Guarding Madeline: The Others: Book Five, page 10
Titus materialized at his side. “We leave now. She’s moving fast in a straight line as if there’s a destination in mind. The being shows unusual power and with the addition of my blood...I cannot be sure what we’re dealing with.”
Talon asked, “What can we do to help, Lord Titus? We owe Maddy a debt that can’t be repaid.”
“When I learn more, I’ll communicate with the twins.” Placing his hand on Elias’ shoulder, he said, “I’ll do all within my power to free your Mate from this presence.”
They winked away from West Texas Pack and reappeared in a grand hall. A Daemon stood there with a glowing sword and Elias’ Wolf rose to the surface before he could stop it.
“Relinquish!” Titus shouted.
Elias shook his head, dizzy from the rapid transitions of the creature who had cohabitated within his body since the womb.
“My apologies.” He bowed his head. “My Wolf struggles.”
“I can tell.” The Daemon sheathed his sword and extended his hand. Elias took it and shook firmly. “My name is Killian. I protect Lucian and head the Royal Guard.”
“Elias Thorne. Idaho Pack liaison to Were Parliament.”
“I follow your work. Those Others who practice law are of particular interest to me. My Mate…”
His Wolf exploded to the surface again. It sent Elias to his knees in a fight to control the power.
“I’m sorry! That’s me! I’m dialing back. Fuck, so sorry.” A gorgeous blonde leaned over him. “I’m Killian’s Mate. I can be a little much for the Unmated. Particularly Weres...you run so hot naturally.”
Elias said through gritted teeth. “I-I have a Mate…”
“Uh…”
Titus interrupted. “On your feet, Elias. I’m glad you’re here, Una. I require information from the Hall of Memory.” To Killian, he added, “I must speak with Lucian. It’s a matter of some urgency.”
The blonde Daemon nodded. “He’s been expecting you since you called a contingent of Royal Guards to your home.”
“To protect my Mate and child. I’m here about Elias’ Mate.”
“Come,” Lucian’s bodyguard led the way through the opulent home to a library. Books lined the walls, rising three stories above them. “Lord Titus has arrived.”
The ruler of Daemon kind stood and approached. In normal circumstances, Elias would appreciate the opportunity to speak with the man.
“Titus. Tell me what’s happened.”
“I’m uncertain. The situation is unique...a Were Mate is involved so we must be careful to safeguard her above all else.”
Titus filled in the Daemons about what had happened to his Madeline as Elias paced from one end of the library to the other, his Wolf fighting to gain the upper hand.
The female Daemon approached slowly. “Elias?” He looked at her with his canines extended and his eyes glowing. “I know you’re afraid for your woman…but we’re going to bring her back to you.”
Barely human, he growled, “I need her now…”
“I know. Will you help me find what Titus needs in the Hall of Memory? He and Lucian are making a plan of attack because we can’t just waltz into an unknown situation that involves Purists. All of us are Mates. That’s why we take your situation so seriously.”
“I’m a Were…”
“You’re a Mate. Which category you fall within makes no difference to me or anyone here. You have my word in blood.” She held out her hand and he watched red drops hit the marble floor. “We will do all we can to bring your Madeline home to you.”
“Thank you. I can’t accept your vow.” He clutched his chest. “M-my Wolf won’t stand down.”
Titus approached and slipped his cool palm along the back of Elias’ neck. His silver eyes stared into him in a way that felt like a physical touch.
“You will relinquish. You will have your Mate returned to you, majestic creature. Your Host must have control. Your instincts will not serve the purpose of saving her. Protect him but do not fight him.”
Elias stumbled forward as his Wolf receded with a low whimper. Titus caught him and he clung to the taller being for a moment as he got his bearings.
Finally stepping back, he bowed to the Founder. “Every story I’ve ever heard does not do you justice, Lord Titus.” Exhaling roughly, he nodded and said, “Thank you. I can think clearly for the first time since my-my Madeline morphed into a bird and flew out of my reach.”
“Help Una. Lucian and I will call the Guard.”
Giving him a half-smile, he replied, “Getting rid of me?”
“This room is about to be filled with Daemon kind. Your Wolf needs a break from sensory overload. Una can scan the swords in the Hall of Memory and Killian can push the knowledge to your mind. I’m hoping your analytical mind can speed up the process.”
“Where is she now? I need to know she’s safe...”
“The hitchhiker is inexplicably pounding on what appears to be a mountain. I’ve rarely felt such rage.”
“Don’t leave without me, Lord Titus.”
“I wouldn’t disrespect you in such a way.”
With a nod, he turned and went to Killian. “I don’t, uh, think I should touch your Mate directly.”
Laughing, Killian quipped, “I actually hear that quite a lot. Come, Elias.” Gripping his shoulder, Una took her Mate’s hand and the three of them moved from the library.
The space they landed in was so massive that it stole the breath.
Una smiled and explained, “This is the Hall of Memory. Every Daemon is gifted a sword upon their hundredth birthday. It’s with us every moment from then on. Everything we see, hear, or do is recorded within the sword. Upon a Daemon’s death, their sword is brought here. It stands as a testament - or confession - of the life they lived and becomes part of the history of our people.”
