The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) (38 page)

Jes didn’t know what was inside,
but Dara smiled, and then left the room, saying she was going to
share it with Dracon.

Mira frowned at Mia, and Mia
grinned. “It was just something they’re learning to put together at
the lab for the vamps.”

“
Nothing harmful, I hope,” Mira
teased.

Jes almost choked.

Mira laughed. “Sorry. I guess that
was a bad joke, considering the vaccines the labs have come up
with.”

Mia laughed. Her honey-colored
curls bounced with her movements. Her skin seemed to glow from
within. She always had a ready smile.

Jes wondered, and not for the first
time, how she did that. How she always seemed filled with such
happiness, when everything she had loved had been stolen from her
as a child.

She had spent years growing up
without her parents, and had to also spend most of that time
without her sisters—or the brother she loved so much.

She’d had to spend all of her time
training for a war that she had been taught would come one day, and
she had followed that belief without hesitation—never questioning
the validity of
the
prophecy
—or the part they were to play in
it.

And yet, she always came in like a
ray of sunshine—unfailingly believing in good.

Jes wished she had such faith that
good would prevail.

On top of that, Mia always laughed
and joked with the Sisters of Three, pulling them out of the stupor
that inevitably fell throughout the room as the minutes, hours, and
days ticked by with agonizing slowness. She took the sting out of
the day for a few minutes, and made the next hours seem somehow
lighter.

Everyone loved Mia.

Today was no different. She
sidetracked Mira and Jes until Dara returned, catching them up on
the rumors that were floating around the city and telling them
about what both of her sisters were up to.

But today, something
was
different. The
feeling that had been building in Jes, the one that had started as
just a nagging feeling that they needed to watch over
Mia—
was back—and much stronger
today.

Jes tried to shake away the
feeling as Mia talked, but it wouldn’t go away. Who would want to
hurt Mia? No one would want to hurt Mia. She was the one who
lightened the burden of anyone who needed it, even if they
didn’t
deserve
it.

In Mia’s mind—just as when she had
brought the storms—when the storm had passed and the sun came out
again, everything was always fresh and new. So, too, Mia believed
that every day was a chance for making each new day a better day—a
new chance to begin again.

Jes thought that if human angels
existed—Mia was one.

Mia joined them there on the floor,
now, as they began their usual circle work. She chanted with them
for over an hour, helping raise the vibrations, watching for
enemies who would try to sneak into the city while determined only
to bring harm. Her open heart brought a quiet strength to the
circle, which could be felt by all. They welcomed her there with
open arms. And she frequently stopped by to help.

And then, she left to do her usual
training in the late afternoon.

But Jes couldn’t concentrate on
finding the vampires. She had a hard time caring where they were—at
the moment—when she was worried about the woman who had been her
best friend as a child, and never stopped being her best friend,
even when they had spent all those years apart.

She could only follow Mia in her
heart and thoughts—willing her safety.

And somehow knowing—it wouldn’t do
any good.

Hours passed and Jes had been
unable to shake the darkening feeling that was quickly pervading
her every thought and feeling. Finally, she asked a guard to send a
message for Justice.

She’d decided to send the
note—instead of contacting Justice directly in her mind—because she
knew he wouldn’t give her the opportunity to explain anything
before he sounded the alarm.

And Jes had a feeling that
sounding the alarm was the
last
thing
they wanted to do.

When the guard had gone, she waited
for the feeling to let up, but a couple more hours had passed, and
the feeling was worse than ever.

Mira and Dara had noticed right
away that her thoughts were not on what she was doing. At first,
they had left her alone about it. After all, none of them had been
in the best of moods of late, locked up like they were every night,
hunting the vamps with their minds.

But it wasn’t been long before
Mira’d had enough and demanded to know what was plaguing Jes. Dara
watched her, with darkening intensity, and Jes spilled her worries
out in a rush of words, close to tears.

After that, the Sisters of Three
tried to track Mia’s movements, instead of the vamps’. But it
wasn’t long before they lost her. They chalked it up to her skills;
after all, they would have all been highly disappointed if a
warrioress as skilled as Mia could be easily tracked—even by the
Sisters of Three.

But as the feeling that something
was horribly wrong intensified in Jes, Dara and Mira both began to
fret as well. They felt helpless to do anything, caught as they
were in the room, so they got the Book of Shadows out and began
looking for spells to help pool the protection around
Mia.

When Justice didn’t show after
nearly another hour, they knew they had to do more.

It was then that they used the
invisibility cloak they had been practicing since Mia had begun
teaching it to Jes. It might not work on Constantine again, but it
would work well enough to find out what was going on around
their
own home
—and in the surrounding compounds.

First, they checked on the
guard.

The sisters had spied on him for
nearly thirty minutes before they got their first clue as to why
Justice hadn’t appeared.

He was sitting in a chair near
their door. For a long time, he just sat there, hardly moving. That
wasn’t new to the sisters; the guards were highly trained. But
then, he did something unusual.

He must have felt uncomfortable,
since they
were
in fact watching him, though they had been trying very
hard
not
to stare
at him—so as to not cause him to feel their eyes upon him. But then
he lost his concentration enough to reach into his pocket—perhaps
to assure himself that something was there.

It was then that he pulled out the
note that Jes had given him. He grinned, sniffing the note. Jes
stared. It was the one he was supposed to have delivered to
Justice.

