13. Chapter Thirteen

My body jerked to a sudden stop, and I fell forward, my face smacking the ground. “Fucking portals.”

Iver laughed at my grumbling but held his hand out to help me up. Of course, he’d landed perfectly with not a hair out of place.

I took his hand and got to my feet, taking in my surroundings. We’d materialised at the boundary of the Conclave, and we’d have to stroll through the square to get to the Elite team’s house. That’s if we managed to cross the boundaries without issue but I doubted that. I knew that as soon as we crossed it alarm bells would be ringing.

I turned to Iver and found his black eyes watching me intently.

“Look, I’m not sure whatever your game is here but if you want me to vouch for you and keep you out of Cassian’s basement you’ve got to tell me what your end goal is here.”

He ran his tongue over his teeth. “I just want Iveri back. Lucifer made a deal with me that if I helped get you back, he’d help me save her.”

I crossed my arms across my chest. “What if she doesn’t want you back?”

He flinched. “If she tells me that, then I will leave her be.”

“Just like that?”

“Yes. I don’t want someone who doesn’t want me.”

I nodded. “Okay, then. I know I can’t tell my team what Mordecai wants me to do, but can you?”

He shook his head. “No, I let him do the same to me to gain his trust. We are going to have to steal it.”

“What is it? This Lapis Lunae?”

“It’s a moonstone. It harnesses the power of the moon and I’m guessing Mordecai wants to use it on the next blood moon.”

“To do what though?”

“Not sure, but I’ve a feeling it has something to do with you. You’re one of the most powerful creatures to walk this earth and that has to mean something.”

I huffed a breath and walked towards the boundary. “I guessed as much. Come on. I want to go home.”

I held my hands up in the universal symbol of surrender and stepped across the boundary line. Iver did the same and once we’d taken a few steps into the Conclave, we kneeled and waited for the troops to arrive.

It didn’t take as long as I’d expected. They’d clearly been practising.

I watched the first guy approach. His buzz cut hair, large build and warm brown eyes came closer.

“Hi, Baker. It’s been a while.”

I’d been thrown into one of the holding cells in the basement. I had immediately looked for Cassian. This was his domain, but he was nowhere to be seen. Iver was across the way and he looked pretty pissed. The troops had been a bit unkind to him, pushing and prodding him until he was safely captured in the reinforced glass box. They were special holding cells that were designed to hold magical beings. I could feel it suppressing my demon and my powers. They were there but they were muted.

“I don’t like this,” Iver growled from across the room.

I couldn’t imagine he did. Going from one prison cell into another probably made him feel like shit.

“We won’t be here long. They’ll ask us some questions and then they’ll let us free.”

Iver stopped his pacing and hit me with a flat look. “You really believe that?”

The demon has a point.

“Shush you. You’ll only be unhelpful, and I’ll end up doing something stupid.”

My demon pouted. Spoil sport.

“You just like chaos and getting us into trouble.”

She shrugged. Makes life fun.

“Are you talking to your demon?” Iver asked, his head cocked to one side.

“Maybe.”

“Fascinating.”

I stepped closer to him and rested my hands on the glass. “Is it?”

“Yes. Your demon should be a part of you. I’ve never seen anything like it. Can you access the Sin Reaper’s powers?”

“Normally, yes, but in here it feels like she’s in a cage.”

“Hmm, I can’t even feel mine. You must be powerful,” he said, more to himself than to me.

I was about to ask what he meant but there was a cacophony of sound thundering down the stairs.

“Lori!”

“Fenris?!”

“Lori! Godammit Alec, I don’t need help!”

He sounded exasperated and when he came into view, I understood why Alec would be trying to help. His face was covered in a sheen of sweat, his brown curls stuck to his forehead and his arm clutched about his waist where a thick bandage was wrapped around him.

“What the Hell happened to you?” I asked as he practically face planted the glass.

“It’s just a scratch. Don’t worry about it,” he replied breathlessly.

Alec appeared behind him with a chair in his hand. “Sit down before you fall down, you idiot. You’ll rip out your stitches and Levi will be pissed.”

“Alec?”

Bright eyes the colour of honey met mine and I gasped. They were warm and inviting. So different from the last time I’d seen him.

“Hey cupcake.”

Iver snorted. “How many men?”

I ignored him, my attention drawn to the two men in front of me. “What the fuck are you doing, Fenris? You look like you should be in bed.”

“He should be,” Alec chided.

“I’m fine. Just an accident on a routine patrol,” he snapped before fixing me with a gaze filled with too many emotions for me to decipher. “I had to see you.”

