by Quinn Loftis
She’d told him something similar before but it still bothered him for her to go out walking on her own.
“Quit worrying about me and tell me what’s going on with you. Something is very wrong. What is it?”
Cypher huffed. “This little ability can be very annoying at times,” he told her, only half joking.
“You’ll get over it.” Lilly pinched his back where she had her arms wrapped around him. “Now talk.”
She wouldn’t leave it alone until he told her, so he decided to avoid the nagging and give in. “Vasile called and asked for me to allow Perizada to bring me to his headquarters. He didn’t give me details. He just said it was urgent.”
Lilly stepped back and looked up at him. “Jacque?”
He rubbed her back soothingly. “He would have requested you if it were your daughter. Vasile is not the type to keep information from a parent. I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, it’s bad.”
Before Lilly could respond, Peri’s voice reached them.
“Kiss your mate goodbye, king. I don’t have time for twenty questions. Lilly, if Vasile decides you need to know, then I’ll be back for you. Otherwise please try not to be like your daughter and her cohorts.”
“What?” Lilly asked with a frown.
Peri didn’t look like she appreciated having to explain herself. “Don’t try to save the damn day by butting in where you weren’t invited.”
Cypher ignored the fae as he took Lilly’s face in his hands and coaxed her head back around to face him. “I’ll be back soon.” He kissed her gently, wishing he could linger. He released her and stepped toward Peri.
“Don’t go making any oaths of silence or some crap,” Lilly spoke up. “I expect you to tell me what is going on.”
Cypher didn’t make her any promises. Instead, he met her eyes and held her gaze. “I love you,” he told her. He never parted from her without telling her that he loved her, because in the world they lived in, there was no guarantee that he would return.
“I love you too,” she said just as Peri grabbed his arm and flashed him from the forest.
Lilly took out her phone and dialed her daughter’s number. Her hand shook as she held the phone to her ear and waited for her Jacque to answer.
“Hello?”
She let out a ragged breath at the sound of her voice. “You’re okay? The baby is okay?”
“Mom?” Jacque asked sounding alarmed. “I’m fine. Are you?”
“I’m fine. Vasile called and asked Cypher to come for a meeting. Cypher assured me it wasn’t because of you, but, you know me, I needed to be sure.”
“No, I’m good. Well, as good as can be expected while being the size of a small house.”
Lilly laughed. “It will be over soon and then lack of sleep will have you wanting to put the little bugger back inside.” Lilly heard some noise in the background as Jacque asked her to hold on.
“I’ve got to go, Mom. Jen’s here and she’s bored and expecting me to entertain her.”
“Okay, I love you and give Jen my love and Sally as well.”
“Will do. Love you too.”
They disconnected the call and Lilly stood in the quiet forest alone with her worries. Despite knowing that Jacque was alright, she couldn’t shake the intense fear that was causing her stomach to roll with queasiness. Whatever it was, she knew it was going to change the world they knew. Not that she wasn't used to change by now. Lilly's applecart had been upset multiple times over the years. First, when she fell in love with a wolf, then when she realized her daughter wasn't gong to be exempt from her father’s genetics, and then more recently when she gave her heart to a warlock king. A smile tilted her lips as she thought about the night of their bonding ceremony. Lilly had thought it would have been in the presence of all of the warlock people. But to her surprise, Cypher had allowed only the handful of people Lilly wanted, which included Perizada. Lilly shouldn't have been surprised when Cypher said they would need the fae anyway to perform the ceremony.
"There has never been a human mate, Lilly," Cypher told her as they stood in his room. "I don't even know if my magic will bind you to me."
"But you think the fae’s can?" she asked him.
Cypher chuckled. "Honestly, I don’t think there is much that woman can't do, not once she puts her mind to it."
Lilly smiled. "I would have to agree."
He put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to look up at him. "Tonight I will make you mine—my mate, my queen, and my lover."
