The Healing Souls

Greater Darkness

[Mike]

Rock’s call shocked us. Rhett said he wouldn’t mess with us if we didn’t mess with him, but then he did something to Ben’s cousin. Ben was beside himself. He contacted his parents and they were headed to the pack hospital while we dealt with the warlock. We grabbed every book we had that had any mention of warlocks.

If he wasn’t going to hold up his end of the bargain, we’d find some way to kill him or remove him from the territory. This was an uncalled-for attack on an innocent woman. What had he even been doing at Rock’s office? If he did something to my sister….

Rock said Carmen was fine, but there was no way she wasn’t upset about her friend. Gemma, Ashley, and Carmen had been thick as thieves since they were very young. Our parents often joked that they were all going to end up mated into the same family because they were like sisters.

But that didn’t happen. Ash lost her mate before she met him, when she was fourteen. She only told Ben, who told Trent and me. Ash didn’t mind waiting for a second chance quietly. I wished Carmen had told Ben about being rejected.

That was all in the past now. She had a new mate and her old mate was gone.

I respected Rock. Yes, I had doubted his choice to make Carmen his office manager, but that was because of how I was raised. Carmen was fragile and couldn’t do things for herself. That had always been drilled into me.

Rock didn’t think that, though. He believed in my sister more than I did. I’d learn, though. I’d learn to see her as the competent woman Rock saw. The one Rhett said she could be. The thought of that warlock being anywhere near my sister pissed me off.

“There’s nothing,” Ben growled, slamming a book shut. “How the hell are we supposed to kill him when all of these damned books are useless?!”

“We’re not going to kill him. We’re going to have something we can threaten him with. Just to make sure he reverses whatever he did to Gemma. The doctors said it’s as if she’s sleeping, but can’t wake up. Maybe whatever he did is temporary,” Trent told him.

“We should contact Victor as soon as he wakes up. We should contact Queen Maeve. There has to be something she or her healers can do. We can’t let Gemma waste away in whatever hold he has on her,” Ben insisted.

“Do you need to go to the hospital and be with your cousin?” I asked. “It seems like you need the reassurance that she’s there and fine. I know she’s like a sister to you.”

He looked at me. There was a broken, angry look in his eyes. Ben was always a little softer, especially when it came to Gemma. She’d lost so much but hid her pain well.

“How can I go there knowing I let him leave this office just a couple of weeks ago without a scratch? I knew he was a threat, but I didn’t do anything. She was hurt because of me.”

“No,” Trent said firmly. “The hospital said she’s not hurt. Not even a bump or bruise anywhere. She would have still had one when she got there if there was one and Carmen didn’t hear anything. It was as if he laid her down gently. He didn’t hurt her; he put her to sleep somehow. We’re not trying to kill him. We’re just trying to find a way to encourage him to be agreeable if he isn’t.”

Ben looked shocked and betrayed. Trent was always all for the pack. Ben knew that, but, as I said, he was soft. All Gammas were when it came to the mental and emotional health of the pack. He thought Gemma would want vengeance, but I knew she would want to be awake. She didn’t want to be trapped in her head.

Gemma was outgoing because of all she lost. She kept herself busy with making friends and being around people to keep her from feeling. Losing Ashley was going to hurt her a lot, even if they could talk on the phone and online.

“Here…. I found something,” I told them. “The only thing a dark spirit fears is a greater darkness. I decided to appeal to the thing inside of him. We need to find a greater darkness. Do you think we could contact the Traveler and get her to come back? I know she went back to where she was staying with Queen Bellamy.”

“If we could get Death, I’m sure he’d be a greater darkness than the Traveler. She seems too gentle and sweet to be truly frightening,” Ben grumbled.

“She only seems like that. I saw her in the fight against the hunters. Once you see that tiny woman covered in blood, tearing the throats out of her enemies…. There’s nothing gentle and sweet about the monster she can turn into,” Trent said. “How great is his darkness, though? We have no idea.”

I nodded. Would an ancient vampire really be a greater darkness? Trent had a point. We had nothing to tell us what kind of darkness he had inside him.

“We should try asking him while we investigate a greater darkness. Maybe he’ll tell us how long Gemma will be out. We can ask him if he’ll remove whatever he did. I learned from dealing with Victor that sometimes asking will work. I would have liked to have a threat on our side, but we’ll go with what we have. Ben, I need you to control yourself. Can you do that?” Trent asked.

Ben nodded. “If it wakes up Gemma, I will. We’re not letting him off for this. Even if he does it, we’re looking for a greater darkness.”

“We are. I don’t like the pack being in this limbo. I was willing to let things go before he did this. Goddess only knows what he could do to the pack if he were simply left to do as he pleases.”

We put the books away. Ben straightened himself out. I knew he wanted to present a pulled-together version of himself. I ran my fingers through my hair and straightened my clothes as well. Trent put his suit jacket back on and did the same.

“Ready,” we told him.

