Chapter 36
ASTRID
This is all so confusing and I feel like I’m out of place in all this.
Adam is a time traveler and I barely know what that means, but he needs my help. If my vision is also true, he’ll need me for more than the fight.
He won’t die. He can’t. The moon showed me and so far all the predictions have come true. I have to believe the secret I hold will also be true.
He will have my sword and I will wield it with the passion I have in my heart for him.
When we got back to Phoenix, Adam called all the people he set up as his army.
“We need a plan.” Oliver grumbles with Ezra on his lap.
“We have only one choice. We have to find the Lefus and figure out a way to kill them both.” Adam eyes the group. “I need Miranda.”
“Why?” Quinn questions.
“She has answers.” He says.
Graham pulls out his phone. “I’ll call Jake.” He walks away with his phone to his ear.
“So what if we can’t?” Deacon asks.
“There has to be some way.” Jenny says. “I searched the library and the only thing I could find was something about the devils trap is the body itself. I have no idea what that means.”
“Where did you read that?” Adam cocks his head.
“A witches spell book. It was spell on how to trap a demon. But we don’t want to trap him, we want to kill him. It wasn’t very helpful.” She motions a hand to Adam then folds her arms.
Adam lowers his head like he’s thinking. “Still. It might be useful.” He raises his head. “Can you do it?”
Jenny nods. “Yeah. I think I can.”
“I know you can.” Deacon kisses her hair.
Adam stands straight. “Ok. Maybe we can trap them and keep them trapped until we can figure out how to send them to fire pit.”
He looks around to the others. “I’ve been hearing mumbling through the Hive Link. There’s a new Master that’s shown up. I believe that’s Lefu.”
“Where?” Oliver asks.
“Falcon Ridge. In the south forests outside the Alliance territory. From what I can tell, the hives pretty big.” Adam informs.
Oliver gently runs his fingers up Ezra’s spine. “That’s too close to home for my liking.” He grinds. Ezra growls and he rubs her back more to calm her. “Not yet, baby.” He whispers.
Wes leans forward. “Ok. I’ll call Grey and give him the heads up.”
“OK. I wanted to do this alone, but I can see that this way is much better.” Adam crosses his arms. “Thanks.”
Oliver pushes Ezra off his knee and stands. “Ok. No need to be a pussy. We got it.” He smirks.
Adam stands in front of him. “You’re itching for a fight, aren’t you.”
“Damn right, I am.” He nods.
“Let’s kill some vamps then.” Adam ticks his head.
Oliver looks him over. “I wasn’t talking about the vamps.”
Adam leans to him. “Neither was I.” He whispers and meets his eye. They stare at each other for a moment then Adam pushes past him.
I shake my head with the corner of my lip ticked up and fold my arms.
“We leave tonight. We will get intel in Falcon Ridge and then attack at sun down. This is going to get bloody so, be prepared.” Adam orders.
“It’s not a party, if it’s not bloody.” Oliver smirks and back hands Adams chest. “Ezra.” He holds out his hand the two stride out of the council room.
“Let’s get to the library.” Jenny says to Deacon.
“We'll give you a lift.” Cass smiles. He motions to Ember who opens a portal and the four walk through it.
Wes and Thea join us. “Grey says he’s calling the council now. They’ll meet us when we get there.”
Adam nods.
“Phoenix too." Graham hangs up his phone. “Faith and Miranda are on their way and Jake is ordering the chopper.”
“Good.” He turns to me. “Bikes or run.”
I tick my head back and forth. “Um…run.” I smirk.
He turns his back to me and lowers. “Hop on, snowflake.”
I giggle and jump on his back. “I’ll be there by sunrise.” He tells Wes and Graham and they both nod. He looks over his shoulder. “Hold your breath.”
I take a deep breath and he breaks into a blur. A few minutes in, I’m hugging his neck and laughing so hard as the wind whips my hair.
We ran all night, only stopping to allow Adam to refuel his energy. We covered two days in hours. He’s really getting fast now.
When we stopped in Falcon Ridge, he set me down. “How’s your stomach?”
