Chapter 15 The Clan

Galen led the Ravers up the stairs and out into the night. "Hurry," he bellowed at them, fearing Liam would blow up the facility before any escaped.

Will's wolf was waiting outside the fence. He shifted to his Raver and ripped the fence apart. Alarms sounded shrilly as he guided the group to the west and beyond a farm into the forest. There was a huge whomp behind them.

"Will, I have to go back for Shalom." Galen kept pace easily as the lumbering beasts and wolves fled at full speed.

Will shifted to his wolf then to his skin without stopping. "Tell Jake I'll meet him at the plantation then rent a Uhaul in Eutawville, and drive them to safety. I'll see you soon." Then he shifted back to his wolf. Galen vanished in a shimmer of light as the survivors of Monarch Mountain Pack fled for their lives once again.

VvvvvV

Petra Lumin stood at a window, looking out at the city below and hating everyone in it, especially the wolf asleep in the bed behind her. James's snores were the vilest thing she ever listened to, and she wanted nothing more than to suck away his life force until her was a husk and return to her clan. She was very bored after Monarch Jake went back to Colorado to see about his younger brother. Suddenly, she felt Liam shout to her through the messaging mirror they shared. She grabbed her purse and rushed into the bathroom.

Holding it, she whispered his name, "Liam?"

The only thing she could see was a ceiling then the mirror cracked and split in half. "No!" Rushing through the bedroom naked, she leapt through the glass like it wasn't there and flew toward her flat as fast as she could. Moments after landing, she rushed through her traveling mirror. A Light Fae materialized from the light of the moon and walked mirror. Bianca pulled the thread of a spider web from the side of the mirror.

"Thank you, friend spider." Grinning, Bianca twisted it around her finger, and followed Petra through the mirror.

Peeking out from the mirror, she stepped out after she was certain no one was around. The evil of the place resonated like the tone of a bell. She knew she would have to search quickly because the ones here would sense her light soon enough, so she pulled it in as tightly as she could. The first thing she did was go to a window and look at the stars. It only took a moment to know where she was on this world.

Moving quickly through the halls, she explored, then paused at a door and listened to Petra argue with Gerard. The decayed state of his fallen soul made the healer in her want to vomit. In a room down the hall from Gerard's office, she found the missing vampiress princess playing with dolls.

"Hello, Princess." Bianca smiled at her.

The little vampiress grinned at her, "Are you here to feed me? I is so hungry and Papa's blood tastes bad now because his brother made him sick."

Not correcting her about the true reason for Gerard's fall, Bianca held out her arm. "Yes. I have sweet blood like you like."

Caressing the child's head as she ate, Bianca felt the manipulations done to the child's soul and began to heal them, severing Gerard's hold over her.

"You feel warm," the girl smiled sleepily then she fell asleep. Bianca left her on the settee by the window.

Retreating, Bianca wandered to a door below the office, but didn't open it. She could feel the darkness of the one on the other side, coiled like a snake ready to strike. Suddenly, it surged up the stairs and Bianca fled back to the mirror as Morgana screeched like a harpy.

The High Demonus female shouted, "Gerard! The light is here!"

Gerard and Petra rushed out of his office to meet his mother. Dark mists rolled across the floor from the open door and snaked up to the level above and down the adjoining halls like serpents seeking the light she felt only moments earlier.

"Search the manor," Gerard snarled at the Fae drawn by Morgana's alarm as he approached her cautiously. Her floor length white hair was thrashing around her like it was stirred by a violent wind he couldn't feel. "Mother, what did you see?"

"It is not what I saw but what I sensed," Morgana snapped. "A light was here."

He looked over his shoulder at Petra who shook her head.

"Mother, no one is here except the clan. Did you have a vision of..."

She slapped him. "It was no vision! A light was here." She pointed a bony finger at Petra. "She brought the light here."

"Mother, why don't you return to guarding the sacred tree while I find this interloper," Gerard said in a patronizing voice.

Hissing ancient curses under her breath, Morgana turned and stalked down the steep stairs with her long white hair trailing behind her like a cloak with a train.

"Petra, how did you come here?" Gerard growled at her as he closed the door to the cavern below.

"I came by mirror, none could have followed me," Petra refuted his unspoken accusation then shouted at him, "Where is Liam?! His messaging mirror broke in my hands. He's not dead yet, but he needs me."

