She was going to kill them. That was all there was to it. As soon as Cindy placed her hands on her daughter’s head and delved into her mind, the memories crashed over her and sealed the fate of those who had hurt her precious Sally. They were still hurting her. The Order had made Sally think that she and Chris were dead, forcing the girl to face the untimely loss of her parents. They’d stripped her of her identity. They’d taken her from her soul mate and her newly adopted son. It was unforgivable. The penalty for such transgressions, in her opinion as a mother, was to be skewered and then burned alive. Was she feeling bloodthirsty? Absolutely.

She could feel Sally’s anguish and confusion. She wanted to move forward with her life, but something was holding her back. Something in her fake past was hindering her.

Cindy fought not to pull her hand away when the darkness rose up to meet her own light. It taunted her in a haunted sensual dance, attempting to wrap itself around her. But Cindy was no young healer with inexperience at using her magic. She was a seasoned sprite. Though her species was not as powerful as most, she was something special for her kind. The longer she fought with the darkness, the more she began to recognize that it wasn’t just Sally’s mind dealing with the horrid events she’d endured. It was more than that. This darkness had been placed there purposefully.

“You cannot have her,” Cindy told it.

“You’re too late, sprite. She is already ours.”

The darkness was growing in power and, whatever was feeding it was suppressing Sally’s own natural light that emanated from all gypsy healers. Someone in the Order had done this to her. The magic they’d used to take her memories wasn’t the only spell they’d cast. They must have planted this second spell as some kind of fail-safe, a supernatural backup plan that would be triggered should their efforts be thwarted. Cindy recognized the magic now. She should have recognized it immediately, considering her own parents were members of the Order at one time. She hadn’t told Sally this, and she hoped she’d never have to.

Cindy said some words in her people’s language, casting her healing power over her daughter’s mind. But no matter how hard she tried, Cindy couldn’t get the darkness to recede. She was going to have to get some help. This meant she was going to have to go speak to the queen of the forest clan sprites. And considering she hadn’t spoken to any of them in almost a century, Cindy wasn’t sure how well she would be received.

She pulled her hand away from Sally’s mind and tried to keep her face devoid of any emotion. She didn’t know how much Sally understood about what was going on inside of her, but her daughter was clearly at the end of her rope. What Cindy had found was incredibly serious, and it terrified her. And as frightened as Sally was in her current mental state, sharing this information with her might just push the girl over the edge.

“It will take more power than I possess to heal you. I’m going to need help.”

“Heal me?” Sally frowned. “Did they damage something in my mind when they stripped me of my memories?”

Cindy cringed at the half-truth she was about to tell. “Something like that.”

“Well, is it something like that or is it that?” Sally asked.

Cindy sighed. “I’m afraid it’s hard to say exactly what’s afflicting you. Mental magic is very complicated, as I’m sure you know.”

“So, who can help?”

“The luminous sprites. They carry a light inside of them that is similar to yours,” she explained.

“They can heal?” Sally asked.

Cindy hesitated and blew out a heavy breath. “In a manner of speaking.”

“Why do I feel like you’re playing ‘see how dumb my daughter is’ with your answers?”

“I know you’re not dumb, Sally. But sometimes the less you know about the supernatural world the better.” Cindy knew it was a flimsy excuse, but she had to try something and hope Sally would simply let it go.

Sally seemed lost in thought for a moment, and then her body stiffened. “My mate is a little ticked off and coming to find me.”

Lilly laughed. Sally glared at her. “This is not funny. You know what the male Canis lupus are like.”

Lilly raised her hands. “Hey, don’t growl at me. You know it’s hilarious when Decebel goes all caveman on Jen and when Fane does it to Jacque.”

“A little possessive and overprotective?” Cindy guessed.

“Understatement,” Lilly and Sally said at the same time.

“We’d better get back to the car. If he gets here and can’t find me, he’ll get all hackley.”

“Is that a word?” Cindy asked.

“Today it is,” Sally quipped.

Lilly stood at the same time as Cindy and Sally and pulled Sally in for a hug. “I’ve got to get back to my mate. I’m not going to tell Jacque anything until you return home. I think we should tell her everything at the same time.”

“She’s going to be annoyed at you,” Sally pointed out.

