Guardian Of The Grove (16 page)

“We’re already in a war, and if Shalana keeps degrading the way she is, it won’t be long until her people come after us anyway.”

Alby was about to say something, but April cut her off. “I’m with you, Jackson. If something were to happen, we get her out of there.”

Marcus looked at my mother, his eyes pleading with her to see reason. His unspoken body language seemed to beg her to follow his logic. She was the only adult at our table and had more experience than all of us. Her words carried weight when they were spoken. “Sarah, help me out here,” he pleaded.

“I’m with them. If Alby wins, the grove finds itself in good hands. If she loses, then Shalana will be gunning for us anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if she told the elders that we put Alby up to it.”

“But that’s not true. I would never say that.”

“I know, sweetheart, but Shalana is twisted, and putting the blame on outsiders keeps people united under her and forces them to look outside for a threat. It’s a simple choice, really.”

“Mom, sometimes you scare me.”

“Just wait. One day you’ll jump to the answer before I even have to say it.”

“So are we all in agreement on a course of action?” I looked around the table, waiting for everyone to agree.

“Fine,” Marcus agreed after looking back down at the table. “I’ll help you, but I still think it’s a bad idea.”

“Noted.” I made sure to make eye contact with him before continuing. “Before we call it a night, Alby, is there anything you need from us?”

“As long as you are standing with me tomorrow, then I’m ok.”

“We are going to have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Let’s get some rest.”

I wasn’t surprised when my door opened a few minutes after I had closed it. April came in, and I lifted the covers for her to join me again. I smelled her shampoo as I nestled my head against hers and pulled her closer to me. She wrapped her arms around me, and I felt at peace. Since I had come back home, the bad dreams had stopped. I wasn’t sure if it had to do with finally letting go of some of the guilt I had been carrying around, or if it had to do with the woman beside me.

In the end, it really didn’t matter which one it was. I felt safe with April by my side. We had a bond that couldn’t be replaced. I could look into her eyes and know what she was thinking without saying a word. Maybe that level of comfort grew out of our training together. Maybe it went deeper than that. All I knew for certain was that it just felt right. I knew without fail that April would never do anything to hurt me, and she would always have my back.

J
ackson climbed
into the Jeep next to me. “Jackson, I already told you, you should stay with your friends.”

“This pack tried to kill you last night. It’s safer, and I would feel a million times better about it if you didn’t go by yourself.”

“You do understand that I challenged him to the fight, right?”

“Yep. I also understand that he cheated.”

We had the same argument over breakfast, and there was just no winning, so I gave in. Probably not what a good parent should do, but he was older now and by all accounts had been raised with good morals and values. Sometimes you just had to trust their judgment. I hadn’t been there to see him raised, but I knew the people who had raised him very well. They had been amazing friends, and they had done a great job raising my son. That was one of my biggest regrets to this day—that I couldn’t be there for him when he was younger. My son had to grow up without his true parents, and that had left him vulnerable. Somehow he had made it to Adam unscathed, and that was all that mattered. I told myself that staying hidden was the right thing to do. That had made some of the guilt fade away over the years, but now with him here, it all came flooding back.

I pushed the Jeep into first, and we rolled out of the driveway. This trip shouldn’t take long. Max was expecting me, and probably wanted me out of his hair so he could secure the pack. That was fine by me. All I needed from him was a few strong warriors to take back with me when I left and his promise that if I ever called on him that he would be there.

The trip through the before-lunch traffic wasn’t too bad, and we reached his office in pretty good time. “Follow my lead, ok.”

“Will do.”

“Jackson, I’m serious. I know you’ve had classes, but I lived through pack politics. Follow my lead, and keep your mouth shut unless spoken to.”

“I got it. I’m just here on bodyguard duty.”

He moved in front of me as we made it to the door. He opened it and let me walk into the building first. He came in behind me, his head on a swivel, looking around for any potential threats. He caught up with me just as I reached the receptionist desk. “I’m here to see Max.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Just tell him Sarah Blackthorn is here to see him.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. If you don’t have an appointment, you’ll have to go.” She reached toward the underside of her desk, probably hitting a button to alert security.

I slammed my hand on the counter, startling her. “Pick up the phone and place the call, or this gets real ugly real fast.”

Two men in suits walked out of the glass doors leading into the office space. One of them moved in front of the other. “Excuse me, ma’am, is there a problem here?”

