The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) Read online

  “What? Are you crazy?” he nearly yelled. “I’ve half a mind to turn right back around and take you back!”

  Jes hadn’t been prepared for that. “Jared, I have to know the truth. I believe that my father was the one who sent that gang to Justice—and not just to force him to turn. And worse—he may even have intended to kill his sisters—the way he killed Dracon’s…. I have to know the truth—please.”

  “Jes, Justice will have my hide for helping you. He might even kick me out of the training.”

  She looked at him in surprise. She hadn’t thought of that. She shook her head. “I don’t think so. The Jaguar People have accepted you as family. I don’t think he would kick you out so easily—especially given that I am in so in need of answers.” She looked out at the blue sky. “Besides, we’ll be back before they even know I’m gone.”

  Felix Cantrell did not look happy to see her pop up on the front porch of his house twice in one month. “What do you want now….?” he had obviously refrained from using the name she knew he wanted to use. A name he likely called many women.

  She would refrain from hurting him—since he’d been kind enough to do so.

  “Who hired you to go after Justice that day?” she snarled at him.

  He looked at her in surprise. “Who you been talking to?” he snarled back.

  She grabbed him and pinned him to the wall, her arm across his throat.

  Jared had been standing at the bottom of the stairs keeping watch, but seeing this made him bound up the steps two at a time—however, the look she gave him from the corner of her eye warned him off.

  “I could break your neck without blinking an eye,” she hissed. “I’ve some idea that you know exactly who—or should I say what—I am. So we both know what I’m capable of.”

  “Okay,” he choked out. He grabbed his throat when she let him go.

  Jared looked as relieved as the gangbanger.

  “Start talking, Felix!” she warned.

  “Someone named Cole came to see us. Said he knew we paid regular visits to Justice and his sisters. He paid a lot of money that day to make sure that this time they all died. So I put some of my best guys on it.” He made a nasty face. “But we don’t kill no kids,” he sneered. “’Course we didn’t tell him that. We had figured, what’s he gonna do, turn us in?”

  “No.” Her smile was cold. “But something tells me you found out what exactly he could do, right Felix?”

  He started to hang his head, but then straightened. “Several of my guys got used for dinner that night.” He looked chalk white when he said that—lost in the past. Then he seemed to remember where he was—and who he was talking to after a moment. “That’s all I got to say to you,” he snarled. He went back into his house, banging the door shut in their face.

  They were well on their way back to Second Wind before either of them spoke.

  “How did you know?” Jared questioned.

  She looked at him, a feeling of nausea clenched at her stomach. “Because I know about Cole.”

  Justice was waiting in an easy chair when she came sneaking down the side hall she’d used to slip into Jared’s car earlier that day.

  He was stone still. And she’d never felt so much apprehension in her life.

  Jes had grown up unafraid of anyone—save for the vamps. After all, there weren’t too many humans who could come near to becoming a threat to her.

  But Justice—he was another matter entirely. She wanted to run, but stood her ground instead.

  “You have vamps hunting you, Jes,” he said quietly. He looked up at her then. The look in his eyes caused the hairs to stand up on the back of her neck. He hadn’t gone back to using the Fae glamour here. His violet eyes were lit with unnamed emotion.

  “You will not get another chance to sneak out like that,” he said. And that was all he said.

  All the more damning—for the way he’d said it.

  Dracon didn’t help much when he appeared that evening. He walked up to her with that quiet, lithe ease of his. He didn’t stop until he was standing right in front of her. “Justice,” he said, not taking his eyes off her.

  “Yes?” Justice said.

  “Should we lock her up—like we would have had to do just one, or two, short centuries ago?”

  She wanted to glare at him—but thought better of it. She took her medicine instead—bitter as it tasted. She deserved it. She wasn’t prone to giving into human-like emotions—and doing something so rash. But the cop in her still had a stranglehold over her thoughts.

  Justice seemed to contemplate his comment seriously.

  She knew they were messing with her—at least she hoped they were messing with her. But these two were not human. They didn’t have the same reasoning. And they didn’t follow any of the same rules.

  That left unmistakable seriousness to her situation.

  They could, indeed, be thinking of locking her up.

  And worse, she hadn’t seen Jared since their return. They may have worse in mind for him. And she didn’t dare speak up for him. They would consider that as crossing the line—for a woman to make excuses for a man.

  And when had Dracon gained such control over her?

  He nodded. She realized, then, she didn’t have to answer to one dark prince—but two.

  Her brow shot up at that realization. “Are there any more of you?” She’d fought to keep her tone neutral, but she wasn’t at all happy at drawing this particular conclusion.

  Dracon smiled. “Yes, actually. There are two more.”

  “Great!” she whispered under her breath.

  But he hadn’t missed it.

  She looked at the two of them. “Let me see,” she looked at Justice, “you are fire.” He inclined his head. She looked at Dracon, “You are air.”

