Ch. 84: Witchlings and Wolves

CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR:
Ally~
As many questions as we have, at least I feel like we’re getting closer to some answers. While I was wiped out after the Living Dream Kyle and I created, it was time to try again. Hopefully we will see more this time. Ideally, it would connect with everything else and make it make more sense, but it wasn’t an exact science. Living Dreams took people to wherever. They were supposed to be impossible to direct.
I sat on my floor pillow again, my mom putting two cups of tea down for Kyle and I. I rolled my neck and looked at him, he nodded. He was still haunted in his eyes, but I think my mom was right, giving him things to focus on had been good.
He had been keeping an eye on Rachel’s dreams and asking Olivia about what could possibly be bending her memories. Now we were going to dig around for both of them. We’d take any answers for Kyle, or anything for Rachel.
“You ready?” he asked me.
“Let’s do this,” I said with resolve.
We closed our eyes and held hands again. Kyle took a moment to adjust the level of power he was sending my way after I gave him the signal. And then we felt the pull.
I blinked, totally blinded by light. Holding my free hand up over my eyes it became more clear what I was seeing. Fire. A huge fire. I stepped back and felt Kyle step back after me. It was a crummy cabin or shack and the flames reached several feet above the roof. I felt Kyle start leading us to the side of the building, and once we made it around the corner I saw a door.
Kyle walked us further inside. Thankfully I couldn’t feel the heat or smell any smoke, I looked around, my eyes darting everywhere. Where was this place? Was this happening right now? Did it already happen? Will it happen?
I had to shake those thoughts. There was almost no way we could know for sure, and I couldn’t afford to be distracted. We walked deeper and stopped. Then I saw a door. I don’t know why, but I felt pulled to it. So I led us to it, and when we passed through I realized it was a basement door. Kyle was held in something like this, could this be it?
We reached the bottom, the fire and smoke blocking so much from view. But I felt Kyle tug me and when I realized what he was looking at I cried out. I fought the urge to vomit as my eyes filled with tears.
“No,” I said shakily. It couldn’t be.
Two dead bodies on the floor, totally eviscerated. Shriveled like grapes. Skin stretched tight over bones. Forever holding hands.
I fell over, head hitting something.
“Ally!” my mom exclaimed, rushing to my side.
“Holy Fae Goddess,” Kyle said shakily.
I rubbed my head, I had smacked it right into the side table.
“What happened?” my mom asked Kyle, worry etched in her eyes.
He opened his mouth to respond when I cut them both off.
“No, we’re going back in. Right now. That can’t be all,” I grabbed Kyle’s hand and squeezed it.
“Are you sure?” he asked breathlessly, our heads still spinning.
I looked at the worry on my mom’s face but she pursed her lips and nodded.
We went back.
Well. Maybe not back. We were in a dark place. I reached out in front of me and felt around, hitting walls until I felt air. I tugged Kyle through and looked around. We had exited a tree trunk. Odd.
Kyle pulled us forward and I spotted a crow who looked at me curiously before flying towards a mountainside. As I followed it, I noticed a cave. As we neared I could hear voices, nothing I knew for sure, but definitely one that seemed familiar.
Once inside I saw a few people milling about, a campfire, and stacks of crates. I looked around and didn’t see anything super familiar so we continued on. Then I heard it. The familiar voice.
“Acolytes, our beloved Blood Mother is honored by your dedication to our cause.”
And then I saw him. Callum.
He was speaking to a small group of women by the campfire. This guy made my blood boil. Taking advantage of people - guy was a total sociopath.
I didn’t notice I was leading us there when I felt Kyle pull my hand in another direction. There were people back there, behind the crates. We got closer and I gasped.
Jake’s parents. They were shackled with their wrists bound, their feet bound, and in some sort of cage. We got within feet of them and I noticed how drained they were looking. Exhausted. Their eyes flutter, as they try to stay awake.
“Buttercup, stop scratching there, you’ll only make it worse,” Jake’s dad said gently to his wife.
I noticed she was using her fingernails to scratch at the skin under the shackles on her right foot.
She sank back down. “I’m so tired, hun.”
He wiggled closer to her and tried his best to hold her hands. “I know, we need to keep fighting. For the pack. For Jake.”
She looked up at him, eyes overflowing with tears. “I’m scared we won’t see him again. That we won’t be there for him when he finds his mate, or has pups of his own.”
“You are strong, Buttercup. And so is our son,” he reassured her.
But he didn’t say anything about that not being true. Something sank to the pit of my stomach.
Kyle tugged me toward the other side of the crates, but I didn’t see anything there. Then suddenly there it was. A paper on a clipboard. With a shipping address.

Kyle~
We were back.
“An address! Yes!” I exclaimed.
This was a great start. Yes, the cave we had visited likely didn’t have an address. But, this group had some sort of concrete connection to an address. I stood straight up with excitement, ready to hit up Google on my phone when I noticed Ally’s panic.
“What is it?” Ally’s mom asked.
“It turns out we know a werewolf,” she said, digging her phone out of her pocket.
“What?” I asked.
“Jake. Those were his parents. Rachel’s Jake. I need to call Evan,” she said choppily while her phone rang.
“Evan? Hey. Yeah, sorry, I know it’s late. Yeah - wait. Hold on. Are you with Jake? I need to talk to him, it’s really urgent,” Ally said into the phone, rubbing her leg in worry.
“Jake, hey. Uh. Are you somewhere private?,” she waited a moment, Jake likely replying. “Okay. I guess this is weird to do over the phone but - I know what you are, what your parents are. And I - my family, we’re not human either,” another pause. “I’ll cut right to it, I’m a Witchling and a Dream Walker Fae and I just - we saw your parents in trouble. Are you with them?” She walked off towards her room.
Ally’s mom caught my eye and she asked, “Did you say something about an address?”
Her question refocused me, and I quickly glanced at Ally who was in deep discussion on the phone. She would fill us in. In the meantime I needed to help out too.
I searched for the address and Maps pulled up a pin by Reno, Nevada.

Nick~
We were in the living room of the Marvis Coven’s meeting house when Evan got a call. It was a little after 1AM.
“Booty call?” I joked, he just narrowed his eyes and answered.
Ally asked to speak to Jake. Evan motioned for me to follow and we walked outside to find Jake. He was sulking under a tree.
He took the phone and with our hearing we were able to follow the conversation.
Witchling? Dream Walker? Jake’s parents - oh snap.
At that he turned to look right at me.
“They’re missing,” he said in response to her question.
They talked for a few more minutes. She gave us the address which I immediately looked up on my phone, and she described the location before ending the call.
“Let’s go,” I said, already turning back to the house to get Elise. “Evan, get our team ready.”
He nodded and jogged off in the direction of the bunkhouse.
I didn’t know what to say to Jake so I said nothing. Within 10 minutes we were gathering out front. Elise and her team stood with Evan, his father, and our warriors, along with a dozen witches. The witches piled into a car, and the rest of us shifted.
We ran for twenty minutes or so before we came to the location. Cabins peppered these woods. Further down we went and then I smelled it. Smoke.
We all began to book it at full speed. As we got closer I saw flames. No.
The witches arrived right before we did. A few of them were jumping out of the car, already using snow and water they created to dampen the fire.
Evan and his father charged straight inside, with Jake right behind them. Some warriors too. The rest of us began to secure the perimeter and look for anything out of place.
Nick. It’s them. They’re gone, Evan linked me.
I sank straight to the floor.