“Either take me in to see your alpha, or I break the two of you and go in anyway. You have five seconds to decide.”

The second goon stepped up and tapped the first one on the shoulder. He whispered to him. “It’s her.”

The first goon’s eyes widened as he looked at me. He looked back at his partner conveying a silent message. At least one of them knew who I was. “I’m sorry, ma’am. There must have been some mistake. I’ll take you right in.”

Jackson stepped forward to follow me, and the second goon put his hand on his chest, shoving him back. “Only the lady.”

He stepped forward again before I could say anything, and this time when the guy tried to push him, he twisted his arm behind him and kicked his legs out, driving him to his knees. He had a dagger at his throat before the security goon could even move. “I go wherever she does.”

The first man stepped forward. “Kid, you don’t know who you’re messing with.”

Jackson slipped the dagger away, shoved goon two away from him, and then summoned a ball of flame. He moved it between his hands a couple of times and then dismissed the magic. “Actually, I think I know exactly who I’m messing with. So if you’re done posturing, open the door so we can get this meeting over with.”

I gave him a firm look, but what I really wanted to do was smile. ”What happened to keeping your mouth shut and following my lead?”

“I’ve been studying pack politics on the side. Sometimes you can’t give them an inch or they will walk all over you.”

Now I did smile. “Good boy.” I turned back to the first security goon. “My son and I are ready to see Max now.”

“Again, I’m sorry for the confusion. Right this way, please.”

We walked through the office until we reached a conference room. The first goon knocked on the door and opened it after receiving some kind of signal from inside. We stepped into the room, and the door closed behind us. Max was sitting at the far end of the room and didn’t get up when we entered.

He was playing politics with me. If I had decided to keep the pack, right now he would be out on his ass. There was a certain amount of respect he needed to show, and it wasn’t being observed. His number two moved forward to introduce himself, and I stepped around him, addressing Max directly. “Do I need to remind you of our arrangement?”

His number two moved up behind me, but I could already see that Jackson had moved into a position where he could flank him if he attacked. Max finally turned to look at me. He smiled warmly, and the feeling seemed to reach his eyes. That threw me off a little bit. If he was happy to see me, then why all of the hassle?

“No, I’m fine with our arrangement, but Melkin here isn’t. In fact, he was just telling me about the silver nitrate my father put on his claws and how you weren’t long for this world. I told him that I thought he would be in for a surprise.”

I reassessed the situation quickly. This Melkin must have been Max’s father’s number two and not his. Now he was putting pressure on Max for the pack. It made sense; he would have all the contacts to try and push Max out. If he thought I was dead and Max was alone, it would be the right time to do it. “As usual, the rumors of my demise have been exaggerated.”

Melkin stepped back from me. “It’s not possible. I saw what he did to your back. You should be dead.”

“So you knew he was cheating,” I growled.

“I did and encouraged it. Michael made this pack strong. Everything under his rule only got better.”

Max stood up from the table. “The way I see things now, Melkin, is that you have two choices. Leave and never come back, or die here and now.”

The man stopped to think. I looked over to Max. “Leaving him alive is a mistake. If we hadn’t shown up, he would have pushed you out of the pack. A show of force here would stop more of them from thinking the time was right to make a move against you.”

“Agreed.”

He stepped past me faster than I would have thought possible and snapped Melkin's neck. Jackson let out a little gasp, but he composed himself quickly. Max hit a button on the desk. “Jenny dear, be a sweetie and send in the boys. I have some trash for them to remove.”

“Right away, sir.”

The two security goons came in. Their eyes darted toward the body on the floor. Max stepped forward and slammed his hand into Melkin’s chest and ripped out his heart. Once he had the heart in his hand, he crushed it and then tossed it back onto the dead man’s chest. “Get rid of this.”

He waited until the two men closed the door before turning back toward me. “It made a better example to do it in front of them, don’t you think?” He pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and started to clean the blood off of his hand.

“I do.” It would help him if they knew that Max killed Melkin and that I had nothing to do with it. Having two witnesses that were obviously supporters of the other faction would only add credence to the rumor.

“Do you think he will be the only one to challenge you?”

“The only one with real support behind him. I have no doubt the rumor mill is already churning with news of his demise. That should keep most of the others at bay until I can secure things.”

“The men I requested?”

“As you can see, right now is a rather volatile time in our pack, but you still have my leave to talk to them, and any members that choose to follow you can leave with my blessing. Our next pack gathering is in three weeks. Is that soon enough for you?”