“Rhett! We need to talk to you,” Trent called out.

There was no response. No thickening of shadows. Suddenly, we were swarmed by darkness and ended up standing in the pack hospital. Rhett was right next to us.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed.

“Watching. It looks like it’s working. Look at them.” He pointed into the waiting area.

Rock and Carmen were sitting together. Their hands were clasped together and they were quietly praying to the goddess. When they finished their prayer, Rock put his arm around Carmen and cuddled her close to him. He was whispering to her, but I could hear him telling Carmen that Gemma would be okay because the goddess takes care of her children.

He was checking in with her to make sure she was all right. Whenever someone stopped to stare at them, Rock glared. That didn’t stop the nurses from whispering about them.

All of them knew that was Carmen’s mate and he was a troll, but Rock was still in his glamour. It didn’t really make sense. He was in the pack lands. We told him while he was here he didn’t have to wear the glamour.

“Excuse me,” Rock said.

He had left my sister in the chair and gone to the admissions desk. Carmen didn’t look lost or frightened without him. She was looking directly in his direction. He wasn’t paying attention to us, even though we were a few feet away.

“Can I help you?” the nurse asked.

“I was hoping for an update and some water for my mate. She’s been crying and needs hydration,” he explained. “The family was taken back, but we were told to wait here.”

Rock seemed mildly irked by being left behind. They would allow Carmen and Rock back after Gemma was awake or after they were finished with testing. The family was permitted back because our families and our mates helped us to heal. The closer they were, the better it would go.

“Sorry, sir, that’s policy. I can get her some water. Just a moment.”

The nurse went to a small break room nearby and came back a few moments later with a bottle of water. She returned and smiled without showing her teeth. She was scared and didn’t want to anger him by baring her teeth.

“I got her a bottle so she wouldn’t accidentally spill. Did you want me to loosen the lid for her?”

He snatched the bottle from her and glared down. “My mate is blind, not weak, not paralyzed.”

With that, he turned back to the chairs. The nurse was shaking. Another nurse came over and put her hand on her shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

“I didn’t mean anything by it. I’m just used to people doing things like that for Carmen. He was so mad.”

“Trolls are like that. Look at how he takes care of her, though. Maybe he’s more like a werewolf than we thought.” The other nurse nodded to Rock and Carmen.

She was drinking from the bottle and Rock was sitting back with his arm around her chair. After she put the cap back on the water, Carmen leaned her head on his shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her in a protective and comforting way. He was glaring directly at us.

“He can sense us, but can’t see us,” Rhett explained. “The real reason he came over was that he sensed it and wanted to get an idea of where the feeling was coming from. He knows now, but still can’t see anything. If we move closer, he’ll become defensive.”

“How do you know that?” Trent asked.

“Because it’s the nature of trolls. Even the blind ones have a sense of danger. None of the werewolves can pick up on the feeling of my darkness, but he’s been watching me almost every minute I’ve been watching him.” Rhett chuckled. “He’s her darkness….”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“My darkness protects me. It gives me a life like I never could have imagined when I was human. I know what you were looking for before you called me. You won’t find a greater darkness than mine. Only two exist in the world and I’ll never tell you where to find them. You thought I wouldn’t let the red-haired wolf wake up. I understand. When I’m done here, I’ll let her go.”

“She doesn’t like sleeping or being alone. You’re torturing her by keeping her asleep. Please, let Gemma go,” Ben pled.

“Her dreams are unfortunate, but running away isn’t going to help her. When she finds her mate, she needs to be over her issues. I will not wake her until I’m finished. I can send you back to where you were and you can choose to leave it as it is, or you can cause me problems. I do not recommend the latter. I can be irritable when interrupted,” Rhett warned.

“Gemma will wake up? You promise?” Trent asked.

We turned to him. This was one of those times when he made a decision thinking of the pack rather than the individual. Letting Rhett watch Carmen and Rock in the waiting room was safer for the pack than trying to force the issue and get Gemma awake. Ben glared at our Alpha, but I understood.

Part of being Beta was understanding our Alpha and his motives. I understood them better than Ben could. If I was to lead in the way Trent did when he was away, I needed to have the ability to think like he did.

“Of course. I have no interest in Carmen’s friends. She’s but a tool for me to manipulate the world around those two. They’re my project. This is fun.” Rhett laughed.

With a wave, shadows swallowed us again and we were back in the office. All of us were standing in the same places we had been. I wondered if I was really in the hospital when he brought us there or if it was just some sort of psychic teleportation. Did our minds travel while our bodies just stood around in the office?

“Did that really happen?” Ben asked.

“We were in the hospital with Rhett, then back here. It doesn’t feel real, but it does all at the same time,” Trent replied. “There’s only one way to know if it was real…. We need to go to the hospital.”

We left the office and headed to the hospital. Part of me didn’t want it to be real. I wanted it to be a trick he was playing on us. That would mean he wasn’t really watching my sister.