Stained Souls: The Salsang Chronicles Part V Read online

  Unfortunately, Merlin apparently thought I didn’t need any sleep.

  As soon as my body relaxed enough, I felt him at the edge of my mind. You’re getting closer.

  We’re on our way, yes.

  The Lady will come for you, seeking retribution for releasing me.

  What was with the warning now? After the damn fact.

  Mentally gritting my teeth, I grumbled, We know, but if we don’t release you, she’s going to kill me and wear my body like a suit while she takes over the whole world. I can’t let that happen, and the first step is to distract her with you.

  Smart little Vampire, aren’t you? he praised.

  I try. We all do. If anything happens to me, then my mates die as well, which is something I am not willing to risk. If that means warding myself against the Lady, or fighting her head-on, then I’ll try my damnedest to keep them safe, understand?

  Clear as glass, dearling. Although, I wouldn’t recommend fighting the Lady of the Lake ‘head-on.’ Avoid it if you can, she’s prone to tricks and playing dirty. If she bested me, well…

  His tone and words irked me. I’d lost the battle against her, but I wasn’t alone. Cade had saved me, Cade had bested her.

  Instead of pointing that out, I quipped, Didn’t realize they had glass back when you roamed the world.

  The trees told me, he drawled.

  My brow puckered. How do trees know to tell you about glass?

  The trees, the water, the light, it all speaks to me, just like it speaks to your druid lover. Our magic is the same, well… similar.

  What do we need to do to free you? I inquired, hoping to keep the conversation to useful topics, and not let myself get distracted by remembering I was talking to the Maker of all supernatural beings.

  I wish I had an answer to give you, but unfortunately I’ve only ever seen my prison from the inside. The only thing I know for sure is that it will take a combination of blood and magic. Mainly yours, since you have the Lady’s DNA and magic flowing through your veins as well as mine. Speaking of, I have to wonder which of her spawn fumbled around with one of mine… He hummed. I’ll look forward to assessing your family tree, child.

  I mentally sighed. Blood and magic. Of course. It always came back to those two things, didn’t it? Even if it wasn’t actual blood, it was the blood of family and heritage. My heritage, the one he wanted to study, I steered clear of. Instead, I preferred to think on something that had confused me ever since my first vision of Morgana. Why do two of your children wish to see me pregnant?

  They are simply misinterpreting a vision they had when they were younger and I tried to reach out to them. They see you as a mother with her children, but you are so much more. You are a Mother, with a capital M. You will become just as powerful as they are, and they will need you, in the end, to defeat the Lady.

  I’m not a Mother.

  He snorted. Who would know, if not me?

  Gritting my teeth, and deciding to focus on something that mattered, I asked, So the Sires are going to flip on her?

  If everything falls into place the way I expect... He paused and seemed to reevaluate what he was about to say, as though searching for the right words. You have to understand, dearling, that when you free me, if you are successful that is, then it will be the first in a chain of events that will be unstoppable, like dominoes falling on top of one another. These aren’t small, insignificant dominoes though. These will change your world forever.

  Will it protect the world from the Lady? From you? I queried, fully expecting him to lie so he could be released. Blood oath be damned at that point. No way was I about to make a shitty situation a thousand times worse.

  Yes. The only thing I wish to gain from this is my freedom, at least for a little while, until the Lady finds me and we will both battle for our freedom. I can assure you I mean no harm to you and yours.

  I still wasn’t convinced, but that wasn’t important. There was a ring of truth to his words that I couldn’t ignore. Before I could ask any other questions, though, I was being dragged back to reality, and the strange space I went to in my mind when I was speaking with Merlin, or Arthur for that matter, slipped away. I awoke to Barclay gently shaking my shoulder.

  “We’re beginning our descent, Chella. You and Rav need to be up and in your seats, or Darius is going to throw a shit fit and not land the plane. You know what a stickler he is for protocols,” Barclay’s voice was a deep rumble as he spoke.

