Pack Possessed, page 8
part #4 of Thrown to the Wolves Series
It’ll always be my fault because neither human nor demon can seem to bear the weight of accountability and perpetually seeks to pawn off the blame.
“Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” I hiss in a sharp breath as all of the demonic energy I’d stored up floods my system, every nerve ending pushed to its limit. “We can still have a new home, I just need to bring it to them.”
The energy thrumming through me reaches a boiling point, pushing magma through my veins until my skin begins to split, tiny rivulets of blood echoing my sentiment. The ground trembles beneath my feet, throwing a few people off balance. Fighting grinds to a halt when the first fissure splits the land, and when the next shake of the earth sends a dozen men tumbling into the dark void of the chasm, I tighten my grip on the necklace.
Somewhere we can be safe. Somewhere we have everything that we need to thrive, somewhere where we can be safe and happy.
Mentally, I articulate each thought clearly, because a Nightmare’s strongest ability isn’t something that can be wielded with precision. Our power lies in creating a new reality by whispering the right things in the right ears, shifting perspectives to instigate the changes we wish to see in the world. We play the long con, but it comes down to manifesting the right energy when we release ours into the world.
The Elementals’, though, get instant results.
So I use my abilities to coax the energy I stole from them into doing what I need, to create a new place for us to live so we have a shot at the future I can only dream of right now. The humans wish to paint us as hellacious monsters that crawled from the bowels of the earth rather than the blackened pits of their dying souls? Fine.
We can be those monsters, the creatures lurking just beneath the surface.
As they drown in their suffering, we shall be waiting in the shadows, counting down the days until they either destroy themselves, or accept that having us in their lives isn’t a curse. We were created to be either their salvation or ruin, but I’m going to play devil’s advocate and agree with Acheron Wilder on this one no matter how much I despise the man.
No one should exist simply for the sake of someone else.
“Lia!” Stone’s shout has me whipping my attention his way as another quake rocks the earth, beyond relieved to see him still in one piece.
A flood of agony surges into me like a dam bursting and my back smashes into a tree, sending me to my knees as I attempt to release the pendant, but it’s burned right through my flesh to fuse to the bone. I can’t even scream, my breath seizing in my lungs as yet another wave of people are sent into the abyss below. Some are fleeing the mountain, thundering through the forest in their desperate bid to escape, and others have returned to fighting, accepting their death will come in one form or another.
As I look up, I lock eyes with Acheron, and my chest tightens as I see the dawning awareness on his face as his gaze flits down to the skin on my arms splitting further, spreading like the cracks in the earth around us. He takes a step forward, mouth parting, but never gets a word out. The sound of the stone in my palm cracking is swiftly followed by a torrent of energy exploding around us like a lightning storm, my remaining breath following it with an agonized scream as my body is ripped apart.
And I watch in horror as the first shock wave passes through Acheron and Stone. Though their bodies crumble, a dark haze is carried on the pulse and slams into the body of the nearest human, and I realize just how epically I fucked up before my body completely splinters apart and all the pain I had no business carrying disappears in a blink.
Chapter 6
Sabrina
“I didn’t factor in the Elementals’ power being so different from my own and it sort of... got away from me.”
That might be the biggest understatement of the millennium.
“The best of intentions can go awry, especially when emotions are running high,” she defends. “It's why you're my perfect balance, Sabrina. You take the time to think things through, can set aside your feelings to make the hard choices, yet are so similar at your core that we may as well be the same person. We wear our hearts on our sleeves so they can be broken. Only then can we find people that are willing to go through the pain of putting it back together.”
Her voice wavers slightly. “It’s why I focused so hard on making sure that even though you were determined to keep your mates at arm’s length, as stubborn as I was in the beginning, they’d still be able to share the burden of power so you wouldn’t repeat my mistakes. They’ll always be able to carry a portion of the burden, including those that aren’t alphas, even if it’s a little more of a struggle for them to do so, since you’re constantly siphoning from shifters around you. You’ll be okay so long as you don’t try to take on everything yourself or keep things pent up until they build up beyond what you can endure like I did.”
