CHAPTER SEVEN || THIERRY #2
Nathaniel cast me strange looks, as if noticing I wasn’t myself.
My brain registered it distantly, the same way it registered everything else right then.
As though overhearing a TV droning in the next room, playing a boring news program in a language I didn’t understand.
Most of my attention was still locked on the wolf sitting less than ten feet away from me.
Of course destiny had paired me with someone like Magnus.
After all, what Jeremy had tried to do to James was exactly what Magnus had done to me and Nicolas.
And to dozens—maybe even hundreds—over the centuries.
He hadn’t asked for consent either. He’d turned us both without a single word of warning.
Then he made my brother into a monster. Exactly how Jeremy had tried to rip James’s humanity away.
Jeremy was everything I hated—and feared—most.
“You okay?” Nathaniel asked quietly. “Poppy and Tatiana put up a sanctuary spell. No violence can be enacted in this room, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
It took me a long moment to realize he was speaking to me. Longer still to understand he assumed my reaction was worry for James and Pierce’s safety.
Which it ought to have been.
After all, Jeremy had tried to hurt them once. He might have come here solely to do it again. People like him didn’t change.
Only their victims changed.
I couldn’t muster the words to answer.
I didn’t have to. Tatiana stood. “We have an alarming announcement to make.”
I tried to focus on her. My eyes kept sliding toward the end of the table. Jeremy was right there. Right over there.
“Shortly before this meeting, a piece of troubling information was brought to my attention by the young mister—” She broke off, frowning at the mystery warlock at the table. He shrank down, beet red, like he’d rather be anywhere else.
It was the man beside him who spoke. “His name is Oscar.”
“Right,” Tatiana said smoothly. “Oscar is a powerful warlock, recently freed from a terrible curse that left him imprisoned in stone for nearly a hundred years. He is gifted with true dreaming, a rarity for our kind. And the vision he reported having last night is something each of us needs to hear.”
She looked at the warlock expectantly.
Oscar swallowed, sweat beading on his brow. He glanced at the man beside him, his eyes wide. “Lark, I don’t know if I can do this.”
Lark put a hand on his back and met his gaze steadily. “You can. Pretend you’re in our group, with the others. You share there, right? You can here, too. I’ll be right next to you the entire time.”
Oscar nodded, eyes drifting shut. He let out a long, shaky breath.
It clicked into place who they were. Eighty years ago, Dahlia, a talented but evil witch, had created a curse that turned living beings to stone—exactly like the ancient Greek myth of Medusa.
She’d used it freely on her enemies. Deemed unbreakable, the Seattle coven had stored her victims in the basement of their stronghold.
Ethan’s blood, however, had proven strong enough to shatter the curse, and he’d been waking them in small groups.
The coven had even arranged a support program to help them reenter modern society.
Interesting. Somehow, Oscar had crossed Dahlia. And Lark was the human therapist helping him—and the others—adjust.
“You can do this,” Lark said softly. “Just talk about what you saw.”
“Okay.” Oscar’s voice was low. I saw his pulse jump as he began. “Uh—well, there was this abandoned town. And I saw a sign that said ‘Welcome to Rookwood…’”
For the second time in minutes, my stomach dropped.
The town from my dream earlier—the one drowned in a sea of red, with Godric standing in the center—was called Rookwood.
This couldn’t really be happening.
Oscar went on, his voice a little surer even though his eyes stayed screwed shut. “But there was no one there. The whole town was just… empty. Lifeless. And I saw… blood. There was so much, and at the end, it was like there was an ocean of it…”
I stared at him, feeling as if I had been encased in ice.
This hadn’t been an ordinary dream. Oscar had somehow had the same dream I’d had.
He let out a shuddery breath and opened his eyes. Fear shadowed his features. “I got the sense that something very… evil… was nearby,” he whispered. “Something that could wipe out an entire town.”
He sounded afraid. And he should have been. Because I knew exactly what this evil was.
Godric.
The ancient vampire hadn’t been a dream, either. He was alive and well. And apparently, spending his time murdering entire towns.
