Chapter Twenty-One
With her three brothers away for the next day or so, Meredith didn’t have anything else to do. So, they decided to visit Jade so Daric could do more work with her. While Jade and Daric continued their research, Meredith sat in her corner of the lab, watching them as Daric tried to explain to her the nature of his powers. Jade seemed pretty engrossed at whatever the warlock was saying as she took down notes and asked questions. Too engrossed it seemed, to notice that her mate had arrived.
Sebastian frowned as he sat down next to Meredith, his eyes trained with laser-focus on Jade and Daric.
“Can the testosterone, will ya?” she said. “You know she only has eyes for you.”
“Yeah, well, normally she’d be all over me. She barely noticed I’m here,” he said, pouting.
“Please, she used to be worse. Lara said she would forget to shower when she went on her science benders.”
“At least I know I don’t have to worry about him, either,” Sebastian said, eyeing her meaningfully.
“What do you mean—wait, never mind, she told you.” Meredith’s face soured. “Are you going to give me a lecture, too? About how he’s a warlock and our enemy and can’t be trusted?”
“What, me, give a lecture to someone?” he laughed. “What is it with you Lycans and warlocks and witches? Anyway, I don’t care about that shit. Seems to me, Daric is trying to make up for past sins. Plus, he didn’t want to do any of those things that asshole Stefan made him do.”
“You have a point, I guess,” she said glumly. “But still, no one’s gonna be happy.”
“Fucking hell, Meredith, you gonna let other people dictate how you feel for anyone?”
Meredith swallowed a gulp. What did she feel for Daric? His confession had been intense, but he didn’t say anything directly about his feelings.
“Of course, I’d be careful about letting Vrost know. You know he’s going to shit a brick when he finds out.”
“Hmm?” she asked, cocking her head at him. Nick did seem to have a particular hatred for Daric. Why, she didn’t know. Hoping to put Sebastian out of his misery, she cleared her throat to get her friend’s attention.
“Sebastian,” Jade said in a surprised voice when her gaze landed on him. “I didn’t hear you come in. You should have said something.”
“You were busy.”
“Hmmm…cranky-pants dragon,” she giggled as she wrapped her arms around his middle and laid her head on his chest.
Sebastian drew her into his embrace and kissed the top of her head. “Ready to go soon, darlin’? I thought I’d take you out to dinner tonight. Somewhere so fancy and snooty we’ll have to stop by somewhere else to get more food to take home.”
Jade looked over to Daric, who gave them a nod. “Of course, let me grab my things.” She disappeared into her office and came back to the main lab with her coat and purse. “I’ll see you in the morning, maybe?”
“Sure,” Meredith said. “Have fun you two. We’ll close up here.”
With one last wave and a nod from Sebastian, the couple left the lab. Meredith let out a sigh. Jade and Sebastian had fought hard for each other, and their journey was long but the reward well-deserved. She was glad they had each other.
“If I could use my powers,” Daric began. “I could take you anywhere for a meal. We could have the finest meal in Paris, London, or Shanghai. Anywhere your heart desired.”
“I don’t care about that, Daric,” she said, placing a hand on his arm.
He frowned. “Still, you deserve that and more.”
“Well, how about I take you to the finest employee cafeteria in New York?” She offered him her arm.
With a smile, he took her arm. “Lead the way.”
Meredith locked up the lab, and they took the elevator down to the employee cafeteria, which actually was quite excellent. There was a wide variety of food (all free), and if there was something you wanted, most of the chefs were happy to whip it up if they had the ingredients. After picking up their food, they walked over to the group of tables in the corner.
Meredith put her tray heaping with food on the table in front of her as she sat down, sliding into the bench, while Daric sat opposite to her.
“So,” he began. “Is this our first date?”
She laughed. “I guess so. But we’ve already gotten over the awkward stage by having sex, so this is probably 90% better than most of the other dates I’ve been on.” She took a spoonful of fried rice and swallowed. “Not that I’ve been on many.” She reached over and took his hand.
