I spoke with the seconds, making hasty arrangements for the care of these possessed pack members as well as finding places for future ones. For the time being, we could make temporary accommodations in the old college. Closets and bathrooms that didn’t have windows for the prisoners to escape, to start with. Unused classrooms could have the windows boarded over and cells built inside. We’d be using all the lumber we’d procured for the omega rebuilding project on this instead.
I met with Jasmine again, this time with the remaining seconds and the priestess at the alpha offices.
“It seems to me that when someone is bitten by a possessed person, they end up possessed, too,” I said, leaning my elbows on the table. “That’s what happened with Jace, Renz, and several of the warriors today.”
The priestess shook her head. “But the report we got from Burgess didn’t say anything about it being transferred by a bite.”
“Penny also told me that when Burgess had possessed pack members, they were silent when they attacked. Our pack members make noise. Growling and howling, and yelping in pain.” Jasmine pressed her fingertips to her temples. “Does it mean something?
“We knew that this was a different sort of attack than what Burgess suffered. It’s just further proof,” I answered. “It proves that the hugging ritual would never work here. We have to find a different solution.”
“What sort of solution?” one of the seconds asked.
I closed my eyes, trying to avoid grinding my teeth. I wanted to shout at him that I didn’t know, but held my temper in check. Everything seemed bleak. Jasmine’s vision was coming true little by little. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to be enough to stop this?
Maybe it would be best for a mass diaspora. If we all abandoned this territory, maybe even left the valley, perhaps we would be spared. The warning the omegas left was tied to the land. Maybe the darkness was tied to it, too, and by leaving, we could at least save those who were still sane.
Footsteps sounded, and I opened my eyes again. Jasmine stepped close to me, wrapping her arms around my chest. She felt fragile in my arms, as though she was ready to fall apart. I supposed, in some ways, she was.
I couldn’t give up. I couldn’t let her lose hope, and to bolster her, I had to keep my hope, too. I didn’t know how to fix this, but I was going to stay with her until the end. Deep in my bones, I knew she’d stay with the others. Which meant I wasn’t going anywhere.
All the same… “I want an evacuation of the town,” I said. “Send scouts outside of the territory, over the mountain. Find a place to temporarily camp outside of the valley. We have reason to believe this is tied to the land, so I want to get all our civilians off of it. But we can’t risk going to other territories or neutral ground here in Maplewood.”
Both the seconds and the priestess looked worried at this, but it was quickly decided who would go. I wanted to evacuate everyone in no more than three days, and drafted a notice to be distributed around town so everyone could prepare.
After the meeting was over, Jasmine insisted on picking up some food for me while I still worked. She brought a couple of sandwiches for us to share.
“I can still fix this,” she said, picking tomatoes off her sandwich. “I don’t care what my vision has shown. I’m not leaving this town to be consumed by the darkness.”
“I know.” I smiled at her. Even though she had confessed to Penny that she felt like this was her fault, she had rallied. She wasn’t going to let this destroy her, and she wasn’t going to stop fighting for Killian, Jace, Renz, and all the others. “That fighting spirit is something I love about you.”
Her head came up, and she stared at me with wide eyes.
What was she looking at me like that for? I reviewed my words. Oh. I’d said, love. For a moment, I wanted to brush it off, as though it was just a turn of phrase. But no. No, I wasn’t going to do that. I could be taken by the darkness at any time, and I didn’t want to end up possessed without telling her the truth.
Jace and Renz both said it, then they were taken. They’d recognized their last chance and were desperate not to disappear without her knowing. Was I really going to wait until the last moment, too?
“I love you,” I murmured softly. “Killian didn’t have the chance to say it, but he loves you, too. You should know that. And not in the final moments before I get possessed.”
Jasmine’s lip trembled. “And I love all of you. I didn’t tell them. But I love them, and I miss them, and I can’t give up.” Tears spilled down her cheeks, and I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close. “I can’t give up.”
The next morning, I woke to the scent of herbs stewing in the kitchen, the dark circles under Jasmine’s eyes indicatingshe hadn’t gotten any sleep. I hadn’t slept much, either, and only dozed off after she’d made tea for me. Tea, I thought she also drank, but looking at the papers scattered over the kitchen table, I had a feeling that she had instead been reading all night.
“What are you doing?” I asked, rubbing my eyes.
“I found a section in the book about omegas that were put on trial for ‘witchcraft potions,’ and it made me think about everything that is happening. It lists the ingredients they used, and I think maybe if I can get the proper combination and ratios, it might be what we need to calm down the possessed pack members.”
She didn’t look up as she continued to work. There were already several jars on the table with labels on them. I inspected the jars. They were all a greenish-blue hue, and I couldn’t begin to guess what herbs and other plants were used in them.
“My spreadsheet is over there,” Jasmine said, pointing to the end of the counter. “I’m keeping track of what I use and how many ingredients. Right now, I’m steeping them all for the same length of time, so that everything else is stable. You know, so we know that it’s just the mixes that we need to worry about.”
She took the pot off the stove, and I hurried over to lift it for her when her hand slipped a bit. Jasmine yawned, pressing her hand over her mouth. “Thanks.”
I carefully strained the mixture and put it in a jar.
“I have a few more combinations that I want to try,” Jasmine said when I squeezed some soap into the pot she’d been using.
“Let’s see if any of these work first,” I told her, nodding to the line of jars. “That way, if they do, we won’t need to use up all our herbs for them.”
