30. Unghosted
30
UNGHOSTED
ARRAN
T he moment Jade inhales the shadows, she drops like a lead weight.
I snatch her up into my arms to keep her from hitting the ground.
When her eyes open, it’s all Osen. No trace of Jade’s glowing green eyes.
“Where is she?” I demand.
“Still here. Just overwhelmed by my magic because it’s united with me again,” Osen answers, finding their feet and standing.
I don’t let go. It doesn’t feel like Osen is unaffected, either.
“We should go, get my body,” Osen says. “See if this works.”
I snarl, hating that I can’t see my mate when I look at her face. “Always thinking about yourself, huh?”
“No!” he snaps. “I’m worried that Jade won’t be able to handle my energy for much longer!”
“Enough!” Maxum shouts over us, drawing our attention. He looks over at Rob, clearly debating if we kill him quickly now or slowly later. “Let’s go. We can bring this piece of garbage along for the ride. We’ll take care of Jade and Osen, then we’ll claim our pound of flesh.”
We tie up Rob’s hands and gag him as a precaution.
Maxum has us jump through a few portals before we end up in the partially collapsed tunnel under the lake house. We stand outside the bunker door as the final portal closes behind us. Maxum presses his palm to the door and unlocks the safe room. When the door swings open, all our eyes fall upon Osen’s body inside the glass coffin set in the center of the room.
“You preserved his body?” Rob mumbles behind his gag in disbelief.
Calder shoves him forward and ties him to a cot frame.
No one bothers to answer Rob’s question, but it wasn’t us that did the preserving. Something about Osen’s unnatural death froze his body in time.
Now we’ll just have to see if he can be brought back to us in his full glory.
Jade needs to expel Osen’s magic, whether it’s to resurrect or to just release it into the cosmos. Rob shouldn’t have it. Not that it would have been a problem for long, because that asswipe is going to experience a slow and painful death if we can control ourselves enough to make it slow.
I’ve been helping Jade and Osen make it through our journey here. Her body is rejecting the magic as if she’s ill.
“Jade?” I call to her, holding her close, searching her face for a sign she’ll be okay.
A faint pulse of green shines through from behind the shadowy gray of Osen’s magic.
“She’s here, just fighting to stay with us,” Osen grits out.
Maxum and Flint remove the top of the coffin.
Calder looks ready to lose his freaking wits. I thought I’d be the mess with being a berserker and all, but no, it’s the phoenix.
Tears stream down his cheeks. “Let’s go, come on.”
He has two mates on the line. In one fell swoop, he could lose both if this goes sideways.
Not that it means a fucking thing. If we lose Jade, then Flint, Maxum, and I will have lost our fated mate. Because that’s what we are to her and she to us.
There’s no coming back from that loss.
My beasts howl inside of me, and I’m having a hard time containing them. If this goes wrong, I won’t contain them any longer. I will retreat so far back in my mind that I’ll be completely feral. No one will be safe.
I don’t expect much less from the others. Flint would likely turn to stone one last time and return to the earth, releasing his soul back to the cosmos.
Maxum will… I don’t even know what he will do, but nothing good will come of it.
Calder will probably end himself with the final flame.
Osen? I suspect he won’t forgive himself for allowing Jade to sacrifice herself. If he survived, he’d go insane. And if he died, he’d likely become a vengeful wraith.
I shake myself out of my dark thoughts.
Jade was born to do this. This is her power. It’s what makes her a valuable weapon. If a hack like Rob can steal and wield her ability, then, even untrained, Jade should be able to figure this out.
And we’re here. Not that I’m much help. What do I know about souls or controlling death? Nothing.
“Help us get closer,” Osen asks.
With my arm around Jade’s waist, I bring them closer to the coffin.
“Fuck, this is weird,” Osen hisses.
“No shit,” I grumble.
“I feel a tug,” Osen gasps. “It’s like my soul and magic want to return to my body.”
“That’s good, right?” I ask, excited to hear something might go our way.
“Jade?” Osen calls. “Come on, sweet witch, you gotta help an incubus out.”
There’s a long pause, and everyone holds their breath.
Well, except Rob. He’s just scowling.
“I have to do all the work?” Jade mutters, sounding tired. “What’s the point of having a harem then?”
“It’s a polycule, sweetie.” Osen smirks.
“No. I definitely signed up for a reverse harem with a MM side quest.”
With their levity, my chest releases some of its anxiety. She can’t be that bad off if she’s joking around. Well, knowing Jade, that’s probably untrue. Her last words will probably be something to make us laugh.
It’s one reason I love her so much already. She’s brave, sexy, and quick-witted.
“Hey,” Osen says and glances at all of us. “I just want to say something in case this doesn’t work out.”
“Don’t!” Calder throws his hands up. “Don’t think like that.”
“I won’t risk not telling you all how I feel.” Osen turns to Flint. “You’re the rock bed that keeps us all sane. I’m sorry I didn’t appreciate that enough when I was alive. And I have no doubt you will be the most incredible mate to our girl.”
