One True Mate 1: Shifter's Sacrifice (8 page)

Ella remembered a lovely dream of following the moon, picking her way carefully through a forest while the moon’s light shone on the path in front of her. Animals had surrounded her. Large animals, who were dangerous to everyone but her. Her, they’d not seen as prey, but as someone to be protected. Her feet had been bare, the dirt silky against her soles, the night air sweet with the scent of heavy flowers, and filled with the sound of crickets and other animals. But the moon, the moon had held all of her attention. Calling her, urging her on, speaking to her in a way she could almost understand…

A sharp pain in her foot brought her out of the dream and she woke up in the yard in front of the house with a can of white paint in one hand and a dripping paintbrush in the other. The moon shone directly overhead, large and heavy, and she guessed the time to be between midnight and three in the morning. In front of her, an arc of white paint had been applied to the blue of the house.

Ella had looked at the paint and brush in her hand and known immediately what she had been trying to paint on the front of her dead aunt’s house.

The moon.

***

Wade sat and invited Trevor to do the same. He looked around the room as if trying to decide where to start. Finally, he settled on Trevor. “You’ve heard the prophecy. It came from your own father. You know what Khain did to our females. But what you may not know is that Rhen is much weaker than anyone has ever let on. She may never recover. We don’t know if she can die, just as we don’t know if Khain can die, but she may never be able to return to her physical body.”

Trevor rubbed the hair growing in on his chin. How long had it been since he’d shaved? Or slept? This revelation would be giving him nightmares for sure. The creator of all
shiften
too weak to ever recover? Was Khain stronger than her? What would happen to them if Rhen did die? Could the
shiften
continue to hold Khain at bay or would he wipe them out with a stroke of his hand?

Wade leveled him with a stare. “You know that no one has heard from The Light in millennia. Not even Rhen. Not even the angels.”

“Is The Light dead?”

Wade sighed. “We believe that if The Light were to die, all of us would stop existing, so no, we don’t think so. We think he’s still up there, in The Haven, resting maybe. What seems like a long time to us may only be like a day to him. One of your own prophecies says that when you come into your power and fell the demon, the Light will return again.”

Trevor winced. “If. It says if, not when.”

Wade stared at him for a long time. “Son, I believe in you. There is no if in my mind.”

Trevor shook his head and stared at the floor. “Prophecies only spell out one possible future, you’ve told me that yourself.”

Wade didn’t speak for several moments, sizing Trevor up. Finally, he pushed on, choosing to ignore Trevor’s statement. “History gets fuzzy as to exactly when The Light disappeared and what might have happened to cause it, but you can be sure it had something to do with Khain. You know the Light has always existed. You know the Light used pieces of himself to create companions and gave them the earth as a home. Something happened, of which even Rhen is not sure, some sort of a war among the Light’s companions, until all of them were gone but Rhen and Khain and a few angels, who never have had a permanent physical body or been able to come to earth for long. Khain disappeared. Rhen stayed with The Light but he was restless and created more companions, this time giving them only the smallest piece of himself, so they had no powers, no ability to rise up against him if one of them chose to do so. They were soft and weak, these humans, but he loved them. He gave them the entire earth as their domain, filling it with other creatures also, though none quite captured his heart in the way the humans did, possibly because of their good conversation and ability to create offspring that are pleasing to the eye. If there’s one thing humans are good at, it’s making and taking care of more humans.”

Wade stopped for a moment and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then took a few deep breaths before continuing, as if he were getting tired. Trevor hated to see the signs of his age. “But the humans started getting hurt, and sick, and disappearing. When his favorite human didn’t come to him for forty days, The Light sent Rhen to earth to see what was going on. Rhen found Khain, traveling from village to village, destroying them all with fire and explosions, or sickness and madness. Rhen didn’t understand it. She loved the humans as much as The Light did and she questioned Khain as to why he would destroy them. He said they were unhappy, miserable creatures who could barely take care of themselves, and all he had ever met wanted to die, wanted to not exist on earth anymore.”

