I wake up against my will as Roman crawls back into bed. I groan as the morning light assaults my eyes and pull my pillow over my head as he pulls me to him. But, I have to get up and train. Ugh seriously, why did I resent being able to sleep in back at the Red Moon pack? I truly didn't appreciate that while I had it. Everything else though definitely sucked.
"Why did it take you so long to come back?" I whine as I snuggle into Roman's embrace. What could a few extra minutes hurt?
"Had to visit the families of the dead, check on the injured, get reports on what happened at the other battle sites, it took longer than expected. Go back to sleep, baby" he says tucking my head into the nook between his neck and shoulder and resting his chin on my head
"You know I have to get up and train, don't tempt me to stay in bed" I say, pushing out of his arms and sitting up on the side of the bed
"No, no come back" he whines. Well, we're both in great moods this morning
"You're needy when you're tired, you know that?"
"Am I wrong for wanting my mate to lay down with me after I've been awake for 30 hours?" he groans
I don't say anything, I could spare a few minutes of training until he falls asleep. I lay back down, and pull him to me. He rests his head on my chest, wrapping his arm around my waist and he's asleep before I can even get comfortable. Damn, how does he sleep like this with me all over him every night? I'm uncomfortable as hell, and I definitely won't be nice about it if he drools all over me.
I untangle myself from him after a few minutes and get ready. I'm pretty sure today is Thursday, which means it's Max's turn to run training. Which would leave Seth or Aston open for me to train with...but honestly I didn't care. At this point, it's my magic that will make or break me, I needed Aylin or my dad.
All of this stress must be taking a toll on me, because I go to brush my teeth and gag as soon as I put the brush in my mouth. Fuck. I brace my hands on the sink as I concentrate on not puking. I take a few breaths, telling myself I'm fine. Guess it's a mouthwash only kind of day then. Although the thought of the mouthwash causes another wave of nausea to hit me, but I power through.
I don't bother walking to the field and just portal myself there. I already outed myself to the entire pack yesterday, goddess I hope Roman isn't upset about that. But what's done is done, I'll just look silly if I try and hide it now.
Looking around the grounds for my regular crowd, I only find Gemma, Violet, and Blue. Right, Aston and Seth were probably up all night with their prisoner. I walk up to them, knowing Gemma would need a partner if Aston was out for the day. She was an impressive fighter, just as good if not better than Roman. She was smaller, so she was more agile, which would make it harder for me, and honestly, I needed a challenge this morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Training wasn't enough, I had half a mind to wake Roman up and make him spar with me. The session was long over but I paced on the field, too restless to go inside, and I was so anxious that the idea of food made me want to hurl where I stood.
"If you're that anxious to get your ass kicked you should have come and found me" Aylin yells to me from across the field as she makes her way over to me
"I assumed you were preoccupied. Or asleep." I yell back, excited that she's here so I can get my hands dirty in some magic, but I let out a breath of relief when I see her. I don't know if I thought she would break after seeing him, but seeing her acting normal took a weight off my shoulders.
"Oh, I had my fun, up until about an hour ago actually. I portaled him down to Father's favorite torture chamber, him and Az would have wanted a turn" she says as she appears next to me
"Aren't you tired?" I say, training ended at 9 which was at least an hour ago, that's like...10 hours of torture, on top of how long she was awake for prior
"Yes, but I'll sleep after we train. You can't afford to take a day off. And besides, after training, we'll have to discuss what I found out, and then whatever you found out before you ran out, rather abruptly, if I might add" she says, eyeing me. I keep my face neutral
"I looked into his mind, I saw what I needed to know." I say, wanting to leave it at that
"I know. But, you're not trained in mind reading or mind control. You may excel at everything you do, but that can take centuries to become an expert in. So, there's no way you got everything you actually needed."
"Maybe not, but I saw enough. There was another prisoner we could get information from." I say, trying to put finality into my voice so she doesn't push it.
"And you stand here and treat me differently because of what you saw." she says. Not a question, but, yeah, I didn't expect her to beat around the bush for long. I sigh
"I don't mean to. It felt like a violation of your privacy, I was just going to pretend like I didn't know" I say, not bothering to sugarcoat anything
"Well, one, you're a horrible actress. Two, I don't appreciate anyone pretending anything around me. It gets tiring, even more so when it's someone I enjoy being around. We don't need to make a big deal out of it. It happened, and now he's my prisoner. I won." she says flatly
"Sounds like you've rehearsed that in your head" I said back, I don't know what my mood is today, but apparently I'm feeling ballsy. She chuckles darkly, the picture perfect Queen she shows everyone else fading away as she slumps her shoulders and shakes her head.
"Maybe once or twice."
"You know, I felt nothing after Roman killed my fake mate. Not a thing. I told myself I would be the one to do it, but when he was in front of me...I didn't feel like I won anything, I actually ended up getting bored and leaving." I say hesitantly and there's a long pause between us
"I once read a book where a woman abducted her Madam and two rapists after escaping sex trafficking. She of course tortured them in some of the same ways they did her, and killed one while her boyfriend and friend killed the other two. I clung onto the satisfaction I imagined she felt as she watched them all die in front of her. I told myself I didn't really get to enjoy the deaths of the other two, and that once I found Horace, I would get my closure."