  “Yes, dear. And that leaves Earth and Water,” Dracon finished for her.

  “But that would mean…”

  Justice came to stand in front of her then too.

  “So you’re….”

  “The princes of the four directions,” Dracon supplied.

  Oh, Jes thought, her brows raised. “I was going to say the four horsemen.”

  Dracon smiled. “The four directions. The four horsemen. Whatever you want to call it. There is much more to the powers of the four directions than meets the eye.”

  Justice stood at the window again. “Many of the humans have come to believe that the four princes of the four directions are tied with their Christian devil,” he said quietly.

  Jes nodded. “But then, much of the pagan world has been revised into their scriptures, much of it into a negative or evil way, and almost all of it used—to control the people. Let alone—to cast a negative light on it—so the people would be too afraid not to give up their Mother. But many of the people remembered their loving Mother. And died for the knowing.”

  Dracon spoke then, in that quiet, still way she was coming to know. “The people are ruled by a ruler they believe they can trust. And the name of power they use to control the people—is fear.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Killer

  Jes watched both Dracon and Justice as they came to sit on either side of her.

  “Relax, Jes,” Justice said to her. “We’re not going to lock you up.”

  Dracon nodded. “But you will not get another chance to do anything so foolish. Do not underestimate the factions of my people who hunt you—ever again.” He sat back. “Your son is too important—so you are just as important to fulfilling the prophecy. You must not take risks with yourself. Do you understand this?”

  Jes nodded. “Yes,” she said. She looked from one of them, to the other. “What are we going to do now?”

  “We,” Dracon indicated the two of them, “are going to go get these factions of my people to join our cause.”

  She gave a small gasp. “But won’t that be extremely dangerous?”

  Justice nodded. “I won’t lie to you, Jes.”

  “But you
intend to do it anyway.”

  “It’s too important,” he answered. “We have much to do. We must be ready!”

  She leaned forward. “Ready for what? What is it I still don’t know?”

  Dracon got up at that point, “I think we should retire to the common office and show her.”

  Justice nodded. The three of them shut themselves up in the office. And for the next two hours they showed her where all the factions of vamps were holed up, and what these meant to the cause. When they were done, Jes could easily see why it was so vital to win at least some of them over.

  It was something like a kingdom, but a hidden one. One that sat in a slightly different time than the ones the humans understood. It was the kingdom of the Land of the Fae. And there were the dark ones who were trying to gain control over the all the powers of the Earth. The dark ones used energy to achieve that cause and were aligning their groups into specific areas.

  Now the Jaguar People and the Crow People were important to making sure that these factions did not get to control the energy fields surrounding the humans.

  The people of the water were another key to this.

  And the fight for the specific areas that aligned with the stars—was the key to all of it.

  The dark ones had aligned the humans against the princes centuries before—taught them to fear them for a reason—for aligned they might well have stopped them.

  So instead, they had gone to great lengths to rewrite all the old pagan stories—to align the humans against all who might have stopped them.

  And the name of their control over the people—was fear.

  For fear kept the people from asking questions—and it worked. All these centuries later, fear of what the humans had been taught to see as darkness still reigned in their hearts and minds.

  Fear of doing the wrong thing. And especially fear of believing in the spirit world in case they should accidentally give power to the darkness—keeping the humans focused on their fears and questioning anything that could help them—and leaving the darkness free to slowly gain control over everything.

  To free themselves—the humans must first let go of their fear.

  For fear is what fed the darkness.

  The next morning, Justice and Jes ate breakfast together—alone. He hadn’t been to bed that night either. She knew that he now spent all of his evenings with Dracon, planning. They were going through every possible circumstance.

  But she also knew that he enjoyed the return of his brother.

  Justice was unusually quiet. She watched him for a moment as they ate. Finally, she decided she couldn’t wait to hear some word of what they had decided. “Have you and Dracon made a plan?”

  He eyed her, setting down his spoon. “Yes.” He reached for some bread, then seemed to think better of it, and sat back in his chair. “We will be traveling to the different clans, to try and make peace.” He got up from his chair and began to pace the small room. “This peace is vital. As we both know, we have five separate races who have watched the planet Earth since they brought us here. Two of these clans have watched for any excuse to step in and take over. These clans from these other starships have already begun to see us as easy prey—divided as we are. We have done much to protect ourselves, as have so many of the others, but we are too divided. We must come together, or risk becoming colonized.” He turned back and came to stand in front of Jes. “This is not just a fear for the human species—this is a very real threat for both of our races—Fae and human alike—for we are all divided. And divided is no way to be.”

  She understood this, but was alarmed just the same. “But will the factions of Fae who have separated from the peoples respect this powwow?”

  He nodded. “They all still follow the code. They know what it means if they don’t. They have been allowed to colonize, but they would not be allowed to show such disrespect.”

