Out of the Dark (12 page)

The Fae had decided that the witches were becoming too powerful and needed to have their population downsized. It worked better than they anticipated. Mona knew of no others that had survived beside herself.

After her people had been wiped from the earth, Mona had found refug
e with the Serbian pack. The
Alpha wanted the healer from the Western Romanian pack, wanted her bad enough to hire a witch, and by doing so isolated himself and his pack from the other Canis lupis.

Mona had agreed to his terms. She would get him the healer and he would protect her from any foe until she could regain her power. She was still powerful, even after the Fae, but she had been cloaking herself for so long and it was draining her.

What the Serbian pack Alpha didn't know was that Mona had her own reasons for wanting the gypsy healer. Reasons that had nothing to do with the Alpha and everything to do with making her the most powerful witch ever to walk the earth. Mona was old. She'd been old three centuries ago. She remembered things long forgotten about the supernatural beings, remembered why gypsy healers were prized not only by werewolves but witches and Fae alike.

"Where are you, little gypsy?" she whispered. "You can't hide forever." Mona opened her eyes, scanning the forest.

Whatever she had felt earlier was now gone. She wasn't discouraged, Mona knew that hunting supernatural prey took time. Luckily for her, time was something she had plenty of.

As she turned to leave, she began to hear the chorus of Electric Light Orchestra's song “Evil Woman”. Mona smiled to herself. So maybe the ringtone was a little much.

I'm a witch, she thought.
Surely no one would expect her ringtone to be “Lean On Me”.

"What?" Her words were clipped as she answered.

"I need to know what your plans are," Thad answered.

Mona rolled her eyes. She was so sick of answering to the wolves. But, when she finally had the healer they would no longer hold any power over her.

"I made my move. Now it's time to let the Alpha make his. Sometimes, Thad, the best course of action is to wait and watch."

"Fine. I expect you to keep me updated."

"Careful, wolf. Do not think to give me orders like I am one of yours. You do not want me as your enemy." Mona ended the call just as Thad began to respond. She didn't have time to argue with the overbearing wolf. She needed to do some searching through the archives that she'd managed to keep the Fae from destroying; she needed to know who could have helped Rachel remain in hiding and she needed to find a weakness.

Mona had plenty to do, but Thad didn’t need to know that. The thought of doing her own research brought to mind the fact that Vasile was smart. He had to be to have lasted this long and  be this powerful. It only made sense that he would do his own digging, especially since the Canis lupis seemed to have disregarded witches altogether. So perhaps it was time to pay a visit to the powerful Alpha's home – after all, while the wolf is away, there's room for the witch to play.

Mona laughed to herself.
I must be getting old if something so simple is funny to me,
she thought. She grinned as she swept her deep red cloak around her.

After sending out a mental call, she waited. Soon hoof stomps became audible and a second later there stood her black-as-night steed.

"Ahh, Octavian, my faithful friend." Octavian was eighth in his line to serve the witches, hence his name. He was a steed of old, his life supernaturally long just as the ones before him. The witches had begun breeding them further back than Mona could remember.

"Let's go on a journey," she told him as she swung up onto his back. She didn't disrespect him with a saddle. She knew that he didn't have to serve her. He, like any supernatural being, had magic of his own. Octavian turned and headed in the direction he had come, away from the crumbled mansion and the woods that held secrets that Mona would uncover.

Decebel took a deep breath as he waited for Jen to answer him. He didn't have to wait long.

"Where have you been? Why have you been blocking me? Do you have any idea how worried I've been? Do you know what I've been through?"
Jen's questions were like a gun going off in his head.

"Are you talking to Jen right now?" Jacque asked
as
she watched Decebel's eyes get bigger and bigger.

Decebel nodded once, then with a wrinkled brow he asked, "Does she have an off switch?"

"We've been looking for one for years," Sally offered, "but it's a no go."

Decebel held up his hand to the two girls as he listened to Jen in his mind.

"Why are you acting so weird?"

He could hear pain in her voice and wondered if he was the cause of it. "She wants to know why I'm acting weird," Decebel told Jacque and Sally.

"Okay, Dec, you need to tell her she's talking to me…through you," Jacque instructed.

At the same time Decebel heard Jen say,
"Is Jacque around? Put Jacque on the line."

Decebel looked over to Fane. "Are they always this bossy?"

Fane and Sally both looked deadpan at him, and at the same time replied, "Yes."

"Jen, I'm going to listen to Jacque talk and you are going to listen through me. I will then give her your response."
Decebel explained.

"Ask her why the hell you're calling me Jen."

