Chapter 19 #2
He crouched, thrusting his hand into the snow to settle on the frozen earth.
Below the surface, several large outcroppings of shale held the way open.
Gideon scowled, but it remaining made a little more sense.
Shale was a fickle stone, made up of clay and organic material.
It also had the annoying tendency to stratify, making it almost impossible to eradicate from any given area.
And the scant would persist as long as a single sliver remained. Even with Gideon’s affinity for stone, there was no way the job could be done in a day, and would undoubtably be beyond a witch’s ability, period.
“So…what do you think?” Chase asked.
Gideon sighed, standing. “That we’re fucked.”
The big man snorted. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“It’s a larger undertaking than I’d envisioned. Possible, but not within our current time constraints. We’ll have to deal with the Crimson Guard as it comes.”
“How many vampires are we talking about?”
“I don’t know.” Gideon sucked in his cheeks. “But, given that Vesper has been planning this for some time, I’d say their numbers will be more than I’d consider ideal.”
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking, too. We should get back,” Chase said, heading the way they’d come.
“Liam’s going to have the Eastside pack patrolling the woods around the node.
The Westsiders will be back in town. Felix and Tom have people either barricading themselves inside their houses or moving into emergency hurricane shelters.
Everyone who’s got a boat has already headed out to sea.
I dunno which is safer, but the streets will be clear. ”
Gideon grunted as he followed. That was all well and good, but his mind drifted to Jena’s father.
He chewed his lip as they hiked through the woods.
What the hell could the fiend be getting out of this?
If he was unseelie, Gideon would’ve bet on this being an elaborate ruse.
The problem with that was, in order to gain control of the node, its guardian and now Gideon, would both need to be put down.
He doubted his demise would cause Jena’s father to shed a tear, but the fact that he’d encouraged her to take ownership instead of letting events run their course for the node to become a mound niggled.
Why would he allow her to step into that role and create an impediment?
Gideon sighed, checking his phone. Still nothing from Renard. Damn it. He would’ve bet good money on either the image or the name turning up something.
“Nothing yet, huh?”
Gideon glanced at Chase, his grasp of the obvious profound. “No. Did you ever meet Jena’s father?”
He grimaced. “Just the once.”
“Any insight to share?”
Chase squinted up towards the sky. “He was kind of a dick. Seemed like he got a kick out of pissing off people just because he could…though, I guess in a way, he kind of saved my ass.”
“Oh?” Gideon’s brow rose. “How so?”
“I don’t know if you know, but Malcom was my father,” Chase begrudgingly admitted, pushing a branch from his path.
“Malcom. The one Patrick said was responsible for swapping out the turbine materials?”
Chase nodded. “Yeah. He was some kind of an unseelie prince that got banished here for knocking up my mom.” He shook his head.
“Long story. Anyways, from what I gathered, the two of them had some kind of a deal. Malcom would get the mound, and Jena’s dad would get her.
When Malcom released her dad from wherever he was, he made it a point to make a jab at Malcom about his line running true and called me a manifester. ”
“You’re also part sidhe?” Gideon asked, already knowing the answer and eyeing him askance. That would certainly explain the uneasiness he felt around the man.
“Yeah, but I didn’t know it until right before then. I’d always thought I was a defective were.” He laughed, kicking a stone from the trail. “It’s fucked up, but it was that—him saying I was a manifester—that got me thinking. If he hadn’t, I don’t think I would’ve been able to put Malcom down.”
Interesting. “How so?”
“Malcom was the old alpha’s enforcer. He was scary as fuck and could back it up.
Physically…” He shook his head. “Yeah. That would’ve been too close to call.
But manifesting’s making things happen, right?
” Chase licked his lips. “Right then and there, I wanted him dead. I focused my will on that until he started spitting up blood. It weakened him enough that when we got into it, I killed him, then cut off his head.”
“That will do it.” Apparently, he didn’t need to worry about Chase’s allegiances either.
Chase grunted. “Yeah. But I think about it sometimes. The way Jena’s dad looked at me when he said it. It was like he fucking knew what I’d do with what he said.” He shook his head. “I dunno.”
“Unfortunately, neither do I.” Gideon muttered, though he was certainly intrigued, disturbingly so. “But the more I hear, the less I’m convinced he’s a sidhe, unseelie or otherwise.”
“What else could he be?” Chase asked as they approached the truck.
Gideon reached for the door. “I hesitate to voice my suspicions. Suffice to say, it’s nothing any of us wants to deal with.”