Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Sam came back into the room, his expression troubled as he put his phone away. Colt realized that the Alpha was looking directly at him and wondered why. He felt a small feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach and idly wondered if it was anything like what Faith was feeling. Probably not, he decided as Sam came closer.

“Everybody’s moving,” he reported quickly to Lester and Liam. “But I also just got the information I’d tasked one of my researchers with finding. That estate recently sold to an anonymous buyer, but with a little effort, my research team was able to discover who owns the property now.” Oh, shit. The Alpha was looking right at Colt. This could not be good, whatever he was about to reveal. “Jeremiah Rollins is the new owner, as of a few months ago. A little more digging revealed that old Jeremiah is the current patriarch of the Rollins family. He’s also your grandfather, Colt.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Colt breathed, stunned by the news.

“I wanted you to know so you would be prepared in case you see him or some of the other Rollins mages there,” Sam went on.

“Are you afraid I’ll turn once I see my long-lost family?” Colt asked, unable to keep a bit of the sneer out of his voice.

Sam stepped right up to him. “I’m your family too, Colt. Everything I’ve seen and learned about you tells me that you serve the Light. I don’t think you’re going to give that up for the other side of your lineage. And not all of them are evil. There are a few—very few, admittedly—but a few, nonetheless, who are living life on the straight and narrow. I know because I’ve had my team keeping an eye on them discreetly for years, hoping your mother and father might turn up somewhere so we could all reconnect. We should never have lost touch with your father and his mate to begin with, but I wasn’t Alpha then, and it wasn’t my call. And, you have to admit it, your dad had a stubborn streak a mile wide according to everyone who knew him.”

Lester was nodding, the bastard. But then again, Lester had known his parents before they’d fled the Clan and struck out on their own.

“When this is all over, we’re going to have to straighten a few things out, Colt. The Clan—and me, personally—have some things to apologize for where you and your brothers are concerned,” the Alpha went on, shocking the hell out of Colt. “But it won’t be done in this half-assed way, though I wanted you to know before we go into battle. We’re going to do this right. Publicly. With the Clan bearing witness. You and your family were wronged by my predecessor. I aim to put that right. I’m sorry we weren’t there for you when you lost your parents, and there’s nothing I can do to fix that now. All I can do is say I’m sorry.”

He was apologizing? Colt was dumbfounded by the very idea of the all-powerful king of all lions apologizing to him for something he didn’t even do. It had been the previous Alpha who had driven Colt’s parents away. Not Sam.

Yet Sam was trying to make things right. Colt could only stare in disbelief at the Alpha’s show of heart and humility. Colt began to understand why the Clan followed Sam with such conviction. This was the kind of Alpha he could respect and, yes, follow.

“What do you say, Peacemaker?” Lester said with only a bit of challenge in his voice. He sounded sort of…apologetic. “Going to live up to your nickname?”

“It’s a kind of handgun, not a vocational goal,” Colt quipped back, like he usually did when his brothers made fun of his nickname.

“Could be both,” Liam observed, watching Colt with sympathetic eyes. “We need to work together. Let’s not let the old family stuff get in the way right now, when we all need to be operating from the same manual.”

Colt shook his head. “I’ll give you that. Okay.” He took a deep breath and faced Sam. “Alpha, I think we’ll let tomorrow take care of itself, for now. I respect your actions and accept your apology—though I confess I’m floored by it—on my parents’ behalf. My brothers will have to form their own opinions when, and if, we make it out of the coming battle alive. Thank you for your faith in me. I won’t let you down. As far as me and my brothers have always been concerned, we were never really part of the Rollins family except through our mother’s blood. We’re lions. Not mages. Our cats wanted to be part of the Clan but were content with our familial Pride because we thought that was all we could count on—each other.” Colt looked around at Lester, Liam and Gavin. “Since meeting you all, the three of us have been re-thinking our decisions. We’re all older and, hopefully, a bit wiser now. So, for my own part, I would welcome the chance to try to broker a little peace between the rest of the Clan and my hardheaded older brothers. Goddess willing, we’ll have a chance to try that after this demon situation is dealt with.”

Lester clapped Colt on the back. “Well said, young man. Now, let’s get this show on the road. We have a lot to do and little time.”

Reminded of his mission, Colt looked at Faith, still seated nearby. She was pale and shaking just the tiniest bit. He went to her as the other men turned back to their own preparations.

“You okay?” he asked, crouching down beside her chair and putting one hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah. But they’re doing repeated summoning spells. I can feel it each time they issue one. I think there have been six so far,” she told him. “We should probably get on our way over there.”

“Will you be okay to fight?” He was really concerned. She looked like she was going to barf.

“Yeah, I can fight,” she said, pushing up from the chair.

