Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Fender
The Stonebridge mansion was dark. Aradina was either out or had gone to bed.
“How’re we gonna get past the ward?” I asked Tempest.
She didn’t meet my gaze. “That won’t be a problem.”
“You can break it? Will that alert whoever’s inside?” I’d learned a lot about witches since War mated Willow, and I knew it wasn’t a simple thing.
Her hand curled around my forearm. “Trust me. It’ll be fine. You’ll need to stick close to me, though.”
I brushed my fingers down her smooth cheek, where her dimple appeared when she smiled.
“That won’t be a problem.” Her soft smile now gave me a flash of them, making me suck in a hungry breath.
I shook off the lust. I needed to be on my game, not pining after my female.
“If we need to run, say the word, and I’ll get us out of here. ”
She nodded and slid her hand down my arm before curling her fingers around mine. “Don’t let go until I say it’s clear.”
I wasn’t sure I’d ever held a female’s hand before Tempest, not like this, I’d never wanted to. But I loved it now. “You got it, peaches.”
Tempest closed her eyes, her lips moving rapidly as she recited a spell.
Her eyes opened, then she pushed against the garden gate and it swung wide.
She stepped over the threshold without hesitation, her hand still gripping mine.
I watched the house, but no lights came on, no alarms, no magical attack came. The night stayed quiet.
“Let’s stick to the shadows,” I said and walked close to the tall hedge that wrapped around the property.
“The cemetery is behind the house. I saw it last time we were here.”
As we passed the north side of the house, a light came on in one of the rooms on the ground floor.
We both froze. Aradina strode into what looked like a library, lifted a bottle of gin from a small table, and poured several fingers into a crystal glass.
She downed it, filled it again, then sat behind a big desk and opened the laptop there.
We stood in the shadows of the hedge, making sure we hadn’t been discovered, but Aradina didn’t seem to be concerned about anything, the opposite in fact.
“She’s beautiful. I can see why you wanted to have sex with her,” Tempest whispered. “I bet she was good at it.” Her gaze slid to me in the darkness. “She was good at sex, right?”
Fuck. The shit Temp said. The urge to laugh, something that had rarely happened before I met her, now hit me often.
The only reason I bit it back now was because I knew she didn’t mean it as a joke.
Tempest either said nothing, hiding so much, or she thought something and said it without bothering to filter it, not worried if it made her vulnerable or if it gave too much away.
Temp was a contradiction, but she was also sweet and funny, and I didn’t want my awkward little female to stop saying the random shit she did to me ever.
“It was fine,” I said. Honestly, I barely remembered it.
“Fine? Wasn’t it…I don’t know. Mind-blowing? Didn’t the earth move?”
Fucking hell. “The earth didn’t move, peaches, not with her.”
“Does it ever?” Again, there was nothing but sincerity in her voice. She was genuinely curious.
I didn’t want to talk about fucking other females.
None of them existed to me, not now that I’d found Tempest, but she wanted to know because she’d never experienced it herself.
“Sex can be really fucking good, Temp, but it depends on who you’re sharing that with.
” Squeezing my hand around hers, I led her away from the side of the house and deeper into the garden.
Cupping her beautiful face, I looked down at her.
“When we finally go there, baby, I promise you, your mind will be blown and the earth will move.”
“How can you know that?”
Because you’re my mate, made for me in every way, and nothing will compare to the way we come together. I couldn’t say any of that though. “Because I just know.”
“How?” she asked again.
Leaning in, I slid my mouth along her throat, kissing her tender skin, then sucked on her delicate earlobe. She shivered, a full-body quake, and I grinned and breathed her deep into my lungs, making the beast rumble contentedly in my chest. “You feel that?”
“What?” she whispered.
I chuckled. “You felt nothing when I kissed you just then?” She’d shivered, and I’d heard the catch in her throat.
Her breath shook from her. “I mean, yes…I felt something.”
“Explain it to me.”
Her gaze slid over my face, to my mouth and back up. “It’s hard to explain, it was like…like—”
“Like we were sparking off each other? And when we’re close, we’re drawn closer so we can get another hit of the electricity between us.”
She swallowed audibly. “Yes, that’s…very much what it’s like.”