Lilly rolled her eyes. “Not for long. Fane will do something soon enough to annoy her more, and I’ll be off the hook.”

Sally laughed so hard she even snorted. “It’s funny because it’s true,” she said through the laughter. When Lilly turned and walked toward a wall, and then through it, she stopped laughing.

Sally’s head swiveled back and forth between Cindy and the wall. “What just happened?”

* * *

Costin could feel her fear and alarm, and he followed it like a beacon. He’d told Sally’s dad that he was going to go for a run. He failed to mention that he would be running as a large, ticked off wolf.

The Beta tried to stick to back roads, but he had to follow the direction of the bond’s pull, and that required traveling on a few major thoroughfares. He just hoped people would mistake him for a very, very large dog. Perhaps pack magic would help him out by giving his body such an illusion. He pulled on his Beta power and directed the magic to do his bidding. It was all he could do at the moment, speeding down the roadway. He also prayed to the Great Luna he wouldn’t get shot by an overzealous hunter.

He’d run only a few miles when he found Cindy’s car. Costin walked around it, nose to the ground, hoping to sniff out which way his Sally had gone. All of a sudden, he caught the scent of the real thing. His head whipped around just in time to see his mate walk out of a massive tree trunk. She’d been telling the truth. Sally had been in a tree trunk. What the hell was she doing walking out of a tree trunk?

And he asked her just that. “Why in the world are you walking out of a tree trunk?”

“Why does anyone walk out of a tree trunk, dimple boy? Coming from another realm, duh.”

He growled at her. Mouthy little thing. “You were in another realm?” He was going to stay calm, that’s what he kept telling himself. Just stay calm. “I thought you were joking.”

“I’ll tell you everything,” Sally assured him. “Just give me a minute to get my bearings.”

He was about to phase when Cindy materialized out of the tree. Guessing that standing stark naked in front of his mate’s mother wasn’t the best idea, Costin stayed in his wolf form.

“Are you okay?” he asked Sally as he walked over to her and brushed up against her hip and leg.

“I’m fine. There was no need for you to come,” his mate responded then looked over at her mom. “Mom, do you happen to have a blanket in your car?” she asked while still looking at him.

“I think there’s an emergency blanket in the trunk.”

“Could you get it please? Costin’s going to need it after he phases back. Pretty sure you don’t want to see my mate naked.”

“Why is your mom not shocked that I’m a werewolf? I mean considering she just walked out of a tree from another realm, she obviously knows something about the supernatural world, but she’s never acted like she knew what I was before?” Costin asked.

“I’ll explain everything in a sec,” she told him.

Her mom scurried to get the blanket, a look of horror on her face. It made Costin want to laugh.

When Cindy returned with the blanket, she handed it to Sally and then turned around, giving them her back. His mate began unfolding the unwieldy blanket, and Costin phased. Before Sally could get the fabric completely spread out, he stepped forward and ran the back of his hand across her cheek. A lovely blush spread across her beautiful face. She hurriedly started yanking at the blanket, only causing the cumbersome object to further resist her clumsy efforts.

Deciding not to torture her longer, Costin took the blanket from her fumbling hands, shook it open, and then wrapped it around his waist. Holding it with one hand, he reached out with his other and wrapped it around Sally’s neck and pulled her to him. He buried his face in her hair and closed his eyes as he took in the scent only he could smell.

“This is what I need,” he murmured into her mind.

“I’m sorry that I didn’t keep the bond completely open. I panicked. And you might too when you hear what my mom and Lilly told me.”

He pulled back to look down at her. “You were in another realm, and Lilly was here?”

She nodded.

“Can I turn back around?” Cindy asked.

“Yes,” they said at the same time but kept looking at one another.

“What realm? What was Lilly doing here? How’d she get here?” he asked, his mind moving a million miles a minute trying to puzzle out why on earth Jacque’s mom had been there.

“She came because I asked her to,” Cindy answered before Sally could. “Her story intertwines with mine and, when it became apparent I would need to tell Sally of her heritage, I decided she needed to know it all.”

“Sally’s heritage?”

Cindy nodded. “She is more than just a gypsy healer, and she is more than just your mate, wolf.”

Costin looked from his mate to Cindy. “And I’m guessing you’re more than just a human?”

