Chapter 17
Nashen
Canton Valley Farm
I paused on the porch before going inside.
Diamond and Bree were already back. Diamond had left her heeled boots on the porch but that didn’t explain why a man’s voice was coming from inside our house.
I wasn’t in there. Bernard was with me and we just waved his parents off on their journey to their own home.
Jacand was with his parents and Jacand was yet to sound like a man.
He was still a boy. I glanced at Bernard who squinted like he was straining to hear something. He was hearing it secondhand of course.
“You can’t go in there if Ferrick is out,” Bernard said.
“It could be Pras arguing with Pami. If its Pami, I should go in there. I could probably calm her down. Might have to lie to do it but—”
“YOU STUPID LITTLE BITCH!” the man roared. “THAT’S NOT HOW WE FIX THIS PROBLEM! WE DON’T GO AROUND---” he paused. “Shit! Get back in your paper! They’re back! But this isn’t over! This is far from over. You can’t go around killing people.”
“I wouldn’t have to kill so indiscriminately if you just tell me who you’re related to!
” my sister’s voice reached my ears and my heart dropped into my stomach.
I opened the door fast, thankful that Diamond had left it unlocked in her hurry to get inside.
By the time I stepped in, my sister stood alone in the beautiful living room furnished and designed by Bernard’s parents.
“Nash,” Pami said, her voice soft.
She was ethereal and looked as she did in her later teens. So fucking young. I almost reached out to her but then I remembered the bodies in front of the trapdoor were probably her handiwork.
“What did you do?” I asked instead, raising my hands to my hips to stand akimbo. “Why did you do that?”
“For you! For everyone!” Pami said. “He was the bastard son of Sharon Claudis and she needs to kill him!”
“Why are you still working with her?! She killed you! I know because I was the one who had to carry your body off the island in the center of Moonbottom Lake!”
“I’m not!” she shook her head and raised her hands like I pointed a gun at her.
“I’m not even helping Ferrick anymore! He said he’d help me with Sharon but he lied about what he wanted in return!
He’s locked in tight--- He can’t fit through my loophole.
That coyote was her son. She needs to kill three of them – any of her people – to come back to life. ”
My sister had lost her mind or Sharon Claudis had filled it with bullshit.
“She has to be the one to kill them and the only way I can keep that from happening is to kill them myself! You could help me, Nash! You could help me get them before she does!” she said, her eyes wild and desperate.
“Where is she?” Bernard shouted as if Pami was very far away and might have trouble hearing her.
“Where is who?” Pami shouted back at him.
“Sharon Claudis!” Bernard shouted.
“In one of the old wells. I don’t know which one! Venal wouldn’t tell me! That’s her son! She killed him! That’s one down and two to go!” Pami said, shifting her weight foot to foot as something whimpered outside.
“That’s the puppy,” I said aloud, mostly to calm my own nerves.
My lynx paced inside his inner sanctum ready to hunt anyone and everyone who might mean us harm.
Though, Eran was off that list since meeting his mate.
I couldn’t explain it but he smelled different even though they hadn’t claimed each other when I smelled him.
“Unmated alphas might eat kittens. Mated alphas would get eaten by their mates if they tried,” my lynx rattled off into my thoughts.
“This isn’t the place he’s looking for,” someone said from outside. “He smells ghosts but not the lady he’s sniffing out.”
Maybe they were already on the hunt for Sharon Claudis.
Pami disappeared and I turned toward Bernard.
He pulled me into his arms and I did my best not to cry because my sister was dead.
Only my hormones didn’t like that. So, I cried anyway.
Why couldn’t she just go peacefully into the Other World and figure her shit out?
“Because in some fucked up way she loves you,” Bernard whispered, picking up my thoughts over our mating link. “She doesn’t want our kid to die.”
“That’s because she believes she has to be reborn through our family lineage,” I sobbed into his chest. “She doesn’t want her route cut off.”
“If she is ever reborn as our kid, she’s never allowed to date. I’ll build a vestal virgin temple or a convent or something,” Bernard said, and somehow, I managed to laugh through my tears. He smelled serious but I couldn’t help myself.