Chapter 20 Jacobian

Listening to the noise beyond the bathroom, Chelsey was terrified as Shalom called out the names of the Fae they knew again. Suddenly, Nicolea's face appeared in the messaging mirror.

"Stay put. Keep your cloak on. They won't be able to see or touch you. If you are cornered, hold the mirror in front of you. We're coming." Then she was gone.

Something large and heavy slammed into the metal door and it dented inward.

"Hide!" Chelsey shoved Shalom into the corner by the door and pulled up her hood.

Quickly, she climbed onto the sink to pretend to be trying to get out, then opened the tiny window as the door tore off the hinges. A Demonus Fae stepped through the door in its ghastly form. It grabbed her as Shalom cringed down, clutching Justice.

"Where are you going, little wolf?" It hissed at Chelsey, the words sounding more reptile than human.

"Run Shalom!" Chelsey twisted and screamed out the window, pretending Shalom had already escaped.

It dropped her and started to turn to vapors and smoke, but Chelsey scrambled to her feet and grabbed the mirror. Holding it in front of the small opening, she tried not to cower. "You can't pass. Go away and leave us alone."

A brilliant light came from the mirror, and the Demonus hissed as it retreated. Holding the mirror in front of her, Chelsey backed it out of the tiny bathroom. In her peripheral vision, she couldn't see Shalom in her scarlet cloak, but she didn't dare take her eyes off the dark Fae to look for her. The light was so bright, she squinted. The mirror was growing hot, but Chelsey refused to drop it, clenching her teeth against the need to scream. The black robes of the Demonus blew backwards from its body as if caught in a strong wind. Suddenly, Nicolea and another Fae landed in front of her with the sound of shattering glass. Dropping the mirror shards, Chelsey stumbled backwards, cradling her burned hands. She was shocked that the skin was not blistered off. They looked completely unscathed as the burning sensation faded.

"Hello, brother," Nicolea hissed out but instead of solid black robes, hers were mostly golden. The other Fae in a golden and white robe collapsed to her hands and knees, panting like she was exhausted.

"You! I'll kill you and your lover."

As a second Dark Fae attacked Nicolea, a smoking black sword appeared in her brother's skeletal, taloned hand and raised to strike the kneeling Light Fae.

"No!" Chelsey found herself shouting as her Raver emerged with a suddenness that would have freaked her out if she hadn't been so intent on saving Nic's friend. She attacked it the way she had seen the Ravers of Monarch Mountain fight them the day she, Ryan, and Shalom fled. Her claws shredding his chest as her Raver's giant teeth clamped down on the Demonus's wrist and bit it off.

"Chelsey, move!" Nicolea shouted at her.

Her Raver leapt to the side with amazing speed as Nicolea rammed a glowing spear surrounded with ethereal filigree into her brother's chest. The second Fae held up her hands and sang words that made no sense to Chelsey but felt sacred and powerful. The smokey wisps rising from the wounded and dead Demonus wafted toward it like a fan was sucking them in. Chelsey spat her Raver's grisly trophy on the ground as Nicolea retched her weapon free. The Ravers dragged the last remaining Demonus toward them. Its wings had been torn off and its hands bitten and removed. The Light Fae stood and walked toward it. She murmured to it in a language that sounded like musical chimes or bells as it screeched back in the discordant tones of glass scraping on slate. All around them, wounded humans, vampires, wolves and Ravers stared at the light and shadow beings.

Chelsey felt her strength leaving her as she shrank from her Raver. Ryan held her arms so she wouldn't collapse.

Nicolea revealed, "Bianca is offering Desdemona mercy if she will tell us where Gerard is keeping the Rosesea Princess and the Samhain Elms."

"She's offering to let her live?" Luka demanded.

"Not exactly," Nic answered.

Chelsey stared at him. She had never realized Vampire Ravers could still speak. "Are you okay, Luka?" He was gashed down one arm but didn't seem to be in pain.

Looking at his arm, he gave a half-shrug. "I can't even feel it and it's almost healed."

There was a pulse of light and a whomp like the sound of distant fireworks then the Demonus melted into ash and smoke. The glowing orb shrank into a single point of light then faded like a firefly's glow.

"She refused." Nicolea stepped forward, melting into her familiar mortal form, and caught Bianca as she fell backwards in a faint, becoming a beautiful-looking female. Chelsey gasped. She had thought Nicolea was the prettiest woman she had ever met, but Bianca was breathtaking as she lay on the floor in Nicolea's arms. After a few moments, Bianca's eyes fluttered open.

Luka stepped forward, "Angeles Bianca, may I carry you inside to rest?"

"Thank you," the weakened Light Fae breathed out.

"Where's Shalom?" Jake demanded.

