The woman who walked into the room like she had Satan on her heels was not someone Faith had ever seen before and yet she knew her as well as she knew herself. Theo's memories plowed into her mind, invading her own thoughts. It was Mary Jo. Gasping, she knew instantly what was about to happen.
"Abe and Maryanne, I'm sorry I don't come under better tidings."
Abe furrowed his eyebrows. "Does the Alpha require my assistance?"
"I'm afraid it is too late for that. We may have to rise up against him." Mary Jo shook her head as if she couldn't believe she even contemplated the idea. Faith felt sick for her, butterflies that felt more like needles danced in her stomach. "I've come for Faith. It's not too late to save the unmated girls and women. It's all I can think to do."
The room spun at Faith's feet and she closed her eyes in an attempt to keep her balance. Grabbing her forehead she watched as the room around her dissolved in manner similar to chalk washing off a sidewalk during a rainstorm.
In no more than three seconds, she floated again over the Earth, the clouds at her feet. She whirled in a circle but there was no sign of her mother anywhere. Had the whole thing been a figment of her imagination?
Her insides started to rumble as the demon inside of her pulled on her mind to gain her attention. She shook her head. No way was she falling back under the spell so easily. Visions from your past didn't just present themselves to you without a good reason. She had literally held no memory of her parents moments earlier and now she could recall Mary Jo coming to get her and take her away from Westervelt.
What did it mean? Like the time she and Theo had been transferred to his near deathbed, there was obviously something she was meant to have seen or learned. But what was it?
Her eyes flew open. The herbs. That was the key. They had been secret when her family had lived on the island but now they weren't. Now they were available, if one knew where to look for them in the greenhouse that had once been maintained by the women everyone referred to as the Aunts. These days it was sort of a group effort in keeping up the greenhouse. Most of the time it got forgotten. It was just a simple matter of going in and taking them if you wanted them.
Theo had seen two traitors. Why had they forgotten that in all of the excitement? Nicholas Rice was in no way involved in this all on his own. There was someone else and the key to finding him, to saving Theo and anyone else who was going after Kendrick and the spell, was to bring that traitor to light.
She needed to get back to Westervelt immediately before Theo left and walked into what was most likely a trap. Swallowing her fear, she turned and let her demon senses fill her only so far as they allowed her to target Westervelt and direct herself there. It was like she'd swallowed a homing beacon. Her eyesight changed and tunnel vision beyond which she could have ever imagined took over her senses. All she could see was Westervelt and as she nose-dived through the sky towards her old and now new home, she was vaguely aware of the cold sky air whooshing against her body and the way her skin was pulled backwards because of the speed of the flight.
But none of that mattered. If the demon was giving her anything useful at all, it allowed her to stay completely focused on a task at hand and not worry about anything she shouldn't be concerned with. Truth be told, she missed her wolf. Hopefully, there would be a reconnection between them in very soon. Until then she'd just have to do her proud.
The ground approached quickly and Faith braced herself for a rough landing. Her feet hit first, jarring her knees, and she remembered too late that skydivers at least slowed down before they wrecked their bodies in the landing process. Sighing, Faith momentarily closed her eyes and waited for the pain to pass. If the demon hadn't usurped her wolf she would be able more quickly. Of course, she reminded herself, that logic didn't really work because if it had just been her wolf inside of her, she wouldn't have been flying in the first place.
After a few seconds, her knees stopped panging and she moved forward at a fast run. Sniffing the air before she forgot that sense was not currently working, she still let herself growl in her throat. What could she say? It pissed her off that she was stuck like this when she was meant to be a wolf and there was nothing more satisfying than a growl, even a pathetic non-canine one.
If Theo was already gone, and in her gut she knew he was because after thinking he lost her he wouldn't waste any time, then she desperately hoped Cullen and Az were still here. Reaching the main house, she ran inside and nearly collided with Tristan.
He narrowed his eyes before he reached out and grabbed her arms. "Faith? You're back. Theo and Gabriel just went after our father to retrieve you."
Nodding, she swallowed the lump in her throat. "I worried that might have happened. They're going to need help and I can do that but first we have to address a problem and there is no time to get it done." She held two fingers up. "There's more than one traitor."
A roar ripped from Tristan's throat and a door slammed behind him. Ashlee ran out holding Virginia, Braden attached to her leg. "What is it?"
"There are two traitors and my brothers are walking into a trap."
Ashlee's eyes turned wolf and she gripped the children more tightly.
Time was running out so Tristan and Ashlee were going to have to catch up if they wanted to help as she moved along. "Has Cullen put Nicholas to death yet?" There was no question in Faith's mind that would be the sentence. Even before Kendrick had betrayed the pack, death was the sentence for traitors on Westervelt. It was one of the few things Tristan had not altered when he took over.
Her Alpha looked down at his watch. "It was supposed to be sometime this afternoon so I'm not sure. Hold on." Faith waited anxiously for Tristan to communicate telepathically with the pack's oldest advisor. Seconds later Tristan shook his head. "Not yet."
"Tell him we need to know about the second traitor and ask him to find out everything he can about the herbs that make you scentless. Meantime, I'm going to try to work out the problem with Az." Faith turned to run down the hall. "Oh and Tristan, your mother, she was fearless. I see where you all get it from."
Faith found Az where he almost always was: his laboratory, tinkering with something she didn't recognize. She shook her head; she wasn't going to ask him what he was doing because there was no time to listen to the explanation. Running to his side, she grabbed his shoulder and startled him. Out of all the Kane brothers, Az always seemed the least wolf-like. Anyone else would have scented them when they approached.
"Azriel, I need you to tell me everything you know about the herbs that make you scentless. Is there anything else they do?"
Theo's brother sat back in his chair as he considered her question for a moment. "I've never taken them myself; I guess I never saw the point."
Faith shook her head. She couldn't get upset. He didn't know the pressing nature of this situation. "Look Az--"
"We need to know right now. Theo and Gabriel's life depends on it." Tristan interrupted, arriving behind her and she was grateful that he'd spoken out loud instead of telepathically. Since she couldn't currently communicate with her wolf, she wouldn't have been able to hear it.
"As I was saying, I've never taken it myself but Dad used to have a lot of theories about it, which was why he stored it away and never let anyone--even Cullen--near it."
"Your mother took some of it, that was how she snuck all of us unmated females off of the island. But we're getting away from the point, sort of." Faith's mind churned like a coal engine of a train. Kendrick had known there was more to it. That was key and it led credence to the idea that the unknown traitor ingested it to become invisible. Their former Alpha would have instructed him on how to use it.