Gavin hissed, motioning with his hand. “Get back down. Now.”
“Okay.” The human rolled to his back and folded his hands over his chest. He gazed up at the sky. “But back to my point. Tell me again why we’re seeking out some dude who wants to kill all of you guys.”
“Because he doesn’t care about us. He cares about the thread.” Gavin sat up. HIs voice raised to a normal volume. “And because that means we have the same enemy.”
“What are you doing?” Wren yanked him back down.
“Wren,” Gavin started, sitting up and staring behind them.
The last human muttered, “I could go for a smoke. Seriously. Seeking out another bad guy’s got me jonesing hardcore.”
His friend threw him a grin, kicking his feet. “Don’t stress, Cal. The way I figure we’re hanging out with a bunch of vampires.”
“We’re going into another group of vampires,” the one called Cal groaned. “And they aren’t friendly.”
“But we just escaped an entire army of other vamps and werewolves. Like, holy shit, vampires and werewolves. No one will believe us, but we saw those things.”
“We’re going to die, Spencer.” He shot him a dark look.
“Yeah.” Spencer shrugged. “But we sure have lived, haven’t we?”
“Shut up,” Wren growled at both of them. “We either move or we leave. We need to do something to help Lucas.”
Gavin, still looking into the trees behind them, said, “Wren—”
“Let’s go.” Wren collected her sword and crouched to a crawling position. She could maneuver over the hill, continuing to slink toward the village.
Gavin stood up and Lucan grinned. His brother’s best friend was staring right at him, and as the others gasped in shock, Lucan stepped forward. He said, “Welcome.” All of them jumped to their feet, grabbing for their weapons, and he turned his smile toward the two on the end. “You brought more humans. My friends will welcome their dinner tonight.”
Cal frowned and scratched behind his ear. “Say what?”
ROANE
They’d been walking through the forest until it got dark. Roane kept waiting for her to fly away, or go invisible, or do something magical, but she never did. She trekked ahead of him, walking as if she were a human, until they came to a clearing. She stopped and gazed around, sighing. “I suppose we can sleep here tonight.”
His eyebrows pinched together. “You sleep?”
“No.” She waved her hand in the air and a bonfire appeared. Two sleeping bags were on the floor, on either side of the fire. She dropped down on one of them and crossed her legs. “But you do.”
His head moved back an inch. “That’s very . . .” He couldn’t bring himself to give her a compliment. She was being nice.
“What?” She laughed. “You’re surprised I might have a soul in me? I was inside of Davy for a year. Some of her niceness rubbed off on me.”
She had Davy’s face. Davy’s voice and right now, as she was staring at the fire, it was like she was Davy. His stomach clenched. This was not Davy, and he couldn’t forget that. Ever.
She rolled her eyes, lying down on her side. Her hands tucked under her head, acting like a pillow. “I’m not her, but I’m not that bad either, Lucas Roane of the Hunters.”
He grunted, dropping down onto the other sleeping bag. “You replaced my girlfriend. I think you are.”
Her eyes found his through the fire. A dark and sober expression filled them. “When it comes to the question of you or someone else existing, you might be surprised at the lengths you’ll go to live.”
“You’re not a person.”
“And yet here I am.” She rolled to her back. “Talking like a person. Breathing. Feeling. I think I’m more human than you are, even.”
She was lying. She had no soul. Davy had been the soul in her. He continued to study her, and she let him. He didn’t need to sleep that much, maybe a few hours if even that, but after a while his eyes closed, and he slept.
“Lucas.”
He stood up. Everything around him was dark, but that was Davy. She was crying. More sobs came from her, and he called out, “Davy? Where are you?”
“Lucas?”
The crying stopped. Her voice grew clearer. “Lucas!”
“I’m here. Where are you?”
“Here.” And suddenly, she was. She was smack in front of him. Her dark hair lay straight down her shoulders and her eyes were wide. “What are you doing here?” She touched his shoulders and patted him. “Are you real? Are you really here?”
“Davy.” He closed his eyes and groaned. She was right in front of him. He could touch her. Taking her hands in his, he pulled her close and tucked his forehead to the crook of her neck and shoulders. He clasped her tight. “Oh my God. I can feel you.”
Her arms wrapped tightly around him and she pressed up on her toes. Her whole body moved even closer against his.
He savored this. He had her. Finally. He could hug her, kiss her, feel her, taste her, inhale her.
“Oh my God.”
He felt her tears against his shoulder. He only wanted to hold her longer.
“Oh my God,” she repeated. More tears. “Is this a dream?”
Yes. He was asleep. If this was real or not, he didn’t want to question it. He just wanted to draw strength from it. If only in his dreams, if that were the only place he could see her, it would be enough. It would be more than enough.