Lilly shivered at the possessive gleam in his eyes. And all she could do was nod.
With her daughter, Jen, Jacque, Alina, and their respective mates gathered around them, Lilly and Cypher stood before Perizada. The high fae allowed a bit of her power issue forth, basking the happy couple in a soft white light. She held an ancient crumbling book open in one hand and a small ceremonial knife—which looked equally as ancient—in the other.
"Never has there been a human united with a warlock," Peri began. "Cypher has sought the wisdom of the high fae and it is by my magic, along with Cypher's and his own blood that we will bind these two." Peri took the blade and sliced it across Cypher’s palm, then again across Lilly's palm. The bite of the blade burned up her arm, but the pain was gone the minute Peri pressed Lilly’s hand against Cypher’s. Then she took a thin gold cord and wrapped it around their hands, binding them together. It reminded Lilly of a handfasting tradition that she'd often read about in the period books she loved so much.
With their hands clasped, their blood mingling, and the chord binding them, Peri began to speak in a beautiful, elegant language. Her voice filled the stone walls of the gathering room in the warlock mountain. Power pulsed and magic licked across their skin as, slowly Lilly, began to feel not only her own essence but Cypher's as well. By the time Peri had finished speaking, Lilly felt as though something inside of her had been unlocked. She looked up into Cypher’s eyes and saw her future with him.
Lilly blinked several times as she cleared her mind of the memory. She still stood in the forest, where her mate and Peri had left her. She shivered as a cool breeze rushed over her. Yes, life was changing again. The supernatural world was about to be turned upon its head, and Lilly didn’t know if it was going to be a good change or one that was going to get them all killed.
Decebel, Fane, and Costin each stood at the door of Vasile’s office when Peri appeared with Cypher.
“Why didn’t you just flash us into his office?” the Serbia Alpha asked.
“Because they needed some time alone,” Peri answered in her usual snappy tone.
Decebel reached his hand out and clasped Cypher’s forearm in the warrior greeting. “It’s good to see you, Cypher.” The warlock king nodded and then greeted Fane and Costin.
“Come in, please.” Vasile’s voice traveled clearly through the closed door but Decebel noticed that it sounded worn and tired. He pushed open the door and stepped inside. The stench of anger, fear, and death permeated the air. Judging by the coughing coming from the other males, he wasn’t the only one affected by it.
“What is that smell?” Fane asked his father.
“That would be the smell of three little human girls who lost their lives this night,” Vasile answered, quickly sobering the room.
After several beats of silence, Decebel folded his arms across his broad chest. “What’s going on?”
Vasile nodded to Peri. “Please.” He motioned for the fae to step forward. To Decebel’s surprise, she looked hesitant, completely uncharacteristic for the fae.
“I wouldn’t ask this of you if the news I’m about to share wasn’t so gruesome,” Peri said as she addressed them. “But, it is. Please block your mates from this conversation and don’t reveal the information you are about to learn. Once you have heard everything, then you all can decide how much you want to reveal to them.”
Her words had Decebel’s jaw clenching. He did as she asked and immediately felt Jen’s irritatio
n.
She was going to bombard him with questions later, livid that she was shut out. She was like a dog hunting a meaty bone when she decided she needed information.
“I’m sure Vasile has told you.” Peri paused and glanced at the Romania Alpha. Vasile was shaking his head. “You didn’t tell them?”
“Tell us what?” Costin asked.
Decebel could tell the other males were beginning to become as agitated as he was. Something was very wrong.
“Why the hell not?” Peri growled at Vasile.
Vasile stood up and stepped around his desk. Alina stepped up beside him and placed a hand on his arm. Decebel could count on one hand the number of times he’d seen his old friend look so troubled.
“Perizada, I respect you as the ambassador that you are, the friend you have become, and as the mate that you are to my brother. But you will remember to whom you speak. I made the decision not to inform them of what you told me because I was hoping that this was an isolated incident. Since you and the other pack males destroyed the coven, I had hoped that the problem was solved.”
