“Yes.” Lilly pointed at Costin. “That. But you’re the most powerful of the healers. And, if I’m being honest, there’s just something about you that is trustworthy, Sally. Maybe it’s the sprite blood or just your honest love for everyone. But you must be among the healers that contacts Alice. And Kara… Kara’s been through a lot. Her experience will help Alice not feel isolated. Jewel needs to be left out of this one. Fane, you’ll have to ask Dillon directly if you want to know why.”
The door to the office swung open, and the healer in question walked in with her mate right on her heels.
“I took the liberty of texting Kara,” Lilly said as the couple filed in. “I know she’s been resting and processing, and that’s why she hasn’t been here. But”—Lilly gave Kara an encouraging smile—“what you went through wasn’t for nothing. Horrible things can be used to bring about beautiful change.”
“So you want the two pregnant healers to be the ones digging into the mind of a woman who might be attached to the king of vampires, AKA our nemesis?” Nick asked as he grabbed Kara’s hand and guided her to an empty spot on one of the large couches. He gently nudged her down, and Kara rolled her eyes before glancing at Sally. “And the non-pregnant healer gets to sit this one out?”
Sally gave her a knowing grin. The other healer was in the same boat—dealing with a mate in hyper-intense protective mode.
“I realize that sounds like a crap plan, but?—”
“Can you tell us what you’ve seen, Mom?” Jacque cut Lilly off. The warlock queen had no need to explain herself. Sometimes crap plans were the only plans.
“You know I can’t give you that information.” Lilly’s yellow warlock eyes flashed with frustration. “No matter how much it would help you. There are rules for a reason.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, our rules are being stretched, changed, and tested constantly,” Jen said dryly from where she sat in Decebel’s lap in one of the overstuffed chairs. She leaned back, her head resting on her mate’s shoulder as she swung her right leg, which was sitting on the arm of the chair, back and forth. “We’ve been breaking rules left and right, Ms. P. Why suddenly decide to follow them now?”
“Because there is a lot, and I meana lot, at stake if we screw this up.” Lilly looked back at Sally and then to Kara. “Please, contact her.”
“I don’t like it.” Nick shook his head and shoved his hands into the pockets of his worn-out jeans. “Before you texted her,” he addressed Lilly, “I’d been planning to bring her here because Kara wanted to be close to Sally, not so she could put herself in danger.”
“I understand.” Lilly’s voice was gentle. “Sally’s been in people’s minds before, and she’s made it out just fine.”
Fane leaned back against his desk. His piercing blue gaze no longer held the gentleness of the boy Sally had met years ago. Fane was a man now, a king. And somehow, in the time he’d taken the mantel from his father, he’d been chiseled like stone into a formidable foe. As he looked at Nick, it was the alpha staring out of those wolf's eyes, not the friend.
“I understand more than you can know how desperate you feel to protect your mate.” Fane tilted his head in that wolflike manner that even Costin did occasionally, and his blue eyes glowed. Jacque shifted until her hip was pressed to Fane’s, no doubt trying to calm him down because the alpha of alphas was not in a cheerful mood. “But we all have to make sacrifices. We all have to put ourselves in harm’s way, whether we’re comfortable with it or not. I want more than anything to send my mate and son away to another realm where I know they will be safe. Even as we stay here”—he motioned around them to the office that looked like his back at the Romania mansion, enchanted for them by Peri while they remained in the Sprite realm—“the chances grow that an enemy might find and attack us.” He pushed away from the desk, and Jacque moved with him, her hand slipping into his. “But we have the burden of saving those who cannot save themselves. That falls on us, which includes Kara.” He looked at Costin. “And Sally as well.”
Costin bared his teeth at his alpha. Sally reached over and smacked his leg. “Stop that. You know I can handle myself.” Okay, so had Sally been in some pretty shitty situations since joining the supernatural world? Yes. Yes, she had. But she’d come out stronger on the other side. “Besides, it’s not like we’regoinganywhere. You two will be sitting right there with us as we travel into her mind.”
“Exactly.” Kara nodded. “Fane and Lilly aren’t asking us to go to the front lines of a battle.”
“The mind is a dangerous place,” Costin spoke up.
Sally’s stomach twisted as she remembered several of their pack members that had endured battlefields in their mind. Costin wasn’t wrong. Jewel, Anna, Zara, and even Decebel had had their heads messed with. Not to mention, all of them that had once been trapped in the In-Between. And those battles had been just as dangerous, perhaps more so, than those battles fought in the physical world.
Fane’s voice was somber. “I’m sorry, Costin, but I’m not asking. Sally and Kara will reach out to Alice. We need to know what’s going on. With Claude gone rogue, we don’t have a way to contact Lizzy. I can try to reach Finn through the alpha bond, but since I’ve not officially made him a pack member, it will be difficult to tap into his mind.”
“Thank you, Fane,” Lilly said respectfully. “And Nick, I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t for a significant reason.”
“We got this.” Sally clapped her hands once, then dropped them onto her lap. “Kara, ready?”
Kara’s eyes widened. “Now?” She pointed in front of her. “Like literally now?”
Sally nodded. “No time like the present.”
The other healer blew out a breath and pushed her hair away from her face. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
“That’s my girls,” Jen said like a proud mother. “Kicking ass and taking names.”
“All we’re doing is talking to Alice in her mind,” Sally told her best friend. “There will be no victorious return with a head in tow.”
“Way to burst my bubble, Sal.” Jen flicked her hand at Sally. “I’m going to go corrupt Tiberius while you two mind hop.”
Sally turned to Costin. “Text Gavril and let him know Jen is not to be within fifty feet of Titus. I think it’s time for a restraining order.”
Chuckles rippled across the room. Sally raised a brow at them. “I’mnotjoking. Jen, you’re a menace. Leave my kid alone, or I promise I will permanently dye Thia blue. She’ll be a living version of that blonde Smurf.”
Jen’s mouth dropped open and then a grin spread across her face. “Dang girl, pregnancy looks good on you. Look at you, being all threatening and stuff. I love it.” She climbed off Decebel’s lap and started for the door. “Keep us posted on how operation Infiltrate Vampire Lover’s Brain goes. I promise I’ll just teach Teagan how to fight dirty, but I won’t corrupt him any more than that.”
