Devi: Matefinder Book 2 (23 page)

                After walking me to Emma’s house to remain inside under guard with Diya, Kai left.

                Emma was napping in the guest room. Diya said Emma couldn’t sleep in the bed she shared with Devon. My heart ached for her. I hated just sitting around doing nothing. I was being lumped with the two useless pregnant women. I pulled out my laptop and went on the computer. Kai’s speech at the barn had ten million views on YouTube already!
Wow.
That was bigger than anything we expected. I wondered how the rest of the werewolves were fairing in their states, other countries even. A loud crash from the room Emma was sleeping in made me jump up. I leapt across the hall with Diya at my back. Throwing the door open, my stomach sank when I saw her.

                Layla had Emma pinned down in the bed and was caressing her baby bump. Prudence, the black witch that had trapped me in my dream, was standing outside the open window. Her hands were up and black mist was floating out of them. She was creating some type of spell to keep the wolves from being alerted. I inhaled. I couldn’t smell Layla. They were blocking her vampire scent somehow.

                Layla looked up when I entered, her long silky strawberry blonde hair fell to her waist. Her translucent pale skin was revolting. She peered at me with black eyes. “Congratulations on the wedding, dear.”

                I wasted no time in getting to the point. “Get the hell off of my best friend before I tear your head off.”

                Layla kept caressing Emma’s belly as Emma stared at her, terrified.

                “Isn’t the miracle of life an amazing thing?” She crooned.

                I launched myself at her, the fastest I had ever been. I ripped her off of Emma and slammed her against the wall, cracking the plaster.

                “Diya, get Emma out!” I screamed behind me. Layla looked at me seductively. I heard commotion outside the window. My hands were on Layla’s shoulders pinning her against the wall. I heard the door slam and was grateful Diya had done as I asked.

                “You’re making this too easy, dear.” She purred and sunk her teeth into my neck with lightning speed. No! Pleasure exploded inside me. No! She was strong, really strong, stronger than me. But I was fast. A small part of me didn’t want to turn away. A small part liked the feeling of being bitten. Repulsion broke that trance and I shifted into my wolf form blindly fast. Since I was on all fours, I was level with her stomach. I tore into her abdomen with my strong teeth.

                ‘Layla’s at Emma’s. She bit me,’
I sent to Kai. If she had my blood coursing through her veins, then she would be able to get pregnant. I couldn’t let that happen. I ripped into her belly like a bear gutting a fish. She shrieked. Suddenly, the room went black with smoke. I felt my lungs burning for air and the smoke somehow forced me to turn back into my human form. Magic. Layla kicked me hard and I flew across the room slamming into the wall.

                I shifted to my human form and felt the Devi’s presence stir inside of me. It was scary and foreign.

                “Layla!” I screamed. “You’re a dark spirit that’s been alive way too long. It’s time I send you home!” I shouted, the Devi within me had risen up to the surface. Those words only felt half like they were mine. I was ready for her. She would not leave this room unless she was a pile of ash in my trash can.

                I concentrated on dispelling the black mist with my own white magic. Mist poured from my palms. Layla was holding her abdomen, injured and losing blood. She looked at me with curiosity. I took one step toward her to finish her off, when I heard Emma’s bloodcurdling scream coming from the front of the house. For a second, I couldn’t move. I instinctively wanted to run to help Emma, but something was keeping me here. The Devi? No! I controlled my life. Emma came first. I forced my body to move and ran down the hall leaving Layla to bleed out. The fr
ont door was open. I rushed outside and saw Max and Kai running toward me in wolf form.

                “Emma!” I screamed.

                ‘She’s safe with Diya, on
her way to your mom’s,’
Kai told me.

                “
What?” That witch! She tricked me. No.

               
I ran around the side of the house to where Emma’s bedroom window was. A trail of blood led away from the
window and into the forest. I shifted quickly and took off running, letting the blood trail lead me. I felt Kai at my back. No one else could outrun a vampire. Kai and I were the only ones fast enough.

‘She drank my blood,’
I told him.

‘We’ll find her,’
He pushed ahead of me.

The bushes were left shaking in our wake. This speed was dangerous; I barely had time to see a rock or fallen tree before maneuvering around it. There! I saw Layla and Prudence. There were a few militia members fighting off to the right. Kai jumped high and landed on Layla’s back, taking her head in his jaws. Prudence stopped and turned, throwing her hands out and slamming Kai with a spell that caused him to let go of Layla and howl in pain. I shifted to human form and grabbed a sharpened stick that was on the ground and threw it with all my force. Layla moved to the side quickly but not quick enough. It embedded into her shoulder and she hissed. I smiled in triumph. Distracted, I forgot about Prudence, a black wall of smoke crashed into me, sucking my white magic out. I remembered about the power stone and Prudence having this affinity. She was stealing my power! I fell back as waves of white magic poured from me and into Prudence.

“No!” I shouted and threw my hands out, stopping it and knocking Prudence over.

Prudence’s eyes glowed red like a demon. Layla was panting on the ground, losing blood. Prudence threw black magic at Kai and me. “Sleep!” and a wall of darkness took me.

I awoke to someone shaking me. It was a militia member. I was still in the woods. I turned next to me, Kai was rubbing his head.

“You okay?” He asked.

 
               But I wasn’t hearing him. My shaky hand went to my neck. “Kai, she bit me. She …”

                Kai winced, not sure what to say. “It’ll be okay.” I heard gun shots and growls all around me. We were at war, the world I knew was gone and I had just given fertility to a heroin junkie vampire queen.

Shit.

