Jason’s jaw dropped – and then his gaze narrowed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lalura opened her eyes and looked up at him. At once he was lost in their crystal, clear blue. The rest of her face may have looked like a topographic map of a mountain range, but her eyes had always been calm, intelligent oceans. “Gods, I’m too old to even pretend that what you just said might be true,” she muttered. “So I’m just going to ignore it.” She shifted a little, as if looking for a fresh spot, and then went on. “Malachi Wraythe is a stinker of a man. He will only bring you unhappiness, Jason.”
She knew about Jason’s talk with the warlock king. He was surprised that he was surprised. Lalura knew everything. “You know too much, old woman.”
At this, Lalura threw back her head and laughed, the sound like leaves skittering across a school yard. “I won’t argue with that,” she said, coming to sit up now. She heaved a heavy sigh, wiped what he could only guess was a tear from her eye, and then stood up again. “For instance, I happen to know that you’d make one hell of a god father.”
Jason’s brow furrowed. He was beyond the point of getting irritated. Lalura was simply throwing him for a loop. He was flummoxed. “What?” he asked, not certain he even wanted to know what she referred to.
But Lalura waved her hand dismissively and sighed. “Not important right now, actually,” she said. “Though I should warn you that magic using twins are exponentially more difficult to keep an eye on than normal twins. FYI.”
Jason ran a hand through his hair and fisted it at the roots.
“Now, now,” Lalura said as she approached him and the pool once more. “Don’t have a conniption fit. I’m about done.”
“Lalura, how can you even want to talk to me now that you know I’m a warlock?” he asked. He was just discombobulated enough by her that frank honesty was all he was capable of at that moment.
“What?” Lalura looked at him as though he’d sprouted a second head. She reached up – way up – and cupped his cheek with her palm. “Dear, I’ve always known you were a warlock.” She patted his cheek and dropped her arm. “Gods, you’re tall. Always have been,” she muttered distractedly. She stepped past him to tiptoe over the scrying pool again. It still showed nothing, but she gazed into it anyway. “You were born under that particular sign,” she told him. “I’ve known you were a warlock since the morning you came into this world.”
Jason stared at Lalura dumbfounded. He opened his mouth to say something – and then closed it again. And then opened it again and blurted, “Then why did you accept me? Why didn’t you cast me out?”
Lalura turned a confused look onto him and frowned. “For that?” she asked. “Hell, if I threw you out for that, I’d have to throw out a lot of other people for a lot of worse things.” She shook her head and whistled low, and Jason felt his teeth begin to grind. “Besides,” she went on, “you were good with Dannai and she needed a protector. You never failed her.”
“Like hell,” Jason hissed then, his ire suddenly rising sharply. “I failed her in the worst way.”
Lalura dropped back from the pool and eyed him sharply. Jason went still under that look. He always had. Lalura commanded immense charisma; more than anyone he’d ever known.
“You most certainly have not failed my Dannai,” Lalura told him pointedly. “You’re a bit quirky with your tastes, I’ll admit,” she said, shrugging as if she’d seen it all. “But that’s kids for you.” She paused a moment and turned to the scrying pool. She muttered an incantation and began to float above the ground, rising until she was able to gaze down into the pool without standing on her tip toes. “Much better,” she said.
She waved a hand over the pool and the mist within it began to clear. “You never failed her, Jason, and you never will. You have a choice to make and I fully expect you to make the right one.”
Jason looked down into the pool, his attention rapt as light infused the water and an image began to form. The outline of someone laughing was beginning to take shape when Lalura said, “Don’t fail me, Jason.”
Jason looked up at her, caught by the seriousness of her tone.
“It really pisses me off when people do that.”
With that, Lalura snapped her old, arthritic fingers. Ever the one for dramatic exits, the ancient witch vanished in a white cloud of lavender and rose-scented smoke. The smoke cleared, leaving Jason once more alone.
He turned back to the pool and found himself staring at the fully formed image of the Healer. She was smiling broadly, laughing at something someone had said. And then she calmed down and the happiness in her beautiful, bright eyes remained. The image panned out, as if he were watching a movie, until Jason could see that Danny’s right hand was placed gently over her firm, flat belly.
She looked down and patted her stomach lovingly. Privately.
“She’s pregnant,” he whispered, the words leaving his mouth before he could stop them. He saw the joy in Danny’s multi-colored eyes, and Jason’s hands dropped to his sides. His heart skipped a beat and then settled into a new rhythm.
And everything changed.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“The Doe”
“Christ,” Jesse said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We really need to instigate some kind of rule about you women going to the restroom alone in this building.”
Katherine Dare hadn’t been at council headquarters more than three hours before she’d managed to flee it for God only knew where. It had been incredibly easy for her. She’d simply said she had to go to the restroom, and the next thing they all knew, she was nowhere in the building. Granted, she was a trained Hunter, but it shouldn’t have been that easy for her to slip away undetected. It was the same thing Charlie had done only a few short months ago, and with the same “bathroom” excuse.
“Yeah,” Imani agreed slowly. Her voice sent a warm feeling up his spine. “Like the buddy system or something.”
