Chapter Fifteen
Harcourte Manor
Same Time
Time: Less Than Eleven Hours…
O h, someone was ballsy. To show up at their doorstep, wielding a stolen Voodoo queen that rightfully wasn’t his, told them all they needed to know about this necromanced vampyre’s mindset.
He was crazy.
Coming at Rinnon was bad enough, but to do it on his turf, outside of their home…
That was going to get him killed.
Well, that was the plan.
They would be teaching him a lesson and sending him back to oblivion.
TO ASH.
As their house shook, Rinnon roared.
“He dares come here and provoke me in our freaking yard?” he asked, Flynn’s body rippling with anger and energy.
Jacques’ eyes bled to red, the serene green gone.
“We have to put him down,” he stated. “I’m not enjoying this game. Fate is hours from being free, and I need to stop this bullshit before we destroy everything!”
Jolie moved toward the door that led to their lair.
“Everyone in,” she said, not mincing words. “Mina, keep everyone in the grotto. Don’t let anyone come back through until you hear from me that you’re safe. We’re not chancing anyone being controlled by the cross or sword.”
Mina didn’t hesitate.
She hustled the family into the grotto through the door, making sure that she gave her mate, Percy, a kiss before leaving .
“Be safe for me,” she said, knowing how dangerous this was going to be.
Then, she closed them off.
All around them, the house shook again, and Rinnon used his energy to hold it steady. Mathew was trying to collapse it on top of them.
Well, not Mathew, per se, but a certain dead Voodoo queen.
Marie Laveau.
As soon as the door was closed, and all that remained were Percy, and her normal family, they headed for the door.
That’s when they heard him.
“Come out, you cowards! You murdered me, and I’m here to cut that baby from Jolie’s belly!”
Well, there was no doubt who was talking shit about them, now was there?
Fate.
They walked out onto the porch, and Kiera used an ancient spell she’d found in one of Rinnon’s books. It protected the house.
Pretend you’re me, Flynn whispered into Rinnon’s mind. We need him to come out to fight him. He’s up to something. To come here…that’s insanity.
He’s been dead. He’s likely not of sound mind, Jacques said.
Let me talk to him, Jolie suggested.
That had the response she fully expected.
NO! all three men said at the same time.
You will stay on this porch. You won’t get off of it, and if you disobey, I will…
You’ll what?
Be very unhappy, Rinnon said, as he, Death, and Kiera stepped from the porch.
Rinnon looked back at Lucian, Vanth, and Alex.
“Protect her,” he ordered.
Swords appeared, and they took their spots in front of Jolie. Not far away was Seth, Cerise, and Logan—doing what cops did. Their guns were drawn, and they were ready .
Yeah, someone needed to tell them that you didn’t bring a gun to a Voodoo fight.
You brought Wrath.
As Rinnon made it into the yard, he called for Mathew.
“Hey! Bag of ash! I hear you’re cranky that I smited your ass and sent you to death!” Rinnon called, using Flynn’s voice and the words he was sharing with him.
There was a scream of rage.
“You killed me!” he screamed into the night, as another wave of energy slammed into them.
Well, someone’s Voodoo queen was cranky as fuck, now wasn’t she?
Rinnon and Death stood their ground, knowing that Mathew would be gunning for Jolie and the child she carried. That was his end goal, and he wasn’t getting it.
They’d make sure of that.
Rinnon would send Jolie off with Death if need be. He wouldn’t let his child be wounded.
Moving closer, they knew the risk.
That’s why they had Kiera.
She began weaving a spell, sending out the words into the night. They acted like protection for Death and Rinnon.
As soon as her energy hit the wall coming at them, they heard Marie Laveau scream.
She wasn’t happy.
“Come on out, you pussy!” Rinnon shouted over the wind that was whipping around them.
He wasn’t sure it would work.
It will. He hates me. I killed him. I’ll lure him out. Trust me.
“Are you the same coward you were when I had to put you down like the pathetic rabid vampyre you were then?”
They heard his rage.
He shouted it through the wind.
“Did you think my mate would give a fuck if I killed you, Mathew?” Rinnon asked. “You were killing humans, and you know how much Jolie likes the humans.”
Hey now, she said. That sounded a tad bit condescending .
I am sorry, Little One. You just protect my child. You stay where you are.
All around them, they could feel Aiobeheann’s spell weaving protection around them. Mathew’s attempt to use energy wasn’t working.