“This is a dream.” Her tears lessened. She pulled away, but he held on. He didn’t want her to pull all the way away. She leaned back so she could look into his eyes. What he saw there had his rage going again. She knew this moment wouldn’t last. He would leave again. She said, “Lucas, if this is real or not, you have to know about her.”
He shook his head. “Stop, Davy. I just want to hold you. I don’t want to think of her.”
She stepped farther back. Her hands fell to his arms. Her fingers dug in, holding onto him with a cement grip. “No, but you have to. This is important. She’s going to destroy the only person who is a threat to her. She’s an innocent.”
He leaned back. “An innocent? She’ll never be innocent.”
“No. You don’t understand.” She clenched onto him even harder. Her fingers were turning white. “You think she’s all powerful. You think there’s no hope, but there is. Someone is missing. Who is missing? Ask yourself why they’re missing? And she’s not the innocent, but the innocent is the key. There are people coming. They will help. People you have forgotten about. People that you started in motion. Remember, Lucas. Think, Lucas.”
Wind started blowing around them. It was growing faster, starting to tug at him. Their time was ending. He was getting pulled away.
He didn’t want that. He wanted to only savor her.
“Lucas!” She framed his face with her hands. The wind was like a tornado. It tripled in power and she was yelling so he could hear her. “I can come back! You can bring me back!”
The wind was too much. It was a vacuum. He was pulled away and their hands held onto each other. He was in the air, but still, his fingers laced with hers. She was trying to keep him there, but right before he was yanked backwards, she yelled again, “Bring me back!”
Then, he was gone.
His eyes snapped open and he jerked upright. “Did you do that?”
The Immortal was on her sleeping bag. It was light out, and she turned her head lazily to him. “Do what?”
“My dream. Davy.” His breathing was ragged. “Did you do that?”
Her eyebrows knotted together and the corners of her lip curved down a bit. She sat up, straightening her dress. “No, but now I’m intrigued. What did you dream about?”
“Why do you lie?”
Her eyebrows arched high. “I’m not. I really want to know now. What did she say?” A half grin teased at her lips. “Did she tell you of my demise?”
“Someone is missing . . . the innocent is the key. There are people coming. They w
ill help. People you have forgotten about. People that you started in motion. Remember, Lucas. Think, Lucas.”
Davy’s words haunted him. They were ricocheting around him, and they felt so real. Her desperation was still with him. He could feel it. He could feel her.
He sat back down.
Davy had been there. Whether real or not, she was there. She was giving him a message. He shook his head and lifted his gaze. The Immortal was watching him. Her eyes were piercing. He asked, “Are you in my head?”
She didn’t respond. Her lips pressed together, then she stood up. “Let’s go. We’ve rested long enough. Neither of us is human. We don’t need that much sleep.”
She wasn’t in his head anymore. She started forward, but that realization echoed strong inside of him. She wasn’t in his head, and she was pissed about it. Then, did he dare hope, that could mean that Davy had been real?
He swallowed hard, painfully, but hope bloomed inside of his chest. It was small, but it was there.
He could bring her back.
Someone missing.
An innocent.
And people were coming back.
That was Davy’s message to him, and Roane tried to decipher it. Who was missing? Davy. Everyone. Himself. He couldn’t wrap his mind around who she meant and the innocent—no one was innocent. And who was coming back? She was insistent that there was hope, but as he followed The Immortal, he couldn’t figure out who Davy meant. The one person who had enough power to defeat The Immortal was Jacith and he was dead. Thinking about it, Roane could’ve cursed himself. He hadn’t been thinking, but The Immortal was in his head. He couldn’t have been thinking ahead. She would’ve known then.
“Okay.” They’d been steadily winding up around a mountain and The Immortal stopped. She stepped out on an edge. “We’re here.”
He looked to where she was gazing and was surprised. “That’s the Mori village?”
His mind was racing. Why had she come here? What did this mean? He glanced sideways to her. “Are you here for my brother?”
Her eyes narrowed, but a hint of a grin flashed over her face. It was a glimmer, and it was gone just as quick as it showed. “No, but your brother could become an annoying pest.” She leaned forward and said, “Silence. I need to hear.”
She was listening to the entire village. He should’ve have been surprised, but nothing surprised him anymore, not when it came to this creature. She could bend the world’s rules. She could be in his head. She could do almost anything. It was hard to imagine that Davy could be brought back, and yet, The Immortal was no longer in his head. A small victory happened, and she hadn’t gotten into his head since. She had stopped many times on their trek, and she kept glancing back at him. She was trying to understand what happened, how she was locked out. Frustration rippled off her, and he basked in it, but all that was gone as she was eavesdropping on his brother’s allies.