“That will be fine, Max. Just don’t forget about our deal.”

“Never.”

He shocked me by pulling me into a fierce hug. “When you come back, you will be my guest of honor.”

“Thank you, Max.”

“Thank you, Sarah. I will work hard to make sure that the trust you have put in me does not go unrewarded.” He smiled and motioned toward the door. “If you will excuse me, I have other business to attend to, as you might imagine.”

I motioned toward Jackson, and he followed me out the door. No one looked at us as we walked out of the office building. At least, they didn’t when we could see them. I was sure that every eye in that office was on our backs as soon as we passed.

W
e climbed into the Jeep
. I didn’t ask any questions. I knew what my mother was, and thanks to the books we had at the academy, I knew what it took to become an alpha. She was alpha to her very core. She would never struggle with the thought of killing someone if it meant protecting her family. “You wolves sure don’t screw around.”

“Part of being or becoming alpha is being able to destroy anything that threatens your pack.”

It was true. An alpha couldn’t show a hint of weakness, not ever. If they did, it would make them seem vulnerable, and someone could take the chance to challenge for control of the pack. They tended to make examples out of people like Max did in his conference room. If the pack knew how far you were willing to go, it could stop a challenge before it even started. That didn’t mean I was comfortable with all of this.

The way I was raised, fighting and murder were bad, things to be avoided at all costs. I had been in my fair share of fights, but murder never even registered on my radar until I was forced to fight for my life. This new world was strange, but I wouldn’t go back even if I had the choice. “I’m still getting used to the idea that killing is what we do.”

“That’s not all we do. We are negotiators and problem solvers. When we take a life, it’s to ensure that humanity is protected. They can’t defend themselves against this threat like we can.”

“I get why we do it, Mom. It’s just such a big shift from how I grew up. Murderers go to jail; they aren’t celebrated.” I put my foot on the side of the Jeep where the door would have been if it was on, and looked at the buildings going by. “Does it at least get easier?”

“There should never be anything easy about taking a life. Does it get easier? I guess it does. That doesn’t mean that it should. At some point, you are going to be forced to make decisions about who lives and who dies. When that time comes, make the choice and don’t hesitate. Hesitation will get you killed just as quickly as making the wrong choice.”

It was a lot to think about, but the more I trained, the more the response just became ingrained. We didn’t spend our days fighting and honing our skills just to walk away from a battle. The threat of violence could be effective, but only if you were willing to go through with it. I thought about what had happened in the office. I would have slit that Lycan’s throat if he pushed it. Sure, he might have lived through it because of their accelerated healing, but there was no way to know for sure.

“Mom, that was some pretty wicked Jedi juju you just spewed.”

“Well, in all fairness to the Jedi, it was more like Sith juju.”

Holy shit, my mom knew

Star Wars
. I’m not sure why, but I just expected she would have never had time to sit down and watch movies or that it just wouldn’t have been something she was into. “So do you watch a lot of movies?”

“Not as many as I’d like to, but I’m partial to science fiction.”

I mean, who needed urban fantasy when you lived it every day? Not to mention horror movies. I was going to have to start rethinking my choices in cinema. “Really? What’s your favorite?”

“Probably
Firefly
. I still can’t believe that show got canceled.”

“No one believes it, Mom. It’s like the mystery of the century. I mean, seriously, they wouldn’t even sell the rights back to the guy who created it so he could make it somewhere else.”

“At least he got the chance to kind of wrap it up with the movie.”

“It was a pretty good flick. I loved the twist about how Reavers were created.”

“Epic.”

Did my mom just say
epic
? Where had she been for the last twenty years? She might just actually be cooler than me. Damn, that was a depressing thought. “Did you ever see
Ghosts of Mars
or
Chronicles of Riddick
?”

“Yep, I loved both of them. I think I like
Riddick
more, a little less like our life, and there is always some kind of new twist.”

“In our faith, you keep what you kill.”

“You know it. So tell me, what’s your favorite, Jackson?”

“If we are going to talk about my favorite of all time, it would probably be
Aliens
. After I saw the movie, all I ever wanted to do was be a space marine. Oorah! I’ve also been a huge fan of cheesy horror and just horror in general. I’m guessing that might change now?”

“You’d be surprised. Lots of the Ascended love scary movies. Tell me, what’s your favorite scary movie?”

