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“We need the packhouse if we want information on her.” Malachi reminds me and I growl.
“Line up!” I yell at them, and even those inside their houses stumble out, lining up out in front of the barbecue area.
“Where’s your Alpha?” I ask one man.
“He fled, abandoned us,” he whimpers when the one beside him sobs.
“Take her,” I tell Casen. He takes her from me, and I move toward the packhouse. Casen follows, standing on the front porch next to me.
The men glance at each other. Their fear is potent in the air, as it should be.
“How many of you know Temperance? Raise your hand,” I ask, and my stomach drops when they all lift a hand in the air.
“Just kill them, and be done with it, some things you don’t want to know,” Casen growls at me.
“Please,” one man begs, and the others whimper and sob. So clearly they know what I’m capable of. As they should, no family is feared more than mine.
“How many of you hurt her?” I ask ignoring their pleas, praying not all of them were her tormentors. However, all of them raise their hands, and I clench my teeth.
My hands balled into fists. “Eziah! Let her tell you, I don’t want to know what they’ve done to her, so please,” Casen pleads, turning and shielding her naked body from them.
“I felt her for fucking years! Felt what they’ve done to her!” I snarl at him.
“Exactly, so make sure it never happens again and be done with it!” Casen snarls back. I suck in a breath, exhaling loudly, trying to tame my temper.
Turning back to face all these men, men I know who harmed her, tortured her, and assaulted her in the worst ways possible. I walk down the steps.
“Go back to your cabins and stand on your porches. Don’t move until I leave your pack,” I order them. Robotically they do, some even running to get away from me.
Calm settles over me, and I see Casen walk inside with Temperance. Whoever said that light wasn’t dark was wrong. Light is the dark’s twin flame. One always chasing the other but never quite catching the other.
One thing with light, it has the ability to burn everything it touches. Darkness swallows everything whole, extinguishes it in the dark, and leaves you blind to your surroundings. But light? No, that illuminates everything, shows you what you wish you didn’t see, shows you what hides in the shadows that darkness obscures. So, being a Gemini twin, a healer, you don’t just heal; you absorb everything, the good, the bad, and the evil.
Feeling her fear for years, I absorbed it too. I might as well have been right beside her in the dark. And now they’ll burn for it. Opening my hand, I feel my power sliver down my arms and burst from my fingertips. I’ve had plenty of time to learn how to use light, pure, burning bright, a spark of life. And one spark is all it takes to burn everything to ashes.
I click my fingers, and sparks zap from my fingertips, catching the dry grass on fire. My eyes burn fiercely as I steer it toward the rows of cabins, and the men shriek and whimper.
“Now no running until we leave,” I tell them, taking a seat on the bottom step. The fire moves closer to the first cabin, and his begging and pleading grows louder as the fire licks at the steps. Then his pleas and cries turn to screams. Now they’ll scream the way she did.
ChapterThirteen
Their screams do nothing to abate my fury of finally finding her. Killing them a thousand times over would not be enough for the torture they put her through. Yet as the last cabin burns to the ground, and the cabins crumble in a pile of ash, I know I can’t sit here for much longer. Casen drops onto the steps beside me, pulling a smoke from his pocket. He offers me the packet and I take it, staring at what is left. Now what do I do with myself? For years, I have chased the phantom, for years I chased her ghost, and now I have found her, all I can think of is my mother's words so long ago.
“Some people can’t be fixed,” my mother told me that her aura resembled that of someone gone insane. After years of feeling her, I knew what she said was true. Temperance is more animal than human. I am certain of that.
Casen pats himself down and curses, pulling the smoke from between his lips. “Got a lighter?” he asks as I stare ahead. I hoped finding her and seeking revenge will fill this hollow void inside me, yet all its done is made it larger, more infinite, more consuming. Because now I am no longer chasing, I have no reason to not go home. No more excuses to not take my place as Alpha. No, now I have to see if any part of her is salvageable, if not I’ll spend the rest of my life caring for her, keeping her safe.
Holding up my finger, Casen puts his smoke between his lips, then presses the tip of it to my finger that glows red with heat. Smoke wafts in my face and he sits drawing back on the smoke.
“I’ll never get used to your ability to manipulate light,” he says, exhaling, and I light my own.
“So now what?” Casen asks me. And I lean back, making sure the surrounding forest doesn’t burn as the embers burn out. It starts to sprinkle rain, like mist coating everything and extinguishing what remains.
“No idea. I might stop in and see Marabella before heading home.”
“Can you drop me to your uncles on the way?” he asks, and I nod my head.
“Going back to see Rose?” I ask, and he sighs.