                Sylvia had assembled the coven. We were all in a circle in the living room and Kai leaned up against a wall in the background. After Layla left, the vampires all around the country retreated into hiding. No use fighting and dying when you had what you wanted. I looked at Sylvia. “Layla bit me.”

                She nodded and shared a look with Gretchen. Gretchen looked at me sadly and nodded to Sylvia.

                “What? I hate when you do this. Just tell me.” They were always conversing with their looks.

                Gretchen apologized, and rested a hand on my shoulder. “Healing can work two ways. You can give life or take it. I know of a way to make it so that your blood will no longer be fertile to the vampires.”

                I grinned. “That’s great! Do it!” If my blood wasn’t fertile to the vampires anymore than I wouldn’t have to worry about them and RAIDOS wouldn’t be after me anymore either. Kai and I could live in peace.

                Gretchen looked sadly at Kai and then back to me. “It would make you infertile. Forever. You wouldn’t ever be able to have children with Kai.”

                I heard the breath go out of Kai from across the room. My stomach sank.

                “No!” he roared.

                “Kai, maybe this is the sacrifice we have to make. To stop all of this killing. To end the war. We can still take care of Layla, but then we can rest assured no one else will be coming for me.”

                Kai’s eyes were yellow. He stalked toward me like I was prey. Patches of fur were dancing on his arms. “If you don’t want children with me, that’s one thing. But if you do, than no one will take that joy from me. No one!” Dominance came off of him in waves. I could see it like magical mist. For the first time ever, I lowered my head in submission. The witches nervously began gathering their things.

                ‘Do you want to have a child with me? I know you were hesitant when you first found out about all of this, but do you now?’
Kai asked. He had closed the bond. I couldn’t feel his thoughts. When I had first met Kai and he had told me that werewolves were all about reproducing, it scared me off. I wasn’t sure I wanted a kid that would be the next Matefinder and be hunted down. But when I had found out that I was infertile unless we mated, it awoke something in me. I did want a baby with him, I wanted to be called mommy. I wanted it all.

                I nodded.
‘Yes.’

                The mate bond burst open and I felt his feelings. He wanted children so badly, but he didn’t want his desires to cloud my judgment. He wanted me to make my own choices.

                ‘One kid, in a few years and then we do the infertility spell,’
I told him.

                ‘Three kids,’
he countered and I smiled.

                “Two,” I said out loud and the witches looked at me.

                Kai grinned. “Deal.”

                Alexa burst into the room. She was panting and barely clothed. Kai stepped forward.

                “What’s wrong,” he asked her.

                “The vampires have completely retreated, but RAIDOS is coming full throttle. They have a dozen helicopters, weaponized drones, the works. They’re going to wipe out the mountain.”

                Kai nodded and looked at Alexa. “Do you think you can handle this?”

                Alexa’s black cropped bob was slicked back into a small pony tail, her mouth was set into a stubborn line. She nodded.

                “Am I missing something?” Sylvia asked.

                Alexa put her hands six inches from each other and took a deep breath. A blue crackle fire ball arose in her palm.

                The witches stared at her hands in shock.

                She smirked. “Time to make it rain helicopters and drones.”

                I could hear helicopter blades in the distance.

                Kai grabbed my hand and drug me outside. The witches filed out onto the lawn behind us.

                Kai’s cellphone rang. He glanced at it and was about to put it back in his pocket when a small vision of the White House flickered in my head. What the?

                “Answer it,” I told him.

                “Now?” He gestured to the helicopters in the distance. The militia and our wolves were all retreating from the edges of the mountain and coming home.

                I urged him with my hands. He picked it up.

                “Hello, this is Kai.” I leaned close so I could pick up the call with my werewolf hearing.

                “You’ve made quite the civil unrest with your announcement, son.”

                That voice was familiar. Kai’s eyebrows pinched together. He recognized it too.

                “Who is this?”

                “This is the president of the United States of America.”

                Kai’s mouth dropped open. I swallowed hard.

                “I would like you to know that I have pulled the funding on RAIDOS. Any future actions on their part are not backed from the US government. In other words, they have gone rogue. There is no going back from what you did so we can only move forward into this future together.”

                A chill ran up my spine. If they were no longer linked to the government than this would be a blood bath; they were here to kill. No one to keep them accountable.

                “Well, your news is timely, sir. They are currently descending on my mountain in full force.”

                “Well, then I guess I need to know where you stand. Are you an enemy of the humans of the United States of America?”

                Kai stood stiffly. “No, sir. I am an enemy of the vampires and any human that tries to come after my pack.”

                There was a pause. “Good enough. I will be contacting you again in the near future.” The president hung up.

                Just then, we heard the roaring of jets. I looked to the sky and grabbed my ears. A group of fighter jets raced over our heads and approached the oncoming RAIDOS helicopters, attempting to push them back. There was a tense moment where RAIDOS didn’t move.

                Alexa had her blue fire hands raised and ready, but the helicopters began their retreat. Kai leaned over to me. “Those are F twenty-two fighter jets. They would be stupid to engage them.” They were being escorted away. The militia cheered and we all joined in.

                I looked at Kai, smiling, but my smile dropped when I saw his sullen face.

                “What?” I asked him.

                “The immediate threat is over. Now we bury our dead.”

                Then it hit me. Devon, India pack, and some of the human militia had died.  This was not a time for celebration. Layla was out there with my blood running through her veins and she was hell bent on getting pregnant. A small victory didn’t mean the war was over. My pregnant best friend had to put her mate in the ground because of me.

                ‘No,’
Kai said.
‘This is no one’s fault. Devon died with honor. Don’t take that from him.’

                I held back tears and nodded.