"Dad's been itching Ethan. I have too. It's been this way for weeks," Lucas said as he and Jane sat down in my office.

"Maybe you need some Preperation H," I replied back while I wrote Derek an email from a dummy email address on my laptop.

"Ethan, you know how the itches are."

"I really don't need to know the details, Lucas," I told him, not looking up as a low growl vibrated through the room. I rolled my eyes then looked up at Lucas. If I had to hear about this damn itch again then I was going to make them both sleep in a bathtub of anti-itch cream. We were living in a shit storm, of course they were going to itch. "Where is Levi?" I asked

"Getting coffee," Jane said with a kind smile.

"Right," I replied before I hit send and closed the laptop. "I need another cup," I yawned out.

"You should sleep more," she replied, eyeing me knowingly. I hadn't slept in weeks. My dreams had become more vivid–so real at times I could have sworn that she was there. I tore the house apart as well, looking for Mare's Weed until I just carried myself back to Evan's and into my old room where I still couldn't sleep.

"How was she this morning?" Lucas asked.

"You mean how was, 'checking the lines,' with her? Fantastic," I drawled out.

Now that Aurelia thought that I was coming around, she more or less found bullshit reasons for me to be around her. One of them was this morning when we were 'checking' the borders. The borders that her snakes would slither about.

She would comment here and there about–well hell, I have no idea what the hell she was actually talking about. All I could think of was how I love to bash her head in on one of the boulders around us; my beast agreed. He wanted to exterminate her and the snake population from our land permanently.

I almost killed her over the snakes at one point; the snakes had almost bitten one of my pack members, they had bit one of Jaxon's and almost killed them.

She waved it off until Lander marched in with a dead snake in his hand, apparently there was one in Lyle's room. Lander was almost too overprotective of Lyle; he had shifted and was still in a phase where he was still learning to control himself–to control his wolf. Penelope was just as bad. It wasn't their fault; it's hard the first few years to master your beast, especially at that age. With everything going on, I didn't blame Lander at all.

I came home one day to find one on my bed. I skinned it and hung over my balcony then I found one of the ones she favored more–a albino python that I hung out on the line that faced Levi's pack after I skinned it too.

She was furious, but I was as well. It was one thing to have these snakes slithering around, it was another to have them in our homes. It wasn't enough that she had stripped me over pretty much everything that mattered– one thing that mattered.

Ajax had the same problem. We tried to kill them when we saw them, she didn't seem to care, though. She would just replace them. Everything was replaceable to her. Even her brother who she didn't seem too upset over. Or Hagan. That was like their whole plan and he never showed up. Levi thought that they had given up on it–were continuing forward without him. They seemed to be doing pretty well without him. There was more power at the top for each of them to have which I think they realized was much more preferable than being someone's foot soldier.

"I'm sorry man," Lucas said.

"The day I kill her it will be worth it," I replied simply. My beast nodded in agreement. It would be a good day. Mostly because then I could cross over and find her for Charlotte to have her way with her. That would be a very good day. "So an itch?"

Damn Thorne itch.

Lucas nodded. "Have you felt anything weird?"

I shrugged. The only thing odd was that my mark during one of the dreams, well it felt alive again. It felt like she was here. At first I thought she was until I woke up alone on my couch in an empty house where she was not. It took me a while to convince myself she wasn't, the dream felt so real.

She wasn't there. She wouldn't be there. I had to go to her.

"No."

"How are the vampires?" Lucas asked as Levi strolled in, shutting the door behind him. He grabbed a towel I kept on a chair and rolled it up then quickly shoved it between the cracks in the door. We couldn't be too careful these days.

"Derek is good. Dominic just wrote me a strange email, though," I said.

"Ya?" Levi asked.

"He said he feels like something is going on," I replied, almost annoyed with Dominic. It was just Dominic being overly hopeful. He turned into this odd optimist out of all of it; it was ridiculously annoying, to say the least.

Levi sipped his coffee. "Well, we've been itching."