“Incredible,” Elias said breathlessly as he turned in a circle. “There are hundreds.”
“Thousands. We’ve lost half our original number since arriving on this planet. War took a great many...loneliness stole the rest.”
“I’m sorry. It’s strangely beautiful despite the reason for it.”
“I always feel peaceful here. Killian said the Hall of Memory on our home world was a thousand times this size, providing history for more than one hundred millennia.”
“I can’t conceive of such history.”
“I lead our Enforcers - the police force for Daemon kind. It expanded substantially when the Founding Six began to dabble with the Witches. Before you were,” she gestured up and down Elias’ body, “hot and intelligent, there was a ton of cleanup to be done.”
“Uh…” he glanced at Killian.
Lucian’s bodyguard shrugged. “Weres are hot. The Vampires may be prettier but Weres...they appeal to the animal in all of us.”
“I’m unsure how to respond.”
Laughing warmly, Una started walking. “The first true Witches - born with measurable gifts as well as instinct - appeared just over two thousand years ago. Everything before that was superstition. We followed every lead back then because evolution is fascinating. We can confine our search to that time frame.”
Elias’ eyes went wide and he mumbled, “Piece of cake…”
She grinned. “Truly. If we had to scan the entire nine-thousand-plus years we’ve been on this planet, your Wolf would tire of it quickly. Transitional Daemons are most likely since our winged brethren must utilize portals to reach the Between or hitch a ride.” She paused, turned back, and smacked her Mate on the ass. “My way is quicker.”
“That substantially narrows the search,” Killian explained. “The mutations are almost equal among our people.”
“Why do you think the Daemon is dead?”
Una reached over her shoulder and unsheathed a glowing great sword from her back. It was not the first time Elias had seen Daemon swords materialize but it never failed to enthrall.
Placing the tip on the marble floor, she gripped the hilt with both hands. “Daemons don’t use the Between as a prison because time passes so slowly there. I believe a Daemon stashed your Mate’s hitchhiker there, intending to retrieve her, and was killed before it happened.”
“She was…left in such a place accidentally?”
“Time moves slowly there so psychosis would set in quickly for a creature with human origins. Their life spans are too short to conceive that kind of passage of time. Not to mention the isolation. Daemons can enter stasis on our plane and yours. Using the Between is dangerous long-term for more than healing or…” she winked at her Mate, “buying time to play when you have somewhere to be.”
Frowning, Elias asked, “Isolation? How long do you think the Witch was left in the Between?”
“Based on the incantation she used? Around a thousand years. That would have felt ten times longer in the space where we transition. I imagine she’s been desperate to escape.”
“So, she doesn’t have a body of her own?”
Una exclaimed, “Excellent question!” One hand on the hilt of her sword, she gestured with the other. “Daemons discorporate to travel from your plane to ours. Billions of tiny pieces that disappear there and reappear here.”
She looked at her husband and Elias could tell she’d had an epiphany. “The ability to separate mind from body is an extremely rare trait...Killian?”
“What does that mean?” Elias demanded.
Killian maintained eye contact with his Mate. “It means there are only three Daemons who could have stashed the Witch in the Between at that time. One is Titus. One is Titus’s sister, Tatiana - the Founder of the Shifters and what humans call the Fae. The other is a Daemon I killed myself a thousand years ago.” He met Elias’ gaze. “The Daemon who established the Purist faction.”
Inside him, Elias’ Wolf howled in fury.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Madeline felt frozen.
She could hear, see, and feel...but control none of those senses. Forced to stand by as something else used her like a puppet. The exception was when the being who’d hijacked her body tried to strike her Mate.
Elias.
Something inside her - from a quiet place buried deep that she’d never known - awoke. It gave her a spark, a power she didn’t understand - that was stronger than Madeline herself had ever been.
It gave her the strength to resist. To stop the blow before it landed. To protect Elias...her Mate...the one she loved.
As she seized control, she caught the scent of their bond. Her jaw clenched with need even as she shook trying to hold back the Other invading her body.
Knowing her time was limited, she fought to tell him, “She’s so fuckin’ strong. Don’t let me hurt anyone. Please, Elias.”
Power flowed through her as she ran for the window, uncertain who was in control of her body. Then she was soaring above Texas Pack land, higher and higher.
Opening her mouth to speak, to cry out for help, she shattered the silence of the night with the screech of a bird of prey. In her panicked confusion and exhaustion, the hijacker regained control.
Inside her mind, she heard a low chant and then, “Sleep.”
* * *
Madeline blinked against the sudden brightness of the sun.
Disoriented, she shielded her eyes from the glare. She didn’t know where she was. Somewhere much colder than Texas. The mountains were higher than any she’d ever seen.
Shivering in the thin nightgown she wore, Maddy registered there were no shoes on her feet. She turned in a circle.
There was nothing for miles but snow-capped peaks and trees that rose hundreds of feet in the air. She currently stood on a narrow ledge only a few feet wide and less deep.