Jes immediately reached out in her
mind for Justice and Dracon. She felt Dara do the same, and she
berated herself for not doing so in the first place.

She quickly tried to tell Justice
not to sound an alarm but to come straight to her, but of course
she had no sooner sent him the message than she saw the lights
flash and, within three seconds, heard the whistle.

The guard stood immediately, and
Dara grabbed a vase. He had just a split second to look at the
floating vase in complete surprise —before Dara knocked him out
with it. Jes reached out to touch him to feel for a
pulse.

“
Do you think he had time to sound
an alarm to whoever it was he was working for?” Mira
demanded.

Dara shook her head. “I don’t think
so, but I can’t be sure.”

By that time, Justice and Dracon
were running down the hallway toward them. The three sisters all
began talking at once. Mira and Dara took a deep breath, and Jes
quickly explained what had taken place.

“
Do you think anyone else on the
compound was working with him?” Dracon demanded to no one in
particular.

It was what they were all thinking.
He was just the one who voiced it.

Justice was already busy trying to
locate Mia. Other guards were approaching, but now the men didn’t
know which of them they could trust. The sisters heard Dracon speak
in their minds to not say anything, and then they heard him speak
to Conrad, who was also approaching them.

Conrad ordered the guards to return
to their posts, and he and Dracon picked up the unconscious guard
and disappeared, Dracon still giving orders to the sisters as he
left.

The sisters quickly disappeared
into their room and began to chant, increasing the protection of
the circle.

Within moments, Amar appeared in a
puff of smoke.

It was the first time Jes had seen
her appear like this, and she couldn’t stop the look of amazement
that must have crossed her face.

Mira didn’t look at all surprised,
but said instead, “I called her,” as if that answered everything.
And Dara’s face was, as usual, encased in a mask that betrayed none
of her feelings.

Amar walked straight to the Book of
Shadows and opened it to the page that she sought. The sisters
joined her, looking down to see what she had revealed.

She had opened it to a page
entitled “to call a lost witch”.

A thousand questions entered Jes’s
mind, but it was clear that no time was left for answers, so she
just followed along as she and her sisters quickly joined hands and
began to read the chant:

We call a witch across time and
space

We call a witch to take her
place

We call a witch, we beckon
thee

Come to your place by the Sisters
of Three
!

Jes didn’t know what amazed her
more—
what
she was
reading out loud—or
who
suddenly appeared in the circle before
them.

Chapter
Forty-Four

Justice

Jes was reaching for the
dagger
on her hip, even as Mira was doing
the same, and Dara nearly lunged at the creature that now stood
before them. Amar had to step in front of all three of her
granddaughters and, with quiet authority, stay their
hands.

The witch, who was fully covered in
body armor, complete with sword—which, by the way, was in her
hand—did not look any happier than the Sisters of Three had been,
and Amar had all she could do to control the four of them—before
someone got hurt.

She finally said, “Enough!” And the
shock of her voice reverberated off the walls and shook the room.
That was when the three sisters knew the power of their
grandmother.

The witch seemed neither surprised
nor perturbed with Amar.

“
Why did you bring me here, old
woman!” she demanded of Amar, without taking her eyes off the
sisters. Nor did she lower her sword.

Amar gave her a gentle laugh.
“Morgi,” she said, evoking a snarl from the witch, “meet your
granddaughters—a world or so removed, of course.”

Jes choked. She stared at Amar.
“Are you telling me—we called a witch—
from
another planet
!”

The witch laughed. Jes couldn’t
help but notice just how beautiful she was. She was perfect. She
had lovely, curly red hair, and the most beautiful, ivory skin Jes
had ever seen.

“
Well, now,” the woman laughed,
“you didn’t tell them
who
they were calling?”

Amar just smiled at her, then
looked back at Jes. “I said a couple
of
worlds
removed. I didn’t say another
planet. Morgi is from the Land of the Fae.”

“
Oh,” Jes said. She knew she
looked as disappointed as she felt. “Well, you could have just said
that, Amar.”

Morgi laughed. “She loves messing
with me,” she said. “Didn’t the red hair and green eyes give you a
clue?”

Jes just shrugged, putting away her
dagger. She noticed that Morgi had finally sheathed her sword as
well.

“
So why
did
you all summon me?” she asked,
looking at the four of them expectantly.

“
Our daughters need some help
dealing with a very old enemy,” she said.

Morgi actually looked excited to
hear this. “Don’t tell me—
Constantine
?”

Amar nodded. “
The very one
.”

Morgi giggled. She sounded like a
schoolgirl in that moment—and it clashed severely with her battle
garb—and the fierce look in her eyes. Now, all three of the sisters
were staring at her—like she had lost her mind.

They looked to Amar for an
explanation.

“
She—knows
Constantine.”

Dara raised a brow.
“
You think
?” She
pinned Amar with a sharp look. “The question is
how
she knows
him—
and why
?”

Jes groaned. She didn’t
want to know
the details
to
exactly
how
Morgi knew him—
or knows
him—
she wrinkled her nose at the thought.
Jes stared at the woman. Morgi’s flushed face said it all. She
waved a hand at Morgi in exasperation. “Well—then, isn’t it obvious
that she isn’t going to want to do anything against
him?”