Arch 1
Chapter 17
"So you mean to tell me…" Everett began in a voice that was entirely too calm. "Your entire team was killed, and you did nothing to stop it?"
He was looking right at Cadence, like Adler's presence mattered so little, he may as well have not been there at all. In their father's eyes, Cadence was always the example of what Everett expected of his men, but how he was looking at her now made Adler's skin crawl. He had gotten that look many times, and he knew what came with it…but he'd never…he'd never do that to Cadence…right?
"I'm-" Cadence began, but Adler cut her off.
"It was my fault, Father. Not hers."
"QUIET!" Everett boomed. "Did I put you in charge of this mission?! NO! I could never entrust you with such a task. I put her in charge-" he jabbed a finger at Cadence. "So things like this wouldn't happen! And she goes and listens to you anyway! I EXPECT BETTER FROM HER!" he bellowed, bringing his right hand over his left shoulder, aiming it right at Cadence as he large signet ring he wore sparkled maliciously.
Everett's hand snapped down, but Adler was already moving. The blow landed directly at the corner of his left eye, across his cheek, and over his nose, blood dripping from the gash and the ring.
Adler toppled to the floor, clutching his eye and his face, howling in pain.
"Adler!" Cadence cried, running to him. "Are you alright?!"
"My eye…I can't see…"
"Take him to the infirmary." Everett growled. "You are dismissed."
If only he knew who I've been thinking about. Adler thought. He'd have me drawn and quartered for treason.
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Stormy was looking up at her uncle. The stage and podium had been set up, again, in the ballroom of the main mansion, but this time, for a press conference. There was food and drink aplenty for the reporters, but they didn't seem too terribly interested in that. What they were interested in was talking to anyone that was present on the night of the strange weather and the attack-there was no keeping that quiet when the whole town heard-because of course they had to be connected and obviously there was some conspiracy that went deeper.
Which, to be fair, there was, but there was absolutely no way that the general, human public was ever going to find out about it. In case there had been any questions about the identity of the people that had done this, there was now a giant "C&D" emblazoned onto now very dead grass on the front lawn.
Markus was "convinced" that this had to do with some new radical initiation right, though into what organization was anybody's guess, and was graciously answering the abundance of questions from the press, and enduring the garish flashing of their cameras.
Max and Bear were absent, but Max couldn't handle any of this right now. He seemed to be withering day-by-day, like he was closer and closer to death with each tick of the clock. He was with Bear, who was carefully monitoring him.
Well, monitoring him…and working on something extraordinary.
Stormy, herself, though…all she could think about clear, emerald eyes and white-blond hair that shimmered in the moonlight.
Oh, danger, Stormy girl. Danger. she thought.
She hadn't said a word, obviously, because how in the hell was she supposed to explain that her mate was OF THE ENEMY?! They had their feelers out about who in the C&D it was that had led the onslaught against them. Stormy's family had money, and money could buy loose tongues.
She didn't know if the whole "your mate is your mate, and that's that" extended to someone who had actively tried to murder an entire pack of wolves. Your pack. There was no way he'd be forgiven, no way.
Though…well, technically, he hadn't done much of anything. He'd walked up to some kids and looked ill. She just knew, she somehow knew he wouldn't have done it.
But that didn't mean everyone else saw would see it like that. All they'd see was the enemy, someone who had tried to wipe them out, endangered a whole pack of mothers and fathers and babies, a family. Though, they had failed, and failed epically, not to put too fine a point on it, thanks to Eira…wherever she was now. There was reason to believe that this had been a mock charge to test defenses and whatnot for a bigger attack, may be even the attack that would kick off the Cloak and Dagger annihilating all of the supernaturals of the world. Nobody wanted to believe that that was the case, and, moreover, nobody wanted to believe the C&D had grown so powerful and large so silently, right under their noses, all these years of quiet lulling every single creature that had reason to fear them into a false sense of security for the day they would amass enough forces and rise from the depths again like a collective demon from the very pit of hell.
But what I wouldn't risk to see him again…
"Stormy," Stella said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder with concern. "Are you alright, honey?"
"Oh, yeah." she replied, blinking a few times and shaking her head a little to clear it. "I guess I'm just tired, Aunt Stells."
"After this, I think you should get some sleep. Lie down, at least."
"Yeah, I think I'll do that."
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Bear looked over his shoulder at Max, who was lying on a cot in his office-the one at the Moon Down medical facility, not the one in the Study. Max was curled around the pillow that Eira had used like he was in physical pain, his face pressed into to it to the point that Bear was worried Max was gonna asphyxiate himself accidentally, groaning in his sleep. He had a fine sheen of sweat had beaded up along his forehead, and his chest was heaving. Bear could only imagine what the poor kid was dreaming of.
A soft knock sounded at the door. Bear got up and walked over to open the door so he didn't disturb Max.
Barlowe stood there, a concerned look on his face.
Bear nodded for him to enter, and he pulled up a chair right beside him at his desk. Barlowe walked with a limp now, and had a cane.
"How you feeling, Barlowe?" Bear asked in a whisper.
"Could be a lot worse, had it not been fer yer miracle elixir."
