"I'm confused. Tell me how rescuing them, assuming we can, will even help anything. How did Kendrick get them in the first place and why can't you get them back yourself?"
The pain started to lessen in her stomach and she took a much-needed deep breath. When she felt controlled, she looked up at Theo and gave him what she hoped was a steady smile.
The demon leader replied, "We are not meant to live with your kind. The only way we are with you is if we are summoned and the only way to perform a summoning is to possess and read a copy of a certain spell, and only that spell can bind us. The spell was created in such a way that it can't be memorized. The magic makes it impossible. So Kendrick must be in possession of a copy of it and which he then reads out loud during the summoning ceremony."
Her patience for this was wavering. "Well that explains the how so now you can tell me why you don't just swoop down, take the spell, rescue your people, and burn Kendrick to death. It would solve a lot of problems for all of us."
"If only it were that easy. We cannot come to your place of living unless we are summoned and bound. The only way we can communicate is like this where we live in your mind and body but that does not help us rescue our people."
Faith nodded. She could actually be sympathetic to that. What if someone could pull her across space and time and make her do terrible things? She blinked. Come to think of it that was exactly what they were doing to her.
"We'll help you but we have conditions."
My love, what the hell are you doing?
There you go with the profanity again. She couldn't keep the smile out of her voice.
"We are not prepared to listen to any conditions." The creature acted like she just suggested he balance on his head.
"Then we're not prepared to help you." She held up a hand to stop him from causing the hot pain to start in her abdomen again. "You can go ahead and kill me if you want. Theo will go ballistic and then moments later cause his own death so he can follow me and you'll be out all the months you spent setting this whole thing up."
I'm so incredibly proud of you right now.
Don't be. It hasn't worked yet. We could still end up needing you to go kick some ass and we'll still get eaten.
Now who's cursing?
"What are you conditions?"
Bravo. Theo's eyes twinkled.
"First of all, we aren't doing this alone. No matter how fabulous you think Theo is--and I can't argue with it, he is wonderful--we can't break into Kendrick's place alone. Hell, we can't even find it. We need the whole pack with us. You can't imagine what we can accomplish when we're all together."
"That sounds acceptable."
Faith shoulders relaxed with relief. Tristan was their Alpha, he needed to be in on the planning of what was sure to be a problematic plan and Theo would be stronger with his brothers around.
"My second condition, and this is the most important--when this is over and we've completed the mission, you will take the essence of your comrade or however you put it, out of us and return us to the way we were."
Having no idea if they could even do that, Faith felt compelled to ask for it. If she could give Theo a moment's peace from all the trauma surrounding him she had to do it.
"You will return the piece of paper with the spell on it so that we cannot be summoned again. If you agree to this then we will remove our presence from you."
Theo cleared his throat. "That sounds fair. We will do that. It will be an even trade but we still have no idea where my father's new compound is."
"Then I guess it's a good thing that we do."
Theo grasped his head and fell to the floor. He appeared to be unmoving and Faith's heart nearly stopped. "Theo." Tears were in her voice. What had just happened?
"Do not fret, we are merely instilling him with information he needed and did not have. In a moment he will be okay."
"It's not okay." Faith screamed at the crowd. "You can't just come in and out of our heads as you please, infecting us with your acid or your essence or whatever the hell else you feel like."
"If it makes you feel any better, we die when we burn you."
Like a bee. The thought of the creatures in a Halloween costume dressed like a bumblebee almost made her laugh and she covered her mouth with her hand. When she was composed, she answered. "It does actually."
She knew that wasn't nice but she wasn't as kind and forgiving as her mate. If someone hurt a loved one, she wanted them to pay.
Theo groaned and sat up. "That was like the worst migraine I've ever had."
She nodded. "I can imagine."
"So are we done here? Are you going to send us back so we can do what you want?"
"Don't disappoint us."
Swirls of color surrounded them but this time Faith prepared for it. She didn't try to struggle the sensation away and rather than flail around when she fell through space she stayed still. They hit the ground at the same time, each one flat on their back staring at the ceiling.
After a moment of silence, Faith sat up. "We'd better find Tristan."
"Oh boy, is he going to love this."
Chapter Nine
Theo tapped his foot impatiently. They'd gone over their story about twenty times. Each member of the pack seemed to have a different question so he suspected they'd have to tell it again at least ten more times to satisfy just the men. The women hadn't even gotten started yet and his brother would probably dig into it at least one more time. Hell if he'd repeat it twenty more times.
On the outside, Faith seemed a deacon of patience. But he knew better. He owned half of her soul now and he knew the fire within. She only played at being political; inside she was feistier than even he was. Sooner or later she would get tired of this inquisition too.
So what if they had demons temporarily inside of them? That did not automatically make them traitors or untrustworthy. He'd had one inside of him for over year and the fact he hadn't told them was, at the moment, neither here nor there. He hoped. It had been hard enough staying vague and trying not to act completely mad to gain his freedom to the woods.
Cullen stepped forward and Theo raised his finger to stop him from speaking. "Before you say what I think you're going to say, Cullen, I'd like to point out you knew about the existence of these creatures for centuries and didn't make the pack aware. Also, you were probably with my father when he figured out how to summon them in the first place."
"Cullen's loyalty is unwavering." Summer's voice was like nails, her eyes completely wolf. The woman only looked dainty and petite, she was as natural-born a fighter as any of them, and he couldn't blame her for her near snarl. He had just yelled at her mate. He would rip the head off anyone who dared to question Faith's loyalty.
"I am not accusing him of anything, as I would expect not to be accused." He hoped that would be enough said.
Faith touched his arm. He loved when she did that, even knowing it was her polite way of telling him to shut up. It was just such a familiar gesture and clearly an indication that her feelings grew more secure as his did.
"Does anyone have a question or a statement that would in some way change the fact that we basically have no choice but to go in Kendrick's lair, find some piece of paper with the spell written on it and destroy it, then set the demons free so they bother no one anymore, let alone us?" Faith's tone was light but he could hear the steel in the background that begged someone to argue with her.
He wouldn't be stupid enough to take on that job.
Cullen cleared his throat and Theo rolled his eyes. Somehow, he had known the man often considered the scariest member of the pack wouldn't be able to keep quiet.