That did not seem to reassure him.“Lia, you’re awar mage.You know more about this than I do.Tell me there’s no way one of those spells influenced you!”
“Theydidn’t.I’m a Were.That sort of thing doesn’t work on me—”
“Then what the hellis this?”
I took a breath.“I told you, I don’t know.But the vampire…” I stopped, trying to sort it all out in my head, because I hadn’t bothered to do so until now.I’d been riding an emotional rollercoaster all day and had dismissed most of what he’d said.
And to be fair, it had sounded like complete nonsense.Not that I thought he was lying, but thatwasn’tthe way Were combat worked.We didn’t have telepathy, only an emotional connection to our clan, stronger with people like Cyrus and me, who were mated, but to a degree with everyone in our extended Were family.
But that hadn’t been what he’d described.You couldn’t coordinate an attack through emotion, like I couldn’t get flashes of thoughts from people as I had today—people I didn’t know and shouldn’t have been connected to.And yet, I was.
And that hadn’t started with the dark mage and his spells.It had started… with the call.The summons I had made that had linked me with all of them, with everybody within the sound of my voice.
And they had come back to help me protect the rest.Not all of them, not the worst of them, those so lost, so broken, or so warped to begin with that they had only thought about themselves.But people like Inese, who had never been able to stand up for themselves, to defend others, tofight—
They returned when they didn’t have to.They came back to fight for me against the reinforcements the dark mage had summoned, while I tracked Jace.To serve as my eyes and ears… and claws.
It was a good thing I was holding onto Cyrus because I might have fallen otherwise from the delayed epiphany.
“What is it?”he demanded.“What did you realize?”
“That the vamp might have been right, after all.”I looked up at him, searching his face, and honestly didn’t know how this was going to go.But he had a right to know, and I couldn’t postpone it any longer by pretending it didn’t apply.
“Lia?”
“I have a story to tell you,” I said hoarsely.
Chapter Sixteen
Itold Cyrus everything, which wasn’t as much as he wanted, but it was all I had.He listened intently, even though the emotions passing over his face mirrored the initial skepticism I’d felt.Until he’d called in Noah and sent him to the basement, and the young man returned with a prematurely gray-haired woman in an outfit that the Guardians had sourced for her, just a t-shirt and jeans, but it was new, and she stood taller in it.
“Inese,” I said, recognizing her immediately and rising to greet her.
“This is the woman?”Cyrus asked.
“Yes.Inese Veiss.”
“Lupa,” she bowed her head before remembering that clan Weres didn’t do that.And put her hand on her heart instead, but tentatively, as if she’d almost forgotten the traditional greeting.And then it didn’t matter when I enveloped her in a hug that went on and on, because I didn’t want to let go.
“Are you alright?Do you have everything you need?”I asked when I finally stepped back.
She nodded with tears in her eyes.I wondered how long it had been since she’d had the touch of clan, her clan?Too long, by the look of things.
“Everything but food,’ she said hoarsely, before clearing her throat.“The Guardians arranged lunch, bringing in sandwiches, but most of us were too flustered to eat them.It’s calmed down a bit since, and the Guardians arranged for dinner before they left for the night, but it was through the hotel—”
“And room service around here is glacial.”
“Well, it...it hasn’t shown up yet.Not that we’re not grateful for all you’ve done—”
“You don’t have anything to be grateful for!You fought today.You deserve a feast!”
I glanced at Cyrus.“We can arrange a feast,” he agreed, his eyes sharp and watchful.As if he was suspecting some trick when there wasn’t one.
“Are all the wounded seen to?”I asked her, feeling guilty that I hadn’t even checked.I’d spent most of the day in a strange sort of fog, but it was starting to clear.And I was being reminded that these people neededeverything, and so far, I’d given nothing.
“Yes, the Guardians took some of the most injured to their hospital, on tribal lands out in Humboldt, but most are being tended here.They just need rest and food.”She hesitated.“And to see you.I know you were down earlier, but you and—” She looked past me to Cyrus.
“Cyrus, my mate and the chief of our clan.”