“They are food!” Mathew screamed, as he and the corpse of Marie Laveau stepped from the trees and showed themselves.
In his hands?
The cross.
That’s what we need, Rinnon admitted. We need to get that relic.
Easier said than done. There’s a priestess between us and it, Flynn admitted. She’s sending out some pretty strong spells.
They could all see that.
Death raised his scythe, and when he slammed it down on the ground, the earth shook.
“Come to me, Marie,” Death said. “It’s time to go home,” he said.
Only, she didn’t move.
Fate gave her a spell, Death admitted. She won’t listen to me.
The fabric of fate was shredding even more, and Jacques knew they were playing with fire. If that tore, the Horsemen would return.
Oh, and Rinnon would be in his full power.
But so would the others.
When Mathew raised the relic, he called to all the vampyres nearby.
When Jolie turned, she could see some of the family coming back through the doorway, as Mina struggled to hold onto them.
Shit.
We have a problem! Putting them in Rinnon’s home didn’t keep them safe. It has to be because the lair is attached.
Rinnon turned, and as he did, hearing his mate, Marie sent out one hell of a shockwave through the ground .
Then, she backed up into the trees, leaving Mathew to stand there.
Rinnon went down, but he didn’t stay down. He moved toward his mate to protect her.
I have this! Don’t kill them! she said. Jacques! Call them to death! Make them sleep!
He waved his arm, taking his creatures deep into that slumber so they couldn’t be influenced by Marie’s spell.
Kiera was standing beside him.
“She’s working on something,” she said, glancing up at Death.
“I’ll get him.”
Moving toward Mathew, Death wasn’t amused.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
He wasn’t asking.
It was his own magic.
“I have to kill Jolie’s child. Then, I’m going to kill her!” Mathew said, not able to be quiet.
As Jacques took a step closer, they heard a female scream, but it wasn’t Jolie. She was standing with her family, making sure the sleeping vampyres stayed asleep.
It was Kiera.
Standing behind her was Marie, and she had her bony arms wrapped around her.
Jolie focused on Seth, Cerise, and Logan.
“Get inside and make sure no one else comes through the doorway. We’ll come get you.”
Cerise nodded.
“Vanth! Go with them,” she ordered.
They did as she asked, knowing Jolie wouldn’t send them there if it wasn’t dangerous.
As his mate screamed, Alex panicked.
As his mate was being pulled down, he couldn’t get to her. He tried to fight his way through that energy, but it wouldn’t let him through.
Because she had to help him, as more vampyres came out of the trees, she went to her brother.
Rinnon began killing vampyres with Wrath as he waited for Death to handle Mathew .
Marie pulled her deeper.
Kiera began sinking into the ground, the dead woman chanting words that were doing what they needed to do.
Incapacitate their strongest weapon.
An ancient witch.
Fate must know that Kiera has a piece of Aiobeheann in her! Jacques warned, as he moved toward Mathew and The Cross.
Only, there were vampyres there, and he was having to step over their bodies as he put them to death.
I can’t get to her! Jolie warned.
Kiera suddenly went out.
She stopped fighting as Marie pulled her down.
As she lay there, soil and vines covered her.
“I can’t feel her!” he shouted, pretty sure his mate was dead. “I can’t feel my woman!”
His fangs came out, and he raced into that energy, just as it exploded around them.
When he got there, Kiera was gone.
Their witch…was no longer there.
There was laughter in the air as they heard Marie Laveau talking in creole.
“She’s buried! She doesn’t have time!” Jolie shouted. “Let him go! We have to save Kiera!”
Rinnon was by her side, and with Wrath, he shoved it deep into the soil, and broke the energy.
That’s when they began digging. They had no choice since magick wasn’t working.
They used hands and claws to dig down through the dirt. Alex was fighting hard to get to his mate, as he willed her to survive.
The whole time, he was calling to her, begging her to answer him.
But she wasn’t.
There was no reply.
Death abandoned his attempt to get to Mathew. When the vampyre headed back into the trees, he knew why they’d been there.
This had been about distracting them .
The assault on them wasn’t about them, but instead about taking out their one level of protection.
Kiera.
They were all digging, trying to get past the spell that Marie had wound around the unconscious witch. The reason it worked was Kiera was…human.
She might be marked by Rinnon, and carry a piece of Aiobeheann, but she was still fallible.
Clearly.
As they dug down, and kept digging, they saw some of her hair. It peeked through the dirt.
He tried to reach her, but her fingers were already cold.
