by Tijan
Pete's eyes went feral and he surged to his feet.
Roane stood to meet him, calm as he smiled in his adversary's face. Gavin followed at a slower pace, but grinned in excited anticipation. He had a cocky glint to his eyes as he waited for the wolf to pounce. He thirsted for it even.
Emily sucked in her breath. The blood had drained from her face.
Gavin winked at her. "Don't worry, love. The two baddies need to figure out which is the alpha and who's the loser." Then his eyes found Pete's and he said with more promise, "Because there's always only one Alpha."
Pete drew back his thoughts and his fury was quickly gone. He forced a smile and looked down to grab Emily's hand. After he pulled her up and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, he laughed and forced a carefree note. "I can tell that Roane cared for Davy. If he knew where she was, he'd tell us. He misses her as much as you do." A sinister smile came over him as he thought, 'You're right about one thing. I can tell that Davy meant more to you than you want to admit. It's all over your thoughts. You're as desperate to find her as Emily is, but you're not as scared as her. You know more than you're telling. I intend to find out what that is.'
Gavin narrowed his eyes. 'Go and pee somewhere else. This isn't your territory. It'd be a shame if a vampire decided to sneak a little taste from your lover. You know how powerful those spells can be, don't you…or have you already tasted the last vampire that's been in her?'
Pete snarled and showed his teeth.
"Pete!" Emily gasped as she clutched onto his arm.
Alerted by the sounds of a werewolf, the vampires surrounding them dropped their conversations and turned. They squared off against the werewolf.
Gavin taunted, "Everyone here knows what you are. They stayed away because you seemed that you were under friendly terms. Those terms are gone and even a wolf as powerful as you can't take everyone here, not when there's a hunter in the room."
Emily squeaked and fell down. Pete caught her with one arm as he glared across the table at both vampires. "I could kill both of you in a heartbeat, then thirty more before any of them could touch me."
"They'd get her." Roane narrowed his eyes and watched as Emily seemed to swoon unsteadily on her feet. 'She doesn't know who we are. If you hope to protect her, you need to tell her everything.'
The Alpha drew back. 'You talk now as if you care for her. Before, you were disrespectful to her.'
"Not everything I do will make sense to you," Roane chose his words carefully. He wanted the wolf to feel unbalanced. He didn't want the Alpha to start connecting dots.
Pete stood at his fullest height. "I think we should leave. I've gotten the answer that we came for anyway." He watched the vampires around them cautiously as he edged out of the booth and then down the aisle.
Roane caught Gregory's gaze, who had been standing in a far corner. He nodded and then gestured towards the wolf. Gregory bent his head.
Gavin watched Gregory follow them and chuckled. "Let's hope the Viking can jump rooftops. That's the only way he's going to be able to follow that wolf."
"He can." Roane turned away and saw Wren in another corner. She was wrapped around another female vampire.
Both stopped and watched the display for a second and then Gregory burst out laughing. Wren looked up, but then bent her back to her lover's neck, sucking on it. The other vampire seemed unaffected, unaware that Wren had ever stopped and clutched the back of her head. She moaned as she pressed closer against her.
As they went back to Roane's office, Gavin helped himself to a drink. "What do you think of the wolf? He's a powerful young pup."
Roane went to his tinted windows and watched below. "He is strong, stronger than the old Alpha, but he's young."
"Human age, he's what? 30s?"
"At least." Roane frowned as Wren grabbed another female vampire and included her in their embrace. All three were quickly caressing, kissing, licking, and gaining more attention than Roane wanted his second right-hand vampire to obtain. When a male pressed into the group, Roane saw that Wren grabbed his head and shoved it against her breast. He latched on and kneeled with one of the other women.
Gavin stood next to him and lifted his glass in a salute. "Here's to Wren getting an orgy. She knows how to fulfill that need, huh?"
"Most of these vampires have crossed the world, pledging their loyalty to me. They came because of my reputation of an honorable hunter. That's not honorable. That's primal. We're above that."
