wipe the cockatrice out for good, didn’t you?”
“I told you I made him a promise,” she hissed. “I never go back on an oath. And I’m simply allowing the oath made to Oddr, the old head of the Seer clan. An oath lost to time that needs to be renewed and fulfilled.” She turned her back on Callie.
Callie didn’t know what to say. She stared, slowly shaking her head. “All of this. All this fucking mess to avenge his death, and still you haven’t moved on? Why the fuck didn’t you just engineer it for him to return to your life?”
Baba Yaga whirled around. “Because all I know anymore is rage!” she roared. “I couldn’t raise my babies! I couldn’t save my love!”
She strode over and got in Callie’s face. “The only thing I’m good for is vengeance. And that is what I’m doing. The cockatrice have brought all of this upon themselves by not learning to live within the boundaries of common human decency like the other shifter races have. They’ve had free will all these eons. Yet they choose destruction, murder, chaos. Rodolfo Abernathy has brought his fate upon himself by turning his back on the daughter he sired. He sewed heartache and reaps evil retribution in return.”
“And we’re all left to fucking clean up your mess. What, Jim turns out to be a little bit of collateral damage in this goddamned war you’re waging without even letting us in on the battle plan?”
“No,” she softly said. “They’ll get him back.”
“At what cost, hmm?”
“You don’t know nearly as much as you think you do.”
“I don’t think I know very damn much right now. I have no clue what’s rattling around in that brain of yours.” She jammed her hands on her hips. “I know the gig as well as you do, but let’s face it, you’re doing way more than bending a few rules. You’ve tossed out the rule book and have pretty much gone rogue.”
Callie found herself standing back in the lodge again, everyone staring at her.
Son of a bitch.
Babs had obviously declared the conversation over, and Callie wouldn’t be able to pop back there right away.
Fucking bossy cunt.
Mai stood. “What is it, Callie? Dammit, tell me! What does Lacey mean?”
She walked back to the comforter. Her knees folded under her as she sat and stared at the babies. “Sit down,” she said, still feeling shocked herself.
“What is it?” Elain asked.
“Seriously, Mai, sit down.”
Mai did.
Callie took a deep breath. “There’s a good reason why we can’t separate the Beasts and BettLynn from each other.” She forced herself to meet Mai’s teary gaze. “They’re old souls. They’ve been reincarnated. Baba Yaga matched them back up again.” She glanced at Lacey, who nodded. Callie forged on. “Sort of like Lina and Zack. She matched them up, marked them, making sure they’d be able to find each other, and…they did.”
She pointed to where the boys were once again clutching BettLynn’s hands, even in sleep. “BettLynn was Bertholde, and Luka and George were Sean and Colm.”
“Son of a bitch,” Elain whispered.
The adults silently stared at the three peacefully sleeping babies.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Brodey focused on the scent, forcing himself not to run at full speed for fear of wearing himself out. Just off his shoulder, Blackie and Micah ran with him, easily keeping pace.
If Jim could be abducted right from under their noses by cockatrice from a Gathering full of shifters…
He didn’t want to think about what else could have happened.
Or what might still happen.
The ball of tingly, warning energy that he’d first felt just before Christmas had finally blossomed into a fully realized worst-case scenario.
Well, almost worst-case.
The absolute worst would have been one of the babies getting abducted by the bastard.
They’d already made it past the West Thumb area when Ain and another carload of shifters caught up with them. Brodey jumped into the passenger seat without bothering to shift back while Blackie and Micah got in the backseat. Brodey rode with his head stuck out the window, nose to the breeze. He could still smell the car, the scent getting a little stronger the farther they went.
In the backseat, Micah vibrated with rage. He wanted blood.
Brodey didn’t blame him.
* * * *
In the cars, Lina and the others quickly caught up with the wolves doing the tracking. After getting on the scent herself, Kitty went on ahead in another car in hopes of more rapidly catching up with the abductors despite the snowy, icy road conditions in some areas. Nearly two hours later, they were all converging on the Mammoth Hot Springs area a
nd a car discovered parked in the back of the campground there. Unfortunately, they had to be careful. Unlike the Old Faithful area, there were plenty of humans around.
Humans who had no idea shifters even existed.
They’d even tried contacting Ryan Ausar, but phone calls went straight to his voice mail every time.
And Lina had no idea how, or even if, she could contact him the same way she could—sometimes—contact Baba Yaga.
After tracking yet another scent trail that dead-ended in wooded area just south of the Mammoth Hot Spring terraces, Lina walked over to a lodgepole pine and pounded her fists against it as she screamed her rage out to the woods and skies. No one spoke, waiting her out. Her friends were depending on her. Jim’s life was, literally, depending on her.
The main problem being she felt frakking clueless what to do next. With less than an hour before dark, they were still no closer to getting him back safely.
After a few minutes of throwing a goddessy temper tantrum and nearly knocking the tree over, Lina pulled herself together. Her chest rose and fell as she looked at everyone and tried to rein in her anger. “You guys. Stay. Here.”
The others wordlessly nodded.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I am at Baba Yaga’s,” she muttered aloud, hoping it worked. When she opened her eyes she was, indeed, standing in Baba Yaga’s living room.
She wanted to cry in relief.
The Immortal stood in her kitchen. From the aroma filling the house, she was apparently baking chocolate chip cookies.
“Hello, Lina,” she said.
Lina desperately did not want to fuck this up. She kept her tightly balled fists at her side and slowly walked over to the kitchen. “Hello.”
Baba Yaga’s eyebrow arched. “Restraint. That is a very good sign. You will need that in your lifetime.”
Lina fought the urge to reply with a snarky taunt…or a fireball. “I need to talk with you,” she slowly said. “Please. It’s very important.”
Baba Yaga nodded her head and indicated she should continue.
“Someone’s kidnapped Jim. Micah and Mai’s mate. Please, I need your help.”
A Wolf in the Fold [Triple Trouble 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 23