Page 26 of Bound By the Moon

“No.” That one word came on the heels of so muchmisery that it made my chest ache. “I know where you’re coming fromJess, and it makes me love you all the more. We just haven’t hadenough time together yet. Maybe that makes me selfish, but I thinkwe deserve at least one human lifetime together if we can’t havethe rest of our unnaturally long were-lives.”

“Mikael, some humans don’t get a lifetime togethereither. I love you, and I will do my best to come back for you andWillow, I promise.” I hesitated when I heard a sob coming from theother end of the line. “Mikael, if I don’t…” I swallowed hardthinking about the possibilities. “I left something for you andWillow with Serena. She will see that you get it. I have to go, I’mat the cave entrance now, if I keep talking they’ll know more thanI want them to.”

“Jess…” Mikael’s voice cracked in anguish. I don’tknow what he would have said in that moment, because I hung myphone up and turned it off. If I had to hear the despair in hisvoice, or another sob come from the man I’d always known to be sostrong, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to go through with this planmyself. Actually, I didn’t have an option any longer. The dark onesthat were interspersed throughout the tunnel system were now at myback, pushing me forward into the unknown abyss on the otherside.

“Ah, so good of you to finally show your face. I hadbeen worried that you would sacrifice your child, rather than cometo me on your own.” He looked at the baby who was sitting quietlybeside him. “I had heard rumors that the white wolf had givenbirth, that she was still with child, that she never was. It’s adaunting thing to try to see a strange world from the outside in,especially one as closed off and secretive as the wolves.”

“Do you have a point?” I rolled my eyes. It was justmy luck to be stuck with the chatty leader of the dark ones.

“My apologies, it appears as though I bore you withmy seemingly futile attempt to find the one who could open thisportal.”

As he stepped out of the way I got my first glimpseof the dais I had seen so many times in my dreams. I took a momentto look around me. This was most assuredly the same cave I alwaysmet with the White Wolf Souls in. There, just in front of the daiswas the willow tree that I had seen growing in my dreams aswell.

The man, the monster, before me glanced at the treetoo, before turning back to baby Jack who was still wearingWillow’s t-shirt. It was a baby blue color, which accounted for whySierra would have chosen that one, but up in the left hand corner,just above the baby’s heart was the embroidered name, Willow. “Thetree makes sense now.” He turned his attention back on me then.“Since you’re bored, I don’t see the point in wasting any more timewith getting to know each other, you won’t be around long enoughfor it to matter. I do thank you for your sacrifice though.”

I couldn’t help myself, I started to laugh. Once thedelightfully nervous sound of it bubbled up from my body andspilled out to be echoed through the cavern, I couldn’t stopmyself. It just kept coming, and it seemed to stop Louis in histracks. He stared at me, stunned, as if he looked upon a mad woman.Perhaps, he did. “This is not the typical reaction one expects whenthey tell the victim that they are about to be sacrificed.” Hisvoice gave nothing away, but his eyes, they expressed a multitudeof things. Shock at my odd behavior, to be sure, but just underthere I saw the seed of doubt start to take hold and grow.

“This is not my first rodeo,” I blurted out inbetween bouts of hysterical laughter. “You aren’t even my scariestcaptor yet, but you do have one thing in common with all ofthem.”

“Do tell…”

“They were just as clueless as you are.” Thelaughter in my belly dried up then, and as I stood taller, moreconfident in what I was about to do, the rest of my plan began tounravel. “You’ve been draining the girls you thought were me, andjudging from the stains on the dais, that’s where you’ve beenhopefully waiting for the right results.”

“All of this is very obvious, get to the point,before I put the point in you…” His fangs flashed out as his smilewidened. I was a werewolf. Fangs were never a worry for me, andthey didn’t put an ounce of extra fear in me now.

“Had I actually been one of those girls you sothoughtlessly slaughtered, you would have killed all of yourchances of ever getting that damned portal opened.”

“Really?” Sarcasm dripped form that word. It wasclear he didn’t believe me, yet.

“Truly. I know the spell that binds me to thisplace. I suppose I should say, that binds this place to me. It’snot what you imagined it to be.”

“I imagine nothing. I have a knowledgeable source onthe matter. I know exactly how a blood bond works.”

“Do you? This isn’t a typical blood bond. It’s abloodline spell. Did you know that?” I could tell by the look onhis face that he did not. And of course, that would be because itwasn’t. “The witch who sealed this place…” I started.

“Layla,” he interrupted.

“Layla, apparently wanted to make sure it stayedsealed. She bound the white wolf blood line to this place. The onlyway to gain entry is for me to willingly give up mine and my baby’slife.” I had been inching closer to baby Jack all the while as Ispoke, and now, I reached down and picked him up. “I have to stepon the dais, with my baby, and willing drop blood from both of uson there. It actually doesn’t take a lot, just a lot ofdetermination to make it happen on my part.”

“So, you’re telling me that you can open the portaland still live. I assume you want me to free you and your baby onceyou’ve done so for me?” He was the one nearly laughing now.

“No. I’m not stupid. You’re going to kill us one wayor the other. You are the monster, after all.”

“Then what do you gain by telling me how to breakthe barrier?”

“I gain this… I take the baby to the other side withme, peacefully, and hope that you will keep your word to leave mypack out of this. I don’t care about anyone else’s people, pack, orwhatever you intend to harm. My pack stays safe, or you can kill menow, and give up on this portal ever opening. Remember, I will beopening a gateway to the dead that won’t be able to close again. Ican come back through to make sure you kept your end of thebargain.”

“I see.” Louis paced back and forth for a fewminutes, while thinking. Meanwhile, I prepared by tucking aby Jackin close to me. I had fastened a sling around me before I left thehouse earlier, in anticipation of having to carry the baby back, ortake him with me to the other side. According to Layla I would needfor parts of the baby’s skin to be touching my own when I crossedover, otherwise he might be lost anyway. I made sure that Willowsshirt was pulled up off the baby’s stomach and then I pulled mineout of the way too. One of his arms, and his belly were flushagainst my own skin then. Now, I just had to hope that this worked,for his sake.

***

INTO THE FIRE

“You offer yourself and your baby so that your packmay live?” Louis asked.

“I will drop a little blood, and pull the baby withme into the portal. That is what opens the damn thing, since we areall that there is of our bloodline. In exchange for opening thegateway to the dead, my pack lives.”

“Just like that, a mother would sacrifice herselfand her baby for the rest of her pack?”

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