He looked over at her and caught the enigmatic expression on her beautiful face. He couldn’t tell whether she was teasing him or not. A part of him wanted to take her to one of the bedrooms upstairs and spend some time finding out. But he was the Overseer, and right now one of their own was in very real danger.
“Lily?” he asked, addressing the seer. Lily looked ashamed when she shook her head and shrugged. “Sorry,” she said. “Not yet.” “Danny, can you perform a scry?” Jesse asked, addressing the Healer. “I already tried,” she said, her multi-colored eyes filled with concern. Katherine Dare was the mate of her brother-in-law. Of all of the women there, Danny stood the most to lose should something happen to Katherine. “She’s either being shielded or she’s somewhere where there are wards. I can’t get through either one.”
A brief silence followed, pregnant with unspoken concerns, as Jesse put his hands over his mouth and blew a frustrated sigh into them. His amber gaze found Byron’s form by the windows in the adjoining living room and noted the bunched muscles and glowing eyes. Lucas stood a few feet away, watching his brother with the kind of torn up emotion that could only come from a man who knew that if he hadn’t pulled his brother away from his mate when he had, she wouldn’t be missing right now.
Jesse took a second to read Byron’s body language. Byron Caige was a man ripped apart by guilt and fury and about ten seconds away from doing something stupid. Like going after his mate himself.
Jesse turned to a nearby enforcer, one of the many guards stationed throughout the massive complex. “Watch him,” he instructed softly, gesturing to Byron where he stood across the room. The enforcer nodded and shot glances at his fellow guards. Very discreetly, they moved into the room, spreading out so that each of them could make it to Byron in equal time if needed.
This was a disaster. The warlock king wanted Byron dead and had apparently gone to the vampires with a deal. Katherine Dare used to be a Hunter and that nasty group was now out, not only to kill every last werewolf on the
planet, but to exact particular revenge against Katherine for the death of Manuel Sanchez, one of their own and best men. And now Katherine was missing.
Jesse knew that if anything happened to her, Byron would be lost. Jesse may not have found his own mate yet, but the alpha gene was hardwired into him and he knew damn well that no alpha could survive once he’d found – and lost – his mate.
And if Byron was lost… Lucas would be too.
And then Dannai. And the twins.
It would be a domino effect of inescapable tragedy. As long as Jesse drew breath, there was no way in hell he was going to let that first domino fall. He just need to figure this out.
What would Kavanagh do? he asked himself. Alexander had always had matters well in hand. Or, at least it had always seemed that way to Jesse and the others. But now that Jesse really stopped to think about it – had that been completely true?
He thought of the way Charlie had been taken and abused by Gabriel Phelan. She’d endured horrid tortures at his hand. Kavanagh hadn’t been able to stop that. And he hadn’t been able to stop Phelan from escaping the first time either. In the end, the late Overseer had traded his life to rid the world of the disease that was Gabriel Phelan. He’d finally won, but at what cost?
Okay, so he wasn’t perfect, Jesse admitted finally. No one is.
With that in mind, Jesse steeled himself, felt his resolve harden, and turned to Dannai. “Ask Lalura if she will help us with a more advanced scry,” he ordered. He knew from experience that the more magic you put behind a spell, the more of a chance of success it had. “And anyone else who’s willing to pitch in.”
*****
Katherine wasn’t sure what she hoped she would find by returning to Muir woods. There was more of a chance she would run into a pack of vampires or a rogue group of warlocks than of locating the secret entrance to the burned-up remains of the warlock king’s estate. But she had to try.
There was something she needed to do. She’d done so much damage, caused so much suffering. It had never really hit her until she’d seen Byron and Lucas embrace. The looks on their faces, the strength in their grips – it was testament to a pain that had existed inside of them for fifty years and was finally released.
Katherine knew that kind of pain. And now she knew that she’d caused that kind of pain as well. Over and over and over again. Every time she’d pulled her Hunter’s trigger and taken a werewolf’s head.
Kat wiped the tears from her cheeks again and turned her face to the window. The taxi driver glanced in his rear view mirror and then looked back at the road. He didn’t ask her why she was crying; maybe it was something he was used to seeing. Or maybe he’d seen a lot worse.
They would be at their destination in twenty minutes, according to the driver. She was sure that she was making his day; the distance was far and he was driving like a demon. A real demon – not a wolf.
God, I’ve been so stupid, she thought ruthlessly as she pinched her eyes shut and fought back another wave of tears. Her emotion was justified, she knew. But it also pissed her off. It was one of the things she’d been trained to ignore – emotion. Easier said than done, and quite an idealistic oxymoron given that every Hunter in the organization was there because they thought they “hated” something. Hatred was a very strong emotion. Possibly the strongest.
They’re all a bunch of ignorant idiots, she thought then. And so am I.
With that, she straightened and stared out the window in unseeing silence for the next seventeen minutes. The taxi driver pulled up at the exact spot that she’d been standing in when Byron had flagged down a ride for them two nights ago. She paid him, tipped him, told him he should think about slowing down a little, and then bid him good day.
