Light Beyond the Darkness (21 page)

And they were all alone.

He looked terrible. His hair was long and tangled, and he looked as if he hadn’t shaved in months. He smelled as if he had not bathed in nearly as long. His clothing was dingy and stained. He’d become a wild animal since she saw him last. Ironic, given his hatred of shifters.

“Well, well, well,” he said as he made a slow circuit around the foyer, his gaze perusing her person in an exaggerated way. “Somebody fixed you up nice and right,” he commented. “I thought for sure that fall would kill you.”

“You pushed me,” she whispered.

Miguel nodded. “Why didn’t you die, mate? Why the hell didn’t you die?” His voice increased in volume with his agitation. Carley’s fear shot into hyperspace, as she stood in the middle of the room, her gaze tracking his movements as he paced around her, slowly. Torturously slowly.

She was a mouse, waiting for the cat to pounce. Was this how she was meant to die? Not from a fall down the stairs, but at Miguel’s hand, in the middle of the king’s home?

“Carley!” Her name was shouted breathlessly from the porch. Miguel’s head jerked around at the sound. He gave her one last malicious look, and then he bolted from the room, running toward the kitchen, just as Reid stormed through the front door.

“Carley, what is it?” he demanded as he came to a skidding halt directly in front of her. She opened her mouth to answer when Tanner burst through the door and rushed through the foyer and up the stairs. Carley and Reid both wordlessly watched him, as Finn chased after him and stopped at the bottom of the stairs.

“She’s gone,” Tanner shouted a moment later, as he returned to the top of the stairs. “There’s no one here.”

“Cecilia too?” Finn demanded, then he added, “What a stupid question. She would have spearheaded this damn plan.”

“Everyone’s gone,” Tanner confirmed.

Three shifter gazes focused on Carley.

“Where are they, Carley?”

Did he assume her fright was from the fact that Olivia, Cecilia, and Alexa left?

“The human doctors,” Finn guessed when she did not immediately answer.

Tanner spewed a string of curses as he stomped down the stairs.

“Th-they only want to heal him,” Carley stuttered.

Tanner was at the bottom of the stairs in the space of one heartbeat. He reached for Carley’s arms, but before he could do anything, Reid grabbed him. Light flashed, and Tanner was thrown across the room, crashing into the far wall with a bone-crunching sound. He growled and glared at Reid, crouching as if he intended to pounce, when Carley said, “How did you do that?”

All three gazes turned to her once again. “Do what?” Finn asked.

Carley waved at Reid. “That was lightbearer magic. You’re both shifters. How are you able to use lightbearer magic?”

Reid looked down at his hand, a confused look on his face.

Finn gave her a curious look. “Isn’t it your magic?” he asked. “I mean—that is—Cecilia shares her magic with me. It wasn’t even on purpose at first.”

Carley’s eyes grew wide, and she blurted, “That’s it. Sharing magic.”

Once again, she received that triple stare.

“The babe or pup or whatever. Maybe that’s all he needs. Olivia just needs to share her magic. Maybe that will jump-start his system,” she explained impatiently.

Tanner and Finn exchanged a look. Finn nodded. “Worth a try,” he said, speaking directly to Tanner.

Tanner nodded as hope bloomed in his glowing eyes. “Let’s go,” he said, and he and Finn turned and once again charged through the foyer, toward the kitchen and the back door. The same way Miguel went. Carley held her breath.

“You okay?” Reid asked as he reached out and touched her arm.

When she heard the back door slam closed, she said, “I want to go with them.” She did not want to be in this house right now. Not after having seen Miguel such a short time ago. Not without the protection a crowd afforded. She was not ready to find out if Reid could hold his own against Miguel. She was not ready to tell Reid about him.

“Okay. Let’s go,” Reid said easily enough, and he clasped her hand and followed Finn and Tanner’s path.

As they passed through the kitchen, she noticed Mica was there, standing at the counter, rhythmically chopping vegetables. She glanced over her shoulder as Carley and Reid hurried past and remarked, “Busy place today.”

