Chapter 23 - Owen
Renz went for Jasmine, teeth bared. I shoved him back, kicking his feet out from under him.
He went down and snarled, spinning back around as he tried to get to his feet.
His eyes turned black, and my heart snapped inside my chest. His arms bulged against the belt, a flimsy hold against his strength.
I flipped him onto his stomach and pushed my hand over his eyes, blocking Jasmine from his view.
He still thrashed and snarled, but not as intensely. I filed that away as I straddled him, keeping him pinned, and carefully kept my hands away from his mouth. The warriors had managed to restrain the other pack members, but then two more of the warriors howled and dashed at Jasmine.
Others jumped on them, and I shouted, “Don’t let them bite you!”
The priestess dragged Jasmine away from the glass doors, and a little while later, the nuns came out, trembling but determined.
As we struggled to keep the possessed pack members restrained, the nuns flitted from person to person, shoving a metal funnel into their mouth, then pouring in a sweet-smelling tea.
Slowly, the pack members stopped fighting so hard. Renz panted under my weight, then he went limp.
I didn’t want to shift off him in case he turned violent again, but I cautiously moved away.
He remained docile, thanks to the tea. The nuns brought out torn strips of fabric then, and we bound all the possessed pack members, taking special care to wrap their mouths so they couldn’t bite us unexpectedly.
We managed to get them to the prison, but when we got them into their cells, we found a problem. With this group, there were no more empty cells. I didn’t dare put more than one in a cell at a time, but where were we going to house any future pack members that got possessed?
And I was the only alpha left. What was going to happen if I was taken by the darkness, too?
I spoke with the seconds, making hasty arrangements for the care of these possessed pack members as well as finding places for future ones.
For the time being, we could make temporary accommodations in the old college.
Closets and bathrooms that didn’t have windows for the prisoners to escape, to start with.
Unused classrooms could have the windows boarded over and cells built inside.
We’d be using all the lumber we’d procured for the omega rebuilding project on this instead.
I met with Jasmine again, this time with the remaining seconds and the priestess at the alpha offices.
“It seems to me that when someone is bitten by a possessed person, they end up possessed, too,” I said, leaning my elbows on the table. “That’s what happened with Jace, Renz, and several of the warriors today.”
The priestess shook her head. “But the report we got from Burgess didn’t say anything about it being transferred by a bite.”
“Penny also told me that when Burgess had possessed pack members, they were silent when they attacked. Our pack members make noise. Growling and howling, and yelping in pain.” Jasmine pressed her fingertips to her temples. “Does it mean something?
“We knew that this was a different sort of attack than what Burgess suffered. It’s just further proof,” I answered. “It proves that the hugging ritual would never work here. We have to find a different solution.”
“What sort of solution?” one of the seconds asked.
I closed my eyes, trying to avoid grinding my teeth. I wanted to shout at him that I didn’t know, but held my temper in check. Everything seemed bleak. Jasmine’s vision was coming true little by little. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to be enough to stop this?
Maybe it would be best for a mass diaspora. If we all abandoned this territory, maybe even left the valley, perhaps we would be spared. The warning the omegas left was tied to the land. Maybe the darkness was tied to it, too, and by leaving, we could at least save those who were still sane.
Footsteps sounded, and I opened my eyes again. Jasmine stepped close to me, wrapping her arms around my chest. She felt fragile in my arms, as though she was ready to fall apart. I supposed, in some ways, she was.
I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t let her lose hope, and to bolster her, I had to keep my hope, too. I didn’t know how to fix this, but I was going to stay with her until the end. Deep in my bones, I knew she’d stay with the others. Which meant I wasn’t going anywhere.
All the same… “I want an evacuation of the town,” I said.
“Send scouts outside of the territory, over the mountain. Find a place to temporarily camp outside of the valley. We have reason to believe this is tied to the land, so I want to get all our civilians off of it. But we can’t risk going to other territories or neutral ground here in Maplewood. ”
Both the seconds and the priestess looked worried at this, but it was quickly decided who would go. I wanted to evacuate everyone in no more than three days, and drafted a notice to be distributed around town so everyone could prepare.
After the meeting was over, Jasmine insisted on picking up some food for me while I still worked. She brought a couple of sandwiches for us to share.
“I can still fix this,” she said, picking tomatoes off her sandwich. “I don’t care what my vision has shown. I’m not leaving this town to be consumed by the darkness.”
“I know.” I smiled at her. Even though she had confessed to Penny that she felt like this was her fault, she had rallied.
She wasn’t going to let this destroy her, and she wasn’t going to stop fighting for Killian, Jace, Renz, and all the others.
“That fighting spirit is something I love about you.”
Her head came up, and she stared at me with wide eyes.
What was she looking at me like that for?
I reviewed my words. Oh. I’d said, love.
For a moment, I wanted to brush it off, as though it was just a turn of phrase.
But no. No, I wasn’t going to do that. I could be taken by the darkness at any time, and I didn’t want to end up possessed without telling her the truth.
Jace and Renz both said it, then they were taken. They’d recognized their last chance and were desperate not to disappear without her knowing. Was I really going to wait until the last moment, too?
“I love you,” I murmured softly. “Killian didn’t have the chance to say it, but he loves you, too. You should know that. And not in the final moments before I get possessed.”
