I read until my eyes were barely open and my voice hoarse. Eventually sleep won the battle and I must have drifted off in the surprisingly comfortable chair.
Maximus Compass
This meeting was taking forever. We'd been back from China for about three hours, and the entire time I'd been stuck in Vanguard with my brothers and a bunch of the elders, discussing everything that had happened with Kristoff and the bears' riot, and planning the town meeting which was to take place tomorrow morning. We'd called an emergency meeting to fill in the townspeople about what was happening.
Not that most of them were really in the dark. Especially about the bears. Those fuckers had been loud and clear when they started throwing supes around the town center this morning. A few of them were in the holding area of Vanguard right now. I planned on taking a little visit to question them as soon as I got out of here.
Byron, an ancient lion shifter who'd been council leader many decades ago, was on his feet, roaring in the typical manner of his breed. "He has to be brought to justice! Kristoff has stolen power, broken out prisoners, and taken the wolf alpha's daughter and tortured her."
Jonathon was in the room now; he had arrived late after tending to both his daughters. I knew my brothers had had a hell of a time dealing with him when they got back to Stratford with only Jessa, especially after explaining about the supe smugglers and Mischa being purchased by Kristoff. The only thing that had halted his wrath was Jessa. She'd told him that Braxton, Louis, and I were hot on her trail, and that he was better situated keeping Stratford protected in our absence.
Still, I got the feeling that when he had me alone the next time I was going to experience the brunt of the alpha's ire. For more reasons than one. It bothered me that I had not spoken with him since finding out about the baby; he'd surely known for much longer than me. He would have had plenty of time to stew over my abandonment of his daughter. Supes did not just leave their pregnant partner to deal with life, even if she had only been a random hookup. Which she never was. Not even for a moment.
I wondered what Jonathon thought about the fact that we were true mates.
I wanted to take back so much of the last four months. It was one giant screw-up after another. But there were no do-overs in our world. I just had to focus forward and be the mate she deserved.
I pushed down thoughts of Mischa, or at least attempted to. I wanted to go to her. Our bond was so new; it was chafing at me to get to my mate and keep her safe. Parts of me continued to worry that the reason our thoughts were still private was because of the spell from Kristoff, the one which had falsely tied me to Cardia. I needed to figure this out, speak with someone who might know. Louis said there was a lot going on inside of me; the quad nature of my soul was struggling with all the complex facets of our four-way tie to the races. He believed I needed to tap further into the shifter side. When I let go of my more vampiric ties, I'd be able to secure the last vestiges of my true mate bond.
He was guessing though, and it was scary to think Louis didn't have the answers. If he wasn't powerful or educated enough to know, then who would be? Braxton flashed yellowish eyes at me then, as if he sensed my thoughts, and I was reminded how ancient his kind were. Dragons. Maybe I needed to speak with Jessa and in turn Josephina. The golden dragon was the queen of all beasts, a godlike creature now. Maybe she would know something.
I sat a little straighter; that was definitely a path to follow. Here's hoping Jessa would be able to get word to her, and the dragon queen could make it here soon. I couldn't be taking off to Faerie with a child on the way. I'd be gone for weeks in Earth time, and I needed this dealt with before the baby arrived. And until then I had to focus on the task of rebuilding my relationship with Mischa. I needed to get her out of her parents' house and into mine. To keep her safe. To see her beautiful face each morning and fall asleep with her in my arms each night. It was not natural for us to be apart like this.
Braxton caught my attention: "So we are all agreed on this matter. We will form 24/7 patrols for the outer regions of Stratford. No one will go alone, and if anything suspicious is discovered we call for backup. The sorcerer was powerful on his own, but now that he's demon touched, there are very few who can stand against him."
Louis spoke from his place next to Jacob. He was with us at the head of the square table. "The magic users are working on some spells to hold the demon and return him to the land between the realms. Until we have these, Kristoff must remain alive. He's the anchor keeping an ancient and powerful demon from exploding into the Earth realm and wreaking destruction across the humans."