"I'm here." Shalom put her hood down and unclipped the clasp as she emerged from the bathroom.

"Jake, your brother," General Padget shouted to him. They all turned to see the former monarch lying on his back, staring at nothing.

"Take me... to him," Bianca insisted in a whisper as she weakly waved her hand.

Luka's Raver gently carried her and knelt. Padget bravely remained where he was, but everyone could see his fear of the Raver. Luka's fangs were twice as long and thick as a normal vampire's teeth, and he had talons instead of sharpened fingernails. Somehow holding Bianca made Luka look more terrifying. Jake knelt next to him and ran his hand over his brother's head. Blood trickled from James's lips, eyes, and nose.

Bianca reached down and took James's wrist. She glowed for a moment then shook her head as she turned her face to Jake. "I'm sorry, Monarch. There's nothing we can do. One of them harvested his soul but..."

She looked confused so Nicolea took James's wrist then shook her head. There was sudden sadness and sympathy in the Ascended Demonus's gaze. "I'm sorry, Jake. He... he let her do this to him."

"Who?" Marshland asked in shocked horror.

"Petra Lumin is a forever blessed Demonus Fae," Jake growled out then he stood looking around at the dead.

"She wasn't among the souls I sent onward," Bianca revealed. "She wasn't here when we arrived."

"She was here," Craig revealed, "She rode with Monarch... I mean, Alpha Vanguard."

"We need to find her, she has an apartment..." Craig started but Bianca interrupted, "She won't be there. She will have already fled."

"Dark Fae hold no attachment to physical objects or places. There is nothing there she would go back for but her brother guards Aliza Abbott for Gerard," Nicolea revealed. "He was injured and possibly killed in Cades Depot so she will be forced to take Liam's place. If we find Aliza, we will find Petra."

Vice President Marshland clenched his fists, and announced, "This Demonus Clan is now public enemy number one, as are the Human Purity Movement terrorists. They tried to assassinate me and the leaders of our allies. General Padget, you have the authority to use any means at your disposal to arrest or contain them, including deadly force. Arrest Aliza Abbott and everyone at that distillery outside New Orleans including retired General Forester."

"Gerard Morganason is the clan leader, and Petra Lumin is one of his beholden ones," Shalom revealed.

"But Petra has served under James for decades. She loved him." Shaking his head, Craig looked disbelieving, and Shalom resisted the urge to slap him.

"Not everything that is golden is good," Shalom murmured then she stood and walked away. Luka followed carrying Bianca.

Nicolea entered the plane first then went straight to the back room and the broken mirror. "I found how they got here."

As Bianca rested in a chair, she looked at Luka while he shrank back to his mortal form. "Thank you, King's Father."

Lord Viktor looked at her oddly. "Forgive me, Angelus Bianca, but my grandson and his son are Lords like me."

Bianca just smiled at them then closed her eyes, "For now... I need a nap. Let me know when they are ready to raid Gerard's chateau. Nicolea, Galen, and I will need to go ahead to save the Rosesea Princess." She exhaled and was asleep instantly.

"Is she serious?" Luka looked at Nicolea who shrugged.

"Bianca sees the future, like Greyson, I don't even question the things she says that seem like nonsense." Nicolea pulled a blanket out of a cabinet and covered Bianca. "We need to work fast. They are planning on dumping the Project Elm Street Chemical into Hurricane Tonya."

"We know," Shalom revealed, "Jake figured it out."

Jake entered the plane with the vice president and general. "Figured what out?"

"How the H.P.M. are going to stage the next attack?"

Viktor looked at him in worry, demanding, "Where and how?"

General Padget held out his phone. "These pilots are going to dump it in a Gulf-formed hurricane that was named Tonya this morning. She's a tight fast-moving storm that is projected to make landfall between Houston and New Orleans. Tens of millions are in the path of this storm and we only have three to five days."

As they all settled into the front part of the plane, Viktor walked by Shalom as she laid her cloak on a chair and stopped. He inhaled deeply and then looked at Jake in surprised shock. "Monarch Vangaurd, I was not aware your mate was a Jacobian."

"A what?" Shalom asked breathlessly.

"Lord Rouge, are you certain?" Jake demanded. Viktor nodded.

"Who are the Jacobians?" Luka asked Nicolea who shrugged. Marshland and Padget looked just as confused.

"They are the oldest continuously existing pack in the world. My cousin Paul mated one of the last Jacobian shewolves born. She was murdered, and two years later, her only niece disappeared with her protector," Jake revealed. He looked at Shalom like he was seeing her for the first time. "By the goddess, you do look like Myrium. That's why Saul feels the compulsive need to protect you, because he failed to protect her from Paul."