He looked around them. At this time, the cafeteria was mostly empty, but there were still a couple of employees lingering. “Are you sure this is wise? You know many Lycans here still despise me.”
“I’m not exactly winning any popularity contests,” she replied. “Although you know Nick Vrost’ll probably blow a gasket.” Daric winced, a gesture she didn’t miss. “Care to tell me what that beef is about?”
The warlock sighed. “I’ll understand if you feel differently after this, but it’s better you hear it from me and not anyone else. Before Stefan revealed himself to the Lycans, he had Cady framed for crimes against the New York clan and then had her kidnapped. I mean, Victoria and I kidnapped her.” He paused. “His plan was to have Cady and I…produce the next generation of witches and warlocks who could be turned into mages. That plan didn't work out, obviously, but you can see why Nick Vrost would hate me.”
“Would you have done…anything?” she asked.
He looked away. “I would not have forced myself on her if that’s what you’re asking,” he said, his voice raising slightly. “But I would have done anything to protect my mother and prevent Stefan from killing or hurting Cady in other ways.”
Meredith grew silent, and when she didn’t say anything, Daric withdrew his hand from hers. “Hey,” she called softly, catching his hand back. “I’m not judging your past and what Stefan made you do.”
“Are you angry?”
“Angry?” she asked. “I’m fucking furious. Furious at Stefan. He really will do anything to defeat the Lycans.”
“His hatred knows no bounds,” Daric commented.
“Look, nothing happened, right? With you and Cady, I mean.”
“No,” he replied. “But there are other things that I’ve done that I’ll never be able to atone for.”
Meredith looked at him. “Listen to me. I’ve done some things I’m not proud of—no, no, don’t even think of telling me they’re not the same as yours. It’s not a contest of who did worse. But what I’m trying to say is that we can’t dwell on the past, but move on forward. Do what we can to make up for past fuck ups.”
“Sounds like good advice,” he said, raising a brow at her.
She knew what he meant by that look of course. Could she ever forgive herself for causing Archie’s death? “Yeah, maybe I should take it.”
Daric stood up and then sat down next to her, nudging her over to make room for himself. “You are very smart, min kjære. I will do my best if you promise to do the same.”
“I will,” she replied.
“Good,” he drew her close and kissed her cheek. “Now, let us finish our meal so we can go back upstairs.”
***
Meredith’s brothers arrived late in the afternoon the next day. When she and Daric walked into their suite, she immediately saw the tablet PC on the coffee table. “That’s it,” she said. “I mean, I can’t be sure it’s the same one, but it’s similar.”
“We found it exactly where you said it would be,” Killian said. “Along with our files.” He handed Meredith a brown envelope.
“Thank you,” she said, taking it from him, staring at her name handwritten in ink on the flap.
“We all looked at our files,” Quinn informed her. “And though we didn’t share details, we didn’t find anything solid that could lead us to Archie’s killer.”
“What about the tablet?”
“It has a lock on it. A simple 4-digit combination.” Quinn picked up the tablet. “I’m gonna run a couple of programs on it to try and figure out the code. We should have it in a few hours.”
“1213,” Meredith blurted out.
“What?”
“December 13. That was her birthday. Jenny, his wife,” Meredith explained. “Try it.”
Quinn shrugged and tapped the combination on the screen. “Sonofabitch,” he cried as the display came to life.
“He didn’t like tech, but he loved her,” Killian said. “Is there anything interesting on there?”
“Hmmm…” Quinn’s eyes narrowed at the screen. “There’s nothing on here. No apps, no documents. Except this.” He turned the screen to them. There was a single video file.
“Go on. Open it,” Killian urged.
Quinn tapped the icon, which expanded and filled the screen with black. A few seconds later, Archie’s face appeared on the screen.
“Play it,” Meredith said quietly.
Quinn propped the tablet against a stack of magazines on the table, and they gathered around it. With a deep breath, he tapped on the play button.
