Astrid's Wish (20 page)

Closing his eyes, he concentrated.
I wish I was back home. I wish
I was back home.
He tried several more times, but nothing happened.

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So he went with a shorter distance.
I wish I was in the backseat.
But still nothing happened.

“I know what you’re trying to do, and you might as well knock it off.” Ivan yawned as he drove on. “That leather choker you’re wearing is enchanted.” He reached up and felt the thin length of leather wrapped around his throat. “It’s bound your magic, so you can’t even wish for a glass of water.”

He balled up his fist so tight his knuckles turned white from lack of circulation. The man had taken what freedom he had away. He slammed his fists down into each thigh, making a loud smacking sound throughout the car.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why what? You need to be more specific, son.”

He cringed at the word “son.” Ivan might have fathered him, but he was not his father. He didn’t have one. “Why any of this?”

“I’m close to a thousand years old, Astrid, and all my life I’ve been forced to live in a bubble of sorts. Being told what I could and couldn’t do. So naturally, I found a way, with the help of others, around being held down and policed by the Warriors of the Light and the Council of Paranormal Beings.” Ivan grinned over at him. “You, my son, are the key to our freedom.”

“The key?” He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “If I’m so important to you, why send me to live with Malcolm and Lucian?”

“Now that, my boy, was your grandmother’s idea.” Ivan relaxed back into his seat and drummed his fingers against the steering wheel.

The sound grated on his already frayed nerves. “She is also the one to name you. Giving you that wretched moniker made it easy to find you. It’s such a feminine name for a young man. But on the off chance you were smart enough to escape, she thought it would make locating you easier since you have such an uncommon name..”

Astrid let the smart-enough comment roll off his shoulders. He was more interested in this grandmother he had. There were more members to this twisted family?

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“But we sent you to live with Malcolm so he could toughen you up and make a man out of you. I couldn’t very well raise you, being as your grandfather is still on the council. But I can now see all those years spent with Malcolm did nothing to make you a strong and obedient warrior. But I intend on rectifying that.”

“Make me strong? Obedient? Did you know that Lucian beat me, and when he wasn’t beating me he raped me?”

“I didn’t know the particulars, but after all that, you still kept that fairy goodness inside you.” Ivan eyed him warily. “I find it fascinating that you are even sane. You must be more powerful than we thought.”

“I still don’t understand any of this,” he whispered, more to himself than for Ivan to hear. All the information of his past and his family came crashing down on him. He didn’t know if he could take any more.

“As I’m sure you already know, you’re part fairy, part witch, and that means, in theory, magic without consequence.” Ivan flicked on his blinker and took the corner hard. “Mother and I were tired of being subjected to the righteousness of others and more than willing to assist in the destruction of the council by any means necessary.

Believe me, we’re not the only ones itching to break out of this prison of a life we are forced to live.”

“You would destroy and kill all those you have ever known just so you can use your magic as you see fit?” It was plan lunacy. Ivan kept referring to “they”—they who? Others were helping his deranged father, but Astrid couldn’t figure out how he played a part in any of this. He wasn’t powerful by any means.

“Son, you’re thinking too hard. Let it go. All will become clear soon enough.” He flinched away when Ivan reached out to touch his hair. Not being fazed by his reaction, Ivan dropped his hand.

He truly and honestly cared for no one. Maybe it was that little boy living inside him, but he had to know something, anything about his mother. And Ivan was his only option to get that information.

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“What about my mother? Did you even love her?” It was pointless to ask, because he had a sinking suspicion he already knew the answer, but he held out a shred of hope.

“Love?” Ivan sound shocked by the idea. “Love is for fools. I seek and want only power. You would do yourself right by learning that, son. The more power you obtain, the more respect you get from others.”

“That’s not respect. That’s fear,” he retorted back.

“Call it what you will, but it doesn’t matter because in the end it’s what I want. But to answer your question, did I love your mother, no.

