Chapter 39

ISHMAEL

“I don’t suppose you asked to see me just to stare at me,” Keela said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

“I didn’t,” I confirmed.

“Good. Want something to drink?” She asked, pouring out two glasses of wine.

She refused to meet me anywhere but here. Here being a fancy restaurant she frequented. It was in the public eye too, and I understood her logic for coming here.

Supernaturals couldn’t risk their identities in front of humans, or so we thought. I wouldn’t put it past Samuel or Ryker to try something here.

“I say we finish what we’re here to discuss before you order any food.”

She groaned at my response, throwing her head back against the chair. The neck of her halter dress slid down her neck, and my eyes zeroed in on the mark there.

Interesting.

It was just convenient that she spotted a mark that said she belonged to a vampire while she lived with Zachary. It could very well be anyone’s, but my instincts told me it was Zachary’s.

So, the vampire king was also involved in interspecies mating? His council wouldn’t be stoked if that news got to them. What was up with the youngest Staxtons breaking the very rules their ancestors had a hand in laying?

“What is that?” I asked.

She stiffened before promptly tugging the dress back into place. “It’s nothing.”

“Since when did you lie to me?”

“Since when it involved the life of another person? I’m not risking his life.”

“You do know that you just answered my question indirectly, right?”

She sighed, dropping her wineglass to the table. “You can’t tell anyone.”

“I know.”

“You don’t understand, Ishmael. They’ll kill him, and I can’t live with that.”

I reached for her hand across the table. “Hey, Keela, relax. I won’t tell anyone. I promise. I would never go back on my words.”

She visibly relaxed. “I know it’s unacceptable, but I can’t let him go. Even though I’m without a coven, I do not doubt that every mage will hunt for him.”

“You have me at your side,” I vouched. She was the closest thing I had to a sister, and fuck if I was losing her because of some stupid rules put in place by a bunch of dead men.

She smiled softly. “I know, but there’s only so much you can do against every mage that attacks us.” She ran her hand through her hair before releasing a deep breath. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I want to know more about the Staxtons’ ancestry,” I said.

She stiffened for the second time in the space of one minute before relaxing once more. “Do some research.”

There was that need to protect Zachary. Just how long have these two been together? Even though it was more than the year Ayra went missing, she couldn’t remember.

“No shit. You think I would be here if we found what we were looking for?”

She shook her head at me. “We?”

“Nathaniel and I, so yes, we.”

“I’m surprised Ayra hasn’t gone running for the hills.”

“She doesn’t have anywhere else to go,” I reminded her.

“I don’t think so, buddy. It’s only a matter of time before she returns home, and we can reunite her with her family. We’re already making preparations. Zach...”

“She’s not returning home,” I cut her off. “She’s already home. Why would you want to tear her away from her mate?”

“Ayra isn’t one of those beasts.”

“Beasts? Seriously? Vampires aren’t any better.”

She shrugged. “I’m mated to one. I’d know.”

“He sucks your blood, Keela.”

She picked up her glass once more, twirling its content around, a wicked smile on her lips. “Oh, trust me, you don’t wanna know how it feels to have those fangs in your neck. Ask Nathaniel. It’s orgasmic. Werewolf marks, on the other hand? Yikes! I heard it hurts.”

“I don’t want to hear about your sexcapedes with Zachary.”

She snorted. “I haven’t even scratched the surface yet. Back to your question. I can’t tell you anything.”

“Why not?”

We were both slack-jawed at the new arrival. He’d teleported behind Keela’s chair. Now, I was grateful for the secluded booth Keela got us at the back of the restaurant, or he would have exposed us to the fellow diners here.

Zachary Staxton.

He was every bit of what the pictures painted him to be; pale, tall, thin, with white-blond hair, and eyes that looked like molten flames.

“Zach! What the fuck are you doing here? You can’t just teleport anywhere you please.” Keela bit out through gritted teeth.

He pulled a chair back, taking the seat next to her. “You said you were going to talk to a friend. When I heard you wore this dress, I knew I had to see you for myself.”

He placed a kiss on her lips, turning her frown into a smile in a matter of seconds. She reciprocated, and soon they were having a heavy make-out session in front of me; her hands went to his hair, and he tugged her head back with one hand while the other rested on her waist.

