Botosoni flies toward him on the stage with a raised stake in his hand, but Lucas disappears just seconds before the wooden point would have reached his heart. Botosoni comes to stand by me, and my heart is still beating rapidly.
He pulls me into the protection of his arms. “What happened that made you attack Lucas, know that he was a rogue, is a rogue?” he asks, a look of bewilderment still painting his face.”
Chapter 24
Botosoni
All eyes are on Catina, and her heart beats erratically with the visions that still swirl in her mind. She swallows through her angst. “The rogue, the one that I saw at the club the very first time. It was Lucas. I didn’t put it together until just before he was going to burn all of you at once in a ring of fire. He wanted to get you all in the same place, just like you did with the rogues. The vision finally became crystal clear. I could see it playing out before my very eyes. I had to stop it.”
Lucianna’s eyes glow a deep green. “You did well, Catina.”
Sheba nods once, his white mane trailing down his back, and his blue eyes intense and direct as he addresses Descallia and the masters. “She speaks the truth, truly a gifted one, a skillful warrior who took many of the rogue shifters and vampires out with arrows and a bow. I’ve known it was Lucas for a short time but had to find out who of my shifters were not loyal to us. I needed that information in order to rebuild, or I would have come to you sooner with the information.”
My chest expands with pride as I look at my love, committed and dedicated to keeping the vampires and our way of life safe and sacred at every turn. But I can feel the energy of her mind still swirling, with emotion and unsettled strife. “What is it, love?”
Catina takes my hand, and her heart still beats far too rapidly. “My mind keeps flooding back to that deadly day when the rogues overtook me and left me instead of ending me for good. Sheba saved my life long enough for you to turn me. I didn’t remember it until now. My no good parents took off in the opposite direction, who knows where, but everyone here helped me.”
Sheba walks forward, standing by Descallia who puts a hand on the shoulder of his longtime friend. I push down my anger with the white wolf for what his shifters did to my brother, while I look to Catina to explain what she means. “I owe my life to this wolf. I will never forget his words. When I was left alive by the others, it was only because of what Sheba told them. He said that I had some sort of deadly magic curse that would spread to them all if they took my life. So, they left me, almost dead for sure, but at least not burned to ash like they could have done if not for him.”
The white wolf takes the compliment with humility. “I came upon the battle after it was too late. As I did with your brother,” Sheba says, looking straight at me. “The shifter who killed him was put to death at my hands, of that you can be assured.” He looks at my hands entwined with Catina’s and smiles gently. “I wish there was more that I could have done before any damage was done to your mate, but it looks like things have turned out the way destiny planned in that regard.”
“An eye for an eye, and a good deed done. We will put it in the past,” I tell the wolf, extending my hand. More than willing to put it behind us, knowing the shifter who killed my brother was killed, and that Sheba saved the life of Catina, and even in some regard, made it possible for her to live for an eternity.
Descallia clears his throat, and Sheba turns to his friend. “We will need to regroup. I now know the shifters who are still true to me and those who aren’t. The ones that have not betrayed me, though, also think I’ve jumped sides, so it will take time to get to them and convince them that it’s not the case. In the meantime, I know that Lucas has a place in Oradea. My understanding is that’s where all the rogues were going to meet when they ended the righteous purebloods for good.”
Master Oradea hearing his region named comes to stand by our side. “If Lucas is in my region, we will find him. I know every nook and cranny of that land, every club or villa that he could be hiding in. He’s hurt, but it won’t take him long to recover. We’ll have to find him and those still loyal to him quick, if we want to end the fucker for good, and every single one of us here wants that.
It takes Overmaster Descallia only a second to assess the situation and begin belting out directions because everyone will agree, no one knows that better than the vampire master of Oradea himself. He looks to Lucianna. “We’ll need your powers of sight and Silver’s to help Oradea with the hunt. The masters will not come together again except in the security of Rome given what we learned today. Romano, Campania, Sardinia, and Botosoni will go in with us, along with their mates.”
Sardinia’s jaw tightens. “Why the ladies? We know who he is and where he is.”
I intercede on Descallia’s behalf. “Remember, Raven, Willow, and Madria still have the stones that Lucas wants. When Catina was looking into the future, she said the stones of the witches will light a path to send evil to a fiery hell. She also said that we have to wait for the stone. We won’t be able to find them until it lights the way. If you try to go up the mountain without it, you’ll fail, time and time again.” We will find him and the evil he carries in his heart by listening to what we’ve learned.
Sardinia doesn’t argue because he knows I’m not wrong, but that doesn’t change his objection to his mate, or the others being put in danger. “We protect the females at all costs.”
Descallia nods his agreement, looking to the stage where Embry and the other females stand shocked and talking quietly amongst themselves, before turning to Lucianna and lowering his voice. “Lucas knows the secret that we keep and the powers of the stones. He was the one who brought Embry into our fold; they have a history that ties them together. That bond may be deeper than her commitment to us.”
Lucianna’s eyes glow bright green, but then she closes her eyes. “I pray that it isn’t true but fear the unknown. The Vade Mecum said our enemy will be hiding amongst us drinking and dancing.”
I watch Embry’s eyes shifting from one of us to another from the stage, trying to absorb as much of our conversation as possible, but our voices are cut by the sounds of everyone talking at once and the music overhead playing way too loud.”
All eyes turn to Embry, trying not to let her know what we suspect. “What do we do with her?” I ask.
Descallia growls low under his breath. “Bring the little traitor with us, we shall see what she knows, what she doesn’t, and where her loyalties lie before this is over.