Life Cycle (Preternaturals, #4)(2)
Author: Zoe Winters

There was a consensus of head shaking.

“Father Hadrian, perhaps you could tell us about your experience.”

The priest poured a glass of wine from a bottle on the table and took a leisurely sip. “When I was turned in 1955, my first meal was a blonde witch—maybe in her twenties. Her name was Tamara. I left her corpse and went to hunt for more. When I returned to the church, there was a young girl, maybe eleven or twelve or so with the same blonde hair and the same eyes, wearing the same dress as the woman I killed. She told me she was a cycler. She was powerfully magical, much more so than I thought even a woman in her twenties should be.”

The hair on the back of Cain’s neck stood up. There were millions of women with that name, and probably plenty of blonde witches with it as well, but his experience with Tam had always been one of confusion over how she could take him down so easily with a flick of her wrist.

The demon glanced at Anna, wondering if she’d made the connection, but the idea that Father Hadrian was speaking about the Tam they both knew hadn’t penetrated for Luc’s mate.

“Anna, do you understand yet why this involves you?” Anthony asked.

Her eyes widened but she maintained her denial. “No… I… Why would it involve me?”

The vampire laughed and shook his head. “I forget how recently you were introduced to our world. Your friend has been keeping a monumental secret from you. Tam is the woman Father Hadrian met in the fifties.”

“That’s not possible. I mean… we grew up together. Since we were kids…”

“Since you were about twelve?”

Anna shut her mouth and looked down at her hands.

“That’s what I thought. She must have died and started a new life cycle right around that time. We’re still not sure exactly what that means.”

The vampire king turned to the sorcerer and werecat. “Dayne, Greta, did you do the research I requested?”

Dayne nodded. “I might have a theory. Since magic users are human, we’ve always been a wild card. Up until now, we’ve kept ourselves mostly secret from normal humans and considered ourselves part of the preternatural world, but if Jack gets enough power, he could sway magic users to his side. I think he wants to expose the preternaturals and fight. He’s absorbing power from his kills to make it easier.”

Greta interrupted. “I don’t think anyone considered there could be magical and ritual significance to the way Jack the Ripper was killing. The killings got more complex, but if he was experimenting with the most potent methods for power absorption, that would happen. He could become unstoppable if he kills the other cyclers.”

“He’ll also be a true immortal,” Dayne said. “The more power a magic user has, the more slowly they age. Considering the nature of what he is already, my suspicion is that he’d become unkillable. He wouldn’t have to start over in a younger human body like what Hadrian observed with Tamara.”

Cain squeezed his eyes shut as images flashed in his mind of Tam being ritualistically and gruesomely murdered. He didn’t know why it pissed him off so much.

“Cain?” Anthony said.

The demon looked up, startled at being included in the discussion. He tried to maintain a bored mask, but he couldn’t keep the hot glow from his eyes, nor stop his hands from balling into fists. “Yes?”

“We need you to protect the witch in your dimension. It’s the only place we’re guaranteed she’ll be safe. If he kills all the cyclers, and magic users come out of the closet, they’ll band together, which risks your demons as well.”

Magic users were a demon’s one weakness. Demons were exempt from death and could heal any injury—true immortals, but they could still be trapped by a curse. They could still feel the suffering of starvation. They could still be hurt.

All eyes were on him, waiting for his response. He didn’t know how he felt about the little blonde witch, but if anybody was killing her, it was going to be him, not some cheesy magical serial killer with a world domination plot, and not one of Anthony’s thugs, either.

“I’ll protect her,” Cain said, avoiding eye contact with the others. This was killing the shit out of his reputation. There were dramatic gasps and whispering, but he ignored it.

“Of course, killing her would be more expedient… if you could find a way to make her stay dead.” The vampire king’s tone was bland.

“No!” Anna said.

“Anthony!” Charlee said.

“I said I’d protect her,” the demon snarled, finally meeting the eyes of everyone at the table. He dared them to start something with him.