"Oh come on. Looks to me that Wren's just stressed. She's letting out some of her tension. When's Tracey supposed to arrive?"
"You mean with my sworn enemy?" Roane couldn't stop a smile as he regarded his best friend.
Gavin opened his mouth, but it hung there, suspended. Then he laughed and shut it. "I forgot about that little detail. Sorry, mate. You know what you're going to have to do, right?"
"What's that?"
"Just rip the new hunter's head off his body and take his army as yours. It was yours anyway. The Elders forced a new hunter, because they want to kill the Immortal and you want to protect her. Such a trivial little difference, you know? I think all those vampires will be thankful that you're making them follow you. You're a much better leader than they could ever get and you know it. They know it. Hell, even the new hunter knows it."
Roane grew somber, but then a hard glint appeared in his eyes. "They chose what side they were on, as all of these vampires here have. They've chosen my side."
"Because they believe in what you believe in." Gavin finished his drink and spoke with gravity. "There's a civil war brewing in the vampire nation. Every one of us knows it and the Immortal is the reason for it. Half of them don't even believe she exists. They're here because you stand for the new age, for a different standard of our living. That's why they're here. For you, not for Davy. They don't even know who she is or why you've stood your ground against the Roane Elders."
"Don't forget the Romah Elders."
"Forget those old bastards. They're so ancient; I could snap them in half. They've grown rusty, gotten too used to being protected by the Roane Family."
"Jacith is aligned with them."
Gavin narrowed his eyes at his best friend, who stared at the club below. "Maybe it's time for Jacith to end, huh?"
Roane smirked and now looked at Gavin. "And who's going to do that? Jacith is old. He's powerful as a vampire and he's powerful as a sorcerer. He'd snap you in half."
"I'm not saying that I have all the answers. I'm just telling you my opinion of them. I'm sure I'm not alone. If you were to declare war against the Romah Family, I'm sure you'd have more than my Family behind you, maybe even every vampire Family in the nation."
"Not the Mori Nation."
Gavin opened his mouth, but snapped it shut. "They don't count. They're freaks of nature."
Roane barked out a laugh, but stopped. "Are you serious? You know that's where Lucan is hiding. He might even be one of them by now."
"The birthing baby vampire magic circus? No. He's not one of them." Gavin's eyes grew dangerous. "No, no. He's not one of them. He's human. And he wants them to kidnap Davy and force the thread from her. Everyone knows the lore. It'll attach to the closest human. Oh no. Lucan will stay human because he wants to be the next Immortal."
Roane closed his eyes as he heard his worst nightmare. Davy would die. His brother would become the Immortal and he'd have too much power than any being should have in a lifetime. There was a reason why it chose the next holder of the thread, but according to Davy, she wasn't the thread. She was the Immortal, a prophecy no vampire had been foretold about. And that was one of the reasons why his former Family's Elders refused to believe what he had told them. There was no prophecy stating the thread would become an actual entity. The thread was just there. It jumped from human to human and they were always protected by them so no vampire could obtain that power.
"They're stupid. They refuse to listen to me," Roane bit out. "You're right. A new order has to c
ome in power. They refuse to hear what I've told them and it'll be the death of them. She's not a thread. She is something we know nothing about."
Gavin's finger clenched around his glass and it shattered. He was unfazed by the broken shards of glass in his hands. "She might be missing right now, but she's coming back. And something tells me that she's coming back with a vengeance. Your girl will be okay, no matter how long she's away."
Roane closed his eyes. He wanted to believe what he heard. "Let's hope."
"No matter what we think, we have another problem on our hands. That Alpha has to be dealt with."
"He's a complication that I didn't foresee," Roane admitted as he remembered Emily's haunted eyes. No, he saw how she had trusted him. He'd been her last resort and she thought he could produce Davy, no matter how unrealistic that wish had been.
Gavin chuckled and turned for another drink. "Takes a strong man, wolf or human, to bring your lover to a place and ask for help from someone she's got her 'knight in shining armor' fantasy with. I'm surprised he took it that well."
