The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) (41 page)

They only knew—Conrad was large. He
was fierce—and he was passionate. They knew that he wasn’t one to
have on your bad side—but no one would fight harder for his
friends.

And each and every one of the
guards was his friend.

Conrad made a point to get to know
all of the men. He also made a point in rotating them, so he had
plenty of time
to get to know
each and every man.

The sisters were ready and waiting,
too, when Constantine hit. Like Conrad, they were given updates as
Constantine’s armies made their way through the darkened streets.
The human vampire hunters split up and led them down the streets
and back alleys, splitting them up and leading them farther and
farther apart from one another. The vampires didn’t realize what
was happening until there were several vampire hunters to every
vampire.

And by then, of course, it was too
late.

It was an easy
victory—almost
too
easy.

They won the battle this day, and
they had easily subdued their enemy. But it was a victory that
would have Constantine plotting revenge—not congratulating them on
their coup.

And they all knew they were a long
way from winning the war.

Though the war with Constantine was
far from being over, the men still celebrated in the streets. Even
many of the humans came out of their homes to celebrate, for many
of them were no longer blind to what was happening around them.
They could no longer ignore all the strange things that were
occurring around them every day.

They could no longer ignore the
signs that told them they were not alone.

And for these newly awakened
humans—they now understood they had a friend in those who fought to
save not just their home—but the home of all who lived here on
Mother Earth.

They celebrated the first win—and
prayed they could continue to achieve victory and save themselves
from the enemy that was bringing such terror every night when the
sun went down.

The other humans peeked out into
the night at the revelry. No one could ignore the fact that so many
humans were coming up dead—nor could they ignore the mysterious
circumstances under which so many others were
disappearing.

The nights were not the same
lately.

They had been bringing the
constant whisper of an unnamed threat, and lately that threat had
begun to become more than just a whisper on the wind of impending
doom. It had become a great shiver, snaking down the spine of the
Mother herself, warning Her children of certain death—if they did
not awaken soon—if they did not awaken
now
.

Not all things that went bump in
the night were just the wind—and not all things that they had been
taught to fear were evil. Some of those being were helpful, unseen
friends—while some of them were a true and well-hidden
enemy.

The trick laid in listening to
their hearts and not the fears of others—as well as learning to
tell the difference.

It was some time later when
Jes
and Justice sat quietly before the
cauldron. Her sisters stood across the round table, where the
cauldron sat upon a stovetop burner they’d had installed for
themselves.

No one spoke.

They were all more than a little
afraid to voice the fears they shared.

Occasionally, Jes would glance at
her sisters, but the worry she saw in their eyes, as they worked,
reflected her own too much to bear, and she would turn her full
attention back to the pot with renewed vigor.

When Justice had returned from the
streets, after they had beaten back Constantine’s horde, the terror
she had felt from him—and knowing where it was coming from-had
caused them all to redouble their efforts to try to figure out how
they could help.

Jes had become so in-tune with her
mate that they had decided to try, once more, to use this
connection to see if he could contact Mia. They were more worried
about her than ever—more so now that they had beaten back
Constantine’s armies. They had tried once already to contact her,
but it had ended in disaster and put Justice into a foul
mood.

Now they had the added worry that
Constantine would take his anger over the loss of his fledglings
out on her.

As she stirred the pot, she fumed
silently—mostly at herself. Mia was her best friend. Why had they
let her go? Why hadn’t they stopped her? What were they
thinking?

Justice came to stand beside her,
putting his hand over hers, preventing her from stirring the pot
any more.

“
I don’t know much about your
spells—but I don’t think this one will work very well with all that
anger and worry churning inside of you,” he said gently, looking
down into her eyes.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying
to stop the tears that threatened to spill over. She felt him kiss
first her forehead, and then both of her eyelids, and when she
opened her eyes to look into his, they were swimming with tears,
which ran down her cheeks unchecked when she saw the moisture in
the pale eyes gazing back at her.

He gathered her close to
him.

She was scared. He was,
too.

It was a slim chance—and they had
already failed once. They all knew that Constantine would have
taken steps to prevent their communications.

But they were counting on the
strength of the connection between Justice and his sister to let
them break though. The problem was that Jes wasn’t the one who was
familiar with shamanic journeys—Mira was. But Mira had been trying
to give her a few quick lessons since they had tried it the first
time.

When Justice let go of Jes, Jes
glanced at her sisters, and when she realized that Mira was also on
the verge of tears and even Dara was fighting her deep emotions,
she almost broke down again.

The sisters quickly had Justice and
Jes lie down on the beds they had prepared, and readied them for
the trance they would enter in their attempt to try to make the
contact.

This would require a deep, trance
state, and they tried to make the setting as conducive as possible
to inducing the necessary state.

When Justice and Jes were
comfortable, Mira and Dara began to chant. It was then that Justice
and Jes heard Amar. They had closed their eyes, but both of them
opened them again and glanced around the room in surprise. Amar
quietly commanded them to lie back and keep their eyes closed while
she walked them through some guided imagery for the
journey.

Jes was surprised to find herself
standing in the room with Justice. They both stared for a moment at
her sisters chanting, and heard Amar’s voice guiding them. They saw
themselves lying on the bed and glanced down at the appearance of
their bodies, then looked at each other with some
surprise.

“
Wow!” Jes exclaimed. “Mira told
me about such journeys—but—wow!”