He left her alone on the side of the road and Katherine turned in a slow circle. Once she was sure she could retrace the steps she and Byron had taken that night, she set off through the woods and hoped for a crapload of luck.
*****
The vampire watched the young Huntress through two different colored eyes as she made her way slowly through the forest. He and his men had been instructed to look in on her. Their sovereign had known she would return here and, as always, he was right.
It was mid-morning and the sun shone brightly through the treetops. He and his companions were invisible, as they usually were while in the forest at midday. Most people who knew of vampires and warlocks assumed the latter to be the ones who performed more spells. But the truth was, vampires were the offspring of magic and magic users and the combination was nothing if not inherently… magical.
Vampires existed in a cocoon of legerdemain. It poured through their blood. There were few things more powerful than an Offspring. The sun was one. Hunger was another… a vampire had to feed. He supposed it had something to do with the darkness of the kind of magic they were conceived in. Fire was dangerous as well, but unlike the sun, it could be magically doused.
All in all, there wasn’t much a vampire couldn’t do. So it took little effort at all to track down the Huntress and follow her every move. Her every breath, in fact.
He wasn’t surprised that he no longer caught the scent of dormant on her. She was a made wolf now. Byron Caige didn’t waste any time.
The vampire smiled at this and chuckled softly; a sound Katherine Dare couldn’t hear.
She wouldn’t know this, but she had no hope of finding the entrance to the warlock king’s estate during the day. Even at night, she would have needed magical assistance.
But he had to hand it to her for her gumption.
In his opinion, courage alone deserved some kind of reward. It was rare enough these days, and he had a feeling it was what his king would have wanted him to do. So the vampire looked at his companions and as they smiled in knowing encouragement, he raised his hand and whispered a powerful incantation.
The woman in the forest clearing several yards away paused and cocked her head to the side as if she’d heard something. Felt something?
His smile broadened and he lowered his hand.
*****
Katherine sensed something different about the trees in front of her. She stopped and listened; it was almost as if the air had begun to vibrate or hum. It was very mild, almost imperceptible. But it was there and her wolfen ears had picked it up.
Wow, she thought as she slowly ventured forward, her hands outstretched before her. This wolf thing is pretty cool.
She was right about the difference in the trees. As she drew nearer, she noticed that they seemed to warp. One moment they were close, the next moment they were far away and she had the unsettling sensation that she was moving while not moving at all. If she hadn’t known it was magic, if she hadn’t been so determined, she might have wasted the time it took to let the sensation make her a little sick. But she didn’t have the luxury of sickness, so she ignored the disorientation and moved on.
Beneath her feet, the ground changed. There was less moisture, less moss, and the fallen leaves crackled under her boots. The warped air closed around her like an envelope; for a moment, it felt as if she couldn’t breathe and Kat began to panic. She picked up her pace and the envelope moved over her as she punched through the other side of what she now realized was a force field.
Once inside, Katherine stood still and gulped in air. Fear was causing her heart to race, her lungs to work overtime. She glanced behind her at the space she’d just come through and swallowed hard.
Well I found it, she thought. One step down, countless others to go.
“Well if it isn’t the little Huntress,” came a deep voice.
Kat whirled around and took a stumbling step back. A man stood in front of her where none had stood a second before. She didn’t recognize him. He was tall, as every man she’d met lately was, and fairly built. He was also dressed in head to toe black. His hair, too, was the color of pitch and his eyes were brownish green. His face was pale, and there was a hollowness beneath his eyes th
at would have made her wary if she were not already petrified.
“Who are you?” she asked, having right out with it.
“My name is Malachi,” he told her calmly. “And yours is Katherine.” He took a step toward her and Katherine took another step back, unconsciously moving to the left to avoid accidentally stepping through the force field again. “I’ve always liked that name. I considered naming my daughter Katherine, actually. But Isabel won out in the end.”
The warlock king, Katherine realized. A dark fist grabbed her heart in that moment and squeezed. It was terror and she knew it. Now that she was here, now that she faced the man she’d come to face, she was too scared to go on.
He took another step toward her – and Katherine backed into a tree.
“Let me guess,” he said as he idly closed the distance between them. “You’ve come to offer your life in exchange for Caige’s and the promise that I will still die and reverse the curse that has claimed the werewolf community for four thousand years. Is that about right?”
I’m in over my head.
“Nothing to say, Huntress? What’s the matter?” he asked. “Wolf got your tongue?”
He took the final step that filled the space between them and Kat looked away, turning her gaze from his to close her eyes. It helped her concentrate. “Byron Caige didn’t kill your daughter,” she told him firmly, willing herself to go on before she lost her nerve. “You have no right to hunt him. You have no reason to hate him. But I’m still willing to die to save him in return for your promise.”
There was a stretch of silence in which Katherine was afraid to open her eyes. But then she felt the warlock king’s touch on her face, brushing a lock of her hair from her cheek, and her head instantly snapped forward, her eyes shooting wide open.
Malachi smiled a smile utterly devoid of happiness or kindness. “Jumpy?”