Giro nodded in agreement, a bit of color returning to his cheeks.
Dina cleared her throat, gaining all of our attention. “Did the texts say when the deaths happened? And if it was while these three leaders were in power?”
I checked my phone and after looking through everything, shook my head. “I can message Reminia if she can give us that information, too. Why do we need it?”
“Because,” Dina replied. “If these deaths happened all within their rule, then we know they are the ones responsible. If they happened before them, too, then others would’ve done this before them, likely training them to kill supernatural species undetected.”
“I hope it’s the first one,” Felix said, his face lined with worry.
“We all do,” Dina agreed.
Me:Thank you, Reminia. I have one question for your contact, if it is not too much trouble. Can they find information on when all of the deaths occurred, and when the current leaders took control? Some do not have a date attached and we fear others started the killings and these leaders simply continued on with their work. Best regards. Severin
“I have asked, now we just have to wait,” I informed them, tucking my phone away into my pocket.
“Perhaps, we should move this outside and wait for everyone to join us?” Peter said, already standing from his seat.
“I really hope this whole thing ends soon,” Felix whispered. I grabbed his hand and gave it areassuring squeeze.
“Me too.”
It all happened so fast. The witches came and so did the werewolves. A truly unique sight, but a welcome one. Werewolves, witches, and vampires all working together. It was a beautiful thing to witness. And after all these years I had never expected to be a part of something like this. We were fighting against a shared enemy; one we knew very little of. And now, with everyone tired of waiting, we had decided to act.
“Three hours,” Dina reminded me, handing me a black crystal. “Tuck this into your waistband. It needs to touch your skin to work.” She handed the others a matching crystal. They were all long and smooth, with one end tapered and the other flat. “They help protect you against magical attacks,” she explained, handing out over a hundred of them.
Felix and Giro held out a basket filled with tiny vials, all carrying a green liquid in them. “And drink this twenty minutes before we reach them,” Felix said, holding the basket out to everyone. “It’s infused with healing qualities, so if you end up bleeding or bruised, it will cut down your healing time. For witches it helps mend the skin, since we don’t heal on our own.” The witches from Dina’s coven seemed pleased and somewhat surprised by this potion. Maybe Felix was better at potions than most.
With all of that settled, we began driving. I had Dina, Peter, and Felix with me, which we all preferred. Reminia had yet to answer my question, so we faced them without knowing if they had killed all of these people themselves.
When the pack arrived, it had been obvious they had come ready to fight, all wearing determined expressions of anger. We still knew very little, but Joel had been taken, and when everyone knew of this, they declared we move out today. I was pleased by this and so were the others. We wanted our beloved Joel back where he belonged. We all held some guilt over getting him into trouble, and now we could finally free him. If he was still alive. I tried not to think too much on that part, hoping we had not missed our opportunity.
Claire had stayed behind with Astrea and Giro. We could not trust Giro’s branded tattoo not to do something horrible if he showed up, and from the look of relief on his face, we had chosen wisely, especially since he likely would not be able to tell us himself that he should not go with us. Two werewolves stayed behind, too, to guard the castle and our family, along with two witches from Dina’s coven as well.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Felix said, his voice awfully detached.
“Me neither,” Dina replied from the backseat. “My coven is a friendly one, none of us have ever been in a fight before. We had to search through our grimoires to figure out what our predecessors had used for protection and attacks. It was… informative.”
Felix snorted. “I’ll say. The Silver Lock Coven threw explosive crystals at us last time, so I hope whatever you’ve got can go boom, too.”
“Notboom, since we’re against using magic like that, but we have several crystals that can stun and make them unable to fight,” she explained.
“I prefer that,” Felix said, sounding relieved. “Many of the witches there could be forced to fight. I wouldn’t feel good about killing innocent people.”
“None of us would,” Peter assured him. “The plan is to get Joel back and risk as few casualties as possible. But we all know they will not give him up without a fight.”
No, they would not. We had all agreed that this would be a set up, and still everyone was willing to go to them, even with a war waiting for us.
“It’s nice not fighting alone,” Felix said, his voice low. “I like that I have so much to fight for, even though it also mean, that I have a lot more to lose.”
I grabbed his thigh with my right hand, hoping the small touch would ground us both. Peter and I had only each other for centuries, but I had never felt like I was fighting alone. My poor Felix had, even with Claire’s help it was still him. He was brave, my fated.
“You will never fight alone ever again,” I promised.
Peter sat forward a bit, his tone teasing. “You two can get back to your bonding phase as soon as this is over with. I promised Giro the very same thing before we left.”
“So, that was why he was blushing so hard,” Felix laughed.
Peter wore a smug grin as he nodded. “I am thinking Dina will do the same with Joel.”
