When the morning came, we were still in each other's arms. Fenris called Liam to let him know he was to oversee everything for the day and asked him to inform Aria that I would also be away. Amelia still had the babies in toe with the help of the maids, leaving us yet another day to ourselves.
Even though we had pulled an all-nighter, he and I were still getting our fill of each other. After all, we missed an entire year of affection. He told me all the times he pushed his urges aside to make sure I was okay, but that wasn't needed anymore.
I was his, no matter what. He was the one I wanted to spend my life with. Even though we hadn't said our vows yet, I felt like his wife. By noon, we had fallen asleep in each other's warmth when the first call came in.
Groggily, he grabbed the phone off the table, "What? I thought I told you to handle it without me today." He mumbled as I tried to snuggle myself into his chest.
Even though we had slept next to each other for the past year, I missed the way our love made me feel, from the warmth that dripped out of my core to feeling his bare chest on mine. I couldn't help but hum, wanting much more.
Sadly, my attempt to get comfy was ruined when he suddenly got up, hearing what Liam had to say.
Immediately, my wolf's demeanor changed, "What?!" He gasped, shaking his head.
The tone in his voice triggered me to sit up with him.
After finishing the call, he kissed me lightly, "Lily, we have to go to Cerberus. Something's changing."
"What?" I mumbled, shaking away all the sleepiness as I bolted with him to dress.
"Liam didn't tell me fully, but it isn't good." Fenris sighed, grabbing my hand as we met this new development.
My mind wandered to Edna surfacing again or, worse, Alijah, but it had to do with neither of them. Once at the headquarters, we learned that a hybrid village near the howling forest had sightings of giant black-blue-eyed monsters roaming around.
One even took a picture of the beast for us to identify. Undoubtedly, it was one of the shadow demons from the soul cairn. Unlike the ones I summoned, they were docile if no one got close, reminding me of how they were while roaming the soul cairn itself.
Sadly, one villager, who inspected closely, was eaten by the shadow beast before it disappeared soon after his death. Immediately, Fenris sent scouts to investigate the event, especially since I had nothing to do with their appearance.
That was when we found out part of what Edna had done that faithful day. She had torn part of the gate out of me and merged it into this world, temporarily allowing these demons to leave their realm. The periods initially only lasted a few minutes, but they grew longer.
Our only saving grace was that the beasts that emerged were docile for a few minutes, but if they saw anything living near them, an attack was inevitable. It first started in the forest, where we stopped Alijah's rage, but slowly, it spread worldwide.
This made me remember that the whispers had died down ever since my pregnancy. They were still in the back of my mind but weaker, almost like soft murmurs. I had thought it was because I had the babies, but my connection to the soul cairn had grown weaker.
However, I still didn't know the full extent of what Edna did to me, and the remaining voices in my head scratched at my sanity at times when I was stressed. Luckily, I had people around me to help keep me on track.
Witches and warlocks also gained an increase in power because of the random openings of the gates. With that boost, they could even challenge the Lycans and vampires. Even though that was good for us, it made Edna even more dangerous than she already was.
Even though she had said she wasn't a friend or foe, she had already left scars in her wake. Her goal that day wasn't to capture Alijah but to draw me out, which she achieved.
Yet how did you know I would come to him?
It would've been impossible unless Alijah told her, but that alone made no sense. That wolf would never trust a witch like her with any information about me. After all, he planned on finding me after killing them.
There were many mysteries that I couldn't uncover alone. Thankfully, I wasn't since I had Fenris, our family, and my new kinship coven to help me. Together, we would figure a way out of the mess we found ourselves in.
Or at least we hoped we could.
With each passing day, we made advancements thanks to the magic I used to combat this recent issue. We created tracking devices to find these rogue beasts, which was accomplished by syncing tackers with the soul cairn's energy pattern. This came to be thanks to the fantastic engineers from all races.
Thanks to Shade, who we tested the device on, we found it worked perfectly at identifying them. However, it was short-range detection, making it useless when the demon needed to be right on us to notice it. We hoped to make the devices better with time.
Before I knew it, I had a dedicated laboratory within Cerberus with a team of witches, warlocks, humans, blaze, and ocean elves. The occasional Lycans also helped us with all the heavy workflow.
Our sole purpose was to dedicate everything to research to make the world safer for those we loved. Within months of creating the Soul Cairn Tear tracker, I also created a way to subdue the shadow beast with weapons made from their magic.
I used my power to create an incantation rune, which extracted some of the demon's energy and placed it in a gem. It differed entirely from the artifacts the elves could do, which meant it was weaker than a weapon containing a soul, but it allowed us to stun them for a certain amount of time.
We had to stall for time in these fights rather than take them down. However, that process was slow since I had to rest one week between each batch of five. I no longer had the abilities my babies gifted me during my pregnancy, which made me vulnerable again to the influences of the soul cairn.
Usually, I would push myself until the point where I got a nosebleed, something Fenris didn't appreciate.
I would do nothing if it were up to you, but I can't stay still. It's just not who I am.
I was also the only one who could do this. We needed a way to fight these beasts that threatened to appear from anywhere without warning. Luckily, the beasts seemed to come one at a time, with long periods in between.
This allowed us to gather everything we needed to equip some officers so every village of every nation had at least one weapon. Fenris also focused on building shelters where people could try to hide while the phenomenon was going on.
However, it was always advised to let the demons be if they were docile. Shade was pleased with what we accomplished, even though it affected her, too.
"It's a fighting chance! We all know you mortals need one!" She snickered from her tower.
Yet compared to the others of her kind we had seen, she was something else. Most of the weapons I created had little to no effect on her. At most, they would temporarily repel her away, which meant she was unique, even among her kin.
Or perhaps you were a high-ranking god in your past life, but why did you choose me to be bound to?
It terrified me to wonder what would happen if another one like her emerged.
Will we be able to stop it? Doubtful.
Luckily, the holes the gate formed weren't big enough for anything too powerful to slip by.
Sometimes, I wonder if you were the god who heard my pleas that day.
Closing my eyes, I leaned back into the chair I always used in our laboratory. It was strange to have an office all to myself. Fenris had left after eating lunch with me while Shade rested in her decorated tower.
All our team members had placed an ornament on it, leaving her to thank them for their offerings. She truly was something else, yet she would always be…
"Hey, Shade," I called out to her, triggering her little eyes to scan towards me.
"Yes, Lily?" She hummed, scratching her ear.
"Thank you." I smiled, triggering her to smirk.
"I'll always be with you, Lily." She cooed, jumping from her tower and into my arms.
Unfortunately, not all shadow beasts were this reasonable. If we were forced to engage against one of them, it was always a fight against time. After all, these demons were immortal in this realm.
With the detection devices and weapons, most events ended with few casualties. Luckily, the events were sporadic, allowing us to adjust to this new normal. However, where we had our blessings, nothing of Shade's caliber ever popped from these random events.
The population of Silverant skyrocketed because of these random gates. The city needed me to protect them from these beasts, as I could easily send them away. However, the rest of the world had to fend for themselves with what I could give them.
There was little I could do, but I tried my best to help them. Even if this was a new norm, we had to cope and move on towards a future where conflict would occur again. Yet this time, I would have to pass the torch to another for their destiny entwined with the fated black wolf set on destroying us.
But before that…