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"I will accompany him if you will allow it." Thayer made the surprising offer. Louis trusted Thayer, so he agreed and also accompanied them. Entering Louis' Palace as a semi-welcomed guest was a new experience for Edward. No one had invited him into their homes in about a millennium because he only brought pain and death. But not today; today, he was invited inside to search for his heart and the balm to his soul, the gift of Fate.
Once inside, Edward concentrated on the scent that first awakened him. The scent of evening rain was present but so slight he began walking to the stairway but then diverted to the elevator. The scent was in the elevator. He needed to focus on knowing where to go, either up or down, and then his heart told him to go down. Thayer and Louis entered the elevator with him while soldiers remained alert and nearby at all times, they were not taking chances, and Edward respected their caution.
They made no comment and did not try to control or direct. They simply followed him as he followed his heart. He stopped the elevator on the sub-basement level and stepped out. The scent was getting steadily stronger, but he wondered why the aroma was leading him to this floor. It was a detention area; was his beloved a guard or perhaps a prisoner?
He noticed a look pass between Louis and Thayer that puzzled him. They knew something, and it was troubling. He continued on toward the cells walking past the two guards by the door, for neither of them held the scent he was seeking. He stopped at the door that led to a back section and glanced over at Louis, who instructed the guard to open the door.
The room and the cell were empty, but still, Edward walked over to one particular cell and stood gazing silently inside. He reached up, and the door fell away. There was a magic block in place, but Edward's magic was too old to be affected, just like the blocks Louis had used on other parts of his domain. The only thing solid and tight in Louis' security against someone like him was the Cyprian sword and their ability to use it.
"Who was in this cell?" Edward turned and regarded the men standing there and waited for an answer. The scent was still very fresh, so the man had left not long ago, but the scent did not give him an indication of where the man had gone. He was certain it was a man, for the cell held a distinctly masculine aura. The belief that this man was his beloved was also growing stronger.
"A young mage was captured in town and brought here for questioning, but he has escaped." Louis stuck to the main points, although his concern for this young magic was evident. "His name was Cooper Sloane, and he was a water mage, according to Thayer." Thayer nodded when Edward glanced in his direction.
"All this iron, spellwork, and precautions, and he escaped?" Edward was not grasping how the man could have possibly gotten away. "Nature magics are gentle, non-confrontational magics. How could he break what you have here and walk out? He doesn't have the power to free himself from here." Edward looked around the cell, trying to figure out how he got away.
He sat down on the bench and reached down to touch the base of the wall and then brought his finger up, and it was wet. "You have a leak. It's small, but a water mage doesn't need much, just a flow and a path to follow.” Edward stood and spoke to Louis.
"Thank you for allowing me to search. I'll find him now, and I give you my pledge that I will not force this issue. If he does not see a bond or a life with me, then so be it." Louis nodded, and Edward followed the mage. He disappeared into the slow trickle that connected to the groundwater connected to a small river that ran the length of the state property south of Coven DuCane.
The mage found his escape from the cell and from Coven DuCane, but Edward could follow him easily. The scent was strong, and Edward’s desire was just as strong. The search was making the anticipation that much more exciting. The water mage was not what he’d expected when he began this search, but he was eager to make Cooper Sloane’s acquaintance.
He surfaced in the forest north of the Coven. He stopped and listened, and he heard. The mage was not far ahead of him. Edward held his breath for a moment as the weight of it all hit him. This was a gift like no other, and for a man like him, it would have seemed impossible. It should have been impossible, but Fate has extended mercy to the merciless.
He made his way through the woods, each step bringing him closer to the jewel that could make his life complete. He made a pledge, and he would keep it, but he dared not to think of the ramifications if it were a denial that waited for him at the end of this journey.
He would honor the wishes of the mage, but he would also do everything in his power to win him over. He was Edward the Black Prince, and there was a time that he would have taken and not cared. He spent centuries not caring. It served him in those days but not today. Today he wanted more, and the mage was his chance to have that.