Rubbing his forehead, Gerard was grateful he had never allowed himself to become attached to his sibling. "Liam is in Cades Depot, South Carolina working on a project for Aliza and I. Perhaps he was hurt by one of the Ravers we are keeping there. I am certain he will be fine. Go back to the Monarch's brother."

"What about my brother?" Petra snarled.

"I will send someone to check on him." Gerard's tone was calm and reassuring, but she knew he was lying. The forever blessed Fae turned and stomped away from her clan master.

"Go back to the Monarch's brother, Petra," repeating himself, his order felt like the lash of an iron wire whip against her back as she stepped through the travelling mirror.

VvvvvV

Quinn Shalom's POV...

Suddenly, I shuddered as it felt colder. Disconnecting the drive, I tucked it in the pouch. The hall back to the door looked like it was filled with fog. I pulled my cloak tighter around me. The enemy was on this floor. I was glad I left the door open so it couldn't track that movement. Working my way carefully down the pitch-black hall against the wall, I glanced furtively out from under my hood. The only thing worse than seeing it, was not seeing it. The shadows in the dark hall shimmered and I knew it was there waiting, a dark fae, a Demonus. Hugging my red cloak tighter I walked forward silently. I trusted Mr. Black's last gift to me would protect me from one of his kind.

"Where are you, Quinn?" It hissed in a reptilian way. "Do you think you can hide from me?"

Suddenly, it sounded like a roaring wind, dust and papers from the desk began to blow around, but I felt nothing as I pressed against the wall. The black metallic scrolling lines and symbols shimmered as something cold and evil passed. My skin felt like I was walking through a dew-wet spider web.

"Surrender and I'll spare your son."

I kept tiptoeing forward; breathing as quietly as I could in the ​strangely still bubble the magic of my enchanted scarlet cloak created. I reached the door to the stairs as it beeped and unlocked. Richard's Raver shoved the door open, and it slammed me to the floor. The Demonus hissed and screeched as Richard grabbed my arm and threw me into Jake's chest.

"I'm so sorry, Luna Shalom," Changing from his skin, Donavon's Raver rushed past us and attacked the Demonus first.

"Run!" Richard snarled out then he slammed the door between us.

"No! Richard!" I screamed but Jake held me.

"No time. We're blown and we have to follow the others." He dragged me into the elevator.

"We can't leave him." I cried, trying to make the elevator stop as the lights inside it flashed yellow.

Jake grabbed me and shook me. "There is no choice; that thing said it would destroy the whole facility before it came down here. Richard said to take you and go."

"But Galen..."

"Galen isn't strong enough to fight it. He is already leading the others to safety. We have to join them."

Jake and I sprinted out of the shed as soon as the elevator doors opened. There was a place where a Raver ripped the fence open. My wolf leapt through first followed by Jake's. Alarms sounded as we fled into the trees. Behind us there was a deep boom and the sound of an avalanche. My wolf howled as I felt Richard die, but we kept running.

VvvvvV

Petra did not have time to worry about Lady Morgana's paranoia and dementia. Liam needed her. Ignoring Gerard's orders, Petra stepped back into the mirror and came out in South Carolina. Sneering as she looked around Aliza Abbott's childhood home, she went to the balcony and spread her wings. Flying as fast as she could she ignored everything below as she rushed to save her brother. She was shocked to see a pit in the ground at the facility where Liam had been experimenting on the Monarch Mountain Ravers. Police car and fire engine lights twinkled and strobed below as she turned herself into an invisible mist and sank into the rubble.

"Liam?!" She whispered too quietly for any mortal creature to hear.

A groan drew her attention, and she flowed through the debris. Her brother laid with one of his arms torn off and a human-form werewolf's fingers still clutching where his claws had almost torn out her brother's heart. She was glad his head had been smashed by the beam that pinned Liam. Shifting the beam aside, she pried the red bearded male's hand loose then put her mouth over her brother's and breathed out the energy she had consumed earlier.

Liam inhaled raggedly then gulped the energy. Petra shoved him away before he drained her completely. His face was clawed, and he was missing an eye, but he lived.

"Hold on, I'm going to shadow mist us out of here."

"Wait... must burn... liquid gas and detonator... there." He looked in the direction he needed her to go.

