Amber's POV:
"Hello?" The voice of the newest supernatural creature I'd managed to pull off the streets and use for a test subject. "Hello? Is anyone there?" I can hear them repeatedly banging against the bars of their cage amongst the moans they kept giving. "Hello?"
"Urgh, can she yell any louder?" Kali mumbles, banging her head against the wall with a disgusted face that seems to make me smile even more than it should. Laughing to myself I lean against the wall. Focusing on what I can hear beyond the girl's panicked heart. She's a pretty one this new supernatural. And one that I think will be the reason I get the four to crack and finally give up. "Aargh, can you stop smiling like that?" Kali mumbles where she'd rested her head in her arms. "It's not like it's annoying yet Amber." Kali's use of my full name tips me off that I may be pushing her too far and I smile back at her angelically, seeing how she looks up and sees my expression. "What's so funny? No, better yet what diabolical plan have you up your sleeve that's got you smiling like that?" Her eye regards me warily and I know it's because of how unstable I can be when I lose my temper. Best hope she doesn't push me to that.
"Nothing just wondering what to do with our latest conquest," I muse aloud, seeing the girl look around with a confused expression that has me feeling a certain kind of selfish joy at the pain I can cause the four that ruined my life. More than once. "After all she is a special friend to most of the ones on the other side of this ridiculous game that we're still playing. One we should have won by now mind you." I snort in amusement and roll my eyes when I see the witch in question try to fight her way out of the enchanted steel cage. Though to what end I don't want to know since it would probably just provoke my ire. Something dangerous to do. "Maybe she'll be the reason they crack and come out of hiding after six months, who knows."
This time it's Kali's turn to snort at me. "You and I both know it's our side that's been doing the hiding Amb since most of the weaker ones are still recovering from the accursed magic the four possess that can tip the scales into their favour if wielded right. Luckily for us though the combination of the chant being spoken with fewer people there than is optimum and that they'd been hurt - plus the two girls being pregnant - meant that we're here and not rotting in the ground." She groans and runs a hand through her thick hair, her eyes fixed on somewhere I can't see. "That and you know they're all at the palace in Aerilion since Hunter and Rosalia are the reigning monarchs there. Along with the knowledge that Asher is Hunter's brother and Leila is married to him so that offers her protection whilst she and Rosalia are unable to play since they're helping us hurry the game along past this stalemate. With them, both still pregnant though I don't think they have long to go."
I sat down and looked off into space when she mentioned my accursed slut of a half-sister's happiness before something else took root in my mind. A dark and devious plan that would make me feel a hundred times better if we could enact it since it would hurt more than just the four who had physically attacked us. It would wound the whole lot of them and possibly cause their side to fall apart. Thus meaning we won both the game and the war without so much as lifting a finger. Let them do the work for us.
"How many of them are like that? Pregnant I mean, besides Rosalia and Leila? Are they the only ones or are there more that we didn't know about?" I looked between Kali and the screens that showed me perfectly where all our hostages were. Including my newest addition, the witch Asica who I'd managed to save from when she'd attempted the kamikaze phoenix destruction spell years ago after trying and failing to save Rosalia. It was her we managed to torture the exact location of the lakehouse out of, meaning we were able to complete the plan I'd set out. "How many of those around the four are also like that, thus being in a compromising situation?"
Kali frowns, sitting up properly and pulling the front section of her hair back, securing it with an iron clasp that blended in seamlessly with her dark brown hair. "Why what diabolical plan do you have up your sleeve now sister?" She gives me one of her searching looks but I'd long since made myself immune to that kind of persuasion. Something she saw when I refused to respond to her. Sighing and rolling her eyes she closes them for a second before she starts talking. "The Lilias witches also seem to be expecting soon - around the same time as the other two I think - a girl if I'm right. Oh, and also the Damaris vampires, again a girl. I think other than that.....no sorry one more. The Cassidy wolves as well seem to be expecting a child - no sorry triplets - but theirs I can tell the genders of despite them all being around the same maternity time. Perhaps because they're using a spell to hide it since I can't think it's because they don't know what with how far along the she-wolf is." She opens her eyes again and looks at me with a puzzled expression, "Why? What were you planning?"
I pondered over the news Kali had delivered me for a few seconds, trying to put names to faces. The Lilias witches a new addition to Eris Murdock and Rosalia's covens when their own had been decimated by probably us not long before the second round of this game including the four began. So both were close friends of the four, just as I know the Damaris vampires had been close allies with the Ladouceur two long before they found their other halves. And I was well informed from the first time Angel was able to pick through Ash's memories that the Cassidy wolves were also important to Rosalia since one had been her boyfriend for a time and the other was her former best friend, both being close to her and the others since they were wolves and wolves tended to band together in packs. Good for them in terms of safety in numbers.....well until they're found.