"Yes, but there could be a lot of reasons for it," I replied. "Sounds like you need some itch cream."

Levi growled lowly at me as he walked to sit in the wingback chair next to my window while Jane gave me another assuring smile. "Call Dagny," Jane suggested. "Just see if she says anything?"

Levi nodded. "Just use my burner," he breathed out as he pulled out a crappy flip phone out from his back pocket. "Can't hurt anything, Ethan."

He dialed then clicked it on speaker and set the phone on my desk as I gave Levi an annoyed look. "We have that meeting coming up, it's probably that."

"How was Alex?" Lucas asked.

Alex.

Alex who called not long after we went underground and apologized profusely. Alex who seemed to have, 'changed his ways.' Alex who Dominic still didn't trust. Alex who has in a way been helping us–trying to do as much as he can. He was the one that has been smuggling us things like satellite phones and silver we can use as weapons.

"Fine," I answered simply. "More annoyed at her new moves inland but they're handling it, or so he says."

"Hello?"

"Dagny it's Levi, Lucas, Jane, and Ethan."

"Well hello!" she called out. "Is everything ok?"

"Yes, we just wanted to check in. We've been, well Lucas and I have a feeling that something's going on."

"Yes, Dominic called," she replied tiredly. "Listen Levi, we've been researching as much as we can. The only portal left was the one that was opened last and thus destroyed. If there is even one, we have no idea where it is. The only lead we have is the story of the goddess that is more or less a bedtime story. If that story is true, it means that the portal has to be opened from the inside."

"We could try calling them again?" Lucas asked.

"No one answered last time and we wasted bloodstones," Levi replied, my beast and I cringing because we would do about anything to hear her voice one more time.

"That and she's got her eyes out," Dangy added. "We don't need her knowing what we say to them or if we see them. Bernard thinks the moon closed her eye to us, blocked off those types of things because it was abused so much before. As awful as it is, it's probably for the best."

"I wish we could just talk to them," Jane sighed out.

"I know," Dagny said sadly. "It would be incredibly helpful, but we can't. I'm sorry–I'm sorry Ethan."

I let out a long breath "It's alright Dagny. I understand."

"We'll keep trying Ethan. We haven't felt a shift in magic here, but if we do we'll let you know."

"Thank you," I replied, my beast laying down with his head sunk on his paws. Any talk of a portal just made me more depressed, mostly because it was impossible. We hadn't heard from them nor did we have a clue why.

The first time we tried and it didn't work, everyone thought it was a fluke. That is until we tried over and over and over again–when Bernard thought that they just were not answering.

I was infuriated.

How could she not answer? How could she not want to see me? I was brewing over those questions for what seemed like weeks until I thought that maybe she had a better reason–maybe she was trying to protect me. I knew if I saw her that it would be almost impossible to not try and go with her. That and Aurelia was keeping a close eye on us; I didn't need her knowing where Charlotte was.

Levi stayed with Lucas and Jane for around an hour; talking over with me on some strategies we could use to overtake the southern packs. We talked until my head started to hurt with the weight of everything on me.

I ran home and made myself eat something. I made myself blobs. I made myself blobs until all I could was look at them–not eating but sitting and looking. For a moment I could have sworn she was there with me; laughing with me while we ate our breakfast.

After my 'meal,' I ran upstairs and dug the satellite phone out. Closing myself off in my closet, I started to select a number that had been pre-programmed. Jake's.

Not long after we came out of hiding, Cora got word of her father's potential whereabouts. Cora wanted to go, she wanted to see if she couldn't find her father and establish an ally in the mountains that we desperately needed. At first, I was against it, considering everything the last thing I wanted was Jake and Cora walking into enemy territory.

But as the weeks went on we got more news from our trackers that surveyed the area until one day a messenger ran down from the mountains. The mountains that had a civil war of their own. It made sense that no one knew, no one could link up there and no one dared go up into the mountains laced with silver that weakened us.