“I will do my best with that honor.” Flint bows his head. “And may you live to see that happen.”
“Arran, you have been the best pack mate. And seeing you heal with Jade has been a blessing in this situation.”
I nod, biting my lip so hard it bleeds. “I love you. Try not to leave us again.”
“Maxum, dude ,” Osen chuckles. “It isn’t like you don’t know how much I treasure our friendship since you can read my mind.”
“I know, asshole,” Maxum says with a playful smirk. “Now get the fuck back into your own body so I can have some alone time with my woman.”
Osen shakes Jade’s head with a wide grin. Then he turns to the phoenix. “Calder, I love you so much, it aches in my very soul.” As Osen says this, Calder rushes forward and gives him a bruising kiss.
“Same.” Calder presses his forehead to Osen-Jade and then drops away.
Osen doesn’t offer Jade words, or perhaps he does through their mental connection and wishes to keep it private. Likely, since he usually isn’t one for public declarations of affection.
“Focus,” he guides her. “See in your mind what you want to make happen. Feel my soul and magic gather into your grasp and then coax it back into my body. This is your birthright. You can do this.”
Jade closes her eyes. Through our bond, I sense she’s calling upon her strange magic. Her skin begins to glow and when she opens her eyes to gaze at Osen’s body, they shine like stars. Almost too bright to look at.
She opens her mouth and a bizarre combination of light and shadow flow from her lips. The shadows I recognize… Osen’s incubus magic. The light must be his soul.
The cloud of energy slides into Osen’s nostrils.
Jade falls backward when the transfer is complete.
I catch her, holding her close to my chest. Her eyes are half closed, and she’s spent. Wielding magic this powerful, especially for new magic users, can be taxing.
I cup her head to my chest and expectantly watch Osen’s body. I was hoping for a gasp of air or a wiggling finger. But nothing.
“It didn’t work?” Calder asks, sounding heartbroken.
“Give it a minute,” Maxum whispers. “He was dead for a while. I suspect the body will need to heal and reconnect to his spirit.”
We wait and wait.
I don’t know if it’s been a minute or an hour. It feels like days as we wait for our friend, former lover, and pack mate to wake.
But he remains frustratingly still.
“Anything?” Calder asks as he leans over the casket, his hands fisting in agitation.
“I don’t sense brain waves. I thought by now…” Maxum drops into a crouch and hangs his head, giving up.
“Jade?” Flint calls and strokes her hair. “Heartstone? Do you feel him? Or is he truly gone now?”
Jade blinks and rouses to the room, her eyes falling onto Osen’s inert body. “He’s in there. Feels stuck.” She struggles to talk.
“Fuck!” Calder slams his fist into the wall. “We need to release him!”
“I could try taking him back inside me,” Jade suggests.
“No,” we all say in unison.
“He was hurting you.” Maxum stands again and walks over to stroke her cheek. “His magic and soul together were too much for you to contain. I’m afraid he might take over and you’d cease to exist.”
“We don’t know that would happen,” she argues, but I hear her concern that it could.
“He wouldn’t mean to,” I explain. “But incubus and succubus naturally drain other people’s magic. That’s how they feed. His magic would feast on yours.”
“I believe that’s what happened when you brought his magic inside you,” Maxum adds.
“But it didn’t hurt Rob,” she argues.
She has a point there.
“Why is that?” I ask Maxum, because he’s the most knowledgeable amongst us.
“Look at him, he isn’t alright. His witch magic is drained. This whole time we’ve been down here, he hasn’t even tried to attack us,” Maxum points out. “He used Osen’s shadows to attack Jade at the cafe. Besides, he didn’t have Osen’s soul also inside him. Only his magic. He used that to suck the magic out of others. We know from recent events that stolen magic has a short shelf life.”
“Why?” Jade asks. “Is it because Rob’s body isn’t set up to naturally regenerate the magic energy?”
“Yes, exactly.” Maxum smiles. “For example, a vampire needs blood from a magic user to replenish. Someone who steals a vampire’s magic only has what was in that vampire at the time. The thief can’t drink blood and extract what they need to keep the magic thriving.”
“But if Osen’s magic and soul were inside me, it would be different?”
“I believe if he has both, he could replenish, even in another person’s body.” Maxum nods. “Incubi are different. They are adaptable… existing in another plane as well as this one. He would overtake you.”
“So then what?” Jade demands. “I’m not giving up on him so easily.”
“I never expected you would.” Maxum offers her a sad smile. “But we are not losing you for his sake. And he wouldn’t want to hurt you again. He brought this fate onto himself by acting alone and outside of our pack.”
I don’t like victim blaming, but Maxum isn’t wrong. Osen might have lived if he had kept us in the loop and had us as backup.
“Move out of my way.” Jade waves Maxum aside.
I growl and grip her tighter.
She turns to face me, her face full of determination and irritation that I’ve prevented her from her objective.
“Let me see him. Now,” she orders.