Chapter 17 Drecken
drecken
. . .
I arrived for the Supernatural Council’s meeting with the Human Council in a ripple of displacement. My lab coat flared behind me as I walked, magic humming close to my bones as I tried to quell it.
Rowan stood at the front of the table as everyone else was seated.
I took my seat next to Sabine, watching the Human Council on their end of the holographic call.
The humans rattled around their meeting table, poised like diplomats walking onto a battlefield rather than anything remotely intimidating.
Their Council Head, Evelyn Smith, was the only human with enough brains to run the territory.
Her advisor, Nathaniel Fitzgerald, sat next to her.
Clara Blackwood, their diplomatic relations officer, sat on her other side.
I didn’t care enough to know the rest of them. Humans died quickly anyway.
Rowan didn’t bother with prefaces. “The treaty holds by frayed edges.”
Evelyn set her hands palm-down calmly on the table. “We petitioned for this session as soon as your communication and the bodies of the humans that had infiltrated that academy of yours arrived. We acknowledge this crisis.”
“Crisisss,” Sabine hissed coldly. “A euphemisssm for abducted supernaturalsss and a network of humans pumping tourmalyke into our people as they experiment on them.”
Nathaniel inclined his head. “We have credible intelligence. A domestic faction has named itself The Human Resistance Network, and it is operating without our mandate.” He held a folder up to us. “We have sent this to you via email.”
Aurelia hummed. “We received it.”
“The Whettlocks are the faction’s leaders,” Evelyn continued.
“Susan and Jeff Whettlock are the leaders and founders. They are funded privately. They believe human survival requires merging with supernatural DNA. Human Facility-11 is their bunker. It’s known for advanced tech and isolation from the other human cities.
Most humans either fear the supernatural or avoid it.
The Whettlocks’ interest goes beyond that, and not in a positive way. ”
“Clearly,” Rowan said dryly.
“My daughter wasss taken by them,” Sabine hissed at them.
“She’s also my mate,” I added as magic burst from me and caught a file on the table on fire.
I doused it with wind magic, and the flames ceased.
Evelyn and the rest of the humans flinched.
“It was their daughter, Allison Whettlock, who infiltrated your academy and orchestrated your daughter’s kidnapping,” Evelyn explained softly.
“That family had another daughter, Cynthia, who was a brilliant coder. She vanished when she was twenty-five, but she was found a few weeks later drained of blood by a vampire.”
“We don’t care about their sob story,” I bit out, breathing to calm my magic. “We care about the fact that your negligence allowed our citizens to be hurt and killed.”
Rowan nodded. “Don’t forget that you failed to notice when your factions started ordering a plethora of tourmalyke crystals.”
“We noticed too late,” Nathaniel said harshly. “We are not asking for forgiveness. We are asking for time to fix it before we lose any chance of holding our civil order together. The humans in our territory are afraid of you.”
Dante’s shoulder twitched. “Time. Always time. While they kidnap supernatural children and experiment on them!”
Evelyn’s facade dropped. “We didn’t believe it was one of ours. We thought you were—” She stopped, hunting for a safer word. “—exaggerating. We were wrong.”
Sabine didn’t blink. Rune being taken was a fresh scar in every hum of our matebond. “That faction took my daughter,” she said. “They ssstrapped her down and pushed poison into her veinsss. They were careful. They framed her.”
A murmur rippled down the mortal side.
Nathaniel didn’t flinch. “The latest update on Allison Whettlock…” He glanced at his notes.
“You know her as Aura…was on my desk at three this morning. We tracked her and her father a few different times, but her mother has been untraceable from the start. They’ve all disappeared.
Allison apparently survived a highly experimental process of SupeEssence grafting.
It’s evidently a dangerous procedure that allows humans to carry fragments of magical energy through their bloodstream.
It gives her a trace magical signature in her blood.
My point is, this operation they’ve been exploring is big.
I’m sure other facilities in the territory are in on it. We have to figure out who.”
Drake fire rippled over Rowan. “You will dismantle the network as fast as you can. Time is not a luxury you have. If you had taken us seriously when we told you humans were taking supernaturals, you could’ve prevented this problem.”
“We will,” Evelyn said. “We have assets moving.”
“Define ‘moving,’” Sabine ordered.
“Active warrants, asset freezes, and all law enforcement on high alert.” Evelyn’s voice flattened. “Public media will focus on their illegal research but not go into detail to prevent interspecies panic.”
A breath of laughter escaped me. “You will keep the truth from the masses. How completely human of you.”
Her gaze clicked to mine, and a hint of fear passed in them. “We will find and stop them.”
“The treaty,” Rowan said. “We told you our condition. You will demonstrate control over your territory, or we withdraw from the treaty.”
“Withdrawal would mean war,” Nathaniel said, blanching.
“It would mean clarity,” Gideon rasped. “We are tired of dealing with your inability to control your citizens.”
Evelyn’s voice broke. “We didn’t order this. We didn’t want this.”
“No,” Aurelia said gently. “You merely built a civilization that keeps making the same mistakes.”
Evelyn inhaled sharply, holding her hand up to silence a few of her council members before they could respond.
