From Prisoner to Primordial

CHAPTER 16 - Death Warrants

*Nova’s P.O.V.*

    The following day, Elders Simmons, Williams, Benjamin, Edwards, and Kingsburg arrived at noon. Kane and I bowed in respect as they stood before us, and they bowed slightly back.

    Kane and I then led them up to the conference room where Gunther, Brielle, and every Delta was waiting.

    Tristan had been released from the hospital and been ordered to speak to Dr. Perez, who was also a licensed therapist, every week until Dr. Perez released him from treatment. He had insisted on being in the room with us, so he was also waiting in the conference room.

    We entered the room, and everyone bowed to the Elders before we all took our seats.

    “Where to begin…” Elder Simmons pondered out loud. “Luna Nova, please share the events that transpired yesterday.”

    I explained everything that happened from mine and Kiya’s visions to the search of Jane’s cottage and the resuscitation of Tristan and the bomb in Jane’s cottage. Then I played the recording of the conversation I had with Tristan in the hospital.

    Elder Simmons turned to Tristan. “You are Tristan, correct?” he confirmed, and Tristan nodded in response.

    “Yes, Elder Simmons.”

    “From your testimony in the recording, you had no choice but to help her build the bomb for Beta Brielle. Did you know of the bomb in her cottage?”

    “No, Elder Simmons. Ashley must have started the timer on it after she injected me with the wolfsbane and silver nitrate right before the Deltas burst through the door and she ran. That’s the last thing I remember. Then I woke up in a forest. I had no idea where I was. I started to wander when I felt a warmth envelop me, and then I heard “charge to 200, clear!” and then I woke up in the hospital.

    “My wolf, Chase, began freaking out and so they gave me a mild sedative to calm him and me. When I woke up after it wore off, the doctors explained to me where I was, and that I was safe. When I woke up the second time, Alpha Kane and Luna Nova were there, and that’s when they began questioning me. I had no idea I was being recorded until the Luna told me.”

    “This dark witch, Stevie. Do we know who she is?” Elder Williams asked.

    “I do,” my dad spoke up. “Well, not directly. But my light witch friend, Ariadne who is mated to Khonsu of the Frost Moon pack in Nevada City, California, knows her. Stevie is her half-sister.”

    “I see. Well, we will contact the witch’s council on your behalf. Is there any forensic evidence such as fingerprints connecting Jane to the bomb?”

    “Roman and I found fingerprints on some of the pieces of the bomb. Some we have no match to, but the others match Jane and Ashley,” River said.

    “The witch’s council should have a copy of every witch’s fingerprints. I bet the unknown fingerprints match up to Stevie,” Elder Kingsburg said. “Witches can do a lot of things, but changing their fingerprints is not one of them,” he added.

    Elder Edwards turned to Tristan. “You stated you were captive for three days. Can you tell us what you remember from those three days?” He set a recorder on the table. The red light on it indicated it was recording. “Tell us everything you can remember. There are no wrong answers, Tristan.”

    Tristan nodded and began. “The first day, Jane approached me outside the pack library. She made small talk with me about my future and everything. She even asked me how old I was. She seemed disappointed when I told her I was 18.

    “We talked about my dad being a bomb tech, and that… that’s when she asked me if I was trying to become a bomb tech, too. I told her yes, I wanted to become one of the best of the best, just like my dad.

    “Then I felt a sudden presence behind me, and a sharp pain in my neck. The next thing I knew, I woke up in Jane’s cottage in the cell. Stevie was there. Jane asked me what she needed to build a small-scale bomb and a large-scale bomb.

    “When I refused, Jane whipped me, and Stevie injected me with another smaller dose of wolfsbane. I couldn’t feel my wolf, Chase anymore. Jane told me that if I gave her the answers she wanted, she would let me go.

    “So, I told her what she would need. Stevie conjured up every piece with magic, picking a piece up here and there to study it for a moment before setting it back down. I told her what chemicals she would need, also, and those too, magically appeared.

