Chapter Nineteen
Xander
“The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.”
- Henry Miller
St. Petersburg, Russia, three weeks since Alexandra escaped…
“The entire city of Saint John was infected yesterday!” Luna said tearfully. “That’s now more than half the island! Four of my brothers and their families, my young nieces, and nephews, were infected!” Luna sobbed, her pregnancy making her more emotional than ever. “The doctors are saying that there is no cure.”
My father, my brothers, along with their mates, Tristan, Owen with his brothers, and I were having an after-dinner nightcap. Everyone had a wine glass of room temperature blood, while I had no choice but to drink red wine. As usual, our nightcaps were after midnight, right before our bedtime and a few hours before Papa, Tristan, Meredith, and the other vampires took their rest. They didn’t necessarily sleep because they didn’t need to sleep, but they usually bedded down with a partner for sex and other erotic activities.
“This all seems too coincidental,” Luka said thoughtfully.
Despite Luna’s distress over her human relatives, human deaths didn’t really affect us emotionally anymore. We had lived too long, seen too many deaths, and considered the human lifestyle too dreary to mourn its loss.
“A coincidence?” Luna glared at her mate and sounded quite offended.
“Your brothers and their families are at risk the same time as Tristan and Danika’s family?” Luka still didn’t sound particularly torn up about his in-laws’ misfortune.
“It does seem strange that the same virus infected Bruno Island two days ago,” Tristan muttered. “Everyone on the island was infected within the day, and they were all dead by the end of day two.”
“The only members of our family left alive are two of our brothers and one sister and at least a dozen of my men. They were relocated to New York last year,” Tristan continued. “We also have a sister in Bermuda, minding our house there. So far, Bermuda and New York haven’t been affected.”
“We can’t overlook the implications here. Only our mates’ childhood island homes were infected?” Luka persisted. “Even Cite Soleil in Haiti, Alexandra’s home, was infected.”
“This has to be Malachi,” I said confidently. “He has the ability to deliver airborne pathogens in deadly mass forms quite effectively, as some of us have witnessed.”
“But isn’t his mist fatal on impact?” Luka asked. “It’s what happened to those vampires when they inhaled it.”
“It is, but it’s possible that their sorceress could deliberately delay the effect or impact, probably hoping that we take notice. If that had happened, I would have been in Saint John already, trying to heal everyone.”
“I agree,” Papa said thoughtfully. “This is looking more and more like an attack on us.” Papa held my gaze expectantly. “Are you getting anything?”
If I was at full strength, I would have seen what those fuckers had been planning. Three weeks ago, when Alexandra and I had exited the Chamber, I had felt the strongest I’d ever been in my life. My powers had been greatly diminished since Alexandra left me. With every day that she’d been gone, I’d grown weaker and weaker. My abilities to heal and to freeze time were gone completely two days ago.
“I haven’t been able to sense anything since Alexandra left. When she severed our link, it seems she severed most of my psychic abilities,” I told him. Only my most basic abilities of telepathy remain, unfortunately, I thought but didn’t voice. I wasn’t about to discuss my issues in this setting. Papa understood, and I suspected that my brothers did too. But damn if I wanted to talk about it at all with anyone. Besides, I knew what they were all thinking.
They thought that I deserved this. My continuous fervent denials. My refusal to claim Alexandra immediately. And my worst crime was blindsiding her into a claiming and then insulting her by saying I did it under duress. Yup, I deserved my mate’s contempt.
“If they are attacking our family members, we need to secure everyone remaining,” Drako said, holding his mate’s hand and patting her distended belly gently, clearly more concerned with pacifying his mate.
“I will have to secure my Pack,” Owen murmured. “Whatever they are using to infect the humans may also impact my wolves.”
And then a horrific thought gripped me. Alexandra, like me, would be as helpless to this virus as any human because she would have been weakened by our separation. Suppose those fuckers infected some place she was now hiding? “What if they find her before we do? She is now the most vulnerable she has ever been.”
No one questioned which she I was referring to. They all looked back at me with pity. Stricken.
“Xandra is very resourceful when it comes to her family,” Drako mumbled. “In every fight we’ve been in so far, she has been fearless.”
Papa nodded, but he, too, looked troubled.
Given the tens of thousands of people dead and about to die, Papa would be feeling not just sad for the victims, but he would also feel somewhat responsible. Especially since both Adam and Malachi were only alive because of Papa’s compassion. Those two bastards should have been killed when we had them in our sights. Papa would be thinking of all the people who would still be alive if we’d done before what we all knew we had to do now. There would be no more chances for either Adam or Malachi if we found that they were responsible for this.
This was a dark, evil deed. And despite the pain and suffering that Adam and his cohorts had inflicted, I was happy for the distraction from my own misery. The day Alexandra left I went from feeling a myriad of euphoric emotions to varying degrees of desolation in a matter of hours. Both extremes should have sent me back into the cold shell I had been living in, but Alexandra had irrevocably changed me.
