by Raven Steele
With Mateo’s tall height and intense gaze he could be quite intimidating. I remember being afraid of him too when I’d first met him. But that fear had turned to passion in a short amount of time. Maybe too short.
Lynx returned holding a glass partially filled with a brown liquid. Dark chunks of something swirled within. “I know it doesn’t look the best, and its taste probably isn’t much better, but it should work.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I asked.
She flinched. “Then it’s going to make someone very ill, hopefully not worse.”
“Could this kill them?” Briar asked, a hint of worry in her voice.
Mateo held out his hand. “Let’s get this over with.”
“I will go first,” Angel said, stepping in front of him.
Briar came to his side. “Um, no. Let Mateo go first. He offered to drink the shit juice first.”
He stared down at her, his gaze softening and a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “A little shit juice won’t hurt me, I assure you. Besides, it’s my duty.”
“There is no need for those formalities here,” Mateo said. “I don’t want you harming yourself if—”
Angel’s hand snapped forward and grabbed the glass. He swallowed half of it and handed it back to Lynx before anyone could stop him.
“Asshat.” Briar stared at him with disgust.
“You should sit,” I said and moved a chair beneath him. His face was beginning to pale.
Roma slid back on the sofa further away from him. “You don’t look so good.”
“Angel?” Mateo asked.
Angel’s legs buckled, and he dropped to his knees, his face grimacing. Luke rose to his feet as did Gerald. Loxley stayed back by the door, looking like she wanted to bolt.
Briar knelt by Angel’s side. “What’s happening? Are you okay?”
His head snapped back, eyes open wide. He might’ve tried to answer her, but his jaw was clamped too hard, making the muscles on the side of his face bulge.
Mateo looked at Lynx, worry creasing his brow. “Is this supposed to happen?”
“I don’t know!”
“Just give him a minute,” Roma said. “Let the potion weed out the compulsion. It’s powerful magic we’re dealing with. It’s not going to feel good.”
Angel fell over, his back arching painfully high. His legs began to shake, followed by the rest of his body. Briar tried to hold him still but it was like trying to calm an earthquake.
“Do something!” Briar shouted at Lynx.
Luke rested a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.
Her burst of emotions toward caring for Angel surprised me. Clearly her feelings for him ran deep. I wonder if even Briar knew how deep they went. For the first time, Mateo and I locked eyes, an understanding passing between us.
Angel’s body fell flush with the floor, and he sucked in a great breath.
“It’s wearing off,” Roma said. She was sitting on the edge of the couch leaning forward eagerly.
“Angel?” Briar asked. She stroked the hair away from his face.
Slowly, his eyes came into focus.
Mateo bent down next to him. “How do you feel, old friend?”
He groaned and touched his head. “Remember that time we were captured by the Season Witches?”
Mateo grimaced. “That bad, huh?”
I frowned and looked at Mateo. The Season Witches? I wondered when he had encountered them. It must’ve been after we were together. It wasn’t that long ago that I fought alongside the witches with Aris Crow in Coast City to take down Bastian, a vampire on the Ministry who attempted to take over the city. The witches had been helpful, but I wouldn’t want to get on their bad side.
When Briar had Angel sitting up, I asked, “What can you tell us about Korin?”
Angel glanced at Mateo, his face turning ashen. “It’s not good, Mateo.”
Mateo looked like he wanted to say something specific, but his mouth slammed shut. He nodded instead. “Tell them what you know, for I cannot.”
“Korin took the Nocturnas to a large building a couple of weeks ago. It looked similar to the building where we fought against the Hydes in the swamps.” He looked at Gerald. “You were there.”
“Don’t remind me,” Gerald said, his chest tightening.
“The layout was similar,” Angel continued, “which makes me think maybe he has many more buildings just like this. Though this one held many more supernaturals. Rows and rows of cages with long tubing connecting them all.”
