Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

47

All of a sudden the coven seemed like the least of our concerns. What if the abduction had been a ruse to get to Stephen? This was nothing to do with me. In my egotistical bubble of selfishness, I had put a man I loved in danger and risked the safety of the only family he had left.

As the horror of it wrapped around my heart and squeezed, I knew one thing for certain. I had to make this right.

I started out of the room, only to find myself pulled back by the strong arm of my Alpha. Turning to glower at him, I was met with a look of pure dominance.

I sat. There was no other choice. My body was directly wired into his mind, bending to his command without a word being spoken.

This sucked so bad.

"Starting off with no plan is a fool's move," Lucas said calmly, his wolf showing behind his green eyes.

"I've got to get back there, Lucas, they're practically defenceless. Their power is hardly more perceptible than the glow of life that I read from humans."

Emily snorted. I looked at her apologetically. Emily was not your average human, but Stephen did not have the same skill set. Even if he could look after himself against other paranormals, he couldn't do that while he was also protecting Mary.

"He's right," Emily said, "we wait to hear back before we move."

I looked between Emily and Lucas. Why were they agreeing about this?

It wasn't like Emily to sit on her heels. Stephen was her best friend, her business partner. Hell, they spent most of their time together and had done since they were teenagers. It didn't make sense that she would go along with with Lucas.

Then it occurred to me how out of character it was for Emily to stay with us in this bed instead of returning to sleep in her own apartment. Or at the very least sleep in the living room. She did not trust others easily, and yet she had accepted Lucas without question, and Evan along with him.

A suspicion swept over me, "Lucas, you didn't!"

"I didn't do anything," he said, far too innocently.

"Enough of this. I'm in the pack. You'd better get used to the idea. I'm Beta," Emily said, not a hint of emotion in her voice.

"Crap Lucas, you've got to stop doing this," I said, unable to prevent the anger seeping into my tone.

"I didn't do it, I've already told you. The wolf recognised her."

Bit convenient. How could the wolf act without the human? But then, who was I to judge. My own power often had a life of its own.

"Alice, I felt it call. I accepted. I'm Beta, get used to it."

"What about Lizzie?" I asked, with narrowed eyes. Emily did not need another reason to boss me around. "Won't she be bothered about you joining a pack? I thought werewolves and vampires were mortal enemies or something?"

Emily looked at me as though my stupidity was beyond her comprehension.

"Erm, Alice," Evan said in a gentle tone, "we haven't actually become werewolves by joining Lucas's pack. That isn't possible. You have to have the gene."

"And I would have to bite you," Lucas added, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes.

Blushing, I looked away, ashamed yet again by my ignorance. As I tore my eyes away from Lucas's, I didn't miss the flash of interest from his wolf at the mention of the bite.

We really didn't have time for all this pack bullshit. Pushing my embarrassment deep within, I allowed my power to uncurl. It burnt through the awkwardness and left a flush of determination in its wake.

The pack bond was good for one thing. I now had a group of people that I could trust. We would save Stephen and Mary, and we would do it together.

Emily's phone rang. We all turned to face her. Red suffused her cheeks as anger spread over her face, pinching her mouth into a tight pout. "The house is trashed. There's no sign of them, but there was blood. Lizzie is tracking it. We'll have a direction soon."

My power buzzed and hummed in anger, swelling through my blood until it felt too big to be contained by my skin. They'd hurt Stephen. He had bled. Because of my arrogance and stupidity. The force of my guilt and fury was fuelled by helplessness, expanding the pit of impotent energy in my gut. The sensation became unbearable. I had to let it out.

Lucas reached over and clasped my hand. His wolf shone out, demanding my life-force submit to him. The power surged in response.

The bond had failed – I was going to lose it.

As the wave of power flooded my body, memories flashed through my mind. My mother fashioning figures out of colourful silk; poppets, but not like the nasty creatures that we had found here.

She would bless them with incense and perfume and a drop of her own blood. I'd find them secreted away, sometimes in my school bag, or in a pocket. As I got older, the poppets became smaller, until they were tiny little things, no longer spun out of rainbow coloured silk, but fine threads. They were dark in colour and smelled like copper.

They were made out of hair, and they were dyed in blood.

My mother's blood.

The realisation brought me back. My power hummed in satisfaction, as I found that Lucas still had hold of one of my hands. Evan held the other. A swirl of silver ran through each of their eyes, but when I blinked, it had gone.

My body sagged in relief, my mind calm. "You channelled the power."

"You were glowing pure silver, Alice. My wolf can't see you suffer alone. I can't," Lucas said.

"None of us can," Evan added.

Gratitude for their help, their support, overwhelmed me for a moment. It was down to these people – my pack – that my power had been allowed to flow through me and bring the vision.

Instead of engulfing me and accentuating my most frightening qualities: fury and arrogance, they had helped me learn something important. Something that might break the deadlock between me and the coven. Something that might help Stephen and Mary.

I had seen my mother practicing magic.

Blood magic.

Emily's phone buzzed. She glanced at the text and frowned.

"The vamps are coming."

Maybe the pack isn't so bad after all...