Chapter 21

21

L averna paced along the footpath while Romulus leaned against the Porsche with his arms crossed.

"There's no way around it. We need to hit this place tonight," Romulus said, his voice deceptively calm.

"We aren't ready," Laverna replied and stopped pacing. They needed to find Sidonius and the missing children, but they had no idea what they were walking into. They had no recon on the house. The witches could have an army waiting for them.

"Laverna, I know this is as personal for you as it is for us." Romulus didn't move, his jaw set. "Let me and my people take care of this."

"You guys could be walking into anything! They could have more traps like they did at Sid's apartment. You don't know," Laverna said, throwing her hands up in frustration.

Claudius shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his wolf in his eyes. "We have walked into fights with less information. The men are trained for this. Your people can sit this one out until they are needed."

Laverna knew they were right, but all she could think about was that horrible spell on Romulus and the nasty things the witches would do to a pack of wolves.

"Okay, make the call, Claudius. Roberto? Find out who is close in that neighborhood and try to get some eyes on it," Laverna said, and they hopped to it. She stopped pacing and stood in front of Romulus. "What if they put another spell on you?"

"You know how to get it off," Romulus said with a slight shrug.

Laverna bit the inside of her cheek. "What if Remus is there?"

Romulus's eyes glowed. "Then I will kill him a second time for what he did to you."

"He's your brother, Rom," she whispered. "That means something. You didn't exactly have an easy job killing him the first time."

"Whatever that creature is, he is not my brother." Romulus moved off the car and cupped her cheek with his warm palm. "You are my mate, whether we have accepted it or not, and that thing hurt you. Bit you. I'll kill it for making you bleed, cara mia ."

Laverna tried and failed not to melt at the endearment. She had always thought Romulus was challenging as an enemy. She had no idea he would be equally devastating as a lover. One she knew how to handle. The other made her tongue-tied and flustered.

"If you go in, I'm going in too. I won't let them have you, Rom. I won't. If anyone is going to have you as a plaything and torture you for all eternity, it's going to be me," Laverna said, and because she was still scared to show too much of her heart, she added, "I was here first."

Romulus ran a thumb over her bottom lip. "Careful. You are getting possessive, which turns me on, and I'm still worked up from what happened upstairs. I've never seen your chthonic aspect. I didn't know if I should run away or get on my knees."

Laverna looked down at his crotch and back up at his face. "Are you telling me you got a fear boner? Oh, this is information you shouldn't have let me have."

Romulus's hand slipped from her face to her neck. "Are you ever going to not be a menace?"

"Hmm, nope. Better get used to it," Laverna said and quickly cleared her throat. "You know, if you want to hang around after the witch business."

Romulus's eyes skimmed over her face, and then let out a small sigh. "You really don't get it yet. That's okay. I can wait until you do."

"Get what?" she asked.

For a second, Laverna thought he would kiss her. She rose up on tiptoes, but Claudius interrupted them with a loud cough.

"We have twenty available men ready for a raid," Claudius said and looked to Romulus. "If we are going to do this, we really should do it now before they have a chance to move the stone."

"If they haven't already," Romulus replied. He opened the door of the car for Laverna. "Come on then, goddess. I need you to be watching my back to make sure I don't fall into any traps."

Laverna brushed her hand against his before climbing in. "I don't know about watching your back when I'm the one that should be entering the house first."

"I have my limits, cara mia , and you are not going in first," Romulus said before shutting her door.

Laverna smiled at the challenge. They would see about that.

The three-story house on Aventine Hill was painted a soft, sunny yellow with an ochre trim. They were in the richer areas where the rows of houses on either side of the narrow, winding street were all multi-million euro properties with high walls and pretty gardens.

Everything was so clean and tidy that it made Laverna's skin itch. It was exactly the kind of neighborhood where no one talked to each other and would purposely stay out of each other's business. It was perfect for Canidia and her coven to operate out of.

"Do you think the owner of this place is still alive?" Laverna asked. Romulus stared up at the house and shook his head. His wolf was close to the surface, and she could feel the violent aura radiating from him. He was in battle mode, and she leaned into the feeling of that strength. She would need it to deal with whatever they found in the house.

Romulus opened the small boot of the car and pulled up the bottom lining. Instead of a spare tire, he had neat metal boxes containing weapons. He slid on a leather holster that held a variety of daggers.

"Did you want anything?" he asked.

Laverna was still staring. "I think I want you to fuck me wearing that," she said.

"I meant daggers. No guns. It'll create too much noise," Romulus replied. "We can revisit your kink later."

Laverna unsheathed the daggers she had brought with her and rotated them around her fingers in a flashy move. "I'm good, but thank you for the offer. I know where to go now if I ever need some spares."

"You already steal my cars, and now you're going to steal my weapons too?" he asked with a shake of his head. "What next?"

"I don't know, what else do you have?" she replied, with a waggle of her brows.

Romulus shut the boot of the car. "Menace."

Laverna's smile vanished when two unmarked black vans pulled up, and men poured out. They were all dressed in black uniforms with Romulus's red wolf on the arms. Eolus, Lucius, and Claudius moved at the front of the pack to join them.

"I feel like the odd one out without my matching uniform," Laverna commented as the mercenaries started fanning out along the street, knocking out any CCTV cameras they found before waiting for Romulus's command.

