Wild Hearts (Blood & Judgment #1) (27 page)

***

Twenty minutes later, I am showered and dressed and pushing my abject hunger to the side—making a mental note to go and find blood sooner rather than later—I go off in search of Aria. I find her in her assigned bedroom, thankfully fully clothed and pacing like a caged wolf.

“Draven is going to do the séance,” I say without bothering with pleasantries. “We are needed downstairs.”

“Well, I’m not freaked out at all. Thanks for asking, though,” Aria retorts, but I ignore her. I am nervous. I don’t know how I am supposed to act around my mother now that I am about to meet her face-to-face. Will she even want to see me, or will she only see Edric when she looks at me? I bear his features more than I would like, damn him.

“It’s okay. I’m nervous too,” Aria mutters as we head down the stairs, guided by candlelight in the now darkened mansion.

I start to scoff at her, but then disguise it as a cough. She revealed her true feelings and that is a fucking first. I won’t mock her for it.

“It will be weird for you,” I say, not knowing what else to add. I am not good with sympathy, or empathy, for that matter. They are emotions that I have never had time for.

“Yeah,” she says, after she gives me a hard glare.

We keep walking in the uncomfortable silence and I pause in the drawing room.

“Where is he?” Aria asks, hands on hips.

I close my eyes and take in a deep breath. “This way,” I say, opening them again and heading towards a door that I never even noticed before. Aria follows me as I push open the door and peer into the gloom. My vampire night vision makes out a spiral stone staircase that leads down into, what I can only assume, is a dungeon. ‘Basement’ is really not the word I would go for in this gothic style mansion.

“Fantastic,” Aria mumbles under her breath as I take a step forward and then down. I can see perfectly fine without the need for torches, as I am sure Aria can, but it would have been nice of Draven to add some to make it less creepy.

Down, down, down we go and eventually we reach the bottom and are shown the way by the slight flickering shadows coming from around the corner. We approach, with caution, and see Draven and Cahl standing on the outskirts of a large circle etched out in the stone with what looks like black coal, and lit, black candles placed at the five points of a pentacle.

I feel a cool shiver pass over the back of my neck and I turn around quickly, rubbing it. Aria gives me a strange look and abandons my side for her man.

I would be wise to do the same. Precious few things scare me in this world, but ghosts are one of them. They are odd, unnatural, and they can float through walls to scare the bejesus out of you when you are chained up in a dungeon by your father….

“Ahem.” I clear my throat, not wanting those memories to surface right now. I slip my hand into Draven’s and he gives it a quick squeeze before he takes his back. I stand there like a spare part as Aria and Cahl get all cuddly (something tells me Cahl hasn’t come clean yet), wishing that I had someone to cling to, but Draven needs his hands free to start the spell.

There is complete silence as we watch him.

He is uttering words in a language long since dead and it sends a chill over me. I sense Aria’s uneasiness as well and find a slight comfort in it. At least I am not the only one.

Suddenly, the flames on the black candles scattered around the room, flare up into pillars of fire and I cringe, shying away from the heat into a small corner. Now, I like the stone wall at my back. It gives me comfort from the magic that Draven is currently channeling through himself. It is a shimmer of raw power, visibly hovering around him. His hands are outstretched and he is muttering some words in Latin. His dark hair lifts off his shoulders as the breeze turns into a tornado. It lashes through the small room, causing Aria and Cahl to separate and take cover in the remaining corners. I crouch down, holding my hand up against the force of power.

“Draven!” I cry out as I see his face constrict, but he ignores me and carries on with his spell.

Just as suddenly, the wind dies down and the next thing I know, I am being hauled to my feet by some invisible force and dragged across to where Draven is standing. He is holding an athame in one hand now and as he keeps his other hand outstretched over the pentacle, he slashes his palm with the athame. The blood drops slowly onto the floor, making my stomach grumble. I should have made time to feed as I am so close to licking it off the floor. Draven’s hand on my wrist draws my eyes away from the blood droplets and he quickly turns my hand over and does the same to me, squeezing my fist in his to draw out the blood quicker. Aria catches on and holds out her palm for Draven to complete the spell.

He steps back, taking my hand as Cahl takes Aria’s.

And then we wait.

***

This dungeon room is completely silent; I can’t even hear the others breathing. It is eerie and it is making my vampire go slightly nuts. It is taking everything I have not to scrape at the walls with my claws in my agitation, as I used to do as a child. I am about to suggest that the spell didn’t work when a flicker appears over the pentacle. And then another. And then another.

I hear Aria gasp, recognizing her own mother instantly as Draven tenses up next to me. I am the last one to see my mother. The woman that I never knew and that my father killed because of me.

Shit. I have no idea what I am supposed to do right now. My mouth goes dry and I hang back as Aria races forward.

“Don’t break the circle,” Draven calls after her and she hauls to a stop, just on the edge.

“Mom!” she cries and holds her hand up in front of one of the most gorgeous women I have ever laid eyes on.

“Oh, Aria,” Alessandra says, also holding her hand up.

I look at Draven and swallow. He is staring at his mother, so choked up that he can’t speak.

“My boy,” Orna whispers and holds out her hand.

I watch as Draven holds his up to hers in the same manner as Aria.

“Ember,” Traela, my mother, says to me hesitantly, and I look back at her. She is smiling at me and I return it with a shy one of my own. I feel so out of place here, I have no idea what to say to her. “You have grown into such a beautiful woman,” she says to me.

I look down, knowing that she must see the similarities between Edric and me. “I look like him,” I blurt out. In my peripheral vision I can see Aria stop her hushed conversation with her mother to gape at me, but she slams her mouth shut when I turn and glare at her.

