Virgins and Vampires: Blood Falls (The Blood Falls Book 3)
Virgins and Vampires: Chapter 32

My mother was a mess. Understandably. Not only was her only sister dead, but she was a big old traitor. Mom had the hardest time reconciling the smiling, bubbly female who bounced in and out of our lives without a care in the world, with the female who chose to worship at the feet of Rhine and twist herself into a banshee.

I had to admit it hurt my brain too. The sting of betrayal didn’t run as deep for me, though. Slowly, I was adjusting to the idea my aunt wasn’t who she pretended to be. It would take years, maybe decades for my mother.

But at least she had my dad. It was wild seeing them together. They still fought, but they checked themselves before things exploded now. There was an understanding of who they each were and where they were coming from. When you add true love on top of all that, it seemed, to me, it all worked out in the end.

Shoshanna was a different story. She stood in front of me as still as a statue. Her personality had completely dissolved. She didn’t baby me, but she also didn’t react to me either. It was like someone had sucked away her feelings.

Which was a lot for a Gatlin.

“Yes,” she said, “I think you’re more than ready to make the attempt.” No expression crossed her face. Her eyes barely made contact with mine. “Did Rhysa have any insight as to why neither of you drained while working on the Plane for so long?”

“No. We’ve thought on it and we’re both as confused as we were when it happened. I’m hoping today, without the other distractions and threats, we might replace some answers.”

“Very well. Good luck.”

I hesitated. “You’re not coming?”

Her eyes dropped to her hands. “I don’t see how my presence would add to the experiment. Revenge will be there as usual as a member of the Guard and support representative.”

“Have I done something wrong?” I couldn’t understand why she was being so cold toward me.

She blinked at me, clearly surprised. “Of course not.”

“Then why are you treating me like a stranger?”

She balked. “Our House was just betrayed. I did nothing to stop it. I knew Rhine was a potential threat. I knew trusting his decision to withdraw was a mistake. And my choices led to your life being in danger. I have failed you and your family. I have lost the trust of my House and I don’t know how to restore it.”

Oh damn. I saw this all from my side, forgetting that Shoshanna carried this great weight of responsibility far greater than anything I’d ever known. What I saw as a success, she saw as failure.

I grabbed a chair and sat down. “You haven’t lost the trust of the House. Do they have questions? Yeah. They’d be stupid not to question everything. Which is why now is the perfect opportunity to remind them why you’re the Head of House and not someone else. You need to be honest and present.” But there was something else niggling at me. “Shoshanna, we’re a peaceful species. We don’t thirst for power. What’s happened at House of Axl and now here with Rhine is…well, it’s unprecedented. Predicting that some rogue characters would go against our very nature is impossible.”

“You really believe they’re connected?”

“Rhine said so. And the conviction with which he said it makes me think it’s true. How else do you explain these events?”

She nodded along. “I can’t sleep at night. I keep thinking about another thing he said. You think a war is coming, but it’s already here.”

Yeah…that wasn’t fun to think about at all. “That’s why reaching Marhysa needs to be a top priority. “I can see how power is addictive. The lust in Rhine’s eyes when he described controlling the timeline and the Severing of Destiny was like looking at pure evil.”

“I fear we’re in far deeper than we ever realized,” she whispered.

In the end, Shoshanna came along. She even smiled when Bridge and Cass surrounded her and dragged her over to their chocolate bar. In order to improve everyone’s moods they’d procured and baked a dozen different versions of chocolate treats.

I ate a chocolate mousse filled waffle cone dipped in more chocolate.

“I made those!” Cass twirled.

She had to be high on sugar. “It’s delicious.”

She beamed. “I just…I feel so alive! Every beautiful thing about life needs to be celebrated! Why put off to tomorrow what can be enjoyed today?”

“I wholeheartedly agree.”

I sat back and took in the busy kitchen and living room. The fires were low to keep from getting the house overwarm with all the bodies. Kris was in an intense conversation with Gigi and Ryddyck by the fireplace. We’d only been apart a couple of hours but seeing him got me all hot and bothered. I wanted to grab that flannel shirt and pull him in for a kiss.

Vic, Dray, and Rever each had a plate of chocolate cake they devoured while they huddled on the covered porch. Unlike the fires inside, the fire out there roared. Leena and the bear shifters sat around the dining table telling loud stories. Ivy and Ender stood near the hallway watching everyone the same way I was. Ivy’s gaze kept straying back to Rever. And every time she looked away, Rever scanned the room and ended on her.

Ender, on the other hand, was spending most of his time scowling at Aethel. When she wandered over to the table and joined in telling stories with the bears, he stalked across the room and joined the males on the porch by the fire.

But the most interesting to me was watching Bridge flirt with Max and Katonya until they all disappeared upstairs.

“She’s enjoying herself,” Cass said with a shrug. “I don’t think it’s serious though. I think it’s convenient. And the best part is she’s been mooning over them for weeks but it wasn’t until your spell that she actually indulged.”

Well at least something good came from that. “I’m happy for her. Where’s Ronan?”

“Lurking about. Apparently he’s been in a mood. Got a call from his family instructing him to check on their ski chalet. He’s not in the mood to go and he’d rather stay here and help, so instead of helping he’s being a grump.”

“That sounds like Ronan. Although, getting away from this for a few days could be good for him. We all need to step back from time to time and get some perspective.”

Cass snorted. “I don’t think five months would give him perspective. He’s so grumpy! I’d say he needs to get laid, but we all know he’s been doing plenty of that.”

I shrugged. “Maybe he just needs the right partner.”

