16
“
T
hat’s a first.” Eve cocked her head to one side and stared toward the huge tree and the man kneeling beneath it.
“What is?” Lily settled herself comfortably on the grass. Her knees ached. They’d knelt before the Mother for a long time. At least it felt like a long time, though time itself on the astral was often a matter of interpretation.
“Being summarily dismissed by the Mother. Generally, her thoughts just end and she’s gone from my
where.
Instead, you and I were sent away, but she’s still here. Talking to Sebastian.”
Lily chuckled. “Eve, you sound a bit disgruntled.”
Eve smiled and shook her head. “I know, but trust me, Lily. I take this goddess gig seriously. And though Sebastian is certainly good-looking, he is still a man.”
This time Lily let it go and laughed out loud. After so much stress over the past few weeks, it felt good to sit here on the astral with her dearest friend and relax—at least, relax as much as one could, knowing all hell was breaking loose at home. She focused once again on Sebastian and realized he looked even sexier on his knees, which opened her to all kinds of wicked thoughts. She glanced at Eve. “I wonder what she’s saying to him.”
Eve merely shrugged. “I don’t know. I can’t read the Mother’s mind the way I can yours. I’m still surprised that he knows her. It’s not like the Mother is a social being.” Eve glanced at Lily and then focused once again on Sebastian. “It’s a mystery to me, but something unusual must be happening.” Then she sighed, reached into the air, and pulled out a tray of small open-faced sandwiches followed by two glasses of wine.
Lily took one of the crystal goblets and a sandwich and realized she was starving. Time had no meaning here, but her stomach seemed to think otherwise. She had no idea how long she and Eve had knelt in thrall to the Mother as the powerful spirit answered what questions she would before dismissing them to speak alone with Sebastian.
Long enough that they’d probably missed that beautiful rib roast her mom was fixing for dinner. Hopefully there’d be leftovers. Lily took a bite of one of Eve’s sandwiches. “These are good. I didn’t realize how hungry I was. How long have we been here?”
“A couple of hours, as time is counted on the astral, but I’m not really certain how much time has passed in your world. The Mother’s visit can affect the way we experience time.” She shrugged and nibbled on a sandwich. “There’s nothing to be done about that. So what do we know now that we didn’t know before?”
“That the wolves killing those girls aren’t regular Chanku. They’re the Berserkers of Norse legend, shifters who are more wolf than human. They’re bloodthirsty, feral creatures who have, for some reason, aligned themselves with Aldo Xenakis. But the rapist is an unknown human, not one of the shifters.”
Lily stared at her wineglass. “We have to suspect Aldo in the rapes, but why would he do something so awful? And if the Berserkers work for him, he must be directing the murders for some reason. It just doesn’t make sense, but at least we know why the rogue wolves haven’t shown up on your Chanku radar.” She flashed a sympathetic smile at Eve.
“I don’t sense them at all,” Eve said. “The fact there are very few Berserkers left—so few the Mother assumed they were all gone—and because they’re closer to the wolf side of their being than the human side, they just don’t register the way you do. Plus, they’ve historically kept more to themselves, their primary form is the wolf, and when they die, they die as wolves, not humans. It’s frustrating, not to be able to sense them.”
“Do you sense Sebastian?” Lily watched him, still kneeling beneath the tree.
Eve shook her head. “No. His magic is too strong. It hides his nature.”
Nodding, still studying Sebastian, Lily wondered about the unknown rapist. She hated to think it was his father. Goddess, that was too awful to contemplate. She glanced at Eve. “We can thank the US government, or at least one of the more clandestine branches of the military, for rediscovering the Berserkers, I imagine. Maybe they were already soldiers, if fighting and killing are basic to their nature. But how did Aldo Xenakis get control of them?”
“I don’t know. The Mother was aware of the tests and the fact some unusual Chanku had been discovered, but when they turned out to be so unpredictable and dangerous, she no longer sensed them and thought they’d all been destroyed.”
Lily shuddered. “I hate that. Destroyed, like they were vicious animals.”
Eve touched her hand. “Lily, in effect, that’s exactly what they were. What they are. Creatures that are more feral than human, even when they take human form. Intelligent creatures with no sense of conscience. They were bred as a warrior class on the Chanku home world and were among the first to strike out on their own after landing on Earth.”
