Page 18 of Of Flame and Fate
“Yes. But there’s more. Given the amount of magic being used and the degree of strength the assassins possess, we’ve concluded the Dark Legion is being led and empowered by shapeshifters.”
I almost lose what’s left of my dinner. Shapeshifters are born witches. They spend their lives making blood sacrifices to their deities in exchange for the ability to assume whatever form they wish. They carry the power of hell within them and are almost indestructible. Almost. But as strong as they are, and as much as I believe Gemini, too much of his theory doesn’t make sense.
“How can the shifters lead something of this caliber?” I ask. “For the most part, they seem mindless. Grunting and repeating words over and over, completely disconnected from reason and their human counterparts.”
“Don’t mistake their lack of speech for lack of communication or intelligence,” Gemini warns, the tension in his tone appearing to encompass every part of him. “They’re as calculating as they are wicked, and can communicate through and with their neophytes.”
“What the hell is a neophyte?” I ask.
“A witch close to becoming a shifter, strong, dark, but still human.” His hand opens and closes as if trying to shake some of the tension free. “They’re spearheading the rise of the Dark Alliance and using the power of the shapeshifters to reinforce the assassins’ potency.”
“How?” I ask.
“Blood,” he answers simply. “The blood of a shifter is laced with dark magic conjured in the depths of hell itself. Drinking it feeds the magic within them.”
“But you’ve attacked shifters, and it didn’t make you any stronger,” I point out.
“No,” he agrees. “But shifter magic is closely related to witch magic since that’s how they’re born. While it can make a witch stronger and more dangerous, it makes us sick.”
“What does it do to vampires?” I ask, wondering exactly how much crap we’re actually dealing with.
“Both witches and vampires are closer to humans than we are. It makes them more lethal as you saw for yourself. The effects however, are temporary,” he explains. “A few days, perhaps a week at best.”
I quiet. “Long enough to kill an Elder, a master, or a head witch,” I reason.
“Exactly.”
“I have to protect Celia,” I say without thinking.
“No, I do,” he snaps. I start to argue, only for him to cut me off. “No more, Taran. You can’t work for the vampires and you can’t engage in anything that jeopardizes your safety.”
“But if I can help Celia—”
“The best way to help her is by staying alive. You can’t help her or her children if you’re already dead.”
My right arm trembles with the need to release flame, rattling my entire body. The look Gemini pegs me with is forceful, challenging. He’s ready for the fight he anticipates between us. Except I’m not raring to go toe-to-toe. Not with him. I’m furious over the shit hand we’ve been dealt, and all the crap cards that keep coming.
His gaze softens at the sight of my quickly forming tears. “I don’t want her to go through this,” I tell him. “Celia needs her chance at a normal life and so do her babies.” I pause, the weight of my words making it hard to speak. “She’s never going to have it, is she?”
“I’m not sure. Not with everything her children and Aric’s are destined for.”
He pulls along the curb and puts the SUV into park. The steering wheel groans beneath his grip, the metal within it bending, revealing the extent of his frustration, but also another emotion I can’t quite place. “When I first learned of the curse placed upon you and your family, so much about it didn’t make sense,” he says. “The curse not only kept you alive, it granted you these unique powers, making you beings of magic when nothing but human blood raced through your veins. Why? Why would magic so vile and dark work in your favor rather than kill you as it was conjured to do?”
I often wondered that myself. I tilt my head, listening closely. My lover isn’t asking me a question, he’s working through his thoughts, applying reason to the unreasonable.
“I think this Darkness that’s rising had been centuries, perhaps even millennia in the making. And I think those who nourished it wanted to prevent good from winning at all costs.” He reaches out, stroking my cheek, his touch breathtakingly gentle given the ease he used to kill that vampire. “You are that good. You and your sisters, as is Aric given his supremacy among our kind.” He sighs, appearing sad. “But you were just the start. Aric and Celia’s children will be the ultimate end.”
The tear that falls slicks a line down my cheek. “Do you think they’ll make it?”
I’ve always counted on Gemini’s optimism. Today, it doesn’t come. “I can’t be sure. Not with everything coming at us, and not with our numbers dwindling as they are.”
Another tear, another breath that releases too harshly.
“That doesn’t mean we should give up, my love,” he tells me. “It only means we should fight smart. They need us, Taran. Aric, Celia, their children. They need all of us.” He wipes my cheek with his thumb. “Sodon’t rush to meet death. Choose your battles wisely and we’ll cheat it together.That way, maybe we can have our chance at happiness, too.”
Maybe. Happily Ever After is a concept completely foreign to me. But I’ll take the opportunity for a happy for now.
I start to tell him when he looks past me, frowning. I turn around to see what caught his attention, jumping when I see who it is.