  “Protocol, my ass,” I grumbled under my breath, upset about being woken up during a vital part in my conversation with Merlin.

  I was determined not to shoot the messenger though, so I pulled Barc down into a quick kiss before mumbling around a yawn, “I’ll get Rav up and we’ll get to our seats. Don’t worry. Mr. Control Freak can keep his pants on.”

  I offered him a smile I wasn’t really feeling as he turned to leave the room. I switched my attention to Rav and getting him to wake up, while the conversation I’d just had played in the back of my mind.

  That shit about Mother with a capital ‘M’ was putting me on edge in a way I couldn’t afford right now. I needed to focus on one thing at a time, because if I didn’t, I was sure my head would explode, and nobody had time for that kind of clean up.

  ❖

  Raven

  “Well, you look like shit.”

  I grunted at Cade as I ran a hand through my hair. I wasn’t trying to smooth it down or anything, just trying to wake the fuck up. “I feel it.” My voice was low, because I’d just slept the entirety of the eight-hour flight, and felt like I hadn’t rested at all.

  What the fuck that was about, I wasn’t sure.

  “What’s wrong?” he replied, his pitch just as quiet.

  “Not sure. Hoping it’s just jet lag.”

  Cade shot me a look that pretty much summed up how I felt.

  I’d be lucky if it was something as normal as jet lag.

  And when had we ever been lucky?

  I mean, I considered myself fortunate to have Marcella. She was literally more than I’d ever anticipated in a Sixth, and I’d never thought I’d love her or be loved by her in return. And yet, even with a love so strong I’d willingly go up against our creators themselves, my connection to her was also proof that I wasn’t lucky.

  Nothing was just handed over to a salsang and that was the depressing truth. All this shit? Yup. Evidence on top of evidence that we had to fight for everything, from birth to death, and Maker, now I wanted an overdose of Prozac to cheer myself the fuck up.

  Strapping myself into the seat, I glanced at Marcella and saw she was snuggled up into Gideon’s side. I actually felt guilty for hogging her when I saw his face. If anyone found it hard to be in the air and in a plane, it was him. Gideon was connected to the earth in a way that none of us could even begin to understand, and in a metal box over forty thousand feet above the ground was about as far from the earth as we could throw him. So having Marcella at his side would have been a kindness. Me, on the other hand, I could have slept easily without Marcella, especially after that draining session of mindfuckery back at the airfield.

  The truth was, ever since Marcella had used my powers against her father, my powers had been changing. I was capable of a lot more than I’d been before, and every aspect of these new abilities was draining as fuck.

  I was just hoping it would take a little time to acclimate to them. The last thing any of us needed was Keiran or me down for the count.

  In fact, speaking of…

  I studied my brother, eying him up and wondering why he didn’t look exhausted. If I’d been affected by Marcella’s meddling with my powers, then why wasn’t he?

  Almost pouting at the fact I’d gotten the lion’s share of the suffering, I glowered at my bro. When he cocked a brow at me in return, I just rolled my eyes—cool bastard.

  Keiran was the kind of guy you liked to hate. He was so fucking chill all the time, reading between the lines, and shifting stuff in dreams around
like he was a Grandmaster.

  I mean, I whined about all that but I loved him like a brother. And I wasn’t just talking the salsang kind either. I meant like blood shit.

  Ignoring him now, and Cade too, I closed my eyes and tried to grab some more Z’s as Darius landed the behemoth of a plane.

  That McCray had this kind of transport at his disposal was more than just a disgrace, not only because the bastard was a criminal—half the council could fall under that term—but just in general. No single person should have this kind of wealth at their fingertips.

  No wonder everyone who mattered in our world was corrupt as fuck.

  With the plane descending sharply five minutes later, Cade mumbled, “Does anyone else hate that Darius can fly a fucking plane?”

  I snorted at his words. “Yeah. But let’s be grateful he could bring us here.”

  “Do we have to?” he retorted dryly. “Smug bastard is going to be even smugger now.”