Alex roared in anger.
Fear.
Terror.
And heartbreak.
“My mate!” he whispered, digging furiously with claws to get to her.
When Rinnon glanced over at Death, he’d stopped digging.
“No!” he said. “Put her back!”
Alex grabbed her wrist, and using all of his strength, he pulled her from her grave, and into his body.
“Mate,” he whispered, holding her. “Please don’t do this to me, Kiera. Please!” he begged, tears slipping down his cheeks.
Death opened The Book of the Damned when it appeared in front of him.
The pages flipped.
When they stopped, Jacques saw her name.
He didn’t have to say a word.
Alex wailed, his whole body going tense with that rage as his mate had been taken.
“I’m sorry,” Death said. “She was randomly reaped. We’ve messed with time, necromancing, and now, she’s been put into the book. Everything has to balance.”
Kiera laid limp against her mate.
She was going gray .
“Jacques, please!” Jolie said, tears filling her eyes. “You can’t have her. She’s our family. She’s Alex’s mate. She’s marked.”
“My love, I don’t control it. If the name appears it’s beyond me. I can’t undo it. I can’t unbalance it.”
“Take me instead,” Alex whispered as he cradled her against his body.
“I’m sorry. We unraveled fate, and I’d have to undo everything.”
“We offered Mambo back,” Rinnon said. “And her son. That has to count as something.”
Death sighed.
“Rinnon, you know I can’t undo her death. I’d have to undo everything.”
Flynn pulled Rinnon back down, and he appeared.
“Undo it,” he said. “Take my parents back.”
They all gasped.
Jolie looked over at her mate.
“Flynn.”
He closed his eyes.
“I’ll give them back for Kiera’s life. I’ll make that sacrifice so that she can come back. Take them. They shouldn’t be here.”
Alex sobbed as he held his dead mate.
“Flynn, your parents?” Jacques asked, his eyes going green so he could talk his mate out of this. “Both of them?”
He was honest.
“I mourned them, and I understand that they shouldn’t be here. Why should I get them back at the cost of Alex’s mate? How is that fair?”
“Please,” Alex whispered. “Please let her come back to me. She’s my mate,” he said, and then, he began going gray. “Oh, God!” he whispered. “Her spell. We’re bound,” he said. “She bound us together. If she goes, I go, and if I go, she goes.”
Jolie began panicking.
“I can’t undo that either,” Death admitted. “Two lives for two lives. In order to bring her back, I have to do drastic things. She’s human, and that means she can die, even with Rinnon’s protection. Marie found the right spell.”
“Rinnon, stop time!” Flynn said.
Jolie did it for him. She whispered the words that Rinnon taught her.
Everything stopped around her, and when she touched Flynn and Jacques, they both moved.
“You can’t do this,” Jacques said. “You love them, and it will hurt you.”
What choice did he have?
We can’t lose Alex, one of our best fighters, and our witch, Kiera. My parents are human—were human. There’s only one choice,” he said, a tear slipping from his cheek. “I have to make the sacrifice.”
“Flynn,” Jolie whispered.
He stopped her.
“Let me make the sacrifice. Just let me say goodbye, Jacques. That’s all I ask. Please. Give me that opportunity to say goodbye this time.”
“I’m sorry, Mate. I’m so sorry. I wish I could change this for you.”
He really felt horrible.
“It’s not really them, right? It’s just magick and ash, bound back together.”
Jacques lied for him.
“Yes.”
Flynn appreciated his lie. As mates, he could feel it.
“Save them, and I’ll make the sacrifice. I’ll say goodbye to them.”
This was exactly what he knew would happen. Deep down, this was why he didn’t want to get attached to them.
Because he would lose them again.
“Are you sure, Flynn?”
He nodded.
“Yes. Thank you for letting me have this moment with them. I need to tell them myself.”
“Okay, my love,” Jacques said, touching his cheek.
“I’m sorry, Flynn,” Jolie said, crying. “I’m so sorry that I did this to you. I brought them back. ”
He said nothing.
“Release time.”
When she did, Alex continued to change. He was slowly going to ash. His fingers were numb, and he couldn’t feel his body.
Kiera slipped from his fingers.
“At least I’ll be with her,” he whispered. “Please let me be with her. I love you, Jolie. I’ll see you again,” he said, falling onto his back.
When Death snapped, they all felt the change in the energy, and Alex began getting some color back. He was able to move his arms.
