Shattered Souls (11 page)

“Bakula,
we went to the address that the bounty hunter was given,” I said, capturing Bakula and Dace’s attention.

“Bounty hunter?” my mom choked on her coffee.

“Yeah. It’s complicated. I don’t think I’m the only target.”

“You
were the target?” my mom asked, her face ashen.

I nodded. “There have been a lot of developments that we didn’t want to burden you with.”

“I’m begging to be burdened with them. Please, Triss, don’t keep anything more from me. I can handle it.” My mom’s expression was agonized. I looked at my aunt as she wrapped her arm around my mom’s shoulder and squeezed her.

“I’ll fill you in on everything I can think of,” my aunt
said softly. “We needed to make sure the time was right, and I’d say it is now.”

“You were saying?” Dace asked, his eyes darkening.

“I don’t know how to say this, but the address led to a biotech company, some pharmaceutical company. They were unloading a shipment.” I shifted in my chair and looked over at Logan for support. “We were able to sneak inside and take a look at what the shipment contained.”

Bakula put her hand up. “Say no more, my dear.”

She looked away and Dace stepped forward. His eyes moist from my confirmation of what they already knew.

“We’ve been hopeful that our
suspicions wouldn’t be realized. Captures and disappearances have been reported around the world. Your grandfather left an impression among the organization that he knew the ingredient needed for immortality.” Dace’s voice was gruff. I could tell he was trying to hold back tears. “And he obviously didn’t, but that hasn’t stopped the members from trying everything. No matter the devastation. There’s a lot of money on the line.”

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “How long have you known?”

“The kidnappings have been happening over the last several weeks. We were hopeful we’d find them alive, but I guess that won’t be happening.”

A shiver of disgust crept up my spine as I thought back to the ima
ge that would haunt me for the rest of my life. Those poor fairies did nothing wrong. These witches would stop at nothing, and the threat is only deepening.

“I just wanted to tell you. I was pretty sure you knew, but —”

“We appreciate it, my dear,” Bakula said quietly, her eyes still glistening as she turned to look at me. Her gaze fell to the ring on my pinky before she looked away. Something more was bothering her, but she had no intention of telling me. Instead she began speaking to my mom. “We’ve been trying to persuade your daughter to go into hiding.”

“I’m not going anywhere. There’s a lot that needs to be done. Obviously,” I said.

“I’ve already spoken with my mom, and she has offered to let us to stay in the rental home,” Logan spoke with ease and certainty.

“Ellsy offered that, did she,” my mom replied. She looked at me and then at Logan.

“I want you to be able to come back to your home, but I’m a target right now. I’ve been thinking about it, and I think the best thing for me to do is to move out with Logan.”

“No, the best thing for you to do is to go in hiding,” Dace chided.

I pushed my chair back and got up. The coffee wasn’t doing it. My head was pounding. I put some water on the stove and grabbed chamomile tea and peppermint oil.

“That isn’t going to happen so we can just stop wasting time discussing it. Mom, we
wanted to let you know that I’ll be moving out of the house. It’s nothing personal. It’s become a necessity.”

“You certainly have grown-
up in these last few months,” my mom said, smiling. “I trust your decisions. You have more on your plate than most.”

“Logan sa
ys the same thing,” I replied, pouring the boiling water over the tea and returning to the table. “We can’t let this destruction continue.”

“You mentioned a bounty hunter?” my mom questioned.

This was the mom I was used to. Strong, commanding, and no-nonsense, mix in a bit of batty and that’s who I grew up with. I was thankful she was in my life once more.

“Trevor took him away and put him with the others,” Logan confirmed.

“Others?” My mom’s brows shot up. “There are a lot of things I’m not aware of, aren’t there?”

I nodded
. “Yeah. There’s a lot. Anyway, it sounds like covens are being infiltrated in many ways. Trevor’s been putting the word out, and task forces have started going literally from home to home to check on families. Then the plan is to start going from business to business. And that’s just at our coven. He’s trying to initiate this across the country.”