Decebel’s ears pricked at the word coven. “Vampires,” he growled. The other males added their voices to his as low rumbles vibrated in their chests.
“There haven’t been vampires seen above ground in centuries,” Cypher argued.
Peri finally turned away from Vasile and looked back at them. She let out a humorless laugh. “They still haven’t been seen above ground, at least not by anyone left alive. But they are hunting again. Of that, there is no doubt. Without going into too much detail, my mate, myself, and two other male wolves went to visit a coven in hopes of discovering some much needed information. But instead of finding information, we found bodies―lots and lots of little, young bodies. The vampires were all too happy to parade them in front of us. Apparently they’d forgotten what it’s like to provoke pissed off male Canis lupus. Dalton Black, the Beta of the Colorado pack, killed them all.”
Decebel was shaking with the need to phase. They were killing children, innocents. Children had always been sacred to him, but now that he had a daughter of his own, there was a whole new meaning to the term sacred child. The idea of his Thia in the hands of bloodsuckers filled him with enough rage that his hands began to phase and fur was beginning to sprout on his arms and neck.
“We too had hoped that perhaps,” Peri continued despite the level of animosity now filling the room from all of the males present, “it was an isolated problem, that maybe only that particular coven had begun committing such atrocities. Tonight proved us wrong. Vasile, Alina, and I discovered a home that they had raided, but it wasn’t the only place that they had struck.”
“How many more?” Alina asked, her own wolf peering out at them from her eyes.
Peri’s jaw clenched before she finally answered. “Six.”
“Six more children?” Vasile asked.
The high fae shook her head and made a noise halfway between a snort and a huff. “They struck in six more cities.”
“How. Many. Children?” Alina asked again. Decebel wasn’t surprised to see Vasile holding onto his mate’s wrist because Alina looked ready to tackle Peri to the ground.
“Eighteen. Three in each city. All triplets. All under the age of eight.”
“How do you know this?” Fane spoke up, his voice hoarse with emotion.
“Spies. I’ve been working with the pixies. I had the pixie king put three of his warriors in each of the cities where I believed there to be covens.”
“How did you know where to look?” Fane pressed.
“It wasn’t hard once I started checking police reports for missing children.”
Vasile pinched the bridge of his nose. “Eighteen in one night.”
“What are we going to do?” Fane asked his father.
It was Alina who answered. Her voice was cold as ice when she met each of their gazes. “We’re going to kill them.”
“All of them?” Costin asked.
“Every. Last. One,” Decebel growled.
“I knew there was a reason I continued to put up with you wolves,” Peri told them with a smile that didn’t meet her eyes. “I can always count on you to be ready to make chew toys out of our enemies.” She turned to Vasile. “Cyn will be coming to assist you. I’ll be here when I can. Tonight my people are working on cleaning up the mess the vamps have made. Alston, a couple of the other high fae, and Cyn are working on the other victims’ homes. I’m not even going to get into why Adam and Elle can’t help. Let’s just say my plate is officially off limits for any added courses.”
“Thank you, Peri.” Alina took the fae’s hand. “We know you make a lot of sacrifices for our race and we are thankful.”
“Don’t be thankful, just kick some vampire ass and we’ll call it even.” She flashed away leaving them in Vasile’s office feeling as though the weight of the world had been dropped on their chests.
“What now?” Cypher asked.
“Now we get some sleep,” Vasile told them. “We will meet back here tomorrow evening. I’m giving you all day tomorrow to get your things in order. Put capable wolves in charge of your packs.” He glanced at Decebel and then at Cypher.
“What about our mates?” Costin spoke up. “What are we supposed to tell them now that we’ve been blocking them from our minds for an hour?”
“For now, tell them I ordered you to block them because of some sensitive information that is only for the warriors. I know that our females think of themselves as warriors and, in their own right, they are.” Vasile reached over and took Alina’s hands. “But they are still to be protected, even if they don’t like it.”