“What’s happening?” he whispered, as he could feel his body.
“You’re saved,” Jacques said.
“Please don’t make me live without her. I promised to marry her, and I didn’t get the time. I didn’t make the time.”
When Jacques snapped again, he glanced over at Flynn.
“I delayed it. You have time to say goodbye.”
Kiera began breathing again, and her skin pinked up. As soon as Alex felt her heartbeat, he glanced down at her.
“Kiera!”
Alex held her against him.
“Baby, open your eyes.”
When she did, they weren’t Kiera’s eyes, but the dark swirls.
Jolie gasped.
“What did you do, Jacques?” she asked.
Kiera stood up, moving away from her mate. When she looked around, she began laughing.
“I am free,” she said, moving toward Death.
“Hardly, Aiobeheann. You’ve been given a different prison.”
Alex stood there.
“She smells different. What have you done?”
Death explained .
“In order to bring her back, I had to do something along the lines of what has happened to Flynn. He’s a vessel. Kiera is now a vessel too.”
Alex stared at her.
“Kiera, come out,” Death said.
When the woman blinked, her eyes were hers, and she smiled.
“Alex?” she asked.
He sniffed the air.
“It’s her.”
She leaped onto her mate, and he spun her around in a circle to celebrate.
“It was the only way. She was already carrying a piece of Aiobeheann, so I just gave her the rest.”
Jolie took Flynn’s hand in hers.
Only, he didn’t hold hers back.
He felt numb.
“Welcome back,” Flynn said to Kiera.
She was peppering kisses across Alex’s face as the vampyre held her.
“Are we safe?” Flynn asked, knowing what he had to do.
Jacques nodded.
“I need a few minutes,” he said, dropping Jolie’s hand, and walking toward the house.
He’s never going to forgive me for this, Jolie admitted to Death. I broke his heart by wishing his parents back.
He isn’t angry with you, Jolie. He’s angry with Fate. Give him some time.
Isn’t there a way? Can’t we find a way to keep them?
He wished.
I would need two souls to replace them or one hell of a loophole.
Then find two souls, Rinnon said, keeping Flynn out of that conversation. Go back to your lair, and find a way to ensure that we have a way to fix my mate’s heart.
I will when we have Flynn settled.
Yeah, except, they were pretty sure that wasn’t going to be any time soon .
Flynn was going to have to say goodbye to his family.
Again.
And there was no way he’d be strong enough to do this all over again.
He’d warned them.
Now, here it was, coming true.
And it sucked.
* * * T u e u rA n t i q u i t i e s * * *
Somewhere
The Planning Stage
Mathew was pleased with himself.
Everything had worked out just the way he’d wanted. They’d fallen for his plan, and now, they were reeling from the outcome.
Oh, he had spent plenty of time around them as part of their family, and he’d learned a lot.
Like how to break them.
Like how to manipulate them.
Like how to win.
It was all about a sleight of hand, and making them think one thing, as he was focused on something entirely different .
He was on the hunt for that sword, so that he could keep his gift.
That was what the pretty blonde woman had said he needed to do, and he was.
Now, he needed to see what the outcome was of using his Voodoo pet to do his bidding.
“Did you get the information?” he asked Marie.
She nodded her corpse head, and tried to fight him. Only, she couldn’t.
“What did you find?”
“I know where the relic is that you’re looking for,” she admitted. “You can find it at this house.”
She waved her hand, and the address appeared on a piece of paper.
He grinned.
“Excellent. Once I have that sword, I can raise an army. Until then, I have to slow down those assholes, so they don’t find it first. They will regroup from the dead witch soon enough since they don’t give a shit about who they kill. ”
She didn’t care.
“Can I go home now?” she asked, just wanting to get some peace. “I did everything you wanted, and now, I need to go home.”
He laughed.
“Never. You and I, Marie, are going to take over the world. I’m going to rule, and you’re my pet—my tame, leashed, Voodoo priestess.”
A tear slipped down her corpse cheek.
“Please, let me go. This is so wrong. You can’t unbalance the universe. I am not meant to be here. You will unleash trouble.”
He stared into the empty eye sockets and didn’t even have to think twice.
“No. Now, go sit down while I’m out feeding. I am hungry, and I want to go watch that address. I need to find that sword.”
She did what he asked, even though she wanted to fight him .
When he left, she tried to figure out a way to get out of this. When she took the life of the woman, she had crossed the line.
And now, it was time for Marie to fix this.
As best she could.