Alpha's Legacy (Black Moon Saga Book 3)

34. Message Received: Eramund

“So, what is it?” Bria asks me, still intently observing what I’m doing, her face mere inches from Caz’s arm as she looks on.

“It isn’t really a thing,” I mutter in answer, concentrating on following my spell all the way through his body just to be sure. “Well, it is, but not a thing thing. It exists, but … you know.”

“No, we really don’t,” Bria says, her tone conveying both amusement and irritation, as is the way with her. “Perhaps you could try speaking like a normal person.”

“Bria,” Tian scolds her.

“It’s not a tangible thing,” Kylie offers in explanation, translating for me as usual.

Not that we don’t all speak the exact same language, but no one ever seems to understand me. Kylie does, but not the rest. Adam maybe. Tian when he feels like admitting it. But not the rest. I’m used to it, though.

[It’s the tunnels again. A sewer system or something, I can’t quite tell. Dark, damp, faintly musty-smelling, the barely perceptible sound of some water source dripping off in the distance. And I can hear the same voice as before, quietly droning, “If not your enemy, then your friend. Your friend. Your friend.’ But there is no person to be seen, friend or otherwise.]

“It’s not a thing,” I repeat, not remembering the last thing that was said before another of my visions interrupted. “It’s a what, but not a thing. A spell, I suppose you could say, though no words were uttered. An effect, perhaps, would be more accurate. And I suppose it’s also accurate to say that you’ve been ‘tagged,’ as you described it, but it’s more like being marked with one’s essence.”

“Is there any way that we can tell whose ‘essence’ it was, or how they did it?” Caz wonders, harboring a disturbed expression on his face.

[‘A friend,’ the voice in the tunnels whispers again. ‘If not an enemy, then a friend.’]

“That is the question,” I agree. “But a question for later, indeed. For now, it is enough.”

I wave my hand across the vampire’s arm, monitoring as I feel my own essence replacing that of whoever inserted a piece of him- or herself into this man, not ceasing until all traces of the other have been erased.

“What is enough? That we’re asking the right questions?” Caz asks, seeming puzzled by my explanation.

I thought it sufficient. I even showed him what I was doing. It’s not my fault if he wasn’t paying attention.

“My essence,” I elaborate for him. “We don’t have time to waste on figuring out the specifics of whatever has been done to you, but for now, I have replaced it with my own essence. Notably more powerful, enough to easily push out the other, so whoever it was can no longer use you as a teleportation focus.”

“But now you can track us?” Bria questions, concern the dominant emotion written on her face.

“No, of course not, and neither could the other,” I answer her, almost wanting to laugh at the notion. “Follow you, yes. Locate you, no. He tethered himself to you was all.”

But then I realize that “tether” might be the wrong word.

“Anchor, maybe,” I add, but reconsider. “Hmm, no. Perhaps tether was better.”

“He attached some part of himself that he could sense and latch onto so that he could pursue you with a teleport spell whenever he so chooses,” Kylie explains. “In much the same way that Eramund can sense me and follow me to wherever I am because of our mate bond, which in a sense, ‘tethers’ us together.”

“Yes, precisely,” I agree, smiling at her and nodding my approval.

“And now you can do that?” Bria asks again, appearing no less concerned.

“I could, but I won’t,” I assure her. “And eventually, I’ll help Caz remove all magical receptacles and essences from his body. The important thing is that untrusted casters can no longer breach your security measures this way, and now we can get on with the rest of our meeting.”

“None of the rest of us have anything to worry about, magically speaking?” she wonders next.

“No, of course not. I already said as much,” I remind her, perhaps a bit too forcefully judging by the surprised, irritated look she gives me in response.

“No, you didn’t,” she answers flatly. “You looked us all over and then stared at the table for no apparent reason until I reminded you that you still hadn’t examined Caz.”

Ah. Yes, well, no reason that was apparent to her, but I know why. It’s these relentless visions. There’s no convincing them that it’s unnecessary and counterproductive to keep harassing me in the daytime, either. But I got the message. If not an enemy, then a friend, whatever that means.

[It’s Anna Jade, though she’s a bit older than she is now. She’s sitting with her older sister and many faceless others, speaking together around a large, long table. As Margot is addressing the room, she pauses to receive a mind-link, the contents of which I’m not privy to. But her eyes widen, and she looks to her faceless Beta before announcing, ‘An intruder has been spotted approaching the west border. Patrols say he’s broadcasting a message of some sort.’ And then she turns and looks at Anna Jade. Her mouth opens, and she appears to be speaking the words herself, but the voice is the same as I’ve been hearing in the tunnels. ‘If not your enemy, then your friend.’]

Yes, yes, I understand. Anna Jade has a friend, or she will have. An important one. One connected to the events of our current time.

But who? That is the question that the visions seem unwilling to answer directly. But if they’d only allow me to sleep for once, then perhaps I’d have the wits and the sense to sort that out on my own.

I realize that I’ve missed some of the conversation going on around me again, but from what I can tell, Kylie and Bria are discussing who else to invite to this meeting.