“If your females get upset, have them call me,” Alina offered.
“You’re joking right?” Fane chuckled at his mom. “Upset is what happens when Jacque’s hair doesn’t do what she wants it to. Me blocking her from my thoughts, yeah Mom, that’s way past upset.”
“Can’t we just tell them” —Costin tapped his mind indicating the use of the mate bond— “that you sent us on a mission. That way we don’t have to see them tonight?”
“Chicken,” Decebel rumbled.
All of the males’ heads turned to face him. “What?” he asked.
“You, of all of us, should be terrified. Jen’s going to rip you a new one,” Costin laughed.
“Yes, but I know several ways to soften my mate’s temper.” Decebel smiled a wolfish smile at them revealing long canines.
“Do whatever you have to in order to survive the night and day, gentlemen,” Vasile told them. “But do not reveal what Peri has shared with us this night. I have a feeling life is about to get very messy. Let’s give your mates one more night of normal.”
Chapter 2
“Sally and I have decided that putting up with Jen is a small price to pay for the entertainment value she and her mate provide. Need a laugh, just sit in on one of their fights. Need to get all hot and bothered, just sit in on one of their fights. Need a good cry, just sit in on one of their fights, and then you might have to cry over the good brain scrubbing you will need. Yep, those two are a regular lineup of prime time T.V.” ~Jacque
“She’s blind? And another one is a stripper?” Jen’s voice carried from the bathroom. She, Jacque, and Sally had gathered in Sally and Costin’s suite. “The Great Luna must be having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for healers if she’s resorting to blind chicks and strippers.”
“Jen, technically you could be classified as a stripper,” Jacque hollered back from the room where she and Sally sat. “You just never require money to take it off.”
“Actually, Jen’s more of a stripper than Stella. Stella doesn’t take off her clothes. She just dances,” Sally pointed out. She leaned back on the couch and let out a contented sigh. It was good to be home.
Jacque gave her gypsy healer friend a nod. “Good point. Jen’s clothes never stay on when she dances.” Both she and Sally’s heads turned as Jen came sauntering out of the bathroom.
“Hey, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, nobody asked for your sideline commentary. I was simply pointing out that these news chicas, you’ve been telling us about, seem to have a lot of baggage. No judgment,” she said holding up her hands defensively, “considering I’m barely nineteen, married, and have a kid.”
“They do have a lot of baggage,” Sally agreed. “But, they’re really great. You guys are going to like them.”
Jacque reached over and patted her knee. “Miss them already?”
She gave her a small smile and shrugged. “They’ve been through a lot and are going to go through much more before it’s all said and done. I guess I’m like a mama hen. I worry about my chicks.”
Jen plopped down next to Sally on the couch and gave her brown hair a slight tug. “Yeah, well, listen up, Mother Goose. You are our best friend. I’m not saying I won’t like the new little chickadees, but just remember who claimed you first. So no crying over spilled healers, or whatever.”
“What she means,” Jacque chimed in as Jen proceeded to look over her fingernails intently, “is that she really missed you. Both of us did.”
Sally leaned over and wrapped Jen in a hug. “I promise no one could ever take your place, Jen. You put the fun in dysfunctional.”
“You put the we, in weird,” Jacque joined in as she climbed over to the other couch and wrapped her arms around her two best friends.
“You put the poss in possible,” Sally continued.
“That isn’t even a thing,” Jen growled though she was hugging them back.
“True, but if there were, you would be the poss,” Jacque agreed.
Jen was smiling when she shoved them away. “Enough sap, and enough about the new gyps. I want to hear about the new males.” Jen stopped midsentence and frowned. “Is it just me or are your men blocking you two as well?” she asked them.
Sally felt the walls in Costin’s mind go up. She immediately tried to get through his defenses, but the more she pushed, the stronger he made them in response. “Costin’s not letting me in.”