Trevor snorted. He’d never heard this version of Khain’s motives before. “A regular humanitarian.”

Wade nodded. “That’s how he played it off, like he was doing them a favor. Rhen said Khain had gathered a band of humans to travel with him and do his bidding. Wash him, feed him, kill other humans for fun. Rhen said Khain made her watch one such escapade and it turned her stomach. Khain’s human was large and strong and Khain sent him after a much smaller man. Rhen stepped in, not allowing the first human to finish his hunt. She and Khain battled fiercely, and she managed to drive Khain off. She said she was lucky, because she and Khain seemed to be exactly matched, and for every power she has, he has an equal and opposing power. They fought for months, burning the earth in their wake. The Light sent the angels down to help Rhen, but some of them went to Khain’s side, whether by trickery or will, no one knows. The Light called these renegade angels back to him, merging them with him, but each time he did, he seemed to weaken. Rhen said she called out to The Light many times, but he would never take direct action against Khain. To do so would upset the balance, was all he would say on the matter.”

“Just when Rhen thought the battle could never end, the moon became heavy in the sky and their fighting crossed through the territory of a pack of timber wolves who were out hunting. Rhen called out to the wolves for help and they responded, surrounding and attacking Khain. The distraction was what she needed to gain the advantage and she struck Khain a finishing blow. He retreated, wounded, disappearing into the
Pravus
for centuries.”

Wade stopped, eyeing Trevor, seeing if he was keeping up. Trevor nodded at him. He’d heard much of this in songs and nursery rhymes and bed-time stories, but never with this kind of surety and detail.

Wade half-smiled. “Rhen was wounded herself, tired and aching from battle, but she did not retreat. She went to the alpha of the clan and thanked him and his wolves deeply for their courage and fierceness, then offered him the only thing she had to give. A piece of herself which would provide strength and power to his descendants forever after. You know the rest of this part of the story, I’m sure.”

Trevor smiled. “Of course.” He felt pride pulse through him at the actions of his brave ancestors, a thick swath of tingles and emotion marching from his breastbone to the top of his head. He touched his left shoulder with his right hand, running his fingers over the
renqua
there, causing it to prickle. Wade ran his fingers over his own
renqua
, a source of pride and honor for all
shiften
, and a reminder of their purpose and connection to the
deae
Rhen.

Wade bobbed his head, looking more tired. “Every piece of herself that Rhen gave out that night weakened her even more, until she finally had to retreat also. The
felen
have watched over her body for centuries, just as we have guarded the humans, our constant battle with Khain evolving every century. When he emerged from the
Pravus
to find us millions strong and completely organized, he knew he couldn’t beat us, and that is why he came up with the plan to kill our females. The half-breeds we make with humans just aren’t strong enough to defeat him, nor do they have the protection drive that we do. Killing our females devastated us, and for three years, most of the first three years of your life, we thought we were ruined. Those were dark times, son, and your generation paid the price for them. We
Citlali
appealed to Rhen, but she did not know what she could do for us. She could not fight. Her body was not substantial enough to create more
shiften
, and The Light had retreated to some corner of the Haven that no one could follow him to. There was no help to be found.”

Wade looked off at the wall covered with shelves stuffed full of prophecies, the light from the TV playing over his face. “That’s what we thought, anyway, until your father spoke his final prophecy.” Wade motioned to the TV where the image of Trevor’s father sat still, paused. “He told us of the One True Mates and we immediately sat session, the only all-
shiften
session in history.” He turned a bold eye to Trevor. “Except the foxen. They have no
Citlali
, so of course we did not include them.”

“Smart,” Trevor said. “Who knows what they would have done with the information.”

