The battle was gone, it was dark and quiet. Maybe Peri had come back for her because she was pretty sure she'd just been flashed.
"Peri?"
Suddenly she reappeared in dark room, lit only by candle light. She blinked, attempting to adjust her eyes. "Peri?" she asked again. Whoever had grabbed her hand was gone.
"Peri isn't here, Sally," a voice she thought she recognized came from the shadows, from a man she hadn't seen since they'd defeated Reyaz. She didn't have to wonder long if she was correct, as he stepped from the darkness into the light.
"Hello, Sally. It's good to see you."
"Skender?"
Cyn stood next to Thalion in disbelief. They were both staring at the fifth empty coven they'd found. She'd been doing her best to follow the stench of evil in order to find them, but so far, the only thing they were finding were empty tombs.
"I don’t understand," she told him. "It's like they knew we were coming."
Thalion’s shoulders tensed and his eyes narrowed. "Would someone in your group betray you?"
"No," Cyn answered without hesitation. "No one. I trust every single person who is with Peri. None of them would every betray us."
Thalion shook his head. "Everyone has a price."
"Even you?" she challenged, irritated that he would question the loyalty of people she’d come to care about.
He turned so that they were facing one another and took her chin in his grasp. "Even me. And that price is you. There is nothing I wouldn't do to protect you. Nothing."
If he hadn't been holding her chin, her jaw would have dropped. She cleared her throat and stepped back. "I would never ask you to betray your people, not for me or anyone.""That's not your decision to make, Cyn. You are the woman I've chosen to be my mate. You will come first, always. Don't argue with me. You won't win."
She snapped her mouth closed and placed a hand on his arm, flashing them from the underground back to the surface.
"What now?" she asked him.
"We keep hunting. If they took off in a hurry, they might have left prey behind, alive."
Cyn nodded. "Okay then. Let's hunt some vampires."
Chapter 18
"The human race has ruled for far too long. The supernatural races have lived in fear of being discovered for too long. We will unite the races and place the human vermin where they belong— at our feet." ~ Order of the Burning Claw
Alina threw down the dead body. The heart she'd just removed was still in her other hand. She released it and it too fell to the ground with a sickening thud. Her head swung around as she realized that they were no longer being swarmed. There were dead vampires lying everywhere. Her pack mates where breathing hard as they too looked around, as confused as she was.
"They’ve stopped coming?" Cypher asked as he stood up from a crouched fighting stance.
Decebel moved toward the doorway but Vasile placed a hand on his arm to stop him. "We aren't going to pursue."
Decebel frowned and then turned to see what everyone was staring at. In the middle of the room, the only place where no bodies were piled, two jackets lay on the ground covered in blood.
Alina’s eyes shot to her mates. "Jacque and Fane," she gasped.
"Peri, Sally, and Jen must be with them," Vasile said as he looked around the room. "Alston, do you mind getting us out of here. This battle will have to be finished another day."
The high fae held out his arms obligingly and the weary warriors each placed a hand on him.
"Jennifer says they're in the garden room at the Romania pack mansion," Decebel spoke up just before Alston flashed.
Alina felt Vasile’s hand grab hers and squeeze. "Everything is going to be alright, Mina."
"No, my love. I don’t think it is this time."
Jennifer had been through hell many, many times since she’d learned that there were werewolves in the world and that she just happened to be one of them. She’d endured being shoved in a hole, groped by an idiot, actual death, and nearly lost her daughter. But none of those things hurt her as badly as seeing her best friend’s unmoving, unbreathing body. None of those things made her feel as though something inside of her had been ripped and torn and shredded out of her. Jen thought she’d known what grief was, what loss was. She’d been a fool. Not until you hold someone you love with such intensity that their joy is your joy, their pain is your pain, their death is your death, do you truly understand loss.
Each beat of her heart felt like a betrayal to Jacque. Sounds where muffled to her and she couldn't see. The tears in her eyes were like cracks in glass, distorting her view. She was pacing and bouncing the little boy that belonged to her best friend, who couldn't hold him because she wasn't— Jen stopped the thought in its tracks. NO, she growled to herself. Rachel had gotten Fane and Jacque's baby breathing and out of danger. She could fix his parents too. She could. She had to.
