Chapter 16

Viria knew she had a lot to investigate before she found a place to meditate and transfer information. She needed to know if there were any rogues in the place itself that she could confront in their sub-consciousness.

Everyone left the place one by one except for the woman. They all stood up one after the other and left in a neat formation. And once all had gone, a large alarm sounded through the place and a heavy iron panel fell over the door.

“My colleagues,” she called out. The wall behind her opened once again and Viria gasped. People filled into the place, twelve to be exact. One of them was a very familiar Gael. She had to grit her teeth from crying out. She knew something about him was fishy but she didn’t think Gael would stoop this low. But she held herself from making quick assumptions and studied the former vampire. He looked uneasy, unsure, and it felt as if he was new to the place. She could tell looking from the others who belonged to which group of shifters. There were two witches present, too.

“Please, have a seat,” she said. “I see two people are missing?”

“The vampires,” a boy no older than Viria said, “I heard they’ve been caught from another accomplice of theirs.”

“Caught? How? By whom?” the woman demanded.

“They’d teamed up with a witch head for some of her political reasons,” he explained. “She was going to help them hand over two powerful witches in return. Viria and Nina. They failed and were captured by those very two.”

“Idiots!” she cried out with a fist to the table. “How did they believe they would be handed over those two all so easily?”

Well, fuck, she knows about Nina, too.Viria almost sighed, but held herself.Next thing I know they’ve got Cassie.

“The witch must’ve persuaded them well,” he said. “After all, she did belong to the Inner Circle and directly communicated with Nina.”

“Make sure those two never return should they get away from their capture,” she sighed, “Kill them on the spot. What about the chimeras on their test run.”

“One of your prime experiments have been killed,” a girl said as she played with a blade, “by Viria herself.”

“You all said they were powerful enough to even overtake her,” the woman said dangerously. Viria could see the pain in her eyes. “You said they would succeed!”

“You underestimate the child,” Gael finally spoke. “She isn’t an ordinary teenager. Haven’t you heard? She’s been named a warlord amongst most communities.”

“I’m sure you would know all about her, Gael,” said the woman. “You were within the Council of Elders once upon a time, were you not?”

“I’m still in touch,” he said. “One of my students is within the premises.”

“Gael hasn’t pledged his alliance to the Morbus yet,” the girl with the blade snapped. “You’re not supposed to be here, vampire.”

“This is not an alliance,” the woman announced, “merely an exchange of information. He’s promised his silence and loyalty.”

“How can you trust him?” she sneered.

“He has good reasons as to why he’s here.”

“Why won’t he join us?” the girl demanded.

“It was one of your members that brought me a great loss,” Gael interjected. “Asther. I’m sure you know him. I have no interest in joining you in any of your missions. I just want to make sure you keep those meddling kids out of my matters and checking in on the progress to take advantage of any opportunities. I’m not very fond of the Elders and I plan on eliminating them.”

The girl fell silent and leaned back with a shrug. “You better not double cross us.”

Viria was fuming under her cloak, but she knew she had to keep her blood pressure down. There were shifters in the place and if they felt the slightest shift in the atmosphere of got a whiff of her scent, she’d be a goner. This form of capture would get her killed instead of caged. Being caged was her goal.

“Anyway” – the woman clapped – “what else?”

“Your test run subjects,” a man beside Gael opened started, “it seemed as if they had cornered a Luna recently.”

Viria’s blood ran cold.

“She’s held in one of the bases along with her Alpha mate. I say if the Alpha and Luna aren’t all that good at defending themselves, then neither are their packs, or any of the others. And the Shadow Claw pack were the most powerful bear shifters have known.

Oh, for fuck’s sake!Viria screamed internally. She held her breath and entered a semi-meditative state right there and then to contain and release her rage within. Buildings were collapsing in her mind as she shot at them. People were burning as she hit them and snapped their necks. The lakes and rivers around her were boiling and bubbling, turning into lava and the mountains were splitting and sinking into the earth.

She needed to contact Ivanna immediately. Viria felt absolutely frustrated.

I knew I shouldn’t have left them like that before investigating, she yelled internally to herself, but she knew there was no point. She could only hope she could send them help on time and not lose the two.

“What is being done with them?” the woman asked.

“They’re just being held hostage,” he said. “We’ll be sending in witches to break into their minds and take as much information as possible.”

They’ll know about the sanctuaries…Viria realized as her body fell cold. The witches would find out the location since Viria’s essence was within Luke and connects him to the sanctuaries intended for the bear and wolf shifters. The only thing calming her right now was the knowledge that Viria had set up barriers almost impossible to break in every one of her team members. She’d done it whenever she gotten the chance to rest. But Viria was concerned about how painful the whole ordeal would get for the two of them. She hoped nothing had happened to Violet as that would lead to the two giving away everything just to protect her. She wouldn’t hate them for it, of course, but the burden would be hard to bear. They all were dealing with more than they should.