Justice spun around. “I feel
so—weightless!” He laughed. “I think I could actually fly if I
tried.” He started to lift off of the floor.

Jes grabbed his arm and yanked him
back down.

“
Mira warned me to be careful
here,” she whispered fiercely. “She said it would be easy to forget
what we came here to do! We must concentrate on Mia.” She grabbed
his hand. “Come on.”

He held back, not allowing her to
drag him from the room, looking a little alarmed now. “Where are
you going? How will we find her?” He looked back at the bed where
his body lay. “How will we find our way back?”

Jes grinned at him. “We will know
the way. Just concentrate on Mia.”

He frowned at her. He clearly
wasn’t comfortable with the idea of traveling about without his
body. She couldn’t help but giggle. She wasn’t used to seeing
Justice afraid of anything.

“
Shouldn’t we have power animals
or something to guide us?” he said.

“
Well—yes,” she answered.
“Especially if we were going to go to the lower world. But we’re
doing a thing that the army likes to call remote viewing. And
although it’s not without its dangers—in fact it can be more than a
little dangerous—we’re only traveling through what the Shamans call
the middle world. Right now we’re going to let our love for Mia
help to guide us, since we have not spent time finding our power
animals. Besides,” she said, “we have Amar to guide our
way.”

She again tugged on his hand, but
he still held back. He glanced down into her eyes, listening as
Amar commanded them along. Finally, he let her guide him to the
door.

When they stepped outside of it,
they found themselves in an abandoned building. They glanced around
in surprise. At least, it appeared abandoned.

Jes couldn’t figure out why they
had been led here, but since they had been concentrating on Mia,
something must have brought them there. So she decided to try
calling her. “Mia?” she yelled.

She was somewhat surprised when she
heard her answer, “In here!”

They ran to the closed door of a
room, where they found her peering at them through a small set of
bars, high up on a very thick, oak door.

“
Are you okay? Stand back!”
Justice commanded and rammed the door with his shoulder.

Mia moved to the side, but quickly
told him to stop. “First, it’s grounded in magic by some old
witch,” she told him, “and second, we both know I
have
to be
here.”

“
It’s too dangerous,” he growled
and hit the door again. It didn’t even budge, and he rubbed his
shoulder.

Mia peered out the small set of
bars at him. “We must, brother,” she told him gently. “Trust in
Morgi. If there is a way to get him to feed on me….”

Justice’s eyes turned black with
anger at those words.

“
Please, brother,” she whispered.
The quiet entreaty in her voice seemed to bring him to his
senses.

“
Tell us what we can do to help
you!” Jes commanded.

“
Okay,” Mia said with a small
smile. “Use this,” and she pulled some hairs from her head, “to
build a strong connection between us. Do whatever you can to build
it strong, and be waiting for when Constantine puts me wherever he
has planned for us all to meet—and then tries to lure you into his
trap.” Her voice took on a furious whisper now. Jes had never seen
her so serious. “Whatever happens—do not let him win! Or I’ve done
all of this for
nothing!”

Jes nodded, touching Mia’s fingers
where she had her small hands gripped upon the bars. “Did he—hurt
you?” she asked, afraid to hear the answer.

Mia shook her head. “He’s been too
enthralled with getting Morgi back in his control for a
time.”

Justice nodded. “Well, that’s
something anyway.”

Mia pressed her face closer to the
bars. “Go now, before he senses you here!”

They nodded and pressed kisses on
her fingers. There was not a dry eye when Jes and Justice
disappeared from the room.

The last thing they sensed from
Mia—was her slumping to the floor in tears.

Jes sat up on the bed, silent tears
streaming down her face. Justice immediately sat up and gathered
her into his arms. She wept through her words, with Justice holding
her, as she told her sisters what had happened.

And held out to them the strands of
Mia’s hair.

Dara immediately stepped forward
and took them from her. “Oh, excellent!” She quickly walked to the
pot, calling, “Amar!”

Jes couldn’t have been more
surprised to hear her sister command Amar that way, nor to see Amar
come from the adjoining room and allow her to get away with the
commanding note that had been in her voice.

As Jes watched, she remembered how
her grandmother had appeared to them, as if from the air itself,
before they had left on their shamanic journey.

But she didn’t have time to
question what strange things were going on with her
grandmother.

They had work to do.

It was Dracon who told Justice when
Constantine finally sent a runner. The runner had told him that
Constantine had taken his youngest sister back to the shack in the
woods where he had led them before. They were to come there again,
and if they didn’t show up soon, he would first turn her and then
make her one of the many women he kept all over the
world.

Justice, of course, was half-way
out the door before Dracon had even finished talking. Dracon
followed him, telling him that he had already sent the men to ready
the armies.

They were told to come just after
midnight. Not any sooner—and not any later.

Chapter
Forty-Seven

Killer

Constantine stood before
them,
high up on a bluff, standing at the
edge of a narrow cliff. He had a flair for the dramatic. And right
now, he had his men blowing horns—like Jericho. He looked down at
them. They were perhaps thirty feet below him. His white hair
billowed out as the strong breeze coming up the hill caught it. His
skin was translucent to the point of nearly being white itself. His
eyes were so black they could see the darkness in them even from
where they stood—well below him. He was tall and slender, and wore
one of the old capes of his ancestors. This one was as white as his
hair. He was angry, and had a mean, hard look in his dark
eyes.