“Can you two not be all over each other for, say, ten minutes?” I asked, finally reaching for my drink. They broke apart, Keela’s face the shade of a tomato, while Zachary had a smile on his face.

“You’d be all over her if you were in my shoes.” He grinned down at her. “I swear she’s ashamed of me.”

“You were stalking me,” she grumbled.

Zachary’s gaze shifted to mine, and all the warmth from earlier disappeared. “So, you’re Ishmael.”

“I am.”

“Thanks for looking out for Keela when she was going through difficult times.”

So, Keela told him what Samuel did to her. That would not end well for Samuel, but good riddance. He deserved to die, and now that he’d resurfaced from his hiding hole, it was the right time to strike before he went into hiding again.

“It’s nothing you should thank me for. She’s family.”

“What do you want to know about mine?”

“Your ancestry. Odin said Ayra and Nathaniel would give birth to a quadbrid. Nathaniel is only a werewolf-demon hybrid.”

“Straight to the point, I see.”

“Well, are you a hybrid?”

“To an extent? Yes.”

“What do you mean?”

“It dates back to the Great war. The Supreme Vampire Lord, at the time, fell in love with a sorceress, and he mated with her. They had a child, and when he heard they were hunting down hybrids, he hid her and their daughter.

“Supposedly, he got married to another female; a vampire this time, and that vampire gave birth to a son. This is where things get icky. The son and the daughter had an affair, and shortly before their father burned them alive for their incest relationship, they produced an heir.

“Even though their father was enraged, he couldn’t bring himself to harm the child. As time went on, they found out that she had no magic like her mother. What she had was immunity to all forms of magic.

“She had her child, and that child could wield magic before he turned six. The inconsistency carried on from them. While my ancestors have tried to erase the past, they still pass the story on from generation to generation, and they make a promise to keep it a secret until they had a child of their own.

“If you ask older Staxtons, they refuse to admit that they have magick blood running through their veins. It’d make them an abomination in the magical world. That would mean the Blacks aren’t the only hybrids left.”

“And Ayra?” I asked, my mind still reeling from the information he just dumped on me. “Does she wield magic?”

“She does. It’s one of the most dangerous types,” Keela replied, a grim look on her face.

I shook my head. “You’re joking.”

Zachary said, “We’re not. She wields Arcane magic like our grandfather.”

“That’s dangerous. It will consume her if she uses it.”

“If. She hasn’t had to use it in the past, but I fear this impending war is going to change everything.” Zachary looked none too happy about that. “This is bound to happen. It’s been brimming for centuries since the Great war. Only because the werewolves felt they were cheated during their creation. This is the universe’s way of repairing itself.”

My mind drifted back to the day at the hospital when she took the poison in Nathaniel’s body into hers. Was that her wielding Arcane magic?

“I think...” I began, but Keela cut me off.

“Many will fall.” The air around Keela turned chilly. “The bloodshed will be far worse than the Great war. Warriors will die. The earth shall soak up their essence. Only then can She purge out the evil. It’s a hard mission, but it must be done.”

Keela’s voice sounded unfamiliar. It had a deeper edge to it. That could only mean one thing. A magick deity was communicating through her, and it looked like Keela was trying to control the deity. Otherwise, she’d have blown the whole of this place, unable to contain the crippling power inside of her.

This was no ordinary feat. Just how much stronger had she gotten over the last few decades?

Zachary draped an arm over her shoulder, pulling her to his side. “Do you know what is on the line for this first war?”

“What do you mean ‘first war’?”

Zachary scoffed. “Do you think the two Allister brothers are strong enough to change destiny?”

“It doesn’t take much to change destiny.”

“Not this time. Ayra and Nathaniel have a dangerous path ahead of them. If Nathaniel somehow dies in the first war, the werewolves will see it as an opportunity to strike. Few of them know about Nathaniel’s other side. If I’m not mistaken, they widely respect Nathaniel in their world. He’s made a name for himself.”

Finally, I saw where Zachary was going with this. “Werewolves are still sore about losing the Great war. They’ll see Nathaniel’s death as a slap on all of their faces.”

“Yes. No matter the outcome of the first war, another Great war is bound to happen. If Nathaniel wins the first war against the Allisters and Benjamin, another enemy will pop up. I’m afraid vampires won’t stay out of it this time around.”

“Because of Ayra.”

He nodded. “Because of Ayra.”