Jewel of Darkness

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 1

“I’m so very sick of stupid gypsy healers. For goodness sakes, if the Great Luna felt the need to bring back these women, couldn’t she have at least picked a few chicks with half an ounce of survival instincts and even just a pinch of non-dumbassness?” ~Peri

“So, that was enlightening and also a bit annoying,” Peri finally spoke up after their dismal conversation with Jewel’s mother. Dalton knew the woman was simply telling them what she knew, but he agreed with Peri. It was annoying. If he was going to be honest, it was more than annoying. It pissed him off to a level that was quickly surpassing the anger he’d felt at seeing Volcan with his hands on his mate and then disappearing with her. A growl rose in his throat and his hands began to shake as the memory filled his mind.

“Beta.” Dillon’s touched him on his shoulder and the Alpha’s voice kept him from losing it, barely. He nodded his head once letting his Alpha know that he wasn’t going to let the wolf take over, though the beast was fighting him at every opportunity. His eyes refocused and he saw that they stood out on the cracked sidewalk once again, surrounded by dilapidated old houses. It still frustrated him that this was where his little dove had grown up. He could have given her more, made her safer, and ensured that she had not been alone.

“What’s the plan, oh fearless leader?” Peri asked as she turned to face Dalton.

He knew that they were looking to him to find her because of their bond, but he’d been trying to reach her since the last time and still there was nothing. Dalton attempted again to reach through their bond, but there was nothing to grasp. She just wasn’t there. No matter how many times he mentally reached for her, he felt nothing. His wolf was snarling and throwing himself at Dalton’s mind attempting to take control. Dalton took deep breaths and focused on the image of Jewel’s face in his mind. He couldn’t let the wolf loose. Blood would drench his fur because the wolf would destroy anyone near them just to relieve the anger inside. If he couldn’t tear into Volcan, it would take substitutions until his foe was before him. No, he could not let his wolf out.

“Do you have any idea where he could be?” Dalton asked her. There was no emotion in his voice, only cool calculation. He hated to admit that he couldn’t find her, but swallowing his pride was a small thing if it meant he might find Jewel. “Would the scum be in another realm, or would he stay here?”

“You can’t feel her, can you?” Peri asked. Her eyes narrowed when he shook his head. Peri’s lips thinned, and had she been a wolf herself, she would have been snarling. “I am so sick of twisted dickheads messing with my wolves and their mate bonds. You would think that one of them would come up with an original idea.”

“Perizada, do you know where he is?” Lucian asked Dalton’s question again in his quiet, patient way. That was why they worked, Dalton thought. Peri was the poison and Lucian the antidote. They were two sides to the same coin—they balanced each other out. And one without the other would be devastating to them both. Dalton badly needed that balance himself.

He needed Jewel. He was a ticking time bomb and she was the only one who could find the correct wire to deactivate him. Dalton hadn’t realized that until she came into his life. He thought that he knew what true fear was, but all he’d been through was nothing compared to the possibility of losing his true mate. He was brought back from his thoughts when he heard Peri answer.

“I think he was in another realm while he waited like the coward he is. But now that he’s got Jewel, and he’s ready to put his plan into action, he’s probably in the human realm. We just have to track him down.”

Dalton clenched his jaw. It was the only emotion he let seep through his mask. “How do we do that?”

Peri shot him a look that clearly told him she thought he was an i***t. He didn’t care.

“We go find some other evil scum that might know where he is. Given the right motivation, they’ll hand over their own mothers. We just need to put the fear of you three in them.”

“What about you?” Dillon asked her.

The high fae shrugged. “They already fear me. You fur balls are icing on my already awesome cake.”

Dalton shifted restlessly, waiting for Peri to lead them to their next destination.

She held out her arms for them to once again grab so she could flash them to their destination. “Hope you three don’t get sick at the sight of blood. It will only encourage them to make you as uncomfortable as possible.”

Dillon spit out several curses. “You’re kidding? Not the damned vampires, Peri.”

“It would be wise of you not to point out to them that they are indeed damned,” she added.

“I didn’t know any still existed,” Lucian told her as he took her hand in his.

“They don’t play nice in the sandbox. They tend to eat their playmates, so they’ve pretty much been driven into hiding. It’s been centuries since there has been any sight of them by a human.”

“And now you want to go disturb their nest?” Dillon growled.

Peri turned to Dalton. “Do you have a problem with visiting the bloodsuckers?”

“Will it help us find my mate?” he asked in return.

“It’s a possibility.”

“Then shut up and go.”

∞

“Okay, just for the record, we suck at this,” Heather announced, not for the first time. Anna had to agree but she didn’t think that would be appreciated by the other annoyed members of their group. She wondered if the other girls were struggling as much as she was with the growing ache and discomfort inside and if that struggle was what was causing their inability to come up with any ideas on how to outsmart Volcan. They’d talked about it briefly, but like Anna, Stella and Heather seemed reluctant to give much acknowledgment to the feelings because to name it made it real. And real meant they each had a mate—a werewolf mate.

“How many times do we have to record that?” Crina practically growled. And that just proved to Anna that she was correct in choosing to hold her tongue.

“Until we stop sucking.” Heather rubbed her face and rolled her shoulders back.