  I let one eyelid drift open. “Thought you and he were on better terms now?”

  He grunted. “What gave you that idea?”

  “Saw you bury the hatchet at the cabin after Gid and Barclay went for a run in the woods.”

  “Yeah, I remember. But no hatchets were harmed in the making of that conversation. Mostly, we were just trying to figure out what our next moves were.” His lips moved into a snarl. “For whatever reason, Marcella wants him with us.”

  I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. “You mean the whole blood mate thing?”

  He huffed. “Yeah. That.”

  “Nothing major,” I retorted with another chuckle.

  “Mostly minor,” he countered, but he was smirking now too.

  The smaller jet wasn’t as sturdy as the commercial lines we’d flown on in the past, so when we hit the tarmac, the damn thing shuddered like it was about to shatter into a million pieces.

  My hands curled around the armrests as Darius began to bring the plane to a halt, taxiing down a runway that, as I peered out onto the grim vista ahead, seemed ridiculously short.

  “Is that a wooden air traffic control tower?” Cade asked, his voice muffled with surprise.

  I shrugged. “That’s what you get when you go to a private hangar.”

  He winced. “True.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he mumbled, “Never thought I’d be back here again.”

  “Me either.” We shot each other a look then burst out laughing.

  “What are you two chuckling about?” Marcella inquired, her eyes inquisitive as she looked at us in a way that could only be described as loving.

  Fuck, every part of me responded to her when she was like this. I mean, the sex rocked, and the shit she was okay with just blew my mind—case in point, the gang bang we’d had like two days ago—but this stuff? The soft touches, warm glances, and loving expressions? The kid in me that had been abandoned just wanted to run to her for a cuddle.

  The thought almost had me snickering, especially when I contemplated the ass kicking Cade would give me for even thinking such a word.

  I elbowed my brother in the side and said, “Go on, tell her.”

  He pulled a face. “Do I look like I want to get slapped?”

  Chella tilted her head to the side. “Is this a story I’m not going to like?”

  Barclay, the fucking snitch, piped up, “I’ll tell it.”

  Of course, she shot him one of those looks she’d just bestowed upon us. Dude was seriously like a puppy where she was concerned. She just had to smile at him and his wolf had him rolling on his back so she could rub his belly.

  I didn’t think about the fact that, in his position, I’d do the same.

  Except I wouldn’t have her rub my belly…

  “It was nothing,” Cade interjected, glowering at Barclay who smirked at him.

  Kiss ass.

  Gideon started snickering, and I began to resent the pity I’d felt at seeing him so green before Darius had landed the fucking plane.

  Where was the pity for Cade and me, eh?

  I cleared my throat and mumbled, “It was a misunderstanding.”

  “Yeah? I thought it was nothing,” Marcella pressed with a cocked brow, which had me wanting to roll my eyes.

  “You’d look hot with glasses,” I told her.

  “I would?” She frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “I can just see you in a pencil skirt and one of those pussy bow shirts. Throw in the glasses, and you’d make a great principal.”

  Cade hooted out, “Yeah, I’ll bend over for you, Miss.”

  “You’re both perverts,” she grumbled, but she was smiling and that was a boon.

  I winked at her, then with a wrinkled nose, admitted, “It was about thirty years ago—”

  “Jesus, I always forget how old you all are.” She shook her head.

  “That’s us. Ancient,” Gideon told her with a smirk.

  “No, that’s me,” Darius retorted, finally making it out of the cockpit, which told me we’d be off this fucking plane shortly.

  “That’s true. Old bastard,” Cade countered, his eyes on Darius as he insulted him.

  Wincing at the cut, I watched as the Enforcer folded his arms against his chest and leaned against the cockpit door. “Are we going to hash this out or are you just going to keep throwing shit at me like a little girl?”

  Cade bared his teeth. “I think I’d prefer to throw shit at you. I think it would be a fair fight if it boiled down to it, and the ‘shit’ is far more entertaining.”