“Your friends are there,” she murmured.
Alarm spiked in him.
She waved a hand at him. “Of course, they’re there. They want to free you.” She shot him a warning look. “They won’t succeed. They’re harmless, right now.”
His friends weren’t being held captive. She would’ve told him if they were. That meant they were there on their own accord. They were there to work with his brother, like he told them to do. He needed to distract her.
“Why are we here? If you’re not here for my brother, who then?”
She frowned.
He asked further, “My brother’s witches? He has a coven. Are you here for vengeance? I can’t imagine they’re an actual threat to you, not if Jacith hadn’t been. He was the most powerful sorcerer on the earth—”
“I know what you’re doing.” She cut him off. “And it won’t work.” She turned back for the trail. “I found what I needed to find.”
“What?”
She ignored him and began around the mountain once more. Roane fell in line behind her and they walked in silence until they got to the other side of the mountain. He was mulling everything on his mind when she stopped again. He could hear the sounds of children laughing not far from them. He judged they were a quarter of a mile away. Too close for his liking. She shouldn’t be this close, not to children, but he couldn’t stop her. Yet. He could hear Davy’s voice in his head. Yet, but he would.
She closed her eyes, bowed her head, and a second later the air became overwhelming. It pressed down on him, and he couldn’t move. He opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but no sound came out. She looked at him and spoke. Her voice sounded like she was on the other side of a wall. He could barely make it out.
“You can’t come with me any further.”
“Why?” He tried yelling. No sound still came out. He was yelling in his own head.
“You’re cloaked. No one will know you’re here. They can’t sense you either. I will be back once I’m done.”
A foreboding sensation tunneled low in him. It was spreading fast and growing in urgency. “Don’t.” But it was useless. She turned her back and left for the village.
All he could do was yell, but no one heard him.
TRACEY
Talia had been her sister. Their bloodline was among other thread-holders. She was honored to be Talia’s sister. She always had been even when she was taken and hidden by the Roane family. She knew Talia loved Lucas Roane, but she knew that Talia had loved the werewolf as well. Both loves had been true and unconditional. Talia was a gentle soul. She was beautiful in spirit and body. Tracey understood why both men became besotted with her.
And now, as she watched her niece kicking a ball around, she saw similar traits in her. A soft smile spread over her face. It felt alien. Her cheeks were stiff. She hadn’t smiled in so long, but this was right. She had come all this way for her niece. Her mission had been the correct one. No matter what happened, she would remain at her side. She would guard this child with her life.
“She looks like her mother?”
Her niece’s mother, the Mori who adopted her, sat beside Tracey. Her name was Suhnah, which meant sunny and warm in their language. She explained it to Tracey the first night she welcomed her into her home. When Lucan brought all of them into the village, their reception was much different than the first time. They were captives then. They were visitors now. And being able to walk among the Mori freely, she realized they were good people. They just weren’t aware of Lucan’s evilness, but that would be corrected soon.
The Immortal was coming. Tracey felt it in her gut. And she was coming for her niece. When The Immortal would arrive, Tracey didn't know what would happen, but she knew there would be chaos, death, and misery. Lucan would no doubt unveil his true self. He wanted the thread for himself, but the thread would never go to a man. It could only go to a female and the Mori had kept her niece human. Suhnah told her that they wouldn't turn her into a true Mori vampire until she decided what age she wanted to be for eternity. They thought that would be her future. That's what they wished anyways. Tracey hoped her niece had a future at this point.
“Lily!” Suhnah called, standing up from where they were sitting on the grass. “It is time for your meal.”
Lily stopped in mid-kick. Her cheeks were rosy and her eyes were elated. Her blonde hair was in a mess, sweat-darkening streaks near her forehead, but to Tracey, she had never looked more alive than ever. This was the magic of humans. This was why they were to be treasured and cherished. They were alive in the truest form.
Their heart beat. Their blood warmed their faces. They had a child-like naivety that never left them. Tracey felt the same quality from Davy, even until the end. It was there, like a light that had been dimmed, but it was still there. Tracey yearned for that never to happen to her niece. She always wanted her light to burn bright, no matter what forces of evil were at bay.
“Are you thinking of your sister?” Suhnah asked, holding her arms open as Lily came running. A giggle escaped her niece and she stopped, breathing hard, but
smiling so widely as Suhnah closed her arms, folding a robe around her child.
At the mention of ‘sister,’ some of the glee left Lily. She gazed up at Tracey, like she had since she first arrived as a guest in their home. No words had been exchanged. Suhnah told her that they never explained her connection to a thread-holder or that Tracey was her aunt through blood, but she knew. A look of wonder