The Broken Barrier (Shadow Claw Book 4) Read online

  She sighed, “I’m alright. I just had a bad dream.”

  He blinked, waiting for her to continue, so she unwillingly did.

  “The barrier that I had drawn over the Caillagh and Kalen…,” She paused, replaying the dream in her mind.

  “Hmm? Go on”

  “Well, I saw bl-blood pouring out of it.”

  Kevin stared at her wide-eyed, thinking of how to respond to the revelation. Nina waited patiently, not knowing what to say either. The silence kept agitating his bear. He had to say something. He had to comfort his mate.

  “It was just a dream, Nina. With the baby coming, you’re growing increasingly stressed. It might just be an effect of the pregnancy. Cassie told you these things would happen, right?”

  Her eyes dropped, and she took in his words, wanting to believe them.

  He continued, “Everything will be all right. I’m right here with you. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promised that, didn’t I? You’ll be fine.”

  Saying this, he placed a hand on the nape of her neck and pressed his lips to hers. She held back for a second before giving in to his comforting touch. It was a kiss meant to comfort her, and yet, Kevin couldn’t quite figure out whether it worked or not.

  “You look parched,” he said, moving backward, trying to read her expressions. “Hold on. I’ll go get you a glass of water.”

  Nina was still too shaken to respond. She watched his shadow open the door and exit the room.

  The air was chilly outside. The wind caused the trees to rustle in a symphony. That was music to Kevin’s ears, and he stood for a moment, trying to catch every sound they made.

  He shut his eyes and moved instinctively toward the kitchen. He knew every nook and cranny of this place. Vision was not needed to be directed. What was needed at that moment was the melodic sounds of nature to calm him down.

  Two familiar voices hit his ears, causing his eyes to flutter open.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Luke raised his brow.

  Kevin blushed. He was caught in the act. “Just getting Nina a glass of water.” His left hand buried itself in his hair, sensing the tension in the air.

  He glanced at Samuel whose face was filled with concern. “Is everything okay?” Kevin was starting to get worried, too. Something was off about this night. First Nina, and now Samuel and Luke. What was going on?

  Ignoring the question, Luke inquired, “How’s Nina doing?”

  The bear alpha narrowed his eyes, waiting for a response. He could tell that something was bothering Kevin. “She’s fine. Just been having bad dreams lately.”

  Samuel had been oddly quiet up till now, but for some reason, this made him shoot Kevin a glance. His lips stayed parted for a while, studying his features before he finally spoke up. “What kind of dreams?”

  The look in his eyes and the way he posed the question told Kevin that he already had an idea of what he would say.

  “She dreamt that blood was pouring out of the barrier.”

  Kevin watched as the color drained out of their faces. The trio stood silent for what seemed like ages. The temperature dropped further, but none of them seemed to notice. The chilly breeze swept by them, carrying stray sediments along with it.

  “The barrier she pulled over Ammara and Kalen?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is it some sort of a prophecy?” The question that lingered around was finally out in the open. Kevin had been wondering that ever since Nina told him about the dream. His mind said that it was only a dream, that prophecies were different. But then again, Nina’s prophecies hadn’t been very clear lately.

  “I’d like to think it isn’t,” uttered the witch’s mate softly.

  “This isn’t about what you’d like.” The bear alpha sounded more condescending than he meant to, almost angry.

  Samuel’s hand rested on his shoulder, which made his body relax a little. “Luke’s worried. So am I,” he paused, “Was it a prophecy, Kevin?”

  “I don’t know.” His answer hung thickly in the air between them.

  Luke started walking in the direction where Kevin had just come from.

  “Where are you going?”

  They stared at their alpha’s back, as he responded without looking at them. “I’m going to ask Nina myself.”

  A rush of adrenaline coursed through Kevin’s body as his bear grew wild inside him. He dashed past Luke and stood inches apart from his face.

  “I don’t want anyone to bother Nina.”