"He didn't know." Roane felt his stomach twist. "She lied to him about her feelings and she kept them hidden from him. He thought I'd had a few classes with her. He didn't know about her feelings or how she'd handled the truth about Davy and me."
"Which she still hasn't." Gavin turned back and looked out the window with Roane. They stood shoulder to shoulder. "She heard about it before Davy went missing, but she hasn't seen it. It's not a reality with her, not yet. And, mate, she had more than a crush on you. I think the girl thought she was in love with you."
"Most humans have stupid idealistic fantasies. They live in a delusional world."
"Regardless, the lass was hurt. I wonder how the wolf is going to handle that. It can't be easy, knowing that your mate has feelings for someone else and a different species too."
"They're not real." Roane turned away and grabbed a bottle of bourbon.
"They're not real to you, but they're real to her."
"Shut up."
Gavin grinned. "Oh come on. You've never had your heart shattered by someone that you only fantasized about? Fantasized so hard that you tricked yourself into thinking she was real?"
"Maybe when I was human?"
"She is human. So is Davy." Gavin watched his mate and saw that Roane gave nothing away. He never did. Then Gavin clinked his glass with Roane's. "Here's to us. Breaking hearts and breaking blood. There's going to be a load spilled with this war coming on."
Roane didn't comment, but gripped his glass tighter. Gavin was right, something that Roane tried not to think about every day, but he couldn't get Wren's voice out of his head. She told him that they'd need Davy and that they'd need her powers. He knew it was true. If they were going to survive the future, they'd need a miracle. They'd need the Immortal.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Saren was crouched in the corner of the room. I was on the opposite side and we stared at each other, waiting for the other to attack. My eyes were locked on her. I watched every breath she took, every twitch the hairs on her arm made, even how the iris in her eye widened a bit. When the skin at the corner of her mouth stretched out, I flung myself in the air and tucked my feet in to spring off the wall as I flew down to her.
She was ready. She ducked her head down and rolled over till she was on her back. Then her hand came up and zapped me, just as I was about to tackle her.
"Ouch!" I glared as I thrust my body through the air and back to my corner. I rubbed my stomach. "That one hurt."
"You were trying to hurt me."
"I wanted to tackle you."
"You wanted to overtake me." She stood, her body fluid, gliding upwards till she walked towards me. The fire in her eyes had vanished, but two small embers had been ignited. I watched, always amazed, as it built slowly at first until it was a rolling fire. Then she blinked and shook her head. "You can't think about how you're going to sneak up on me. It won't work with me. It won't work with Jacith."
"Why do I have to be the one who fights him? You're better than me. You should do it." I stood and brushed off my pants. The room we had been training in hadn't been cleaned from the animals that had been in there before. Piles of straw were everywhere and they clung to my pants. Not Saren's. Her pants were spotless. "Are you sure there isn't poop in here from before? You said animals were kept in here."
She rolled her eyes and led the way out the door and through a tunnel. "I already told you that it had been cleaned a long time ago. The straw was put in there for the same reason we use that room, training. It's an old castle. There's a lot of history. Knights used to go in there. And no, you're the Immortal. I am not. You are supposed to be better than me."
Just then we passed another hallway where a display of armor was hung on the wall. I could never stop the shivers when I went past it and I felt them again. The place was old. Saren was right, the history hung in the air. It suffocated me at times, but I missed my own history. I missed my old life. "When can I go back?"
Saren pushed open a wooden door with her back and glared at me. "I told you, when you can hide from the Alpha. He came earlier than we anticipated and you were supposed to be further along in your powers."
Sireenia looked up from a counter as she stirred something in a bowl. A bright smile lit her face and she tucked a long braid behind her ear. She left a trail of flour on her cheek. "How's she doing?"
"She's blocking me. She's blocking herself. It's like she doesn't want to progress," Saren grumbled as she hopped on a stool at the counter. "What are you making?"
"Chocolate chip cookies. Davy, you like these, don't you?"
