Damien's arm hooked around my waist and pulled me into his chest. “Where is he?”
“Rescued,” he croaked, rubbing his throat.
I turned and dug into my bag to pull out an entire tincture of healing and handed it to him. “This will help with healing and pain. Who rescued him?”
He took it carefully before opening up the lid and sniffing it. Then he downed two droppers full of it. “Humans. A different faction. Ones who want to co-exist with us.”
“What?” I gasped, and Damien pulled me tighter against him.
He gave a dry chuckle, and pain flared in his eyes. “There’s been talk about them from the other humans, but I didn't believe it until they attacked the facility about a month or two ago. I don't know for sure. Time goes by differently in captivity. But I’m the last supernatural this facility has. I was being experimented on when they came, so I wasn’t able to be rescued, unfortunately.”
“I’m so sorry, but you’re rescued now. There's an agent of the Supernatural Council here—”
The door flung open as fire blasted through before flickering out. Samson stood in the doorway with not an ounce of blood on him, but the scent of death hung around him. “That’s me. Come with me, and I'll get you home.”
The shifter shot Damien a questioning look.
Damien nodded. “He will take you back home.”
“Do you know where they took my dad?” My voice cracked.
The shifter’s gaze settled on me and softened. “No, but he's looking for you. You’re all he talked about. He was my roommate. There’s no way he won’t find you.”
Tears burned in my eyes as I nodded, a lump lodged in my throat.
“We talked about our daughters a lot. My daughter is hopefully at the village waiting for me.”
“I’m sure she is.”
He slipped off the table and hobbled toward Samson, the tincture clutched in his hand. “You were the only thing on his mind. However, the woman who rescued us… she… they seemed taken by each other. I'm not sure if I should tell you this, but I believe they were mates.”
“Mates?” My heartbeat echoed in my skull. “My dad has another mate?”
“Well, we are fox shifters.” The man forced a chuckle as static drowned out everything else around me.
Damien leaned down and nipped my ear, sending pain through me and cutting through the static as I blinked back at the shifter.
“My name is Jackson, please let Cooper know that I made it out and that I'll be in the fox village if he ever wants to visit.”
“We will,” Damien assured him before his shadows engulfed us both. “I’m so sorry, little bird,” he rasped in my ear, but hope and uncertainty mingled in the back of my throat.
TWENTY
Alister
"Wherehaveyoubeen?”My throat tightened as I narrowed my gaze at my mother. Granted, I was relieved that nothing happened to her, but I couldn’t stop myself from being pissed off that she’d disappeared. I surely didn’t appreciate the pattern she was creating.
The hot breeze provided some relief from the sweltering sun, but the frustration of it all still sizzled with my magical energy.
She stood next to the dragon statue, her long hair blowing in the wind as she tucked it behind her ear. “Alister, I'm sorry, I wanted to be the one to tell you about your grandfather.”
“The warlock is actually a necromancer, and he is my great great grandfather. Fantastic,” I bit out through clenched teeth.
“He built the relic, and when he did, he lost his soul and his power. Without his soul, he couldn’t die. He stayed in his old age and was trapped to do the bidding of whoever had the relic, which was the dragons for a little while. And then once the dragons lost it, and the relic was in human territory, he started working with the humans. Not because he wanted to. Everything he's done is so he can get his soul back. He wants to just pass on to the afterlife at this point.”
“Why didn't you just tell us?” I flicked my tongue over my fangs and sighed.
“You know the zombie that they found on campus?” she asked, frowning.