During my long-winded regaling of Aurelia’s story to bring the others up to speed, Damian sets everything up around me at the dining room table of the Slaughters’ cabin so we can start the blood draws that are going to become a routine part of the foreseeable future. Breaking through the awkward silence that stems from Aurelia going out with a bang and their minds no doubt turning to panic that I’m going to spontaneously combust at some point, I shift things back on track to where our thoughts really need to be focused; Ash.
“Wouldn’t it have been a better move for him to keep me here so he could brainwash me? Have me under his thumb so he could control what I thought, planted the seed to make me want to free the demons like he wanted?” I hiss in a sharp breath as the needle pierces my inner arm.
“Sorry, love,” Damian murmurs, taping it in place and setting things up to fill one of the empty blood bags Sebastian sent us home with. “Maybe freeing the demons is a lie; he admitted that you can’t trust anything he says. Maybe that’s a smokescreen so he can steal your power or some shit. That’s what psychotic, power-hungry villains do, right? Eliminate potential threats, surround themselves with power and minions under their command, and try to take over the world. He fits the stereotype.”
Cin is hanging upside down from the couch, the ends of his auburn hair brushing the floor as he tosses a balled-up pair of socks in the air and catches it on repeat for something to do before we all go crazy sitting around waiting for things to come to a head. “That may be the most obvious move, but not necessarily the smartest. If it wasn’t for Damian’s dad putting the block on her abilities and suppressing her wolf -er, demon- then she’d have grown stronger faster than he could control. Could you imagine a four-year-old with the ability to drain people dry when she didn’t get her way? Or could incinerate someone in the middle of a temper-tantrum? Ash might be strong, but Aurelia managed to imprison an entire race; and not every demon in the world was on the mountain at the time either.”
Beside him, Kaige is lost in thought, fiery gaze glazed over as he converses with his demon. “He needed her away from here so she’d be weak until he was prepared. Otherwise, he’d have conned her into it while she was young and impressionable and less likely to question him. So he couldn’t have her around because he wasn’t ready yet.”
“He said he’d selected Hunter, Damian, and Kaige to be my mates and bring me back. Either Adrian telling the Slaughters was the beginning of him putting that plan into motion, or he unintentionally upped Ash’s timeline and he’s spinning it to look like it was part of his master plan. Ash controls the actual distribution of the drug, and when Stonewood started making a play to get me back here sooner when the Slaughters put a hold on it until I was clear of Shadow Ridge, Ash sent it anyway to buy himself a little more time.”
As one bag finishes filling, Damian swaps it out for an empty one, crossing to the fridge to store the first. “He set it up so that you’d be away from him, weak, and raised to be resentful of humans like he wanted. While he... perfected the lycan drug?”
Slade has embraced his new job so much it’s like he’s already gunning for a raise. On the opposite side of the table, Reid is busy swapping options in one of those story plot auto-generators that mixes and matches whatever’s in its database, while Slade has filled up an entire notebook with possibilities for him to input; going so far as to add color coded sections, then dividing those into multiple subsections per topic. I don’t think he slept at all in the past two days, and he’s never looked happier.
“I ran down this rabbit hole around two this morning, hold on.” Flipping to a specific page on the first try, he skim-reads the page quickly before tapping a spot and reading his notes aloud, “Ash started experimenting with the drug before Sabrina’s mom was ever pregnant, so was likely an attempt to free the demons because bringing Aurelia back was a long shot even for a crazy person, and he’s too meticulous in his planning. If he was still working on it all of this time after he realized he pulled it off and Aurelia was back in play, it would be a fallback plan if Sabrina failed to do what he needs. Alternative theories: He needs to inject people before Sabrina officially releases them from their human vessels so he’ll be able to keep them from turning on him, or-” he smacks his paper with a victorious grin “- because he’s not planning to free them in the literal sense we’re thinking of, he’s making us switch places.” Despite the horrifying implications, his pride at coming up with the idea is written all over his face.