“It’s not like that with just anyone. At least not for me.”
“It’s not?”
I shook my head and slid my fingers down the side of her smooth cheek. “Like I said, when you’re ready and we finally come together, baby, the earth will move.”
She blinked her big green eyes up at me. “That sounds kind of terrifying, Fender.”
“Maybe, but it’ll be the kind of terrifying that’s addictive. You won’t want to run from it, you’ll want to run at it. Over and over again,” I said roughly, hunger in my voice now.
She shook her head. “That can’t happen.” Her thick lashes fluttered. “I can’t get addicted to you.”
“No?”
Her distress was being broadcast loud and clear. She was trying to hide it from me, but it radiated off her. “I have to avoid that at all costs, for both our sakes.”
She wasn’t going to tell me why she felt that way, not yet.
What I did know was that she’d convinced herself this thing between us couldn’t last, that for some reason she couldn’t have anything permanent.
“You want to tell me why?” I asked anyway, because this female had secrets, so many secrets, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to get her to open up to me.
Her mouth opened and closed. “I…I have boundaries,” she blurted.
“Okay.”
“And rules of engagement.”
It sounded like we were going to war not starting any kind of relationship.
“You want to share those with me?” This wasn’t the place for this, but I had her talking and I didn’t want her to stop.
If I got one thing from her tonight that gave me more of an insight into what she was thinking or feeling, I’d be fucking ecstatic.
“One,” she said holding up a finger. “No getting attached.”
Nope, didn’t like that one.
A second finger popped up. “Two, no sleepovers at my place. No coming to my place at all.”
Didn’t like that either, and now I just had more questions. “Anything else?”
A third finger came up. “This arrangement is temporary and, because of that, will be a short one.”
I fucking hated that one.
“Four, I know you have questions, but my private life must remain private. Getting all caught up in each other’s lives isn’t a good idea.”
That one was bullshit. Was she forgetting where we were? What we were about to do? She was caught up in my life more than she even knew. “That’s a lot of rules, peaches.”
“There is one more, though this isn’t really a rule, and more an FYI.”
How was it possible for her to be adorable and infuriating at the same time?
“When we do have sex, you don’t need to worry about pregnancy. I have a tonic to prevent that.”
“Seems you’ve got it all figured out, but FYI, I can’t get a female pregnant unless I am mated to her in truth, so you’re covered.” But I couldn’t wait until I made her mine and put a pup in her belly, just the thought made my gut clench tight.
“That’s good information to know.” She nodded to herself.
“But given all the information I’ve given you, and my desire not to become addicted to you, when we do have...
” She swallowed thickly. “Sex. Maybe just move the earth a little bit? Do you think you can do that? That should prevent any dependence on you that could arise,” she said.
Tempest was dead serious. Again, even after hearing all those insane fucking rules, I had to bite back my laughter. “I’ll see what I can do.”
She nodded and gave me a smile and a double thumbs-up. “Excellent.” Then she grabbed my hand and headed off toward the cemetery.
I let her lead me, confused and turned on, and again, trying not to laugh.
Considering all the fucked-up shit going on, that was some kind of miracle.
Temp stopped at the gate to the cemetery, lifted her hand, allowing it to hover there for a moment, then without a care, opened the gate and we walked onto the Stonebridge cemetery, right through its wards that had to be heavy duty and onto their most sacred and powerful grounds like we belonged there.
Lush, magic-infused gardens full of herbs that scented the air and a whole host of other plants edged the tall wrought iron fence.
Headstones jutted up from the ground, at least thirty of them, and a path of glittering white stone snaked through the middle, leading to a small mausoleum made of pearly-white marble.
“They’re in here, they have to be,” Tempest said and pressed her hand to the slab in front of the entrance. “Do you think you can shift it?”
Tempest stepped back, giving me room. I lifted the huge piece of stone so it didn’t scrape on the ground and draw attention and put it to the side, allowing us enough room to slip inside.
Tempest made an odd sound, and I turned back to her, brow raised in question. Her gaze slid to my biceps and back up. “You’re quite strong, aren’t you?”
It wasn’t a question. “Yes.”
She bit her lip and smiled as if she was holding back another of those little stifled whimpers.
