Even in this damn office she was here. Her blood tangy sweet remained in my mouth. She would send caresses down the bond we had, claws scratching against the shields I had up, wanting to come in and see my head. Nobody would see in my head. My mate? That was debatable.
"A request came in from Jade, when she first came here." Peter walked in, his face looking down with a frown directed at the papers in his hands
"What?" even her name sent shivers down my spine
"A glasshouse." he looked up in confusion
"A glasshouse?" I rose my brows
"A glasshouse." he confirmed
"Why on earth does she need a glasshouse?" I asked
"Who needs a glasshouse?" Alice walked past the door, but walked straight in after hearing us
"Jade." I said
"Yeah, the quarter moon's coming up. She'll basically go through witch shift." Alice said in a tone, that we should've already known this was going to happen. Her hand rested on her stomach, that was literally twice the size that it had been a week ago.
"You realise you can leave and let Jake take over." I said, my eyes transfixed on her huge belly
"Just a few more weeks and then I'll let hi m take over." she said dismissively
"A week." I said firmly looking up at her
"Damon." she said
"Alice." I put some Alpha tone into it and she scowled at me
"Fine, a week and then I'll be out of your hair." Peter sighed in relief before Alice slapped him around the head.
"I'm sorry." he held his hands up, "You've just been really fussy lately."
"Fussy?" she raised a brow
"I mean it's like that kid wants to drop out now, but you won't let him." Peter said
"He's due in three months!" she threw her hands in the air, walking out, bumping into Tommy
"What's with her?" he looked after her in confusion
"Peter basically accused her of being a hormonal bïtch." I shrugged
"Bad idea." he shook his head
"What do you know about pregnant women?" Peter challenged
"Not much, but when I call Jade or Kar hormonal bïtches I get a shoe thrown at my head." he said.
"Is there a reason Jade needs a glasshouse?" I turned to Tommy holding the piece of paper up
"The quarter moon should be coming up soon. That's probably why." He walked over to the calendar on the wall behind me, running his finger down the dates. "It should be starting tomorrow night." he looked up, his thumb stroking his chin.
"What is the quarter moon?" Peter asked
"Basically witch heat." Tommy explained, "Since Jade can't shift every full moon into a wolf, her witch makes up for that every quarter moon, it's worse than everyone else, just because her witch is Ana."
"Why does she need a glasshouse then?" I asked in confusion'
"She needs to be inside the glasshouse, otherwise she could attack other people without realising it. She gets power from the moon to like vent almost. It's hard to describe. It's pretty painful though." he grimaced
"Why not any other house?" a feeling of worry spread through me and I could feel Jade's caressing on the bond start again.
"She needs the moon. Quarter moons just make her more powerful. I'm pretty sure that since she's on the heat, her quarter moon will start earlier and finish earlier." As soon as he said that I felt pain seep through the bond and into me, forcing me to groan and grip my head in my hands.
"Jade!" Peter and Tommy said together. Peter jumped up to find Jade, while Tommy knelt beside me gripping my chin, to stare into my eyes.
"How bad is it?" he asked
"It hurts me, so I'm guessing bad." I gasped
"I hope you already have that glasshouse." he said grimly
"In the woods." Ray said as he, Alx and Tristan rushed in.
"How'd you know about the glasshouse?" I demanded
"I went out for a run in the woods. Saw it being built up." he shrugged
Take her to the woods. The glasshouse is there
Got it
Peter's reply snapped back to me quickly and I could still feel Jade's pain through the bond although it was slowly fading now.
What's happening?
Alice came through the link, panicked and worried. She wasn't the only one. Other royal pack members were getting panicked, including my mother. Who not only pestered me down the link, but texted me a thousand times, trying to get my attention.
"Let's go to the woods."I stood up and exited with my 'inner circle' as Jade so put it behind me. Tommy skirted around us and shot forward to the woods, probably to sort Jade out.
When we got there, Jade had been chained up in silver and was sitting cross-legged, her head in hands. Tommy stepped out and closed the door firmly, Liam stepped forward and sealed the door with his hands. Leon was hidden in the shadows of trees far away from the glasshouse.
Liam walked to his twin and both of them walked further into the woods, slowly blending into the shadows.
"Keep a quiet eye on them." I ordered one of the many keepers that had come to the grounds. He nodded, crossing an arm across his chest and bowing before running softly after the boys. "What do we do now?" I asked Tommy, who had sat on the grass, Karina in his arms. He looked completely at ease, although Karina gripped his forearms with obvious anxiety.
"Wait." he said and motioned for us to sit down. "Send the guards away." he added. I nodded and flicked a hand at the guards. In unison they all crossed their arms across their chests and bowed, before marching away in sync.
"Is this safe?" I asked Tommy as we watched Jade sit on the floor in the middle of the glasshouse, head in hands.
"I watched this one too many times, and I'm still alive. It's fine." Tommy said
"I wasn't talking about me." I narrowed my eyes at him
"She came out alive too."