Trembling, Shalom sat down then she looked up at him with devastation in her eyes. "Werewolves killed my parents and baby brother after we fled from Texas to Tennessee, and then my Aunt Judith after we moved to Canada. Were they Monarchy wolves? Did your crazy cousin kill my family before he tried to kill us all and frame my husband as a terrorist?!"

He reached out then pulled his hand back from touching Shalom when she tried to slap it away. "Don't touch me."

"Shalom, let me make this right," Jake begged.

"Find and kill Gerard so our son is safe and stop Aliza, then we will talk about making things right," she picked up her cloak and stormed out as Jake clutched his forehead.

"She doesn't want to be queen?" Luka asked in disbelief.

"If her mother was the missing Jacobian Princess, then she is already a queen. No females have been born to the Remnant since her mother. Wolves around the world have been looking for her for decades. Most thought she was a myth," Viktor revealed then breathed out. "No wonder that Demonus Clan leader wants your son. It isn't just the American Monarchy wolves he can subdue but every wolf everywhere."

"Oh, it's much worse than that," Nicolea shook her head as she explained, "While Gerard had Shalom as his captive during her pregnancy, he started to bind her son's soul to the Rosesea Princess's missing daughter. With either child, he can control a species, with both... Greyson thinks he is trying to rule the world the way his mother tried in the Dark Ages."

VvvvvV

Aliza left her mother's estate before her bodyguards even woke up. She cursed the powers the Nonhumans had but more than that she cursed her heart for hurting her the way it did now. Since the Revelation Night, she had grieved Troy but now she hated him. Everything between them was a lie to save his wolf wife than their mongrel children. She drove straight to her New York penthouse. She ignored everyone as she parked and went up to her father's favorite home. Standing in her rooms, she looked out at the city thinking of the last time she was here with Troy, then Gerard. Shaking, she went to take a shower then crawled into bed. She fell asleep with heartbroken, angry tears soaking her silk pillows.

Waking hours later, Aliza tossed and turned in her bed, thinking about the dream she awoke from. It was the memory she had tried so hard to block out since she was nine. She poured herself a glass of cognac over ice and went to stand by the window. Letting her mind wander as the smoke and oak burned her throat, she stared out over the city as she remembered how she had done everything to be the perfect daughter after her mother's death. Honor student, college at seventeen, doctorate in biochemistry at twenty-three, even though she lived the public life of the clueless heiress socialite, so no one would suspect that she was running her father's pet project. After that day, she and her father shared one goal, destroying the monsters that destroyed their perfect family.

To destroy monsters sometimes you have to become a monster, I was the monster my father made me. I was the monster they made me when they took first my mother, then my Troy. The ice tinked against the glass, no more amber waited for her lips, no more kisses from the only two people who had ever loved her either. But did they really? Mother was always so disappointed and Troy...

After reading the letter he left for his wife, Aliza felt sick, and worse than the anger and betrayal was the look of pity on Quinn Phillips' face. Suddenly, there was a loud banging on her door. Aliza grabbed a pistol she kept in her nightstand and rushed toward her safe room and emergency escape exit. She was stunned when a man staggered out her bedroom closet mirror followed by a woman. Her protector fell to his knees then stood swaying.

"We have to get you away from here. They are waiting in the garage for you," Liam gasped out, "This is my sister, Petra."

"The Wolf Monarchy, the Vampire Royals, and the Human Government have been told that you are the reason for the Revelation Night, they are coming to arrest you and execute you," Petra declared as she walked to the window, looking down. "Are you afraid of heights?"

"No," Aliza answered as she bent next to Liam. "Ohmigawd, your arm." The pounding on the door became louder.

"Monarch Vanguard attacked the Cades Depot site. He tore my arm off. If Petra hadn't saved me... I'm sorry we lost the research, but we have to get you to Gerard for your own protection. Get your go-bag." Liam took the gun from her hand and shouted, "Move, Petra."

As Aliza scrambled to her escape bag, the downstairs door burst inward. She pulled the backpack on as Liam shot the window and it exploded outward. Both he and Petra spread their golden wings as the police rushed up the stairs shouting for them to surrender.

"Go!" Petra shouted as she launched herself at the police.

Sprinting, Aliza tackled Liam and he fell backwards out of the gaping hole in the glass. He struggled to carry her then Petra appeared beside them. Landing hard, Liam staggered so Aliza held him up.

"I'm going to pass out," he groaned.

"Can you drive?" Petra demanded. When Aliza nodded, she begged, "Please take care of my brother." Petra stopped a car and threw the man in the driver's seat into a dumpster while Aliza put Liam in the backseat.

"Get in, Petra."

"No. I'm going to distract them. I'll catch up later. Thank you for fighting for what is right." Then she flew into the hazy sky. Aliza got in and drove away. She didn't know where to find Gerard but she could hid at her secret house in Montauk until Liam recovered.