Sacrifice of Love (36 page)

Sally wanted to tell him no, she wanted to tell him to live, to find love again but she was out of time. She saw his incredibly handsome face move closer and caught his scent just as death took her.

Costin gathered her into his arms as the force that had been holding him in place let go. He wanted to scream, to maim, and kill. Most of all, he wanted his mate back. He buried his face in her neck and breathed deeply, taking her scent deep in his lungs. His chest ached as he tried to hold himself together and when he heard Jacque’s hysterical screams he nearly lost it. He knew she would want to see her friend and would want to hold her, but he wasn’t ready to let her go, couldn’t let her go, not yet, and maybe not ever. His time with her had been so very short. There was still so much they hadn’t experienced together and so many things left to do and say, and yet one little pill and the evil heart of one man had ripped her from him.

Jacque couldn’t believe what had just happened. In fact, she was waiting for herself to wake up and for all of this to be some horrific dream that she could tell the girls about over hot chocolate. But there would be no more hot chocolate, not without Sally, not ever again. She watched as Costin rocked her best friend in his arms and her heart broke right along with his. She felt Fane’s arms come around her and even without the bond she felt his love engulf her and knew that he ached for her and would take all of her pain if he could. Her mind flashed to Jen and she felt tears well up in her eyes. This would break Jen. Sally may have meant the world to her, but Jen had a different sort of bond with Sally. Jacque didn’t even know if Jen was aware of it, but Sally was what kept Jen grounded. Sally was to Jen what a tornado shelter was to those who needed a safe place to run to in the storms of life and now she was gone. Jacque felt her knees go weak and knew that if Fane’s arms hadn’t been around her, she would have crumbled to the ground like a house of cards. She heard Fane’s voice in her ear, but she couldn’t discern what he was saying. Her mind was too much of a mess. Her heart hurt for the death of her mother-in-law, but something inside of her died right along with Sally and she didn’t know if it would ever live again.

“We must continue,” Decebel finally spoke up. “I mourn the death of our little healer, but there are the others who still need us and we must find the strength to go on.”

“I can’t leave her,” Costin’s voice was hoarse and he sounded completely defeated.

“She won’t be alone,” Jacque spoke up, “I will stay with her.”

“Jacquelyn,” Fane began, but was cut off when she pushed away from him whipping around at the same time to face him.

“I’m staying Fane. I won’t leave her here in this forsaken place alone. You all go on and finish this and kill that bastard who took from me what is mine! Then you come back for us.” Jacque’s jaw was set and it was obvious that it would take an army to get her away from Sally. She walked over to Costin and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Costin, I’ve got her, honey. I’ll watch her. You go and do what you know she would want you to.” She waited silently for him to respond to her.

He nodded his head and kissed Sally one more time. Jacque sat down and opened her arms for him to lay Sally’s head in her lap. He did so gently and then looked into Jacque’s eyes with his glowing ones. “Thank you,” he told her simply. Jacque bit the inside of her cheek to keep from sobbing. She gave him a short nod. As he stepped away Fane replaced him and knelt down in front of her.

“I love you,” he told her, “you have no idea how hard it is for me to leave you here.”

“Yes I do,” she said, “but part of loving each other is letting go when we have to. I’ll be here waiting for you. I love you, Fane Lupei.”

He leaned forward and kissed her being careful of Sally’s still form, and then stood. Jacque watched as they began to move back into the forest. Peri was still standing there after everyone else had already moved on. Jacque looked up at the fae and saw that Peri had tears running down her cheeks. She didn’t know if she could remember a time Peri had ever cried, at least not in front of her.

“She shouldn’t have done it,” Peri said. “Not for me.”

“You know her well enough to know that she wouldn’t let a fly die for her, not if she could stop it,” Jacque said.

“I should have been able to stop him. I should have been able to stop this.”

“Peri,” Jacque nearly growled, “you are not all powerful. You can’t prevent the death of every person you love, no matter how badly you want to.”

“Perhaps not, but I can sure as hell die trying.”

She was gone before Jacque could reply.

“Houston, we have a problem,” Jen said breathlessly.

Cynthia stood up from where she had been sitting at the entrance to the cave. She walked back to where Jen was pacing. “What’s wrong?” she asked while taking in Jen’s flushed skin and rapid breathing. “Crap, you’re in labor,” she answered her own question.

“What gave it away? The,
I’m in terrible pain,
look, or the,
I’m scared as hell and don’t think I’m ready for this,
look?” Jen asked dryly as she tried to breathe through the next contraction. She gritted her teeth and braced herself on the cave wall as her stomach cramped down. She swore that her child was trying to claw her way out instead of going the traditional route. “I guess we don’t have to worry about that C-section, huh doc?” Jen growled.

“How far apart are the contractions?” Cynthia asked as she went over to the box that contained the blankets. She began making a pallet for Jen to lie on.

“Not freaking far enough,” Jen growled.

Cynthia watched her for a little while as she helped her walk slowly around the cave with Jen cussing her all the while. She determined that the contractions were around six to seven minutes apart; so they still had some time.

“Well, look on the bright side,” Jen said after a particularly difficult contraction, “at least you don’t have to filet me.”

Cynthia didn’t smile. “We aren’t out of the woods yet.”

“Pun intended?” Jen tried to smile but it came out more of a grimace.