  “Boys,” Marcella interrupted, casting each man a warning glance. “Not now. I want to know what the fuck happened the last time you were here!”

  “We can get off this tin can first though,” I complained, well aware that I was whining, but if I could avoid this ‘show and tell,’ and get off the damn plane, I definitely fucking would.

  She pursed her lips and folded her arms across her chest. I wasn’t sure she could have looked more stubborn unless she started stomping her foot.

  Heaving a sigh when I saw neither of my wishes was about to be granted, I grumbled, “It was thirty years ago and ‘Like a Prayer’ by Madonna had just gone live.”

  Her eyes widened. “Go on,” she encouraged, and I knew she hadn’t expected this story to go down this path.

  “You ever see the video?”

  “Yeah. The burning crucifixes?”

  Darius began to laugh. “I remember this now.”

  I glowered at him—the dude was getting as high up on my shit list as Cade’s. “There were a bunch of salsang druids who’d abandoned their brotherhoods and were cozying it up in Somerset, near Stonehenge. We had to round them up and get them back to the States.”

  “Thought it would be an easy job,” Cade grumbled. “It sounded like it from what he said.” He stabbed a finger at Darius. “Bunch of pussy druids? Who could be simpler to round up?”

  “Hey!” Gideon protested, but we ignored him.

  “We didn’t think it would be a problem. Only,” I pointed at Darius this time, “dickface over there didn’t tell us one of the druids was in love with his mind walker brother, and the reason he’d run off was so they could be together.”

  Marcella frowned. “Okay, so what does this have to do with Madonna?”

  “I’m getting there,” I muttered. “We found their encampment and split up. Each of us infiltrating from different angles so we could grab them without them pulling some druid shit on us. Last thing we wanted was to be buried alive because the council had a hard-on for them.

  “As we snuck up on them, I had the misfortune of meeting the mind walker. Back then, I wasn’t as strong as I am now, and this guy was old, like a hundred, and he was experienced.”

  Barclay began snickering. “We found them dancing around the fire the druids had blazing, singing ‘Like a Prayer.’”

  Gideon grinned. “I don’t know. My favorite was ‘Papa don’t preach.’”

  “Their moves were hot shit when it ca
me time for ‘Vogue’ though,” Keiran tossed in, making me narrow my eyes at him—had I really been feeling all kinds of brotherly love for the shithead a few minutes ago?

  “I swear. Three fucking decades and you bastards still haven’t forgotten.”

  Marcella pressed a hand to her mouth, and I rolled my eyes at her attempt to hide her grin.

  Why the fuck had I even mentioned this to Cade again?

  Yeah, that was right.

  Because I was a fucking moron.

  A thought that was compounded when Marcella cascaded into giggles.

  ❖

  Marcella

  The trip away from the airport had mostly consisted of me falling into more fits of giggles whenever I thought about Raven dancing around a fire to Madonna, and Raven scowling at me while trying to stop the grin that was twitching on his lips. By the time we were out of Exeter, where we had landed, and heading toward this gorge that Gid thought was the site of the prison, I was starting to get nervous.

  What if Merlin was playing me?

  What if releasing him brought about the apocalypse instead of saving us from it?

  How was I supposed to know if we were doing the right thing or not?

  The closer we got, the more my anxiety grew. I couldn’t see another way out of this though, not if the Lady was willing to kill me and take my body for some kind of freakin’ joyride.

  The guys didn’t think I noticed, but I remembered the look of devastation on their faces when I first woke up. It wasn’t just that the Lady of the Lake wanted to take my body, it was that she wanted to destroy my life, take it for her own, and use me like a puppet.

  When my existence was tied to theirs, I couldn’t allow her to leave my body alive and have my men wither in a state of grief because my soul wouldn’t be there anymore. It was clear that if Cade hadn’t saved us, if the Lady had possessed my body, that it wouldn’t trigger the death of the whole brotherhood, which was a relief to me, but it also meant that if she succeeded, then they would be stuck with a future they never planned on.