  They snarled at each other, both growing increasingly livid by the second.

  Samuel was by their side in a moment later, coaxing them both into calming down. “Kevin’s right. She’s going through a difficult time. The baby is coming, and she needs to keep her strength, both physically and mentally. Thinking about this is just going to drain her.”

  Samuel’s words apparently had a great impact on Luke, for his features softened almost immediately and his head dropped.

  “I’m worried about my pack’s safety. Everyone here is my responsibility. I don’t want to let anyone down.”

  “Luke,” started Kevin, placing a hand on his shoulder, “you are an amazing alpha. You have never failed us, and we are sure that you never will. Believe in yourself.”

  Kevin’s eyes displayed complete sincerity, and he noticed how Luke’s eyes glistened with moisture.

  “Anyway,” the alpha started, clearing his throat, “we should check up on the barrier.”

  A slight nod and a shake of the hand and they were on their way. Kevin retreated to his room, forgetting what he had gone out for in the first place.

  Nina, however, was fast asleep once again. He crawled into bed next to her and wrapped her in his arms. She sighed, waking up for a second, feeling safe in his embrace. Slowly, they both drifted off.

  Meanwhile, Luke had his nose up in the air as they approached the barrier. The stench of freshly spilled blood was everywhere and becoming stronger as he moved nearer. Samuel walked behind him, peering every which way, on the lookout for anything peculiar.

  They ducked as a figure came into view, standing next to the barrier. It appeared to have been looking at something on the floor. They paused, observing it, waiting to see what it would do.

  “Who’s there?”

  The figure was looking in their direction.

  “That sounds like Diana, doesn’t it?” They made sure to whisper, but the figure heard it anyway.

  “It is Diana,” she reprimanded. “Stand right where you are.”

  “It’s us,” both of them spoke together. “Don’t worry.”

  “What are you doing here?” Her face was drawn in an angry scowl.

  “Nina saw a dream,” Luke started. “We just wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

  Saying this, the bears started moving in her direction.

  “Stay where you are!” They stopped short.

  “What’s wrong, Diana?”

  Samuel noticed how she stood stiff and straight as an arrow. Her demeanor suggested that all her defenses were up, but her eyes gave away scared she was.

  “I want both of you to leave. Now!” she demanded as she fought to keep her voice steady.

  Luke and Samuel knew better than to just heed her order, or request, or whatever she thought she was doing. They approached her cautiously, slowly.

  “Calm down, Diana,” Samuel pleaded with her.

  “I am telling you to leave!” She was screaming now.

  A tug on his shirt made Samuel stop short. He followed Luke’s gaze to the wolf’s cadaver lying next to the barrier. A gasp involuntarily escaped his lips.

  Diana’s eyes met his instantaneously. “What’s happening here, Diana?”

  Both bears bore a look of utter confusion on their faces. They tried to make sense out of the situation but knew that no one would be able to clarify anything except Diana.

  She inhaled deeply, getting ready to offer a bit of an explanation when her phone started rin
ging.

  It startled the three of them. Confused, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket. Who could be calling her at this hour? A glance at her screen answered her question.

  “Gael!”

  Her voice was filled with sad enthusiasm. Why would the vampire be calling her at this time?

  “Why do you sound so weary?”

  “I haven’t even spoken yet.”

  “But you said my name.”

  The vampire was stubborn. There was no point arguing with him, so she stayed silent.

  He had to speak up. “Actually, I sensed that something was wrong. That’s why I called.”

  “You did?”

  “I did. And now that you haven’t denied it, I think it’s safe to assume that I was right?”

  “You’re right, vampire.”

  Was that a spiteful remark? Samuel and Luke waited for the conversation to end.

  “I’ve been sensing a certain wrongness in the air for some time now. It grew undeniably strong today,” Gael explained.

  “So have I,” she replied, “and I am further assured that something terrible is coming our way.”