“I’d like to say that I’m feeling that clever right now, but honestly Jen, I’m just hoping I remember everything I need to about delivering a baby. I haven’t done it since med school.”

“Uh, doc, you aren’t inspiring a whole lot of confidence here.”

“I’m going for honesty.”

Jen let out a huff of laughter. “Of all the times, you go for honesty. Remind me to teach you when it’s appropriate to lie which is in nearly all stressful situations, by the way.”

“I’ll remember you said that.”

“Tombstone,” Jen grinned at the doctor.

“Is there any movie you
haven’t
seen?” Cynthia asked.

“Doc, we’re from Coldspring, TX,” Jen said just as another contraction began.

“Point made.”

Chapter 23

“Have we been foolish to believe that we could win? Have we been so vain to think that we were powerful enough to defeat evil and walk away with no casualties? We have been fools. We have walked into the lions’ den. Instead of respecting the danger the beast possessed, we believed ourselves to be invincible.” ~Peri

“Do you remember the first time we shaved our legs?” Jacque asked Sally, though she knew she wouldn’t, couldn’t answer. “We were eleven and Jen had told us that she refused to be seen with hairy beasts and if we wanted to remain her friends then we would have to become Schic chicks. You had asked her what the crap a Schic chick was and she had tossed a pack of disposable razors at us and then refused to let us out of the bathroom until we had shaved. I don’t think I had ever seen you that mad. You were as pissed as a wet cat.” Jacque laughed out loud. “Jen had asked you what the big deal was and you had told her that it should be your decision when you were ready to shave your legs and then Jen had told you that anything related to beauty was always to be deferred to her. I swear I thought she was going to shave your legs for you.” She ran her fingers through Sally’s brown hair as she looked out into the dark forest. Her mind wandered back to happier times.

Jacque felt the tears as they slowly slipped down her cheeks. She wondered if she would ever be able to smile again, and if so, how? She thought about the other girls and about her mom.
Oh crap, my mom. Please don’t let my mom die
, she told the Great Luna.
Please, I don’t think I can handle losing her.
Jacque squeezed her eyes closed and leaned her head down until her forehead touched Sally’s. She was still warm, though not as warm as someone whose heart still beat, but warm enough to know that her life had only just been taken.

“I’m so sorry, Sal. I’m so sorry this happened to you,” she wept. She wept for her friend; she wept for Alina and for Vasile and Costin. She wept for Jen who didn’t know about the deaths. And she wept for the loss she knew was yet to come. She wondered if it was possible to die of pain, to die from too much loss, and as the sobs wracked her body, she decided that it just might be a possibility.

“So we know that Reyaz has rigged this so that one of the females will sacrifice themselves for us,” Sorin growled, “and there isn’t a damn thing we can do to stop it.”

The group paused as the wolves took in deep breaths, trying to catch the scent of any of the four females still hidden.

“There has to be a way to stop him. There has to be a way to protect ourselves so the females don’t feel they have to make the sacrifice,” Adam spoke up as he pulled Crina close to his side. She had tears glistening in her eyes and he rubbed circles on her back, attempting to comfort her.

Peri flashed to where they had stopped and pulled the fae stones from her pocket. “We might have a way to do just that.”

Alston stepped next to her. “They show up now? Why not two deaths ago,” he nearly yelled. Peri saw that it hurt him nearly as much as it hurt her to lose those under their protection.

“You know I don’t know the answer to that,” she snapped back, “and asking questions like that isn’t going to bring them back.”

“Elle and Lilly are that way,” Sorin said and his eyes narrowed in the direction he pointed. Part of him wanted to take off in a dead sprint, to get to his mate as quickly as possible, but a part of him was terrified of getting too close and having her put in a position where she felt she had to sacrifice herself for him or anyone else.

“Thank goodness one of you has come to his senses and isn’t running off after his mate without a freaking thought in the world,” Peri grumbled as she handed out the fae stones; one to Cyn, one to Alston, one to Adam, one for herself and the fifth she gave to Thalion. She would have preferred to have a healer to give it to, but Vasile hadn’t wanted Rachel to come, and well, the other healer wasn’t available either, but she didn’t want to think about that.

“Okay, so here’s the plan. We’re going to cast a protection spell with the stones, one that causes us to be invisible. Even Elle and Lilly won’t be able to see us. So once we see them, well, we’ll figure that part out once we get there. Everyone with a stone get in a circle and everyone else get inside of the circle. We have to move as one.” Peri looked at Sorin and then at Cypher. “You two Neanderthals do not go charging in after you women. I swear I will zap your asses if you do.”

Once everyone was in position, Peri looked at Alston and gave a slight nod. They both began chanting softly until the stones began glowing.  Eventually, they shimmered and their outlines grew fuzzy, though they could still see each other.

“Okay, we’re good. No one else should be able to see us. Sorin, point the way,” Peri told him.

They moved quickly and silently through the heavily wooded area. Soon they saw the two women when they were half a mile away. They also saw the cliff that they precariously stood on.

“What the hell?” Cypher said with wide eyes. “How is there a cliff in the middle of a forest that has been well-nigh without a hill?”

Peri narrowed her eyes and sought out the truth of the forest, the truth of what she knew. There had never been a cliff in the dark forest. There wasn’t so much as a mole hill. When she believed that with everything inside of her, she saw the truth. Lilly and Elle weren’t on a cliff at all; they were just on the forest ground with trees around them, just as the group was.