“We’ll also need you to get her to tell you everything about being a cycler. We still don’t understand how or why they exist or the extent of their powers,” Anthony said.

Cain growled. “Watch yourself, half-breed. I could take you out without blinking. I’m sure you want to survive to be a daddy.”

Charlee’s hand went protectively over her pregnant belly, as if the child were in danger instead of the cocky vampire standing beside the projector screen.

Anthony glared. “Don’t forget, I have magic users in my employ. I have a coven of vampires that stretches across North America and contacts with vampire leaders all over the world. Our numbers are far greater than yours. Let’s not make this personal. We’ve got a bigger enemy to fight.”

Cain was bored now. “Are we done here? I’ve got a witch to collect.” He stood, already turning toward the door.

“Cain…” It was the first word Luc had spoken since the demon had arrived. “Take Anna with you. She knows where the witch lives.”

That would make things easier.

Luc’s mate recoiled, gripping tight to his arm. “What? No! Come with me,” she said.

“I should stay for the rest of the meeting. My brother can’t harm you, remember? You can’t hold a solid form without me,” Luc said.

When she’d given her soul and became a demon’s mate, she’d had to die first. It made her existence somewhat ghostly. Only her mate could give her a full, solid form. Gradually, she would gain the same powers as Luc, but it was a lengthy process—centuries. Anna looked from Cain to Luc a couple of times. She finally sighed and let go of her mate.

Cain headed for the door. He didn’t bother waiting for her, assuming she’d follow. And if she didn’t, he’d just have to find the infuriating witch on his own.

***

Tam had everything she was taking packed in several bags: clothes, magical tools, books. All the things that meant something to her. She stood in front of a large bird cage, a tear tracking down her face.

Henry had died three years ago. He’d been her best friend and sometimes lover for almost two centuries. A raven therian, he’d always had her back. She’d come to think of him as her familiar, and his blood was powerfully magical, second only to cat blood. He’d taught her more about her gift for reading the future than anybody else she’d encountered. She’d known he was going to die at some point. She lost everybody. Always.

It’s time to let the cage go. Though it was her own mental self-talk, she heard it in Henry’s voice instead of her own. But whoever the message ultimately came from, it was right. Even with magic, it would be too much to travel with, and all it could be now was a painful reminder of her loss.

She wiped her face and put the cover over the cage, taking one last look at the door they’d made for him to easily open so he could come and go as he wished. He’d preferred being in his bird form when he needed to think, and it was always handy to shift to it when people came over.

Tam turned back to the piles of bags and boxes in the middle of her room and created a circle of salt. She lit candles at the four directional points and sat in the middle with her spell book open. Even with her power, she wasn’t sure she had the energy to perform this spell alone, but she had to try. For all the flashy magic she could do by herself at her age, changing the molecular structure of several bags of her stuff was still a tall order.

She closed her eyes and focused, then raised her arms and intoned the chant over and over until she crumpled to the floor and everything went dark.

The raven flew a couple of times around her. His shrill call was like laughter. Henry? He landed on the ground at her feet, then shifted into his human form, the call turning into a human laugh.

“Tam, I swear, what is wrong with you? You should have called the coven to do that spell. At least this gives me a chance to talk to you.”

“I can’t involve them. It’s too dangerous. Is this really you? Or is it a dream?”

“Yes,” he said enigmatically, a twinkle in his eye.

“I miss you.”

He reached out, the back of his hand brushing her cheek. “I’m always watching out for you. You know that.”

“Are you coming back?” She was asking if he planned to reincarnate.

“At some point.” He hesitated. “I’m with my soul mate right now. We have limits here, but we still don’t want to be separated.”

“That’s understandable. And I’m glad you’re with her.” And she was. Though they’d had their occasional fling, it had been friends with benefits with Henry. Besides Anna, he was her best friend. But they’d both known their love wasn’t that kind of love. “I love you…” she said.

