Claws (29 page)

She nodded, tears streaming down her
face, knowing this was tearing Jericho up to see his son in such a
condition. He came to her and hugged her tightly. She looked up and
saw the torment in his eyes.

“We can’t lose him, Jericho,” she said
and wiped her tears away when he went back to look after
Justice.

Eli hadn’t returned. Vivvie had to get
the other children home. She went in to find Justice was asleep and
bandaged from nearly head to toe. She reached out and stroked his
little nose with a trembling hand, her heart breaking to see her
son. She returned to the hallway and saw Seth was gone from his
carrier. She panicked as she eyed her daughters.

“Where’s your brother? Where is
he?”

Izzie and Margie mewled and looked
distressed. Elaina looked up at her and smiled.

“He’s just playing a game,
Mommy.”

“We need to find him!” Vivvie cried and
wondered if she was losing her mind when she turned back around and
noticed her son was sitting in his carrier once more. She was too
upset to think of anything but Justice as she toted her son and led
her daughters to the car.

“Mommy, is Daddy going to kill Devon
when he hunts him down?” Elaina asked brightly as Vivvie did her
seatbelt up and locked Seth in his car seat.

Vivvie was worried as she looked out
over the playground and the field beyond, wondering if Eli found
their oldest, hoping he didn’t as angry as he was.

“No! He’s not going to kill him! Why
are you so preoccupied with killing lately, young lady?”

“Devon tried to kill Justice, Mommy.
Daddy has to punish him.”

What a conversation they were having?
Vivvie didn’t answer as she got into her car and headed home,
tormented by her younger son’s fate right now. Jericho was staying
with him tonight. She prayed silently as she got her brood home and
fed the girls, watching and listening for Eli.

She put the girls to bed and watched
from the sliding glass doors, her three dimensional vision scanning
the woods for some sign of them. She paced, going out of her mind.
Jericho called to say Justice was now sleeping after surgery, but
it gave her little comfort as she waited up for her
husband.

Eli sniffed the trail that led to the
cave and growled; his ears going back as he cornered his son
inside. He could hear the boy whimpering in the night. Some of his
rage dissipated as he shifted and went inside, his vision finding
his son cowering on the floor of the cave where he was born,
huddled in misery.

“Devon, what were you thinking?” his
Father snarled as he came near, snatching up his son and glaring
down at him in fury. “You could have killed your brother! Why would
you do such a thing? Why? Do you realize how bad this is, son? He
could die!”

Devon sobbed and shook his head. “I
didn’t mean it! We were just playing with him and we thought he’d
be ok! Then the other boys got too rough and Justice never got up.
I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt him!”

“Why are you so mean to him, Devon?”
Eli asked and fumed as he regarded his son. “He’s too small for you
to pick on as you do.”

“I don’t know why, Dad,” the little boy
said and wiped his eyes. “I can’t help it sometimes. I just want
him to leave and never come back sometimes.”

Eli glared at him and dragged him out
of the cave. “He’s not going anywhere! He’s your brother! You lay
one paw on him again and you have me to deal with, do you
hear?”

“I’m sorry, Dad,” he cried and hung his
head in misery.

Eli took pity on him but refused to let
him off the hook. This was beyond pranks and jokes. His youngest
son could die, and all because the children were convinced of their
own immortality, nonexistent now, according to Jericho.

Whatever game the demon played with
them now was a cruel one. He got calls on a daily basis from former
tribe members, reporting injuries and deaths for those with even
all nine of their souls. The fact the children didn’t know any
better wasn’t an excuse.

“From here on out; you will never put
one hand or paw on your brother or allow anyone else to, do you
hear? If you do this again you will deal with me! Is that clear?”
Eli raged and the boy quailed under his fury, cringing.

“Never! I swear it!” Devon cried and
hung his head in dejection.