“And beyond, really,” Logan said.

“True,” I confirmed. Turning my attention back to my mom, I decided to bring up the man who appeared in my visions. “Can I ask you something, mom?”

“Of course.”

“There’s a man who my father said I needed to be aware of, but I don’t know his significance or who he is.”

“Okay?”

“If I send you an image of what he looks like, do you think you might be able to help place him?”

“I’ll certainly try,” she replied.

I reached across the table and grabbed her hand. I locked my fingers through hers and closed my eyes. I conjured the vision of the man and allowed his figure to grow inside my mind. His presence grew stronger as I allowed my mind to focus on his features and mannerisms; the sense of his being flowed through my body and into my mom’s. As our minds locked, I felt the energy shift between us. The process wasn’t as dramatic as at the shop earlier, but it did provide a gateway. Just as Dace and Bakula mentioned, the emotions can come back my way. My mom’s concern, anxiety, and sadness washed over me as I continued transferring the images of the man. I began hardening my heart as I pushed the last of the images into my mom’s mind, not allowing any connections to her as a person at all. Treating her like a machine I was plugging into versus the mother who knew everything about me, I felt the connection begin to disappear. The sensations from my mother began dissipating and relief spread with the realization that I had figured out how to stop the transference from being a two-way street. When the images finished transferring, I brought my hand away from hers and opened my eyes to see my mom staring back at me, frightened.

Chapter 12

“I do know who that man was. He betrayed your father,
in many ways,” she sighed and looked at Logan. “He’s very evil. More so than I initially realized, actually.”

My mom continued to look at Logan as she began again. “He was instrumental in your father’s death.
”

The
air in the room stilled. The fairies froze, and Logan stiffened.

“I thought
my dad…” I whispered, looking at Logan’s reaction out of the corner of my eye. There was none.

My mom leaned back in the chair, and
cautiously looked over at Vieta.

“We learned a lot about
things while we were at your father’s compound. It wasn’t until recently that some of the things started to surface again. It’s taken a lot longer for me to come out of the fog than I would have expected.”

I nodded and placed my hand on Logan’s knee, which was constantly bobbing up and down at this latest revelation.

“They were best friends growing up. All three of them.” My mom’s expression was torn. “There aren’t any excuses that will make what your father did excusable. And I’m not trying to provide any. But he was severely misled and under the impression that his life was in danger. The person providing the false information was Ethan. It seemed plausible to your father, Triss, because Logan’s dad had shunned your father since he left us. They’d been best friends all through school, so I think your father felt betrayed by his lack of loyalty. What your father failed to recognize, until it was too late, was that Logan’s father was the most loyal of all and saw through the darkness.”

“It makes me sick. I don’t understand how my father could have been so weak, so easily swayed,
” I whispered, looking at Logan. His expression remained unchanged. His eyes darkened, but that was the only giveaway that any of this was resonating.

“
To make matters worse, Ethan broke off from the Praedivinus Order almost immediately after the murder. Your father realized he had been misled and an innocent life taken. His best friend had been murdered, and he did nothing to stop it,” she said, looking at me.

“
Your father was murdered because he was the biggest threat out of the three,” Vieta said softly to Logan.

“It’s true,” Bakula agree
d. She walked over to Logan and sat down in front of him on the table.

“Threat?” I asked.

“He was attempting to stop the Praedivinus from expanding,” Dace answered.

“Was my mom aware of this?
That he was murdered?” Logan finally spoke. His hand began tapping on the table, and the
nectunt
was burning between us.

“No. Not really,” Vieta spoke. “I think she had her suspicions, but the autopsy came back as a heart attack
, and she could find no evidence to the contrary.”

“She needs to know,” Logan said
, staring at my mom. “When she gets out here, you have to promise me to tell her everything you know. She deserves that.”

“Absolutely,” my mom vowed.

“And this Ethan better hope that I don’t find him,” Logan said.