Had she seen Miguel? Carley wanted to ask, but with Reid by her side, she didn’t dare. Besides, wouldn’t the young cook be more put out if she’d just seen a wild man run through her kitchen? Wouldn’t she have mentioned it to Tanner when he went running through?

* * * *

They caught up to the women and pup in the parking lot of the nearest human hospital. As Tanner leaped out of his truck and made a beeline for his mate, Alexa stepped into his path.

“Don’t you dare stop us, Tanner. We have to figure out what’s wrong with your pup. Why can’t you see that?”

“Magic,” he snapped, jabbing his finger at her chest. “He needs magic. Not healing. Lightbearer magic.”

Alexa’s eyes widened with comprehension at his words. “Of course,” she breathed. “That makes perfect sense. Almost like a jump-start. Like—like the mates used to give their magic to the soldiers when they went off to battle.” She grew excited as she said the words, and turned to Olivia, who was still in the backseat with the sleeping pup.

“Give him your magic,” she commanded.

Olivia blinked rapidly. “How?”

Tanner leaned over Alexa’s shoulder. “You gave me your magic,” he said. “Just do the same thing.”

Olivia’s face heated and she shook her head. “That happened during—when—I mean—” She came to a stuttering halt, took a deep breath and said, “I have no idea how I gave you my magic. I didn’t even realize I did, at first.”

Tanner turned an impatient look onto Cecilia, who had walked around the side of the truck and stood next to Finn.

“Don’t look at me,” she said. “It happened purely by accident for us too. I have no idea how to force it to happen.”

Tanner’s look went from impatient to furious when he shifted it to Carley. She hesitated. This was not a part of her life she wanted to relive.

* * * *

“Where are we going?”

“To a meeting.” Miguel’s tone was gruff, but that was normal for her mate, at least when he spoke to Carley. She’d witnessed him being nice to other lightbearers—his family, the young, pretty lightbearers who hung in his social circles—but never to her. To her, he was always short, impatient. Gruff.

“Why?”

“What? Are you five? What’s with all the damn questions?”

She stumbled as she all but ran to keep up with his longer strides. “Sorry. It just seems weird to go to a meeting at dusk. Normally, we do things like this during daylight hours.”

“This is a special meeting,” was Miguel’s only explanation.

They went to a nondescript cottage located in the woods, near the edge of the wards protecting the coterie. Carley recognized it as her distant cousin Cecilia’s parent’s home.

“I thought you said we were going to a meeting?” she commented as they walked past a wooden trellis interwoven with sweet smelling rambling rose vines. A light fixture above the door poured a circle of pale yellow light onto the concrete front step. There was no movement, no indication that others were about.

She hesitated on the doorstep. This place did not feel right. Magic was heavy in the air, but it wasn’t typical lightbearer magic. There was something…
wrong
about it. Carley could not put her finger on it, but it made her uncomfortable.

“Shut up,” Miguel muttered as he pulled open the screen door.

“I don’t want to go inside,” Carley blurted as she started to back away from the house.

Miguel grabbed her arm. “Too damn bad,” he snapped, and he dragged her through the door and into the house.

They walked briskly through a small, unimpressive living room that contained what looked like cast-off furniture and had little decor on the walls, and headed into a small, square kitchen with almost no counter space to speak of. Miguel pulled open a door and then dragged her along behind him as he trudged down a flight of stairs to the basement.

Carley hated basements. The idea of residing in a room located underground, where sunlight could not penetrate, made her shiver with dislike.

This particular basement was the type with no windows, no outside access save the flight of stairs they’d just come down. The walls and floor were concrete, giving it a cold, damp feeling.

“Is that everyone?”

Carley turned toward the sound of the voice. There were low lights in all four corners, lamps that sent a dim circle of light up to the ceiling, but that was it. She could feel her magic already leaching away. She wanted nothing more than to hurry back up the stairs into what little was left of daylight.

While the upstairs felt as though no one was around, the basement was crowded with lightbearers. Carley recognized some of them from her job as a chef at the king’s home, and others from school or just walking around the coterie. There were plenty of others she did not recognize at all. Lightbearers tended to keep to themselves, even in the small confines of the coterie.

