Nine Lives of an Urban Panther (26 page)

“Chaz,” I gasped.

His arms were around me in an instant, and in an instant, I was calm, steady again. Apparently, he had the same effect on demons that he had on angry panthers.

It was then I noticed the demon power was a different kind of angry, like rage that wanted to be satiated. It was hungry. But not for power. Not like the Mother had said.

I knew I was daring fate by even thinking the Mother could be wrong about something but echoes of desire crept across my skin. Memories with children, wives, awards for good deeds, and moments of pride.

Slowly, I pulled away from Chaz and approached the Veil again. The closer I got to the in-between, the more I heard them. Just like my ties to my pack, I could feel their desires, their vanities all swimming around. They didn't want power; they wanted freedom.

“Violet.”

The voice didn't come from Jessa, though her hand slipped into mine and her little fingers cut off blood circulation to the tips.

The voice didn't come from Chaz, though I felt his heat down my neck.

The voice came from the other side of the Veil and as I looked through it, I saw my mother standing on the other side. Her long dark hair twisted in the unknown wind and her green eyes smiled back at me.

“Is that . . .” Chaz whispered in my ear.

I nodded. Apparently Chaz was powerful enough to see her too. “Part of her, I think.”

The tear in the Veil only widened as we stood before it. The demonic power lunged out for it and I didn't known why until I felt a tendril of it wander out and weave its way into the Veil.

“Vi?” Jessa's hand in mine, tighter as she watched.

A horrible plan formed in my head as I moved closer to the Veil, feeling the power lash out at me. The demon power didn't like being contained, didn't like being chained. I was going to give it a choice and I knew what the answer would be, could feel it in the pull beneath my breastbone as I saw the plan in my head. “Key Holder and Guardian, right?”

Jessa's lavender eyes flashed to me. “I don't like your tone.”

“I've got this power and you've got the skill.”

Jessa was right there with me. “You want to filter that demon through me and into the Veil?”

“No, I want to give you the stolen lives of our people to help protect those who can still fight.”

Large tears filled Jessa's eyes. “Damn, you've got a way with words.”

“It's a gift. Think you're up for it?”

“Got any idea how to do this?”

“Go big or go home.”

Cristina had told me all those months ago that spell work was taking the power and forming it to your will. This was easier than that. The power already had a will. Those stolen lives wanted to be free. I was just about to give them the choice of being anywhere they wanted to be. I just needed to get them there.

I relaxed and let the demon power fill me. It was like undoing a ball of string. The mental image, as comical as it was, helped me figure out what I was doing.

One by one, strand by strand, I released the power down my arm and into Jessa, who gave it form. I closed my eyes as the feelings of fingers and hair and fur ran in cool rivulets down my arm and across Jessa's skin.

I could feel the cool magic as she wove, taking the power of a fellow Wanderer and weaving it back into the Veil to protect us. Slowly, she closed the tear before us, separating me from the in-between.

But the power was still there, still within me. We hadn't used it all. The ball was only half unfurled and I still couldn't feel my panther underneath all that.

“Keep going,” I urged.

“What?”

“Keep going. As far as you can. Make the weaving permanent. Spread out as far as you need to.”

Jessa kept going. As I kept unraveling, she kept spreading the magic out. I felt Dallas, but also wisps of the Oklahoma plains and the salty air of the Corpus Christi Bay.

My head began to spin from the concentration and probably one of the concussions I'd gotten that day. I released the last of the power to Jessa and I stepped back and into Chaz's arms.

“Is it gone?” he whispered into my ear.

“Yes, they are.”

I rested. My body still hurt from the fight with Spencer and the fights before that. I felt sick, like I'd churned out all my food for the past week. I let him be my strength and the panther within my chest purred against him.

Jessa stopped, stretched out to the greatest limit she'd ever been stretched before. When her knees gave out, Tucker was there to catch her when she fell.

It was silent. A still sort of silence without the ebb and flow of the Veil.

With the outside power gone, I could feel others, little tinglings of wolves and fire. “Who else is here?”

Chaz chuckled. “They don't follow orders well. You need to work on that.”

Chaz's arm around my waist, we walked out into Jessa's actual office and I was met with a crowd. The other leaders, the rest of my pack who didn't have bedtimes. Even the elementals were there.

Tucker had placed Spencer's lifeless body on the floor. I tried not to think about how much Jessa would kill him if he ruined the rugs of her office.

I looked over the crowd, the bloody ones, and the frightened ones. Inez stood in the corner, her head down, still bloodied and bruised from our battle. Willowbourne and Valiance were there, rough around the edges, but still standing.

“Peter, I'd like you to negotiate a more formal allegiance now.”

“No need,” Valiance said. “Seeing your sacrifice was all the proof I needed, Prima Jordan.”

Their energies come out toward me, like the shifters had, but I put my hand up and my walls followed. Like with my shifters wanting energy, I pushed their tributes back to them.

A deep furrow grew in Willowbourne's red brow. “This is what we want.”

“I need a little more time, but I will accept your alliance. I know I couldn't have done this without you.”