"Any other names you feel like springing for me, Kals?" I ask her, calling her by a nickname I hadn't used in decades but that still made her smile. "Like for example the name of the other halves of the two children my accursed slut of a half-sister and that Briar girl are carrying? Names? Packs? Families, I can haunt, hunt and destroy?" I give her a shrug and she returns it with a calculating look that speaks of years of cruelty and stored up abuse. "Anything at all that could be of use?"
"No nothing," Kali responds, closing her eyes for a second time that day to try and figure out what I needed her to find. Eyes moving side to side under closed lids I can see her hunting methodically for a few minutes to try and see the connections between people who were already bound so tightly into the fabric of this game - their partners too who would be Bound and Mated to them - that their parents wouldn't be able to delude themselves into thinking they had a chance to keep them out of is. "Wait," Kali speaks up from where her eyes were still closed but I can see a cruel grin tipping up the sides of her mouth in a wicked smile. "I'm seeing three sets of names." She frowns a little more to see if they get clearer but I'm just impatient to know who I can go kill. Or maim and torture if that's what it calls for.
"Which are?"
My ire seemed to have reached its limit for control given how I snap at Kali when she's too slow to answer my questions. She rolls her eyes and shrugs, eyes still moving rapidly quickly to see if she could locate the deeper meaning behind the three elusive names she seemed to have found but aren't able to tell me. Staring at her she flips me off and I huff an agitated sigh, dropping theatrically back onto the chair I'd vacated only seconds before when I'd stood to see if she could tell me anything of use. Something she does a second later, her eyes opening in a flash to reveal her unusual silver eyes that are alight with cruelty.
"I can get the surnames Chessler, Chelsea and Fidel. My guess is it's one surname per family with a wolf child." She shrugs, "The name I got of Chessler seemed to be a male descendant, possibly the son of an alpha, so I'm guessing that's for either Kalliope or Edana - one of the royal children. The name Fidel gave me a male and female name - an older brother and slightly younger sister if you will but both the same age, just born a few hours apart - so that could be for the other royal family member and his sister or one of the Cassidy triplets. Either or."
"And the name Chelsea? What does that have to do with it?" I give her a look to see if she'll divulge any more secrets. "And what about the pack the three names belong to because I'm not usually led wrong by my feelings and this one says I can kill three birds with one stone. And easily as well." I smile widely at the idea of causing torment and suffering to the future children on the other side of this pointless game. Kali gives me a teasing look and I stifle a groan of frustration. "Come on Kal don't be a tease, just tell me who I can get to kill and let's be done with it so I can torture our favourite witch about information before we round up a few other hapless lost souls who can be used the same way." Memories of being able to secure and transfer a few come to my mind but my mood darkens when I remember losing the vampire-demon Aria, wolf Ava and angel-faery Cana to Rosalia and the others when they managed to find their way back and free as many of the children as possible before we moved the rest.
"The name Chelsea gave me two female names, sisters the same age as the Fidel two so maybe they're related or something? Like cousins?" Kali tries to pass off her latest finds as a shrug but I get the feeling she knows more than she's letting on, she just won't tell me. At least not right now. "And as for their pack you were right," Kali's eyes had slipped shut again but I could tell she was looking and telling me what he found. "All three families - the Chessler family being the alpha's and two other families - Fidel and Chelsea being betas - all belong to the same pack. The Litha Moon I believe."
I smile widely at that but that's still not enough names. I know the Cassidy's children are triplets which could potentially take care of the remaining Fidel sister and two Chelsea girls - and that the Chessler boy was for Rosalia's slut of a daughter. Just as I was aware that the Fidel boy would be for Leila's skanky daughter. So what about the pregnant vampire who was having a girl? The Damaris child? Or the Lilias girl once she's born? Or Eris's daughter? Surely all had soulmate/Soulbound companions who would be dragged into this sooner or later due to their affiliation with the doomed lot.
"And what of the Lilias girl?" I ask with what I hope is a mildly interested tone. "Or the Damaris child? Or Eris's daughter? Surely they also have soulmates or Soulbound companions who can be targeted if not at this stage in the game than another closer to the time we take out the original four." I know the Cassidy triplets would be mated to the Fidel and Chelsea girls as much as I was sure the Chessler boy was for Rosalia's daughter and the Fidel boy for Leila's. "Surely you can do a little more digging for an old friend and find out a few more names."