Fuck me, this female was adorable, and maddening, and I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss the hell out of her. But now was not the time. We needed to get this done and get out of here.
I grabbed her hand and led her inside. There were stairs leading down into the ground.
“They’ll have them down there so that their magic can reach the earth and enrich the cemetery,” Tempest said, taking a flashlight from her bag of tricks and shining it down into the darkness.
“Makes sense.”
We headed into the tomb. It was a tight fit. The three sisters were lined up, not much space between each crypt. Their names were etched onto the lids, and they were placed in order of age.
Going by what we’d discovered, and the timing of the virus outbreak, it made sense to me that Brigid was the one who bore the glyphs, but we needed to know for sure if it was Disease we were dealing with, and we needed to check them all to be sure.
“I guess start with Eartha.”
I nodded and carefully lifting off the closest lid. The bones were draped in faded linen.
“I’m sorry for disturbing you, Eartha,” Tempest said, “but we think Uriel is trying to release the Wraiths of Destruction and we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.
” The wind whistled outside, through the gap in the door, and down the stairs, rustling my hair.
Tempest lifted her head, her gaze distant. “Eartha is here with us.”
The wind whistled again, louder, sounding like a mournful cry as another stronger gust burst through the room, flicking back the fragile linen and revealing Eartha’s bones. Temp quickly inspected them and found nothing, no glyphs.
“She can’t communicate very well, but she knows we’re here for the right reasons and won’t stop us,” Tempest said. “Thank you, Eartha.”
I placed the crypt’s lid back on and we moved to Petra next.
I did the same, lifting off the lid. The wind increased, blowing around us, through us, and her cry joined in.
The high-pitched sound had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.
Again, the wind blew back the linen and Tempest checked for glyphs, and again there were none.
She thanked Petra, and I slid the lid back in place. We turned to the final crypt. Brigid’s.
The stone was new, no moss or discoloration like the other two. I carefully removed the lid. Tempest cursed, before I could. Brigid’s remains had been dumped inside, not neatly placed as they should have been.
“Hi, Brigid,” Temp said, and began to quickly, but reverently, arrange the priestess’s bones, putting them where they should be.
“I’m so glad we could reunite you with your sisters.
” The wind was like ice now, tearing through the room.
Tempest’s hair whipped around her face wildly, and a shriek joined the cries, this one full of rage.
Tempest turned to me, tears in her eyes.
“She’s so angry,” she called over the wind and shook her head. “I don’t know why.”
“Is she angry with us?” I said, ready to haul Temp off her feet and carry her out of here.
She shook her head, and continued to arrange Brigid’s skeleton. “No, with the angels—Uriel.” Tempest gasped as another icy blast slammed through the room. Finally, she straightened. “Oh no,” Tempest said, her eyes flaring. “Her thigh bone, it’s missing.”
Uriel or whoever he’d sent to the blue cliffs, had found her before us, had sent the dark power she’d spoken of, and had taken the bone, the only bone that could have had the glyphs carved into it.
Temp looked up at me with terror in her eyes because now we knew, Disease had already been released. He had caused the sickness in the city. Which meant the path to the end had already started, and we’d had no fucking idea.
The cries and shrieks became melodic voices, joining as one and filling the space.
Tempest’s eyes rolled back so only the whites were visible, and she went limp. I grabbed for her, catching her before she hit the ground. “Tempest? What’s happening?”
She didn’t reply.
“Tempest,” I snarled, about to throw her over my shoulder and get her out of there.
She swayed and her hand shot out, taking mine as a tear slid down her face. “They’re talking to me.”
“This is too dangerous.”
“They need me to listen. They want to save us, they want to stop this,” she rasped.
I sucked in a sharp breath and did what my female asked, even as the beast roared inside me to get her out of there.
Nothing but sadness came from her now, though, no fear, no pain.
Empathy, I realized. This new emotion that I’d recognized coming from Tempest was empathy.
She was hurting for the Stonebridge sisters as if the pain was her own.
Wrapping my arms around her, I did the only thing I could, I supported her, holding her up when she leaned into me and listened as the sisters told their story.
As they desperately tried to save the world from the males they’d once loved, and going by their cries—still did.