Adam and Evil

Nolan’s POV

Adam crouched half shifted, his claws on his hands and now bare feet digging into the glass with abandon. His crazed red bloodshot eyes with blown out pupils were not that of his human or his wolf. And they were set on only one thing, or one person, Clara.

Without hesitation, Clara threw her whiskey in his face eliciting a ferocious growl that sounded like a shriek. Only one creature shrieks that way….a demon.

How in the h**l did a demon get a hold of Adam in just a few short hours? I stand, shaking and letting out a roar that vibrates everything still standing in the room. I shift into my wolf and tackle him while he is still stunned from the whiskey.

Britton grabs Brianna and starts dragging her from the lounge and to safety, something I don’t have time to thank him for. While Adam is pinned I sneak a glance back at Clara and she is rubbing her necklace, whispering her grandmother’s name repeatedly.

While I snuck my glance at Clara, Adam manages to snake an arm out from under my paw and digs his claws into my shoulder. He misses my neck just barely as I turn to dodge his advance and press my shoulder into his chest with all of my weight. I can feel the blood pooling in my fur, running down my arm. This is a bad wound. I can’t link Clara to tell her to run and my heart is thundering in my chest. I have to protect her. I don’t know why she is a target and from the sheer panic on her face when he barreled in here, I don’t think she does either. All I know is, I cannot lose my mate when I just found her.

I hear glass crunching around us as Adam and I both struggle for an advantage. He tries to raise his arm again and I grab it with my teeth as he slices into my snout and tries to claw inside my mouth. The air around us starts to shimmer and with a loud pop, I feel another presence in the room. Someone just sheered in here using magic. I turn to see who it is when suddenly Adam starts slipping out from under me. I’m losing my hold and I am scrambling to gain the upper hand again.

“Stop!” an older female voice commands me. I turn in fury to see who dares command me in my own territory and see who this enemy is. In my rage and panic , all I can think is that they taking one of my best friend’s out from under me before I can subdue and heal him, only to find myself staring directly into the eyes of Clara’s grandmother. She smirks at me as she holds Adam’s limp body in the air using her magic. He is still very aware of what is going on. He lets out gutteral and almost feral shrieks, but he cannot move. The magic of well… magic.

Before I can say a word she commands Clara to dig in her robe pocket and grab the herbs. Clara grabs a mortar and pestle and starts dropping herbs in and grinding them up. She hands her grandmother the paste and Caren snaps her fingers turning the mixture into a liquid form. With one delicate finger she lifts the liquid serum from the mortar and right into Adam’s open screeching mouth.

I shift back to my human form, realising I’m standing in front of my mate and her grandmother in all my natural glory, without clothes.

“We meet again so soon, Alpha Nolan.” Caren says with a forced smile, trying to avoid actually looking at me and follows her statement with a wave of her hand as she wills Adam’s now limp body to lie on the couch.

“Not the night we had planned, that’s for sure.” I say gruffly as I reach for a blanket to wrap around my exposed lower half.

Clara is looking rapidly between the two of us. She still hasn’t said a word. I’m not sure if she is in shock or merely assessing the situation. From the blank look on her face but discerning eyes I have to lean towards assessment. She doesn’t seem like the damsel in distress type from everything we’ve been through in a short 24 hours.

Still wordlessly, she walks over to me and looks at my arm. I can feel the skin repairing itself, knitting its fibers back in place with ease. Luckily for me, the demon had a light hold over Adam so he wasn’t able to infect me with any poison from his bite. This means we can still save him.

I look at Clara as she continues to inspect my arm, her eyebrows are knitted together and she looks up at me and releases a rapid breath, her demeanor seems to be more relaxed now, she must have come to the same realization. Our eyes lock and I give her a reassuring smile. “I’ll be fine, see.” As I gesture with my uninjured arm.

“I have no idea if this is normal for your territory, but you seem a little too calm to have had one of your warriors break into your home possessed by a demon and try to attack you in your lounge..” she mutters, exasperated.

I look at her seriously and retort, “I hate to break it to you, little wolf, but he wasn’t after any of us. It was you he honed in on. And no one has been bitten by a demon from this territory in nearly twenty years.”

Her face pales and loses all emotion. She quickly turns away so as not to face me, wringing her hands before she spins on her heel with lightning speed and looks at her grandmother with a freshly steeled expression.

Caren holds up a dainty but firm finger and presses it to her lips. She looks at me before pulling a candle from her satchel. “Do you know what this is, Alpha Nolan?”

“Nolan is fine, and yes, I do. My mother used them all the time. Should we move to a more private space before we have this conversation?” I say, beckoning towards the stairs.

“Clara, do you wish for Alp - Nolan to join us? It only seems fair considering the attack happened on his territory? I won’t be giving you the answers you seek quite yet, but a conversation must be had.” Caren says gracefully but firmly.

I can see the irritation and frustration building on Clara’s face as she snaps back. “Fine. Since there is nothing important for you to say, sure, let us go light the protection candle for a simple conversation about poor Adam over there.” she says, pointing her thumb at Adam’s unconscious body.

“No need for an attitude, my girl. I told you before, once you and Nolan return to our territory, I will give you the answers you have been seeking. And NO, before you ask I will not teleport us there now.” Caren says. “Alpha No - Nolan. Sorry, that will take me a moment. Would you please show us to a more private place where we can speak freely?”

Watching their dynamic would be comical if it weren’t for the grave situation we currently find ourselves in. We need to get this conversation over with so I can get back down here and get to work exorcizing that demon from one of my best and longest friends.