“You will find him,” Bakula said matter-of-factly.

“How can you be so certain?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“Because
he’s the head of the Demoniker Order. The other organization competing with the Praedivinus Order to find immortality,” Bakula said.

“So
it’s turning into a bidding war between Praedivinus and Demoniker?” Vieta asked, surprise filling her voice.

“And neither of them is actually close to delivering the product to
Zelo, but neither of them knows that,” I muttered. “Great way to do business.”

“Zelo does
n’t seem aware of it. Whoever was making the deliveries to Zelo is probably just creating a diversion to make it look like they’ve got the ingredient needed for the formula,” Logan said.

“The de
speration is going to hit both Orders soon as they continue to come up empty-handed, and then who knows what they’ll do next,” I said, shuddering at the thought. “They will continue to come up empty-handed, won’t they?” I looked at Bakula for an answer. She seemed distracted until Dace poked her in the side.

“Definitely. They don’t have a chance of obtaining it. Even if they came across the ingredient, it’s rendered useless unless it comes with a blessing from us.” She smiled widely, exposing her sharp teeth
. I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I had to look away. Looking at her sometimes was equivalent to staring at a toothy, grinning possum right before an attack, and that wasn’t a good thing.

“Well, at least that’s in our favor. But it isn’t going to stop them from
exterminating the fairy population while they try to figure it out. And they obviously don’t have any problem stopping anyone who gets in their way,” Logan said. “Which makes it very dangerous for you, Triss.”

I nodded in agreement as something occurred to me. My father
had been betrayed more than he ever knew.

“
Lara mentioned the Demonikers when she held us captive in the warehouse. It didn’t even occur to me until now,” I said in complete dismay.

“His own sister betrayed him,” my mom’s voice caught.
“And you were held hostage?”

“
Long story,” I said, waving my hands to dismiss the worry. “Lara didn’t speak of them in a negative manner. It was very casual as if she had intimate knowledge of the Demonikers. She wasn’t knocking them or anything. And you’d think she would be, considering what the leader did to her own brother. I can guarantee you that there was no hostility against them when she spoke. My guess is that it isn’t just the Demonikers who are infiltrating the Praedivinus. I’m sure it goes the other way as well, which means these groups are far easier to crack than I thought. This could be a good thing.”

“It most definitely is,” Dace said, flying over to the counter
. “The trick will be to stop them before they figure that out about themselves.” Dace jumped onto the aloe plant and took a nibble.

“Good job on remembering to keep your blood levels even, dear,” Bakula said, applauding Dace.

My word, they’re easily distracted!

“I think somehow I need to meet Ethan. I think we both do,” I said, turning to Logan. “But we can’t do anything rash. No matter what emotions we feel.
But right now finding out what he knows is important.”

“I completely get it,” Logan said, nodding. “I won’t do anything to
jeopardize what my father died for. You can count on that.”

“
Maybe, if we can get both Orders to fight each other…” my voice trailed off as I wondered whose side any of us were on. Looking around the room, I suddenly felt like a stranger in this place I had called home for so long. It was time to move on.

Logan caught my hesitancy and
stood up. “I’m gonna go grab the keys from the rental agency so we can move over to the other house.”

“Do you need a rental truck? We have plenty of furniture to share,” my mom offered, gesturing around her.
That was true. Our Witch Avenue home was packed with furniture and antiques in every corner, and even grabbing half of what was displayed wouldn’t make a dent.

“The place is fully furnished. It’ll be like moving into a hotel,
” I replied. “I’m just grabbing the stuff from my room. And it’s not like we’re far away. As we need things, we’ll know where to come.”

“On that note, Vieta
, I think it’s time I move back in. I’ve missed my home,” my mom said, winking at me. “I’m proud of you, Triss. I really am, but if you need anything you march right back home, and I’ll help in anyway I can.”

I hopped up from the chair and ran to my mom. “I know, mom,” I whispered. “It’s so good to have you back.”