Slowly, Reid nods, closing his laptop. “What would be more poetic than after being a passenger in someone else’s body for centuries, to throw us in the cage instead? Then none of us would die, but they’d still be free.” Lifting his hand, he concentrates on lengthening his nails into claws and back as a demonstration. “They can still use their abilities in this form, even if it’s not as powerful; it’s just the suckishness of not having your own body to wield them. Hell, any of the Nightmares that became rankless wolves actually made out like bandits, not having to siphon from anyone anymore and gaining another form.”
Damian releases a weary sigh as he swaps out another blood bag. “But with enough time, it would likely turn out like Ash and my father, where their counterparts faded away completely.”
Bo gestures between Reid and Cinjin. “Hell, they’re perfect examples that it’s possible. Reid nearly suffocated his wolf out of existence, and Cinjin had curled up so far inside himself for so long, we all thought that he was gone for good.”
Hunter rakes a hand through his hair, shoving off of the wall to pace the room. “He can’t just pick up where he left off with that war; we’re vastly outnumbered in this day and age, and humans have never hesitated hunting down anything that was different. Could you imagine a demon walking down Main Street would turn out well? No matter what extra abilities they might have, if humans were able to kill them in the past, the technology we have now would eradicate them in no time. Blending in and hiding in plain sight is the only way they can be free.”
I meet Slade’s eye with an incredulous, dark chuckle. “We’re not better than any of them, just better at surviving.”
The pride on his face falls as my meaning dawns on him. “You think Annika has known this whole time what we really are?”
Slowly, I state, “I think that Annika was closer to Acheron than anyone, and was paranoid and resented me for a reason.”
Damian interrupts, palming my cheek, and tilting my head to face him. “You’re looking pretty pale, how are you feeling?” Before I can even respond, he’s unhooking me with the third bag not fully topped off. Carefully retracting the needle, he presses a cotton ball to the puncture wound.
With a small smile at his fussing, I admit, “Little light headed, but that’s par for the course.”
He nods to himself, swapping out the cotton ball for a bandage. “Let’s call it for the day. This is already going to make you heal a bit slower, and we don’t want to screw ourselves over by making you more vulnerable and giving him an opening before we’re ready. It’s not like you’re going to be able to provide enough for all of the injections we need in a day or two, anyway, so no point risking pushing you too far right off the bat.”
“You’re kind of cute when you worry. But we don’t even know what our deadline is. Ash simply said I wasn’t strong enough yet. And it’s stupid to assume he’s going to simply leave us alone until then, so we need to prepare as much as we can as quickly as possible.” Getting to my feet, I take a second to adjust to the head rush before stretching my arms above my head.
“Here.” Gesturing for me to turn around and cross my arms over my chest, Damian locks his arms over mine and lifts me up while leaning back, cracking my back better than anything I could accomplish on my own. “Seriously, we need to get you a better chair or keep a damn chiropractor on speed dial. All of those hours hunched over a desk are killing your back.”
Sighing in relief, I take the cup of hot chocolate that Kaige brings me, sipping it happily. “How about I make you guys a deal?” All eyes instantly fall on me, Cinjin even going so far to let his makeshift ball hit him in the face rather than catch it to give me his complete, undivided attention, and my lip twitches with amusement.
“If we get out of this mess alive, we’re going to need somewhere to live, and I know it’s been killing you to hold back on my account so-” I take a long drink as I mentally prepare myself to put my money where my mouth is, and getting a small kick out of dragging out the moment. “You can not only decide where we settle down and pick out whatever house you want, but set up my future room. Go nuts.”
