AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The scent gets stronger as we approach. Silver has been bringing up the rear, taking his time to soak up the landscape and encourage his visions to come. He joins us in the front and gestures with a hand to hold up.
Silver kneels into the close by brush, sniffing the air with Lucianna by his side. Overmaster Descallia watches them intently, his eyes reddening around the rims. “Lucianna and Silver see the witches who were taken. They’re in the cavern at the edge of the mountain,” he says, gesturing over the vast scape of grape vineyards toward the horizon where the mass stands tall and proud. Astounding me with the powers of communication that he and Lucianna have.
Our group marches forward, watchful and alert, knowing that any minute we could be stepping into a well laid trap but fully prepared to take our chances and fight our way out if it means capturing Isala. The shifter scent becomes more pronounced as we make our way toward the cavern, and the scent of fire and sound of crackling wood can be heard in the distance.
I caution the others to follow but to stay out of sight and cover us, as Trentino and I proceed forward. We make our way carefully through the woods, blending in with the pitch-black dark of the night, moving within the shadows as we get closer to our enemies.
A branch in the distance gives me pause. I gesture for Trentino to wait. The more we can provide cover for each other, the better our chances are of not falling into a trap. The minute he’s no longer by my side, the scent of danger permeates my senses.
The trap has begun to fall … and Trentino is gone.
That sixth sense, slight breeze, and rustle above cause me to look up, just as the shimmering of a gold outline vanishes into the night. “Witches.”
Pesky witches who are never far when there is trouble in the vampire lives. Always hiding out behind some tree, listening to our conversations, casting spells, hexes and making potions to try and oust us from our position of power.
The fact that Overmaster Descallia continues to let them into our fold, trusting Devora who he knows is always going to be at odds with us until she and the witches get the land they seek in Romania still rankles. No matter where we go, every witches’ haven is the same around the regions. Pesky fucking witches!
Terrence and Clay feel it too and fall in by my side. If the witches are involved, more numbers are better. We stalk carefully through the night until Silver, Lucianna, and the rest of the group join us. Lucianna points to the smoke billowing from the cavern entrance at the base of the mountain. “A trap. They’re not there, Calabrea. That’s not where they’ve taken Master Trentino.”
She points upward, into the dark nestled recesses of the mountain top where the moon doesn’t even shed light into the caverns. “They’re hiding up there, somewhere. Isala is watching and waiting. I can feel her,” Luciana says.
An evil cackle from above causes us all to look up at the same time. A circle of light shines reflecting Isala’s face in its center, right above the large round canopy of the old tree. “You think your powers can outsmart me, Anna?” She cackles, using Lucianna’s childhood name. They can’t. You were never as powerful as me. I only let you think that.”
Lucianna doesn’t even have a chance to respond before Isala begins to laugh so loud that all the birds in the tree and its surrounding neighbors flee to a different source of cover.
The circle grows bright, a green crystalline light shining around it’s edges. I turn, realizing it’s a reflection of Lucianna’s eyes which are smoldering and glowing in the night as she looks up at the image of her sister.
Isala wears a long low cut red gown, and her bright silver hair hangs in soft curls around her face. Her lips are painted red to match her gown, and she sits within the circle of light, in front of a black cauldron.
Witches…
They have provided her sanctuary and aided her with their magic, allowing her to come to us in a projected vision. Isala’s image gets bigger, appearing to come closer to the bubble and increase in size. “Come, don’t dawdle if you want to be in time to save Master Trentino and the filthy little witches. I will trade you. The entire group of witches and Trentino for my sister.”
Overmaster Descallia roars his displeasure, sending birds and animals alike fleeing for cover in the dense wooded area of the forest. “Come and face me, traitor!” Overmaster Descallia roars, his arm holding Lucianna protectively from doing anything full hardy that would put her life in jeopardy. He’s lost her before, and he’s clearly not willing to let her out of his sight again.
“My sister for them. That’s the deal. Take it or leave it,” she screeches.
Lucianna’s hand on Descallia’s arm is hardly going to calm him today. “Show me that the witches and Master Trentino are still alive. Then, and only then, will we consider your proposal,” Overmaster roars.
Isala laughs. “Do not growl at me, Descallia. You don’t scare me in the slightest. Remember, I was the one who tamed that growl when your precious little Anna was too weak to defend herself against the rogues the first time. Too bad she couldn’t stay where she was sent. This time, I’ll take care of things myself. She won’t ever come back,” she promises.
Lucianna’s eyes have gone deep green and are smoldering red around the rims. She turns to us. “Do not be drawn in by what she says. Her hatred for me is what fuels her. Let her thinkshe can have the upper hand. I’ll go with her. You get the others and make sure the witches are returned to their rightful covens. I’m not sure if any of the shifters were taken without their consent, or if they all signed up for her madness voluntarily, but we have to give them the same benefit of the doubt.”
My jaw locks tight as Overmaster Descallia’s eyes go red to the point of fire. He knows we’re at a standoff and that Lucianna’s proposal is the only one that’s going to get us inside that cavern door. But every single one of us is having a hard time swallowing this as the only plan we have to get inside.
Lucianna may have just returned to us and Descallia not that long ago, but she is the epidemy of class and strength. There is no doubt she will make a formidable queen to the vampires when the time is right, seemingly always putting our needs before that of her own.
Descallia has other thoughts, though, and his eyes flash flaming red at his mate. “I forbid it,” he growls.
She looks up at him and strokes his arm. “In everything else, I will listen. Not in this, my love. In this, it was always going to be me and her, facing each other, settling the wrongs of the past. It was always meant to come. It needs to be settled before it tears the vampire community into shreds. I won’t let that happen, and you need to let me do this.”
He doesn’t say a word. No one does, because there are no words to say, just a silent acknowledgement that what she says may be true and lives are on the line. Until Isala gets what she wants,0@<:<46 we’re not going to be able to get near that elevated position with all of her shifter guards and witches on patrol.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t feel the raw pain of watching Lucianna stand on tip toes to kiss her love goodbye, not knowing if she will be banished back into the depths of death for another few centuries.
When she walks away, the circle with Isala’s image slowly begins to float toward the mountain. Lucianna follows it for a distance before her body is lifted, and each of us watch in fearful silence as she floats toward one of the cavern holes near the top of the mountainside.
Embry’s eyes fill with tears watching her best friend float away. “She has a far better advantage up there than she did here. That’s why she went. You’ll see,” she says.