His words softened my anger. “Are you really alright.”

He nodded. “I will be. I just need sleep.”

There were bags under his rich brown eyes, and it was easy to see that sleep was the last thing he’d be doing. He looked broken. I wanted to wrap myself around him and tell him everything would be alright. He woke something in me that wanted to reach out and protect him, to comfort him, and take his pain away.

Alec squeezed Fenris’ shoulder before fixing his gaze on me. “I’m sorry you’re in there, Lori. But we need to make sure that you’re safe.”

“I get it.”

“Is it true?” Fenris asked, eyeing me warily. “Did he turn you?”

I swallowed. “Yes.”

He pushed himself up from his chair and placed his hand on the glass. “I’m sorry he did that to you.”

I shrugged. There wasn’t much I could do about it now. All I could do was learn to live with this new part of me and try to make peace with it.

I mirrored Fenris’ hand on the glass. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay!” he spat. “When I see him, I’m gonna kill him.”

There was murder in his eyes. It was so at odds with the usual warmth that he exuded. I’d never seen him so angry. I could feel violence simmering under his skin and I didn’t hate it. Neither did my demon. She was swirling in my gut, pushing against the cage she was in.

“How did you escape?” Alec asked, interrupting the dark turn my thoughts had taken.

“We didn’t,” Iver said as he calmly stood leaning against the glad. “Mordecai let us go.”

Alec turned to look at him. “Why?”

“Can’t tell you.”

“If you want to get out of there—”

“Alec,” I interrupted before he released his hound. “We can’t tell you. Mordecai made it so we can’t say anything.”

“The fuck?” Fenris growled.

“Mordecai had Selene spell us so that—” A scream tore itself from my throat as phantom knives sliced at my skin. My legs buckled beneath me, and I fell to the floor, my knees slamming into the white tiles.

“Lori!” Fenris and Alec shouted.

“She’ll be fine in a moment,” Iver said whilst looking at his black fingernails. “That is what happens if we try to tell you anything.”

The lock to my cage clicked and hands wrapped around my shoulders. “Lori, are you alright?”

Fenris knelt on the floor with me, his brow creased with concern.

“I’m okay, are you?” I cupped his cheek with my hand and he winced, like my touch was painful and too much to bear.

He pulled away from me. “Yes, or at least I will be.”

When he let go of my shoulders, I felt the loss of his warmth. “Maybe I can heal you?”

“No, you don’t have to do that,” Fenris said on a gasp as he stood back up. “I’ll be fine.”

“You don’t have to pretend for me. I can see you’re in pain.”

“I don’t mean to interrupt this heart warming moment, but what do you mean by heal him?” Iver asked.

I sighed. “Why do you care?”

Iver’s dark eyes narrowed. “Because Sin Reaper’s shouldn’t be able to heal anybody.”

“Come again?”

“They’re built with the purpose to consume souls, force guilt blah, blah, blah. They don’t heal people.”

I looked to Alec. “Iver has a point. Healing does seem to go against what we know about them.”

He shrugged. “Perhaps it’s something to do with all the other stuff floating around in you.”

“You make me sound like I’ve got a disease,” I said with a scrunched nose.

He chuckled. “I didn’t mean that, just that you’re nothing like we’ve ever seen before. When it comes to you, I don’t think knowledge will help us.”

I glanced over at Iver and he was watching me with a curious gaze, his head slightly cocked. “What?”

“Nothing,” he replied quickly. Too quickly if you asked me.

“You know something.”

He shook his head, his messy black waves dancing around his ears. “No. Well, I’m not sure. What exactly happened when you saved Fenris before.”

I hated thinking about that night. I’d done more than kill someone, I’d consumed my first ever soul and left a man to a fate worse than death. Fenris brushed his hand against mine. I don’t know if he even knew he was seeking out my touch.

“Fenris and I were attacked by this guy and a couple of skin wearing demons. Fenris was killed, and I snapped. I let Iveri and the Sin Reaper take control. They took the guy’s soul, and then I used that energy, along with Lucifer’s through our bond, to bring Fenris back.”

Iver hummed but said nothing.

“What is it?” Alec asked.

Iver grinned. “I think we’ve just found our scintillam vitae.”

“Excuse me, what?” I’d heard what Iver had said but the words weren’t sinking in. “Nope. No way.”

“Lori, you can’t be that dense?” Iver scoffed, his black eyes sparking with amusement at my expense. “You just said you brought someone back from the dead.”

“But that was because I consumed a soul.”

Iver gave me a flat look.

