Chapter 32
The first flicker of consciousness was a welcome forerunner to the slowly dispelling blackness but as soon as the enormous brown eyes snapped open, they were tightly shut again – too much light after too much darkness hurt, bringing to the forefront the residual headache. Lauren tried again, this time cautiously squinting firstto give her eyes a moment to adjust. Then it struck her that rather than the light it was the bluish intensity of the walls that made her eyes water. Summoning all her flagging strength and resolve, she pushed herself up and dragged her oddly disobeying body off the bed she had woken up in. She stood up, her one hand braced against the wall, struggling with a wooziness that as a fae doctor she knew was succubus-induced with a touch of a sedative to it, and looked around – a tidy spacious light room with a bed, a dressing table, a wardrobe and a workdesk in the corner with what she recognized as her super-powerful state-of-the-art computer taking pride of place. A comfortable and comforting picture that would be, but for the fact that was not a room she recognized, but for the bars on the only window she glimpsed as the light curtain billowed out in a flow of air.
Lauren heard the lock of the door engage from the outside and froze overwhelmed by the fear of the unknown. The person who stepped in, however, was neither strange nor fear-provoking. "Isaac?" Lauren whispered, her brilliant mind, though still foggy, trying to process the too many dots to connect, "What are you doing here? And where is here? Where am I?"
"You are in the new compound of the new Ash of the fae," doctor Taft smiled with a hint of pride, "Or shall I call her the Queen of all fae? Seems like no one is willing to stick to the old divide on the threshold of a new start for the faedom."
"I am the Queen of all fae," Lauren whispered, her fists balled, a new despair washing over her.
"No, darling, you are the special guest of the Queen who has saved you from execution," the man explained and added drily, "She believes in you, you know, though some might argue her trust is misplaced. But that's Bo."
"Bo!" realization hit as the sketchy memories came flooding, almost drowning the human woman, "She's taken the power."
"She's taken the throne that had been in her family for centuries," Isaac nodded, "Stepped up to set things right, things you messed up with your vengeance gone way too far."
"I reversed our places in the feeding chain," Lauren gritted her teeth, anger taking over, "I subdued the predators that lived off people like us, Isaac."
"That's one way of looking at it," Taft replied evasively, clearly unwilling to engage in a debate, "Some might say that you can't right one great wrong with an even greater one. I personally am having a hard time forgiving you for what you did to Bo."
"I did to Bo?" Lauren's eyes sparkled with indignation, "I loved her, I shook up the world to remove the obstacles between us, to be with her."
"You used her in your own twisted ends and tried to turn her into a thrall," the man countered calmly, "and a murderer."
"And why would you be so up in arms on her behalf?" the blonde made a gigantic effort to pull herself together and do some thinking on her feet, How did you come to know her in the first place? How did you turn from a man desperately in love with me into a succubus-supporter well-versed in fae politics?"
"That is a long story I might tell you if you behave," doctor Taft smiled crookedly, "Believe me, we'll have plenty of time for that. From now on we'll be doing a lot of things together – research, therapy."
"Possibly doing something more fun together," a voice drawled and a tall curvaceous figure appeared in the open door, drawing both humans' eyes and full attention instantaneously. The succubus strode up to them with an easy smile on her lips and brushed her fingers lightly against Taft's coated shoulder.
"How's our girl, doctor?" she asked as she stopped in front of Lauren, studying her with a deeply concerned but tender expression.
"Delusional," Isaac reported bluntly, "You do understand there's hardly any coming back for her from the monster she became?"
"Well, not the first time Bo pulls off the seemingly impossible," the succubus placed a soft hand on the blonde's shoulder, sending a charge through the tense body of the human woman.
"They'll want her dead," Taft reminded coming up closer to see the blonde relax and mellow under the succubus' touch, "No matter how long you're going to keep her here, in your compound and under your spell."
"As long as I need to," Bo replied softly, her hand glowing where it made contact with the other woman's skin, "For the fae to forget, for Lauren to recover what's retrievable of her sanity and sense of moral. Will you help me, Isaac?"
A passionate yes fell off the man's lips even before Bo's other electrifying hand pressed to his heart.
###
"That's two more," Dyson brushed off his jacket as he slammed the reinforced back door of the van closed behind a few more ex-doctor Lewis vassals they had just captured and were escorting on their way to de-enthrallment.
"At this rate we'll clean the city in just about … um.. let me think a couple of decades," Tamsin scowled, "Running around after those two for the best part of the day. Would've been quicker to shoot them down on sight."