“How about we go home, and we can discuss it on the way?” Cindy asked.

Costin agreed. Standing naked in the woods with his mate and his mother-in-law wasn’t his idea of a good time. Now, if Cindy wanted to leave them alone, well…. “Ouch.” He stepped back from Sally. “What was that for?”

“You know exactly what it was for, you pervert.” There was a smile hidden beneath her annoyance. She’d been listening in on his thoughts. He liked it when she did that. It was an intimacy that couldn’t be explained, and it was incredibly special.

He followed her to the car. When she tried to climb into the front seat, he gently pulled her back, closed the front door, opened the rear door, and ushered her in. He climbed in beside her and leaned his head back against the seat. “Let’s hear it.”

The return drive was short, so Costin didn’t get the full story, but he’d gotten enough to read between the lines. His mate was a mixture of two supernatural beings. It was no wonder she was such a powerful healer.

They parked and went inside, agreeing to meet after Costin donned some clothes. Once he was dressed, they met in the living room where Cindy picked up where she’d left off. Chris joined them, and Costin had to admire the man’s ability to handle the abnormal events of his life. He was human, his wife a sprite, and his daughter was a mixture of two races. Chris just sat there glancing at Sally adoringly every so often and rubbing his wife’s back as she spoke.

“So that’s it.” Cindy folded her hands in her lap and watched Costin.

“And now you need your luminous sprite cousins to take a look inside my mate?” he asked for clarification purposes. There was something Cindy wasn’t saying, and he wasn’t about to let another supernatural being near his mate unless he knew all the information.

“Yes.”

“Why couldn’t you do anything with your own magic? You said you’re a healer for your species.”

“I’m not all-powerful, Costin. Whatever magic the Order performed on her didn’t leave her unscathed once it was removed. The way she remembered everything, being shocked back into reality, may have caused some damage. Her mind, in a way, was split in two when she saw you in that bar, and her memories came flooding back.”

He felt Sally tense next to him on the couch, and he pulled her tightly against him. “I’ve got you, beautiful. I won’t let those memories have you.”

She gripped his hand tightly and gave him a subtle nod. She’d heard him, but Costin could tell she was fighting back tears. Sweet, tender Sally didn’t want her parents to see her fall apart.

“I’m going to request an audience with the forest sprite queen tomorrow. I’ll make my request, and hopefully, she will be willing to allow the luminous sprites to help,” Cindy said. Then she turned to her husband, and a huge smile spread across her face. “We have a grandson!”

Chris returned the smile and chuckled. “So it seems we do. Congratulations,” he said turning to look at them. “Apparently, even in the midst of darkness and pain, joy still finds a way to make itself known. The joy of a child, there’s nothing like it.”

After the intense conversation, they called Titus to see how he was doing and even let him speak to Sally’s parents. By the time they hung up, Cindy had decided he was no doubt the most brilliant, handsome, incredible child to ever grace the planet. Those were her exact words.

“You only spoke to him for five minutes, Mom,” Sally pointed out.

Cindy shrugged. “He’s so amazing that, in just five minutes, I could tell.”

“Can’t argue with her logic, beautiful,” Costin said. “She’s right, and you know it.”

Sally nodded. “Too true. Hey, Mom, when you next see Jen, please point out to her that our son is the most amazing child to ever grace the planet.”

“Yes.” Costin laughed. “Please do.”

The rest of the day was spent with Costin and Sally lounging on the couch watching movies. He was lying on his side with her in front of him. His arm was wrapped around her waist and held her tightly to his chest. Every now and then he would kiss her neck, ear, or shoulder, hoping she would feel his love through his touch.

“Am I smothering you?” he asked, unsure he would be able to stop himself even if she said yes.

“No. I need you just as much if not more,” she said. “With every touch, you disprove what my mind is telling me. You aren’t going anywhere. You still want me. You still love me. If that’s what someone else would consider smothering, then by all means, smother away.”

He smiled at her words, and his wolf settled at the sincerity they heard in her voice. He tried to set aside his worry about the things Cindy had told them. He was sure she wasn’t telling them everything and, in his experience, people who didn’t tell the whole truth either had an agenda or knew the whole truth was too terrible to face, like D-day terrible. He had no plans of letting those sprites near his mate until he knew exactly what Cindy had found in Sally’s mind.