“What’s more?”

“Well, it’s just this for now,” he said. “The test run chimeras had to retreat because of Viria’s appearance at the targeted pack. I think they will go in after them again the next day when they’ve regenerated well.”

Regenerated?Viria thought confused.

“Are you sure the mother chimera will not turn against you at one point?” Gael asked.

“She’s sedated and in a constant state of processing dark energy to distribute to the chimeras,” the woman said. “She has no way to access coherent thoughts.”

“What happens if she somehow wakes up?”

“She won’t.”

There’s the weak spot.Viria grinned as her heart calmed down.No precautions or plans there. Mitch was definitely right.

“Lydia,” Gael said, “the mother chimera is one of the evolved species. I am one, so I know how it works. You won’t be able to keep her asleep forever. You may manage to sedate her body, but I assure you, her mind is very much awake and only training and preparing to take over her vessel and break free. We are not easily contained by mere medications.”

“Her brain scans show otherwise, Gael,” the woman now named Lydia snapped. Viria wanted to cackle. Essences, souls, and auras could not be accessed so simply through science.

“Suit yourself.” He sighed and sat back. Viria was glad he’d given up. Now that he’d planted uncertainty and doubt in Lydia’s mind, she would surely go ahead to take precautionary measures against the mother chimera first thing the meeting was adjourned. But nothing Lydia could manage could hold back those who had evolved.

****

Diana could not understand why Cassie felt the need to leave, but the news had devastated her enough to prevent her from thinking straight anymore. All she could do was replay everything in her head, wishing she’d said something different to keep her in the den until Luke or Fergus returned. Sure, even Diana felt something was wrong, but after looking at how beat up Fergus and Luke were, she wouldn’t dare put herself out there in case the chimera were still lurking.

“Calm down, Cassie,” Diana said, holding her shoulders gently. “It’s just patrol. He handled himself pretty well and knows what he’s dealing with now.”

“What if he gets into trouble?” She sighed.

“He won’t let himself,” the wolf Luna said. “He’s not dumb, okay? He knows when to stay away from a fight.”

“I just have a really bad feeling,” Cassie said rubbing her temples. “I don’t know why it feels like we’re going to mess up somehow.”

“You won’t!” Diana groaned. “Don’t you trust Viria? Do you think she’d let something like that happen?”

“Viria’s just a kid!” she cried out and got up, “And it isn’t like something shouldn’t mess up, okay? Look, I’m leaving. I need to go and at least check up on Luke. I’ll tell you if Fergus is doing all right, too.”

“Cassie, no!” she ordered firmly and grabbed her wrist. “As an Elder, I am commanding you to stay put!”

“As Luna of this pack and territory, I demand to be given due authority to do as I please!”

“This is why we shouldn’t have all people of authority in one place,” Kayla whispered to her best friend, Ian, who chuckled.

“You think this is bad? Remember Luke before Cassie came along?”

The two Lunas turned to the kids and gave them deadpanned looks. They immediately silenced themselves and put their hands up, moving away further into the den.

“Aren’t those two supposed to be at the sanctuaries?” Diana raised a brow.

“They’re helping us pack.” Cassie rolled her eyes. “To be honest, everyone knows they’re mates and they just need more sexy time before they have to move into shared rooms there.”

“HEY!” Kayla yelled from across the hallway and the two Lunas only shook their heads.

“I need you two out of here in the morning!” Cassie called out to them. With a huff of breath, she turned to Diana with a pleading look.

“Please…” She sighed. “I need to check up on him. Something is nagging at me. All I’m going to do is have a quick look and come back. Plus, they’re not all that far away, anyway.”

Diana looked at her unsurely and considered it. With a defeated groan and a shake of her head, she gave in, “If you’re not back in fifteen minutes then I’m letting the alarms go off.”

Cassie hugged her tight, and she disappeared like the wind.

Diana was regretting letting her go. She shouldn’t have let her go. She should’ve gone with her at least. Fergus held her tightly as she buried her tears into his shoulder.

“What’s happened had happened,” he tried to console her. “We can’t do anything right now without Ivanna’s orders.”

“It’s all my fault,” she choked out.

“Blaming yourself won’t help us right now, sweetheart.” He caressed her head. “I wish I’d stayed with Luke and known what he was up to and gone with him, but even then it would have been impossible to hold up against them anyway. Listen, let’s call Ivanna and tell her what’s happened, okay? Just calm down.”

Diana knew Ivanna and Viria would never forgive them for this and it was enough to hold her back from informing them. But she had to. She reached out for her phone and dialed Ivanna’s number. She waited for her to pick up, but it was Mitch instead.

“Diana, hey, Ivanna’s meditating at the moment,” he said.

“Get her out of it.” Shesighed. “There’s an emergency and we need her now.”