  “What makes you say that?” Gael’s voice was filled with distress.

  Samuel and Luke listened intently. Everyone seemed to have been getting the same vibe.

  “I found one of my wolves dead today.” Her voice cracked as she uttered the sentence.

  “What?” He was having a hard time grasping what she had just told him.

  “Yeah. I found him a while ago.”

  “Only one of your wolves, right?”

  She sighed. “I have a feeling this is only the beginning.”

  Silence had settled in the air again as Diana looked at the ground, rubbing her foot lightly against it.

  It was a while before she finally spoke. “I want you to come back.”

  The sound of Gael inhaling and exhaling deeply filled her ears.

  ***

  A couple of hours later, Nina awakened from her slumber to the constant ringing of her cell phone.

  Twelve missed calls? She wondered if she’d taken pills before she slept. How can anyone sleep through twelve missed calls?

  “Rise and Shine, sleepyhead! Boy, I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!”

  It took a while for Nina to decipher who the honey-like voice belonged to. “Umm…,” She rubbed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I was really out cold.”

  “It’s all good. The baby must be draining your energy. I’m happy that you’re resting.”

  “Heather!” she said it almost too loudly, finally pinpointing the identity of the caller who laughed out loud in response.

  “I was just calling to ask if there’s anything you’d like me to do. I would’ve just come over, but I didn’t want to disturb you, so I thought I’d call first. Would you like me to come over? Do you need anything–anything at all? I’ll get it for you.”

  Now it was Nina who was laughing. She adored the woman on the other side of the call so much that she couldn’t contain her happiness.

  “You’re such an angel,” Nina remarked.

  “Thank you, but–” Her voice faded out.

  Kevin’s voice rang in her ears instead. “Nina? Nina! Oh, god, what’s happening to you?!”

  “Kevin? What happened to Nina?” Heather screamed at her phone, knowing that the chances of him listening were very slim. “I’ll be right there!”

  Nina’s eyes had rolled upward as her back arched in a perfect curve.

  In the span of a minute, her clothes were soaked in sweat, and an ear-piercing scream came out from somewhere at the base of her throat. She had gone pale and started shaking violently.

  Kevin held her down, trying to calm her, but to no avail.

  Her prophecies were never this vicious. What was happening to her?

  His bear grew more worrisome by the second, and his thoughts went rampant with what he could do.

  He decided to call Cassie and picked up Nina’s phone from where it had fallen on the bed.

  “Hi, Nina!” Cassie chirped so gaily that, for a second, Kevin’s heart broke for inflicting this pain on her.

  “Something’s happening to Nina. I need you here.”

  Kevin’s voice shook her, and she promised to be there immediately.

  Heather and Cassie arrived at the same time, both flushed. They clearly ran all the way to aid Nina, who was still shaking in Kevin’s arms.

  “No prophecy has ever done this to her before. Is it because of the baby?”

  Cassie examined the witch up close. She noticed the pile of napkins by the foot of the bed, soaked in Nina’s perspiration. Kevin had been trying to wipe off the sweat from her face.

  Cassie’s face dropped. “She is seeing a prophecy, but something’s going wrong inside of her.”

  Heather and Kevin held a confused expression.

  “It seems that either her body or her baby is rejecting her prophecy.”

  Kevin’s mouth went dry. He took a minute to gather energy before he spoke.

  “So, what does that mean, Cassie?”

  “It means…,” she stopped, trying to think of the lightest way to complete her sentence. Realizing that there wasn’t any way she could give them the news softly, she said, “It means that the seizure might cause her to lose the baby if it doesn’t stop soon.”

  Chapter 3

  Abigail and Samuel stopped short as soon as they entered the room.

  It slapped them in the face. It was impossible to deny. Could this really be happening? They hadn’t been expecting this at all.

  The atmosphere in the room was dull, which was completely understandable. Everyone’s face hung low, eyes set on the horizontally placed body in the room.

