Page 64 of Her Reborn Mate

The truth was, given how packed this place was, the cell phone signals were exceptionally weak in the crowd. If I could be there, right under the radio tower, I’d have better coverage and would be able to get in touch with Will if he were to call me. My heart and mind were tied to him, concerned about what he was doing at this very moment. Even then, I chose not to use our bond. It would be a violation of his privacy, especially after he had insisted that this was a personal matter between him and his brother.

But I knew that my plan to use the radio tower was not going to jeopardize my job. I could do both at once. And, my being so high above would allow me to scout for any vampires or soldiers coming our way. I could warn the wolves.

Now that I thought about it, there was a good chance that Blair was going to march in here with his mercenaries. Whatever his intentions may be, it was dubious that he had disappeared so suddenly. A man only disappears like this if he’s planning a temporary retreat only to come back with more force. Blair wasn’t the sort to just disappear without a trace. He wasn’t that kind of person. While he still had his vendetta, he'd lurk around somewhere near, hoping to catch us off-guard. Perhaps, he thought that tonight would be an off-guard night for us. What he didn’t know was that the full force of the Grimm werewolves was here in town, ready to defend the people against any calamity.

I watched as the wolves dispersed in the buildings, scouting them for anything suspicious. I headed to the radio tower and began my ascent to its top. While I was midway, it occurred to me that such a crowd would be a perfect target for a mass shooting. Or a mass hunting by the vampires. So many humans in such a close vicinity could just as easily attract the reeling vampires and prompt them to retaliate against both the town and the wolves in one fell swoop. From their point of view, it would be a move that’d help them take the entire town instead of just the commune.

All of these possibilities were likely, but which one was more likely? I had no idea. When I was lost, all I knew was that I had to trust my immediate senses. I’d have to use my eyes and ears to weed out the dangers.

This was a rare sight and one to behold. On most days, the town was the dictionary definition of desolate, with seldom to no people in the streets, barely any interactions taking place downtown, and the entire place felt like it was lost in time and space. A pocket dimension of depression. But today, what with the bustle and the crowd and the celebratory atmosphere, for the first time, Fiddler’s Green looked and felt like the proverbial paradise it was named after. What mattered more than all the greenery in the world, than all the skyscrapers in the tallest metropolises, and all the wealth in the banks were the smiles on the faces of the people gathered below, the lightness in their laughter, the liveliness in their voices, the hope in their eyes, and the promise in their stride. Everyone who had gathered here had done so to see a new day dawn on Fiddler’s Green.

I also hoped for a similar new day to dawn on my life.

My life with Will.

We’d get married and then move to another city.

Our children would have his eyes and my hair.

Somehow, we would save enough money to get a house.

Our children would grow old and go to college.

One day, we would sit old and content in our backyard, arm in arm, reading novels and drinking tea.

Now that was the kind of day that I wanted to dawn. It would be a well-deserved day after all that I had been through. Not to mention the literal hell that Will had been through.

My phone rang. I looked at the screen, hoping it was Will’s number, but it was just Vincent.

“What is it?” I asked, feeling disappointed. Will should have gotten in touch with me and told me what was happening with him. Why hadn’t he called me yet?

“So, you’re comfortable up there? Can you see me down here, waving?” Vince asked.

I looked at the crowd below and saw Vincent waving at me from almost a mile away. I waved back, unsure if he’d be able to see me from behind the sea of humans.

“I’ll ask again, Vince. What is it?”

“A couple of our guys found some anarchists holed up in the building with pistols and masks. When asked if they were part of a larger organization, they laughed and said that they were anarchists and, as such, held no regard for any organization. We handed them over to the police. Upon detaining them and interrogating them, it turns out that they were some far-right nutjobs who wanted to assassinate the would-be mayor. They’re taken care of. We dodged a big one,” Vince said.

“Holy shit,” I said. “Be that as it may, this was not the reason we were sent here by Will. These anarchists were townspeople. Ordinary townsfolk. Not werewolves, not vampires, and not Blair’s men. Everyone must keep their ears perked up, and their eyes focused and be on the lookout more now than before. You know, these anarchists could be just a decoy distraction to divert us from something bigger. Ask the wolves to keep scouting the buildings. I have a feeling the evening has more surprises in store for us.”

“Roger that,” Vince said, then hung up, leaving me to stare at the police procession in the back, taking the anarchists to the cop cars and stowing them away. What I felt at that moment was reassurance in Will. If he hadn’t sent us here, these anarchists would have attempted to assassinate the mayor. Will knew what he was doing. He operated with wisdom that eluded us all, given how old he was and how experienced his years and his trials had made him. I had to trust him to know what he was doing when it came to Fred because the only other person alive to have almost as much experience as Will was Fred. They were an even match, even if one of them had aged normally while the other hadn’t. Will lacked the evil necessary for beguiling people, something that Fred seemed to have in large reserves.

As the proceedings of the evening went on, with television vans appearing on the scene with reporters, the sky darkened to a deep black with no moon on the horizon. In the absence of the moon, the stars came out by the hundreds, shining like tiny slivers of glass in the sky. If it had been any other night, Will and I would have been immersed in some romance. I made a mental reminder to myself to take Will out on a nice nighttime date the next time such a night would come. A moonless night lit with stars.

My phone rang for the second time. I picked it up immediately, hoping this time around, it would be Will, telling me that all was well and that he had captured Fred without a problem. But it was yet again just Vince.

“I thought this line was just for emergencies,” I said impatiently. “What is it this time around?”

“Oh, I think you’re going to want to see this,” Vince said. For the first time, there was genuine fear in his voice. He was breathing heavily. I had never known him to lose his composure like that.

“Tell me what you found.”

“Lexie. It’s bad. It’s way worse than any of us imagined it would be. Sixteen of the wolves who scouted the buildings on the right and twenty who scouted the buildings on the left found bombs planted in the basements of the building, perfectly placed to bring down all of the buildings in the square, killing everyone standing there. I’m backstage, and I’ve found one myself, right under the stage. They’re nondescript, so it’s very difficult to say if they’re bombs or not. But Gunther, he’s an ex-Marine in the pack, recognized them immediately. Told us that these bombs were used back in Afghanistan by the terrorists. So far, we have found fifty bombs, all of them geared for remote detonation. There’s no timer on them,” Vince said.

I felt the life give away from my legs, but I held onto the railing of the tower and clasped my phone tighter in my hand.

“Can we disarm them?” I asked.