Chapter 28 – Rorik
The plan is set.
Tonight we will face Aurora’s mother.
Ciara gave me a week to return her belongings, but it’s now been two weeks and she’s nowhere to be found. It was an empty threat on her part. We have everything she needs. Everything she wants.
She won’t risk capture to come back into the city to find us.
Two weeks with my sweet mate. We’ve spent plenty of time together solidifying the bond. Feeding our souls. Strengthening the ethereal power that courses through our veins.
Aurora has been practicing using her magic with Evangeline and her mother.
They’ve been doing it at a secure facility in Queens where the New York City coven has a room that’s shielded to prevent detection from the outside.
It was originally created for witches to practice in privacy and safety before the humans knew about our world.
My little lamb is now confident that she can take on her mother… and win.
Aurora and I are in the backseat of a car heading to a remote area outside the city where local witches tend to gather to replenish under a full moon. She stares out the window, nervously fiddling with the pendant of her necklace.
“Everything is going to work out,” I say, even if I’m not sure I believe it.
She turns and smiles.
My heart thumps against my chest just a little bit faster. It always does when she’s near. When she looks at me. When she smiles.
“Evangeline’s mother is a seer. She can’t see the outcome of this battle. I’m worried.”
“But Mira also said that’s normal,” I explain. “That her visions change based on the decisions being made. Sometimes she sees multiple outcomes. Sometimes she sees none.”
I bring her hand up to my mouth and kiss her knuckles. She sighs and leans her head on my shoulder.
We’re almost there, and I’m tempted to tell the driver to keep going. To take us far away from here and this life. We could go to one of my remote islands to live out our forever.
Aurora would never agree because even though she ages slower, she will still age. I will not. Ever.
She can also die from injury and illness.
I never will.
This face-off with her mother is imperative for our future together.
When the car pulls up to the roadway that leads into the woods, I thank the driver and give him a generous tip. I tell him we’ll call when we’re ready to be picked up.
After a short half a mile walk through the trees, we emerge in an open field. Most everyone is already here. Locheran and Farrah. Vara, Thorne, and Layla. Evangeline and Xander.
As gargoyle king, Xander’s royal blood doesn’t typically allow him to travel outside of the city.
It’s a safeguard so the city he protects is never left vulnerable, but he said there are exceptions that allow him to go just outside the boundaries to battle evil.
Especially if that evil has, or could, threaten humans who live in New York City.
He said he can’t stay longer than five hours or his body will start to petrify.
Evangeline’s mother is beside her. A few powerful supes gather next to them, including Saoirse and her coven. There are more, thousands, hidden within the woods that surround the expansive field. They’ll be on standby.
Vara says human law enforcement has been notified of this confrontation, and they’re keeping the area clear in case it spills into the residential neighborhoods.
This field is rather remote. The nearest home is at least a mile away, so we should be good, but part of this unveiling plan is to work together with the humans.
We don’t want to keep secrets, or threats, from our allies.
After the battle, after we’ve hopefully won, Vara will prepare a news conference to inform the world of the threat that was taken down.
It’s a new way of life for us.
Gargoyle soldiers have also embedded in local law enforcement.
They’re there to assist, but to also keep the department in line.
To weed out the corrupt cops. It’s working well, but it’s still early.
The new human mayor is also fantastic. He’s cleaned up this city more in the months since he took office than any other mayor before him.
He’s welcomed monster leadership with open arms.
The reaction to our existence is still mixed.
The majority of the world accepts us. Small pockets of humans throughout the world don’t.
Some countries are worse than others. Some have gone to war to stop us from integrating.
And there are certain areas of the U.S. that have tried protesting or leading a revolution to end our lives.
They’re quickly learning that they won’t win.
“Ready?” Aurora asks, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Ready.”
Time to call Ciara.
I lead Aurora to a secluded area of the field away from our group with Evangeline, Mira, and Saoirse trailing behind. Aurora closes her eyes and begins chanting words over and over again. Light glows from her hands and expands until her entire body is a ball of light.
When the light fades, Aurora is gone. Thankfully, I know where she’s going because if I didn’t, I’d panic. A minute later, she emerges from the tree line.
Evangeline claps like a proud mother.
