Gerard glared at his phone. “Valen is not answering. Do you think Cora got to him?”
Kindra’s eyes narrowed. “I think the Silver Council may have. It seems they know more about what’s going on than you anticipated.”
“I don’t see how,” Gerard snapped. “Unless Cora went to the Silver Council. But when she wouldn’t help your stupid husband, we all believed she never would.”
“What if the mage who got in my head got into hers?”
“She’s not as susceptible to mind control as you were. If she’s with them, she’s giving them the secrets she has. Luckily, Anthony never loved her and never trusted her with anything of value. She only knows the base details.”
Kindra’s glare burned through Gerard. “I am not a fool.”
“Never said you were,” Gerard offered.
“But you’ve thought it,” she bit back.
He sighed. “No, I haven’t. I fell in love with you when I first saw you.”
“Love at first sight isn’t real.”
“Of course it is. If your husband is now mated, that was love at first sniff. Close enough to sight. And I fell for you when I saw you.”
She glanced away with a huff.
“I know I manipulated you,” Gerard said. “You were in love with a fool. You deserve better than Anders could ever give you. That’s why I stepped in. To give you everything you deserve, and you’re about to get it as you make the transition into one of us.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You were meant for so much more than your parents told you. They put you with the person who should have had the most power, but things went wrong. Things they couldn’t control. They didn’t give you enough credit and didn’t train you the way they should have.”
“I’m no great witch.”
“You could have been. And maybe it’s for the best you never fully developed your skills because it will be easier to learn new things.”
“And this will happen to my son?” she asked.
Her weak spot. Her son. Gerard may have tainted the child in the womb, but Valen was definitely Anders’. Which meant the way to keep Kindra at his side was to sway Valen to his.
And that had been why he sent Valen to Edenton. Like most witches, he’d been raised to fear werewolves, vampires, mages, and anything not witch or human.
If he did meet his true father, he was likely to fear him at first meeting. Which meant he could control Valen through fear. And with Valen on his side, Kindra would stay with him. Though her imminent death would be enough of a scare tactic to keep her by his side, as long as Valen didn’t choose Anders.
“Our son will be like us. Powerful and able to adapt through anything that comes our way.”
“I hope you’re right,” she said but didn’t turn back.
She might be mad, but he was willing to bet she would come around.
* * * *
After Valen finished eating, Robert paid and led Valen outside. There he touched his shoulder and Preston’s and took them back to Robert’s house.
“Do we call him?” Preston asked.
Robert rubbed at his face. Mark seemed sure the kid would be against him, but Robert had a different impression from the kid. “No, first we need to talk to this guy and figure out where we stand and where we can go. No sense in introducing these two if he’s too set in his ways.”
“You don’t have to talk about me like I’m not here,” Valen protested.
Preston groaned. “Well, how much do you know about your father?”
Valen frowned. “Uh…what?”
“Answer the question,” Preston snapped.
Valen’s head dropped and he stared at the ground.
“Sorry,” Robert said. “Look, there’s a lot going on, and we need to understand what you know about the man you believe to be your father.”
“He’s a witch. Story goes he was supposed to become the high priest, but that all changed when he chose my mother for love. Then his parents died, then my mother’s. Most of the witches believe he had something to do with it, but they won’t admit it.”
“What do you think?” Robert asked.
Valen frowned. “Honestly, I don’t know about all that. He seems like he could lead, but the stories of my father when he was young painted a completely different picture than the man he is today. Most of the time I think he’d prefer if I’d never been born.”
“Shit, I’m sorry,” Preston said, touching his shoulder. “Really. But he’s not your father.”
“Why would you say that?” Valen asked. He spent years bouncing back and forth between trying not to give a damn about his father and trying to make him proud. And he hadn’t managed to do either because everyone seemed to think he had been a good man turned bad. “If he’s not my father, who is?”
“That’s complicated. Your father was nearly killed by a doppelganger who took his place because Anders Woeller should have been the next high priest. But then Gerard took his place, and everything went wrong.”
“What? Gerard? Damn it, my mother calls him that when she’s mad at him. So he’s not my father?”
“From what I can gather, your mother was brainwashed into falling for the doppelganger who stole your father’s face. The real Anders, who now goes by Mark, nearly died fifty years ago, after being drained of all his life force and magic and being stabbed by your mother.”