Jesus, did she just go
Scream
on me, or was it just a question? “You mean one that scared me or just one that I enjoyed?”

“Just off the top of your head.”

“Recently, I watched
The Ring
. I tell you what, at the end I nearly shit myself. Really good paranormal stuff just freaks me out.” I felt a shudder run through my body. “Wait, there aren’t really ghosts and stuff, are there?”

“I’ve heard rumors, but I’ve never seen a ghost. Doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. For some reason, I always had you pegged as more of a
Lord of the Rings
type of guy.”

Damn, she knew me so well already. “Don’t get me wrong; I loved the trilogy, but they kind of dropped the ball with
The Hobbit
.”

“I know. Legolas wasn’t even in the book.”

Jesus, she liked
Star Wars
and now she read the Tolkien books. My dad was one lucky guy. “You know what, Mom?”

“What?”

“I’ve greatly underestimated your nerd factor.”

“People tend to do that after they’ve seen me shift. Turning into a huge werewolf tends to have that kind of effect on people.”

“Now it all makes sense.”

“It does?”

“Not really. I’m just happy we can talk about something other than killing.”

We pulled into the driveway, and the rest of the gang was waiting just inside. I hopped out of the Jeep, and my phone rang. I waved for my mom to go inside. “I have to take this. It’s Velasquez.”

“Just remember the less she knows, the better.”

I gave my mom a quick wink, and I was sure I had a sappy smile on my face. Yeah, yeah, I got it. We were a secret order of ass-kicking wizards. The world couldn’t know about us or what we protected them from. Who would she tell anyway? If you opened your mouth and said the supernatural existed and there was a secret order of magic-users fighting them, you would find yourself permanently checked into the nearest mental care facility.

“Detective, how can I help you?”

“You can start by telling me what happened last night. One second I’m with you, the next second EMTs are pulling me the rest of the way out of my car. Again.”

“I thought it might be better if you didn’t see the cleanup. What we do, the public can never know about it.”

“I get that, but all of the destruction. Who’s going to pay for it?”

“It’s already been taken care of, Detective. If you check in with the cemetery, they will inform you of a private donation that was made to repair anything that was damaged.”

“I have to admit that you pulled off quite the cover-up. So what was that thing?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“Just tell me this, then—is there more of them?”

“As far as we know, that was the only one. Remember what I told you to look for. If you ever see that same pattern, call me. Don’t do anything on your own.”

“Jackson, that thing threw my car like it was a kid’s toy. If there is another one somewhere, it’s all yours.”

“Thanks, Detective.”

“I should be thanking you for not letting me get killed out there. I’m sure that would have tied up some loose ends for you.”

“Believe me, Detective, it’s a big risk letting you walk away, but our job is to protect you, even when it’s from yourself.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope I never see you again.”

I hung up the phone and walked toward the front door. I really hoped she had her fill of what we did. There were some humans who, once they found out about our world, couldn’t stay away. At least, that was what the professors told us. Humans who tried to become hunters almost always died. We couldn’t stop the ones who wanted to be turned, but we could do as much as we could to keep most of them ignorant of our world.

April walked out of the door to meet me. “Well, that was quick.”

I pulled her into a quick hug. “It sure was. Mom kicked some ass, and the detective told me she never wanted to see me again.”

“You must be all broken up about that,” she said with a smirk.

“Yep, I needed a sidekick.” April slugged me in the shoulder. I felt my smile fade away as concern for my other friend and what she was about to do washed over me. “Is Alby ok?”

“If by ok you mean ready to kick ass and take names, I think she is. Alby, are you ready for that?” April shouted back into the house.

“As ready as I can be,” Alby said, walking out to join us.

I peeled myself away from April and gave Alby a hug. “Don’t worry. All of us are going with you. If anything, I mean anything, goes wrong, you’re coming out with us. No matter what.”

She just looked at the ground and then started to gather her things. I could tell she was nervous, but who wouldn’t be? This would be like me walking back into the academy and challenging Adam for leadership of the Ascendancy. It was a big deal, and she had every right to feel nervous. I just hoped she would come out of this on top. I’d seen her fight now, but the Alby I knew had always been a fighter. She worked harder than anyone at everything she did. Who knows, maybe all of that was training for this very moment. So she could do for her people what needed to be done to preserve their way of life. If it wasn’t, then I would be fighting beside her.