Owen carefully shifted, lifting his head so he could see me and still keep Selina protected and warm. “So? Do you want to tell me what happened? If Connor isn’t with you, and you are here, what makes you think he’s still in that place—or that he’s even still alive?”
I blinked, slowly. Fire studied him, weighing up his threat to me. After a moment she went back to keeping the women warm, caressing them with licks of heat that she would not allow to burn or injure them. Owen watched her curling tendrils of red and orange magic, his gaze steady and unafraid as she brushed over his shoulder.
He quirked a brow at me.
“Oh, no, no, no. That’s not me feeling you up, you perv. That’s the phoenix that inhabits my soul, along with Connor’s wolf and my own, keeping you warm.”
“Bloody hell, Ember. You hold three shifter spirits? Two wolves,anda phoenix? Damn, girl, I knew you were special if you could bring Connor to his knees, but that’s some heavy power you're controlling.”
“Yeah, it can be a bit overwhelming.”
“I’ll bet.” He looked down at Selina as she moaned and snuggled in closer to him. His brows dipped and his biceps tensed as he pulled her closer before he looked back at me. “So, we’ve got time. Why don’t you tell me what happened after we started that escape?”
I nodded and gave him a small smile. “Sure.”
While I spilled about Faerie and being the key to the Hell gates, Lionel returned with more blankets and clothes to use as makeshift pallets. Kawan came back with another male. Between them they carried a massive industrial size saucepan full of stew. The smell of wild garlic and meat wafted up my nose and my stomach let out a loud rumble. Even Selina stirred, her eyelids fluttering.
Although pale, all the women looked better, and the babies were stirring and beginning to whimper. No full on caterwauling yet, but I think that was more because they just didn’t have the energy for it. I knew I’d have to discuss with Owen what we were going to do with the poor little things. I mean, was there any knowledge at all of how half-shifter, half-demon babies could be integrated into society? Gods, I hated to think about what the options, other than bringing them up as shifters, would be.
“Don’t worry, I’ll not let any harm come to them because of who they are,” Owen rumbled. He must have seen my gaze land on Stone, who still watched the baby in his arms carefully, though his main focus was Shannon. Yeah, these weren’t the first half-breeds in existence.
Selina’s eyes flickered open. The bridge of her nose creased when she saw me sitting in the middle of the floor like a human torch, yet I wasn’t screaming or flapping my arms around trying to put myself out. Then her face flooded with colour and she shuffled away from Owen. But that only succeeded in dragging the blanket from his body which flustered her even more.
“Oh my gods! Where are your clothes? Get away from me!” she said, her voice both breathless, and if I wasn’t mistaken, full of a mix of fear and disgust. She looked away and her eyes fell immediately on her baby. Shannon got up, walked over, and sat down, placing Selina’s baby back in her arms.
I smiled. I might not have Connor back, but we had done something good here today. These women, and their babies, would have died in that place.
Chapter 6
Ember
“So what you’resaying is, you refuse to take us back there?” Keeping my voice level and calm was proving a challenge. We’d all eaten, and Owen and the others were once again clad in jeans and prison issue t-shirts. We sat at the back of the main cave near a fire that illuminated the darkness and provided a decent amount of warmth.
“Yeah, pretty much. But it’s not a case of refusing just for the sake of it, Ember. Even if Connor is in there, he’ll be in the lower levels where the cells are nearer to the warden’s rooms. We just don't have enough manpower or weapons to take on a whole army of demon possessed Weres.”
Pushing to my feet, I began to pace. I could feel Prime’s hunger to go back and find Connor, no matter where he was. “Tell me more about the prison break and what’s been happening in that place, since.”
Owen shifted on the log he had perched his big body on and leaned his elbows on his knees. Steepling his fingers together, he rested his finger tips against his lips. “We got out of there, but it was a bloodbath. Drake managed to turn the bots against the guards and killed loads of them; that gave us extra weapons that we picked up as we ran. The guards on the surface didn’t stand a chance; our numbers overwhelmed them. I think we only made it because some crazy fuckers stayed behind to get revenge. Mother knows how many of them actually made it. We know the demons are using those that did survive as fodder for entertainment. They rip them apart for blood, flesh and fun.”
I closed my eyes briefly. Such evil had to be stopped, somehow. But Owen was right. Going back into a general of Hell’s lair without backup was insane. Then again, no one had ever accused me of being sane.
“So what about all your supplies? Today can’t be the only time you’ve been back there; this food and the blankets and stuff you use, had to come from there.”
“You’re right. We’ve done six raids so far. The first few were mainly to get supplies and weapons. We didn’t have shelter and we were starving in those first few days. The Weres didn’t come out into the snow, probably because Berith was still using the dead to stick his demon spawn in, so we pushed further into the prison and found the kitchens. We took food, clothes and bedding, and ran further into the woods.” He met my eyes. “This was the first place I found that was big enough to shelter most of us. We still have to have a significant amount of our people on guard in the forest, and I have people watching the prison for activity. If the demons send out a search force…” He pulled a radio from his waistband. “Then we have these. The batteries are getting low, so how long this will last I don’t know. Just bear with me, Ember, help will be here soon, it really will; then we can go in and find Connor.”
I cocked my head and stared at him, then studied the faces of his brothers—Connor’s brothers. None of them would meet my gaze.
“You think he’s dead already, don’t you?”
Stone pulled his gaze off B’nar and eyed me in his cold way. “Yes. I have always been able to feel his connection to me and I haven’t since the day we escaped.”
“That’s because I took his wolf. It’s what my phoenix does, she demands a life for a life. Connor ended my human body to stop Berith from getting my human soul, but he didn’t know it meant he’d lose his wolf; that she’d take him. That’s why your Prime is in me and not Connor. That's why he’s still a prisoner, and that’s why I’m going to get him out. He needs help and you all owe him that.”
Stone kept his eyes on me. “We do—if he’s alive. But even if he is, Connor is human without his wolf, and that’s why Owen won’t risk more lives to go and get him.” Stone looked me in the eye, his silver gaze as cold as B’nar’s. “Ember, he could not survive being tortured—not by a general of Hell.”
“No!” I yelled. “He isnotdead! How can you sit here and not even consider getting him back? Gods, he’d burn the world down to find you! Any of you! How can you just abandon him like this?”
“Ember, try and see it from our point of view. Ever since he took our bond, we have all felt him. I haven't felt a godsdamned thing from him since we left that place. Don’t you think that kills me?” Owen took a deep breath, his muscles rippling under the tight t-shirt. “Until you showed up, we believed him and our Prime, dead. Gods, I hope I’m wrong and he isn’t, but I can’t risk the lives of this pack. They are not all warriors and if we went to the lower levels, we’d be overwhelmed and likely never get out. We need to wait for back up. Drake will be here soon and he is bringing tech—loads of it, and reinforcements.” Owen’s voice was irritatingly reasonable. Gods, how I hated it when people spoke to me like that. It made me beyond furious, and I just wanted to punch them for being so reasonable rather than seeing things my way! I rubbed my face realising my hands were hot.