    “I told Jane that I had given her what she wanted and begged her to let me go, but she just laughed. ‘This is just the beginning,’ she said to me. ‘You’re going to tell me how to build it step-by-step as if you were teaching a class full of dummies,’ she laughed.

    “I told her she was a dummy and started to refuse when she began whipping me again, hard, but this time, the whip was laced with wolfsbane and silver nitrate,” he took a shaky breath.

    “When I came to, she had each part set out neatly and ordered me to begin. I could hear noises coming from the bedroom, and two people arguing. I instantly recognized both voices as Stevie and Ashley.

    “As I explained to her how to put the small-scale bomb together, I could hear Ashley and Stevie putting the other one together in the bedroom. I didn’t realize it was going to stay in there. The directions are the same, it’s just the pieces are larger, and the amount of each chemical needed is different.

    “I explained everything down to each minute detail, hoping she would let me go. I didn’t know what the bombs were for at the time, and I didn’t want to know. The dark witch obviously knew how much more of each chemical was needed, or the bomb in the bedroom wouldn’t have worked.

    “I asked Jane, ‘if you have a dark witch helping you who can conjure up just about anything you need or want, why do you need me when clearly the witch could have just conjured up the bombs or made them herself.’

    “She laughed at me and said, ‘Because I want these deaths to be by my own hand. I want to be the one responsible for the creation of the bombs that could wipe out most of the pack, at least the ranked members and cause the pack to crumble. And I want to be the one responsible for it all.’

    “I growled at her then, realizing at that moment that this was about revenge on her ex-mate, Gunther, and his second-chance mate, Brielle. You see, Jane had rejected Gunther because he was not a ranked member at the time he turned 18. He only became Beta a few weeks after he met and marked Brielle, one of the newborns from Gibbous Moon.

    “I tried reasoning with her, telling her that this was not the answer. She got mad and began whipping me again until I passed out. I woke up a few hours later; I could tell because there was a clock on the wall across from me.

    “She told me if I didn’t help her finish the bombs, she would have Stevie kill me. So, I finished helping walk her through step-by-step of the creation of the bomb. I couldn’t mind link anyone because I was too weak, and my wolf was nowhere to be found.

    “That didn’t stop me from trying, of course. But every attempt ended in failure and resulted in me getting whipped until I passed out.

    “She finally finished the bomb and put it in a decorated Christmas box for Beta Brielle, whose name she had drawn from the endless list of pack members. She considered herself lucky that she had gotten Brielle as her gift receiver.

    “She staged the bomb so that once the box was opened, it would detonate. I don’t think she realized that the Alpha and Luna had the power to see the future and the power of premonitions of imminent danger. She also didn’t count on little Kiya having a premonition, though from what Luna Nova has told me, it wasn’t in as great of detail as Kane and hers were, for which I am grateful. She may be advanced for her age, but she is still only one and she shouldn’t have to witness the horror that could have been.

    “Once the bomb for Brielle was finished, she placed it underneath all the other presents under the tree on the stage, knowing it would be the last one opened. When she came back, she refused to let me go.

    “I could hear her talking to Ashley in the bedroom; Stevie had long since disappeared. Jane admitted to Ashley that she sold her soul to Stevie in exchange for her help. Then they discussed the plans to get rid of me.

    “I struggled with all the strength I could muster to break free of the shackles, but it was no use. Ashley was to stay in the cottage on Christmas day during the gift exchange so that if things went to s**t, Ashley could kill me with a large dose of wolfsbane and silver nitrate that Stevie had left.

    “Jane would simply mind link her if she got caught, and Ashley was to inject the poison in me and run.” He took another shaky breath before continuing. “Christmas Day came, and it was time for the pack gift exchange. Jane stood near the ranked members, but not so close that she would get hurt, as she had told me her plans knowing I was going to die either way.

    “Jane told me that she knew the Alpha and/or Luna would order a few of the deltas to come check her cottage, even if her plan was a success.

    “Ashley kept watch over me until she got the mind link from Jane that she had been caught and everything was ruined. She injected me with the fatal dosage and ran into the bedroom, I assume she was setting the time on the bomb, now that I know it was still in there.

