The First Mate

Chapter Twenty

We curved the turn off harshly, the car skidding slightly but Theo regained control, gunning it.

I could see the strained anger on his face.

We shouldn't have come here.

I shouldn't have come here.

I turned away from him, anger flaring.

"We're not leaving Jezette." I snapped at him.

He flinched. "I wasn't thinking -"

"You want me to leave with Elsa. Run." I set him with a scowl. "So, what? I can sit at home and do nothing while my mates and Clan fight to keep me safe?" My hand reached for the door handle.

Theo paled, his eyes widening as he knew what I intended to do. "Rosie,"

I opened the door, Shifting and letting Annie take hold as I outran the car with a spell of wind.

I heard Theo snarl in anger, the car accelerating as I curved the final wind of the forest to Jezette's little cottage shop.

I found her scent and followed it, Tobie and Quade behind me as Shadow lions, blending in effortlessly with the darkness that clouded the area.

I bristled, feeling magic in the air.

It felt like Jezette's, but there was an underlying scent I couldn't describe.

It smelt familiar, but my memory of why faltered and Annie's snarl brought me out of my thoughts.

The shop was stone and wood, an arching door with intricate floral designs, climbing vines across the windows and a chimney that jutted from the top, the smoke billowing softly.

The door was torn from its hinges, the curtains that looked into the shop shredded.

Quade Shifted beside me, his large golden form leaning low as he smelt the earth.

I don't like how much blood I smell. He said grimly.

I nodded, padding forward slowly and pushing an arc of magic towards the destroyed building.

Getting closer, I could see blood splashed across the doorway, trailing the floorboards as I stepped inside.

The tables and shelves that usually lined the walls and filled the room were ransacked and tossed.

Ingredients mixed, glass shattered, wood splintered.

All covered with splattered and pooling of blood. Most of it was Jezette's, setting my heart into an uneasy rhythm, but I could smell the undertones of other Shifter blood.

There's more than one scent. I said, my voice almost hopeful. Secure it. I'm finding Jez. I dipped my nose, moving before they could argue and slipped into the locked door that led into the Witch's house.

She had a cat door for strays and other wild animals to come and go as they pleased through her house, enchanted to keep unwanted Shifters out.

Her house seemed untouched.

The small white kitchen was intact, a kettle sitting over one of the burners.

The loungeroom overstuffed chairs and fireplace smelt like it had been in use recently.

I curved the couch, seeing an abandoned tea cup and an open book on her small round table.

My brows narrowed.

Jezette didn't leave books out, or just open for the delicate pages to be exposed to the air for too long.

She'd been waiting for me when they'd attacked.

Theo's voice caressed my mind. They broke in through the back, three dead Shifters. She put up a fight. His voice was edged but tension and moment of care.

Jez had trained with us, she had become apart of my Guard, my teacher.

My friend.

Elsa and Theo came in through the back behind the kitchen, still in human form but shadows hugged them, acting as their arms and additional sight as they moved through the house.

I'm moving to her altar room. They understood the warning, Elsa went to the shop.

"I'll check her security footage."

Theo nodded and followed behind me as I headed down the small hallway, pulling back the thick rug that covered the concealed staircase in the floor.

Theo crouched beside me as I sat down, waiting.

His finger poking into the wood to pull out the hidden ring, he rose as he lifted the heavy stone underneath, groaning slightly from the weight.

"Make it quick." He grunted as I climbed down the spiralling stone staircase.

Due to the magic and aura of a Witches altar room, Theo reluctantly closed the hatch over me, sealing me in.

Normal Shifters couldn't transform in an altar room, it weakened them to essentially human.

It could also make them go insane from too much exposure to raw magic that tinted the air, which was why any decent Witch ensured they were stone structures buried at least twenty feet below the earth.

The walls inside the altar room were dotted incrementally with fist sized white crystals that some like electrical lights, illuminating the room.

A workbench and shelf were crammed into the corner, while the centre of the room was a large stone cauldron, carved from the stone itself. A shiver of silver water filled it almost to the brim.