Everything in me went cold, sharp-edged, and clear. He had done this to Rookwood. Maybe Poppy’s spell had connected us, letting me see his work? The how didn’t matter. What mattered was that now I knew he still walked the earth. That he had done this.
And I could no longer allow him to live.
I had to kill Godric.
One of the tech CEOs at the other end of the table whipped out her phone, typing furiously.
Then she frowned. “There’s a town called Rookwood in southern Oregon, near the California border.
” She hesitated, as if wary of offending the extremely powerful creatures in the room.
“Though I’m not sure why this should be our concern. It’s hundreds of miles away.”
Lark looked at her sharply. “Then you’re extraordinarily short-sighted. What can cause an entire population to vanish? Nothing good. You don’t think that’s worth investigating?”
“If it’s even true,” the CEO said, leaning back—but unease crept into her face, as though Lark’s words had landed.
Even Wynn and Poppy exchanged a nervous glance.
Beside me, Nathaniel’s expression deepened into a frown. “It is troubling,” he agreed slowly. “And yes, it must be investigated. However, the council should not become unnecessarily alarmed until we know more. If anything actually did happen.”
“It could have been bleeds.”
I turned toward the voice.
It was the female werewolf. She nudged Jeremy.
He blinked, his gaze sliding toward me.
When I glared at him—in your dreams, wolf—he swallowed and looked away again.
“Lindsey is right,” Jeremy said after a beat of awkward silence. “When the veil between this world and others thins, it can bleed creatures into ours. Monsters capable of wiping out an entire town. Perhaps this dream was a warning.”
His words got a reaction. Every witch at the table stared at him in disbelief.
“How, precisely, would a wolf know about interplanar fissures?” Tatiana demanded. “They’re an exceedingly rare study of magic. Not to mention, they’re extremely unlikely to be the cause of what happened to Rookwood.”
She was right, of course. That wasn’t the cause of Oscar’s vision. His vision had been meant for me alone.
Jeremy frowned at her. “No disrespect, ma’am, but that’s what we do. Wolves guard the thin places. Our pack has done it for generations.”
Everyone traded puzzled looks. But that made a certain kind of sense. If witches were wary of letting other supernatural creatures get to know their ways, wolves were outright isolationists.
Lindsey spoke up. “Jeremy is exactly right. There are thin places in the mountains. The whole area has been unstable for months. We think the bleeds will start again soon. If they’re active where we are, it’s possible they’ve become active somewhere else too.
Sort of like earthquakes happening along a fault line. ”
“Wait.” Nathaniel’s head snapped up, eyes widening. “You said in the mountains? As in the Cascade Mountains?”
I understood his alarm. It was the first we’d heard about the possibility of monsters from another reality coming through portals. Especially given that the Cascades were only an hour away from Seattle by car. And much closer for anything that could run inhumanly fast.
Lindsey nodded at him. “We have a warlock in our pack. He and our pack elder believe the entire area is unstable again. Creatures could start passing through at any time.”
“What sorts of things?” Tatiana demanded, her expression thunderous. “Why were the witches not informed?” Her voice rose, and the lights flickered overhead. “How is this the first we’ve heard of these ‘bleeds’?”
“You are being informed. Emma and Daniel only came to this conclusion a few days ago,” Reed said, giving her a thin, mirthless smile. “Besides, we weren’t all such good friends before, were we? Wolves have always kept to ourselves.”
“What other secrets do you keep?” she pressed.
Jeremy’s gaze flicked to me, then away. “The important part is that we came here to tell you now.”
“Excuse me,” the mayor cut in, her voice carrying. “I’d like to revisit Tatiana’s point. What do you mean monsters come out of these—err—”
“Bleeds,” the police chief supplied grimly, rubbing his temples.
“If you’re asking what they look like—have you seen Alien ?” Reed said. “What comes through is a lot like that. And they eat people pretty indiscriminately. Usually.”
The mayor blanched. Most of the other humans did, too.
“Our pack will need backup,” Jeremy said. “If the bleeds are starting again, it’s just a handful of us guarding a massive area.”
“And the very first thing you do is ask us for favors,” Pierce snapped, outrage sharpening his voice. “After what you did, you have no right to be in this room, much less ask for help.”