She was the means to get me you, and once you were born, she was disposed of.”

“So you just killed her?” His breath hitched as he sobbed for the woman he would never get to know.

“Not me, your grandmother. She hated knowing our pure bloodlines were tainted by me impregnating a fairy. So naturally, after you were born, she had to erase any evidence that you were part fairy.”

He tried to stop his tears. The truths Ivan spoke were about as much as he expected. Evil beings did evil things, and that was what his family seemed to be, pure evil. Any other questions he might have had faded into the haze. It was weak of him to admit, but he had learned enough for one day. He stayed quiet as Ivan drove down a dark, deserted dirt road. Trees flew by his window in a rush, in blurs of blackness. Outside his window, the world looked cold and cruel, but the harsh realities inside the car he sat in were ten times worse.

A few miles down the road, a building came into view. It looked like a metal barn of some sort. Ivan slowed up then put the car into park. As the car came to a stop, the metal doors slid open. Two people came walking out. Clouds filled the sky, preventing any stars from shining through, lighting the earth below. His eyes had adjusted, but he still couldn’t make out who came out to greet them. Ivan got out of the car to meet them halfway. He shook hands with one and hugged
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the smaller person. They stood outside the car talking, and then as one, they all turned in his direction.

He tugged at the leather binding around his neck, trying desperately to break it free. The small group started toward the car.

Astrid began to panic and dug his fingernails into his skin, trying frantically to get the stripe of leather loose. The clouds parted, and as they reached his door, the moonlight shone on the smaller person’s face. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It had to be a nightmare. Ivan pulled open the passenger door.

“It’s been quite some time, Astrid.”

Astrid held still. There were no words he could use to express the horror that held him paralyzed under the watchful stare of the woman he had thought to be his mother.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you.” Ivan chuckled. “Astrid, let me introduce you to your grandmother Constance.”

What?
Still, nothing verbal came out of his mouth. His breathing came in heavy pants. It was as if he had been transported back in time. Astrid felt like that frightened little boy who used to hide under his bed to escape the wrath of his mother. But Astrid knew now she was his grandmother. “I see some things never change,” Constance said bitterly. “You better do as we say, or you will find yourself six feet under with your dead mother.”

Her callous words were delivered without batting an eyelash. She meant what she said. She would kill him if he got too out of line. A cold sweat broke out across his body, and his hands began to shake.

Klaus, I wish you were here.

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Jarrett

It had been four hours since Klaus discovered Astrid missing, but it felt like an eternity. And they still were no closer to finding him now than they were then. If only he could think of anywhere Ivan could have taken Astrid, anywhere. But he couldn’t. Until a few days ago, he himself had never been to Missouri for more than a pass-through, so there was not a chance Ivan knew much more than him.

He had to have had help from someone.

He sat numbly at the table and tapped the pen resting in between his fingers against the tabletop. The light
tap-tap
filled the quiet void in his brain. All around him people sat talking and planning ways to find Astrid, but all he could hear was the
tap-tap
.

“Klaus?” a small voice whispered from his left. He still didn’t move. He just concentrated on the soft
tap-tap
. “Klaus!” The voice steadily rose in volume.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, he turned to see Miles sitting next to him, his face drawn in sadness. His eyes were red from shedding so many tears. Klaus could relate, but he kept his grief on the inside. To shed one tear would cause his resolve to crumble to the ground like a house of cards, and then how would he be any good to Astrid?

“Sorry about that, Miles.” He looked away from the men plotting at the table to focus on Miles. “How you holding up?”

“Me? Your mate has been taken to god knows where, and you’re asking me how I’m doing? I was all wrong about you.” Miles smiled apologetically at him. “Sitting here watching you, I can see how much you care for Astrid.”

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Klaus nodded his head. He appreciated the kind words from Miles. The man had rode him hard when he first arrived, but he understood it was out of love for Astrid that Miles acted the way he did.

