Forever Our Ever (28 page)

“I have no way to know that. It could be that her power got stronger when you turned her. It could have been the dramatic changes to her gene structure. It might just be that she died and was brought back under a strong moon. Somewhere along the line, nature helped her and made her more powerful. During the two most physically trying times, she was outside, first with the babies and then with you, Kris. Ever had already been drawn into the undercurrent of wildness by Carmen’s original bite. Of course, she wouldn’t be the first person on earth to discover that she had abilities which had never been tapped.” He shoved back a strand of his hair that had fallen forward. “I have to admit, though, that she is far stronger than I ever imagined. She may ever be gaining more power as she becomes healthier. It should have wiped her out to build such a strong shield, but it didn’t weaken her in the least. I have to wonder what else she can do. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to find out right now.”

“How strong is Tella?” asked Kris.

“I have heard that the woman is into and controls a good amount of black magic. I was thinking on the way up here that even the babies cannot be trusted, if they are under her spell.”

“What if they are?” asked Ever. “Can we undo it and get them back?”

“I hope so.”

It was a conversation that ended when Charity ran out of the trees. She looked befuddled, the oversized shirt sliding down one shoulder. As she got closer to the car, she shouted. “We have to go. Get back in the car.”

Demetri and Kris ran around to get in the other side as Ever and Liam slid back into the backseat. Kris started the car as Charity got in. “Go up to the next exit and take a right at the end of it. The house is about half a mile down and they were packing the car when I flew over. We have to get there now!”

Kris checked the rearview mirror and then floored the gas, racing out onto the highway. He took the exit at breakneck speed and barely slowed enough to check for oncoming traffic as he slid the car to the right and sped down the road. “The next driveway on the right, turn into it.”

Ever wondered if they were being slightly rash. They had no idea what they were driving into or even how many people were present. “How many people live at this house? Are they witches, or normal humans that we have no reason to harm?”

“From what my son said, he thinks they are comrades of Tella, probably into some kind of black magic.”

“He didn’t happen to mention if they are armed, did he? What if we are driving into a fortress of survivalists who are going to blast us full of bullet holes and use us for fertilizer in their garden?”

Kris slammed on the brakes, turning to glare at her. “What the hell made you think of that?”

“I don’t know, maybe the vision of sub-machineguns that just flashed in my brain.”

Kris put the car in reverse and backed down the driveway. Obviously, he wasn’t taking her possible premonition lightly. “So what do we do now?”

“I don’t know, but driving up to the house to confront them is a bad idea. We have to wait for them to leave so we can catch them alone. I think Tella and Silva are also armed. Will a shield hold up to gunfire, Demetri?”

“It should. You have to remember not to get distracted, though. You have to keep your mind on what you are doing.”

“Will it hold up to a car?”

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I stand at the end of the driveway and let them hit me. They will probably floor it with the assumption that they will go through me, and it won’t happen.”

“Absolutely not!” growled Kris. “I won’t have you putting yourself in danger like that.”

“What option do we have? We can’t run them off the road and chance exposing the babies to gunfire. I’m hoping they have them in car seats. There is no legal recourse because they don’t have birth certificates to even verify that we are the parents. Or do they?”

“No. They haven’t been made up yet.”

“Tell me if you have a better idea that won’t get us all killed, Kris. Wolves are not immune to gunfire.”

Demetri took her hand. “I will stand with you. I can let you feed off my power to double your own. I believe it will stop a car just like a thrown punch.”

She gestured her hand toward the door and Demetri got out. Kris got out with them. “You can’t do this, Ever.”

“I can do this and I will do it. I want my babies away from that monster as soon as possible. Please get the car out of sight. This is as good a spot as any. They can’t veer off to the side because of the trees.” She put her palm to his cheek. “Please, you have to believe that I can do this.”

“I’m trying.” Tilting his head down, he inhaled deeply and then looked back at her. Ever saw the terror clearly written in his eyes. “Okay. I know there are other ways, but they will all take time. We may not have time. I love you and know that I will die with you if anything happens.”