She felt her mate’s presence as she turned and looked up. He was covered in blood. His face was hard as stone and expressionless as he met her eyes. His wolf peered back at her.
"Dec," she breathed out as her legs crumbled beneath her. She didn't hit the ground. Her mate had her in his arms, holding her just like she was holding Jacque's baby. He pulled her close and took deep breaths of her scent.
"I've got you," he told her gently.
Jen couldn't speak. There were no words for what she was feeling. So she did what she did best in a moment of crisis. She shut the emotions off and focused on tasks that needed to be done.
"I need a bottle, and formula, or even the breast milk I've got stored in the freezer. Could you set it out to thaw? And then go to the nursery in Jacque and Fane’s room and get some diapers and clothes for him."
"Are you sure you want me to leave you?" he asked as he pulled back to look down at her face.
She swallowed the lump in her throat and clenched her jaw. "I'll be fine. But Jacque will be pissed if she finds out I let her kid starve and freeze."
He set her on her feet and made sure she was steady before he released her. "I'll be right back." Decebel kissed her forehead before leaving to get the things she'd requested.
Jen looked down at the sleeping boy. His hair was auburn, like his moms. But his face was all Fane.
"Can I hold him?" Alina's voice came from behind her.
Jen turned around and met the Alpha female’s eyes. They were haunted, but not hopeless. Jen nodded. "Of course. Say hello to your grandbaby boy." She held up the wrapped baby and let Alina take him from her arms.
Jen felt hollow without the little boy in her arms. But, he was Alina's grandson, and the Alpha needed to look into the face of hope, with so much death surrounding them.
"Decebel has gone to get a bottle, diapers, and clothes for him," she told her.
Alina looked up from the baby to Jen. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Thank you, Jennifer. You are a worthy Alpha. But more importantly, you are a worthy friend."
Jen tried to smile, but her face had forgotten how. So she just nodded instead. Feeling like she was intruding on Alina’s moment, Jen stepped away and looked around the room for the first time. Rachel and Peri were both bending over the prone forms of Jacque and Fane. They'd laid them in a shallow pool of water, less than an inch deep. Rachel had begun explaining things but Jen couldn’t hear above the roar of blood in her ears.
She looked away from them to see Cypher staring at his mate’s daughter in horror. The warlock king looked broken. Alston was standing off to the side discussing something intently with Vasile who kept shooting worried looks between his mate and the place where his son lay. Jen turned in a circle, looking for the final person who’d been on their mission. She knew where Drake was, she knew where Costin, Cyn, and Nissa were, but where the hell was Sally?
Decebel came hurrying back into the room and she pointed to Alina. "Give her the bottle and set the other stuff down on that bench. Then, we need to talk."Decebel walked over to where Jen had taken refuge between two very large trees. "What is it Jennifer?"
"Where is Sally?" she asked softly.
Decebel growled. "I thought she was with you."
Jen shook her head. "She didn't flash with us. She was left with you all. Things were crazy when Rachel and Peri started working on—" She pointed towards her friend and her mate. "I couldn't ask Peri to go back. She's holding Fane and Jacque here, like literally using her immortality to keep them alive."
Decebel blinked several times as his hand pressed against his forehead. "When everything cleared and the vamps quit coming, the only thing left were some bloody clothes. Sally was not there."
Jen closed her eyes. This couldn't be happening. She could not lose both her best friends at the same time. "We have to find her."
Decebel looked around and pointed to Alston. "He can take us to Costin. There's nothing we can do here right now."
Jen agreed, though part of her didn't want leave the room—as though her presence was keeping her best friend from slipping away.
Decebel took her hand and lead her to where the high fae stood. Vasile had left him and was now holding his grandson with Alina sitting next to him.
"Can you please take us to the Serbia mansion?" Decebel asked curtly.
Alston didn't ask why. He simply held out his arm. They placed their hands on it and disappeared with the fae.