Only one lightbearer was seated, on an old, brown, plaid easy chair that looked as if it had been produced in the 1970s. The lightbearer seated in the chair was covered with a long red cape. The hood draped over his head, obscuring most of his face. All she could see was his clean-shaven chin and his lips. She could not even see his shoes, as the cape pooled on the floor at his feet, effectively covering them.

Miguel had dragged her to these meetings before, although usually they were held aboveground, during the day, sometimes out in the woods, sometimes in various people’s houses. Luckily, she worked so often at the beach house that she was able to avoid attending on a regular basis. She disliked the propaganda they spewed at these meetings, and she hated the way Miguel grew even more cocky and superior than he already was on a daily basis.

She had no idea the meetings had been moved to a basement. Although, when the man seated on the chair, the one who called himself the Chosen One, began reiterating his beliefs that lightbearers should live free of shifters, and it was time to do something about the abomination occurring within the king’s own home, Carley supposed she could understand. There were plenty who were loyal to the king and Tanner, who had helped to bring the coterie back from the brink of bankruptcy. They would surely tell one of the guards if they overheard this propaganda.

Although she noticed there were a few guards present tonight. She wondered if she should tell Tanner what was happening. Fear of what her mate would do to her squelched that thought almost before she could form it.

On and on the Chosen One went, weaving a web of hatred around his followers, until each and every one was nodding enthusiastically, hanging on his every word. Carley spotted her own parents on the other side of the room. Her mother gave her a blinding smile. Carley scowled in return.

How could all these lightbearers really believe what this man said? Had they never met Tanner? Did they not understand that not only did he save both Olivia and Cecilia from evil shifters, but he also managed to bring their hidden little world back to financial security, whereas before he joined the family, Carley never knew whether the king’s credit would be good enough when it came time to purchase ingredients for his mate’s parties?

That was all in addition to the fact that he loved Olivia quite possibly more than he loved life itself. Considering she had never experienced that sort of love, Carley was both a little jealous and bemused by Tanner’s obvious adoration of his new mate.

When the Chosen One finally ended his sermon, the room erupted into appreciative applause, and Carley felt relief that the meeting was almost over. But then she watched as one by one, lightbearers stepped up to the hooded man, placed a hand onto his hooded head and then light flared for several seconds before each lightbearer dropped his or her hand and staggered away. Some collapsed and had to be carried away. Others acted as if they were drunk or very, very tired. She had clearly missed something during the sermon.

“What’s happening?” she whispered to Miguel, who, she noticed, was making eyes at a young, perky lightbearer on the other side of the room. Carley was tempted to tell him to go for it. Maybe their relationship would be more bearable if he was forcing himself on someone else, instead of her, night after night.

“He needs magic. Because he’s been in hiding, he’s had to use artificial means to stay alive. Now that we’re ready to act on his plans, he needs to be replenished with real lightbearer magic.”

Artificial means? Real lightbearer magic? What did Miguel mean? How could a lightbearer survive without light? None of what her mate said made any sense.

“Come on,” he said, wrapping his hand around her arm and dragging her toward the seated, hooded figure. “It’s our turn.”

“Our turn for what?” Carley asked in alarm. She could hardly stand being in the same room with that covered man; she did not want to get any closer to him. Unfortunately, Miguel was much stronger than she, and managed to deposit her directly in front of the Chosen One.

“Ah. I do not see you often at my gatherings,” the seated figure commented in a low, raspy voice. He never spoke above a whisper, at least not that Carley had ever heard.

Carley turned her head every which way, looking around the room. There were significantly fewer lightbearers now than there had been when the meeting started. Apparently, after they stepped up to the Chosen One, they were dismissed and could leave.

“Umm…I work a lot,” she said lamely.

“I am aware. Your mate is an excellent follower. He tells me
everything
.” His inflection on the word everything made her wonder. Did Miguel tell him about aspects of their relationship that should be kept personal?

“I look forward to tasting your magic for the first time,” the Chosen One said. He lifted his arm. Carley shrank away from him, but Miguel stood behind her, keeping her from moving too far away.