Page 245 of Shifting Hearts 1
Gabby told me that in the bathroom and I still wondered what would’ve happened if Jason showed up at that coven. Saw Adrienne still alive. He would’ve tried to kill her and I would’ve stepped in cause I hated Jericho, and him realizing that it was me, Adrienne would’ve known, she would’ve known that I wanted to be a vampire for him.
“I would’ve killed him if it was him and not Alex and Leigh.” I spoke softly. “Maybe that is what she saw, Irene. She just protected his life.”
She sniffed hard and both women looked at me. She touched my face. “I wish that was what she saw. You wouldn’t have killed him. He would’ve broken Adrienne’s hold on you and you would’ve come home with us. You would’ve remembered who you were faster than what you had. That was why she was scared of my touch.”
“Wait you even see the visions?”
She nodded.
Her seeing eye was really that strong.
“No secrets, sweetheart, remember, I have a very important role in the pack’s life.”
I remembered that, but I never witnessed it.
How many times did Mel see me? I remember seeing her at that restaurant. She didn’t look as if she knew me, she smiled at me friendly. Whose face did she see?
SEVEN
JASON
Iwatched Morgan go through the change, feeling numb inside, the weight of my failures crushing me. I had promised to protect her, to keep her safe, and yet all I could do was stand there while she slipped further away.
When Steven appeared, all that grief twisted into rage. I had thrown every ounce of anger I had at him, but it hadn’t mattered. Nothing could undo what he had done. Annie had been right, he had betrayed us in the worst way. I could never see him as an ally again.
Darius, Sonia’s father, had begged Cass not to turn Morgan. He had pleaded like a man on his knees before a storm. He had known, just as I had, that wasn’t ready, Beth had died two years earlier then she should’ve.
Cass didn’t care. All she had seen was the fire. She hadn’t cared that Timothy and Luka had been reduced to ash, nothing but cinders in her wake. She had only seen power.
And when Morgan finally woke, I had known what was coming. The storm would break, and the monster who had once terrorized our kind would rise.
I hadn’t been able to imagine what she would become. I had only hoped and prayed that somehow I would still see my Morgan beneath it all, and not the nightmare she was about to unleash on this world.
It had taken three days for Morgan to complete the change, and when she finally woke, terror consumed her. She had scrambled up the wall with unnatural speed, pressing herself into the corner like a trapped animal. My heart broke as I realized the witch was already using her gift on her, and Steven knew it.
Cass spoke to her in a sickly sweet voice, coaxing, lulling. Morgan had no idea who she even was, just as Cassandra had promised.
Darius noticed immediately. His sharp glare cut through the room, directed at Cassandra, and in that instant I knew he understood. He knew exactly what she was capable of.
Then came the feeding. I could not bring myself to watch as she tore into an innocent man, draining him dry with a hunger that seemed endless. She clung to him even as life left his body, refusing to release him until Cassandra wrenched her away. Morgan’s body hit the wall with a sickening crack.
Cassandra rushed to her side, stroking her hair as she whispered explanations, what would happen if she ever drank from the dead, what dangers lingered in blood already spoiled. Her voice was calm, reassuring, as though she were guiding a child instead of a monster newly reborn.
She brought in a second victim, and again Morgan drained them to the last drop. Their screams clawed at my ears, a sound I knew would haunt me for the rest of my days.
Darius demanded a private word with Cassandra, and she ordered Steven to keep watch over Morgan. He only nodded at her, his eyes lingering on Morgan with a strange heaviness. I slipped back, putting as much distance as I could betweenmyself and Morgan so I might overhear what passed between Cass and Darius.
“Why doesn’t she remember?” he asked, his voice sharp.
“I don’t know,” Cassandra replied softly. “But she is… something miraculous.”
“Don’t lie to me. I know what you can do.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Do? What are you talking about?”
“You think I don’t know?” he hissed. “It isn’t normal to build covens as large as yours.”
She glared at him, her voice like venom. “Be very careful with your accusations, Darius. You tread on thin ice. Now that I have Natasha, she could turn you and your daughter to dust with a flick of her hand.”