Jeremy went pale but stared him down, a muscle in his jaw ticking.
I had the sudden—and utterly ridiculous—urge to defend the wolf. I shoved it down. Pierce had every right to his fury. What Jeremy had done was indefensible.
I stayed silent.
“And you think this phenomenon could account for an entire town vanishing?” Poppy demanded, cutting through the tense silence. Her gaze slid from Lindsey to Reed and then settled on Jeremy.
“Yeah,” Jeremy said, giving me a strange look. “It could.”
Poppy traded a hard glance with Ethan, which he matched exactly, giving her a sharp nod.
They weren’t telepathically connected, but they’d grown up together—along with Poppy’s brother Tobias—and were still best friends.
They were also training to be co-leaders of the Seattle coven once Tatiana stepped down.
Sometimes I saw glimmers of who they would someday become: powerful, decisive, and perfectly in sync. This was one of those times.
“First off, we need to double-check Daniel’s work. No offense to him, I’m sure he’s competent or whatever, but we’d feel way better about it if we had some of our best witches and warlocks investigating these interplanar fissures.”
Ethan nodded in agreement. Then he added, “Also, we should send a team in to investigate Rookwood.”
“No team will be required for that,” I said flatly. “I will go alone.”
“Thierry, no,” Nathaniel said sharply, staring at me. “If what the wolves have said is true, one vampire alone would be in terrible danger. Even you.”
His concern was touching, but I already knew it wasn’t bleeds or interdimensional creatures that had wiped out Rookwood. I wasn’t spooked by the scary bedtime stories the wolves were peddling.
“A team will attract too much attention,” I said, keeping my tone even. Lying to them wasn’t ideal, but it was necessary. After all, I was sparing innocent lives. “One person can slip in and out, determine the cause, and report back. Then we can send a team once we know what we’re dealing with.”
“You’re right,” Nathaniel said, frowning—then his gaze slid to Jeremy, a speculative look in his eyes. “But a pair is much safer and still won’t draw the attention of a full team. The wolf will go with you.”
“No,” I said, fresh horror flooding me. “Not a chance in hell.”
“I concur with Nathaniel,” Tatiana said, giving him a nod of approval. Then she turned her icy gaze on me, a hint of mockery in her smile. “Naturally, you’ll need someone present who understands what this phenomenon looks like, if you hope to rule it out.”
I stared back at her, fuming.
I could tell them about Godric, which would make Jeremy unnecessary—but that meant explaining exactly how lethal he was. Then Nathaniel would never let me go alone. He’d send a team, and Godric would kill them all just to get to me. I wouldn’t be able to protect them.
No doubt Godric already knew I was coming. If I didn’t go to him, he would come to me sooner or later. And I wouldn’t see him until it was too late.
At least with Jeremy, I could be reasonably certain the wolf would bolt the moment things got dangerous. Based on everything I knew, he’d want to save his own skin first and foremost.
“Despite his shortcomings, Jeremy is the strongest wolf in his pack,” Nathaniel said firmly.
Then he leveled a hard look at the wolf in question.
“And if you want allies, this is the price. Go with Thierry. Show us you’ve changed and are willing to help, and we’ll help you in turn when the bleeds begin. ”
“I’m sorry,” the dark-haired wolf balked. “You are not sending our alpha on some half-cocked mission to go get himself killed.”
“Reed,” Jeremy said quietly, cutting him off before turning back to Nathaniel. He met the vampire king’s gaze and held it. “If this is what’s required of me, then I’ll do it.” He glanced back at Reed. “And if I’m killed, you’ll be next in line to be alpha. The pack’s future won’t be in jeopardy.”
With Jeremy’s agreement, I knew there was no point in arguing.
My only other option—besides explaining about Godric—was revealing what Jeremy and I were to each other. And that might make Nathaniel even more likely to force us together. He’d always been a hopeless romantic, and he’d be gunning for us to fall in love.
I’d sooner take my chances with Godric.
So instead of arguing and losing the last shred of dignity I possessed, I rose from the table and walked out without another word.