Cooper couldn't believe his luck. The leak in the wall brought him right to the river that was well and away from Coven property. He was in a forest and wasn't sure if it was state-owned or private property, but either way, he was free, and now he had to find a way back to town to collect his car. Hopefully, the Coven hadn't impounded it. He wasn't sure what he'd do without a vehicle. He had so many thoughts rushing through his mind, but the primary thought was to get as far away from vampires as possible.
He kept looking behind him, not that he was hearing anything, but his senses were telling him that he was being followed. There was no one there. The area was clear as far as the eye could see, but still, he had a nagging hunch that he was not alone.
The vampires might be following him, but they wouldn't hang back. They'd swarm him like they did at the café. Maybe it was just his paranoia working overtime; between Norman Niemi and the Coven, he had a lot to be paranoid about. He tried to keep a steady pace, but the area was rough, and walking was tiring; he had to find his way to the road. There must be a road somewhere. He thought about using the river to travel but feared he might end up out in the bay, not at the hotel. He really wasn't very good with the magic that was given to him. He could handle the basics, but anything complicated ended up a mess, a total fucking mess like that day at the racetrack.
The clothes he was wearing were not exactly suited for trapping through the woods. His loafers were hardly supportive, and his leather jacket was getting him decidedly hot. His white cotton button-down and black pants were okay, but they weren't going to survive the trip.
Once he made it to the road, he'd concentrate and get his magic back under control and get himself a new outfit. For now, he was stuck because he couldn't seem to focus, even with the river not far away.
Something was inhibiting him and his abilities. Something was in the air that kept capturing his attention, and it smelled like cotton candy. He loved fresh cotton candy. He tried to push the thought from his mind and keep his attention on finding his way out of the woods, but his mind kept going back to that sweet scent. But there was nothing in the woods that smelled like cotton candy, so he was just being delusional.
Fear can do strange things, and apparently, it can make you smell the aroma of cotton candy. He decided to try and run, which turned out to be a bad idea. He hadn't gone more than a few yards when he caught his foot on some undergrowth and went headfirst into the broad trunk of a sturdy poplar.
He groaned and rolled onto his back and tried to sit up, but his head began to spin, so he closed his eyes and lay still for a minute as the pain eased off. Cooper felt like a complete idiot running in the woods, trying to get away without a clue where he was going. His magic wasn't working for him, so he was stuck out here in the middle of nowhere, and now he stubbed his toe, tore his pants, and had a pounder of a headache. "I was probably better off in that damnable cell."
“No, you weren’t.” The voice was deep and seemed to come from everywhere. Cooper jerked to his feet but soon fell once again and was struggling to get away when someone placed their hand on his shoulder.
CHAPTER FOUR
Thayer returned to Pittsburgh as it seemed the Black Prince was not a threat to Coven DuCane. With the gift of the Cyprian blades in the hands of his trained guards, Louis was satisfied they had a suitable defense if things happened to turn around. It was late, and Louis retired to his quarters, where he knew his beloved Ezra was waiting for him.
He shared with Ezra the happenings of the day and the Fate of the water mage. "I can't believe a man like the Black Prince would be granted a beloved Thayer claims the man has changed and is striving to heal his soul, but no matter how much healing he achieves, he does not deserve that sweet, little water mage." Louis slipped off his clothes and pulled on a light robe before joining Ezra on the plush loveseat pulling him onto his lap and kissing him deeply.
"I wanted to deny him entry. I wanted to keep him away from whoever it was he was seeking, and he knew it. I saw his gaze, and he read my thoughts, but he didn't react. He waited." Louis pulled Ezra tight to his chest and drank in the clean, exciting scent of his beloved. "What if he hasn't changed? What if that young man is destined for a life of nothing but pain and misery?"
"It is designed by Fate, and if the young mage is his beloved, you cannot interfere. It is the law of the supernatural." Ezra reminded him. "And with that said, I think he has changed." He said this, then hurried with an explanation. "What would you have done if Master Hadden had opposed our bond or tried to keep us apart?”
“I would have laid him out without a thought or care and taken you by force.” He responded at once.
"Exactly, but the Black Prince didn't do that; he waited, and he controlled himself and let you set the pace. I would say that behavior takes a lot of restraint for a man like the Black Prince.” Ezra kissed his cheek and snuggled against his chest.
