Chapter Ten – Jack

Lucas went inside his house, and the rest of them went back to the Land Rover. Once inside, they waited for the druid, Kurt tapping the steering wheel impatiently, while Helena sat upright, her body language stiff. She was offended. Not a good place to start from. For this to work, they had to stick together.

“I’m sorry,” Kurt said to Helena. She softened, and turned to him.

“Thank you.” She offered no apology in return, nor any explanation for her attack on Lucas. Kurt let it go.

“It takes a big man to apologize,” Eva said, leaning in to Jack.

“He’s always been the peacekeeper,” Jack said. “As the youngest, he always saw it as his duty to make sure we all got along.”

Liam chuckled. “We’ve made his life hell on occasion, and he always has a smile on his face.”

“I can hear you,” Kurt said, turning around and grinned at Eva. “You have no idea how glad I am to have someone to help keep them in order.”

“Don’t look at me,” Eva said. “The inner workings of families are not something I’m familiar with.”

“You have a lot to learn,” Liam said.

“Here he comes,” Helena said, and shifted over so Lucas could get in the front.

“There’s more room in the back,” Liam called.

“I’m not a back-seat kind of a guy,” Lucas said.

Liam smirked, and Jack sent him a warning look. They did not need to piss off their druid; they were touchy, liable to throw a fit and storm off if they thought fun was being made of them. Lucas was better than the rest of them: Jack put that down to his humble beginnings. Most druids had a long list of ancestors they could be proud of. Lucas had his mom.

Whom the young druid’s father was, no one knew. Or if the Council did know whose bastard son Lucas was, they were not telling. Secret-keeping was their thing, no matter who got hurt.

“So what is your plan?” Lucas asked.

“We go to the Council. You get us all into the archives, and we help search for the spell you need, then you make the fake stone,” Jack said.

“There’s an awful lot of yous in that sentence.” He turned and looked over his shoulder at Eva. “Are you sure she is worth it?”

“Yes,” was Jack’s immediate reply. He held Lucas’s gaze and did not let go, until the druid lowered his and turned back to look out of the window.

“Park the Land Rover around the back. I doubt there is anyone at the Chambers this early in the morning. Most of them are out of town anyway. It’s why Gareth got the call to go get the stone, and you were called as backup.”

“Who told you that?” Kurt asked, steering the vehicle off the road.

“My mom, she cleans for the Master,” Lucas said. He was in a more sharing mood now that he was away from the house. Jack had a feeling his mom had been listening in on the conversation. She certainly was a strange woman; Jack could not see the apron strings being cut there any time soon. Lucas’s mom would simply tie the cut ends together again. “It means she knows pretty much everything that is going on. He trusts her.”

Kurt stopped at the gates of the Council Chambers and entered a code into a small security box, and the gates before them opened, wooden, old, carved with trees, with the moon hanging over them. They might be ornate but they were imbued with so much protection that Jack doubted anything less than a lightning bolt would damage them. And even a lightning bolt would barely scorch the wood.

Like these gates, the druids intended to be around for centuries, their knowledge and secrets protected. And they were about to walk in, accompanied by a Night Hunter

“We do this calmly, and quickly. Lucas will get us into the archives. We each take a section and work our way through. We all know what we are looking for. Any reference to making a Dragon’s Tear.” Jack opened the door of the Land Rover as soon as it stopped moving.

“Stay between us,” Kurt instructed Eva, and he flanked her on one side, while Jack pressed close on the other. Although tall for a woman, five foot ten or eleven, she was still dwarfed by the shifters. If anyone was watching, they would not get a good look at Eva.

As one they moved forward, Lucas leading them to the door at the rear of the building. This was the door through which everyone entered, unless it was a meeting, when the front doors were used, each member having to knock and prove who they were before being taken into the inner Chamber. Jack wondered if a shifter ever got on the Council, whether they would have to turn into their animal and do tricks for the amusement of the Council, before they were allowed in.

The idea was still stuck in his head that the druids should not have sole control over the Council. Not when they made decisions affecting the lives of all the others.

