Page 26 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“ J acky. Jacky, it’s time for you to wake up for me.”

The words sank through the blackness of sleep, bringing with them a warm glow. A warm caress on my cheek complemented the glow.

My eyes popped open as I realized I was conscious.

“There you are,” Subira whispered next to me, her face close to mine.

I blinked several times as I tried to figure out what space I was in, a small spike of anxiety with it. Once I realized it was my own room, the anxiety left. Subira was in bed with me, over the covers.

“You’re cleaned up and dressed. The healing went well. You just need to move and stretch now, and you should be right as rain in the next few hours.”

Healing?

I rubbed my face, my entire body aching as I moved my arm.

Why did I need…

“Carey!” I said, shooting up, wildly tossing my blanket off. Two powerful and tiny hands grabbed me, holding me in place. One of my arms, another on my shoulder. I was trapped. Not before I could get out of bed, though.

“We know. You have to stay calm.”

“Carey is gone!” I said, my breathing growing rapid, my chest tightening. I struggled to get away from the grip, but all of her thousands of years made Subira, a small woman, much more powerful than me. “She’s gone, Subira. They took her! We have to?—”

“We’re already working on it, but there’s nowhere you can run right now that would help anyone, including Carey,” she said, her small hands keeping me in place with ease.

“How long? We’re losing time!” I said, struggling with all my might.

“It’s been four hours,” Subira said softly. “We were only fifteen, maybe twenty minutes late. Right now, there’s a lot on our plates and things we have to talk about.”

“Where’s Heath? Where’s everyone?” I demanded. “I need to make sure Heath knows I tried. I need to tell him everything.”

“First, you’re going to tell me because Hasan and Heath are in an emergency Tribunal meeting.

It’s why I decided to wake you, so we could have a private moment.

There’s no one else in the house except our family.

Me, you, Davor, and Niko. The men are downstairs, making sure no one tries to enter the building.

Dirk is allowed to talk to us, but with his mate bond with Landon, we haven’t let him in. ”

“Why?” I asked, my struggle ending as I tried to comprehend the strangeness of that choice. Dirk and Landon needed to know everything, too.

“Because first and foremost, we need to discuss why Carey’s blood was in your mouth,” Subira said plainly, letting me go slowly. “We haven’t told Heath about that. The obvious assumption?—”

“Because I bit her,” I said, sinking down to the floor next to the bed on my knees, staring at my mother in horror.

“Did you?” Subira grabbed me again, yanking me closer. “Jacky, answer me clearly. Did you bite Carey Everson with the intent to Change her?”

“Yes,” I answered, no power in the word, shellshocked as everything was rushing back to me, the pure horrific reality of the situation everyone was now in. The horror of everything I saw and the horror of what I had done.

“Why?” Subira said, her eyes wide. “Jacky…”

“She…” I closed my eyes, and Subira patted my shoulder.

“Let’s… let’s start from the beginning. I need to know everything.

With Carey missing and bitten, three missing werewolves, and one dead, the humans are trying to get more information.

You were on their news.” A slight shake in her hands, she patted the bed, telling me to get back on it.

“Supernaturals are worried about backlash from this. I need everything from the beginning. Then we can talk more about what to do next.”

I nodded, tears already in my eyes. Subira was shaken. After everything this powerful woman had seen in her long years, much of it a mystery to me and all others except Hasan, this was shaking her resolve.

I climbed onto the bed once again and pulled my knees to my chest.

“The desperation was real,” I started, putting my forehead on my knees.

“Her mother was desperate. She lied about so much, but Carey wanted to let her mother lie. When we tried to leave because Carey was done listening before we were even served… her mother grew desperate. She needed Carey, and I realized something was wrong.” I felt the fury and terror rise up.

My nails turned to claws as I dug them into my legs.

“Stop doing that,” Subira whispered, pulling my fingers from my legs, forcing me to leave the ball I had curled into. “We don’t want someone smelling blood in here. You need to hold on to control as tightly as you can, or we can’t show you to Heath at all.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Tell me what happened. Keep talking.”

And I did, telling her about the witch who was able to grab me away from Carey and hold me to the wall by my neck with nothing more than magic.

The terrible metal spikes that held me on the wall.

Subira’s grip on my hands tightened as she listened.

Watching Carey fight to get away, not to be forced into the SUV.

I would have died on that wall without her charm.

It gave me the magical push to keep going.

“It helped, but it was you who decided to keep fighting,” Subira said fiercely. “Don’t give me credit for your power.”

I nodded, but at that moment, I didn’t feel powerful. Not while watching Carey get taken, not now. I felt terribly powerless.

“What happened to her blood mother?” Subira asked.

“Disappeared. Probably got into her car or SUV and drove away with everyone else. I wasn’t paying attention to her.”

“Dirk is reviewing all the footage from the restaurant. We’ll tell him to look for her,” Subira said. “Davor, did you hear me?”

“I heard,” Davor said from downstairs, his words muffled by walls, but still clear to us werecats.

Most of the time, I actively ignored conversations in my own home, focusing on other background noises like the fans, pipes, television, or even a clock if I had one.

It seemed my family didn’t do the same, and therefore, I was being listened to by both brothers.

“And let’s make one thing clear, Jacky…” Subira grabbed my chin and made me look at her. “Carey is your daughter.”

I thought about that as I thought more about the dinner itself. Tears overflowed from my eyes as I remembered Carey’s words clearly. There was so much, it felt like it was all coming back in an overwhelming wave. How did I even begin to make sense of it all for someone else to understand?

But one moment was clear.

She called me her mom. Carey is my daughter.