"And did you?" I say
"No. That was a hope I clung to foolishly, those were only words on paper, probably not even by someone who experienced it. But he's still alive, and he'll die at my hand. Whether it gives me what I'm looking for or not, it'll still be me that ends his life" she says and I nod
"What will you do if it doesn't give you what you're looking for?"
"I haven't thought that far ahead. Why do you think he's still alive?" she gets up as soon as she finishes that sentence, effectively ending the conversation "as enlightening as this conversation has been, let's get into your training"
I sigh, but oblige, I've probably already tested her limits anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After training, I pull Aylin into Roman's office. I felt him awaken through the bond, and sure enough, there he sits, a cup of coffee next to him as he sorts paperwork. Seriously, it was just paperwork, couldn't it wait until he was at least somewhat rested?
Walking up behind his chair, I wrap my arms around his back and kiss his cheek. He must have his walls up to hide how tired he is, because I don't feel any emotions coming from him.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat anything, what I got out of Horace after you guys left wasn't pretty." Aylin says, cutting right to the point as usual. Both Roman and I stiffen
"Let's hear it then" Roman says
"You already know of their army, what we've seen thus far wasn't even the tip of the iceberg. They threw half their soldiers away because they aren't worried about numbers, they have wolfsbane and belladonna grenades, a higher concentration than anyone has been able to make before, along with silver weapons which you would have expected. A few of them have successfully injected themselves with wolfsbane so their bite will poison you. He also said they were able to breed some type of beast, only a handful, but that's all they need. I couldn't get much out of him in that aspect, it seems he didn't even know the full extent of that project." she pauses, letting all that sink in.
I look at Roman, I'm stunned into silence. I've never even heard of wolfsbane grenades being used in any recent war, they were outlawed by all werewolf packs. Any that were left after the war between wolves and vampires over 400 years ago were disposed of. Now they've added belladonna to that? As for whatever creature they've managed to breed...what the fuck.
Roman is silent too, I mean what could he say? It doesn't matter how strong his armies are, they're useless if they're poisoned by wolfsbane or eaten by whatever they made.
"And what about against the demon armies?" he finally says
"We have the upperhand there, all they have against us is devilsbane, a stronger dose than usual, but my army takes a daily antidote. I'm not sure what effect this stronger dose will have with the antidote, but they're fools with a poorly thought out plan backup plan. They didn't count on Amara finding out her true identity. That's not all, though. Amara's power wouldn't be neutralized by what would render one of us useless. She's got the blood of three supernatural beings in her, they combined specific doses of wolfsbane, belladonna, devilsbane, poppyseed, aconite, and water hemlock. They had a healer and witch working together to make it...we have less than two weeks to figure out some type of antidote for that..." she trails off
"That's wishful thinking" I say and she nods
Roman still doesn't say anything, and his walls don't need to be down for me to feel the fury radiating off of him
"I don't understand what they even want me for, yeah control my mind yadda yadda, but what the fuck am I going to do? I have only brushed the surface of these powers, I don't even know what I'm capable of, let alone know how to work it!" I say throwing my hands up in frustration, you'd think I'd be desensitized to this topic by now.
"You can command the angel armies." Aylin says, as if that's all the answer I need. I give her a bored look and she sighs
"Vampires and angels conspired a couple months after your birth, that was how vampires made it to the underworld, to my castle. Jeremiel wanted Father's head mounted on his wall and you dead, so he lended parts of his army to Silas after Silas promised your death in return. A few years in, there was a falling out after Silas tried to convince Jeremiel to lend him his army to take over Earth, and let it slip he planned to keep you alive for his own use. Again, Silas is an unhinged fool. It's no secret the Gods are particularly fond of Earth for some reason, so it would be Jeremiel's honor and position in the guards he would give up if he even entertained that thought. Anyways, you can command the angel armies. You can also open up physical portals to the three realms, can you not?"
"Not that I kn-" I start but I'm cut off by Roman
"She can." he says, and I give him a confused look "I may or may not have omitted the fact that you opened up several portals that night you lost control in the forest"
I level a glare at him
"That would have been useful information to know" I snap
"Not the issue at hand." Aylin cuts in "Silas wants you to open a portal to the God realm and command the angel armies to Earth, once he's taken over Earth, he wants to overthrow the underworld." she finishes and I instantly snap my mouth shut. Well, that's one way to effectively shut me up.
"What in the bloody hell did you do to him to get all that information out of him?" Roman asks
"Really? That's your question? Her torture tactics? We just found out about a possible vampire takeover in all three words and that's where your mind went?" I ask him
"It's a useful skill!" he counters
"By Hades, I will rip out both of your voice boxes and not return them for a week! We're all tired and in bad moods. Let's get some gods-damned rest and then we'll come up with a plan. That means you too, wolf boy. That's an order from your Queen, go the fuck to bed. You too, Amara." Aylin snaps, getting up and portaling away
I rub my temples and sigh
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. It's just a lot..." I say to Roman who gets up and grabs my hand, portaling me to our room
"Don't worry about it, I understand. Lets just get some rest, I'm afraid of the repercussions if we don't" he responds, getting into bed and making himself comfortable
"Repercussions of a battle on no sleep or repercussions from Aylin?" I tease
"Definitely Aylin." he says through a yawn
"Go to sleep, I need to shower." I say, knowing sleep will not be finding me after that meeting. I'll lay with him, and then just go into the next training session. Time is not on our side here