“Klaus, I was wanting to talk to you.” Miles darted his eyes toward his mate, who sat at the head of the table. “Alone.”

He nodded again and let Miles lead him out of the room. He wasn’t accomplishing anything sitting at the conference table while others came up with ideas to rescue his mate. The shock of what had happened still sat fresh in his gut, weighing him down. He was utterly useless for the time being.

Miles ushered him into a room across the hall from the warrior’s war room. Why Miles needed privacy he did not know. Miles took a seat, and he sat across from him.

“Can I ask you something?” He nodded yes. “You believe in past lives and being able to see into the future, right?”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, unsure of where the conversation was going. “Some witches have the ability to see into the future or, like Carter, can look into a person’s past. It takes training, but it can be done. Why do you ask?”

He could feel the waves of nervous energy rolling off the young vampire. Miles worried his lower lip as he stared at the ground. The young man sat silent for so long Klaus had become concerned and made to get to go get Ben, and then Miles spoke.

“Remember earlier when I said I heard a voice in my head that told me to tell Astrid to touch the man while making the wish, and he would disappear?”

“Yes.”

“Well, the voice is talking again.” Miles wrapped his arms around his waist and rocked forward in his chair.

Hearing voices was never a good sign. And the timing seemed to be perfect if someone were manipulating Miles into thinking he heard voices. “Miles, who do you think is talking to you?” he asked gently.

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Miles stopped rocking back and forth and looked up at Klaus with tear-filled eyes. “My son.”

“Your son? Are you and Ben planning on adopting or surrogacy?”

This was the first he had heard of Ben and Miles’s desire to have children. It also fueled the fire that someone was pulling the strings, making Miles believe this.

“No and no.” Miles wiped away his tears. “Our baby. From Ben and I.”

“You’re two men, and last time I checked, we can’t have babies.”

Klaus hated to say it, but poor Miles was losing his grip on his sanity, or worse, someone played tricks on the young man’s mind. “Miles, I think someone’s using you in an attempt to cause trouble. I mean honestly, how do you expect you and Ben to be able to have a baby?”

Klaus was becoming frustrated. Time was wasting.

“From a wish,” Miles whispered so softly Klaus had to lean forward to hear him.

“A wish?” He shook his head. “But how? Astrid isn’t that powerful.”

“Not alone, but together you are.”

He leaned against the back of his chair, staring blankly at Miles.

According to Miles, he and Astrid would grant his wish to have a baby. That couldn’t be possible. Klaus worked his jaw up and down, but he still couldn’t make his vocal cords work. He absolutely had no clue how to respond to Miles’s claim. Anything was possible in the paranormal world, but…

“I know it sounds crazy, but he hasn’t been wrong yet. He saved us from that man earlier. And when paranormals mate, we get stronger together. Isn’t it possible this could happen?” Miles asked, hope in his tone. “We have to believe. It’s the only choice we have right now.”

“I guess.” Miles gave him a small smile, and he smiled back. “So, Miles, what is this voice, your son, saying to you now?” They had no other leads, so he put faith into Miles and the mysterious voice in his
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head. The voice did help save his mate, Miles, and Trevor from the intruders that broke into their home. Sometimes in life, a person had to take leaps of faith and trust in things they had no reason to, and this was one of those times.

“He’s telling me that if we pull our energy together we can wish ourselves to Astrid.”

“What?” he asked. “The only person capable of making wishes is gone. That voice in your head is wrong,” he snapped at Miles. He hated to shout at Miles, but it was just one more reminder Astrid wasn’t there.

“He said that the bond you and Astrid share is strong. When you mated, part of your soul, magical energy—whatever you want to call it—went into him, and same for you. Part of Astrid is in you,” Miles said in a rush. “You can tap into that magic and wish yourself to him with the help of us other mated pairs. He said it had something to do with our life force being stronger since we’re mated, and that energy, when transferred to you, can spark the wish into action.”