Chapter 75
Beryl:
I had gone in search of Nicholas, wanting to finally put to rest whatever it was that had come between us. The baby was going to be here soon, and I didn’t want whatever this was to dampen the happiness of our impending child.
As I had wandered the grounds looking for him, I had run into one of the dissenting pack members who had lingered after another discussion with Armand and Solomon. He looked at me, with a smirk and asked if I was alright.
“Yes, I’m fine thank you. Just looking for my mate.” I smiled politely, not showing my distrust in him. He nodded and replied, “I saw him just a moment ago, he in the garden. He might be a bit busy though.” He chuckled a bit, which confused me, but I thanked him and went on my way.
As I walked towards the garden, I began to feel uneasy. What had he meant, he might be busy? What could Nicholas possibly be doing in the garden that had him busy?
I pushed through the door to the terrace that lead out to the garden, still pondering my brief encounter with the mistrustful pack member. I stopped in my tracks as the door clicked closed behind me.
Nicholas was there, but he wasn’t alone. He was wrapped around someone, Clara, the female member of the dissenting pack. My mind went blank for a moment, and then I gasped, realizing what I was seeing.
Nicholas turned and saw me, "Beryl," he stammered, pulling away from Clara, who tried to maintain her grasp on him. "I can explain..."
But I didn’t wait to hear what he had to say. I turned and went back through the door and ran blindly away from the pain that was washing over me.
Nicholas:
I searched for Beryl for hours, looking in all of her favorite places; the grove in the woods, the library, her old bedroom in the mansion. She was nowhere to be found. Frustrated, I slumped into a chair in the foyer, head in my hands.
While I was trying to think of where to look next, I heard a commotion coming towards me. I looked up to see my father, brothers, and Solomon all rushing my way, their guards in tow.
Cheney spoke quickly, “The vampires are attacking on the northern border, we’re heading there now.” I was on my feet and moving with them, thoughts of finding my mate pushed to the back of my mind.
As we rushed to the northern border to help fight off the attack, our pack and the other allied packs joined rank around us. It was a small comfort to me, in the frazzled state of mind I was in, to know that we had such overwhelming support.
We reached the border and were met with a frenzy of activity. Snarls and growls were erupting around us but were dwindling even as we entered the fray. Shouts of triumph were ringing in my ears and we took in the sight before us.
There had been plenty of bloodshed, but from what I could see, it had been mostly from the vampires. Dead, or dying vampires were lying scattered on the ground. Our forces were fortified with the addition of our new allies, and it showed here.
Armand and the border guards were talking, and I walked forward to join them. “We’ve caught one of them. He’s hurt, but he’s well enough to talk.” The guard was grinning at Armand, who clapped him on the shoulder in a congratulatory gesture.
“That’s perfect. Take him to the dungeon, and I’ll meet you there shortly. We’ll see what he has to say.” Armand was grinning now too, taking in the sight of the battle. None of our pack were seriously hurt, which was a blessing from the moon goddess herself.
The interrogation of the vampire was intense. The fury of Armand rained down on the soulless creature, and a flurry of questions were asked. After what seemed like hours, though, he was finally spilling his secrets.
It seemed that we had been lucky enough to have ensnared a higher ranking general among the vampire ranks, one who knew things that were beneficial to us.
We learned, to our surprise, that Amy was indeed feeding them information, in exchange for her freedom. A break out attempt was planned and was to be executed soon, a desperate plan fueled by her dark magic.
The bloodied vampire had been clear about Amy’s connection and her role in the attacks, but when asked about the dissenting pack, his responses became muddied.
“You, you can’t, I won’t...” He stammerd, on more than one occasion. It was like he was trying to tell us something, but he couldn’t. A thought occurred to me, then.
“The dark magic... could it be at work here? Could Amy be using it to block him from speaking?” I looked around at the group gathered here for the interrogation.
Cheney and Brian, my brothers, and my partners in the mating bond with Beryl, had refused to look me in the eye for days, but Cheney looked at me briefly now.
He seemed to be putting pieces together in his mind as he watched me pace behind the slumped and stammering vampire. “He might be on to something...” He spoke to the room, still watching me.
“We need to bring Beryl down here.” He said, turning to Armand. “She’s been working on her magic skills and she’ll be able to see if there’s dark magic at play.” He turned to me again. “She needs to look at you too, I think.”
I was confused for a moment, all eyes on me. “What? Why?” Brian ducked his head, still unable to look at me, but Cheney spoke up again.
“Because you’ve been such a bastard. More so than usual.” His face was hard, angry. He knew about my indiscretions, and he held them against me, but he was pondering something, I could tell.
“What does that have to do with Beryl’s magic?” I still hadn’t caught up to his train of thought. But as I said it, the pieces began to fall into place.
“Wait... my reactions to Clara. They were foggy and confusing. What if...” Cheney was nodding now, and Brian looked up at me, for the first time in weeks. His face was calculating, thoughtful, but I could still see anger there.
Armand spoke up, catching on to what we were saying. “Do you think she would be up to coming down here? I know she’s been struggling with the pregnancy and wasn’t feeling well earlier.”
“You saw her earlier?” I perked up at this, thinking maybe he knew where she’d been hiding. “I did. She seemed to be in a hurry. I ran into her outside the library. She said she had an urgent session with the moon goddess. She looked a bit frazzled and out of sorts.”
“Library? Are you sure?” I had combed the library, twice to be sure, and hadn’t found her. “Yes, she was going in as I was walking by.”
Brian took a step forward, answering the question on my face. “She’s made herself a secret little cubby area in the library. She naps there and has daily sessions with the moon goddess. It’s hidden away so she won’t be disturbed.”
What all else didn’t I know about my mate? How long had I been so out of touch with my family? “We’ll go and find her, now.” I looked to my brothers for confirmation, and they were both nodding. I knew I was going to need their support to get through the tough conversations ahead.