“From the way the Mother described it, it sounds more like they were banished. As far as I know, none have turned up in the general population. Of course, very few regular Chanku have been found. I wonder why the rogues weren’t discovered before now?”
This was so frustrating. The Mother had offered just enough information to make her crazy. If the rogue wolves were Chanku, even if they were of a more violent subspecies, some of them should have taken the nutrients among the general population. Those capsules had been made available to anyone who wanted to see if they carried the Chanku genes, and yet none of the newly discovered Chanku had been anything at all like the wolves that had attacked her and Sebastian or the ones that had gone after Annie and Alex. Those creatures were so much larger, their size alone would have been noted.
And how was it that Aldo Xenakis appeared to have at least half a dozen of the creatures under his command? Were these the only Berserkers in existence?
They’d asked, but the Mother hadn’t answered. No, she’d wanted time with Sebastian.
Time alone with Sebastian.
He still knelt, unmoving while in communion with the Mother. She was all-powerful, and yet she’d explained that she couldn’t control what her creatures did, that their free will was stronger than her ability to affect their behavior.
Lily had a feeling she was really good at nudging things to go her way, though. And she wondered why the Mother had chosen to nudge Sebastian. “Sebastian learned to shift by drawing power from the spirit in a huge oak on a ridge that straddles the line between our property and his father’s.” She glanced at Eve. “He thought it was a dryad, but it sounds as if he’s been talking with the Mother all along, if she’s the lady of the oak he’s told me about.”
“That doesn’t make sense.” Eve shook her head and nibbled on another sandwich. “She’s the Mother, the one over all people in all worlds. Why would she spend time with a single young wizard?”
Lily grinned and took another swallow of wine. “Well, he’s a very sexy young wizard, and the Mother is female, after all.”
Eve practically sputtered. “Oh, Lily,” she said, holding her hand over her mouth. “That’s got to be sacrilegious.”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I
think
I’m teasing, Eve.” She glanced toward Sebastian, saw him bow his head, and then slowly stand, as if his joints were stiff from being on his knees for so long. He smiled at Lily, paused, turned back to the tree, and stepped up close. He pressed his hand against the rough bark and then nodded, as if in conversation. Then he spun away and walked toward Eve and Lily.
Halfway to them, he stopped. The air shimmered. Lily’s father practically exploded onto the astral.
“Lily! Sebastian, you have to come with me. Annie’s been taken by the rogues. Alex is certain Aldo’s behind it. If it’s him, I’m going to need your magic to help me get her back.”
Eve lunged to her feet. “I’ll be with you. Call on me when you need my strength.” She paused a moment, glanced toward the tree, and bowed her head. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Lily, go now. Both of you go with your father. The Mother is staying close. She’s promised to help where she can.”
Lily grabbed Eve for a quick hug, took hold of Sebastian’s arm with her right hand, and grabbed her father’s with her left. No need of a portal when three mages combined their power.
With little more than a wink and a spell, they stepped back into the cavern beneath the house. Anton raced toward the exit tunnel. “Hurry!”
“Dad! What happened?” Lily ran after him, across the large cavern, through the tunnel to the underground pantry, and up the stairs to the kitchen.
Sebastian pounded up the stairs behind her.
Anton didn’t slow down a bit, but his thoughts filled Lily’s head. When Sebastian grabbed her hand, she knew he heard as well.
Annie, Xandi, Lisa, and your mom were driving to town. They took Mom’s car. It was rigged with a gas canister hidden inside. It exploded as they pulled off the driveway onto the main road.
Is Mom okay?
Everyone is fine except for Annie. Mom was still driving, losing consciousness from the gas. The car went off the road, but she saw four huge men grab Annie and stuff her in a sack. She’s sure they were Chanku, and she heard them talking about a sacrifice. Alex has gone to the oak that straddles the property line. He thinks Aldo plans to kill Annie there. If Aldo’s using death magic, if he’s recently killed, he could be stronger than all of us. I need your help. Sebastian? Are you willing to work against your father?
They’d reached the kitchen. Sebastian grabbed Anton’s shoulder to stop him. Then he held out his hand. “I will back you in any way I can. You have my word on that.”