Apparently, Cora's father along with two alphas came out of hiding when the packs least suspected it–when they were executing the rogue attacks. They killed off two alphas, took some of their land back, and established a presence. There was still one alpha amongst the four that lived up there–one that was loyal to Aurelia. According to this messenger, all the caves were on his land and he had quite a bit of land, men, and supplies. He was the stronger alpha up there.

I let them go.

I hated that I was doing it. My beast and I almost felt sick until Jake called me on a satellite phone saying that he had found Cora's father. That he more or less was in tears when he saw his daughter again and offered her and Jake a place in his pack. Jake explained to him what was happening her. After a few calls between Micah, her father, and myself, we agreed to work together.

They would feed us information and when the time was right we would find a way to help them get rid of those rogues and that alpha. Jake and Cora has been up there since; helping her father and trying to find more information out on the rogues and keep an eye out on things for us.

The phone rang a few times until it clicked. "Ethan?"

"Hey," I breathed out. "How is it up there?"

"Cold as hell," he chuckled out while something blew in the bathroom. "Hold on, let me go somewhere quiet!"

"Ok," I replied while there was more shuffling.

There was more shuffling until it was quiet. "Sorry man, I was outside and the wind here is crazy."

"It's fine. So everything is good?"

"Ya, Cora's good so is Micah. Winter comes early up here," he laughed out.

"I bet," I replied with a smile tugging at my lips. "Rogues?"

"No movement," Jake replied. "It's been really quiet. Any progress on the cure?"

I clenched my eyes shut. Sam had not stopped working on a cure. Charlotte's blood did help–it helped quite a bit but it wasn't a cure. With Cora, Sam hypothesized that the dialysis did most of the work and Charlotte's blood was like the cherry on top. That and we were running out of Charlotte's blood. We probably were out of it, but Sam was determined.

She was determined but none of the tests went well. We knew we couldn't get hundreds of dialysis machines, that wasn't feasible. Yet everyday Sam kept trying; she almost worked herself to death one week until Martin and I forced her to take a break.

"No, none," I replied.

"Sorry man. Maybe one day..."

"Well, can we do anything?" I asked, trying to hide my disappointment.

"No Ethan, we'll let you know if we hear anything else."

"Alright, be careful," I replied.

"You too man. Hang in there!"

I nodded as I slowly stood up. "Will do," I replied before I hung up.

Walking back down the living room, I opted to finish my emails on the couch with an array of violent movies playing. Violent movies that I knew she would love. God, I was depressing.

I didn't know how to not be depressing, though. I didn't know how not to think of her. I had no idea.

I had no idea and after going through my emails I decided to find a bottle of something stronger than water. The bottle of whiskey and I ended up drinking ourselves to sleep on the couch; a sleep that felt much more peaceful than others–probably because there was more alcohol than blood in me.

I was sleeping fine when something started to burn. It burned and burned like a cool fire on my skin. A cool fire on my neck, that spread through to the rest of me.

I blinked my eyes open and immediately swore off whatever brand of whiskey I had drunk as the fire grew. It grew so much it took my breath away.

Gasping for air I sat up, sweat beading on my brow while it burned some more–while my mark burned.

Dammit Levi never told me about this...

However as it continued I realized that it wasn't painful, it was addicting. It was sparking, sparkling to life, before something rushed across me–drawing a groan from me. It burned like a fire that I wanted to throw myself in. It was so euphoric like her lips were on my skin again. It was both painful but also pleasurable; it was mind boggling, I had to have outdone myself on the whiskey.

Water, I needed water.

Rushing to the sink, I turned it on then stuck my head under the faucet. My mouth sucked as much of the liquid in as I could before I almost choked right before my mark lit up again, it was like it was pulsing. Like it was alive.

"She's dead," I breathed out to myself. "I know she's dead," I stumbled out, my lips still tingling from the alcohol that was lingering in me.

I ran upstairs, tripping on a few steps as something burned in my heart–in my soul. It felt like was binding something together–welding two pieces of broken metal together and smoothing out the rough edges. "The hell?" I gasped out.