Trapped on the side of a mountain without any clue how someone had stranded her in such a place.
She started to cup her hands around her mouth and froze.
Her hands were bruised and bloody, the flesh torn almost to the bone in some places. Glancing at the stone behind her, she stared at the evidence of her blood splattered on the mountain.
Frowning, she approached the shear wall and placed her palm against it. At this altitude, not even the sun could warm the gray rock.
Finding herself spinning and suddenly far below the bloody handprints, she raised her face in the air and caught a scent that made her eyes widen.
Turning rapidly, Madeline lost her calm at the sight of a tail. In front of her, she lifted her hand...and found a paw. A...mouse?
Heart racing, she tried to catch her breath and make sense of what she was experiencing.
It could be a dream.
Perhaps she was in a coma.
Flashes from the night before came to her. The pain of her healing injuries - she struggled to remember how she’d sustained them. Listening as if underwater as the creature inside her spoke to Elias. Jumping through the window...something she never would have done.
“What is happenin’?” she whispered in her mind.
Slowly calming her thoughts, she thought about her own reflection and found herself standing at normal height again, thankful she still wore the nightgown, as little protection as it offered.
That made her pause.
Unlike Weres, her clothes remained with her. She wondered if the hijacker’s gift was like Daemon transitioning; all the pieces separating and then coming back together again.
Daemons didn’t appear in the nude.
Weres often did because their physical bodies became their Wolves. The memory of Elias leaving Change in front of her brought a blush to her cheeks. It caused a deep longing to find him, to grab him and never let go.
Madeline took a course on Shifter anatomy at university. She’d read everything she could find about them after Finneas mentioned her having their blood in her ancestry.
At first, she’d thought the being inside her was the one with the power but…
Could it be her?
Closing her eyes, she imagined a sparrow and felt the world whip away and back again. She flapped wings and felt like laughing. Back to herself again, she gave in to the desire. She bent, clutching her torso, and laughed in wonder.
It quickly escalated and echoed off the peaks around her. It took time for her to get herself under control.
“A little hysteria in this situation is to be expected.”
Straightening, she realized her hands were merely bruised. The places where her skin had been broken and bloody were a deep pink shade.
She could practically feel them healing.
“Shiftin’...speeds healin’ to this degree?” Shaking her head, she murmured, “No. Change helps but Weres don’t heal this fast.” A voice from her memory drifted across her mind and she thought she understood. “Titus…?”
A member of the original Daemon Royal family and Founder of Were kind, Titus had blood that would ramp up anyone’s healing ability. He must have been called to help…
The Purist attack.
Her mind filled with the image of Ivan’s broken body and little Sam’s blood as a laughing Purist murdered him.
She didn’t know if Talia - Talon and Hope’s little girl - had survived.
She couldn’t remember how she had.
It was cruel that she continued to breathe when two children had been murdered violently. Covering her face with her hands, she wept painfully for several minutes.
Where was the being who’d stolen control of her body?
Drying her face, she went still as she tried to sense the female’s presence. Glancing at the rock wall, she wondered why the creature brought her here.
Shivering harder as a gust of wind whipped her thin gown around her legs, she knew she had to think. She could transform again and fly off the mountain.
Once she knew where she was, she could make her way back to Texas - no, Idaho - and run into Elias’ arms.
There was no guarantee the being wouldn’t wake and reclaim control over her again. Whatever the creature was, she was undeniably strong.
She was also filled with uncontrollable rage.
Tugging her lower lip between her teeth, Madeline considered her next move.
A thought drifted across her mind of a bear’s warm coat and suddenly she was barely able to keep her footing on the narrow ledge with four massive feet and a bulky body.
She was warmer.
This time, she found the scent of a person within the rock. Remembering Finneas’ words about the bear’s sense of smell, she inhaled deeper.
There was the body of a woman, water running near it, damp rock, bat droppings, and so much more.
She was unsure how she knew any of those scents for what they were but somehow, she did.
She wasn’t certain why the interloper brought her here and wasn’t sure giving her access to what she clearly wanted was a good idea. The being’s rage was white-hot, dangerous.
Returning to her human form, Madeline examined the blood pattern of her own hands on the rock. “You act out of desperation, sadness. You want to be in there for more than revenge. Why?”
Yet...a body had been interred in this place. The being taking up residence inside her was presently force without form.
“You needed a body to get you here.” Drawing her lip between her teeth, Maddy worried it. “Why do you want to get inside so badly? Is it your body or the body of someone you love?”
Uncertain, frightened of making the wrong choice, she thought back to past conversations - twenty feet separating them - with Elias.
He’d always spoken to her like an equal - respecting her intelligence rather than being condescending. A valued confidant long before she knew him to be her Mate.
One discussion when she was twelve came to mind. When she’d wondered if Were kind would ever accept her as one of their doctors.
The humanity inside each of us focuses on the worst possible outcome of any scenario. We do it to avoid risk, to protect ourselves, to keep those we love safe - survival instinct as old as time.
You must never forget that safety isn’t always the right path...just as reckless faith is not. It is important to set aside emotion and use logic whenever possible.
