I was struggling at times to control my new influx. Probably why my vampire kept getting away from me. And I had nothing on the sorcerer in base power.
Maybe in a few years we'd equal him, but we were young. Only time would see our powers increase and allow us to be as formidable as Louis. Although, when we joined in our quad bond, we came very close. Nonetheless, not a pissing contest I needed to be part of.
Tyson on the other hand …
Louis had not moved since shooting out his energy. I tried to be patient, but that ran out pretty fast. I strode closer to the sorcerer. Wading through his energy was like trying to swim through honey. It took so much more effort than it should have just to cross a few yards. As I closed in on him, I forced myself not to stare at his hypnotic purple eyes, swirling in a dizzying motion as he focused outward, searching, trying to figure out what had happened here.
By the time I was at his side, his energy was starting to die down, which allowed me to leash my predator side enough to speak. "What did you find, Louis? Where are the girls?"
The question came out hard and with a level of growl I wasn't exactly proud of. I didn't like to lose control; it spoke of weakness within. I needed to deal with that soon. But for now there was no choice but to go with the anger and pain. It kept me functioning.
"I'm glad you've finally learned of your young," Louis said, no inflection at all in his tone; he could have been discussing the weather. "How is it that the girls managed to get taken under the four of your watches?"
Great, now the sorcerer was going to reprimand us like children. "You've made your point, we screwed up. But I'd rather you spent your time helping us. We can hash out our mistakes at a later time."
Louis snorted then, and some of his normal joviality bled back into his features. "I'll make sure to bring it up again soon. In regards to the twins, they have been taken into another dimension. It's lucky you called for me so quickly. The essence fades even now. In another few minutes I would not have been able to trace them. They would have been lost to us."
Tyson crossed his arms, keeping his distance from the sorcerer. "What dimension? Faerie?"
Louis shook his head. "No, for once it's not Faerie stealing from us. It's far worse than slumbering gods and dragon rulers. This time the girls are in the land between. The Great Divide."
The beast inside roared again, my fists clenched hard. That explained the demon taint. They resided there, trapped in a small section of the land between.
This was bad. It was not an easy task to traverse between that realm and Earth, hence why the demons were stashed there. Not to mention the dead lands housed countless souls that had not or could not move on to the next life. Humans called it purgatory, but to supes it was hell.
Mischa Lebron
Jessa and I huddled as close as we could. The darkness was so complete that the only way I knew it was my sister next to me was our twin bond. From the moment the wind barrier had whooshed us through the cottage doorway, we'd known nothing but darkness and soul-crushing fear.
And Jessa's cursing. Which was oddly comforting.
I felt her shift forward then to grab onto the bars of our tiny cell. We were in a six-by-six-foot box, the distinct scent of damp and mold in the air. Thankfully no other being seemed to be in the box with us, but I was getting the sense that we weren't alone in this room. We hadn't heard any others but I knew they were out there.
Jessa's yells broke the silence again, which had me practically jumping out of my skin.
"You piece of shit, asshole mutha-douche-canoes better open this cage up and let us out immediately. Do you know who you're messing with? You just kidnapped the mate of a dragon. A dragon! I cannot wait until he gets here and rips your scrawny head from your body."
It didn't surprise me that she was using Braxton as a scare tactic. He was scary. Like the scariest supe we knew. Though I knew it bothered Jessa that she had to resort to such things. She was lethal on her own, but right now she no longer had her own dragon and was pregnant, and therefore slightly vulnerable. Her independent nature was taking a back seat to the need to protect her children. I was independent too, but in a different way, a lone wolf kinda way. Never had a pack before and did okay. Now that I had a pack, things should be even easier, right?
Meh, probably not. I had learned early on not to expect the knight to ride in and rescue me. In my world a true knight was even more mythical than shifters. Still, there was a part of me deep down, that felt the bonds of my pack, and it brought me a sense of comfort.