"My jolly Valkyrie, always ready to slay the innocents," the wolf growled, showing fangs with no subtlety, "Bo says we catch them all and bring them in for their cure, we work the streets, Tams. If you have a problem with Bo's authority, I'll be happy to disabuse you of the notion that anyone actually cares about your opinion."
Kenzi jumped out of the cabin with a file in her hand to insert herself between the two fae glaring daggers at each other above her head.
"Break it up, guys," she chirped, "Not like I have any sympathy for the fae who almost got my boy-friend killed as well as for the fae who slept with said boy-friend, which is you, Tams, on both counts, but we've got work to do. Good thing, Lori has always been so meticulous and catalogued every enthralled fae."
"How did I sign up to be a cesspool cleaner?" Tamsin grumbled through clenched teeth.
"You were a very bad girl, remember?" the brunette explained gladly, taking comfort in Dyson's supportive frame she leaned against and openly enjoying the valkyrie's facial manifestation of the agony she was going through.
"That's why the prisoners are all yours to be delivered and anti-dote'd," the girl shoved the file into the blonde's arms and swiftly stepped back out of Tamsin's reach and into Dyson's protective warmth, "Wolfie and I have another thing to do in the meanwhile."
"Yuck," the blonde wrinkled her nose in disgust, "Now that you've given me the nauseating image I'll have to step behind that dumpster and be violently sick."
"Have you been drinking before afternoon again, Tams?" the shifter couldn't resist a parting shot as he followed his lover's lead.
"Don't get your hopes or anything else of yours up," Kenzi giggled as she nonchalantly dismissed both the valkyrie's words and intent, "That's something quite different from what you two, old rakes, have in mind."
Dyson chuckled lowly as he allowed himself to be led to their car, "What I've had in mind regarding you over the last couple of days is to tug off your ridiculous high boots that seem to meld with your skin tight pants and … ."
With an eye-brow quirk he trailed off to let the implication sink in and was rewarded with a slightly dreamy, expectant expression on Kenzi's little face as she turned to look up at him.
"Cos one day you're gonna sprain an ankle running around on those life-hazardous heels, girl," the wolf finished off deadpan and opened the door for her.
"You, Kenzi-tease," she breathed out ducking into the car and slipping into the driver's seat, "And I am driving. Or it's not going to be a surprise."
In fact, it wasn't much of a surprise as Dyson recognized the neighborhood he had once followed her into and guessed the destination, though he refrained from admitting it out loud as he watched the pale tight face, took in a painful resolve in her eyes.
The wolf didn't ask a single question, didn't make a comment as she took his hand and led him along the winding path to the little gravestone, stopped when she stopped, stood unmoving as he saw her kneel and pass a tender hand across the name on it. The shifter gave her time to do her silent grieving, as she leaned forward letting the dark curtain of hair fall forward concealing her face. He didn't need to see her to know she was crying, he could smell her tears and feel her anguish in his own heart.
"I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl," she stood up when she could finally talk and make a pretense at stoicism, "So, I chose a Russian gender-neutral name. I am not even sure I really wanted him or her but the choice was taken out of my hands. Hale's father asked me to come over to their grand palace and I was stupid enough to take it as a good sign. All the while playing the perfect host, he told me to forget about his son and when I vehemently refused to swore to fight for our love and our baby, he slipped me some poison. Don't know if it was meant to kill me, but it killed Sasha."
Dyson's fists clenched at his sides until his knuckles cracked but he pushed to the background his pointless anger that couldn't help his Kenzi. The culprits had already been punished – the Santiago family torn apart and decimated, the young siren enthralled and wounded, de-enthralled and currently guilt-racked.
"Hale couldn't protect me or our baby," Kenzi continued, her eyes riveted to a point on the ground as she refused to meet Dyson's gaze.
"He gave you the twig of Zamora," the wolf hooked a finger under her chin making her raise her brimming eyes to him.
"Yes, after our baby was dead and a part of my heart with him," she sniffed, "Besides, would've been better if he had informed me how much of a big deal the snarly dried twig was. I wouldn't ever have guessed if you hadn't told me. Anyway, I gave it back to him. Don't want any Santiago heirloom in my pockets."
"It must've saved your life a couple of times, Kenz," Dyson commented clearly doubting the wisdom of the gesture.
"So have you," the girl replied lightly, "I figured I have someone to protect me now. Right, wolfie? Or do I need to get a big vicious dog for that?"
"I can do vicious," the shifter smiled down at her, his arms going round her tiny body, drawing her closer in a silent unbreakable vow, "And I think I can also do loving and caring. The things you, little human, have taught me."
-THE END-