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The picture was one where all of the ranked members of Guardian Moon were standing in front of their pack house, along with another woman who looked to be in her late seventies. Their previous human chef whom everyone called Mama Isabel, if I remember correctly. I was still young when she passed. I moved the jaguar to look at it more closely and I heard a click. A door opened to the side, and I had no time to act when a man appeared for a second before his image swirled and appeared right behind Evie. The man grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up, setting the set of brass claws on his hands at her throat. I growled, but he tightened the hand at her neck, the claws digging into her flesh, and I stopped before he could break the skin.
“Don’t come closer. We’re going to leave and you’re going to let me. Don’t think about mind-linking at all. She’ll be dead before you can get any help.” I could feel Tenoch snarling in the back of my mind, but I didn’t dare move.
“Cory,” Evie whimpered.
“Don’t even try it, sweetheart. Put the pen down,” he said and I heard a clatter on the other side of the monitors. I didn’t know what to do. I was fast, but not fast enough to get to her before he could do damage to her, and if those claws were as full of wolfsbane as the ones that ripped into me, she wouldn’t survive a wound to an artery before Aunt Nat could get here.
“Cory we’re all ready—” Uncle Theo walked in through the door. He stopped the moment he saw everyone and a flicker of recognition took over his face.
“Nochehuatl(Now-CH-eyWeyTL)?” he whispered the question and I saw grief cross the man’s eyes before they hardened again. No one moved for a moment and I did not expect to hear what came out of Uncle Theo’s mouth next. “Brother?” His voice trembled.
“I go by Nickolas now, little brother,” the man said. “I would love to stay and chat, but I have to go. People to see, deaths to plan, wars to wage. You know.”
“We felt you die,” Uncle Theo said. There were tears in his eyes. “How?”
“A simple trick to make sure Helios didn’t look for me,” Nickolas answered with a shrug.
“Why? Why would you leave your family? Me?” Uncle Theo wanted to know and Nickolas scoffed.
“That wasn’t a family. We were under his thumb. We couldn’t do anything without clearing it with him. We went where he went. He said jump and we jumped. If one of us wanted something different, too bad. I wanted a family of my own and he said ‘Too bad.’”
“That’s why you left? Because he wouldn’t let you pursue Bastet?” Theo asked, his face hardening.
“I was in love with her,” Nickolas hissed.
“She wasn’t. Once we realized she wasn’t at the pyramids, Helios left her alone and she’s the one that reached out to tell him that you wouldn’t leave her be.” Uncle Theo’s voice shook with anger and hurt. “You left me to grieve for you. Even after Helios told me the connection broke, I looked for your body until Sebastian and Gonzalo dragged me away after weeks of searching that mountain.”
“Well, now you found me,” Nickolas smiled.
“And you’re working for him.”
“He gave me what I wanted. Anything I wanted.”
“Except for your freedom and a clean conscience.”
“Small price to pay.” He shrugged.
‘Get ready to grab Evie, Seb is in the room with you,’ Aunt Nat’s mind-link came to me but shut off before Nickolas could see my eyes glaze over. I did my best not to react to this new information and hope rose that Evie would be safe.
“And it’s not like you have freedom. Even after being blessed by the Moon Goddess, you still serve him,” Nicolas argued back.
“I trust him with my life. Helios is my family,” Uncle Theo spat.
“I’m your family,” Nickolas hissed.
“No. My brother died on the mountaintops of Indonesia. I grieved for him; the man that helped raise me and went through hell with me. I don’t know who you are, but you are not him.” I felt for my uncle when I saw tears leave his eyes.
‘Now,’ Aunt Nat linked me, and I saw Uncle Seb appear next to Nickolas, grabbing the hand that held the claws to Evie. I used all my speed to reach them, and he let go of Evie when he saw me getting close. We tumbled together and crashed through the glass window. I heard Evie scream my name, but I had nothing to hang onto. We were seven floors up, and I wasn’t sure I could survive the fall. I managed to look up, and saw Evie’s terrified face at the window.
I felt something slam into my side and we all tumbled back into the building, crashing back through another glass window. After shaking my head, I groaned and struggled to stand.
“Stay down. I’ve got you.” I heard Dad next to me. He stood in front of me and faced Nickolas, but looking between his legs, I managed to see Nickolas pull a long shard of glass from his abdomen before his form swirled and he disappeared. I thought Dad would follow, but instead, he turned and crouched next to me. “I need to get this out. Nat is on her way. We need to go before the cops get here.” I looked down and noticed I also had a large shard of glass embedded into my side. The adrenaline was keeping me from feeling any pain.
I heard running steps behind us and tensed, but relaxed the moment I saw Aunt Nat and Evie running through the doors, with everyone else running behind them.
“I didn’t mean for you to jump out the fucking window, Cory,” Aunt Nat screamed at me, panic lacing her voice. Dad laughed.
“He was always a little bit dramatic growing up,” he said, making me glare at him.