  Nina lay on the bed, motionless this time.

  Weren’t they told she was having uncontrollable seizures?

  A soft light glowed on top of her. It wasn’t moving. Or blinking. Abigail and Samuel wondered where it was coming from, experiencing the most undeniable sense of déjà vu.

  “Samuel,” Abigail whispered softly, “it feels like–”

  He cut her short. “I know.”

  “How? Why?”

  “I don’t know, Abigail.”

  Cassie, Heather, Kevin, and Luke filled the room, dispersed into different corners of it. Everyone carried a worried expression on Nina’s behalf.

  There was no point in pecking at formalities. The situation was dire, so they decided to get straight to the point.

  “Heather, you said Nina was having seizures, didn’t you?”

  Heather did not move her eyes away from her slumbering friend. “I did.”

  They waited, hoping to get an explanation, but no other words came out of her. Awkwardness befell the room before Cassie decided to shrug it away.

  Her explanation began, “When I got here, Nina was amidst a prophecy.”

  She heard Kevin sigh as his bear’s heart sank lower into the ground.

  “Her body was convulsing uncontrollably,” she continued. “Kevin tried to hold her and calm her down, but it didn’t work.”

  Heather was nodding her head now, still unwilling to partake in the clarification process.

  “Heather and I got here at the same time,” Cassie clarified.

  They wondered why that piece of information held any importance and immediately discarded it from their minds as they let her continue.

  “Well, I broke the news to Kevin, after analyzing Nina, that she would have a miscarriage if the seizures did not come to a stop soon.”

  Abigail gasped, and Samuel held her.

  Cassie paused and exhaled deeply before she started speaking again. “As soon as I broke the revelation to them, this white light emerged out of nowhere,” she said, eyeing it suspiciously.

  “It made the seizures stop?” Samuel mouthed the question that formulated in Abigail’s mind.

  “It seems so.”

  Samuel and Abigail exchanged looks again.

  Ke
vin came forward, sitting on the bed now.

  He explained that Nina had been asleep since the light appeared. He wasn’t sure whether he should have been happy that it came or upset because, while the seizures had stopped, it seemed that it had sent her into a deep sleep.

  “What do you mean by ‘deep sleep?’”

  “Coma.” His voice was flat. “We don’t know how to pull her out of it.”

  His words hung heavy in the atmosphere.

  Cassie started speaking again. “We figured, maybe if we could get rid of the light somehow, Nina would wake up again.”

  “It’s useless,” Kevin whispered.

  “We’ve tried everything. We don’t know the source. It’s coming out of nowhere.”

  Samuel and Abigail absorbed the words that were coming their way, lost in thought, trying to make sense out of everything.

  “Samuel?”

  “Yes, Cassie?”

  “I was just wondering. Maybe there could be something in your archives that would help us figure out what this is. We could make it stop, couldn’t we?”

  Abigail was the one to speak up this time. “Actually, you might not exactly want to get rid of it.”

  All eyes in the room fell on her.

  Samuel placed his hand on her waist in support. He already knew what she was going to say.

  She glanced around the room, which only held people who looked ready to turn on her for suggesting such a thing.

  “Go on,” Heather commented, her voice cold.

  “What Abigail is trying to say is…,” Samuel started, coming to his mate’s aid as she placed a hand on his chest, signaling that she could handle it.

  “What I’m trying to say is that it feels like the first Caillagh is present among us.”

  The angry faces now melted in shock, their mouths agape.

  Abigail looked at Samuel and nodded. He could speak now.

  “We noticed it as soon as we entered the room.”

  No response. Everyone stood still and quiet.

  “If anything is keeping Nina all right currently, it’s that light.”

  Kevin seemed to be having the most difficulty coming to terms with this information.

  His bear was in his eyes when he spoke, coming face to face with Samuel. “You’re saying that this thing–this light that has sent my precious Nina into a coma–is actually good for her? Is that what you’re suggesting?”