Amalgamate

Chapter 64

"Fine, take us there. We'll make sure everything's on the up and up." Maitland wasn't sure he liked the idea of her alone with this vampire...for "training".

"I can't do that Maitland." Deisha began walking away from them.

"Why not?" Tearlach chimed in again with growing concern.

"It's not safe for you there." She didn't even look back because if she told them about Ian's facility and who actually resided there things were gonna go to hell in a hand basket. And the wolves would never trust her again.

"Not safe for us? We're lycans! If it's not safe for us how could it ever be safe for Rowan?" Tearlach sensed something was off with this whole idea of training Rowan. There was something Deisha wasn't telling them, and he got a sense it was a big something.

"She is new and young, but I think you can cross naive off your list gentlemen. You and Declan helped her understand the realities of this world."

"Fucking hell...now it's all our fault?" Tearlach's temper soared.

"She'll be fine now because she's with Ian, and he won't let anybody hurt her."

"As if we would?" Tearlach's heart was already in so much pain for what he'd done.

Deisha turned to them both. "Maybe not intentionally, but please trust me. There are things you just can't teach her. She has so much potential and power, but she needs to learn to harness it, control it, and wield it before someone else figures out how to use her. Can you understand that?"

"When can we leave here? I'm starting to feel like a kid with a fuckin' curfew." He didn't like her tone nor the implication that they were beneath helping Rowan. Maitland's face hardened and his iris' tinged with an electric blue. His wolf wanted out to take a run at Deisha.

She recognized the wolf immediately. Not wanting things to completely fall apart she softened towards them. "You are not a prisoner here Maitland. I will open the portal whenever you wish to leave, but let me be clear. You cannot come and go as you please. It's too dangerous for everyone else living here in this realm now." Her arms fell to her side. She truly had hoped things would turn out differently.

"Open the fucking portal, Deisha. I won't live in hiding while she's out there running or training as you put it. I'll find her. I gave her my word, and I keep my promises." Maitland stared her down wondering if she would keep her word or if he was gonna let the wolf have a run at her to rip her damned throat out. He would do whatever it took to get back to Earth- and Rowan.

"Very well." She lifted her arms extending her palms outward in front of her. "Where?" The rays from her hands were like sunshine breaking through clouds...bright, warm and welcoming.

"Tahnee's boutique. It's the only place I've been with her." Tearlach looked to Maitland.

"Works for me." Maitland stepped up beside Tearlach.

They both watched as the portal grew in front of them. As it expanded they could see the night that lay beyond with the moon's light being filtered by clouds high in the sky. A vacant parking lot stretched out in front of them.

"You won't be able to contact me or anyone else here to come back through. You'll be on your own while Kester and I make the necessary contacts with the other factions. I beg of you...don't interrupt her training."

"Begging doesn't become anyone sorceress. Now, where is she?" Maitland was growing more agitated at the secrecy over her whereabouts.

"If you go there, your presence is enough to warrant a death sentence and quite possibly hers as well. I will not condemn you to that."

"We'll find her." Maitland was furious, his growl ripped through the night air. Deisha knew where she was, but she had no intention of helping them find her. "I will not forget this sorceress. Is this what an alliance with you entails?"

"Maitland, I am saving her life and yours, too. You have no idea what resides in those cliffs. The people there are loyal to Ian and no one else, but that is not for me to share. He will need to tell you about them when he's ready."

"Them? What the hell are they?" Tearlach's stomach was in knots thinking about how helpless Rowan would be there. Listening to Deisha's cryptic verbiage only made him start imagining what kind of monstrocities lived in this facility. And what was so dangerous to lycans? Lycans could hold their own with anybody one on one- even a vampire like Ian.

"They are simply....Ian's." Deisha couldn't tell them anymore, it would break his confidence. He hadn't wanted anyone to know they even existed. After they escaped from Vertigen's experimental facility Ian designed and built a special housing area for them where he could care for them, teach them, and train them to fight.

"A vampire army?" Maitland hesitated for just a moment. He wanted to know exactly what was there before he walked through the portal, and it sounded like she was his best bet at retrieving that information.

"You'll wish that's all they were. You going or what?" She looked over her shoulder.

"What the hell's worse than a vampire army?" Tearlach looked to Maitland. Maitland had seen a lot more in the way of lore creatures, wars and fighting than he had.

"Fuck it! Let's go." Maitland had never feared the unknown, and he wasn't gonna start tonight. He pulled Tearlach through the portal with him.

Deisha watched them go, but before she closed the portal she focused in on Ian again. Their mental connection was streamlined when they occupied the same realm. Now she had glimpses of his thoughts and emotions when she tuned in. Of course, he could sever that connection any time, too, and Deisha wondered if and when he would. There would certainly be things he wouldn't want her to see, things that would be too hard for Rowan's adoring aunt to witness even though she knew they would make her stronger, more stable, and more level headed.

Ian would give Rowan knowledge, but it would cost her.