Steeling my expression so as not to show any of my distress to Clara and Caren, I turn to show them the way upstairs to my office that doubles as a library. “Please follow me, ladies.”

“AHEM.” I hear in Brianna’s sharp tone as soon as we round the corner. I roll my eyes and shake my shoulders out before giving her the typical brother response of, “What?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe Britton and I should be included in this conversation, and perhaps you’d like to be a decent host and introduce us to whomever this is that clearly knows your mate and happens to be a hybrid?” she says bitterly. “Oh, by the way, whoever you are, you smell delicious.” she half shouts over my shoulder to Caren.

Caren chuckles and says, “Hello Brianna, your mother spoke very highly of you. I am Caren, Clara’s grandmother, and the leader of your mother’s coven. It is so lovely to finally meet you. You have her beautiful eyes and her sharp tongue.”

Brianna blushes deeply after she returns her jaw to its regularly seated place with her mouth closed. “My apologies, High Elder Caren. I would very much appreciate it if we could at least sit in on this conversation if you would so permit.”

“There is no need for formalities my dear. I am to be your grandmother-in-law of sorts and I was very fond of your mother. I do agree that all who were present tonight should join us. Of course, unless that is a problem for you, Nolan?” Caren states diplomatically.

“The more the merrier I suppose. Let’s get this show on the road so we can get to the herb garden and grab a grimoire. I don’t want Adam sitting possessed like that, unconscious or not. I don’t want to leave the demon any longer than necessary. I don’t need it seeping into his subconscious and getting pack knowledge from him, while we waste time” I say while dramatically shrugging my shoulders. The pain is nearly gone from Adam’s gouging by this point, thankfully.

“Oh dear, don’t worry about that. I gave him Rhodiola Rosea in his concoction to block the demon from his mind. If it hasn’t left of It’s own free will by now I would be shocked. If it is still in his body when I come back down I will focus It’s energy into an animation so we can interrogate it. But it should leave behind a signature so I can track its origin.” Caren says, as if it is so matter of fact. But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, she IS high elder. But Clara is the one who prepared the elixir for her, yet she didn’t just use magic herself. The more I think about it, the more questions I have. And apparently so does she. I can’t get their conversation from earlier out of my mind, especially now that Caren has reiterated she won’t be giving Clara the answers that she is seeking. Why would she be hiding something from her that is so clearly important? And why is she wearing an Amber necklace? Amber suppresses the magic of our kind, not our werewolf side, but our hidden nature, that our pack hasn’t shared with anyone before they’ve been initiated. I’ll have to be careful to avoid touching it so she doesn’t see through the glamour, though to be fair, it doesn’t change much. I shake my head, trying to stop the internal tangent from starting to rage in my mind and usher dramatically to everyone in the room, including Brianna and for some reason, Britton to follow me to the library.

We climb the stairs, Brianna and Britton clearly linking one another because they can’t stop snickering behind me. Caren sees my annoyed expression and whispers to me, “Don’t be too bothered by their relationship. In a few short weeks it will be official and you can breathe.”

How she could possibly know that terrifies me to no end, but relaxes me nonetheless. This woman, my potential future grandmother-in-law is a force to be reckoned with and a source of surprises at every turn.

Everyone continues following me down the hallway, Brianna and Britton with Clara and Caren following. Everyone is silent, so they must be mind linking one another. I open the door to the library, holding Brianna and Britton back, allowing Clara and Caren to find their seats first.

I would pay a great sum of money to know what either woman is thinking right now as they assess their surroundings. Our library is large for being a part of the house. I converted a bonus room to hold all of my mothers grimoires and the historical records, anatomy and any information we could find on all magical creatures that we know of. Each wall is floor to ceiling full of books, journals and Encyclopedia’s. I have four camel leather sectionals in each direction of the room facing the center. I don’t believe in sitting behind a desk when having meetings such as this. However, my large raw edge cedar desk sits in the far right corner, with a leather rocking recliner behind it. What can I say, I enjoy comfort, and a recliner is a much better use of a seat than a flimsy old rolling chair underneath my large frame. There are small mini fridges at the corner of each sectional with a cedar topper to act as an end table. I gesture to everyone saying, “Please grab a drink if you wish. There are waters, sodas and beers in the fridges, Timothy keeps the house well stocked.

“Got any bourbon?” Clara states almost sarcastically, finally breaking her silence.

I snort and walk to the bar cart I have by my desk and start to pour a glass for her and I, placing the perfectly chilled whiskey discs in the bottom of each glass.

Britton chimes in, his baritone breaking the now silent room, “Could you possibly make that another?”

“And another, please, if it isn’t too much trouble.” Caren says politely.

“So five, then?” I ask the room, looking at Brianna.

“You know the answer to that.” Brianna responds, flashing me her megawatt smile she inherited from mother.

I begin pouring as each person comes to grab their glass, Clara’s hand gently touching mine as I pass her the glass. Sparks rush from her fingertips, seemingly straight up my arm and to my heart. The tension feels molasses thick as I look to her face, trying to make eye contact and read any sort of emotion in her calculated features. She gives me a soft smile and just says, “Thanks.” in a hushed tone.

Does she not understand I’m in agony? An attack on her happened HERE. In MY home. The first night I bring her here, in hopes she will make this her home, too. I am sick. I am stressed, and right now all I want is to cut the niceties and figure out what the f*** just happened and why.

As if she can read the agony on my face, before everyone can even finish being seated, Caren speaks up and says, “Well it is time you all know the secret your parents have been keeping from you, don’t you think?”