Gerard paced the living room of the lodge. Kindra sat in the corner, staring at her phone.
“What did Vera say?” Gerard asked.
She scrambled for anything she could say that would buy her son some time. Either the Silver Council had taken him in, or he found Anders. Either way may be better than what they faced.
Anders had nearly convinced her to go to the Council with him a month after Gerard entered their lives.
Anders took her hands, staring into her eyes. “Kindra, love, there is something terribly wrong with this coven. Something is happening to me. We need outside help. Our high priest and priestess won’t do anything, and they’re sick too.”
Guilt nearly overwhelmed her. She knew what was happening to him. Gerard was sucking the life from him, becoming more like Anders every single day.
She shook her head. “It’s just an illness. There’s nothing else going on. Several others have it too.”
“This is more.” Anders rubbed at his face. “We’re wasting away. This isn’t some illness. It’s more like a wasting curse, or worse.”
“What’s worse?” she scoffed.
“Psychic vampire? Some creature sucking the life from me? I keep waking up from dreams with a withered man sitting on my chest, his hands pressed to my face while his mouth was a foot over mine, light flowing from me, into him.”
Tears filled her eyes as she lied. “You sound crazy, Anders. No one will ever believe that.” There were nights he would wake up while Gerard fucked her beside him. In the moment it always felt right, but standing there, looking Anders in the eyes nearly tore her heart out.
“Damn it, Kindra. It’s not a damned nightmare, it’s happening. I see the belief in your eyes. I know he’s in your head while he fucks you next to me,” he spat.
She gaped at him.
He paced away. “Don’t you love me?”
“Of course I do,” she whispered.
“Come with me. We can stop these things from killing us.”
“There’s nothing sucking your life force, Anders. It’s all in your head. No one is making love to me but you.”
His eyes narrowed. “I didn’t call it making love, and I know what I see when I wake up, and your eyes are vacant like you don’t even know what’s going on, but damn it, I know what’s happening to me, to you. We need to stop it.”
“The Silver Council won’t help the coven,” she balked.
“Please, Kindra, I don’t give a damn if the Council thinks I’m crazy, as long as they look into what’s happening.”
“They would never help you. If they did find something like that, they would kill us all and be done with it. You’ve heard the stories of the Dark Templar. Where do you think they come from?”
“The Council stops this kind of thing. This is their purpose. Granted, mages tend look down on everyone else, but they are the ones who keep Others safe from things the normal police can’t.”
“Anders, you don’t know what you’re talking about. No one is being attacked.” She moved to him, taking his hands. “Please, drop this. We’ll figure out some tonic to replace your strength.”
She wanted to tell him the truth, but the words wouldn’t leave her mouth. She wanted to run away with him, but Gerard would never allow it.
Kindra forced a sigh. “Only that he didn’t go home, and Melanie left the house, mad as hell, with two suitcases.” Lifting a shoulder, she added, “Valen told me they were fighting. Maybe he hasn’t been answering her calls either. Maybe she’s leaving.”
“While pregnant with his child?” Gerard scoffed.
“There are worse things to do to the father of your child. Like stab him, which I did for you.”
“And failed,” Gerard countered.
A cruel smile stretched across her lips. Did she really want to put up with him for centuries? “You were too weak to drain him yourself. You coerced me into helping you, because you weren’t strong enough on your own.”
“Then that makes her stronger than you for seeing Valen for what he is and getting out of there.”
“Is this how it’s going to be forever?” she demanded.
“No, because you’re proving to be as vicious as I always believed you could be. Now that you’re awakened, and free of the brainwashing, you know what to look for and how to alter the thoughts of those around you.
“Where is Valen? Do you have any ideas?”
“Perhaps he was detained? He did go into Edenton to search out information about Anders. And any fool can see he looks like him.”
“Mark, he goes by Mark Welling,” Kindra answered.
Gerard rolled his eyes. “I’m not a fan of the name.”
“Does it matter what you think of the name? Can you honestly tell me that affects who you take over?”
“No, the amount of power they hold does. I should have had a lot more from Anders, but your parents fucked everything up. They pushed you too hard into a role you weren’t ready for. They were so concerned with where they would wind up, they didn’t spend enough time training you. And now, Anders still has the power buried under his beast.”
“Can we stop placing blame and come up with a solution?” She moved to Gerard. “Well? Do you have an idea, or would you like me to take some initiative? Because we need answers.”
His eyes twinkled. “What are you thinking, sweet girl?”
“That I need to find my son, and I need you not to be there. He doesn’t believe you care for him at all. He’ll talk to me, even if he won’t talk to you. Perhaps someone told him something in Edenton, and he simply needs the proper motivation.”
“And what motivation is that?”
“His family. Am I right in assuming Melanie will become the same as us on his next incarnation?”
“You learn fast, Kindra. Your parents assured me you would come around.”
She almost asked what happened to them. She still believed the doppelgangers had something to do with their deaths. But she had no way to prove it, and he wouldn’t confirm anything.
Maybe Cora was right. Maybe she had changed too much. But maybe she could find a way back to the woman she wanted to be. And what if there was no way to save herself? Did she want to go through eons of becoming a new person? Did she want to grow weaker and more desperate to find a new face in between?
“Maybe you should have trusted me from the beginning,” she told him.
“And maybe you should have listened to your fool husband and gone to the Silver Council with him. But the thing is, we always win. I’ve been powerful kings, leaders, and a whole array of people in power. Sure, this isn’t the weakest I’ve been, but it is when I was promised greatness,” he snapped back.
Greatness? What was so great about their coven?
Nothing as far as she could tell.
“I’ll drive closer to Edenton and see if I can call him. I’ll be in touch with news.”
“And what if you disappear like him?” he snapped.