Kali laughs, her tone dark and compelling, "You are devious aren't you?" She asks and I say nothing, merely shrugging and twisting a lock of hair around my finger as I wait for her to find the names to search for so I can hurt the other side of the game. To ensure I win above all else. "Ok, I'll have another look but I don't know how accurate my information is....unless you've got a confirming feeling." Opening one eye I nod to her, seeing her deliciously wicked smile curve wider before she resumes her looking. "Ok for the Lilias girl I'm seeing the name surname Daven. But I can't see the first name which could indicate that - like all the others - he hasn't been born yet." I nod and make a noise for her to continue. "For Eris's daughter I'm getting the name Night and for the Damaris girl I can see the name Lazlo, an old and esteemed family if I remember rightly which would fit with how high in regard the Damaris family is." She opens her eyes then and fixes them on me, seeing how I react to the news she's found for me. "Does that satisfy your urge to maim and kill yet Amb?" I nod and see something in her eyes that forwarns caution. "But I wouldn't go after them all at once."
"Duly noted," I reply, smirking deviously at that and standing up from the chair again, grabbing my leather jacket on the way out the door as I tied my long dark hair - the one trademark I shared with my sister - into a sleek high ponytail before turning my head towards where Kali had opened her eyes but not moved. Sighing and rolling my eyes I gestured for her to follow me and started out the door, my boots sounding on the stone floors like gunshots.
"Come on Kal, we have a witch to torture, families to discover and possibly maim and a pack of wolves to murder," I call back when she follows me out the door, "You wouldn't want to leave me to do it all by myself would you?" I turn back to see her following me with a cruel grin on her face. "Ready or not, here we come," I mumbled as I disappeared off into the darkness that had been my home for so long. Ready to cause a ripple. Though how deep it went - and when I completed it all - I had yet to decide. But that was the beauty of both you and your competition living forever. All you have is time.
Eris's POV:
"Hey, are you ok love?" Phoenix's concerned voice snaps me out of my head and I look up at him, giving him as contrite a smile as possible. "Are you sure you're ok? You zoned out on us again"
"Yea just a little overwhelmed," I answer honestly seeing how he looks at me with a concerned expression that has me sighing, "Just remind me next time we're doing this to only share rooms with another pregnant witch, not another pregnant witch, a pregnant vampire, a pregnant wolf, hybris and hybrid all under the same roof. It's a recipe for disaster." I sigh and lean my head on his shoulder, not missing how he smiles down at me. "Oh, now you're going to think I'm being overly hormonal and dramatic aren't you." I sigh, "Great. Just great."
"No, no I wasn't," He carefully replies, seeing how I smiled at that. But not before Rosa also snorted out a laugh across the room and shared a look with Leila who did the same, both Hunter and Ash staring at each other at loss for words. "I'm not but some people might be."
"Yea, some of us are Eri!" Rosa shoots back before she mumbles something to Leila that I don't catch that has the other girl laughing and looking up at Ash who looks faintly afraid and a little out of his depth. "You ok over there Ash or did something we say bother you?" Rosa challenges and I see Ash swallow as he tries to figure out a diplomatic way to answer Rosa.
Deciding that not answering is the best course of action he just shrugs and goes back to doing whatever he'd been doing with Leila's hair to calm her before, staring down at her with so much love and adoration I can barely remember how upset, lost and broken he was when we first met after he lost Angel. His first mate. Leila and he seemed to click effortlessly and made them both happier than I'd ever seen them. So in the name of keeping the peace between a group of pregnant supernaturals I keep my mouth shut. Even when I know something may be about to go wrong since it all seems so perfect here and now. Like nothing could go wrong.
But of course, as soon as that thought occurs to me someone has to break the silence that has stretched, undisturbed for an extended length of time. Though this time it's not with anything bad. Yet. Instead, it's just the quiet chatter of those gathered with us who were happy to be with each other in a world that, for once, isn't wrought with bloodshed and violence. One that may allow us at least a modicum of peace whilst we try to give our children a shot at having a halfway normal life, even with who their parents are.
"How long do you reckon this will last?" This time it's a human-looking Mae who answers where she's holding her stomach and in her mate's arms. I see Jackon's expression when he looks at her but I can't understand what he's trying to say to her without words. "This....this peace you four managed to broker with Amber and the others. How long do we think it will last?"
Rosa snorts and rolls her eyes, "Mae, I love you but I hope you know that by the term broker you mean forced when all four of us were just about dead and lacking a cure." She laughs but it's a hollow sound, filled with emptiness and desperation that I can see reflected in the four's eyes when they remember what happened, Ash and Hunter holding the two girls closer just by reflex alone. Something that lets me see, even in their eyes, how afraid the two were that not only Leila and Rosa would vanish but that their future children would as well. "But about what you asked I....I don't know and I'm sorry for that. Because it means that you, me, Leila, Eris and the other people close to us are having to bring children into a world that lacks certainty. And as your friend and beta wolf, I'm sorry to have to put you through that. No matter if you think it's my fault."