“My mother stabbed him?” he balked.
Robert sighed. “She was mind controlled. However, Mark isn’t really fond of her now. Kindra did betray him.”
“That’s why she seems so torn half the time.”
“By what?” Preston asked.
Valen shook his head. “Just yesterday she told me she felt like all her decisions weren’t her own. Like something changed while she’d been abducted, and she realized what was going on. But she didn’t tell me anything solid.”
“You’re turning into one of the doppelgangers,” Preston said. “So is your mother. But there might be a way to stop it.”
“What does becoming one mean?” Valen asked, shaking his head.
Robert forced a smile. “Means in order to survive, you’ll have to take over another person’s appearance and take their place, all the while they wither and eventually die. You become someone else at the expense of someone’s life.”
“Oh, hell no. I’m not going down that road. No way in hell,” Valen insisted.
“That’s what I’d hoped you would say.” Robert patted him on the shoulder. “And I think when you meet Mark, you’ll understand why people think your father changed. Because he did.”
“And my mother stabbed my father?”
“He stabbed her in self-defense. And he still feels guilty about that. However, it was self-defense.”
“I need to meet him, hear his story. No offense.”
“None taken,” Robert answered.
“What happened to Cora? Her disappearance started my search for Druciela, and I guess my father…Mark.”
“She’s safe, and you can see her soon. I’m hoping all of this makes sense when I take you to them.”
“Me too.”
Robert stepped closer. “Can I look in your head? I need to see if you’re telling the truth before I take you to Mark.”
“Uh…sure?” Valen rubbed at his face.
Robert and Preston each grabbed a shoulder, and Robert took them into the witch’s head.
Valen felt their presence in his head and took a minute to reorient himself.
Robert appeared before him. So did Preston. They stood in the living room in his mind. The place where he daydreamed.
“He’s turning,” Robert said.
“No shit,” Preston muttered.
“I’m turning?” Valen asked.
Robert nodded. “We’ll explain in a few. Right now, we’re going to go through your memories, see if anything has been tampered with, then we’re going as far back as we can to see if we can glean anything you may have caught but didn’t realize you knew.”
“Sure…” Valen was more confused than ever. And as much as most of his community would insist mages meant him harm, he only sensed their desire to help, and a fierce loyalty to the man they claimed was his father.
Robert pulled him through memories faster than he could decipher, only stopping here and there for a second or two. Then he came to a stop and pulled them all out of his head.
Valen stumbled back.
Preston pushed a chair behind him as he fell in.
“What the hell?”
“Sorry, we needed to be sure,” Robert said. “Let’s start at the beginning.”
“Yeah, please.”
“Your identity is fading as you become a doppelganger, thanks to your mother, who is bound to one. The more I search, the more it seems she was manipulated from the beginning by that thing.”
“What is a doppelganger?” Valen asked for what felt like the millionth time.
Robert sank onto his desk.
Preston answered, “A doppelganger is a type of Fae. Their natural form, at least the ones born as a doppelganger, is a small gray humanoid. They average four feet in height. Have pale gray or silver hair, gray eyes, wrinkly skin. They look like ancient, short people. And they feed off a person’s essence, their magic, what makes them who they are. As the victim grows weak and shrinks down, turning gray, they fade away and die. The doppelganger looks more and more like the victim, even gaining their powers. The man you believe is your father is not.”
“That makes too much damned sense,” Valen admitted. He’d never felt a real connection to the man. And it made sense why people said Anders became a different man sometime before he was born.
He held up a hand. “How am I becoming one if I don’t feel any connection to him?”
“Your mother,” Preston said. “She’s tied to him and was pregnant with you when they came into Brightwater Bay. That’s why you’re tainted. But we know someone who says they can fix it.”
“And if they don’t, I have to become a murderer to survive?”
“Unfortunately,” Preston answered. “But we should be able to stop that. Not to mention, if we don’t stop the doppelgangers, the coven will likely all grow ill and die.”
Valen stood up. “I’m not a killer.”
Robert nodded. “I know, but the man you thought is your father is. Every forty to sixty years, he has to become a new person. And when they’re done with the persona, the land they live in dies, it fades to a gray wasteland.”