Slade’s the first to break the silence as they all attempt to find the trap, eyeing me warily. “Not only picking out the furniture and layout?”
I take another drink to hide my smile and bolster my nerves, already knowing this is going to bite me in the ass, but secretly a little excited for a change, too. “If it fits inside, so long as I have room to sleep and a space to work without tripping over things every time I try to walk through it, it’s free game.”
Cinjin flips so that he’s upright on the couch, his auburn hair a disheveled mess and arctic eyes alight with mischief. “Even stocking the closets?”
At that, I narrow my eyes. “Don’t you mean closet?”
He doesn’t reply, his grin only widening.
Before I can take it back, there are seven quick declarations of, “Deal.”
With a shake of his head, Bo chuckles, “I’m not sure you know what fresh hell you’ve unleashed, pretty girl.”
Meeting his eye across the room, I counter, “If you guys are willing to come together for my sake and stay alive, I suppose it’s only fair that I suffer a little, too.”
Hunter snorts, uncrossing his arms and stalking to where our bags are piled in Sebastian’s room, rummaging around for a minute before returning. “You poor thing, needing to endure a life of luxury.” He offers a vending machine sized bag of mini chocolate chip cookies and I perk up instantly at the sight.
“I’m glad you understand the weight of my sacrifice.” Taking the offered snack, I rise up on my toes and kiss him. Against his lips, I murmur, “Like you don’t know how incredibly uncomfortable it is having someone else pay for things and feel like you’re a little more indebted to them with every additional dollar spent. Don’t think I didn’t notice how little you ate our entire trip back here. At first, I thought it was because you would rather go hungry than take a handout, but now I see you were actually just secretly filling up on junk food.”
When I attempt to pull away, he threads his fingers in my hair to keep me captive for a few seconds longer. “No, I stocked up a bag in Khalida. Wanted to be prepared out here because it's a miracle you've kept yourself alive this long with as often as you forget to eat for one reason or another.” Breaking away, he opens the bag for me. “Go hop yourself up on sugar while we fight over who gets to stock your underwear drawer.”
He releases me with a half-smile and I polish off my drink, setting the empty cup on the table. As I pop the first tiny cookie in my mouth, Damian gestures to Reid’s computer and asks him, “Are you even going to pull this off in time for it to be useful? Doesn’t this sort of thing usually take months?”
Kaige chimes in, “And that’s not even factoring in Sabrina being used as a blood bank. She can’t be pushing herself this time helping you like she was before.”
Reid scoffs. “Like I didn’t already factor all of that into the equation. We’re on a limited timeframe that we don’t even know what the deadline is. This is only one potential asset to the plan, not what it’s hinging on. It isn’t really worth a surplus of effort, honestly. Still, it’s a better use of our time than sitting around doing nothing while we’re stuck in here waiting for Sabrina to be strong enough to blow everything up.”
Kaige returns with another glass of hot chocolate and I down half the cup, soaking up the sugar rush. “We’re not inventing anything, it’s a case of deleting the pre-set selections and replacing them; super simple and easy. It’s why Slade is color coding the notebook; blue tabs go in one spot, orange in another, and so forth.”
As understanding appears on Bo’s face, he whips his gaze to Reid. “No.”
Grinning at his horror, Reid returns to typing. “We only have two computers, and two of us have been staying awake on guard while the others sleep anyway. Don’t worry, it’s not as complicated as you think it is, you’ll be fine.”
“But what if I hit the wrong button or some shit and wreck the whole thing!” he objects.
Hunter interjects, “If it’ll keep Sabrina from burning herself out again, then so be it. What else are we doing anyway?” Pulling out the chair on Reid’s other side, he takes a seat, determination replacing his typical annoyance whenever he’s around Reid. “Show me.”
Patting Bo’s arm on my way past, I head for the front door. “I’m going to sit on the porch and enjoy the small bit of sun before the next monsoon hits. Who wants to procrastinate intro to coding first?”