“What was in the tubes?” Lynx asked. She lowered onto the sofa’s armrest, her face a mixture of elation and concern.
I patted her arm. “Well done.”
She beamed at me.
“Korin said it was Scorpion’s Breath with a kick,” Angel answered her question.
I resisted the urge to scowl at Mateo. This all started because of him. If he valued human life even a little, all of this may have been avoided.
“Were witches also being held captive?” Owen asked, his attention solely focused on Angel. If Owen was uncomfortable with all of our presences, he didn’t show it. This made me watch him closely. No one should feel comfortable around this much predatory power.
Angel nodded. “Several, in fact.”
I straightened the glasses on the bridge of my nose. “How many did you say there were?”
Angel slowly came to his feet with Briar by his side. “Dozens, but I only saw a portion of the building. There could’ve been even more.”
Briar finally noticed Luke’s gaze on her and purposely turned from Angel. The dynamics between them was becoming complicated. I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it sooner. “I’ve heard of a few people missing, but not that many. Where are they coming from?”
“Neighboring towns, maybe,” Briar said. “I’ll have the pack start asking around.”
“What does he plan on doing with them?” I asked Angel. “And when?”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t given that information.”
Mateo removed his suit jacket and draped it over the back of the chair. He spun on Lynx, nearly making her fall from her perch on the arm rest. “Give it to me.”
She held out the rest of the brown liquid. He stared at it briefly before tossing it back into his throat.
“He must have more information,” Roma mumbled.
My body tensed as I watched the color drain from his face. He grabbed onto Angel for support, his eyes widening in pain.
“It will only last a minute,” Angel offered.
Mateo dropped to the floor, his knuckles as white as an arctic snowcap. I felt his agony in my chest, then hardened myself against it; being around him was making me weaker. I almost went to him, but rooted my stance.
“I don’t want to watch this,” Loxley said. She was still hovering by the door.
Gerald backed up to her, his own face grimacing at what Mateo was enduring. “Let’s go out on the porch.”
Mateo’s body had begun to tighten and shake. He fell to his side, his back arching painfully high. His muscles were flexed so tight that his form fitting dress shirt began to tear at the seam of his shoulders. His body flipped onto its stomach, and he growled as if trying to fight against the magic battering his body. More of his shirt tore.
That’s when I saw it.
The faded, almost healed, distinguishable marks of a cat-o-nine-tails whip. I swallowed hard, my chest tightening. I’d seen the wounds many times before. One of Korin’s favorite methods of punishment. Nine leathered tails, each tipped with a hard leather knot to provide the most pain. Sometimes Korin would weave nails through those tips. By the brief glimpse of Mateo’s back, that’s exactly the kind of beating he had received.
But why? Had Korin punished Mateo because of something I did? The thought made me ill.
I looked up, meeting Angel’s gaze. By his expression, he had seen the marks too, but he didn’t look shocked like I did. He looked angry, at me. As if I’d bee
n the one to whip Mateo.
Mateo rolled onto his back and sucked in a great breath. His body still twitched, but the worst of it was over. Angel bent down. “How did it feel?”
“As you de- described,” he stuttered. “Although I might prefer the Season Witches means of torture.”
Chuckling, Angel helped him sit up. “It will continue to burn, but it will be manageable.”
Briar looked at him, surprised. “It still hurts?”
He didn’t answer.
On an exhale, Mateo said, “Korin plans on attacking the heart of the city soon, maybe in a matter of weeks.”
“Attacking?” Lynx gasped, a hand on her stomach. Denise moved closer to her, looking just as horrified.
“For what purpose?” I asked.
“It’s a dry run for something bigger.”
“How much bigger?” Luke asked, his voice deep and gravely.
Mateo rose to his feet with Angel’s help. He slipped his jacket back over his torn shirt and looked at each of us. “Rouen is to be the birthing place of Trianus.” He looked at the witches. “As you know, the earth holds great power. There are a few tears across its surface, one of them being directly below Rouen. They plan to tap into that power and use it to raise Trianus. Korin’s job is to prepare the city to greet him, which means humans must come under his control.”