“How many are in the coven?”
“Five, though that number may grow. If your mother completes the change, or any of the other doppelgangers bring someone over.”
“How do they do that?”
“Just have to be bound to them and give into it. You didn’t know better, so you already were giving in. Fighting for yourself might be enough, but we need more answers.”
“Okay, I get it, my mother fucked up, but can she be saved?” Valen asked, more like begged. Mom could be a mess at times, but she loved him and always fought for him, even when his father—no, when Gerard was a dick.
God, how much of his life was a lie? How much of hers?
“I don’t know what’s going to happen to Kindra, but we will try,” Preston said. “Though honestly, right now, if she’s choosing Gerard’s side, I’m not sure she’s worth saving.”
“What happened to my father?”
Robert looked at Preston and back. “He’s a werewolf now. It was the only way to save his life.”
“He’s not a witch now?”
“Here’s the thing, when he was taken away from Brightwater, he looked more like what the doppelgangers usually look like. We found four bodies at the time, but we thought they were the doppelgangers. And Mark wanted a fresh start because the coven wouldn’t listen to him. They told him he was crazy, that he was just sick. So he gave up that life, became a werewolf, and started over.”
“Would he hate me?” Valen asked.
“No, he wouldn’t. He’s a good man. But he’s mated to another wolf. Are you going to be okay with that?”
He nodded slowly. “Sure. Yeah. God, it makes so much sense. My father never was much of a father.”
“You were out here for information.”
“He asked me to go to Edenton and find any information about the witches and werewolves I could. And see if I could find anything that would show me where Cora might have gone. Plus, see if I could learn anything about Mark Welling.”
Preston nodded. “Mark is your father. Gerard probably wanted to scare you with the fact he’s a werewolf, and most witches tend to be afraid of Others besides witches.”
“I never understood that,” Valen admitted. “And it didn’t make sense why they wanted me to find Cora, when it seemed neither Gerard, nor her husband trusted her. In fact, I always wondered why they were still together.”
“She was forced to stay,” Robert answered.
“But she’s safe?” Valen asked.
“Yes, and we can take you to her. We just need to know you aren’t going to turn around and run back to them.”
Valen shook his head. “I’m not turning into one of them. I’m married, with a kid on the way. God, I hope my father hasn’t gotten to Melanie.”
“Not your father,” Preston reminded.
Valen rubbed at his face.
Robert spoke up. “I can take you there, we can get her and go back to your family.”
“Just let me call her, talk her into going to her parents for a few days, or something. Maybe going to visit a friend. At least we don’t live in Brightwater Bay. We live between her parents’ coven, and mine.”
“Do it,” Robert said. “Might be easier to explain everything to her after it’s all done. And hopefully it won’t take that long to deal with the doppelgangers.”
“Yeah, you got it.”
Valen dialed his one true love’s number.
Melanie answered after a couple rings. “Oh my God, are you all right? Your mother is convinced you’ve been taken against your will.”
He rubbed at his face. “I’m fine. Is my father there?”
“No, he’s on his way to find you.”
He half-laughed. “I need you to trust me, and not him. You need to leave town, go to your mom’s, to a friend’s, anywhere, but Brightwater Bay, and stay there until I contact you.”
“Are you all right?” she demanded.
“I am.” He didn’t dare say he might not be. He wasn’t ready to consider that possibility. “Please, Mel, I need you safe, and the only way I can ensure that, is if you aren’t at home. Please. Trust me.”
“Always, Val. Always. I’ll call you when I get where I’m going.”
“Okay, and ignore my parents for now. Please. Don’t ask questions, just ignore them, and I’ll keep you posted.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“Don’t be scared. I love you. Everything is going to be fine. I promise. Now go. Before they come back for you. The last thing I need is them getting into your head.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah, trust me, please.”
“Leaving. I’ll just grab a bag and go.”
“Hurry. It’s got to be now. Before anyone in the coven can stop you.”
“Going.” She hung up and he turned to Robert.
“Good. I’m sorry. This has to be confusing, and that’s the last thing I want to do, but she needs to be safe,” Preston said.
Robert nodded. “We’ll let Cora and your father fill you in.”
“Mark?” Valen asked.
“Yes,” Preston answered.
“I’m ready.”