    "I heard the door to the cottage burst open and a window shatter in the bedroom, but I was fading fast. All I could muster out was the names ‘Jane’ and ‘Ashley.’ I heard Delta Kate yell my name before death overcame me and my heart stopped. And you know the rest from there.”

    Tristan was in tears, shaking uncontrollably. I mind linked Dr. Perez to get to the conference room to give him an anxiety pill before it became a full-blown panic attack. Dr. Perez burst through the door with a small glass of water and some pills in his hand.

    “Tristan. Tristan, take these, they will help you,” he ordered, and Tristan nodded and gulped down the pills and then chugged the water to follow. Within minutes, the shaking stopped, and the tears slowed.

    “Luna Nova, what happened after that?” Elder Edwards prompted me.

    “I had ordered Deacon, Braylen, and Kate to go to the cottage. Not long after, Kate mind linked me saying Kane and I needed to come ASAP. We took off towards the cottage. Once I saw Tristan in the cell, I used my powers to rip the door off its hinges and get him out of the shackles onto the ground.

    “I had linked Dr. Viotto and Dr. Perez to rush to the cottage with Titus and Ximena and to bring the antidote necessary. They were there within a minute or less and began compressions while administering the antidote. Once I heard his heart beating faintly, they used the portable AED to shock his heart back to normal rhythm. Dr. Howard had showed up with a stretcher, and they loaded Tristan onto the stretcher and got him to the hospital where they finished their work.

    “I had all three Deltas taking pictures of the extra equipment, chemicals, and of the rooms themselves. Kate went into the bedroom and yelled, ‘Luna!” in a panicked tone. I ran in there, saw what was wrong, and ordered everyone to get out. We had only gotten about 200 feet away when the bomb detonated, setting the cottage ablaze.

    “The pack firefighters responded immediately and were able to recover a few bomb fragments after the fire was put out. I had those sent directly to River and Roman, who had already disabled the smaller bomb, to examine while Kane and I went to the hospital to check on Tristan after seeing that Kane’s parents had a handle on things with the rest of the pack.”

    "Were you two able to match up any of the larger pieces to the smaller ones?" Elder Kingsburg asked, and Roman nodded

    “Elders, with all due respect, I take these bombs not only as an attempted murder on my Beta female, but also on the rest of the ranked pack members and their unborn pups. I consider Ashley an accessory to attempted murder on the ranked members and Tristan. We would like to move forward with torture and the death penalty,” Kane said seriously. “We would also like the dark witch, Stevie, to be turned over to our pack after she is stripped of her magic so that she, too, can be punished for her involvement in these crimes.”

    The Elders looked at each other and all of their eyes glazed over as they talked to each other via their mind link. After a few minutes, their eyes returned to normal, and they paused before answering.

    “Very well, we all agree on the death penalty for your two ranked members. I know the Witch council will move for the death of Stevie. We will have to discuss your request to have her returned to you after she is stripped of her magic, but I make no promises on that one,” Elder Simmons responded.

    Kane pushed over two documents to the Elders to sign: the death warrants for Jane and Ashley. Each Elder signed both documents before pushing them back over to Kane.

    “Let me go make a call the Melinda, the head of the Witch council to see if she will agree with your request,” Elder Simmons said before standing up and disappearing from the room. A few minutes later, he returned.

    “The Witch council has agreed to strip Stevie of her magic and have her transported to your pack for her death in one weeks’ time. They have already signed her death warrant, which will be sent with her. She will be accompanied by four light witch guards, and four of our guards as well.”

    “Thank you, Elder Simmons,” Kane said sincerely. “Thank you to all of you,” he added.

    Everyone stood up and bowed to the Elders and then Kane led them back downstairs. As soon as the door shut behind him, cheers filled the room.

    “Luna Nova, I know the doctors consider my mental state to be fragile, but I would really appreciate it if I could witness her torture and death even if I cannot participate in it.”

    “We will have to see where you are mentally in three days' time. We will go from there, okay, Tristan?” I asked him and he nodded in understanding.