On the screen, Archie sat in his study, facing the tablet’s camera. “Killian…Quinn…Connor…Meredith,” he began. “Whichever one of you found this, or maybe all of you did…but anyway, if you’re watching this, then I’m probably dead.”
Meredith gasped, and Daric put an arm around her.
“I’m so sorry,” Archie continued. “Meredith ran away a couple of months ago, and it was all my fault. She saw the files, maybe you all have seen yours, too. She thought I had been ‘collecting’ you. And she was right.”
The three Lone Wolves looked at each other, and the tension in the air grew thick.
“You see, it all began twenty-two years ago,” he said. “My Jenny and I were never blessed with children, and we were desperate to adopt. She was a Lycan, like you, as you know. We heard of a young Lycan boy whose entire clan had been wiped out in a mysterious attack. All dead, except this innocent boy. We wanted to raise him and petitioned our Alpha and the High Council, but they denied us. Jenny was distraught. She asked around, and no one could tell us who took him in or why our request was denied when this boy obviously needed a home. As far as we knew, he had disappeared into thin air. She was heartbroken, convinced that something was wrong. She died before she found out and I vowed I would find him. And so, I did. I found him. I found Killian.”
Meredith’s head snapped to Killian. “What was—”
“Shhh. Let’s keep watching.”
“And you all know, I don’t have to explain. How I found all of you. Even Meredith. I kept my ears open for Lycan children disappearing or clans leaving pups behind with no one to care for them. I don’t know what it meant, but I kept digging. I…I have my suspicions, but I can’t be sure. I’ve kept my ears to ground and I’ve heard rumblings about mages and witches and such. Things are not as they seem. I’m headed to New York. I told you I’m going there because of Meredith. I may try to see her, but I have a feeling she’s safe where she is. But that’s not the real reason.” He let out a long breath. “I’m going to meet with a contact of mine, someone connected to the Council. But, I have a bad feeling about this. I can’t explain it. But if you’re watching this and something has happened to me, I hope, first and foremost, you forgive me for keeping this from all of you. I was only trying to protect you. Don’t try and find out what happened to me, but if you want to help me, find out what happened to you and what could have happened to all the Lycan children. The population of Lone Wolves has increased in the past two decades, and no one else has noticed. I think…well,” he shrugged. “But, I’m probably just some paranoid old man. I can’t believe I’m recording this.” He reached over to the front of the screen, and it turned black.
Meredith felt the tears roll down her cheeks and she buried her face in Daric’s chest. Killian rose from the couch, running his hands through his hair in frustration as Quinn stared at the screen, his face in shock. Connor, on the other hand, slammed his fist into the wall, leaving a dent.
Killian finally spoke “The fucking Council.”
“They did this to Archie.”
“They did this to us,” Meredith said bitterly. “They did something to our families and clans so we would…”
“We don’t know that yet,” Killian said. “But we need to find out.”
“What are we going to do?” Quinn asked. “We should get out of here now.”
“I agree,” Connor said. “We don’t know if we can trust anyone now.” He eyed Daric suspiciously.
“No! We can trust the New York clan,” Meredith said. “We can trust Grant Anderson.”
“How the hell would you know that, Meredith?’ Connor asked. “They locked you up in here, making you work for them and risk your life, and you want us to trust them?”
“Look, I made my bed, and now I gotta lie in it,” she protested, standing up and crossing her arms. “But, I have this feeling…I think Grant’ll help us. If there is something fishy going on with the High Council, he’ll want to know and put a stop to them.”
“Fucking Christ, listen to yourself Meredith!’ Connor growled. As he approached her, Daric quickly stepped in front of him.
“Don’t,” the warlock warned him in a deadly voice.
“I’m not gonna hurt her, asshole,” Connor bit back. “Now you, on the other hand—”
“Daric! Connor! Stop it!” Meredith cried. “Killian,” she pleaded to the other Lycan. “We can’t take on the Council alone. You know that.”
The dark-haired Lycan sighed. “Fine, we’ll go to Grant.”