Eventually, I made it to our room; the mark burning more, drawing a sharp gasp from my lips as I fell onto her bear skin blanket that I had laid out like a rug on the floor–a blanket that I curled up with almost every night. I clutched the fur of it as my chest felt like the fire was piercing through it and wrapping around my heart–both painful and euphoric in nature.

Then it happened, my mark felt like it was being ripped open and I was convinced that this was it. That it was finally breaking until halfway through it felt like she was marking me again; it felt like her lips were on me again, like her teeth were sinking into me. I clutched at my neck as the fire swirled in me, causing my veins to hum in a way they had not in far too long.

I was panting and sweating hard while my hand clutched my neck. My beast was pacing back and forth, clawing out in confusion. I was more than confused; I wasn't that drunk. I didn't think I had drank that much...

Once my mind stopped spinning, I stumbled into the bathroom then flickered on the lights; a disturbed snarl coming out of my lips. My mark was fresh. It was fresh and it looked like it did when she first put it there.

"What?!" I rushed out with wide eyes as my fingers carefully touched at the skin that was bleeding.

I sprinted down stairs and looked for the bottle I had been drinking out of. Snatching it off of the ground, my beast and I smelled it carefully–looking for any signs of drugs. We had to be drugged right now. This had to be roofies or something.

But there was nothing.

There was nothing so I ran back upstairs and sniffed around in my room. Maybe it was Mare's Weed? My beast cocked his head then nudged me forward, it had to be Mare's Weed.

I was convinced it was Mare's Weed until I tore apart my whole mattress and the couch I had slept on downstairs. At that point, I was just pissed off. I was stunned and confused and still a little drunk, so I carried my drunk ass upstairs and into the shower.

A cold shower. I needed to wake the hell up. I needed to sober up and wake up from this horrible tormenting dream.

But it wasn't a dream.

It wasn't because the water stung as it hit the fresh mark on my neck. "The hell?"

I leaned against the tiles in my shower, my fingers stained with my blood while I thought of everything it could be, but nothing seemed logical. The only thing I could think of was that this was one of Aurelia's games, one of her tricks.

I blinked hard and prayed it wasn't but that kind of hopeful thinking was not a luxury to me anymore. I stayed in the shower a little more then walked back to my closet and pulled out a burner phone. Shutting the door, I quickly dialed Dagny on the flip phone that Riley had smuggled for me.

It rang a few times while my soul continued to simmer with a fire that had woken me up not more than an hour ago. "Hello?" Dagny sleepily answered.

"Dagny? It's Ethan," I rushed out.

"Ethan?" she asked groggily. "Is everything ok?"

"Who is it?" someone asked in the background.

"It's Ethan Vincent, go back to sleep," she quietly replied. "Are you alright Ethan?"

"Yes, well no, well–" I paused and looked down at the blood on my fingers. "Something's happened."

"Well, tell me!"

I sighed then went on to tell her about what had happened, what was happening. The fire that kept burning in me and felt like it was mending my heart and waking the bond up–the bond felt like it was actually waking up.

Dagny sighed and paused for a long time after I finished. "You're sure? No offense Ethan, but you said you were drinking?"

"Yes I know, but Dagny I swear. I have blood on my fingers from it."

"Huh," she mused. "I don't know. Can you send pictures?"

"Yes, uh hold on ok?"

"Ok," she replied while I stumbled around until I found the camera on the phone. Quickly, I snapped a picture of my neck, that was still bleeding from the fresh mark, then texted it to her. "Ok, I texted it."

I heard something chirp on her end before it sounded like Vincent groaned. "Alright, give me a minute," she mumbled out. I waited as patiently as I could. My fingers drumming against the floor before I put a towel back to my neck.

Dagny sucked in a breath as something shuffled over the phone. "This is impossible," she murmured over the line.

"Well, it apparently is possible," I said, trying to hold the bite on the edge of my tongue.

"Ethan I–" she paused for a moment. "Is this maybe what happens?"