The stress of their assignment was wearing on them and they’d only been working on it for twenty-four hours. But as Anna watched Stella press a hand to her chest, and then Heather do the same thing, she had a feeling it was more than the assignment causing their distress. Peri had tasked them with coming up with a war plan that somehow influenced Volcan to destroy himself. That didn’t seem impossible at all, Anna mentally snorted.

“It might help if she would come back and give us a little more to go on,” Stella pointed out.

Sorin chuckled, “No, I think you’d still suck at it.”

Anna decided holding her tongue was overrated. “Not to be rude or anything but—”

“By all means be rude,” Heather interrupted. “It will help Stella and me not look like such jerks.”

Stella tossed a small rock at Heather hitting her in the shin. “Hey!” Heather snapped. “No throwing crap at the blind chick. Or at least give me a warning like, hey blind chick, I’m about to throw something at you. And kick a skunk! Could someone please make this tightening in my chest go away! I keep thinking it has to be heartburn. Please, someone, tell me it’s heartburn.”

“If it’s heartburn, then it’s contagious heartburn,” Stella spoke up. She turned to Anna. “What about you? Do you have heartburn” ―she made quotations in the air as she said it― “as well? And as Heather said, by all means, be rude.” The native New Yorker shot her a wink as she continued to rub her chest.

Anna cleared her throat. “The heartburn...” She paused. She didn’t know if hers even qualified as heartburn. What she felt had slowly begun to turn into a whole-body burn. But she wasn’t ready to admit just how bad it had gotten, not yet at least. “The heartburn is definitely contagious.” She left it at that and then continued.”

“Would you two shut up so Anna can speak? Do not make me shut your mouths for you,” Elle growled.

“Can you do that?” “Can she do that?” Stella and Heather asked at the same time.

Crina smacked her forehead. “I thought my other pack mates were bad, but I think you two would give even them a run for their money.”

Anna cleared her throat. “So, what I was saying was, why is this so difficult when we have you three?” She motioned to Elle, Adam, and Sorin. “Aren’t you guys like really old or something? Haven’t you been through a few battles?”

“Older than dirt,” Heather added. “They are older than dirt.”

Sorin leaned forward with his arms resting on his knees. He, like everyone else, was planted on a log so that he didn’t have to sit on the ground. “We have been through more battles than any of us care to remember. But regardless of the number, each one is different, and this one more different than them all. Peri wants us to wage a war on a mental battlefield. She wants us to beat Volcan at his own game. That is nothing like formulating a battle plan over physical terrain. On a real field of battle, we at least know the lay of the land. We can then strategize as to best place our forces. And, of course, we would also know what our weapons are. But the battlefield of the mind can change in the blink of an eye.”

“Where is our genius when we need her?” Stella whined. “Jewel would have some crazy facts about physical combat versus mental combat and all sorts of other mumbo jumbo that probably wouldn’t really help us.”

“Wait,” Anna said holding up her hands. “Maybe all we need to do is do what Jewel would do.”

“And that would be to spout off information that only the world wide web should know,” Heather quipped.

“Sort of,” Anna pointed at her, not paying attention to the fact that Heather couldn’t see her. “We need to find the information that Jewel would already know. Obviously, none of us here are a genius, so we haven’t absorbed everything we’ve read.”

“Or anything for that matter,” Stella interjected.

“Okay, I get what you’re saying,” Elle told her as she stood up and began pacing. “Now we just have to figure out how to get that information without breaking Peri’s rules. It’s not like these pixies are going to have a library with the stuff we need.”

Heather chuckled, “If they did, it would be a little tiny one with little tiny books. So not helpful.” She paused and then added. “Y'all are all looking at me like I’m on c***k, aren’t you?”

“Is dog crap toxic?” Crina asked. “Because I think you’ve sniffed it one too many times.”

“Do you really want me to enter that door you just opened?” Heather laughed. “You aren’t really the one who should be talking about dog crap.”

“I totally ran headfirst into that one,” Crina muttered.

Adam wrapped an arm around his mate and pulled her close. “It was a valiant effort, babe.”

Anna watched the exchange between Crina and Adam and felt the pain increase another notch. They were so natural together, even their movements were in sync. If Adam shifted, Crina moved with him so that she stayed close. If Crina changed position, Adam moved so that he was where he could quickly get in front of her to protect her if danger suddenly arose.

What would it be like to be that in tune with someone? she wondered. And when Adam brushed his fingers down Crina’s side and the she-wolf shuddered, Anna wondered what it would be like to be touched in such a way that it caused her to quake in her own skin. Could she allow herself to be that close to someone? For most of her life, she’d kept everyone at arm’s length. She had a gypsy mother who, once Anna was old enough to make her own food, popped in and out as her spirit lead her. And when she wasn’t around, Anna had to step up and take care of the store and their little apartment. She had friends at school but she never let them too close. Anna kept a low profile, not ever wanting to draw attention to herself for fear that someone would realize just how much her mother left her alone. Her mother wasn’t a bad mom. She was just a product of her own raising. Anna’s mother had grown up in a gypsy caravan. They traveled all over, it was all she knew. But Anna knew that the state would not see it that way. They would see it as neglect and possibly take her away from her mom. If she had a true mate, would she be able to tell him about her childhood, about the lonely nights doing homework alone, and about eating TV dinners? Would he think her pathetic for not insisting her mother stay and actually be a mom?