My finger had been raised in the air, ready to swipe some of the batter when I was caught by the look in Sireenia's eyes. The uncertainty and eagerness shook me for a moment. Those were human emotions and I'd grown used to not seeing Saren or Sireenia as human. Magic oozed from them in every word, emotion, or look. They told me that they were once human and it surprised me when I saw moments such as this one that showed their humanity.
I smiled back. "I love these cookies. Kates used to buy the premade batter and that's all we would eat sometimes."
"The batter?" Sireenia paled. "You mean you didn't bake them? I thought you were supposed to bake them?"
Saren swore under her breath. "Don't worry about it, Sire. You're fine. You're being more amicable than she is."
"Hey!" I stole some batter and turned as I tasted it to glare at my trainer. It seemed that was all I did with Saren now. "What's that supposed to mean?" It felt like an insult…
"You know what that means. Why won't you transition? It's like you don't want to be the Immortal. Why don't you want to be the Immortal?" She shot to her feet and rounded the counter. Her body had stiffened, ready for a fight.
I stared at her. "Wha—huh? I don't want to be the Immortal? Why do you say that?"
"Because you don't! You hold back on every training exercise I've put you through. The only thing that you don't hold back is protecting yourself. I've sent missiles at you and you evade them. You've acclimated inside. Your power is complete, but you don't want to admit it. Are you blocking yourself? You must be. I don't understand you. This is why the Immortal should never have ascended into a human being."
"I don't agree with that." Sireenia put down the bowl and spoon. "Saren, please watch what you're saying."
"Why? It's true. We've done so much for her, fought so much, sacrificed, bled for her. And this is the end result? A human who doesn't want it? I lost my humanity for the thread, but—" Saren threw her hands in the air and bolts of fire slammed against the walls. A mural caught fire, but Sireenia waved her hand in the air and it was extinguished immediately.
"The Immortal chose her. Davy is the one who will stop Jacith. She can make everything correct. She will change it all."
With narrowed eyes, I watched as Sireenia held Saren's arms and tried to calm her, but Saren shook her head and broke free. As she walked to the door, I realized s
omething that I had never even considered. "You guys had the thread before, didn't you?"
They weren't witches, but they came from witchcraft. Saren had told me before. And they weren't vampires or werewolves or anything else. She said that Roane wouldn't know who they were, but the way they talked about the Immortal, as if they had first-hand knowledge…that meant only one thing. They had been the humans who had held the thread before me and that meant…I gulped. That meant that I could meet Talia at any moment. And the idea sent my heart racing.
Both stopped and looked at me. It was like a blanket had been pulled off and I saw the relief in both of their eyes. Sireenia was the first one to respond. "It changes you, when you've had the thread in you for so long. I had it in the beginning of time. Saren had it in the 1800s. You go through a vortex when it leaves you."
"It feels like you're getting your heart pulled out of you through your throat when the thread jumps out of you."
"Or when it's forced out of you." Sireenia grew quiet as she looked down at her hands.
I saw the pain in her and wondered who had taken the thread from her, but Saren distracted me. "How did you know that? About us?"
How could I not, but then I realized that I wasn't sure how I knew it. "I don't know. It was just a feeling. You both talk about the Immortal as if you've had first-hand experience."
Before I finished talking, Saren zapped me. The bolt of power hurdled through the air, but I looked up and everything slowed in that instant. I saw it coming, but at a snail's pace. I deflected it and sent it into a wall. Then I looked up again and saw Saren in the air, soaring at me. Her hands were outstretched and ready to let loose two more bolts of power at me. I sidestepped her too. When she landed on the floor, her bolts shattered the floor beneath her, and I grabbed her collar. The floor crumbled underneath her while I lifted her in the air and kicked off the ground. I sent us both through the air to land in the opposite corner.
Sireenia watched where we had been. Her mouth hung open and her hands had lifted to her cheeks. Then it all stopped. Everything snapped back in place. They were no longer in slow motion and Saren stumbled backwards as she fell to the ground.