“He's dead, Violet,” Peter said. “There's nothing stopping you.”

“I'm stopping me. I'm not ready yet. I will not make their mistakes.” I looked into Peter's bright blue eyes. “I've seen the future of Dallas. All sorts of futures. I want to make sure it's the best possible one.”

I looked to Willowbourne. “Please tell me you understand. Dallas is already better. And I intend to make it strong, stable.”

Willowbourne walked up to me and placed her soft hand on my cheek. “The Mother is with you, Violet Jordan. And I am with you.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

Willowbourne pulled away with a small smile and Valiance gave me a nod as he escorted her out of Jessa's office.

“What are we going to do about her?” Tucker asked, pointing to Inez.

Inez cowered and it killed me. “She gets the same thing that everyone else gets.”

Her brown gaze lifted from the floor.

“She gets a second chance, under the very watchful eye of our Riko, with the understanding that I will beat the fire out of her if she ever betrays her kind again.”

“Yes, Prima,” Inez said softly.

Tucker nodded.

“Can we go home now?” I turned to Chaz and his golden eyes. His still golden eyes.

“Yes please.”

Chaz slipped his arm around my waist, which was much needed, because having your ass kicked on multiple plains of reality is truly exhausting.

The whole group of us walked out of the building to dancing lights and flashing sirens. There was a barrier of first responders outside the Infomart. Police and firefighters swarmed us as we exited.

Glass crunched underneath my boot and I looked over my shoulder to see the mirrored building completely devoid of its mirrors, like a bomb had gone off inside.

Just like in my vision.

“Jessa?”

“What? It takes a lot of mirrors to make a hole big enough to bring a wookie through.” Jessa winked as she followed Tucker to his car.

 

Chapter Twenty-Five

I
KNEW
I
had conjured the barn as my safe spot, but my couch was heavenly. The boys fought me at the door about needing to keep safe and protected. Chaz very definitively told them to bugger off.

I flopped down on the soft cushions and ached. Chaz locked up the front door, put the ash branch down.

“I didn't think every part of me could hurt at exactly the same time. Even my eyelashes hurt.”

“You defied the odds tonight, not once, but three times.”

“I probably used up at least three of those nine lives.”

Chaz turned toward me and he wasn't wearing his happy face. “What exactly were you thinking when you leapt through that rip?”

My skin tightened and the sizzle of the pain ran along my entire body. I rose from the couch and everything protested, but I needed to face this fight on my feet. “That my people would be safe without their lightning rod of destruction because they had each other.”

Chaz stood before me. Solid. Every muscle tight and his eyes pure gold. “And because I'm not your pack, I don't get consideration?”

“Of course, I thought about you, but I thought you'd understand. I knew you'd be okay, broody for a while, but okay. I did what needed to be done to protect my family, Chaz. You, Jessa, Waylon. Not just my pack. My people.”

Chaz was the one who looked away. Just like Jovan, just like Inez. “You had no right.”

“No right to protect what I had built, to protect the family we made together.”

I grabbed his chin and forced his golden eyes back to mine. My chin began to quiver. “Tell me I was wrong. Tell me we haven't done something amazing here.”

“You've done something amazing here.”

“Don't be ridiculous, Chaz. We did this. You rescued me from that alley. You're the one who pushed me. You're the first person who said I could. This is as much your doing as it is mine.”

Chaz took my hand from his chin and wrapped his fingers into mine.

“What's really going on here?” I asked softly.

“I promised to put you first. To make sure that someone was looking out for you when you were looking out for everyone else.”

“And you think you failed because I stupidly jumped through a rip with a madman?”

“No, because I'm going to need some rescuing.”

Chaz's shoulders fell and the rock-solid borders that he kept around him fell as well. I was brushed with the warm scent of cashmere and Chaz's musk. The smell was as familiar to me as my own magnolias and my borders melted away at his power.

“Iris?”

“Guess who's got a Legacy of his own now.”

I wrapped my arms around him tightly and I squeezed my eyes shut. I could see him, feel him. The soft warmth of Iris's power connected to his golden center making it ten times bigger than it had been.

Chaz tucked his head into my neck and wrapped his arms around my waist so tightly I couldn't breathe.

When he spoke his words were not more than a whisper that trailed down my throat. “She died in my arms, whispering about her family. About how proud she was and then it happened. Burned like hell.”

“Don't have to tell me twice.”

He let out a long sigh. “I don't think I'll shift, but I've never heard of this happening before.”

“Since when did we do anything by the book?”

Chaz pulled away and his golden eyes shone in the morning light slowly creeping in through my living room windows. That's why they were golden, still golden. It was his new power shining through. He was the son of a Prima now and had the power to go along with it.

“What happened to her body?” I asked delicately.

“Kurt and the Cleaners, actually. I'll have to call them in the morning and . . .”

I pressed my fingers to his lips. “It's one of the perks of being royalty. You just have to give the orders.”

“I'm not a . . .”

“You will be. Well, you can be, if you want it. You've got a claim to the Pride now.”

Chaz shook his head. “No. She wanted you to have it.”

“Wanted us to have it.”