“The Human Council accepts a formal timeline. Three months. In that span, we will present proof that we have neutralized the Whettlocks’ hiding place, liberated remaining supernatural captives, and closed the legal gaps that allowed this to happen.
” She paused. “We request that you refrain from strikes on human soil during that period.”
Rowan’s eyes were blazing. “No more abductions. No more disappearances. If even one more of ours is taken while you are moving, your time is over.”
“Agreed.”
“And Allison?” Sabine asked, each syllable a scythe. “She does not get an easssy death. She will be produced alive to be judged before both councilsss.”
“We find her,” Nathaniel said, something exhausted and sincere in it. “We deliver her to you.”
“Alive,” I said, my magic sparking around me.
The room cooled by a degree.
“Alive,” Evelyn repeated.
Rowan blew out small flames as he exhaled. “Your three months begin now.”
The moment the hologram with the Human Council faded, Sabine pivoted toward me. “Lake’s upset that you’re not teaching anymore.”
“You released me from that promise,” I reminded her. “Formally.”
Her pupils thinned to slits. “Yes, and he pouts at me because of it.”
Across the table, Rowan hid a grin in a cough of smoke. “Haelynn’s already enjoying teaching in House of Arcane,” he said.
“She’s better than I was,” I conceded. “She’s precise. The first-years flinch when she smiles. It is an excellent sign.”
Sabine pinched the bridge of her nose. “Just tell me you’ve given Haelynn your curriculum, so I can get my mate off my back.”
“I have written two years ahead and warded the notes against mishaps,” I said. “And I gave them to her. She’s got this.”
Sabine exhaled in relief. “Great. I’ll tell Lake.”
“Drecken,” Hunter, the vengeance demon rep, walked over to me. His mate and brother-mates hung back as everyone else left. “Can I talk with you about something you would be interested in?”
“How are you so sure that I’d be interested?” I raised an eyebrow.
He held a wrapped object that looked like an ancient tome. It was water-logged.
“A siren I’d worked for before on a vengeance case has found a tome.
It was her mother’s, and it’s older than half of the libraries in Kalista.
She can’t read it. I can’t read it. Nobody on the council has any idea, and everyone told me to take it to you.
” His jaw worked. “Even when I look at the text, it feels like I’m reading a language that wants to stay lost.”
Sabine’s head came up. “Melody Stormsong?” she asked, voice softening half an inch. “The siren girl the Fates saved?”
My brows raised. “The Fates intervened in what?”
Aurelia had just stepped out of the meeting room before she turned back and walked in. “Melody? My niece?”
“Your niece?” Hunter frowned. “How in the Fates could you let her father do that to her?”
“Do what?” I interjected, feeling like I’d totally missed something.
“Her father forced her to mate with another prominent siren. You know how the sirens are. Their matings are in front of their families, and it’s sex while they take turns biting each other’s throats with shifted teeth.”
My stomach churned. “When you say forced…”
“Rape,” Hunter growled. “Yes, and my father and I barely stopped it in time. She’d been through it several times before we intercepted that one. Nobody should go through what she has.”
Aurelia flinched hard. “I tried to stop it…I was the one who had her contact you. Her mother was my sister, and her father forbids her from having contact with me. Melody’s a good girl with a horrible home life.
I’ve tried to take her away, but she insists on staying for her mother’s legacy.
Her father has the key to my sister’s hidden cove.
He doesn’t know where the cove is, and he won’t find it.
The key was enchanted to show only Melody the way. ”
Hunter was tense, but he nodded. “Her father shouldn’t be the headmaster. He’s sick.”
She nodded. “I agree, but you know how Cursinia is.”
“Not an excuse.” My magic popped loudly, making everyone flinch. “Give me the tome. I’ll decode it and get back to you.”
“Thank you.” Hunter handed it over, his claws scraping the book as he did.
I took the tome. The wet cloth was worn to a shine at the edges. Beneath it, leather hummed the way runes did. As if it were waiting patiently for someone to read its contents. The title wasn’t in words. It was a sigil written in an old fae language, the kind that carried complex verbs.
I felt my mouth shape the memory of learning this language with my parents when I was young.
“When I have decoded it, I’ll reach out to you,” I said, falling back into a portal before ending up at my estate the next moment. I walked to my mantel and set the tome down.
I’d fallen in love with this mantle the moment Rune had told me she loved me here.
The sigil on the cover warmed under my hand as I brushed my palm over it.
“Later,” I told it. “I owe my mate my time.”
Sir Reginald raised one eyelid. “Master Drecken,” he said into my mind without moving his mouth. “You have brought home a book that remembers grieving.”
“I noticed,” I sighed.
“It will require snacks.”
“For it or for you?”
“For me,” he sniffed before yawning. “Is war still on schedule?”
“Three months,” I answered. “We have afforded humans a time to prove they can be civil.”
“Ah,” he said. “Optimism. How unlike you.”
“I am old enough to experiment.” I shrugged. “Besides, Rowan decided it.”
“Ah, the diplomat.” He rolled over, presenting his back. “Scratch.”
I obliged. “Rowan is no diplomat.”
When he snored himself back to sleep, I teleported back to Rune’s room, where she was fast asleep with Dimitri and Slater curled up next to her.
I joined them, and the matebond sang me to sleep with the scent of her.