He smirked and finished her sentence “… but not that way. Right back at ya.”

He pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear. “We’ll meet again, but you may have to find me and remind me, I don’t know how many memories I can pull through.” He turned serious. “Tam, listen to me. Don’t leave the house. Wait. He’s coming.”

She pulled away, panic gripping her. “Jack? If Jack’s coming, why would I wait?”

“No. Someone else. Follow your heart.”

“What does that mean? Stop speaking in riddles.”

He shook his head. “You know there is only so much I’m allowed to interfere. Read your cards again, and really see them this time. The whole spread.”

Tam opened her eyes and sat up inside the circle. The candles still burned, and she quickly blew them out. Then she laughed. The energy required for the magic may have knocked her out, but her spell had worked. She was two thousand after all. Her bags were tiny now, each hardly bigger than a thimble. She gathered them up and put them into a freezer bag, then put them, along with the magic book, candles, and salt into a shoulder bag. Nothing beat traveling like a witch.

Her cards were packed already or she’d do another reading. She turned away from the cage and took her single bag to the kitchen to make another cup of Earl Grey and wait for whoever he was.

She didn’t have to wait long. Half an hour later there was a knock on the door. She slung her bag over her shoulder and went to answer. Standing on the other side were an unlikely pair: Anna and Cain. Death and her best friend, delivered right to her door. Anna was looking mildly transparent and ghostly without her demon mate there to keep her solid. She was also looking mildly angry.

“Does our friendship mean nothing to you? How could you keep a secret like this from me?” She attempted to smack Tam on the arm, but her hand went right through. Sometimes that ghost thing was a good thing.

Tam decided to play dumb, even though there was only one giant secret she’d been keeping from her friend. “What secret?”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Seriously? We’re really doing this? I know what you are.”

The witch couldn’t help a quick glance at Cain. Why did the foul, evil demon have to be so hot? He had that dark, savage look going. Long, dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin. Her rational mind told her he was hot to catch prey and she was falling right into his web, but damn, she was human and he was… Wait, did he just arch an eyebrow at me? She was probably telegraphing her emotions right at him.

“Tam!”

She turned back to Anna. “Okay, great, you know what I am. You couldn’t even handle basic witch stuff. You said you didn’t want to know about it. How would this truth-telling experiment have gone down?” Tam put on an affected mock-voice, “So, Anna, I know you hate hearing about magic stuff because you’re a pansy, but I’m really almost two thousand years old. Ask me anything about anything.”

“I don’t know. I just felt like I should have known. What about when you told me the other magic stuff? You couldn’t have told me then? Or when we were together in Cary Town around Halloween? What about then? You couldn’t have found an opening to tell me the truth?”

Tam looked down. “My coven doesn’t even know. Anna, I have to hide and lie to live. Okay? Not everything is about you.” Though she was debating the point of living again, lately. Was Jack even after her? Maybe it was just a danger with Cain in her cards. He was evil. And a killer.

“Girls. Please. We have to move now. The Cycler could be hunting her as we speak.”

“The Cycler?” Tam asked.

Another eye roll from Anna. “Are you going to playact like you don’t know you’re being hunted?”

“No, but, how do you guys know about him?”

Cain pulled her out of the house, ignoring her question. “There’s no time to pack. You’ll have to make do. You’re coming to the demon dimension, and don’t try your little energy ball trick. I’m not in the mood.”

Wait, he wanted to protect her? Since when?

When he touched her, she thought she’d swoon right there like some damsel in distress. Nobody should have that kind of sexual magnetism. At least it would make dying in his arms less repulsive. But she couldn’t bring that up now, not with Anna here. She wouldn’t understand.

For now, Tam had to just go along. They might think they could protect her, but staying in one place was unsafe, and if Jack succeeded… No. Tam wouldn’t let him. It was best to end the cycle. What they’d done was unnatural. It went against the order of things. One of them going mad and the others becoming his victims was nature’s way of righting that wrong. Who was she to call foul?