Looking in Mae's direction now I see her give her friend an exasperated smile filled with fondness and love. "I know that Rosa and neither Jack nor I blame you for this. Nor do we blame Ash, Leila or Hunter because we know it's not any of your faults." Rosa looks unconvinced and I hear Mae's sigh, the softest of sounds. "Unless the four of you started this then it isn't your fault and no amount of self-blame will make that fact change." Her emerald eyes shine with emotion and I can see that she's trying to convince her friend but she's not doing a good job. "Rose I hope you do know that."
"I do I just....you, me, Eris, the Lilias witches and the Damaris vampires are all bringing children into the world. Children who will be dragged into the same game we can't seem to get out of alive. And they'd be kids Mae! KIDS! How is it fair that they have to take up the mantle the four of us couldn't do last round, and a larger group of us couldn't do about two years before that! How is it fair to put kids in the firing line?!" She dissolves into tears then and I see Hunter try to figure out how to comfort her when she seems to be inconsolable. "How is that fair?"
I sigh and see that Hunter's looking at me for help. Just as I can tell Ash will be when Leila catches onto this latest cryfest that seems to be charged with nothing more than a minor fear and pregnancy hormones. Something I see a few seconds later when he locks eyes with his brother and then, seconds later, Leila shivers once. His eyes widen and I hide my head as I hear his low groan seconds before something else happens that I don't want to know about. Ever.
"It isn't fair," I respond in level tones when the cryfest stops, seeing all the people it concerns looking at me. Hunter and Rosa sat side by side, hands interlocked. Ash and Leila - her on his lap with both their sets of hands resting on her stomach. The Lilias witches whom I'd offered sanctuary when Amber and the others had decimated their coven just before the latest round - the one before this coming one - of the game had started. The Damaris vampires who were well known by Hunter and Ash as being held in high esteem. And last but not least the Cassidy wolves. All people who have been dragged into this with no way to escape. "It isn't fair that they have to be dragged into it but they have been and we have to make sure that they're safe. Above all else."
I can hear the conviction in my tone and know that it rests in the eyes of the others who are just as invested in this. Who have just as much to lose. Who knows the stakes in what would happen if we were to fail. But that they were all able to understand and accept no matter what because they were willing to put their children before themselves, as it should be.
But we also all knew the stakes. We knew what would happen if they didn't manage to stop the others. What it would mean for their - our - children if they were forced to pick up where we all left off in killing Amber, Laurel, Heidi and the others. Something we couldn't have happened since it would mean putting them in the firing line of a battle we couldn't win but had been fighting time and time again for the last however long. Something we all agreed we wouldn't want our children involved in.
So how would we ensure that they were safe as much as possible? How would we ensure that they would be as safe as possible without having them locked away somewhere? An option that although tempting would never be the final solution since no matter where we hid them someone would eventually find them and drag them back to all that they would have been avoiding. But how would we do it? How would we manage to figure out how to save all our children from all that we'd want to shield them from? How would we do it?
"How can we keep them safe?" Leila's tone is contemplative but I can hear it in her tone, underneath the blankness. Underneath the confusion and contemplation. I can hear the raw desperation in her tone that I can see in her sky blue eyes. That I can see in Ash's gold ones, Rosa's magically mystical eyes and in Hunter's when they all look at one another before the others just as stuck as us. The Damaris', the Cassidy's and the Lilias'. Me and Phoenix even if we won't say it. "How can we keep our children safe and uphold our vow when we won't even have the power to do what we need to do. The power we had but will lose when our children inherit it. The power we would have needed to defeat them eternally."
"So we wait beloved," Ash tries to figure out how to placate Leila enough but I can't see it working since she's in protective mother overdrive. "We wait and use whatever vestige of the power that would be lingering inside the four of us to put them down again, only this time somewhere they couldn't run, couldn't escape. And then when our children were old enough we would train them - you, me, Hunt and Rosa - and we'll let them get rid of them when they're old enough and they can't fail. Doing it somewhere safe when they know the risks and the endgame of it all."
"And until then?" Leila sounds hollow again and I see the desperate look she gives Ash when she twists in his embrace, looking him right in the eye to see if he's understood what she means. "Ash, how do we keep them safe until then?"
"I know how," Rosa's voice is firm and I can tell when we look at her with a confused expression. Though she just shrugs and leans back, Hunter's arms around her where he was looking at her with the same puzzled expression since she seems to have all the answers to our questions. "How do we keep them safe for now? Easy, we kill your mother and Azrael."