Anton shook his outstretched hand. “Good. I figured we could count on you. Lily, I’ll gather the pack in the big meadow. I hate to ask you to do this, but I want you and Sebastian to go up on the mountain. Alex is already there. He said it looks like they’re setting up for some spell work, but he hasn’t been able to connect with Annie yet. We can’t do anything until we know where she is. Tinker and Stefan are with Alex. My plan is to use the pack to build energy for you and Sebastian to channel.”
He grabbed Lily’s shoulders and stared directly into her eyes, but he spoke aloud. “It would be easier if you and Sebastian were bonded, but even without that, the two of you are already more powerful than I can ever hope to be. Find a way to work together. Your combined magic along with what we can send to you should be much stronger than Aldo’s.”
Lily nodded, shocked her father would even mention bonding. Did he approve that strongly of Sebastian? She had no doubts. Not anymore. Even the Mother had given him a blessing of sorts, communing with him for so long.
She forced herself back to what her father was saying. The two of them had done this before, taking energy from the pack, working it between them. Together they could manipulate energy better than Anton could alone, but she’d never done it without him. Sebastian was a powerful mage, in some ways, even stronger than her father, though Sebastian’s magic was instinctive. He lacked training, beyond what her dad had given him earlier today.
Would that be enough? One day’s training to fight a wizard with a lifetime of dark magic behind him? It had to be, though she couldn’t help but think how much stronger they would be were they to mate. But they couldn’t. Not like this. Even the threat hanging over them wasn’t worth forcing such a commitment on Sebastian.
But damn it all, what was Aldo Xenakis trying to do? She clutched Sebastian’s arm and tugged him to face her. “Sebastian, what is your father’s goal? Do you have any idea what he thinks he can gain by doing this? What will a human sacrifice do for him? He’s got to be losing his mind, to think he can get away with this.”
Sebastian just shook his head. “I have no idea, Lil. All I can think is, the man must be insane. He’s always wanted more power, but this is beyond extreme. None of it makes sense.”
“Crap. The timing does.” Anton turned and raced down the hall toward the den with Lily and Sebastian right behind him. “Tonight’s the full moon. Why didn’t I realize how much greater the risk would be tonight?”
He paused in the doorway and glanced over his shoulder. “I notified the sheriff’s department a while ago, told them there’d been a kidnapping of one of our pack, but that Alex was looking into it. They allow us to police ourselves whenever possible, and I don’t want innocent deputies hurt. Your father’s an unknown as far as how much power he’s amassed with the killings, but I wanted you to know we’re hoping to handle this on our own.”
He ran his fingers through his hair, dislodging the tie holding it back from his face. Lily rarely saw him distraught.
“Hell.” He shot a quick look at Sebastian. “I don’t know anything at all about your father’s magic. Blood magic, much less human sacrifice is way out of my league.” He hit a switch on a large console next to his desk.
A map came up and lights went on all across the screen—the various households scattered around the property and beyond. He placed his hand on a sensor on a control panel at the bottom. His powerful voice sounded in Lily’s mind, and she knew that every member of the pack, no matter how far away they might be, would hear his request.
Annie McClintock has been kidnapped. If you’re able, please meet me in the meadow behind the main house. We need pack energy to defeat the one who has her. Be there by eleven tonight.
He swung around and took a quick glance out the window before focusing on Lily. “I wish I could go with you, but I believe I can better serve you here. Be careful.” He turned to Sebastian. “Keep my daughter safe, and yourself as well. You’re a good man, Sebastian Xenakis, and you are a powerful mage, but you are a man grown, not your father’s son. Remember that.”
Sebastian gave a short, sharp nod. “When’s the moon going to be full and directly overhead?”
“At eleven thirty-five.” Her dad ran his fingers over the screen and drew up a schematic of the night sky. “It will pass over the top of the mountain southeast of the oak at approximately eleven eighteen, but it’s not officially full until eleven thirty-five. If he’s working blood magic, I imagine he’ll time the climax of his spell accordingly.” He glanced at the clock on the wall over the desk. “It’s almost ten. It’s a good half hour on four legs from here to the oak. Get something to eat. I think Mom left plenty of leftover roast in the refrigerator for you. It’s cold, but you’ll need fuel for what you have to do tonight.”