Ch. 111: True

CHAPTER 111

Rachel~

My heart hammers, hearing the echo of his call. I need to get to him. I feel around frantically, looking for some way to him. I focus on his call, on the direction I feel him in, and I find something there. A rope, a thread. I follow it out.

I shove through and sit straight up, my eyes blink rapidly from the blinding lights. My hand, it’s held by something disgusting, repulsive. Sean. 

He turns his gaze on me as I take in the rest of the scene before me. Cold lab tables. An unconscious girl by me. A fire demon bouncing and pushing against some force. Sean chanting something I can’t understand. 

My insides feel like they’re pulling, something is pulling at me. In two directions. Sean and - the fire creature?

I look at the fire and I know. It hits me like a bullet to the chest.

“Jake!” I yell. 

I know it’s him. I can feel him. Can feel something between us. He’s pushing through the barrier but it’s not giving.

“Let go of me!” I yell at Sean and yank as hard as I can.

He sneers at me. “Just stay still one more-”

I scream. A death scream from the depths of my soul. I need to get to Jake and he dares to stop me? White glowing radiates from all around me. 

I remember defeating Vance. Glimpses of it come back to me. And I grab his shoulder with my free hand, glow first. Then - I pull.

He wiggles out of my grasp and crawls on the ground, holding one hand to his chest. He yells out in pain or panic. I don’t care.

He sends a wave of something invisible at me. I try to push through but he pulls down a storm and I can’t see. There’s thunder and lightning all around. I fly backwards and my head hits something. 

He tosses thoughts at me. Things that may have worked before but are useless now. Commands. ‘Stop now. You love me. You would never hurt me. I’m your mate.’ The words sicken me to the point of wanting to vomit.

I worry I can’t do anything before remembering what Aurora told me. To trust in my ability.

I dive down into my power and pull out a soft glowing light. It flutters ahead and I follow it. Barrier. Another barrier. I pull at it. If I can pull power from people, why not invisible walls? At first nothing happens, and I pull even harder. It’s like pulling out a brick from a tower. There’s no give.

‘Rachel!’ I hear again through nothing at all. Jake is desperate. He’s inching his way forward. Trying to get to me.

Something crashes into him and I can’t make it out - I realize too late it’s a bolt of lightning. He falls. NO!

I pull with everything I can and then some. I anchor myself to the pull I feel from Jake, and then - then my glowing hand makes a hole in the wall. Sean doesn’t notice. He’s throwing more at Jake, thinking I’m not worth paying attention to. He’s so very wrong. He thinks he’s unstoppable. He never considered what doing this would do to him - how it would make him vulnerable. He’s so distracted and tired from the different attacks while trying to perform such a taxing spell, and that right there is his downfall.

I grab him fiercely from his neck, digging my fingernails in his flesh. I yank everything I can from him. At first he seems confused, and I falter, feeling weaker. But then his look changes. He’s tired. I pull and pull, while Jake rails against the barrier. And at last the barrier weakens enough for his torso to break through. 




Jake~

I’m going to lose my mind. We both were. We are so close to her but completely helpless. The cry we send out into the ether is full of despair. We can’t lose her.

We keep pushing through, sending bursts of extreme fire. But that sneaky rat ba*tard keeps throwing barriers into barriers. I’m terrified we won’t break through in time.

I feel Rachel stir. And we will everything we have to tell her to wake up. Then after the millionth explosion of fire, she sits up. It surprises us how easily she seems to wake up, like she was pretending to sleep all along, or was surprising a friend at a surprise party. She seems disoriented and looks around. I desperately want her to fight him off, but I don’t know how she’ll react. 

But somehow. She recognizes me.

“Jake!” she screams.

Her cry for help spurs me on and we push harder. We have to make it. She pulls her hand back but he won’t let go. After a moment I see her glowing. She’s screaming something at him that I can’t hear. I try not to react to it. I can’t get distracted. I need to get to her. I have to. 

She’s free of him but now he’s attacking her and we roar. No one hurts our mate! No one! He sends a storm her way too and I call her name through the bond, not even sure if she can hear it.

I’m hit by something crackling through my spine and I feel Rachel’s panic. It scares me more than whatever just struck me.

I’m pushing, pushing, when I feel Rachel pull on the bond and I give her as much strength as she needs. That’s when her fist goes forward and from the look on her face, I know we’ve made some progress. Next thing I know she’s dug her hand into Sean and he cries out. His distracted self weakens the barrier, and I’m halfway through. I’d smile if we could in this form. That’s my mate.




Rachel~

Jake shoots a wave of fire in our direction and I smile broadly. Knowing in my heart that he could never hurt me. I use the shock and pain of the blow to Sean as my moment. I pull everything out in one heave and he falls over.

He’s on his knees. Gasping and looking around in total disbelief, like a fish out of water.

“How can this- how is this possible?” he asks, stunned.

I just look at my mate, my true mate. And without a word, I nod at him. He knows what to do. 

A blast of fire attacks Sean and all I hear are his screams. The fire is white hot and I can feel the intense heat coming off him as it engulfs its target. It makes me wince. But I know it has to be done.

The adrenaline wears off and I sink back on my back, gasping from the effort of suddenly pulling magic and life out of someone. I turn my head to Jake as the fire shrinks down and his form returns to a normal height. His fire retreats and the fur disappears, to leave me with the guy I know. Fire demon, wolf guy, Jack - Jake. My Jake.

I smile through my exhaustion and he doesn’t hesitate to rush the distance between us. He bends down over the lab table and picks me up in one swoop. I rest my head on his right shoulder and take a deep breath. It’s real. He’s real.

The skin contact between us is electrifying and soothing all at once. It feels more right than anything I’ve ever known.

“You came for me,” I say in a whisper, holding back tears.

After all this time, after all this suffering. It’s over.

He squeezes me and then leans back to look into my eyes before saying, “I’ll always come for you, Killer.”

The world exhaled and he held onto me as we walked out of the building. The sun warmed my arms and I took deep breaths while my memories collided. So many conflicting thoughts and memories. With time I’d sort them out. But for now, for now, I knew this was true. He was true.

Nick~

We are halfway to the location Rachel is in when Jake links us.

‘She’s okay. We’re okay. She kicked a*s’ he says. 

I can nearly picture the relief in his face when it comes through. I let my foot off the gas a bit, I had been speeding from the packhouse.

‘Thank you Goddess,’ Evan links us back.

‘We’re fifteen minutes out. Be there soon,’ I sent to Jake.

Evan grabs my shoulder and shakes it, a big grin on his face. The relief and happiness in our car is palpable. My heartrate calms. Goddess, I was so worried.

I exhale dramatically.

But then a blast comes through our pack link.

‘CODE RED. CODE RED. Children and elders to the bunker. All fighters to the east and north sides of pack territory, security crews to west and south’ the Beta gave his command with no room for nonsense or questions.

‘Get over there. Now,’ Jake links after a moment.

“Sh*t!” I yell and do a totally dangerous U-turn in the middle of a highway. 

Cars honk and swerve. Evan cries out. We fly back down the way we came.