"That limp could have been avoided if you'd just taken it sooner, though."
"We were gonna lose wolves, lad. I wasn't gonna stagger off into the bright light like some of the others were. I got it in time that the wound closed and before it got any infection."
Barlowe, like so many others, had gotten badly injured during the attack. His leg had been shattered, a huge gash along the side of it from his knee down to his ankle. He had refused treatment until the others whose lives were in jeopardy had been taken care of; sometimes werewolf healing wasn't enough. The problem was, Barlowe wasn't a young wolf anymore, and his healing didn't quite snap bones back into place after an injury like they used to. By the time Bear got to him to treat him, his body had begun to somewhat heal itself, but it wasn't seamless. The "miracle elixir" had, however, closed up his wound, though he'd have a permanent scar, and helped negate some of the hinky healing that had taken place, but not all of it.
And what was the treatment, you may ask?
It was Eira's blood that still coursed through Markus and Max's veins from when she healed them. If it hadn't been for that, they'd be down approximately half the pack. The fact that both Max and his father were young and their healing factor was unhampered by age helped, too. It helped boost the other's regeneration. But it had been Eira's blood that had done the heavy lifting. Yes, the wolves that had been injured would be left with scars, just as Eira herself was, but it still saved their lives. Entire families had been hanging on by the skin of their teeth, and had been successfully, blessedly revived. They could have lost children, infants…it made Bear sick to his stomach to think about. Stormy, luckily, had gotten through relatively unscathed, but the repetitive drum beat that kept sounding in his mind was, it could have been her, it could have been her, it could have been her…
Everyone had been sticking close together since the attack, particularly the families and mates, the males on the highest of alerts, as their natural instinct to protect was switched to overdrive. Bear had wished Sophie was closer, even though she was in the same building, giving much needed counsel to the pack in the wake of the trauma of the attack. He knew Stormy was at the press conference, where Markus and Stella could keep an eye on her, but his stomach still churned because he wasn't with her.
"What've ya got on that fancy machine of yers?" Barlowe asked quietly, nodding to the three-screen computer setup.
"Well, as you could have guessed, I'm sure, there hasn't been a study done on vampire blood…ever."
"Naturally." Barlowe nodded.
"I've been running tests on Eira's blood to figure some things out since I first got my hands on it. However, I didn't think to actually dig into what gives vampire blood such healing properties. We obviously know our kind have above average amounts of platelets in our blood, which is part of why we heal like we do, as well as an increased number of white blood cells, which is why infection is so rare in healthy and/or young wolves, and an upped number of red cells too, which is why we have such physical endurance. I decided to do a count on Eira's blood for all of that. It turns out that Eira's counts are off the charts. From this, I can assume that a full vampire has much more than that, since Eira's blood is half that of a human's. But that isn't all I've found." Bear moved to another screen and brought a certain window to the front of the many he had open. It was a break down of the components in Eira's blood. "As you can see, there's the typical elements you'd expect. But then I came across this." he hovered the pointer over one word: UNKNOWN ELEMENT. "So, I needed to dig. We know that we have venom, but it has nothing to do with our healing, it can just alter genetic make up and turn a human into one of us. And we know it's deadly to vampires, and we can assume hybrids as well, like Eira, though we're not going to test that theory out, obviously. We never knew why that was, though, or if vampires had venom at all. It turns out that a vampire's venom is actually in their blood, a part of their genetics, which is why it takes over and turns a person when someone dies with it in their system. There's nothing stopping it anymore. Our venom is only held in our mouths, like a snake's. Because our toxin isn't tied into our blood, a vampire's blood, and the venom within, can heal us without issue. But, because a vampire's venom is entrenched into their very being, when our venom is introduced, it tries to change them, and the vampire's venom fights against it and rejects it to such an aggressive extent, it's like when a human's immune system overreacts-it starts to attack things other than the problem, namely, our venom. It starts to break their bodies down cell by cell. I'm not even sure our venom does anything but try to change them. I think it's their reaction to the venom that kills them. Our venom is merely the catalyst for the destruction. And all this discovery because I had that girl's blood on hand."
"Bloody hell…" Barlowe breathed. "That girl is nuts for being around us in the first place. One little nick and it's all over."
"In every other situation, yes…but not if it's Max."
"What do you mean?"
Bear passed him a microscope with a slide in it.
"This slide shows what happens to her blood when introduced to a random wolf's venom. You can see that, as predicted, the venom is destroying the blood."
"Aye." Barlowe said, nodding as he pulled back from the eye piece, nodding.
Bear switched out the slides and motioned for him to look again.
"That is what happens when I introduced Max's venom, specifically, to her blood."
Barlowe balked, his brows furrowed as he turned to look at Bear.
"It's just mixing. It's like his venom is fortifying her blood instead of destroying it. Why though?"
"I don't know." Bear replied, shaking his head. "I have some theories, but I'm still looking into it."
"It's like no part of him can hurt her. Like it simply refuses."
"Do you remember those old legends about the ancient, powerful alphas and what it meant when they took mates?"
"Yes…" Barlowe said, realization dawning on him.
"I think we need to delve into those tales for an answer."