I sucked in a breath. “It’s Coast City all over again.”
Everyone in the room looked at me, but I didn’t bother wasting time explaining further. Instead, I said, “We have to stop it. Whatever it takes. I’ve seen firsthand how humans and even supernaturals suffer when one of our kind gets too much power. No good will come from this.”
Briar slammed her fist down. “I second Sammie. We must stop it, no matter the cost.”
“I third it,” Lynx added.
Angel assisted Mateo into the chair. Color still hadn’t returned to Mateo’s complexion when he said, “I think all of us are in agreement that Korin must be stopped. And now that we are no longer compelled, we can give the,” he glanced at Briar, “shit juice to our people, which will give us more numbers.”
“As long as you don’t get compelled again,” I said.
Lynx stood and paced the room. “Maybe there’s something to protect them from that happening again.”
“As far as I know, there isn’t. Not for vampires. It would be a wonderful gift if there was.” I turned to Mateo. “You must act as if you are still compelled, until the time is right. Even if it means you must do something you don’t wish to do.”
“Samira’s right,” Roma confirmed. “Vampires can’t be protected from compulsion, but others can. Humans and witches, for example.”
“I didn’t know this,” I said, immediately interested. Roma nodded. “This could help us greatly.”
“Shifters?” Briar asked.
Owen shifted his position on the chair, leaning forward. “It depends upon how much human DNA is in them. For some, it may work. Roma and I, along with the Witches of Rouen—” He turned to Lynx. “Of course, you are welcome too.”
Lynx’s face lit up as he continued.
“—will create a special thread for people to wear. It’s worked in the past and should work again.”
“Good.” I noted Mateo, staring at the floor with a distant look in his eyes. Something was bothering him. “What is it, Mateo?”
“There’s more.” His eyes slowly rose to meet mine. “Korin is working with someone, a man named the Phoenix.”
“We’ve heard of him, but what you may not know is he is the same smoke beast we fought at Fire Ridge.”
Angel frowned. “I thought Briar destroyed it.”
“Me too,” Briar said, rolling her eyes, “but apparently all I did was give that fae witch bitch more power when I killed Vincent, the third alpha in a short amount of time. Now she’s running around as some bald, tall dude that’s uber powerful.”
Roma cleared her throat. “How do we find this person?”
“Maybe there’s a spell,” Owen offered.
Lynx opened her mouth. “I can look—”
Roma touched her arm. “Let us do it. You’re going to have your hands full creating more shit juice. Brilliant work, by the way.”
Lynx smiled shyly. “Thank you.”
I drew my attention back to Mateo. The way his finger slowly tapped against the chair as if in sync to a metronome. And the way his lips tightened and relaxed. I knew all his movements. Knew what they all meant. “That’s not what’s bothering you. What else?”
He hesitated, his Adam’s apple bobbing on his throat. “He said when the time is right, he plans on taking your blood.”
“I was told they already had my blood.” I didn’t admit the fae had told me this, or that they, also, had my blood.
“They do, for testing purposes, but they want more.”
I thought of earlier at Winter’s Cove. “He tasted my blood earlier tonight.”
Mateo sat up straighter, his eyes sharpening into points. “When? Who?”
“Naburus insisted he have a taste.”
Mateo’s golden eyes burned the dark, orange color of the sun’s rays at sunset. I could practically feel the heat from them against my skin. “He should not be touching you.”
Briar glanced at me with a twinkle in her eye and lifted her hand to her mouth, forming the letter O with her lips. How she managed not to say something was beyond me.
I shifted my gaze back to Mateo. “You say that as if I had a choice.”
An uncomfortable silence blanketed the room; I hadn’t explained to anyone what had happened there.