Jasmine’s lip trembled. “And I love all of you. I didn’t tell them. But I love them, and I miss them, and I can’t give up.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close. “I can’t give up.”
The next morning, I woke to the scent of herbs stewing in the kitchen, the dark circles under Jasmine’s eyes indicating she hadn’t gotten any sleep.
I hadn’t slept much, either, and only dozed off after she’d made tea for me.
Tea, I thought she also drank, but looking at the papers scattered over the kitchen table, I had a feeling that she had instead been reading all night.
“What are you doing?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.
“I found a section in the book about omegas that were put on trial for ‘witchcraft potions,’ and it made me think about everything that is happening. It lists the ingredients they used, and I think maybe if I can get the proper combination and ratios, it might be what we need to calm down the possessed pack members.”
She didn’t look up as she continued to work. There were already several jars on the table with labels on them. I inspected the jars. They were all a greenish-blue hue, and I couldn’t begin to guess what herbs and other plants were used in them.
“My spreadsheet is over there,” Jasmine said, pointing to the end of the counter.
“I’m keeping track of what I use and how many ingredients.
Right now, I’m steeping them all for the same length of time, so that everything else is stable.
You know, so we know that it’s just the mixes that we need to worry about. ”
She took the pot off the stove, and I hurried over to lift it for her when her hand slipped a bit. Jasmine yawned, pressing her hand over her mouth. “Thanks.”
I carefully strained the mixture and put it in a jar.
“I have a few more combinations that I want to try,” Jasmine said when I squeezed some soap into the pot she’d been using.
“Let’s see if any of these work first,” I told her, nodding to the line of jars. “That way, if they do, we won’t need to use up all our herbs for them.”
Jasmine hesitated. “That’s a good point.”
We gathered up the jars into boxes for easier carrying as we headed for the jail. “How will we know if they’ve worked?”
“Hopefully, it will calm them down longer than the other combinations,” she told me. “Although I can’t help but hope that this will cure them.”
I hadn’t wanted to say it out loud. It seemed impossible that we could just stumble onto the cure, but perhaps we could. We got to the prison quickly, where I made Jasmine stay in the car with the doors locked. If the brew looked like it was working, we could take the next step.
We decided to test the brews on the other alphas and seconds first. They had all been given the regular brew recently, and so were fairly docile taking the new mixes. Afterward, I studied each of them individually. They were calm and quiet, but showed no sign of coming back to themselves.
Time for the next step.
I went back outside for Jasmine and brought her in, keeping close just in case any of the guards were suddenly taken by the darkness.
“Killian seems the calmest,” I told her, tightening my grip on her hand. “Let’s try him first.”
As soon as she stepped into sight of the cell, Killian slammed into the door, snapping his teeth behind the muzzle.
He struggled against the straitjacket, howling.
The sound of his howl roused the others, and soon, all along the prison doors, every possessed pack member was howling and trying to escape.
Well. That answered that.
I wrapped my arm around Jasmine’s waist and hurried her out of the prison while the guard attempted to restore order.
She started shaking before we reached the car, and by the time I’d driven us back home, she was sobbing openly.
Her whole body shook with the force of it.
I carried her inside and up the stairs to her room.
“I’m sorry, Owen.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for. This is not your fault.”
I set her on the bed and knelt to take her shoes off for her. Jasmine wiped her face, her tears flowing even as she got her sobs under control. I helped her change into something more comfortable, then pulled her into my arms and lay down.
“It’s okay,” I whispered to her. “We’ll figure this out. I’m still here.”
Jasmine let out a shaky sigh. “But what will I do if I lose you, too?”
I didn’t know how to respond. Luckily, just my presence provided enough comfort for her to fall asleep.
As her breathing grew deeper and more restful, I considered her words.
What would she do if the darkness took me, too?
I had made arrangements for the pack, but Jasmine had been alone for so many years.
If I were claimed, would the rest of the pack blame her? Would she stay here and work herself to exhaustion every day trying to take care of us? Would we end up killing her?
I didn’t like any of these thoughts rattling around in my brain.
I buried my face in her hair, breathing in her scent.
I should leave, go check on how things were going with the pack.
I should check on the prisoners again to make sure they were calming down.
But I also should stay, to comfort her and make sure she got the rest she needed.
Just when I started to doze off myself, Jasmine stiffened in my arms. She bolted upward, letting out a blood-curdling scream. I jolted, trying to hold on to her. Jasmine blindly fought me, still screaming. I finally managed to catch her in my arms and crush her to my chest, stopping her flailing.
“I’m here! I’m here!”
Jasmine’s jerky movements stilled. “Owen?”
“It’s okay. You’re not alone.” I smoothed her hair and kissed the top of her head.
“It was another vision,” Jasmine whispered. “I was in a tornado, and all around me was nothing but fire and blood.”
I shuddered. But before I could reassure her, alarms started to blare outside. Fire alarms. I rose from the bed, reaching for my cell phone even as it started to ring. The number that flashed up was from Alpha Mads from the Burgess pack.
“There’s a forest fire between our territories,” Mads told me as soon as I answered. “We’re dealing with it on our side, but the wind is blowing the flames right toward Tyrell.”