“He’s right, Lori,” Fenris said quietly. “I died and you brought me back.”

“And I bet that you didn’t come back quite the same,” Iver said, and the room went quiet.

I looked at Fenris, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. Was Iver right? Had he come back feeling different? “Is that true?”

“I… maybe. I don’t know.”

Well, that gave me the answer I needed. Surely if he’d come back the same, he’d know it for definite.

He looked at me and I saw the moment that he withdrew from me. His eyes darkened as he shrunk in on himself.

“I need to go.” He pushed himself to his feet, wincing and clutching his side.

“Fenris… wait.” I reached for him, but he pulled away.

“Just let me go, Lori.” He bit the words out over his shoulder and my heart clenched. I needed to let him go, and not just in this moment. The hold we had over each other needed to be released if we were ever going to move past whatever this darkness was that festered between us. It was eating us up inside and soon there would be nothing left of even the friendship that we began with. That was the last thing I wanted to happen. How could I not have seen that he’d changed? Had he kept it hidden from everyone?

Once he’d left, I turned to Alec. “Did you know?” He shook his head. At least I wasn’t the only one that Fenris was keeping secrets from. “We need to help him.”

“Agreed. But we have bigger problems,” Alec replied on a sigh.

“We do?”

“Yes. I’ve still got witches disappearing, a demon locked in the cages awaiting interrogation and you two.” For the first time, I noticed how tired Alec looked. There were dark rings under his eyes and his back was stiff and rigid. “Add in the whole scintillam vitae thing and that’s a whole other mess I don’t want to have to deal with, but, knowing you, will become the biggest pain in my arse. Please tell me Jasper came back with you.”

“No. Mordecai is keeping him as a means to ensure I comply,” I said, the words bitter on my tongue.

“Fuck.” Alec pinched the bridge of his nose. “And what about Iver? Can we trust him?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Who knows. But what choice do we have. He says he made a deal with Lucifer, and I believe he will hold up his end. If he doesn’t, we can just get rid of him.”

“I am literally stood right here, you know?” Iver snapped.

“Fine,” Alec sighed. “But he’s your responsibility. Keep him in your sights and don’t let him get into any trouble.”

“Can I leave the cell now?” I asked. I was sick of being kept in here like a prisoner. It made my skin crawl, and I hated that part of me thought I should really be staying in the glass box. At least if I was stuck in there, I wouldn’t be able to carry out Mordecai’s plan.

Alec walked over to the cabinet that was hung on the wall near the stairs and grabbed a couple of things from it. “Put these on and don’t take them off.” He eyeballed Iver intently. “I’ll know if you do.”

I looked at the comms watch he slapped in my hand. Oh, yay. Back on the GPS tracker. Lucky me.

“It’s just a precaution, but until we can figure what is going on here, I want to know where you both are.” Alec stepped closer and grabbed my wrist gently. “I also don’t want to lose you again.”

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. His voice had dropped to a whisper and those honey-coloured eyes burned into mine with a fire that heated my cheeks. “Okay.”

“Good. Now, I need to go and check on a few things, and give de Santis an update on the situation. Cassian and Saskia are in the lounge if you want some company. Do you need me to ask de Santis to add you to the blood bank register?”

I went to answer and froze. How could I tell Alec I could only feed from Mordecai? Knowing my luck, that was probably tied up in Selene’s spell too.

“Yes, but she won’t be using it much,” Iver called out, saving me the trouble of having to come up with a lie myself. When Alec threw him a curious look, he carried on, “She was sired by the original vampire. You don’t need much blood when you’re made by someone that powerful.”

Alec nodded in agreement as if he understood all that. “Okay, I also think that while you are here, you should start working on your magic. The Shadow Mage is still here, and perhaps it would be worth learning a thing or two from your demon buddy over there.”

“We are not friends,” Iver said. “But I’ll help.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “You’re only saying that because you want to know more about my demon.”

“Yep,” he replied, popping the ‘p’. “I find you most intriguing and, from what I can remember, your Sin Reaper is a lot of fun.”

Mmm, yes. I remember the wild nights we used to—

“Whoah, honey, I do not need to know that.”

My demon chuckled. I was only going to talk about our hunting sessions.

“Course you were.”Ew. I did not need to know anything those demons got up to in their spare time. Although, I was curious about how my demon and Iver’s demon got along. “Can we trust him?”

Yes.

I was surprised at how easily she replied. I was expecting a little bit of doubt considering they hadn’t seen each other in centuries. But I’d give him the benefit of the doubt until he did something stupid or dangerous. I’d just have to see how long that would last.