Mateo just shook his head. “You don’t understand.” He exhaled a weighted breath. “The Phoenix and Korin don’t just want a little bit. They want every last drop.”
Chapter 20
The room exploded in an array of voices. Through it all I stared at Mateo, and his pained gaze bled into mine. I’d seen that look before. The last time we were together, and he made a vow to meet me on the Teragony Bridge at midnight. We were going to run away together. Leave Korin once and for all.
He never showed up.
Had I known what that look meant, I might never have gone to that bridge. And now, seeing it again, I knew he was helpless to prevent what was about to come. Compelled or not, Mateo would not or could not intervene.
“Enough.” My power-infused voice silenced the room. “Korin will not have my blood. We have the upper hand. He doesn’t know how we will free the vampires from his control, and we will use that to our advantage. As for the Phoenix, the witches will find the person, and we will destroy him.”
I eyed everyone in the room, focusing on the ones I didn’t know very well. Owen remained calm, his face a mask of mystery and power. Denise still stood behind Lynx, a wall of grace, but her eyes held a hint of worry. Gerald and Loxley had come back into the room in the middle of the conversation. Loxley looked everywhere but at us. Something about this conversation made her extremely uncomfortable.
“What’s the plan?” Briar asked.
If someone in the room was the Phoenix, we would have to be very careful about making plans. “We will decide later. For now, some of us should scout out security at White Pine where Korin is storing the Hydes. We need to know what we’re up against.”
“I’ll go,” Angel said. “I know how to find it.”
“We’ll join you.” Luke grabbed Briar’s hand, and she nodded.
“Me too.” Gerald looked back at Loxley. “Would you like to come?”
She chewed on her lip. “I’m actually going to head back to Fire Ridge. This is out of my league.”
Briar walked over to her with Luke. “Actually, I need you to do something for me. When you get there, ask everyone to reach out to shifter packs in neighboring cities. Have anyone call us if they’re missing shifters. If they do, write down the names and which pack they’re from.”
Loxley nodded. “Yes, Alpha.”
Angel opened the door, an
d they all left. Briar cast me an encouraging look over her shoulder before she disappeared outside.
Roma stood, along with Owen. She glanced at Lynx and Denise. “Let’s go, too. I’ll reach out to the others to meet at the Apex in one hour.”
“It’s late,” Owen warned.
“They’ll come. We can’t waste any more time.”
“Thank you, Roma.” I bowed my head slightly. I was glad to have someone like Roma take charge of the witches. They needed someone who had already proven themselves as a leader in the past, someone with a good reputation. Otherwise, like it often did, there could be a play for power among the younger ones. It’s how the witches fell the last time, all those years ago.
“I can stay if you’d like,” Lynx said to me, her voice low.
“Why would you do that?”
She shifted her weight onto the back of her feet and flicked her gaze to Mateo. “Emotional support.”
I chuckled a little. The action felt uncomfortable, and yet, it releases some much needed tension. “I’ll be fine.”
From the front door, Roma asked, “Are you coming, Lynx?”
She nodded and said goodbye to me, leaving Mateo and I alone. I approached him slowly, noting his occasional grimace. “How are you feeling?”
“It still burns, but I’ve had much worse.”
My eyes flickered to the top of his collar, where I could barely see the sign of the whip marks. “Why were you punished?”
He averted his gaze and adjusted his jacket around him tighter. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Was it because Korin caught us in my room? Are you supposed to stay away from me because I’m a traitor?”
He didn’t say anything.
I crept closer and lowered into a chair opposite him. “Tell me.”
“I should go.”
Not this again. “Because Korin orders it, or because that’s what you want?”
His shoulders lowered, and his eyes mirrored the movement. “Does it matter?”
I waited a few seconds before I responded. “It should. You either believe in me, or you don’t. But you cannot pretend to care for me and yet ask me to walk away from this. If you truly knew me, you would know that is impossible. I will not stand by as he tortures those people and attempts to take over this city.”