Chaz's eyebrows rose. “Something else that you're not telling me? Another vision?”

I shook my head and pulled Chaz down to the couch. He came willingly, which was good because I didn't have any fight left in me. I rested my head on his shoulder and he pulled my long legs over his.

“Forget the big ole psychics. Self-fulfilling prophecy this time.”

His hot lips brushed my forehead. “Well you do have the appropriate blood line for that.”

I smiled. A joke. Where there was a joke, there was a way back to normal.

I let my eyes close, let the new warmth of him seep into my muscles and soothe the everything that ached. “We will rule Dallas. Slowly. Patiently and very much together.”

 

Epilogue

I
SPUN IN
the simple cream-colored gown. “This is perfect.”

Jessa fluttered around me, pulling the satin until all the lines were straight and fluffing the veil around my head.

The sun streamed through the windows of my room at Iris's house, our house. The pronouns were still difficult, but we were working on changing that by making new memories.

The full-length mirror reflected back the glowing look of a blushing bride and her maid of honor.

“You're going to ruin the edge of this dress walking through that barn.”

“Tyler found a navy walkway for us to stand on.”

Jessa popped up. “Navy? But the flowers won't match that.”

I turned to her and put my large hands on her petite shoulders. I looked her square in her lavender eyes. “Calm. Down. Everything's perfect. This is just want I wanted.”

Jessa took in a deep breath. “Okay.”

A small rush of feathers swept over my bare arms. I looked at the doorway to see Kandice standing silently with a small smile on her face. Her light purple dress caught the air from the open window and flowed around her plumping figure. “Just wanted to see if you needed anything.”

I smiled and waved her in. “I think we're good.”

Kandice went to sit on a little chair in the corner.

A wave of nausea passed over me. It wasn't mine. My stomach was fine. Facing down demons and Biggers had pretty much steeled my nerves against wedding-day jitters. I looked over at the thin girl and walked over to her.

When I put my hand on her shoulder and opened my borders, the answer echoed back to me. “You're pregnant.”

Kandice's lips parted and she looked up at me with parted lips. “How did you . . .”

“Does Nash know?”

She shook her head. “Only figured it out myself a week ago. Been so happy, I didn't even notice.”

“I'd hug you but I can't bend down in this dress.”

Kandice rose and I wrapped my arms around her. It was there. This little ball of magic that sat around her midsection.

Tears welled up in my eyes, and as I released her, I dabbed at them carefully. “Go tell him. Right now.”

“What?” Kandice said.

“Go, tell Nash this instant. You shouldn't keep a secret like that.”

Kandice scurried out of the room—skipped, really.

Jessa came at me with a Kleenex to fix the little smear in my mascara.

“Guess everyone's getting their happy ending,” I said into the mirror, watching Jessa carefully. “I'd like you to recognize I have not been pressing you about Tucker.”

“I know.”

“And I'd like you to know I've never seen you happier than you've been in the past month.”

“I've been too busy planning your wedding to be happy.”

But she gave me one glance, and one glance was all it took to tell me that there might be another wedding in our future.

A slamming screen door and stomping feet shook the entire house as someone raced up the stairs. There was urgency and an energy preceding the visitor that made my skin prickle.

Chaz flew through the door. His hair was combed and his tuxedo was perfection.

“You're not supposed see the bride,” Jessa squealed as she flew at Chaz to get out of the room.

“Waylon's had a vision.”

All three of us froze. Jessa slowly pulled away from Chaz's lapel, even smoothed out the crinkle she'd left there.

“The bloody kind of vision or the demon kind of vision?” I asked.

“Earthquake unleashes a demon kind of vision.”

“Awesome. Do we have a time line?”

I felt it in the ground before the earthquake shook the house. Cries of panic echoed through the field outside and rattled around in my brain. Sooner rather than later. Okay.

“Jessa, go outside and calm everyone down. I need to talk to Chaz.”

Jessa nodded and left the two of us alone.

I sighed and reached out my hand for Chaz. He walked over and rested his head on mine. “You look amazing.”

“It's like you're a model or something.”

He chuckled and then pulled away.

“You knew this was going to happen, right?” I asked as I looked into his now ever-golden eyes. My eyes darted down to the dampening charm now around his neck. I tucked it back underneath his black bow tie. Teaching Chaz to shield had caused a slight riff in our relationship, so I'd let Tyler use his new status as Shalar to help Chaz with his containment.

“It wouldn't be a Jordan affair if there wasn't a prophecy involved.”

I sighed as I rested my hand on his chest. “Guess you won't be getting your birthday present.”

“What was that?”

“A wife.”

Chaz leaned down to kiss me. It was chaste and tainted by the vanilla lip gloss that Jessa had applied. “Don't know. Minister is still downstairs and everyone's here.”

“And running.” I shook my head. “If I wanted a rush job, I'd have let you talk me into Vegas. This one thing, I want normal.”

“Well then, I guess you'll have to ask yourself one thing, Violet Jordan.”

“What's that?”

“Do you want to take down another demon as a single girl in the big city or as Mrs. Charles Garrett?”