It was something called a Witches Glass, used by Seers like Jezette to see past events and potential futures.

The magic to do so was very draining and powerful, meaning she used it very little, but she liked the silver water that danced in the witch lights.

Her scent was stronger here, but she was no where in sight.

The smell of her blood tapered off and I narrowed my brows, releasing both eyes to Annie.

A wash of light flooded my vision, casting ghostly white glows across everything.

A weak tendril of gold flashed in the corner.

I Shifted, running to the corner and threw my hand above where the gold wash had been.

"Revecto!" Another light bloomed and Jezette's body appeared, breaking the invisibility spell she'd placed around her.

Her black hair, once long and flowing, was hacked short and stuck out with sweat, blood and dirt.

Her face was badly bruised, her forehead and jaw knotted.

I crouched, my hands examining her body gently.

Relief crashed into me when I saw her take in a small rattled breath.

She's alive.

Fucked ribs, broken legs, hands destroyed like someone stomped on them, deep healing cuts across her stomach.

But alive.

My hands froze at her waist.

Her pelvis was completely shattered.

She gave a weak groan as I moved to her legs, her kneecaps ruined to prevent her running. "Rose?"

I met her light brown eyes, reaching out to run my hand across her cheek gently.

"Who did this?" My voice set.

Jez shivered in fear and tears broke. "They were unclanned."

I snarled, looking at her pelvis and the bruising that looked exactly like hand prints that wrapped her thighs. "Did they-"

Her head shook wildly, her face contorting in agony as she did. "No! No!"

I wrapped my arms around her, soothing her and hushing her.

"I had to know," I whispered. Violated Witches were broken Witches, their magic and minds being destroyed when they were taken violently.

Jez had never laid with another, for pure fear of losing her gift.

"I'm taking you home." I told her, stroking her hair as gently as I could, feeling the cuts and bumps that scarred it.

"There were others," she said meekly.

"I smell them." I said absently, assuming she meant the Shifters.

She nodded against me, whining at the pain before she gave a docile breath, becoming unconcious.

I levitated her, doing my best to anchor her movements and we moved from the room.

Theo raised the hatch, I guided Jez out first, Quade paled at the sight, panic widening his eyes as her unmoving form.

"She's just asleep." I reassured.

His expression relaxed slightly, nodding once as they followed me to the car.

"She said they were unclanned." A word that had become filthy in recent weeks thanks to Jordon and his drug lined pockets.

We'd had to start restricting them from the soup kitchen after Seb had found one snooping around the office, and trying to access the computer system.

The guy was an addict, all Jordon had to do was promise he'd always have a supply and he'd been willing to break laws and got killed for it.

The only ones who'd stayed around were regulars, and even they were now scrutinised and watched.

I felt a pang of guilt, hating we had to punish the many for the acts of a few.

But seeing Jezette's destroyed body as Quade and Elsa took over, pulling her into the back seat across their laps, I knew it hadn't been enough.

It hadn't stopped anything!

Annie's heckles rose as she picked up an aura behind the house, buried in the forest.

Theo noticed, turning to follow my line of sight.

Six sets of eyes flashed, bright red.

I took a horrified step back, a roar ripping from Theo at the shapes that stepped from the darkness.

Vampires.

My eyes snapped to Jezette's unconcious body.

There were others. She hadn't meant Shifters.

A creation of the Goddess to guard the darkness and keep balance, blood thirsty, shadow wielding monsters who fed on Shifters and human alike. They acted with little regard for anything but ensuring the balance of th Goddesses earth was kept.

They were neither evil or good.

They just were.

They hadn't been seen in over three hundred years, thought to have been recalled by the Goddess.

One stepped forward, silver hair that was cut short and slicked back , a slender but beautiful pale face with high cheek bones and full lips that curved into a sharp fanged grin as his blood red eyes locked onto me.

His hands casually in the pockets of his suit pants, a tailored shirt hugging his figure in all black.

Something shuddered inside of me.

"Hello, darling." He smiled at me, his voice all too familiar from my dreams.

They had been a warning.

I took another step back as Annie and I gasped together, our minds reeling together.

Mate