CHAPTER 16
Stracey
The man I love is lying on the ground, dying in front of me. My heart is breaking at the thought of never laughing with him again. Never touching him. No, he can’t die on me. He won’t.
“Come on, Jasper.” I lay my hands over the bite and try to use my power to syphon the poison from his system. If this was any normal person, any normal circumstances, an amputation would work, and that’s my last possible option.
“Do you need my energy?” Jake says as he crouches down beside me.
I look up into his eyes, but I can’t see properly as tears cloud my vision. “I’m losing him, Jake. Nothing is working. I don’t know how to counteract the poison. I’ve never seen this before.”
“Stracey, it’s a spell only black magic will cure.” Lelland kneels beside Kevin.
“How did you get out?”
“The witch… she’s here. She can help.” I look up to see a young girl, no more than nineteen, her dark hair like rat’s tails, but her eyes are the purest of blue. She kneels at Jasper’s leg, but I hold my hands out to stop her. My protective instinct kicks in, and my body and senses are on a super high alert.
“How can I trust her? She did this,” I sob.
“She won’t take another breath if Jasper doesn’t pull through. I trust her, Stracey. She was forced into this to survive.”
“Strace, we need to save him.” Kevin places his hand over mine and I relent and let her do her thing.
I watch as black balls of energy pour into Jasper’s leg. The thing with most black magic spells is that the witch that sets the spell has to be the one to break it. I have no way of saving Jasper. She’s our only option.
“His heart rate is slowing down.” Kevin sighs with relief.
“The wound should be fully healed within a few hours. His body will need lots of rest and nourishment,” says the young witch as she sits back on her heels. “Karina just needs a lot of TLC. Her shifting ability will help her heal since you healed her internal injuries.”
“Karina,” whispers Kevin as he glances to the side to see his mate lying lifeless beside Jake.
“How do you know the girl?” asks Lelland.
“I was close to her in the cave. She doesn’t have any family. She left her pack a year ago after her parents were killed. I did everything I could to protect her, but they had me performing too many spells and I couldn’t keep up.”
I release my hand from Jasper’s thigh and place it over the girl’s cold hand. Immediately, she looks confused at our contact. Her eyes widen and lock with mine. “Thank you,” is all I whisper.
“I don’t deserve your kindness. I should have let them kill me. I-”
“No. You did what you had to in order to survive. Don’t ever apologise for that. Will you come back with us in case we need any more assistance?”
“Of course. I don’t have anywhere else to be.”
“You don’t have any family?” asks Kevin.
She shakes her head softly, and a tear falls down her face. She looks so young and vulnerable. “My family were hunted down many years ago. My grandmother was killed a year ago. I was staying under the radar. Well, I was, until these wolves showed up at my cabin.”
Suddenly, I feel a connection to this girl. She was in the same boat as me. Parents out of the picture, grandmother raises her, only to pass away later.
“What’s your name, sweetie?” I ask her softly now my sobbing is controlled slightly.
“Darcy. My name is Darcy.”
“Well, Darcy, it’s your lucky day, because our pack in Scotland would love to have you join us. We take in lots of strays, or people who have been affected by rogues like this. Jasper here,” I look back and place my hand over Jasper’s cheek. “Jasper works for the council, and he looks after people in your position. He’ll be appalled if he wakes up knowing we let you go off alone.”
“I don’t want to impose.”
“You wouldn’t be,” says Lelland. “Stracey is right. But we need to get you out of here. Lavina, Ashley, and Callum are rounding the girls up in the cave. We’ll get Jasper and Karina back to my house and I’ll come back up here with Jake. I have a mini bus in the garage that will be enough to get the girls out of here. I’ll lift Jasper. Kevin, you can lift Karina. Jake, will you go on ahead and bring the vehicle to the foot of the mountain?”
“Of course.”
I watch everyone jump to their tasks, and I stand beside Darcy, feeling slightly in the way. I was never so glad to be leaving this godforsaken place. I don’t think I’ll ever return to Canada. This has broken me in more ways than one, and I’ll never forget seeing Jasper close to death’s door.
Now, I just hope he returns to me with no lasting effects from the poison. The council would hear me if anything happened to Jasper. They still might, depending on the mood I’m in when we return.