He grabs a handful of my shirt and gets in my face with a snarl. “The lass would not have needed protection from them if you had brought her home!”
Finn pulls him off of me. “Come, cousin! We must find her before others do.”
They turn their backs to me and head for the door but I need to tell them the rest.
“Wait! There is…something else.” When they look back, I move over to a cabinet and open the safe inside and pull out fabric wrapped bundle. I stare down at it for a moment before lifting my eyes back to them. “You both need to be…cautious with her. I…I believe whatever is causing her mind to fracture started before this last visit of hers. After she was shot by that soldier, Flora was cleaning up Eden’s things and found something in her room.”
I slowly unwrap the bundle as they move closer for a better look.
“What is that? Is that a gun?” Finn asks with a frown.
“Yes. It’s what guns will look like in her time. She must have brought this back with her for protection but there’s something even more troubling to me and should concern you both as well.”
I press the button to release the ammunition and hold it out to them. Finn makes to take it from my hand but jerks back when his fingers get too close.
“Is that…are those made of silver?” He breathes out the question in disbelief and I nod slowly.
“Yes, Eden returned to us with a weapon loaded with ammunition made of the one thing that will weaken us.”
Cade is shaking his head like he can’t believe I would imply that she would be a threat to us and then he’s pulling Finn away from me and towards the door so I call out,
“Be careful brothers. Eden is no longer the same woman you made your mate two centuries ago.”
Cade
“Tell me you don’t believe that nonsense, cousin!” I growl at Finn as we ride towards the area Eden has arrived near the last two times she came back. “The lass would never want ta harm us. There’s not an evil bone in her body!”
He glances my way with a conflicted look causing me to growl low in my throat that he could ever believe our lass could want to harm us.
“No, I dinnae think she would want that…but why would Bas lie about such a thing? He loves her just as we do. You can see the toll this has taken on him as well as I can. Until we speak ta her ourselves, we willna know for sure what is happening, ya ken?”
“Bah! The bloody vampire dinnae want her in our lives ta start with or have you forgotten that?”
I remember well how he treated her when she first came to us. I know he has never loved her the way we do.
Finn shoots me an annoyed look.
“Just because he saw how hard this would be for us and wanted ta protect us from the pain of her human death doesn’t mean he’s not hurting as well. I have no doubt that he loves her as he also loves us. My current anger towards him is about how he handled this last return of her’s and doesn’t change that knowledge. Make haste, cousin. We willna have the answers we seek until we find our mate.”
He spurs his horse faster, the discussion over.
The population of this area has increased greatly since we left for the wilds and there are many riders and wagons on the roads that make me worried for Eden. If she came back in her modern clothing as Bas said she did last time, it would draw attention to her by the wrong type of man. If the vampire was telling the truth about her state of mind she could be in much danger. We searched the fields and roads as best we could on horseback until I grow too impatient and worried to continue this way. I ride off the road into the trees and toss my reins and clothing to Finn and quickly shift into my wolf form so I can better smell the air for signs of her scent.
I find her weeping under a tree an hour later, clutching something to her chest with one hand while the other is wrapped around her ankle that is beginning to swell. Finn is right behind me with our horses but a whine escapes my beast when I see the condition that she is in. I shift back to human form and drop to my knees in front of and reach for her but my hands stop and hover as I take in just how badly off she is.
Both of her forearms are covered in red, bloody welts and a choked sob sticks in my throat when I see her snap a strange band covered in blood against her skin. Her eyes are huge and glazed over with tears streaming from them as she looks past me at something far in the distance. They’ve sunken into her too-thin face and have dark circles underneath them. Her dry, cracked lips mumble words I can’t quite make out.
“Eden! Sweetheart, look at me, look at me!” Finn begs her when he drops down beside me.
He reaches out to cup her face, forcing her to look at him, and I see the minute she comes back when her eyes widen and a gasp of relief gushes out of her.
“F-Finn? Oh, oh, oh, Finn! Please, please take me back. I need to go back! You’ll help me, right? You’ll take me back to Luca?”
“Jesus wept, lass. What has happened ta you?” I cry, causing her eyes to slide my way.
“Cade…I…I need you…to take me…back. Back to Luca.” She whispers desperately.
I gather her up against me and cry as I feel how delicate she is now. She’s dying. Our mate is dying. I plead with my eyes over her shoulder to Finn, begging him to fix this, fix her and see his jaw clench.
