Seventy seven

JASON

Sofiane pulled open the gates and we slipped in, breaking off leaves and stumbling over a low ground shrub but managing to step high and land on a cobblestone pathway that we followed toward the side of the property. The night was opaque and sheltered amid the vines and overgrowth, but the moon was still very bright and that gave us werewolves an advantage. If we stepped out into the open, we would be noticed. The expanse was crammed with long teeth.

With a stake in one hand, I darted aside a long, hanging vine heavy with flowers and crept close to the finewood-sided house. I signaled to Sofiane and he nodded in understanding before disappearing to the back. If he entered through the rear, we would find each other inside. So that left me with David. Tilting my head into one of the walls, I listened, honing my senses toward the house and beyond the walls.

A scream alerted me. It sounded like Satake and I fucking lost it! I was about to burst through a dusty window next to me and possibly jeopardize all the careful preparation we had made but before I did, David held me back. His grip was surprisingly strong and it held me in place.

"Let me go witch." I threatened.

"And let you endanger the lives of Satake and Sofiane? I think not."

His words reminded me of how dire the situation was. I had to calm myself. A knock sounded at the windowpane causing us to creep closer. The window cracked open and Satake nudged us to come in.

"Killed three vampires. I think I heard your beta."

I stepped over the blockade and then wedged a toe into the base of it to lever myself up to the sill.

There was no time to muddle over Satake being in trouble. My outburst was barely going to prevent anything from ensuing. We entered what looked like a bedroom. There were bodies. Human bodies piled against the bed. Three at most. My stomach lurched looking at the terrified gape one of the bodies had. Blue as she was, I felt sick. Familiar memories came washing back. The fire that razed everything down and the stiff scorched bodies of people I knew and loved.

There was another scent. It lingered around the sheet and the room. Someone had been here. The same someone responsible for the murder of those innocent humans. David opened a door leading out and went on his way. The wise thing was to disperse. It was one of the pros of the spell David had cast. I was inclined to follow a pair of bloody boot prints I noticed on the red carpet that draped the narrow hallway. Sofiane followed suit because we had a mutual goal. Different reasons but for now, I didn't mind a second hand. I saw David branch to another room. We kept following the dark narrow hallway, sensing for Olamide. My senses were static. As we slunk further into the surprisingly big house, my hope began to dwindle. My wolf threw the question first.

"Is our mate dead?"

The words came out from an extension of myself but it hit different having to confront such a truth. Something inside me gave away. My sight darkened. I watched in horror as my hands disintegrated into a wisp of black smoke.

"What the fuck..." Sofiane cursed, taking a step back. "Was that-"

"I can handle it." I maintained.

"But that is your brother's gift."

"We are twins Sofiane. Devin has the gift of night and I have the gift of sight. Since we are both Alphas of our pack, we can share the gifts the goddess bestowed upon us." As I spoke, the wisp slowly vanished. I clenched my fists to guarantee that everything was perfect. Devin's blessing was the ability to express its victims' biggest phobias but it also took a toll on one's body and soul. It was why we both avoided using it.

Sofiane stopped walking and placed his palm on the floor. The entire house seemed to sing as he did so. I watched him take a deep long sigh. The Hobbstones had an affinity for earthwork and that included earth manipulation and seismic sensing.

"That is odd," Sofiane whispered as he relied on his heightened senses to ransack the building.

'What?" I probed.

"The house... It's all wrong. It shouldn't be this big. It's almost like a mace. It's riddled with doors and..." Sofiane paused again.

"What is it?" I queried. "Speak, goddamnit!"

"I sense five people behind us."

I jolted backward with my stakes clasped rigidly. There was nobody behind us. At least, that was what I saw. Sofiane abruptly ended his earthwork and pointed to the door we just highlighted from. "They are there." He said.

"I am not sure if they are here but the energy erupting from behind this door is massive." Sofiane continued as he listened in.

But how many vampires lay in wait? I wondered. And what if we were walking right into a school of vampires?

Sofiane did not have the ability to determine things like that. His gifts only had that much sentience.

Pressing an ear to the door, I heard something on the other side. Not footsteps, but low speech. When the doorknob rolled beneath my fingers, I stepped back and to the side, stake at the ready.

A man walked through the doorway. I didn't pause to gauge the threat level because I immediately recognized his exposed fangs and oily black irises. It was clearly a vampire. I slammed my balled-up fist against the vampire's chest and tightened the paddles. The stake pinioned out, pulsing my fist with the force. It pierced hard bone. Muscle tore, and the heart spurt. Before the vampire could scream, his body disintegrated into a cloud of man-shaped dust, his clothing following suit.

The ash dropped. Sofiane and I jumped over the dusty pile and entered the room before it could disappear.

Assessing the situation, I was suddenly fisted in the guts. Not literally, but what I saw reduced me to a shaking, trembling boy who had once seen his beloved parents die as he witnessed his entire family and home burnt to the ground. My mouth went dry. The stake slipped in my loosened grip and my knees jerked.

Tied up in a platform surrounded by candles that provided the dim light stood Satake. Satake's arms were secured above his back, so right together that any movement made him bleed. I could smell the blood. It riddled the entire room, emanating from the runes printed to the floor and Satake.

The feeling of absolute dejection returned me to my senses. It was acrid and horrible. The picture was horribly similar to that night outside the pack grounds as I had been forced to watch the Silverlaws take on the mantle of peacekeepers and murder a generation of my people to uphold their ideals of balance. Opposite Satake was Olamide. She was bound to a chair and her head was dipped down in a manner that suggested she was dead. I looked back at Satake and noticed the witch who was oblivious to our presence plunge a crooked dagger of light deep into Satake's chest. The universe seemed to turn slow and a humming noise thundered in my head. My attention flicked back towards Olamide. Lilith had noticed us and while my legs had been too slow to move, She had raced behind Olamide. She held Olamide by the throat and glanced my way with a cunning smile.

"If any of you takes a step forward," She warned. "I kill her."

She was probably bluffing but my heart couldn't take the shock. "Stop," I pleaded, taking a step forward. "We can talk this out."

Any attempt to talk common sense into them was futile. I heard Satake scream and my eyes flicked back and forth. The witch was aiming for his heart. Like witches did when they acquired one of the acclaimed relics. My head kept spinning. Where was the ruthless Jason Crow who hardly cared about consequences when you needed him? I wanted to kill my humanity. I wanted to grace my pride but one of those things was broken. Thoroughly enjoying my suffering, Lilith pressed a finger that looked more like a talon in Olamide's throat. Her gaze darkened and her talons sunk into my mate's skin drawing blood. I felt myself split and completely surrender. My whole world replayed in molasses in front of me and something inside me gave way, in fury, in hopelessness, in the certainty of my nightmares reawakening. I felt blood pulse beneath my palms, as I saw the unreadable expression on Olamide's face. Empty as it was, it told me a story. One of how I was a disappointment and another of how loveless I had become. The darkness within wailed in triumph as its wings enveloped my body and soul. Suffering bulleted through my body.

And the world before me went black.

I closed my eyes as a sudden, piercing rain of shadows exploded across my sight and directly at Lilith. It seemed to fill my head, blinding me, saturating me, and as abrupt as rush came, it abandoned me.