"When does the real stuff happen?" Alx asked
"Give it a few minutes and is that a notepad?" Tommy asked with a smirk
"I haven't watched this happen before." Alx protested
"We're not in high school anymore Alx." Tristan hit the back of Alx's head with his notebook and dropped it back in his lap
Keep it down! Jade's anger floated to us in clouds and she turned blazing eyes on us
"Whatever." Tommy rolled his eyes
"Respect it. You don't know what she's going through." Karina said and she tensed even more, if that's even possible.
"Yeah I do." Tommy pulled his shirt up and motioned at a silver slash that ran from the side of his body to the back.
"She try to kill you?" I asked
"Nah, I was chaining her up and her shift started too early." he said.
We snapped our heads to the glasshouse where Jade was starting her shift and she let out a piercing scream. Almost in unison, we could hear screams from around the neighbouring places echo her.
The casual clothes she was wearing, shifted to flames surrounding her body and as they got put out, they were moulded against her skin, in a tight fitting dress that would burn up into flames as she moved. She would scream every time the flame touched her skin, yet it wouldn't burn her. Her scream became louder as a tree snapped nearby and let out a stream of water that overlapped her body, making steam hiss up and out off her body.
"She's gorgeous." Karina breathed
"You've never seen her witch shift before?" Alx asked
"Her mother and I were the only people who saw Ana shift. Not even her brothers. " Tommy said
We heard Ana scream from inside the glasshouse as lightning secured around her wrists and they crackled and sizzled, but held her down. Greenery started growing up her body, roses, tulips, daisies and ferns decorating her making her look gorgeous, then thorns started emerging from the roses and sharp edges from the ferns, scraping her skin and piercing through her skin. They would prick and pierce, come out and prick and pierce all over again. Again, there were no scars. Her body would heal and heal.
There was quietness as she slipped in and out of consciousness. As she slept, we slept and when we woke we saw the silver chains burning her. Some time during her heat, someone had slipped on iron chains onto her ankles to stop her from using her magic.
I looked over at Tommy and watched as he struggled to stay awake, rubbing his eyes and splashing his eyes with water when he started to doze off. Karina was silent, her eyes fixed solely on Jade. When Jade was out, Karina was out and as soon as Jade woke up, even without making a sound Karina would be up and watching her best friend again.
***********
"The end is the worst." Tommy said softly and I looked at my watch trying to control the blurring of the numbers. He was right, it had been nearly twelve hours since we had come here and I looked over at Alice to find her blissfully sleeping in Jake's arms.
"It's nearly over?" Karina asked in surprise
"It's been twelve hours, the sun's coming up." Tommy pointed at the sun that was starting to emerge over the mountains, decorating the sky with splashes of purple, pink, orange and red.
"Oh wow." Karina said. Tristan and Alx yelped awake as I threw twigs at them.
"What happens in the last stage?" I asked
"You know how vampires can't walk in the sun." he said
"Yeah." I said
"Basically her body turns into a almost vampiric state and as the sun rises, it burns like hell, except this time it leaves scars that will heal almost immediately, but it's hard to do magic for the next couple of days." Tommy explained
"How do you stop it? Like the sun from burning." Alx asked
"There's a chance every thirty minutes after one hour of burning for them to leave. Clouds cover the sun, closing off any light and they escape then." he said
"Can't someone just run her away before then?" Tristan asked
"Nah. I've read that it ends up killing the runner and a pack of wolves." Tommy shook his head
"God, I thought witches had it easy." Alx breathed out heavily
"She said that witches on their heat go through it worse." I said
"She's right. I've never seen what happened today occur before. It was always mild and she wasn't screaming constantly." Tommy shook his head
"We just have to wait, that's it." I said under my breath
"It'll end just as fast as the twelve hours." Tommy said. "But for Jade, it'll be like she's been shifting for years." We were silent for a minute and then Jade's screaming started as the sun started rising higher through the sky diminishing the colours and replacing it with the sky blue.
We watched her and saw her skin glittering and hissing, with bright red patches covering her body a definite contrast to her pale skin. Her grey eyes shifted through colours, finally settling on a bright red. Blood teared out of her eyes and nose. It started pouring out of her ears and she placed her hands against her ears, trying to stop whatever noise was in her ears and blood stained her hands. Red streaks started swirling through her hair in the form of blood, but the colouring stayed there and didn't wash out, even though streaks of water were still coming out of the trees.
I shook my head and ran a hand through my hair, gripping tightly at my locks. Alice rubbed circles on my back and soon I felt my mother's soft hand pull me back into her lap. Alice continued rubbing my arm, while my mother slowly massaged my temples. Green eyes staring tentatively down at me.
Staring into her eyes, I realised that I never knew what colour her eyes actually were. Sometimes I saw blue, sometimes I saw grey. Now I saw green.
"This is complete bullshït." I swore and Alice slapped her hand on my shoulder. "The baby can't fücking hear!" I snapped and she recoiled slightly. Jake placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but he kept watching Jade.
I turned my head to her and watched as she fell to her knees and gripped her throat, her fingers hooking onto her chin. I felt her nails grip onto my mark and I closed my eyes, touching the mark she gave me, digging my nails into the mark and heard her groan amidst the screams.
I kept my nails in the mark, feeling my nails fill up with blood and for some reason my mouth started to water as I smelt her blood drift towards me. I was addicted on her blood and she knew it. I was addicted to her and she felt the same way.
But she didn't trust me.