“The plague,” I whispered. The churning in my belly was only getting worse with every word that crossed her lips. “My grandmother was responsible for the plague?”
Bridget rolled her eyes again. “Finally, you’re getting it. Perhaps now you can see I am only trying to right the wrongs of my mother by returning supernatural-kind to their bloodrights.”
“You’re the one?” I was in such a state of shock I needed things spelled out to me. “You’re the one behind all these shifters preparing for war? How exactly do you plan on saving them all when you don’t have the magic to restore them?”
“No, I don’t,” she agreed with me. “But you do. Or you did. Come the full moon, that nifty little bracelet will allow me to absorb everything that was yours. Dianoch included.” Her lips peeled back in a macabre grin. “Then, once my army is assembled, we will take on the puny humans and finally take back this world for magic. The way it was always meant to be. And you know the best part about it all, Christina?” I shook my head, numb to speech. “Without your magic, there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
She let out a childlike giggle, like the psychopath she was turning out to be, then leaned in to kiss my cheek. I wasn’t so shocked that I couldn’t place the tracker on her, though, and she’d just presented the perfect opportunity.
“Wait,” I gasped, grabbing on to her bare arm and placing the spell against her skin. “What will happen to me after you take my magic?” I really didn’t give a shit; it was never going to happen. But the spell inked on the thin piece of tissue paper needed three full seconds of contact to bind.
“Aw, honey,” she sighed, cupping my cheek and giving me this look of pity that made me want to tit punch her so damn badly. “You’ll die, of course. With no magic left, you’ll be nothing better than human. And humans will have no place in my new world. The kindest thing would be to let my army tear you to shreds.”
She patted my cheek in a condescending way, then pulled her arm free from my grip. “I think we’re done here? I’ll let you leave unharmed. After all, you pose no risk to me, and you…” She turned to Caleb with a simpering grin. “You will become mine all too soon. I do so hate to see handsome men damaged.”
With another giggle, she turned and headed back inside the house, not even glancing back to see if Nicholai was following or if we were leaving.
“I’m so sorry, Christina,” Bridget’s guardian murmured softly. “If there were anything I could do...” He trailed off pathetically, and I tried not to turn my anger on him. After all, this wasn’t his fault; he was just too damn spineless to stop her. Fucking fox shifters.
“There’re plenty of things you could do, N,” I told him in a cold voice as I shoved back my chair and made my way to the stairs. “You just need to grow a pair, like Vic. Maybe he can help us stop this madness before it goes any further.”
“I hope so,” Nicholai muttered, giving me a sad smile. “Good luck.”
Curling my lip at him in disgust, I turned my back and walked out to the grass with Caleb beside me. Right before the portal runes flared to life, Wes flapped down from his branch and perched on my shoulder to hitch a ride home.
Bridget had just dropped a truckload of information on me, but she’d fallen into that same old bad guy role. They really never can resist boasting about how smart they are and what their master plan is. I guess it was just a flaw of the overly arrogant? Whatever the reason, it was damn helpful knowing what we were in for.
Now we just needed to foil her diabolical plans and then... save the world. So easy.
24
RIVER
My heels clicked a rhythmic sound on the wooden boards of the front veranda as I paced. It was the best I could manage in an effort to keep control, and it was barely working as it was.
Kit had returned some hours earlier with Caleb and Wes and filled us in on everything Bridget had blurted out about her plans. Stupid woman. No wonder her mother had tried to strip her magic from her all those centuries ago; she wasn’t sane enough to handle them herself.
It was the email that Vali had shared with me that had me pacing the damn veranda, though. He’d done the right thing, showing me. I could tell how torn he was, and it was clear that Director Pierre hadn’t wanted the information shared with the team. Otherwise why not send it to me?
Expecting Vali to keep something of that magnitude to himself was too much to ask, though. He was sitting in one of the wicker chairs, watching me with those dark gray eyes as I paced, and the tension practically vibrated through him.
“So, what do we do?” he asked me after the longest amount of time.
I didn’t immediately respond; instead I paced a few more lengths while I thought his question over. What the bloody hell did we do?
“I guess we track down Bridget’s missing guardians. Most likely they are staying away due to the geas she placed on them, but surely with Austin and Caleb at full power we can break those for them. That would allow them to do what needs to be done.” I tightened my lips over my teeth, knowing that hadn’t been what he was asking.
“Makes sense,” he rumbled. “But you know what I meant. What do we do about the other message.”
My next step faltered, and I paused, sighing heavily. Jonathan’s surface message had been clear. Find Lachlan and Victor, and have one of them kill Bridget before shit got out of hand. His other message wasn’t that much harder to determine.
A Ban Dia could only be killed by her direct relative, say Bridget to Kit. Or by her dianoch.
So if one of us were to lose control, we stood a very real chance of hurting her. Maybe even killing her. I couldn’t let that happen. But what were my options, here? To never let her heal me and therefore never turn into the beast that lurked inside my mind?
Leaving wasn’t an option. Maybe it should be. Of course, it should be, and a better man than me would already have his shit packed and be on a plane to the farthest corner of the earth in order to keep her safe.
But the thought of never seeing her again made me physically ill. Even entertaining the idea resulted in a sensation akin to being stabbed by a thousand knives dipped in acid. Deep down, I knew I couldn’t survive being away from her. Sooner or later I would lose my battle for control, and something told me if that happened, there would be no need for her magic to bring out my beast. He could do that all on his own given half an inch of freedom.
“I don’t know,” I finally admitted to Vali, dropping down into the seat beside him and scrubbing my hands over my face. “I honestly don’t know.”
He pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “I respect your honesty on this one, Alpha,” he growled, and I huffed. He’d never called me Alpha before, I suspect because he never really considered me his leader—which was understandable and not a battle I was concerned to fight. His use of it now, though... that worried me.
“My suggestion, if you’re open to it,” he started, and I gave a small nod to continue, “is that you let Kit heal you in a controlled environment. Your need for control is clear, and I suspect it stems from whatever you’re afraid you’ll change into.” I gave another short nod. “So, maybe we need to create an environment similar to the control you keep mentally. A cage or a box, a confined space where you will feel safe. Then if anything does go wrong after she heals you, we can keep you under lock and key until you get a hang of things.”
I sighed, rubbing at the stubble on my cheek as I considered his idea. It wasn’t a bad one. Far from it. More to the point, it was a hell of a lot better than anything I’d been able to come up with so far.
“It’ll take time to arrange,” I said in a soft voice, almost not wanting to voice my agreement. “More time than we have before the next full moon.”