* * *

Cindy was sitting at the kitchen table waiting. She’d prepared herself a cup of coffee despite the late hour. She had no doubt her daughter’s mate would be coming to ask the questions she’d seen in his eyes that morning when they’d spoken. She’d heard that the Canis lupus had a good intuition and could even smell the scent of emotions. He’d probably smelled the lies coming off her like week-old fish. She hadn’t decided what she was going to tell him. But when he strode confidently into the room, she knew he wouldn’t be leaving until she’d given him the whole truth.

“Costin,” she said, giving him a small nod.

He returned the action and smiled. “I see you were expecting me.”

“You’re protective of my daughter. That is a very good thing, but it can also be annoying.”

He shrugged his shoulders, the motion looking lazy and nonchalant. “She was your daughter, but now she is my mate. Leave and cleave were somewhere in those human vows we said. It is my job to always look out for her best interests. I can’t do that if I don’t know the truth, the whole truth.”

After several minutes of silence, she asked him, “Do you feel the darkness in her

He nodded.

“I saw it. I heard it. It’s not simply her own conscience causing the pain, guilt, and anguish. The darkness growing in her is magic fed. The Order still has its claws in her.”

Costin growled. His eyes began to glow, and Cindy fought the urge to scoot away from the table. Never run from a predator, unless you felt like being prey. She held her ground.

“How do you know?” he finally asked.

“I recognized the essence of the magic.”

His head tilted in a very wolf-like gesture. “How could you even possibly know anything about the Order’s magic?”

Cindy refused to fidget under his scrutiny. She’d done nothing wrong. Her parents were the ones to blame for joining the Order. She’d simply been a helpless bystander as a child. “My parents were members of the Order,” she said simply.

“Were?”

“They’re dead now. But I grew up going to meetings. I’ve been around them before. That’s how I know. It’s not something I like to remember, and I never once desired to follow in my parents’ footsteps. As soon as I was old enough to go out on my own, I left.”

“Bet that didn’t go over very well,” he said.

“No, they weren’t happy. But I kept to myself for a long time in my own realm. Our queen wanted nothing to do with the Order, so I was sheltered there. I’ve remained off of their radar my whole life until recently. A while ago they called me and requested a meeting. I turned them down, of course. Nothing has happened yet, but I assume there will be some backlash for my refusal.”

“Do they know Sally is your daughter?” Costin asked.

“Before she was abducted, I wouldn’t have thought it possible. But now … I have to assume they must know. It would be foolish to believe otherwise. The Order of the Burning Claw is a powerful organization with powerful members. They’ve been lying low for a long time. The fact that they’ve resurfaced is bad. Very, very bad.”

“It means they have gotten stronger,” Costin agreed.

She nodded. “Sally is much more powerful than I. But I have no doubt the Order would love to have both of us among their ranks. I think they’ll use one of us to try and get at the other.”

“Why? And forgive me, but why haven’t they pursued you until now?”

“For one, I haven’t used my magic in over thirty years. They’ve had to keep track of me the good old-fashion way, like humans do, through records, because there was no magical signature to follow. And two, they haven’t been in a position to make a move against anyone in a long time. The Order sort of … crumbled a while ago. I don’t really know what happened, but there was dissension in the ranks and their leadership faltered. If the beast has no head, it can’t do any damage. Now we can only assume someone powerful is back in charge.”

Costin’s eyes narrowed slightly. “But why do they want you both?” he asked again.

Cindy sighed. She hadn’t wanted to tell Sally what she truly was. In fact, the fewer people that knew the better. “I told you there were different kinds of sprites. I am a healer sprite, yes, but I am more than that. It is extremely rare for one of my kind to receive two abilities, but when they do, their offspring are more likely to have a dual nature. Lilly said that Sally is the most powerful gypsy healer they’ve had in centuries. That’s not a fluke. She likely has such power because I am a seer.”

“Like Lilly?” he asked.