He steadied her and couldn’t resist pulling her into his arms for a quick, reassuring hug. Whether he was reassuring her or the other way around he didn’t really know. Perhaps a little of both.

“Really. I’m okay, Colt. I just get a wave of nausea every time they let loose one of those summoning spells. I’ve never been this close when they were casting them before. The first one took me by surprise, but I’m getting better at handling it now.” She looked up into his eyes. He was such a good man. Even now, with the world set to blow up around them, he was thinking of her comfort.

“Promise me you’ll back off if the sensations get too intense. I can step in and fight while you recover your equilibrium if this happens during the battle. Promise me you’ll remember that. You’re not doing this alone, Faith.”

“I promise,” she replied, reaching upward to seal her words with a kiss. “And you need to remember that I was born for this and let me do my job. You’re there for support. If I need to step back, I can assure you, I will.”

Colt chuckled and bumped her nose with his. “Just so we’re on the same page.”

She gave him a small smile that seemed to reassure him. Good. Now if she could only manage to reassure herself. She might talk a good game, but she was feeling just the tiniest bit intimidated by the waves of nausea that kept hitting her as the mages kept summoning more and more demons. So far, none had come through the one-way portals opened by the invitations, but that was just a matter of time. She hadn’t expected so many. There had to be more than a few mages. She had to tell the others.

“There’s more than one mage,” she gasped through another wave of nausea. “More than a few, actually.” She tried a wry grin. “A lot more than I expected. And they’re all doing summoning spells. We’re going to be very busy in the next few hours. Could you warn the others?”

Colt frowned but nodded. “I’m here to assist. I’ll get it done. Do we have time for you to sit for a minute and catch your breath?”

She shook her head. “We need to get going. I’ll get it together on the way there. Promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that.” Colt held her hand and escorted her out to his truck. On the way, he said a few concise words to Gavin, who promised to pass along the warning. Gavin also handed Colt a small black device that he stuck in his ear. “Tactical radio,” Colt said to Faith when he caught her staring. “So, I can keep in touch with the rest of the team.”

“Good to know,” Faith mumbled as another wave of nausea hit her.

Goddess! Faith sure hoped they would stop the summoning soon. Surely, they were running low on power to cast all these spells. How many mages were there? And how powerful were they all? She feared the answers to those questions were ones she wouldn’t like at all.

She got up into the truck with Colt’s help, and she was really, really glad she wasn’t trying to do this all on her own. She’d thought she would have to back when she’d been studying how to kill the demons. She’d never thought she would have help. At first, she had resented it, but now, she knew that the Goddess always knew what was right and what was needed. Faith felt like Colt had been sent to her to help in her darkest hour.

Colt was just what she needed right now. She could lean on him for the trip to the estate. He’d get her there. And then… And then, she’d have to get her act together and do what she’d been born to do. She was just glad—and reassured—to have Colt there with her.

She breathed through two more waves of nausea—the strongest yet—as Colt drove them to the estate they’d spied out earlier. The military team had planned out each of the approaches. Faith had been content to let them do as they wished with that and only really cared about how she was going to get on-site and in place. The rest was in good hands, she was sure. That Alpha lion was nobody she wanted to mess with, and the warriors gathered around that table obviously had more experience than she would ever amass.

As they drove toward the place where she knew the confrontation was going to take place, her nausea eased. The closer they got, the better she felt. The more able to face any contingency with steel in her spine and fire in her veins. She was feeling her own power rise in response to the evil that had been called.

It had been the distance, she surmised, that had made her feel sick. Her place was where the action would happen, not miles away, waiting for forces to gather. The nausea had been a sign that she had to get moving, she realized. Now, she understood and would remember that for the future.

By the time they got to the place where the men had chosen for Colt and her to enter the grounds of the estate, she felt fighting fit and ready for action. Her senses were steady as a rock, and no trace of the nausea was left. She wanted to get to work, and she felt her own internal power and that of the Goddess she served coming to life within her. She’d be ready when the first demon answered the call.

Colt parked the truck under some trees on the opposite side of the road from the estate. The border here was protected by a chain link fence several yards into the woods on the other side of the road. Colt paused before opening his door, listening to something over the radio in his ear, she thought. Then, he straightened and looked at her.

“There appears to be a line of mages and their support staff, which includes warriors ready to fight to protect them,” he told her. “We’ve got eyes inside the compound right now, and they report at least a dozen mages taking it in turns to step up and perform spells in front of a circle they drew on the ground with salt, or something that looks like it.”

“Sounds about right,” Faith said, swallowing hard. “Only I didn’t expect more than a few mages. A dozen…” Her words trailed off as she looked at Colt. “Can the shifters handle that many?”