"She wants to know why the hell I'm calling her by her name."

Jacque raised a single eyebrow at him. "Are you calling her Jen?"

Decebel nodded.

"Yeah, that's not what you call her. You call her Jennifer…or baby…or smart ass, and even once I think you called her a mouthy little thing." Jacque waved her hand as she said, "Moving on. Okay. So, Jen, Decebel's been cursed." Jacque waited for Decebel to pass it on.

The girls watched as Decebel bowed his head and started shaking it from side to side. They looked at each other, confused by his behavior. Then his shoulders began to shake.

"Are you laughing?" Sally asked, bewildered.

Decebel finally composed himself and looked up. "She said, 'So someone else has cursed him. What's the big deal? I curse him all the time'."

They all started laughing; not only Jen's words, but at the puzzled tone with which Decebel relayed Jen's words.

Jacque rolled her eyes. "No, you dimwit. Cursed as in its 'Le
vi
osa' not 'Levio
sa'
. Not curse as in dumb ass."

"She's asking why the hell you're quoting Harry Potter…again?" Decebel was getting more and more confused by the conversation the two girls were having--through his thoughts. 

"Man, this would be easier if she had a cell phone," Sally grumbled.

Decebel looked at Jacque. "Let me try and explain, okay?"

"Go for it, lover boy."

"Jen, I was hit with a curse by a witch. According to Sally it affected my memory. There are huge holes – I can't remember so much... I'm really struggling with this because I feel like there are some things that I should not have been able to forget."

Jen didn’t respond right away. If he hadn't felt her in his mind he would have thought she was gone.

"You for-forgot me? You really don't know who I am."
A statement.
Her voice was so full of hurt that Decebel felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest.
"So you feel like you shouldn't have been able to forget your true mate?"

"Yes,"
Decebel answered honestly.

Jen didn't respond.

"I think I hurt her," Decebel confessed out loud.

"Of course you hurt her, you oaf, " Jacque growled. "Now that the cat is out of the bag, ask her where she is, if she's okay, and how we find her." Jacque was nearly on her feet. Only Fane's hand on her leg kept her from jumping up and pacing.

"Where are you?"

Soon Decebel cringed and looked back at Jacque. "Does she always talk so, so..." He growled as he tried to come up with the word.

"So sailor-like? Get used to it, Don Juan. Whatever she said, I promise you she has said worse," Jacque snapped.

"It just gets worse when she's stressed," Sally tried to reassure him.

"She's asking, 'What the hell does is matter where I am if my damn hairy, flea-infested mate doesn't know me from the next hot blonde on the street?"

"You left out some words, didn't you?" Jacque raised a single eyebrow at Decebel. "'Cause that's pretty mild for Jen."

Decebel snarled. "There's no reason to repeat everything she says. And why does she think I have fleas?"

"She thinks everything with fur has fleas. Don’t take it personally." Jacque's tone was sharp, but she knew she shouldn't be taking her frustration out on Decebel.

"Luna, ease up on him." Fane gentled his words by rubbing Jacquelyn's back. She looked over at him and stuck her tongue out.

"I intend to take you up on that offer later."

"I've created a monster,"
Jacque told him, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, you have no idea, my love."
Fane's smile spoke of wicked things.

Finally Jacque turned her attention back to Decebel, who was looking more and more concerned by the minute.

"Now she isn't responding to me," he told them as his brows drew together and his shoulders grew tense. It was obvious he was trying very hard to hold it together. It was then that Jacque realized that even though Decebel had lost some of his memory, he was still the same man. A possessive, bossy, controlling, dominant wolf. She imagined that the idea of not being able to fix this situation, of not being able to comfort Jen, was driving him crazy.

"Jen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."
Decebel tried to make sure she could feel the frustration and worry he was feeling.

Finally she responded.
"Please stop calling me Jen. Call me anything but Jen. I just can't stand hearing your voice saying it."

Decebel looked at Sally. Sally winced at the pain she saw pooling in his amber eyes.

"She told me to quit calling her Jen; to call her anything but Jen."

"Just because you don't remember does not mean she isn't your mate, Decebel." It was Cynthia who spoke this time. "Do you feel anything when you hear her voice?"

"My wolf stirs at the sound. She brings him peace."

"Try to imagine how she is feeling," Cynthia told him. "She's just found out that the man she loves, the man who has done nothing but protect her, pursue her, and make her feel like the most cherished woman on earth, doesn't remember her. Give her this simple thing. Call her Jennifer."

Decebel tried to reach out to Jennifer again, but she pulled back. It was like a punch to his gut.