Wade nodded sharply. “Never trust a
shiften
with a weak
renqua
, Trevor.” He watched Trevor’s face carefully, then went back to his story. “It took too many hours for all the
Citlali
to calm themselves enough to cross over. By the time we all were there, it was a full day later. Rhen had been told what we were after by the first to cross, so she had done her own crossing, into the Haven. We had to wait another day for her to return. When she did, she had astounding news. The few remaining angels had always refused to get involved in human matters, but one had taken pity on Rhen. Her constant mourning had touched his heart. From the way she speaks of him, I might surmise he is in love with her, and if so, all the better for us. He came to earth over the course of forty nights and mated with thousands of human women all around the world, with an intention of creating females strong enough to be our mates, to make offspring that would have a chance at fighting Khain. He hadn’t told her because he was waiting to see how the babies developed, what sort of identifying characteristics they would have, what kind of powers and abilities.”

Trevor leaned forward eagerly. This is what he had been wanting, needing to hear!

Wade held up a hand. “Don’t get too excited. Rhen got that information second-hand from another angel. Her angel, Azerbaizan, had disappeared.”

Trevor stood, pacing again. “Disappeared? How? Can angels die?”

Wade shook his head. “No one knows. He hasn’t been heard from in twenty-five years. We think the prophecy your father received was sent to him by the angel. Your father said it came through disjointed and hard to read, and definitely not from Rhen, but from a powerful being.”

Trevor curled a hand into a fist and looked for something to hit. There was nothing, unless he wanted to pound on a chair or the floor like a child. “Khain killed him. Or took him.”

Wade nodded. “He may have. Which is why I accepted our transfer from Scotland without a second thought. We can’t afford to be ignorant about the
Pravus
any longer.”

Trevor sighed. “So all that, and we still have no way of knowing who the One True Mates are.”

Wade stood also. “We must carry on like always, son. They may be looking for us. We may be revealed to each other over the next few days or weeks or months. We have three clues, four really.” He held up his hand and ticked off the clues on his fingers. “One, they are warriors, whatever that means.” Trevor grimaced and Wade laughed lightly as if he knew Trevor was wondering if he was going to be mated to a female who looked like Mac, or maybe Blake for the rest of his life. He popped up a second finger, “Two, they don’t have fathers, and three, they are named like flora.”

He paused and Trevor finished for him. “Four, they are twenty-five years old.” He shook his head. “That’s not much to go on.”

Wade clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a cop, son, this is what you do best.”

Ella stalked into her driveway, trying to keep herself together. She hated the state of her mind and thoughts lately. Painting in her sleep was just one more reminder of her recent failings. Maybe her mother had been right about her.

Ella dug her keys out of her pocket, her eyes glued to the arc of white paint on the front of the house. She would paint over that mistake now. Tonight. She didn’t want to have to look at it anymore.

Before Ella could step up onto her porch, a small animal shot out of the bushes on the side of the house and ran for her like it wanted to attack her. Ella almost screamed until she realized it was Smokey. He put his two paws around her ankle and aggressively smelled up and down her leg as far as he could reach. She could hear the sniffs of breath he took in and out of his nose.

“Smokey, what?”

He looked up at her and yowled, a mournful, sad sound that confused her.

She reached down and tried to pick the cat up, but he evaded her hands and shot out of her reach. He looked at her one last time, then prowled to the center of the driveway and sat on his haunches, looking very little like a cat and much more like a guard dog. Ella watched him for a moment, then shook her head and stepped up to the house. He had a cat door. He could get in whenever he wanted.

By the time she was inside, his strange behavior weighed on her more heavily. What if the man from Mrs. White’s shop had been here? What if he was in her house right now? Ella had never been much of a cat person until she and her mother had moved in with Aunt Patricia, so she didn’t know a ton about them, but it stood to reason that they would be good at sniffing out bad people. What if Smokey had been trying to tell her something?

Ella dropped her keys in the bowl next to the door, her eyes wide, attempting to take in the entire house at once. She snapped on the light, then walked through the front room and kitchen slowly, barely breathing, placing her feet lightly, trying to hear noises from the house. It felt empty to her, but did that mean anything?