“We should have told him the truth before sending him. He’s been lied to his entire life. Which means he may have received a dose of truth from strangers who wove a story. And what I can’t understand, is if you knew he was changing, why wouldn’t you explain all of this to him sooner? Like before sending him into the den of a lion?”
“The mages aren’t lions. They can’t do a damned thing to us. They don’t even understand what we are, nor do they know what we are capable of.”
“And what is that?”
He stepped forward. “Molding the world into that which we want.”
“And if you’re Fae, why aren’t you in Faery?”
“We came over to a bigger world where we could expand our influence.”
“Slow going when your incarnation is half a normal human’s lifespan.”
“But we target Others. We want the magic and inherent powers. As we take on new forms we evolve, our magic and abilities grow and change. With each new persona, we reach higher enlightenment. The goal is to ascend beyond needing bodies.”
“Then let me find my son and bring him back to our side. You know as well as I do, I’m the only one he’ll listen to.”
“If you can even find him.”
“You have my number. I’ll be in touch.” She snatched the keys.
“Why do you need to leave to contact him?” he demanded. “What are you really planning?”
Just then Genova and Gallus walked in. “I’ll get him here. You need to start trusting me.”
Genova’s brow arched as Kindra walked out the door.
Kindra made it all of two steps before Gallus hauled her back inside. She was pulled through a portal with the rest of them.
The last thing she saw was a group of people pop into existence in the driveway. One of them was Anders.
* * * *
Mark showed up in a driveway and froze when he locked gazes with Kindra. Such utter sadness marred her features, he paused. Then someone grabbed her arm and yanked her back inside.
“Fuck,” Preston muttered, charging ahead.
He burst inside, and all Mark could see was swirling purple light shrinking, then disappearing. He ran forward and stopped.
“They went through a portal,” Robert announced.
“No shit. Can you open it?” Mark asked.
“Need Tremaine to have a shot at that. Give me a minute.” Robert vanished.
“Damn it,” Preston muttered. “I don’t think this is the kind of portal he can open.”
“What makes you say that?”
“It feels all wrong. More like a vortex than an actual portal. And I have a feeling whatever is on the other side is a gray wasteland.”
“Why do you say that?”
“That’s what those things create. They came from somewhere, and maybe it’s where they started from. Maybe it’s part of the curse.”
“Do you really believe in curses?” Mark asked.
“Hell yes,” Preston answered. He rubbed at his face. “Of all the shit you’ve seen as part of the pack, hell, you’ve seen them. You heard about what Emily did to that douchebag back when you met Gina.”
“Fine, a bad spell, yeah, I get that. But a curse for a whole group of people?”
“I’ve seen some strange shit, and yeah, curses are some of them. There are so many stories about groups of people being cursed.”
There were plenty of stories, but he’d always believed they were just that. Stories, nothing else.
Robert came back with Tremaine.
“Can you open it?” Mark asked.
One of Tremaine’s dark brows winged up. “Give me a moment. I’ll see what I can do, but this seems more like a wormhole, and less like a portal.”
“What does that mean?” Mark asked.
Preston shook his head, shoving his hands in his pockets.
All Mark wanted was to get his hands on Gerard. For Valen’s sake, he’d leave Kindra alone and let Robert figure that shit out.
Preston moved closer. “How is having your son in your home?”
“Still processing.” He turned to Preston. “I don’t know what to think about any of this. It would be easier if she had died, but I can’t say I want him dead. He’s my son.”
Preston squeezed his shoulder. “Might take time to get used to the idea, but don’t let guilt eat at you. You didn’t know. You can’t do anything but be the father you can be now.”
“And he’s having a kid.”
Preston grinned. “Yeah, well, I recently got acquainted with my father, and Dacia and my step mother are both having kids. Go figure.”
“At least I’m not the only one with my whole reality changing.”
“Oh, I knew about my dad all along. He just didn’t know about me.” Preston nodded at the swirling mist in the center of the front room. “What’s going on?
Tremaine scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “I can open it, but you aren’t going to like what we find.”
“Why is that?” Preston asked.
“The portal is a trip through the abyss,” Tremaine answered.
“The deep sea?” Mark asked.
Robert shook his head. “Faery’s version of hell. Only it’s a place, and if you get stuck there, there is no coming back.”
“Wait, do you think they created it?” Preston asked.
“Huh?” Tremaine shook his head.
Preston held up a hand. “Think about it. They create a wasteland. Souls are stuck there. The doppelgangers drain people. Maybe they were the start of the abyss. With all the curses surrounding them, you have to admit it makes sense.”
Robert rolled his eyes. “That doesn’t account for why only Fae get stuck there.”
“True, but who’s to say they didn’t get greedy long ago and that’s how the abyss started?” Preston countered.
Tremaine lifted a shoulder. “Maybe they contributed, but there have been stories about the abyss since before the first stories of the doppelgangers.”
“It was just a thought,” Preston muttered.
“What happens if we travel through?” Mark asked.
“Well, there might be another way to figure out where it goes without traveling it. And if we do go through and get stuck we aren’t getting out. I’m not willing to risk it right now,” Tremaine stated.
“Worst case, they die off before they reach us,” Robert added. “Might mean we can’t save Kindra, but I have a feeling you won’t mind that outcome.”
“They aren’t going to make it that easy on us.” Mark wanted to hit something, preferably Gerard for putting him in the damned situation. And if it weren’t for Valen, he would see no reason to save Kindra. He didn’t give a damn if she was forced into her position.
Why couldn’t he outrun his past for good? That was the one question plaguing Mark. He wanted all that shit to stay buried under an avalanche.
“We can all go to Draecyn.” Tremaine turned to Mark. “That is if you don’t mind going somewhere things don’t always make sense.”
“Lately, nothing does,” Mark answered.
“Here we go,” Robert said, holding out his arms.