Petra found the detonator wires had been cut by a falling beam. "I'll have to come back after I get you out."

She shimmered like a shadow and flew out with the rising dust and smoke. Laying her unconscious brother near the top of a tree, she went back down into the pit, turned the propane gas valve, then held her breath before she triggered the spark to detonate the fire. Surging upward just ahead of the blast, she escaped. Humans shouted their alarm as the smoldering pit turned into an inferno. Carrying her brother to Aliza's family plantation, Petra carried him home. As Petra stepped out of the mirror in her apartment, she felt the cool touch of a spider's web on her face. Putting Liam on her bed, she left him to rest. Cursing as she brushed the strands from the edge of the web away, she wondered if someone had followed her. Searching, she found no trace of the arachnid that spun its web across her traveling mirror. Looking at her maimed brother, she could only pray to the eternal shadow that it was a fluke and that Gerard never found out.

VvvvvV

Bianca flew across the city to another mirror, stopping only to deposit the spider in the arboretum where it would have food and warmth for the winter. She hurried through the mirror world and stepped out to find Greyson talking to Galen through a messaging mirror. The three of them and Nicolea were all that stood against Gerard's clan and world war, as she eavesdropped she prayed they would be enough.

"Stay with Shalom, she is going to be upset by Richard's death and may do something rash."

"Can anything be done to restore the sight of the Ravers that were repeatedly exposed to the Dust of Rage?" Galen asked.

Greyson sighed as he answered, "In the old days – no, but now there are many things modern medicine can do that we couldn't then." He scowled. "Tell Nic to try a Vitamin A ointment and Lutein eyewash."

"I will. Thank you," Nicolea answered then asked, "Bianca, did it work?'

"Yes, the spider trick worked, and I found them. Petra led me straight to the clan. Morgana was there and the Princess. Her soul has been tampered with to make her the mate to Shalom's son," Bianca revealed with a scowl. "I don't know how to undo it, but I don't think the enchantment is complete. I began severing the enslavement bonds Gerard placed on her soul."

"We need to get her away from my brother's clan. We can worry about fixing her soul later. We have to go." Galen and Nicolea's faces faded from view and Bianca looked across the table at Greyson.

"It was there... the tree, I mean, and Morgana."

Greyson folded his hands and bowed his chin. "Now we must find The Grove."

VvvvvV

Aliza Abbott tried not to pace as she waited for her private plane to land. No one was answering her calls and Liam's last known location was at the Cades Depot research facility which was now on the local news. She watched the roaring inferno shooting skyward and was grateful that everything there would be ashes as the local fire department waited for the propane fed into the ruptured line to burn out. A sneer marred her perfect features as she hoped all the captured Ravers were dead too. The plane landed and she got off. Getting in the rental car waiting, her bodyguards drove her past the fire scene then to her late mother's home to wait. The four humans who helped with the capture of the Ravers were hardened mercenaries and Non-human haters so they said nothing more than joke the air smelled like burnt dog hair.

At the plantation, Aliza watched them start checking the area then went to her room. She checked the last of the surveillance feed. She watched as Liam stepped out of the bathroom and went to check their prisoners. Then something caught her attention. The surface door opened and closed with no one there. A few moments later two wolves appeared with Galen and they opened the door on level two and started opening the containment rooms, freeing the Ravers. The Ravers attacked Liam then the screens went blank. She looked at the keycard log and saw that Dr. Strawford's access card was used to open the surface door and cells, then the system showed an 'Error at source' message. She knew from the timestamp the explosion and collapse happened about that time.

She muttered a curse under her breath, "Goddamn it, Forrester. Why the hell didn't you deactivate Keith's access after you killed him? Stupid old man!""

She logged into the security feed from the plant up the road and saw several shadowy figures moving across the road. Despite the poor quality, it showed the unmistakable outlines of werewolf Ravers fleeing the scene just before the collapse. It was several more minutes before the police and fire department arrived, then about twenty minutes later the entire thing exploded in a column of fire that mushroomed upward then burned like a torch. Watching the sequence from every available angle, she could only see the mutated werewolves on the one very blurry feed. She wondered how she could spin the video to blame the wolves.

Picking up her phone, she dialed the General and left a message.

"The dogs escaped the depot. Send a hunting party."