“I love you also.” She wasn’t sure what else to say. To stand and fight with him about his future was not how she wanted their final moments together. She didn’t intend to die, but if she did, then there was little that she could do about Kris’s actions anyway. Ever drew him into a kiss and then quickly released him. “Go move the car, please.” She turned to Demetri. “Will she know who or what you are?”

“Yes and no. If she recognizes me, which she probably won’t, then she will think that I’m simply the shopkeeper of the emporium. I have never revealed my true nature to Tella, and I keep it cloaked whenever I’m at the store. There are many people out there who are better off not knowing what we are. I have yet to teach you how to cloak your magic when out in public, but I will.”

Ever chuckled. She had not so long ago been appalled by the idea that she would be secluded at the house on clan property. Now the only thing she wanted was to get back there safely.

* * * *

They stood in silence, hand in hand in the middle of the somewhat narrow driveway. She knew that the others were out of sight, hiding in the trees nearby, but her only thoughts were on the sight ahead of her. Ever was drawing power from every source she could, her third eye in the center of her forehead tingling sharply as the sense of her conscious mind became more focused. Her handhold on Demetri’s palm was locked tight, their fingers intertwined so the extension of flesh seemed more like a part of her than a separate entity. Ever inhaled a deep, calming breath as she saw the first glint of the car in the distance. It was coming, for better or worse. Everything was on the final line of life and death, death for herself and Demetri, versus emotional death and a lifetime of slavery for her two baby boys.

She threw a final glance at Demetri as the car became clearer, the paint glinting in the sun. She was terrified, but Demetri had his eyes closed, his body and power completely at her disposal. The car was gaining speed, moving faster, becoming clearer, the front bumper catching in the sun so it looked like a silver smile on a piranha’s face. She could see that Tella was driving, her face filled with fury as she looked Ever directly in the eyes.

She searched for the children, their tiny faces in the backseat, bleak looking and lifeless. For a moment, she registered that their expressions belonged to a person who was hypnotized, under another’s control, and then she blocked everything from her mind, taking all the power that she had access to and throwing it up around herself and Demetri. In her mind, she was a rock wall, a tall, unmovable structure.

Seren stood up and waved at her.

A child’s cry drew her mind back to reality. Something was wiggling in her arms and Ever looked down at it. It was Seren, his face cut and bleeding, blood in his short crop of hair. Ever cautiously laid him to the driveway, her hand going to his head as she tried to focus her mind on his injuries. He was cut badly, but the sense of broken or shattered bone was not present. Ever flowed what little energy she had left into the wounds, pulling the skin back together, reforming the tiny cells that made up his delicate flesh. She moved her hand to his face, drawing out the tiny shards of glass and sealing up the injuries. He had stopped crying as she flowed her palm over the rest of his body, trying to feel or sense for anything she couldn’t see. There seemed to be nothing else and she opened her eyes, bringing her mind back into the realm of the living.

Ever sat back on her heels, looking around. Demetri lay crumbled to the ground in front of the ruin of the car. Tella’s head had been driven through the windshield, probably breaking the glass, which had made Seren’s exit easier. The woman was definitely dead. That’s what she deserved for not wearing her seat belt or putting her son in a baby seat.

Kris slid to his knees before her, lifting the child. “Are you okay?”

“I think so. Where is Lash?”

“Liam is getting him. He was in a car seat. Seren must have gotten out of his.” He looked down at the child in his arms, stroking back his matted hair to look into his tiny face. “Is he okay?”

“I think so. Is Demetri okay?”

“He’s fine. I guess you knocked him for a loop when you took his power. He said it will take him a few minutes to draw some energy back into his body to get up.”

Ever nodded, but didn’t feel much like getting up herself. She looked at her child proudly. “It’s weird, but I was actually able to sense his bone structure. I could feel all of his organs and knew that they were not injured. I was worried about his skull and his neck, but they feel solid and unharmed. Your son has a really hard head.”