"How far away are these spells?" I asked him. I needed Kristoff to be dead. His continued presence was an insult to my mate.
Louis tilted his head in my direction. "I have to gather a few more ingredients and then they can be completed. A day or so."
I gave him a nod. Hopefully the simmering rage inside of me could hold out that long.
Jacob stopped tossing his fireball around and let out a loud exhalation. "So now that we have a path to follow on Kristoff, what're we going to do about the bear shifters? They've been a pain in the ass for years now, and I'm all for kicking their entire pack out of Stratford."
Braxton shook his head, but before he could answer others chimed in.
"Yes!"
"Get rid of them."
"Play by no one's rules – tried to attack the mate of our council leader … " The last one was from Jen, a vampire. She was referring to the incident when Jessa was inside of Vanguard. She'd been attacked by a bear shifter.
Braxton got to his feet and let out a bellowing, "Quiet!"
The wrath of the dragon was in his gaze and his energy filled the room like a swift wind. Silence descended in an instant, and I couldn't help the grin which crossed my face.
"The bear unrest started with Kristoff, and possibly Vlad inside of Vanguard," Braxton said to the room. "These two stirred trouble, promising the bears that when they got rid of us as potential council leaders, one of the bears could have the future shifter position."
Vlad the Impaler had been one of the oldest and more famous of the prisoners in Vanguard. During Jessa's stay in the prison, he'd tried to torture and kill her. Thankfully her dragon saved her in time, and Vlad had not been seen since.
"Do we have any idea where Vlad might be?" I asked, "There have been no sightings of him. He wasn't with Kristoff. Surely he would have popped up by now." We knew those two had been in cahoots together.
Louis cleared his throat and the room fell silent. He had that sort of effect on supes. "I have been thinking on this, and the scenario which makes the most sense is that Kristoff sacrificed him to summon the demon. It's not an easy task to break the barrier into the demon part of the land between, and bringing one forth with such ancient energy … almost impossible. He would have needed very dark energy, magic and a sacrifice. And who better to sacrifice than a supe who has the blood of thousands on his hands?"
Shit. That made sense. On one hand at least we didn't have to worry about that crazy fucker again, but on the other, this made the demon so much more powerful.
Tyson's face held no emotion, but his eyes were shimmering with magic. The mage was pissed. "So you're telling me Kristoff tried to have us imprisoned and killed, and when that didn't work he jumped on team Larkspur? And then when the Larkspur thing failed, he decided to go the demon route. Is this all about making sure we can no longer rule the US council? Is it about punishing us?"
Braxton nodded. "Yes, as far as I can tell he has numerous plans in place, and power is always his goal. Power and revenge. His hatred for us has grown exponentially. He can't control it any longer, and it has resulted in him making a huge mistake. Multiple mistakes. He's been caught out now. No council around our world would take him on, no community would welcome him. He's being hunted as a criminal. We should be extremely cautious with him now. Desperation causes supes to act irrationally, and he's already on edge with the demon inside. Don't expect him to act as he would normally. There's barely any supe left in him."
Jerak, the troll who led the demi-fey, leaned forward in his chair. "Have we heard anything of Giselda? Does he have more children scattered around waiting to initiate a plan?" I'd barely had a moment with Jerak, having run out as soon as we received our leadership, but he seemed to be a solid leader. His people respected him, which was not an easy task with so many different demi-fey falling under the one leadership.
Tyson shook his head. "Nope, she's disappeared into the wind. Checked with their relatives in Italy. Never showed up."
Great, so that psycho witch was out there in the world, causing havoc.
"I'll add her to the watch list," I said. "Someone will pick her up eventually."
We had an international watch list of criminals, updated by the various prison guards and town leaders. Yellow-hued names meant they were wanted for questioning. Red names were far more serious cases. Red meant these supes were more than just suspects, they were known criminals and you needed to take care when approaching. Understandably, most of our kind didn't appreciate incarceration and fought when cornered.