“It’s good. It’s getting used to being sped across the earth.” I smile.
“I like carrying you.” He grins, leans to my lips and kisses me.
We walk to the Security Unit and the building is just opening for the day.
When we walk in, the Phoenix Alphas are with the Falcon Alphas and there’s someone extremely angry on a monitor.
“What the fuck did you guys do?!”
Adams dad stands and walks to the screen. “Finn, calm it down. We didn’t do anything.”
“Calm?! I have fucking demons running all over the place up here and a bunch of fucking lycans worshipping Lefu like some sort of God! So I’ll ask again…what the FUCK?!!”
Finns face grew redder than an apple as he yelled at all the Alphas.
Jake joins Hunter. “Ok. Yes, we let a mirror version of Lefu escape from the Mirror world, but it was completely by accident.”
Finn shakes his head. “If I wasn’t up here, I’d shove my stick up your ass, Jake…by accident!”
Adam pushes past some Alphas engaged I some rather inappropriate conversation and walks to the screen. “Demons? What demons? Lefus the only demon here.”
“There’s one we can confirm. The rest are suspect. He goes by the name of Alistair.” Finn informs.
Adams face changes as he looks to his dad and back at the screen. “Are you sure? Are you positive it’s Alistair?”
“Yes. A hundred percent.” Finn confirms.
“Shit.” Adam turns and runs his fingers through his hair. “If he’s here, he’s helping Lefu.”
“Adam. Who’s Alistair?” I question.
He turns to Hunter.
Hunter gives him a confused look. “Son?”
Adam looks around the room. “Alistair’s my father.”
The room grumbles with shock and I can only blink at him.
Hunter walks to his side. “I don’t understand.”
Adam turns to the screen and his dad. “My father was the reason I joined this fight in the first place. When Lefu rose, he brought demons with him. One them possessed my father. He impregnated my mother. My father, the lycan hybrid, was a mean son of bitch already. Alistair made it worse. When I was around 10…I think…he came home after being gone for months. Said I was ready to join Lefu. I refused. My mother got between us and fought him when he tried to force me.”
He walks through the silent crowd. He turns. “He killed my mother. Right there at my feet. In cold blood. Just…took her life then laughed about it. Said she deserved it because she didn’t understand how great I was.” He looks to me. “That’s what Genesis meant.”
My brows stitch up and I swallow past the lump closing my throat.
“Holy shit!”
“No way.”
“Sorry about your mom, but…damn…”
“Who's Genesis?”
Hunter approaches his son. “Is that…why you hated me so much?”
Adam looks to the floor than looks into his father’s eyes. “I couldn’t trust you.” He shrugs.
They share a tiny moment before Adam moves on. “Anyway, he tried to take me and, I don’t know how I did it…I only did it that once, but I ended up in Norway. Like in a blink. I just appeared in the middle of Oslo, crying and without anything but my clothes. Eventually, I found a hive and lived with them until I returned to a fucking apocalypse.”
“Wait.” Bastian puts his hand up from the podium. “What apocalypse?”
“It hasn’t happened yet. I’ll fill you guys in with all the details later, but right now, it looks like Alistair came here to fight this with Lefu or try to get to me. Either way, he’ll need to be dealt with. Win or lose, Alistair will destroy the planet just for sheer entertainment.” Adams eyes float around to the Alphas staring back at him. He turns to Finn. “Where is he now?”
Finn shrugs. “Don’t know. All we know is that he’s been trying to hack our systems and get to Falcon and Phoenix’s main frames. He’s looking for someone. From the sounds of it, he might be looking for you. He’s really your dad?”
Adam nods. He rubs his nape. “Ok. If he’s looking for me then he's occupied. I’m sorry, Finn. You’re going to have to deal with him until I can.”
“Of course.” He scowls.
“I have to take Lefu out. Once I do that, he won’t have a chance.” Adam looks around the room. “Where's Michael?”
“In a cell.” Oliver smirks. “I packed him away.”
“Ok. We're gonna need him on this.” Adam says.
Bastian looks to Adam. “What do you need?”