Despite my physical and psychic difficulties, the crippling stomach cramps, the gnawing thirst pains, and my diminished powers, my worry continued to be for my mate. If those bastards found her before we did, despite what Drako thought, she would not be able to defend herself. Hell, both of us were so severely weakened that we were both vulnerable to any attack.
“Drako, teleport Xander, your wolf-guards, and at least three other wolves with you to Bermuda and then Antigua to bring all relatives back,” Papa instructed.
Not only was the castle and the grounds encased within a magick shield to prevent magical attacks, but it would also protect the occupants from a chemical attack like the virus.
“Bring Luna’s sick relatives back as well. Perhaps we can find a way to reverse their sickness or by some miracle Alexandra will return,” Papa said feelingly. I knew that it was cutting him up inside how many people were dying because of our enemies. “Tristan and I will teleport Luka and our wolves to retrieve the remaining relatives from New York,” Papa continued “Obviously, Boggs, Aidan, and Desmond can help with the teleportation. Owen, go take care of your Pack. Perhaps move them to another location. Use whatever resources you might need to relocate your Pack.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Owen said with his usual calm confidence. “We have effective contingency plans. As you know, I have extensive resources as well. Resources that Adam and his friends probably know nothing of, which will make them better for my Pack’s needs.”
Papa inclined his head in approval of Owen’s plan. “I don’t have to tell you all to be careful using your powers around the humans.”
We all nodded, our drinks long forgotten, as Luna and Danika remained visibly upset.
“Who will remain here with our mates and the children?” Luka asked in agitation. He had eyes only for his mate. Both Luna and Danika were due to give birth at any moment.
“Zora, Apollo, and Drago are powerful enough to protect their mothers,” Papa said with uncompromising authority.
“No…” Luka grunted.
“Papa…” Drako protested.
Just then, Zora, Apollo, and Drago came into the room. They looked disgruntled, probably pissed that Papa interrupted whatever shit they were all into. Apollo and Drago were already heavy gamers, while Zora spent hours on social media. She had gotten heavily into some sci-fi group. Despite her age, barely seven years old, she looked like a human young woman of at least twenty. And she was crazy smart, like genius status. Luka was already losing his shit because young human men were noticing Zora. Not only was she intelligent, but she was also stunningly beautiful.
“Zora.”
“You called, Pop-pop?”
“We have a situation, and I’m leaving you in charge of running the castle,” Papa told her. He explained what was going on and our rescue plans.
I was impressed with how all three children remained poised, ready to assume the responsibilities given to them. Clearly, their training has paid off.
“You’re asking too much of them,” Danika cried.
Luna wrung her hands in worry.
“We can do this, Aunty,” Zora insisted. “Pop-pop has been training us, in addition to the training we have been doing with the family.”
Apollo and Drago nodded in agreement.
Luka and Drako glared at Papa.
“We don’t have time for this.” Papa stared fiercely at my brothers. “There are too many lives at stake. Don’t let the lives that have already been lost be in vain.”
“It is just going on dusk in that part of the world,” Owen warned. “Full darkness will give Adam and his friends too many options.”
After that, it was a go.
Our team arrived in Antigua five minutes later and Bermuda about an hour after that.
Luna and Danika had called their relatives ahead of time, so we had them packed and ready for transport within an hour. Petrov jets would be waiting for pickup in Bermuda, Antigua, and New York. We couldn’t use teleportation to transport them if we hoped to keep our secrets. Already, we were risking a lot by bringing them within the castle grounds. That was a worry for another day.
We were in Bermuda for barely a minute before I felt a familiar pull. I initially ignored it because I thought that it was wishful thinking on my part, and we needed to focus on getting Tristan and Danika’s family off the island. By the time the car was headed to the airport with their sister and her family, the psychic link had strengthened considerably and became clearer. It might have started feeling like my link with Alexandra, but while it was like Alexandra’s, it was definitively different. While Alexandra’s link tasted like chocolate and red wine, this was more like peaches and cream. And then I knew.
“Drako, we have one more house to clear on this island,” I said, my voice husky with fear, but there was a whole lot of hope and excitement there too.
“What are you talking about?” Drako asked and frowned, clearly confused. “Danika confirmed with the sister that we got everyone out. In fact, the pilot has already submitted the flight plan to allow us a speedy takeoff slot.”
“Let the jet leave as planned,” I told him. “We won’t need the jet for this.” And then I ran at vampiric speed, not caring that I was using reserve powers that I couldn’t afford to lose. We were at the front of the house within seconds. I felt such a surge of raw energy infusing my body that I immediately started trembling.
“I feel it too,” Drako said in awe.