  She watched him when he returned to the window to look out. He did that a lot, she noticed, whenever he needed to think. “What about the rogue factions of vamps?”

  He didn’t turn around, and when he spoke, he appeared to speak to no one in particular. “They answer to no one.”

  She set down her napkin at that. “They have to. They can’t just answer to no one. They would then have to answer to all. It is why they haven’t just turned the humans into their own private food source.”

  He turned, letting out a dry laugh in spite of his mood. “This is true.”

  She came to him then, and put her arms around his waist from behind, laying her head against his back. “Then we’ll just have to make them remember.”

  He did laugh this time. “My—we are warlike.”

  “I’m still a cop—it’s ingrained into me to police those who would try and victimize those who cannot—or will not—protect themselves.” She shrugged, and went back to laying her face against his back. “The humans do not begin to know what they’re up against. The Fae have been holding the balance for a long, long time. It is time we once again work as one.”

  He nodded. She knew this, though she didn’t see it. “But these rogue factions of vamps just see the humans as weak, pathetic creatures who use up the Earth—and so deserve what they get. It will be difficult to persuade them to join the cause of once more protecting them.”

  She let go of his waist long enough to come around in front of him and look into his eyes. “They do not just protect the humans,” she reminded him. “They protect the Earth.”

  He nodded. “And that is what they need to be reminded of. For if we are caught warring amongst ourselves, we’ll make easy prey to those who have waited for so long to take Her from us.”

  “The Earth is one of the richest planets out there—full of abundance,” she said as she walked back to the table and sat down to finish her breakfast.

  He tilted his head, watching her as she sat facing him, looking up from the table. She knew he was trying to read her thoughts. She smiled. She was getting better at this already.

  “Yes,” he said carefully. “That is why they have sought to take Her from us for so long.”

  She smiled at him fully now. “Then we’ll remind them of where we’d all have to live—if we’re evicted from our home.”

  His tone was dry. “If we got that lucky—more like we’d be their source of workers, while the human women would bear the children they cannot have, and the men were used as fuel for their experiments. They would colonize the Earth—much like they did the Pleiades and all the others our ancestors tried to escape to.”

  She picked up a butter-knife. “Well, then, we’ll have to educate the rogues—and then, we need to help the humans to start accepting that—they are not alone.” She picked up a slice of bread and began to spread it with sweet, strawberry jelly. Some of the things she’d learned from the humans—she loved. “And it’s time to help us fight.”

  They set out in caravans of four vehicles—spread out. Any more than this and the humans would wonder what was up. They were careful not to cause a spectacle—even with the four. They were starting with the colonies who lived amongst the humans—they would have to talk to some Fae colonies next—but Fae, who didn’t live amongst the humans, didn’t need reminding that they had to protect their homes—even if some of them didn’t have any use for humans. The Earth was their home—and that meant protecting Her.

  The colonies that lived with the humans were a different matter. Many of them had become caught up in the passage of time—took on a more linear existence—like the humans—and had begun to also get caught up in other pursuits—like money, and things.

  This spelled disaster for the Earth.

  But others had integrated themselves amongst the humans and were busy trying to show them how to take better care of the Earth, how to use fewer resources—how to not destroy Her valuable resources in the process, and how to keep from raping and pillaging Her.

  Many changes had been made that went a long way toward healing Her scars. Many more still n
eeded to be made.

  Many of these Fae—disguised as humans—were also busy teaching the children—who were a lot more open to treating the Earth as a living thing than their parents. Many of the children were evolved beings—Crystal Children, Indigo Children, and Rainbow Children—who raised the vibrations of others simply by being around them.

  If their parents were to listen to some of their conversations, they would be amazed at the types of conversations they were having—spiritual conversations—enlightened conversations—conversations that these same parents would not have remembered having at their age, because they were not thinking about these types of things at their age.

  The Earth had been in extreme danger of being taken—but so many of the humans were awakening, and many of the Starborne and Fae believed it was time to teach them—not give up on them.

  But then there were the factions of rogue vamps—and other, more-hostile Fae were not amongst those who had joined the Alliance—and these were the ones who now jeopardized the Alliance.

  And these were the ones who had to be stopped at all costs—for these were the ones who now tipped the Earth’s future into a dangerous position.

  No one could supersede another—without putting all in peril. When would all the peoples see this?

  Jes shook herself out of her preoccupied thoughts and began getting ready. They would soon be at the first town. When they had first gathered these people to talk, and then persuaded them to help build the Alliance—only then would they move on to the next.

  Much like a presidential candidate, she thought with some amusement.

  And indeed, their time in the first colonized sector of Fae amongst humans went much like this. They had to be careful with bringing so many people together to avoid raising the suspicions of the humans—which wasn’t easy since it turned into a heated debate involving several of the leaders, all of who demanded their turn to speak and be heard. The first gathering was, however, alleviated by the fact that these Fae met fairly regularly in a hidden building beneath one of their homes.