"We will have to see if they make them that small," Lucius replied, and Laverna flipped him off.

"Still big enough to knock you on your ass when you get too cheeky, mutt," she replied, making the others grin. She turned to the electronic gates over the driveway. "Shall I get the door?"

Romulus nodded, his eyes fully golden in anticipation of the fight. The other three wolves grew serious, and their own wolves came to the surface. One day from the full moon, and she was leading them into fuck knows what. It was a good thing she had left all her people out of it. She didn't want them getting in the way if they went nuts from blood lust.

Laverna stuck her dagger under the keypad's casing and popped it off. She could feel the wolf's eyes on her, so she hummed jauntily as she cut the right wires and disabled the alarms.

"Open sesame," she said, and the doors unlocked and began to slide back. Romulus made hand gestures to his men and then filed through the gates and into the shadows of the garden.

"Keep your noses alert for anything that smells of magic," Laverna warned them. "They will have wards."

"That's why you should…go first," Romulus said through gritted teeth.

All three of his praetorians stared at him like he had grown another head. He looked physically pained even to say it. Laverna's heart soared. She rose up on tip toes and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you, Rom. Stay close," she said and hurried up the driveway before he changed his mind.

Laverna reached inside and let her divinity come forth for the second time that night. It sharpened her senses and changed her vision. She could see the magic around her despite the darkness.

The first ward was on the front door threshold. Canidia's magic always felt like sticking her hand into writhing maggots, but Laverna was pissed off enough to push through it. She fed golden power into the dagger she was holding and used it to slice through the weaving of the ward. It shriveled up like burning hair and left the same smell in the air.

"Fucking gross," Eolus complained, his tongue moving in and out of his mouth trying to dislodge the taste.

Laverna ignored him, her focus entirely on not having Romulus be hit by another spell. She moved out of the way, and he stepped forward and kicked the wooden door in. All four of the wolves backed up as the smell hit them. Laverna didn't have their sensitivity, but she could smell the blood and rot. Horror crept up her spine, and she had to force herself to step through the door.

"Upstairs or down?" she asked.

"Secure down and make sure they have nowhere to run," Romulus replied, and they followed her down the hallway. The smell grew worse as they neared the doors leading to a garage. Laverna cut through the protective wards over the door before opening it. There was another on the threshold.

"They must be getting paranoid. Good," she said and turned on the lights. The garage had a metal table in the center of it and shelves stacked with jars and supplies. The walls were covered in sigils and other drawings and formulae that Laverna couldn't understand. She took photos of them all with her phone and sent them immediately to Hecate. Maybe she would have better luck understanding whatever the fuck they were.

Romulus growled low and deep in his chest, making her turn her attention back to the wolves. Romulus was near a sink that looked clean, but he was leaning down with his head in it.

"What is it?" Laverna asked.

Romulus said, "Sidonius. He was here. I can smell his blood in the drain."

Lucius took one of the large jars from the shelves and opened it. Laverna couldn't see what was floating inside of all the red, but he quickly screwed the lid back on it. His hands were shaking when he put the jar down.

"I'll fucking kill them all," he snarled, his teeth lengthening.

"It doesn't mean he is dead," Romulus said, and his alpha power rolled out of him.

Lucius's teeth shrank back to normal, but he still looked ready to tear the place apart.

"They harvested him. If he has survived through it, he's going to be fucking insane," Claudius said, his face pale.

Laverna interrupted them. "We need to keep searching and find him. If he is mad, we will bring him back to himself and take revenge on the witches."

She didn't wait for any kind of agreement from them. There were a lot of jars, and Sid wasn't the only person who had been kidnapped. Laverna hurried back into the house. The kitchen was empty, but the fridge was full. The witches were using the house as a base, but they weren't home. They would have attacked them by now.

Laverna pushed open the French glass doors that led out into the gardens. A sob of horror clawed its way up her throat. Five children were buried up to their necks in soil.

"Rom!" she shouted before she ran across the grass to them. She fell to her knees in front of the first child and started clawing at the dirt.

"L-Lady of the underground, I knew you would come," the boy whispered. His lips were cracked, and his face was burned and peeling from being exposed to the sun. "Prayed...prayed."

"It's okay. You're going to be okay," Laverna replied as she dug frantically, trying to get him out.

Romulus and the other wolves appeared and started digging too.

"Claudius, call the Carabinieri and the paramedics. Get them here as fast as you can. Eolus, go and get some water. Tell the men to hold the perimeter," Romulus said.

Laverna was barely aware that Eolus was giving the boy water as she dug and dug. By the time she got him free, Lucius was there with a blanket to wrap around his emaciated body.

"Why would they do this?" one of Romulus's men asked, his arms full of more blankets.

"The torture makes the ingredients stronger for their potions," Laverna replied, keeping her voice low so the children didn't hear. She gave the boy she had freed some more water, but most of it dribbled down his lips.

"T-Told them you would come," he whispered.

Laverna hugged him gently. Romulus looked across the garden. He was cradling two of the children. Eolus had two more.

"Of course, I came. You are going to be okay now. You're all going to be okay. I'll kill them for this, I promise," she said, unable to stop the tears streaking down her face.