“Yes, you do,” Traela says, with an amused little laugh. “But so much prettier.”

“Thank you,” I say stiffly, standing with my hands in front of me like a child.

“Your father never taught you to accept a compliment graciously?” she asks me sharply, but her anger isn’t directed towards me.

“He never
taught
me anything,” I reply, keeping up my cold tone. “All he did was order me about, lock me up when I misbehaved and try to steal my power for himself at every chance he got.”

“Ember,” Draven says quietly and I realize that I had raised my voice in my anger. He places his hand on my shoulder and I instantly feel myself relax. It’s like he has a magic touch or something. I snort at the irony of that to a querying look from him.

“Sorry,” I say back to my mother awkwardly. “I have issues.”

“So do I,” she answers dryly, indicating her wispy form that is floating above the ground.

“This spell will not last very long,” Cahl suddenly announces. “Say what you need to say.” He extends a smile towards Alessandra, who returns it with a big beam.

“I am so glad you and my daughter found your way to one another,” she says. “Eventually.”

“Same for you, Draven,” Orna says with a slight reprimand in her voice. “I told you about the vampire many moons ago. Why did you not seek her out sooner?”

“How do you know that I didn’t?” Draven asks archly.

Orna gives me a searching look that makes my skin crawl. “There is love here, but it is new. You aren’t yet connected how you should be. Have you fed from him yet?”

I step back, startled at the very rude question. “I don’t think that’s any of your business,” I stammer, mortified, as Aria tries and fails to stifle her snort of laughter.

“It is my business, all of our business, my dear,” she replies.

“How so?” I ask, keeping my distance from Draven now.

“I offered, but she refused,” Draven pipes up with a look at me that speaks volumes. “She is unbelievably stubborn.”

“I—I—” I can’t say anything else. How can I tell him that I don’t want to use him in that way? It is different with him. He is special and I don’t want him to feel that he is dinner and that’s it.

“You must, Ember,” Traela,
Mother
, says to me. “The more together you are, the more powerful you will be.”

All eyes are on me and I clear my throat. “Humph. You can look away,” I say haughtily. “I am not doing it now, in front of all of you.”

“Thank God,” Aria mutters and looks back at her mom with a smile that reaches her eyes.

“Now…tell us why you have brought us here,” Alessandra says. “Cahl is correct. This spell will not last long.”

“Cahl has told us all about your failsafe plan. Is there anything you can add that will help us?” Draven asks, taking charge.

“Sadly, not,” Orna says shaking her head in sorrow. “We are in no position to help you now. It is up to you three to complete the Circle.”

“What exactly will that do?” I ask, getting a nod of agreement from Aria.

“It will bind your powers together, the three of you will be unstoppable against the Jurisdiction,” Traela says.

“But how?” Aria presses. “There are only three of us. Four of us,” she amends at Cahl’s, “Ahem.”

Soon all will be revealed,” Alessandra says, as she starts to fade away. “Do the ritual, complete your destiny.”

“Mom!” Aria yells as the three women flicker out of our vision. “Don’t go! Not yet.”

“I love you, Aria,” she whispers and blows her daughter a kiss.

“Let your guard down,” my mother whispers to me. “Learn to love, Ember.”

“Get her to bite you!” Orna snaps at Draven and then gives him a sassy wink, before they all disappear from sight.

“Fuck,” I breathe out. “That was intense. And yet, not exactly helpful.”

“It was very helpful,” Cahl states. “Now you can all stop doubting me and do what needs to be done.”

I blink at him as Draven’s nods his head slowly. “I will make sure that the ritual to bind us together is ready in the next day or so.”

“Excellent,” I say and clap my hands together, happy and confident in myself again now that the ghosts of our mothers have gone. “I’ll be out in the woods and surrounding area if you need me.”

“What for?” Draven asks me, with a frown.

“Looking for lost hikers,” I say and spin on my heel.

He grabs my wrist. “Did you not hear what our mothers said? You need to feed from me.”

“And I will,” I say removing his hand from my wrist forcibly. “But I am so hungry, if I bite you now, I will kill you.” And with that, in a flash, I am gone, hoping that he remembers to drop the wards so that I can get out.

Chapter 23

~Aria~

“Yeah? Good. That's good,” I tell Carter, speaking into my cell phone as I pace up and down the courtyard of Draven’s mansion. He’s just informed me that my pack is well.

“There hasn’t been any talk of reprisals over Tony,” he continues.

“I wasn’t expecting any.”

“You weren’t?” he asks, surprised.

“Tony wasn’t the most beloved of Alphas. He had many enemies, even among his own pack. Many wolves will be glad he’s…incapacitated.”

“There’s…something else,” he says, hesitantly.

“What?”

“While Tony’s situation itself hasn’t caused any calls for vengeance, something else has.”

“And that is?” I press, agitated with him beating around the bush. Argh. “Fuck, Carter. Spit it out, will you?”

“Did you…uh…screw around with the Ambassador Commander?”

His
really
personal question instantly gets my back up and I bark, “You know my personal life is never up for discussion. It’s not a pack matter.”

“It’s become one,” he argues.

“How?” I snap.

“You’re in danger.”

“When aren’t I?” I scoff.

“You did it—fucked the Ambassador Commander—around Tony’s wolves. They all heard you. Smelled you. They know, Aria. They all see it as a betrayal. Sleeping with the enemy. Not only them. They’ve spread the word. The entire wolf community sees what you did as a betrayal to your species.”

“They’re misinformed. Cahl is helping us in the fight against the Jurisdiction. He’s not working with them. He’s defected.”

“
Cahl
now, is it?”

“Give it a rest.”

“Aria, I—”

“He’s on our side.”