“Let’s get home,” Eli said and shifted
outside the cave, growling at his son to do the same. Devon
followed with his ears back, recalling his Mother’s threats to
neuter and declaw him with a shiver.

~~~

The large white panther ran across the
meadow like a beacon in the night to the other panthers who hunted
nearby. Many shifted back to their human forms in startled surprise
to see the huge pure white creature among them, picking up the
curious scent he left behind as he ran by, his blue-green eyes
glowing.

Many saw it as a sign.

Jericho was dozing at his son’s side in
the treatment room and didn’t hear the door open. The white panther
nudged the small black paw with its pink nose, eyes glowing with
aqua blue fire.

A low growl escaped the white panther
as its larger paw covered the injured kitten’s bandaged one. Light
came from its claws; pure and iridescent. The white panther closed
its eyes and after several moments withdrew.

He put his head on his paws, watching
the kitten sleep. He soon got up and sniffed the large
golden-haired man sleeping in the chair, eyes glowing in
recognition. He purred and licked the large hand that lay against
the chair.

Jericho woke immediately and looked
around, startled and saw nothing, but his senses picked up a
presence besides his own and his son’s. He looked around the
treatment room and saw nothing.

Every sense was alert to danger. His
yellow green eyes narrowed as he got up and opened the door,
looking out into the hallway. He sighed and went to check on
Justice. His eyes flared as he noticed the lacerations were now
gone. He removed the bandages, all of them, stunned to see his son
healed.

~ ~ ~

“What does it mean?” Vivvie asked after
Eli got the call, her face filled with concern and relief to know
Justice was doing well, up and around, and playing of all
things.

Eli regarded his wife wearily as he sat
in his chair, his face somber. “I don’t know anything more than
you, Vivvie. This makes no sense. How he healed is anyone’s
guess.”

Vivvie felt nothing but relief then,
assured by Jericho their son was miraculously healed since the
attack in the schoolyard. Eli regarded her with another expression,
his eyes boring into her, demanding answers.

“Justice isn’t mine, is he?” he asked
her, his eyes glowing with blue fire. “It’s the only explanation
for why Devon does this. Justice is an Alpha too. He’s Jericho’s,
isn’t he?”

Vivvie knew this day would come. She
gazed at her mate with a look of fear.

“I went to Jericho in my dreams when we
were separated. I didn’t know I could conceive there. I sensed his
gift in Justice when I woke up.”

Eli got up and ran a trembling hand
through his dark hair, eyes lashing out at his mate. “Did you go to
him since we came back? Don’t lie to me, Vivvie!”

Vivvie knew she didn’t dare tell him,
sensing his rage. “No! It was only then and it stopped when I woke
up! I never knew it was real! I just needed someone, Eli! I swear I
didn’t know it was real!”

Eli looked defeated as he turned away
from her. “I have no right to feel this way at all. All along I
worried you would go to Ty. It was Jericho the whole
time.”

“Eli, it was never more than a dream,”
Vivvie whispered and tears streamed down her cheeks. “I love you. I
thought I would never see you again. You sent me away.”

“So you went to Jericho?” he asked in
outrage and turned to her, fury in his eyes and hurt.

Vivvie started getting angry then. He
had no right to act the injured party. She glared at him, eyes like
twin moons of fire.

“You wasted little time moving Tania
into your bed! How dare you treat me like this? What about the
schoolteacher you hired? Tell me you didn’t have thoughts of Erin?
You wanted her! You would have gone to her! Don’t sit here and act
as if I’ve betrayed you!”

Eli glared at her. “I think we both
know what happens in your dreams, Vivvie. I have been there with
you before, you recall?”

“I didn’t think it was
real!”

“Did you ever listen to any goddamn
thing we told you at all this last year, wife?” he growled in fury.
“Are you in that much denial of what you are?”

“Maybe I was a little,” Vivvie said and
wiped her tears away and sniffed in despair. “I didn’t think such
things existed a year ago. I told myself it wasn’t real and there
were no consequences.”

Eli sighed and looked away, a tortured
expression on his face. “Do you have feelings for him?”

“I won’t lie. I believe I do,” Vivvie
looked away, unable to see his pain. “I love you, Eli. I never
intended for it to happen. I should have told you the truth when I
woke up and saw Justice.”

“Why didn’t you?” he cried and looked
at her in hurt and anger. “Why did you make me think he was
mine?”

“I had a good reason,” Vivvie said
quietly and sat in the chair, regarding him with a pained
expression. “Your lover held me prisoner in her dreamscape. She
held me there until I agreed to help her appease the demon she owed
a debt to.”

Eli looked stunned. “Tania is involved
in this?”

She laughed harshly as she saw Eli’s
disbelieving expression. “This surprises you? She pushed me off a
mountain to give our children to that thing! She was hoping one of
them was like Devon and Elaina. When they turned out to not have
our power; it raised the stakes. That’s when she caught me and held
me there until I agreed to give her what it demanded.”

“What does it want now?” he asked
quietly, his face taut with rage to know where his wife was all
those weeks.

“Jericho and I called it out. It wants
to find a child born with all nine of these gifts, using you and
Tania’s power to get to the tribe.”

“There is no such thing! It’s not
possible. And if it doesn’t get it?”

Vivvie looked miserable. “She
threatened to tell you Justice wasn’t yours if I didn’t give her
what she wanted.”

Eli digested this with a frightening
look. “Is that why you had Seth? Hoping to pay her off?”

Vivvie glared at him. “I had no
intention of giving her any of our kids! I was trying to find a way
out of this. Jericho has been helping me.”

“There is no payment that will satisfy
this demon, Vivvie,” he told her with a scowl. “What else does she
demand? I want all of it! Tell me the truth!”

“She threatened to kill off our
children one by one until I give her what she wants,” she told him
hollowly, hands trembling in her lap. “That’s why we’re mortal
now.”

“Is that where she was all those
years?” he asked with a pensive frown.

“It caught her in her dreamscape and
held her captive,” Vivvie told him quietly. “She promised it one
with her gift if it let her go. When Ryken made me and I turned;
she said she was released to arrange for me to be given in her
place.”

“Then the demon wanted more?” Eli mused
and paced, his eyes burning in fury.

“First it wanted one like both of us. I
feared for Devon and Elaina, knowing she lived with you then. I
didn’t dare cross her,” Vivvie explained, seeing he was growing
calmer by the minute. She knew him well enough to know he was still
infuriated.

“So you and Jericho called up this
demon and tried making a deal of your own with it?” Eli asked in
disbelief and shook his head. “Of all the stupid, hair brained
things to do! Why didn’t you just come to me and be done with all
this, Vivvie?”

“I was afraid to lose you,” she
admitted and a tear slid down her cheek. “She said you would never
forgive me, even if I didn’t know how the dreamscape
worked.”

Eli glared at her. “What do you want me
to say to this, Vivvie? I find out you’ve been deceiving me for
months, putting every one of our children in danger, and going to
Jericho in your dreams. You have to admit it looks very bad,
wife.”

Vivvie twisted her hands and couldn’t
bear to see his condemnation. She knew how bad it looked. The way
it really was kept her silent, for Seth, and for the good of them
all. Her husband would never forgive the truth.

It was obvious he could get passed the
dream walking. He could even forgive her feelings for Jericho. If
he knew he and Jericho both fathered Seth, there was no going back
to what they had.

“Forgive me and know I felt I had no
choice,” she said and met his anguished expression squarely. “I was
trying to protect my children and you from Tania. I didn’t know
what else to do.”

Eli’s anger seemed to evaporate at her
words, seeing in her face she told him the truth. His reaction
shocked her. He went to her and pulled her into his arms, holding
her tightly.