Witch And The Wolf

Chapter 18

Damien

I stepped through the portal, Amelia letting is closed behind as she stepped over to help Marcus, pulling things from her satchel while she worked.

“What happened?” I demanded, the pale look to his skin concerning me.

“Someone set fire in Amelias study and when Marcus went in to try and stop it, someone attacked him before running out.” I glanced around me as people ran to fight the fire. “Where are the rogues?” I questioned, knowing it had to be them, and curing myself for not killing them when we had the chance.

“Still locked up sir. This cannot have been one of them.” He responded. As Amelia tied off the bandages she had applied to Marcus, Archie helped him into a nearby chair, as the sound of screaming echoed through the house.

“Bailey!” Amelia cried out rushing towards the stairs, Archie and I right behind her. She got close to the door before Archie could grab her, rushing into the flames to find her friend. Smoke filled the hallway, as wolves worked to bring water and soaking towels to beat the flames in order to put out the fire. Archie shouting orders while I grabbed a wet towel began fighting the flames immediately in front of me to get to my mate. Suddenly the flames froze, before a gust of air rushed through the room, creating a fie vortex, before the fire went out entirely. Standing in the center of the room was my mate, unharmed. I rushed to her, grabbing her by the arms, checking her over for injuries. She had soot on her check but no obvious injuries.

“Don’t ever do that to me again!” I commanded, shaking her slightly, before pulling her against me.

“She isn’t here.” Amelia stated, sounding slightly stunned. “My room…”she murmured pushing away from me to look around.

“It doesn’t matter. We can fix it.” Archie responded stepping into the room. The windows were shattered, and the walls charred, most of her books burnt. Her mediation corner was a mess, and her chairs totally burned.

“He is right. I agreed. Let’s get you cleaned up.” She nodded, following me silently to our bedroom. She didn’t speak while I took our clothes off, leading her into the shower, and cleaning her up. Once done, I dressed her into her comfiest pair of pajamas, and combed through her hair before braiding it loosely, and tucking her into bed, curling myself around her to keep her close. She fell asleep quickly, and while I felt relieved, she was alright, her silence was concerning.

Just before sunrise I got up and quietly slipped out of the room. I went to her study and found Archie and Marcus sorting through her books. “Alpha” Marcus acknowledged me and kept going.

“We are sorting the ones that are salvageable from the ones that are not. I am hopeful we can rebuild the library for her. We had a lot of help earlier in the night, but we sent everyone to get some sleep.”

“Any sign of Bailey?” I asked, already knowing the answer before Archie shook his head.

“She is going to be devastated.” I sat beside them, helping them sort books. We silently spent hours, various wolves coming to join us, or coming to help cleaning where they could. By noon the windows had been covered in plywood and tarps to keep the elements out until we could fix them. Around noon I went to check on Amelia, and found she wasn’t in bed. Confused I headed downstairs to see if I could find her. Stepping in the kitchen I asked if anyone there had seen her, but they all said no. I kept looking around the entire main house, but no one had seen her. As I reached the main foyer, intent to search the entire property, she came bursting through the door. “Damien!” She shouted, throwing herself into me, wrapping her arms around my neck in a tight hug.

“Where have you been?” I asked, confused.

“I went to talk to the rogues. They claim they do not know about the fires. I asked if they saw Bailey, but no one seemed to know what happened to her. I think, maybe the fired must have killed her.”

“We have been in the room all morning, and no one has found any sort of remains.” I mention, unsure what she must be feeling.

“Oh, my sweet alpha.” She replied, looking up and stroking my cheek. A few tears escaped her eyes, and she wiped them away. “You’re right of course. I just keep thinking of her alone in there. I could hear her screaming. I just, I couldn’t see her. I thought once I got the fire out, I would find her but...” She trailed off, the exhaustion in her voice apparent.

“We will search the entire territory for her. I promise.” I soothed her, kissing her forehead. The day wore on while we all worked to salvage what we could in the study. Amelia checked on Marcus, his wolf healing having already done most of the work, before she headed out to help a few small groups search for Bailey. My heart ached for her. We all had heard Bailey screaming but there was nothing to suggest she had been killed by the fire in the study.

“Perhaps she managed to get out of the windows.” Archie mentioned. Something about the whole situation felt wrong. “We also don’t know it wasn’t her who attacked Marcus.” He added.

“But she was in the room…we all heard her screaming for help.” I argued.

A few hours passed and Amelia came in, sitting near Archie and looking around her room. “It was so beautiful.” She sighed. “It will be again.” He said rubbing her back to comfort her.

“Maybe we should call it a day. Get some food and some rest.” I comment, everyone agreeing. We headed down to the dining room, finding a large dinner already on the table.

“We have kept food coming in and out all day so everyone could eat when they had time.” Our head kitchen wolf explained, and we all sat down to eat. Amelia sat close to me, resting her head on my shoulder, not eating much.

“Love you need your strength.” I murmur to her, offering a few spoonful’s of my soup I had been working on. She took them and smiled, resting her head back on my shoulder, but taking a dinner roll and tearing it apart to eat it in small bites. We finished eating, a few wolves sitting to eat with us and then leaving to keep working on the study or go back out to search for Bailey, and stood to head to bed. The front door burst open, and a small group of wolves came in, dragging one of the rogues with them.

“Sir the rogues from the prison…they all escaped. We caught this one near the edge of the woods. He had this” They took a bloody knife and dropped in on the table. “We believe he started the fire, and stabbed Marcus.” My mind began racing, trying to understand when the rogue started laughing, everyone stopping to stare at him.

“I killed your little orphan too...”He snarled, as his laughter became more maniacal.

“What?” Amelia gasped.

“She tried to escape through the window…and I killed her.” He shouted gleefully. Before anyone could react, Amelia lunged across the room, grabbing the knife, and burying it into his chest. We watched in shock as he dropped to his knees and then fell over, blood gushing from his wound, as his last breath gurgled out of his chest.

Amelia stood up, and everyone stared at her, unsure what to do, as blood dripped from her hands.