Kris laughed as he pulled the child to his chest and kissed his head. Ever saw the tears in his eyes as he dragged her into the embrace. Someone touched her head and she looked up to Liam standing with Lash in his arms. The child appeared unharmed, but his expression was blank.

“He doesn’t seem to know me,” said Liam in a heart-wrenching tone.

“It’s okay. We will fix it. The most important thing is that we have them back. Any idea what happened to Silva?”

“I can answer that,” replied Charity. “My son said that they put his body through the wood chipper last night. I guess that Tella was done with him.”

Ever saw the very attractive young man standing at Charity’s side and smiled. “I think we had better get the hell out of here before someone comes to find out what the crash was about.”

Kris got to his feet and nodded. He handed Seren to Liam and went to lift Demetri off the pavement. They quickly returned to the car and got it heading back to the highway as fast as possible.

As they sped down the interstate, Ever asked, “How the hell did I end up holding Seren? The last thing I remember is him standing up and waving to me.”

“Believe it or not, you caught him in midair as he flew over the hood of the car. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Well…amazing after seeing two people hit by a speeding car that crumbled as if it had slammed into a mountain rather than a person,” said Charity’s son, who had taken a place in the back of the SUV with Demetri. Ever and Liam had buckled the two babies between them and sat with their arms across the children’s chests. It was not ideal by any means, but they needed to get away from Roxbury before they worried about car seats. Then they would stop and buy some.

Ever didn’t remember catching Seren, she only remembered the moment of terror that her child was standing up between the seats. It was too late to do anything about it. The shield was already up and the car was too close.

Tella had done just as Ever thought and had given it gas, thinking that she would hit the two people and send them to their graves. She had a feeling that Tella wouldn’t have even stopped, she would have simply flipped open her cell phone and called for a body pickup.

What a morbid thought that was…a funeral via wood chipper.

Kris sat in the head chair with Ever at his side. “I have called this meeting to see if anyone knows anything about the fact that this clan and all were clans seem to hate shifters. I hated them and I have no idea why, besides that I was taught to hate them just as my father was. What happened five hundred years ago that inspired such widespread hate?”

An elderly man approached the podium and stepped up onto it. Ever wondered who he was as Kris took her hand. “I know what my grandfather told me, and it has always struck me as a ridiculous thing, but I was taught never to disrespect the words of my elders, as most of us have been.”

“I was taught the same thing,” replied Kris. “But there is a difference between respect and complete obedience. What did he tell you?”

“May I have a chair to sit upon, and then I will relay the story to the council?”

Kris got up personally and moved one of the lower chairs down a step so the man could sit upon it. He then moved the other two on an angle so he and Ever could see the man’s face as he was talking. The clan members who had gathered, Ever counted seventeen of them, all took a seat upon the grass.

She turned to Kris. “Who is he?”

“His name is Sebum Addery. He is said to be over two hundred years old and his family was one of the founders of this clan.”

Sebum cleared his throat and looked at them pointedly. He had very clear eyes for a man of his years. “When I was a child, my father told me a very sad tale of rejection and love. I have seen many movies over the years about this very thing and each time, I think of our hatred for shifters. Five hundred or so years ago, a young alpha were named Rolla was running through the forest as a wolf. He came across a young female wolf named Lunar, and they immediately formed a bond. They soon discovered that both could take human form, but didn’t know they were actually two different kinds of nature’s creatures. The female was in heat and the two made feverish love, lying in the tall grass for hours afterward to enjoy each other’s company. Every day for over a month, they met up in the same spot in the forest, running as wolves or playing as humans. Their love matured into a deep emotional state, and as the children grew in her belly, so did Rolla’s love for them. Then one day, Lunar did not come. Rolla waited until the fall of the sun and then sadly went home. This went on for a week, and with each passing day, his anger and his worry grew.