Jessa huffed heavily as she fell back against me. Our connection flared strongly and I lowered the mind blocks. Can you scent anything about this place? she asked me.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, forcing all thoughts and fears away, seeking to understand the space we'd been dropped in. I let the artist side of my brain paint pictures for me around the small cage in the center, Jessa and I enclosed within.
Okay, that's un-freakin'-believable. You just, like, painted with your mind, and I can see it. Her excitement jolted me out of my concentration and I had to take a few more centered breaths to get back to the Zen place.
I let my senses free, my wolf rising from within a swirl of wild energy. She joined with me and we tried to discern even one distinct thing from our surroundings. More images appeared in my painting, but they were murky. There was the slightest hint of sulfur in the air, and a sense of heat that was strong but sort of … distant. Like we were on the sun, but there was a shield around us stopping it from incinerating us. I could feel that the world outside of this cage was bad, but how bad was yet to be determined.
Could we be in Faerie? I asked Jessa. Because there's no way we're still in that candy house. It was tiny and I can tell this place is large.
I'd never been to the magical land, but knew plenty about it from my twin's journey through it. I knew that her Josephina, queen of the dragons, was there somewhere. Not to mention the floating-illusion castle which had been Larkspur's lair.
Yep, it was definitely a portal to somewhere else. A magical doorway. Are we in Faerie? I really have no idea. Doesn't feel like Faerie. The magic there is strong and easily recognizable, but maybe someone has this cage locked down. Shielded. Maybe they're hiding the world from us and us from the world.
Which is going to make it hard for the Compasses to find us, I surmised.
Jess laughed then. It echoed, and in that moment the image in my head increased ten times. This place was huge. I knew it, even though there was no real evidence to back up my feeling.
They'll find us, Misch. Our pack never leaves a supe behind. I know you aren't used to someone having your back, but you'll always have us now.
I loved the sentiment, but knew there'd always be a part of me expecting it to be torn away. You couldn't rely fully on others. It was the sure-fire way to be let down hard. I did appreciate her comfort though, and decided to be as truthful as I could.
I trust you guys more than I've ever trusted anybody. I'm honored to be part of the pack.
This pack had as much of my trust as I was willing to give. Probably eighty percent. And I only trusted them that much because they weren't humans. Supes did things differently than humans. Their word meant something, and pack bonds were real and tangible, like magic in a way. There was a level of devotion between pack mates which could not be replicated in the human world. But still, I would be keeping a part of myself safe. For me and my child.
Do you hear that? Jessa said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I focused again on our surroundings.
It took me a few tense, breathless seconds, but finally I heard a low scraping sound. Something was definitely moving around, still some distance from us, but closing in.
I tried to keep the fear out of my mental voice. What do we do? Is there a plan?
I wasn't the same as Jessa. Things did scare me. Bravery was something I really had to work on. Preferably some other day, when I wasn't stuck in a weird magical cage, inside a weird candy house, in the dark of an unknown land. We were just like the stupid humans in the fairy tales, lured in by chocolate cake and peppermint sticks.
Jessa shifted closer to me. She was practically sitting in my lap now. Which was not at all awkward with both of our baby bellies.
Don't let them separate us. Fight with the techniques we have been practicing. Even pregnant, you know the areas to aim for. We want the four strike zones, so make each hit count.
Right. Despite my frazzled mind, I had no trouble recalling our lessons. The four strike zones: nose, throat, gut, groin. Jessa had been teaching me basic self-defense and fight moves, and she said those were the best places to aim for maximum impact. Especially for someone like me who had very little training.
I knew that even on a female assailant, kicking them straight between the legs would hurt them enough for me to possibly get away. During training, Jessa had phrased it as a "straight shot to the lady balls."
The scraping was getting closer … and slightly louder … and Jessa and I shifted so we were both crouching. I took extra care not to make a single noise as I hauled my extra-padded butt up. Of course we had to get kidnapped when I was the equivalent of eight or nine months pregnant.
Shit!
My mental shout must have been loud enough to shock Jessa. She jumped next to me, and then wrapped her arm tightly around me.