“I need him in the room with me,” Kylie tells her, perhaps a bit irritated about whatever it is.

“He insists that he can’t leave his territory right now. He claims that some scrappy opportunist might show up and try to usurp him in his absence,” Bria argues.

“Well, then I don’t know if I feel comfortable inviting him to this conversation,” Kylie answers.

“We’ll just get all the sensitive parts out of the way first, and then invite him in,” Bria suggests, reaching over and patting her laptop computer.

Oh, I see. She’s talking about Alpha Miles, who she thinks should be involved with our plans to rescue Anna Jade. She intends to patch him in remotely, using that computer. But I agree with Kylie. Unless she can meet him face-to-face and get a sense of his mind, then he can’t be trusted. We can’t exactly take Kylie to him either, though. The whole reason why we’ve involved Pete in this is because of the delicate nature of the situation. We cannot just go to Las Vegas, even if Alpha Miles would allow it.

If any of the other supernatural factions got wind of Kylie or any of the rest of us being there, or having been there for any length of time, then chaos would ensue. She’s well-loved in our own region, but well-hated among those who vie for her power and influence. Alpha Miles is not excluded from that bunch simply because he has agreed to help us in this instance.

[Back to the tunnels again, though this time it’s in a dimly lit, possibly inhabited area. I can hear feral vampires about, though I don’t see them. I’ve been to this scene before too, and I already know what I’m about to hear. Sure enough, a deeper, more sinister voice whispers, ‘If not your friend, then your enemy. Your enemy, your friend. Your friend, your enemy. Your enemy. Your enemy.]

“In the other room,” Adam finishes whatever he was just saying. “And Pete too, plus Magnus.”

“Why Magnus?” Tian asks, practically scoffing at the thought. “He can’t get into the city any better than we can.”

“No, but Margot told Lee, who passed it onto him, and he wants to be here. For moral support, if nothing else,” Kylie explains. “And I trust him. He won’t share whatever he hears here today.”

“Well yes, I trust him, but doesn’t Lee need his support more?”

“No, the challenge was three days ago.”

“Maximus, then. Couldn’t he use some advice and support from his father and former Alpha to help guide him during his first days as Alpha?”

“Do you really loathe the man that much?” Kylie wonders incredulously. “Enough that you would trust him but still despise the idea of his presence among friends?”

“I just think that his attention would be better spent worrying about his own family,” Tian explains, shifting his feet around to rebalance his stance and straightening his spine as a physical demonstration of how right he believes himself to be.

Although I believe him to still be too bitter about the situation with Lee and Anna Jade to be able to see past it. He resents the way that Alpha Magnus tried to force first Anna Jade and then Margot to mate with Lee and become Luna of his pack when his firstborn took over as Alpha. And having gained some affection for Lee and some sympathy for his strife, he holds Alpha Magnus accountable for the rift between Lee and his brother, among other things.

It didn’t help that Magnus fought him tooth and nail when Kylie proposed a simple, obvious solution: Allow Lee to take over as Alpha, and then allow Max to challenge him and win, thereby releasing Lee of the obligation without breaking any laws or pack traditions. Lee never wanted the position anyway, and it was quickly apparent that Max was as strong of a choice as his older brother, once we sat him down and explained the situation to him so that he could let go of his vendetta against his brother and focus on what needed to be done.

The trickiest part was convincing Magnus and Max to keep Lee’s connection to Margot a secret. If it became known that she was fated to a Luna’s Grace Alpha, the people there would have expected them to mate before or during Lee’s succession ceremony. And if that had happened, then Margot’s role as Luna of that pack would have robbed her of her automatic claim to becoming Alpha of ours. It would have gone to Emerick, and she would have had to challenge him to get it back. A proper disaster, that’s what that all would have been, with Alpha Magnus personally orchestrating the chaos.

Thankfully, he eventually came to his senses, but not before Tian developed a grudge. And we all know how enduring an ancient vampire’s grudges can be.

“I understand that we’re all stressed, but could we please find a way to redirect this angst to something more productive and try to stay on task?” Adam urges, to my relief. “The fact of the matter is that Magnus is in the next room, like it or not, and we have some things we need to discuss with Pete. So, shall we?”

“I second that,” I chime in, hoping that I’m correct in my assumptions of what is even going on here that I think I’m agreeing to.

“Lead the way, Alpha man,” one of the less familiar female vampires adds, smirking at me mischievously when I turn to give her an incredulous look.

She’s regarding and speaking to Adam rather flirtatiously, which I’m sure she already knows is the same as declaring her desire to die at the hand of my mate. His mate. His territorial Alpha female mate.

“You can all return to your duties and assignments,” Bria announces, speaking to her team of vampires. “Especially you, Aspen.”

“Spoilsport,” the woman, presumably Aspen, grumbles.

But she and the other vampires, with the exception of Bria, seem to be doing as they were told, while the rest of us do in fact follow Adam into the next room for our meeting.