“That way is the Great Chamber,” Lucas said, as if he were giving a guided tour. “This way to the archives.” He swung left along a wide sweeping corridor, their footsteps echoing though the building. If anyone was in the building, they would know the squad was here. Jack didn’t want to get into a dogfight with any of the druids if they were discovered, but if they had to…

“Here,” Lucas said, stopping before a closed door that had runes carved into it, unlike the other doors, which were plain solid wood. Lucas took a key from around his neck, mumbled some words, passed his hands over it a couple of times, and then put it in the lock and turned it.

The door opened, and after one slight hesitation, Lucas led them through the door and down a flight of stairs. The smell inside the Council Chambers was always beeswax and incense; down here it was definitely bookish. Jack drew in a deep breath, and cataloged it, as he did with all new smells. He had been to libraries before, but this was different. Row after row of bookshelves, but the shelves didn’t only contain books. There were rolls of parchment sticking out, of different colors, and sizes. Some with ribbons wrapped around them, others sealed with wax.

“I would hazard a guess that what we are looking for will be in one of two sections,” Lucas began when they reached the bottom of the stairs. From down here, Jack saw the magnitude of their quest; they were surrounded by shelf after shelf of books, parchments, and sheets of paper. Jack would hate to be the one who had to catalog all of this. But thankfully, someone had. “Dragon Lore, or Alchemy, which is contained under the Spells section.”

“I’ll take Alchemy,” Helena said, stepping forward.

“No,” Lucas said sharply. “It’s bad enough that I have brought a witch down here at all, but to allow you to see our most ancient spells…”

Jack felt the air buzz. Helena was gathering her energy. He stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. “He’s right. You would not want a druid poking around in your spell books, would you?”

She glowered at Lucas, but then stepped back and said, “I guess I’ll take dragons, then.”

“I’ll go with Lucas,” Kurt said.

“I’m on dragons too,” Liam said. “I always wanted to meet one.”

“The Night Hunter should not be in here at all,” Lucas said. “Why don’t you patrol the perimeter or something? Just keep your eyes off the books.”

“Sure,” Jack said, evenly. “Come on, Eva. We can stand guard, listen for anyone approaching.”

Eva followed, with one last longing glance at the books. “Do you think there are books in here that would tell me what I am?”

“What you are?” Jack asked. “You mean what a Night Hunter is?”

“Yes. If my mom won’t tell me. Or can’t…” Her voice faltered.

“We’ll get to her in time,” Jack said.

“Even if we do, she might not tell me. She dumped me. Which means she probably knew I was a Night Hunter reject. Isn’t what why some animals abandon their young?”

“Or she could have been protecting you,” Jack offered.

“Not all families are like yours.”

Jack sat down on the bottom step, and she joined him. Her black hair framed her pale face. The dark rings had faded from under her eyes, which were a nut brown, the same shade as a ripe horse chestnut. Her lips were full and sensual, and he longed to kiss her, and make her understand that she was his family now. And families protect their own.

“It’ll be OK, Eva.”

“You are the eternal optimist, to my eternal pessimist,” she said.

“And I’m always right. Ask my brothers.” He smiled at her. “One step at a time. Once we find a way to replicate the Dragon’s Tear, we switch it, just like Gareth did to you. That way no one raises the alarm. We go get your mom, take out the people who took her, swap the stones back, and go home.”

“What?” She yanked her head around to look at him. “You are going to go in there and fight them?”

“Yes. We can’t let them keep the Dragon’s Tear. They are a threat. They kidnapped your mom, and blackmailed you into getting it for them. They need to be stopped. The Dragon’s Tear is powerful magic, and we can’t let them keep it.”

“Don’t do this for me. Don’t risk your life, or your brother’s lives, for me,” Eva said. “I know you think I’m the one you are supposed to be with forever. But I’m not worth it.”

“Yes, you are.” He leaned across and stroked her cheek. “I would lay down my life for you.” He let his hand drop to his lap. “But this isn’t just about you. My job is to take out any threats. And they are a threat to us. If not now, then in the future.”

His words were the truth, but they were driven by his need to keep her safe. Would he risk their lives if Eva was not caught up in the middle of this? He didn’t answer, because he didn’t know, not anymore. There was no before Eva, there was just Eva and their future together.

No man was ever going to threaten that.