“What don’t I need? He’s going to have hundreds of Vamps behind him.” Adam crosses his arms.
“You got it.” Bastian confirms.
The Alphas all got busy organizing their armies.
Adam met me in the middle of the chaos of men. “You ok?” He slowly rubs my arms.
“I’m fine. I can fight.” I smile.
He holds my hands. “No. I mean, are you ok with me being what I am?”
“I won’t lie and say I understand what this means, but I can’t fault you for what you are. That, in turn, would mean you could fault me. As long as your power isn’t evil, I see no reason to not love you.” I say quietly.
He gently places his hands on my cheeks. “I would rather die then hurt you. I promise, this won’t change a thing and if it does, you have full right to drive your sword into my chest, understood?”
“Understood.” I grin.
He softly kisses my lips and it was so loving. There’s no way this man is part demon. I won’t believe it.
As the meeting continued, Adam explained who he really is, what the future entailed and what happened on Miranda’s Island.
“Ok. My head hurts.” Luke groans.
“That doesn’t take much.” River snorts.
Luke scowls then turns to Adam. He points to him as he leans on the table. “Let me get this straight. You’re a time traveler from the future and the only way you come to the past is you have to be born and relive your childhood?”
Adam nods. “That’s correct.”
Luke turns to Darcy. “That…I don’t want. My childhood sucked.” He smacks the table and leans back.
Darcy chuckles and shakes his head.
“Trust me. I hated every minute of it.” Adam chuckles too then smiles at his father. “No offense.”
Hunter nods and smiles back.
“Wait.” Ash pushes off the wall. “My whole fucked up vision. That was you?”
“Yep. The night I started this, Lefu was feeding newly created Vamps. You saw the beginning of my mission. All of it.” Adam says to him.
Ash looks to Hunter. “Huh. Wish I knew that before I caused shit. Sorry, Hunt.”
“Water under the bridge, man.” Hunter smirks.
“Hopefully this will be over and I’ll never have to do it again. I’ll be stuck here, but it’s not so bad.” He says as he grabs my hand.
“Who wouldn’t want to live in 2023?” Grey grins.
“It’s the craziest time I’ve ever had to experience, but it feels like home.” He glances at me.
Peter leans back in his chair. “So, if you kill Lefu, does that mean that your future won’t happen?”
Adam shrugs. “That's what I’m hoping.”
“Well, doesn’t that mean you won’t exist?” Darcy says.
“Don’t.” Luke points to him.
“What?” He questions.
“Don’t do the time loop, fuck with my head, shit.” Luke scowls.
“It’s a valid question.” Darcy crosses his arms.
“It may be a valid question, but I’m not drunk enough for it yet.” Luke grits.
The room snorts and chuckles as Luke warns Darcy with his glare.
“I’m not thinking about it.” Adam says. “I just need to get through this.”
Jake stands. “Ok. We deploy in six hours.” His phone rings. “Wallace…” He glances at the screen to Finn with a bit of confusion. “Marcus? What’s up?” Jake silently questions Finn and Finn shrugs.
Jake wanders off to another room. “Yeah…I got a minute…My wolves?...I’m not…Well, I don’t know…Really?...You sure?...”
“Finn. We'll deal with your situation after the one down here.” Bastian informs. “If things get bad, call me.”
“Things are already bad, Bastian. Axelridge out.” He clicks a button and the screen turns black.
“Adam. Give us a couple of hours to organize Ops leaders then meet us in the Deployment garage.” Bastian instructs.
Adam grunts. “Is Miranda here?”
Jake comes out of the room and covers his phone with his hand. “Yeah. She’s with my mom in the hall.”
Adam grabs my hand. “Let’s go.”
We leave the council room and it’s not long before we find Miranda standing with Faith Wallace. It’s almost impossible to believe they’re Shamans.
Faith smiles and she looks so beautiful with her curly blonde hair. She stands and Miranda stands too.
Miranda is not unlike her younger self. She looks so dignified as she fixes her silver hair and smiles.
“Adam.”
We approach and stop in front of the women. “We need to talk.” He says.
“Yes. We do.” Miranda says as she folds her arms.