"I don't remember Levi saying anything about this. Do you think this is Aurelia?"

"I don't think so, Alice doesn't either, but it could be," she replied. "Are you sure Levi never said anything?"

I bit my bottom lip, thinking of all the conversations we had. I didn't remember him ever saying anything about this, but there were plenty of those days I didn't remember. It could have happened. "Can I call you back?"

"Sure," she replied. "Let me know what he says."

"Ok." I ended the call then dialed Levi, a number that I remembered by heart.

My beast was pacing as the phone rang; he was pacing because it felt like the bond was a little more alive–like all the broken pieces were being put back together.

"Ethan?"

"Uncle? Sorry is this a bad time?"

"It's the middle of the night," he replied, slightly winded it sounded like. "What's wrong?"

"Uncle when Eve, uh, well when it happened. Did you ever feel like you were being marked again?"

"What?"

I bit at my lip again and tried to think of how to best explain this to him. "My mark is fresh. It looks like I just got it. I feel–it feels almost there again." Levi was quiet for a long time. My heartbeat grew more rapid as my anxiety swirled some more. "Uncle?"

"It's fresh?"

"Yes, still bleeding."

"Shit," he hissed out.

"What? What is it?"

"I don't know son, but I do know that I have a fresh one too."

My heart skipped a beat. "What?"

Levi sighed. "Woke me up. Weirdest shit. Felt like she was biting me again."

"What the hell?" I breathed out as the air left me. "That's impossible. This is impossible."

"Ok, I want you to tell me exactly what happened," Levi said. "All the details."

I sighed then began to repeat for him exactly what I had told Dagny. He paused me a few times to ask a question or two, like how much I had drank that night which he was convinced wasn't an issue since whatever this was–was happening to him as well. After I was finished, like Dagny, he was quiet for a long time.

"Well?"

"Sounds about like my experience. It was itching so bad in my sleep I ended up scratching the skin on my sides raw right before it happened."

"They're dead," I stated, trying to wrap my mind around it. "They died."

"I know son, believe me, I know."

"Is it a trick? Is it her?"

"Could be," Levi mused. "Could be her trying to screw with you–with us."

"I want this to be over uncle."

"Me too, did you talk to Dagny or Bernard about it?"

"Yes, I'm supposed to call her back. Could you send her a picture of your's?"

"Sure," Levi breathed out. "I wouldn't make too much of it until we know more. If it is her, we can't let her know that it's affecting us. I'm tired of her having an edge on us."

"I know," I sighed out. "I'm going to call Dagny back."

"Alright, I'll give Bernard a call, see if he has anything to enlighten us with."

"Ok, talk soon."

"Talk soon," Levi said before he clicked off.

I quickly dialed Dagny back, pulling the towel away from my neck and eyeing the blood staining the white fabric. The phone rang while the fire brewed in me, while it melded things together in me.

"Ethan?"

"Hey Dagny, so I talked to Levi."

"And?"

"It happened to him as well."

She was quiet again before there was rustling over the phone. "He's sure?"

"Yes, he's very sure," I replied. "I'm very sure."

"I don't know Ethan. It could be her, you know?"

"Aurelia does love her games," I bit out. "Are you sure that? You know?"

"Ethan," she sighed out, an apology in her tone. "I'm so sorry. We haven't found another portal. We've been looking, I swear we have. There was the one, but I've only read about it literally in books that are filled with fairy tales.

"She like her tricks. You know she does. Remember when she captured you? At that club? How she had that imposter? It could be something similar."

I grolwed lowly, my beast snapping out while the bond sizzled. "I know."

Dagny yawned. "I'll call Bernard in the morning, alright?"

"Alright," I replied quietly.

"Just keep your chin up Ethan."

"Thanks," I replied before I clicked the phone off, tossing it across from me while I leaned my head back against the wall. "What the hell?" I said under my breath while my shaking fingers touched my skin again.

I leaned back as it continued. It felt like it was healing my soul and I hated it. I hated that damn witch. This had to be one of her worst tricks.