The groups began separating based on their assignments. For space, we gathered in the living room. The library was overfull and asking all of them to move was just silly. I settled on the couch beside Rhysa. Leena and Bethany stood behind us. Dray stood on one side beside Rhysa, Kris on the other, beside me. Saoirse and two other Nala family members sat on the loveseat. Shoshanna sat in the overstuffed armchair while Rever hovered beside her.

“We’re not expecting any danger so you boys don’t need to be quite so intimidating,” Bethany chided.

Dray grunted.

Kris glared. “I’ll be the judge of that.” Then he sat on the arm of the sofa and tried to look relaxed.

Tried being the keyword.

“So we’ll do our thing and meet on the Plane in our own ways,” I started.

“And Leena and I will help you both to focus and to see what the other sees.” Bethany stood behind me. “Rain can sense the psychic energy and will be able to replace Marhysa’s consciousness, but Rhysa is the one who knows what we’re looking for.”

“And I don’t in any way expect us to be successful on the first go,” Rhysa said. “We’ve tested and worked together, but this will be our first try at replaceing something specific.”

“Right,” Bethany agreed. “Learn from each other.”

I knew they were right but I wanted success and I wanted it now. I felt the urgency. We were behind and every day, every minute was another we fell further behind.

“First sign of trouble,” Dray said, “you’re both out of there. No arguments.”

Kris grunted in agreement. The only reason I didn’t protest was that I knew they were both just doing their jobs. “All right. Well, I’m going in.”

“Sounds good,” Rhysa sighed.

I sank into myself, dropped my wall, and gave myself over to the psychic channels. It only took a few moments to feel Rhysa. And a few moments after that, it was like someone turned the lights on, stuck my finger in a light socket, and shot me up with adrenaline.

“Whoa!”

“Is it too much?” Bethany asked.

“Nope. Just give me a second.”

With her help, the Plane became brilliant technicolor. I could see beyond the glittering psychic channels. I saw Rhysa’s train tracks and her version of the fluttering darkness. It was like having double vision. My version and hers at the same time. It took longer than I’d like to get used to seeing so much, feeling so much.

Then Rhysa took my imaginary hand and started showing me where she encountered her mother. I felt the drain again, but I also felt eyes watching me again. Not quite the same as the watcher, but similar.

“Marhysa?” I asked.

“No. But I feel something. What is that?”

We chased the feeling, moving past minds and signs and time. I felt a hand on my shoulder followed by Kris, “You’re doing too much.”

But I had to know what this was. It was important. Very important. I knew this. And Rhysa agreed with me. Her urgency was as strong as mine.

“Come back, Rain!” Kris tried again.

But I kept going and going until we came to a sudden stop as everything went black and the Plane was filled with a familiar horrific screech. It wasn’t Matylda, but it was just the same. The scream of a banshee.

Rhysa writhed in pain. All I felt or saw beyond that was my own pain. Everything was blotted out by the sound. A sound so powerful it pushed everything out of its way—even psychic energy.

Kris reached back through our bond, using his own empathic gifts to pull me back. He grabbed onto Rhysa too. The extra sizzle of electricity left me. Bethany must have pulled away. It made the screeching a little less overwhelming, but not by much. It was like having a bright light in your eyes. It might not be there anymore but your senses are still too overwhelmed to see.

The screeching drained me even faster than what I felt on my first attempt to navigate the Plane. I grew weaker and weaker, even as Kris yanked with all his might.

Rhysa slipped away from me. Taken on a psychic wave. I couldn’t chase her. She was gone. I was gone. There was nothing.

Nothing.

And then there was everything. A new voice pushed back the screeching and the darkness. I could think and feel again. The new voice soothed. It was calm. Loving.

“Foolish!” It chastised us. A fresh wave of energy flooded me. It was just as powerful as what I felt while fighting Rhine. “Go!”

I grabbed Rhysa and we went backward, back through the Plane, past everything, and into our bodies with a powerful jolt.

Rhysa instantly began sobbing. Dray wrapped her up in his arms, almost crying, too.

“Fuck, Rain. Why? Why did you do that?” Kris almost smothered me as he pulled me into his arms and squeezed tight.

“I had to know what it was.”

“It better have been worth it. Fuck, we almost lost you both. I—I barely had a hold of you. You were slipping away when…what happened?”

“We were being watched again. But it was different. I had the most overwhelming sense of urgency come over me. I had to know who it was. I knew if I didn’t replace out we’d lose everything.” I couldn’t explain how I knew. It was more than a feeling…a demand. It felt like someone or something required me to chase the banshee scream.

“Well?” Kris growled.

I could barely believe what I was about to say. “Banshees.”

Kris jerked back. “Plural?”

That was what was so damn scary. “Many. I don’t know how many, but several. They tried to kill us. Or at least trap our minds. Separate us from our bodies.”

Rever helped Bethany into the armchair. She was pale and looked like she couldn’t walk without his help. Saoirse jumped up from the loveseat to make space for Leena.

“I have never felt anything so terrible in my life,” Bethany gasped.

“I have,” Leena said, eerily calm. “The night we accidentally called out the salishan.”

Oh no.

“They didn’t want us,” Bethany nodded to Leena. “They didn’t tap our connection to you at all. It was easy—well easier—for us to come back. And that was almost impossible. How did you do it?”

And that’s what I still didn’t understand. “It was like before. With Rhine. An energy was suddenly there. A voice…”

“It was my mother,” Rhysa croaked.

Saoirse froze. “You found her?”

“No,” Rhysa said through tears. “She found us.”