Mira clasps her hands in front of her mouth, overjoyed.
Saoirse smirks, clearly impressed.
“Do you think that will be enough?” Aurora asks once she transports herself back to where we stand.
“Transporting?” Saoirse asks with a snort. “Yeah, definitely. Not many witches are able to do that. Actually, you’re one of maybe two I’ve met in my life.”
Aurora blushes but smiles as big as her face will allow.
We clear the area, sending everyone except me and Aurora to the woods to hide. That way Ciara isn’t scared off. I hold my mate in my arms, squeezing her tight in case these are the final moments I’ll get to hold her.
After nearly half an hour, the wind starts picking up. The trees in the woods behind us sway back and forth, and Aurora has to put her hair up in a tight bun to stop it from flying in her face.
Then she appears. Seemingly out of thin air.
Aurora’s mother.
She’s wearing all black, a tank top and skin-tight pants. Her dark red hair is up in a ponytail. She’s tall, like Aurora, but slender.
I expected her to come with support.
She’s alone.
It’s not surprising. She’s already tried to form an army to take over the world. Everything she’s done has failed.
Now she has no one. She has nothing.
“My dear daughter,” she says in a sing-song voice. “All you had to do was call me on the phone, and I would have come. No need for the show.”
“No show. Just doing what witches do. Using my magic.”
Ciara waves off the comments with a scoff. I growl, and her eyes jerk to me, then down to our embraced hands.
“I see you’ve opened your legs for this abomination,” she snarls. “I can smell him all over you.”
“Believe me, Mother, I’ve done a lot more than just open my legs for him.”
I squeeze her hand, proud of her response.
Ciara points to the trees. “Do you think the monsters you have hidden in the woods can take me down? I’m far more powerful.”
Aurora must have made a face because Ciara laughs.
“You think I didn’t know they were there? Please, daughter, the moment I felt your power being used out in the middle of nowhere, I knew it’d be a set up.”
“Then why come?” Aurora asks.
“Because you have something that’s mine.”
“She won’t give you her magic.”
Ciara turns to me again, her green eyes narrowing. “You’re such a waste, Rorik Sevier,” she snarls. “Your soul was never meant to heal. This isn’t why I created you.”
“Why did you create me then?”
“So you could kill humans. To rid this earth of the useless mortals or enslave them to serve us. And what happened? Your humanity made you stop. You couldn’t even create vampires correctly. You killed your creations, then helped form the World Organization of Vampire Elites to enforce rules.”
“Rorik is a founder of WOVE?” I overhear Layla ask from the trees.
As vampire queen, she should have been told this, but I’m also not surprised she doesn’t know.
I stepped away from the organization centuries ago.
Cyrus would have wanted all the credit, especially when I said I wanted nothing to do with my kind.
Cyrus built WOVE into what it is today. He’s now president of the council that governs the organization.
“Any reason why you chose me? Why I had to be your little experiment?”
Ciara’s smile is wicked. “You refused my advances because you were ‘in love’ with a chubby mortal. You were happily married with a ‘family.’”
She air quotes the words ‘in love’ and ‘family,’ saying the words in a mocking voice.
I release Aurora’s hand to clench my fists at my sides.
After all this time? I learn that the reason I’m cursed is because a witch was jealous of my wife and kids?
There were rumors of this being the reason vampires were created.
Witches are known to hold grudges. But to sentence me to a never-ending life of pain and agony over jealousy?
I’m fucking furious.
I try to take a step forward, but Aurora grabs my hand again. She sends a jolt of magic through our palms, and a wave of calm washes over me.
A calming spell.
Ciara chuckles at my reaction and starts pacing. Her fiery green and black magic snakes around her hands in vibrant lightning bolts. She’s readying for battle.
We arrived at this face-off wanting answers, so the plan was to always let Ciara have her villain monologue. To let her explain her reasoning in hopes that it could give us an advantage. Expose her weaknesses.
“It’s time to give up, Ciara,” Saoirse says amid the silence.
Ciara’s head jerks to where the coven leader has emerged from the woods.
Fuck. What is she doing? We told everyone to stay back.
“I’m rather disappointed in you, great-great-great-granddaughter.”