“Yes and no.” Cindy glanced around the room. Though it was stupid, she wondered if there were any ears listening that should not have been. “Lilly receives visions of the future, but they are not at will. She can’t just make her powers manifest whenever she wants. She is at the mercy of her visions. They come and go as they please. I, however, am able to control my ability. I can see the future simply by thinking about what I want to know. This is a terrible gift, for obvious reasons. But I can choose not to know the future, which I have for thirty years. Unfortunately, I believe my parents shared this knowledge with some members of the Order. The fact that they have not pursued me all these years tells me they have been extremely unorganized and weak. Now, all of a sudden, they are reaching out to me, testing the waters, if you will. This means they believe they can take on anyone who stands against them.”

“They want you because you would be able to tell them every move their enemies make.” The statement seemed more like a thought he was speaking out loud rather than something requiring a response. “Okay, that’s bad. But back to my mate. You said this darkness in her is actually magic, so it’s something that can be removed.”

“Theoretically,” she said carefully. “Luminous sprites aren’t healers, but their light is powerful. What combats darkness?”

“Light,” he murmured. “Always light.”

“Exactly.”

“I will be with her always. Please do not try to take her to your realm and do this without me.” His eyes were glowing again, and he was staring at her with a crushing intensity. “You need to understand, there is nothing I wouldn’t do, no one I wouldn’t destroy, no place I wouldn’t tear apart, in order to get her back. She is my light. I will not step aside, even for you. How we proceed will be our decision to make, Sally and me, not you or your husband’s. I am thankful that you brought her into this world and took care of her until I met her, but now she is mine. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

She nodded. And Lilly said he was the mellow one of the pack, she thought to herself as she stared back at the man who had just made it clear he would destroy his mates’ mother and father if it meant keeping Sally safe. She had to give it to him, he was what Jen would no doubt call … ballsy.

He stood up and pushed his chair back under the table. “And we will know by tomorrow evening if your luminous friends will be willing to help?”

“Yes. Costin…” She stood and walked over to him. “I couldn’t have picked a better mate for her. In the short time I’ve known you, I can see you are a man of integrity and great character. Thank you for loving her.”

His lips turned up in a small smile. “It’s not hardship, I assure you. I am the one undeserving of her. She doesn’t see it. She has no clue how amazing she is.” He began to walk backward toward the stairs and then winked as he said, “I’ve made it my personal mission to show her.”

Cindy watched him jog up the stairs and chuckled. He was an enigma. Serious and threatening one minute and winking and dimples the next. She could see why Sally was enamored by him.

With nothing left to do but wait for the morning, Cindy went to bed. Chris was already there, reading a book that looked as old as she was.

“How’d it go?” he asked as he gingerly set the book down in his lap.

“He threatened to kill us if we got in between him and Sally in any way,” she said in a cheery voice. “So, all in all, I’d say it went good.”

He nodded. “We’re both alive, so I’d have to agree.” He reached for her hand and pulled her over to the edge of the bed. “He’s good for her.”

“I agree, and I told him as much.”

“We didn’t want her dragged into the supernatural world, but if it had to happen, at least her mate is strong and capable of fighting her enemies.” He squeezed her hand gently.

“I agree with that as well.” She pointed to the book. “What is that?”

“Well, while you were sharing your secrets with Costin, I did some digging into my own.”

He picked up the book and showed her the front cover. The symbols there matched the ones on Sally’s locket.

“Where did you get this?”

“Remember that box of stuff that I put away when we married?” he asked.

Cindy nodded. “You said it was stuff your grandmother had left your mother.”

“At the time, we didn’t have a daughter, and I didn’t need any of the information it contained. But when you started talking about the locket and your own history, it jogged my memory. I remembered seeing this book when I was a kid. It’s a journal written by my great grandmother’s great-great grandmother. Say that three times fast.” He chuckled. “She was a gypsy healer,” he finished softly.

Cindy took the book and opened it carefully. It was old and felt as though it might fall to pieces if she handled it too roughly. She began to gently turn the pages and paused when she came to a drawing of Sally’s locket. She looked at the page next to it and began to read out loud. “The Healer’s Locket, or Luna’s Locket, as it has sometimes come to be called, was blessed at its creation by the Great Luna. It has been passed down through generations of gypsy healers. No one knows what the jewelry’s exact purpose is or what power it holds. And it has not always stayed in the same family. Certain healers throughout history are meant to possess it, and the locket always finds a way to them. Make no mistake, the locket was created for a reason, and such a time is coming when it’s power will be revealed.”