“She is,” I agreed. “B-But it’s not because I bit her. It’s because that’s what she told Courtney. She said she had a mother…” I touched my own chest as a sob wracked through me. “It’s m-me. She said I am her m-m-mom.”

“Oh, sweet girl,” Subira whispered, pulling me close.

“And I tried so hard to get her back. She’s my little girl, and I never got to tell her that!” I cried out, falling into Subira’s lap. “I tried so hard, and I lost her. I failed her! She jumped out of that SUV, and she…” I cried harder, letting Subira rub my head.

“We saw the blood. She hurt herself, didn’t she?”

I nodded.

“And you, no matter the reason, in your werecat form, you would have to bite her to move her.”

I nodded more, curling up, keeping my knees at my chest, my hands coming up to the sides of my head, holding on as I scream-cried, remembering the scene I had run up to, knowing Carey was terribly injured from her escape.

Subira comforted me, her hands keeping me in reality.

Her scent enveloped me and reminded me that I wasn’t in that moment anymore.

After those tears gave me the slightest moment of respite, I took a deep breath and tried to continue.

“She could… she could talk. She said she couldn’t… she couldn’t…” I found it so hard to repeat. “She couldn’t feel anything.”

“Oh, sweetie,” Subira whispered, touching my face, holding it gingerly.

“And then she whispered for me to bite her. I had to move her. I wanted to move to a place where I could defend her better, and they were all coming back for her. And…” I closed my eyes.

The truth. Subira needs to hear the truth, the thought that I… I refuse to have. I have to tell her. I have to.

“Subira, she wasn’t going to live unless I took the risk. Help wasn’t coming. There was no time. I had to try to save her.”

There was a long silence as I opened my eyes once again, looking at Subira.

“Sometimes, Jacky, you are more like your father than I think either of you wants to believe or would like,” she whispered, pushing hair away from my face. “That was what he said to me as he tried to explain Changing you. Help wasn't coming. There was no time. He had to try to save you.”

“Oh.”

“Yes." She looked in my eyes for a long time, then sighed. "Then you fought to defend her there by the road.”

“Yeah…” I tried to drop my head, but she held it. I just leaned into her hand as my claws grabbed the sheets, tearing the fabric easily. “And I failed.”

“How?”

I explained the sound, the high-frequency noise they decided to use. I was alone, and there had been so many of them. Those two spikes wouldn’t have been able to kill me as a werecat unless they had hit the right spots, and the witch had missed those.

“This witch sounds cruel,” Subira said, a soft growl in the words.

“I think he wanted to kill me up close, but they had to go. They realized we were on the news… and the witch decided I might be useful alive to deliver some messages.”

“What sort of messages?” Subira demanded, then held up a hand. “If they aren’t directly for me, perhaps we wait for you to deliver them to the right people.”

“One is for you and Hasan. One is for Heath…” I frowned. “And one is for Kushim.”

Subira’s eyes went wide.

“Interesting,” she said, the word airy and thoughtful. “Well… we shall get all of those people together and let you deliver your messages. They are why you’re still with me, with us. Kushim will have to be a call, but it should be fine.”

“What’s happening out there right now? Why is there an emergency Tribunal meeting?”

“They’re trying to get permission for Zuri to use the Tribunal to get here. You and Heath are in no position to be the public face for the humans right now. Zuri is known by the BSA. She can at least manage them. Callahan?—”

I growled.

“Stop that. With Heath and him having worked out their positions, and Callahan no longer regularly harassed by your father, he’s a good person to use for this.

Heath keeps Corissa in line, and she keeps Callahan in line.

He’s well known in the public eye as it is, and now, he’s no longer worried about protecting his position as a Tribunal member.

His statement will be coordinated with what Zuri tells the BSA. We’re a united front right now.”

“And everyone else?”

“We’ve told everyone in the family. Mischa and Hisao are still not in a good place to help us.

They’ve locked down Mischa’s village, where both have been recovering.

No one in or out. Jabari is heading back to Africa on a faster route than they planned, since Zuri will use the Tribunal to get here.

He’s going to help Kushim and Aisha with the kids at home.

Makalo and Amir are vulnerable as well. If Carey and the young werewolves were taken…

” Subira bared her teeth. “We know who their targets were. It was never about killing you, Jacky. It was always about taking Carey. They were ready to deal with whoever they had to for that objective.”

“You think so?”

“Why else cruelly use the girl’s blood mother to get her to come out of the safety of your territory?” Subira asked.

I couldn’t find any fault with that logic.

“And I offered her up along with four young werewolves…” I remembered something Subira said early on. “And… one of them is… It’s Stacy, isn’t it?” I asked, once again closing my eyes as I remembered that girl’s bright smile.

“It was,” Subira confirmed. “Did you know her well?”

“She was the first person to greet me in Dallas when I was supposed to be protecting Carey,” I explained, eyes wet with memories. “She was sent to talk to me, a meeting of sorts, so the pack could figure out what I was doing. She was human at the time.”

“I see.” Subira touched my shoulder and then moved, sliding off the bed. “You won’t want to, but you need to eat. Davor and Niko prepared a hearty meal. Use your nose, smell it. See how you feel.”

I inhaled deeply, noting the smell of cooked meat. My stomach twisted and revolted, but also growled. I could tell I was hungry.

“I’ll try,” I whispered.

“Just think of it this way. Witches are going to die for this. You need all your strength to kill them.”

Curling my clawed hands into fists, Subira’s brutal words rang true.

“I’m going to kill all of them,” I promised, looking at her, knowing my gold eyes were visible and had been for some time.

“And they will regret ever touching your daughter,” Subira continued.

“Yes, they will,” I snarled viciously.