“Isn’t that vague and less than helpful,” Chris said dryly.

“Not entirely,” she said as she continued to flip the pages. “We know it’s important, and it is supposed to be with Sally. With everything that has happened to her, I think it is a good sign she has ended up with it.”

“Why didn’t it protect her?” he said in a voice filled with the pain of a father who couldn’t protect his daughter.

“We don’t know that it didn’t, my love,” she said as she reached for his hand. “Who knows what might have happened to her mind had she not had the locket in her possession? We must trust the Great Luna, and we must be willing to stand against the Order’s plans.

“I’m afraid the peaceful life we have had for so long has come to an end. But, on an incredibly positive note…” She grinned. “We have a grandson. And that, dear husband, is worth any battle we will face.”

* * *

“Not again,” Sally said through gritted teeth. She knew she was dreaming, and that made her even angrier because she had no ability to make it stop.

“I’ll always be here, brown eyes.” Jericho’s voice had her head spinning around so fast she nearly fell over, if her dream self could fall over.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed. He was shirtless, but, thanks her subconscious mind, he was wearing pants.

“You’re dead,” she snarled. “You aren’t real. My mate tore you to pieces.”

Jericho’s lips lifted in a lazy smile. “Maybe, but you keep me alive.”

She shook her head. “No. You’re dead to me. Dead in every way.”

“Then why can’t you stop thinking about me? You miss me, don’t you? You don’t have to. You can come climb into bed with me and let me hold you, let me love you.”

Sally tried hard not to gag. Throwing up in a dream was nearly as gross as throwing up in reality. Hell would freeze over and Jen would kiss Decebel’s butt before Sally would ever crawl into bed with Jericho. Not even in a dream.

“Brown eyes.” He sang the nickname, which was now tainted to her. “Look down at your wrist, baby. You miss me so badly you’ll even pretend it was the bracelet that made you give yourself to me.”

Sally glanced down at her arm. Sure enough, the damn bracelet he had given her was there. She pushed at it furiously, attempting to get the offending thing off of her wrist, but it wouldn’t budge. “I didn’t give myself to you, you stupid flea bag! You took what wasn’t yours. You… you are to blame.”

“I don’t remember it that way. Should I remind you? I remember you saying my name, making sounds that drove me crazy. I remember you quite enjoying yourself.” He sounded smug, and she wanted to smack that haughtiness out of him with a brick bat.

“I wish Costin could rip you apart again,” she said as angry tears fell.

“But he can’t, Sally. I’m yours, safe and protected in your beautiful mind. You will never be rid of me. You became one with me. That is an unbreakable bond. You’re mine, brown eyes, and I am yours.”

“NO!” She screamed at the top of her lungs. Her hands were balled into fist at her sides, and she shook her head hard, as if that would make the word truer. “No, no, I am Costin’s.”

“You are mine first, child.”

Sally’s eyes snapped open, and she fell to her knees in relief. “Great Luna.” She breathed out the name as a prayer. Sally bowed her head, and her shoulders shook as her body responded to the adrenaline seeping from her system.

“What is the truth, Sally? You must compare the things that confuse you to what you know to be true.”

“But it is true that making love to someone is to become one with them,” she blubbered out like a broken child.

“Did you give yourself freely to Jericho, the deceiver?”

“It feels like I did.”

“The truth, Sally. No more lies. Did you knowingly, and of your own free will, give yourself to him?”

“No,” she answered and wished she could say it with more conviction.

“You did not. He took what was not his to take. You were not one flesh with him because your spirit and body weren’t truly willing to be joined with him. Hear me now, Sally Miklos. You have to stand firm. You cannot believe the lies that evil wants you to believe. Shine the light into the darkness, and reveal the deception that has been planted in your mind.”

“Great Luna,” Sally said, “I can’t do this without you.”

“You are correct.”

“Will you be with me? With me and Costin?”

“I will. Stand firm against the enemy’s schemes and lies. I will not let them have you. For you are my child. And your time on this earth is not done.” Sally felt warmth flow over her. “Peace be still, Sally. Rest this night.”

There were no more dreams. Simply sleep. Deep, restorative sleep.