“I’m going to get your mother back. Don’t worry about that,” Saint stated grimly. He let go of Aidan’s hand. “I have to go. You’ll stay here with Fardusk.”
The boy sat up abruptly, wincing when he jolted his injured head. Their eyes met in the dim room and Saint heard the boy’s plea in his mind.
“No. You stay here, son,” Saint said softly. Firmly.
He hadn’t planned to say it. It’d just fallen out of his mouth in that tension-laden moment. He watched as Aidan’s confused expression slowly morphed to one of radiant wonder.
Saint cleared his throat gruffly, more affected by the boy’s open-mouthed, amazed stare than he ever would have dreamed. He stood next to the bed. “Your mother and I will explain when I bring her back.”
“Do you promise you’ll bring her back, Saint?” Aidan asked.
“Yes.”
“Because it’s my fault that Teslar took her,” Aidan said, his voice cracking with misery.
“It’s no one’s fault but my own. And Teslar’s,” Saint declared. He glanced from Fardusk to the boy. Fardusk nodded almost imperceptibly, agreeing to guard Aidan with his life.
Saint exited the room.
There was one other person at fault, but Saint thought it was best not to bring that up to Aidan at the moment.
He stepped onto the front porch, already knowing who approached.
Isi stalked around the corner of the coach house, a fixed, furious expression on his face. He didn’t bat an eyelash, despite the armful of kicking, screaming female he carried.
He tossed Alison down on one of the padded recliners so hard air whooshed out of her lungs.
Alison scurried into a sitting position. When she tried to stand from the recliner, Isi bared his fangs and hissed. She jerked back like she’d been burned.
“I found her sneaking through the woods toward the city. I saw Marcellus and Anthony Teethum waiting for her in a car on Sheridan Road,” Isi reported furiously. His voice dropped. “You’re the biggest little idiot I’ve ever laid eyes on. Don’t you know they would have ripped you to shreds the moment they got you in that car?”
“Shows what you know!” Alison shouted. Tears wetted her pale cheeks as she gazed up at Isi with defiant, anxious, midnight blue eyes. Saint was reminded of a tiny, spitting kitten backed into a corner by a fierce wolf. At any other time, he might have felt a thread of compassion for the vulnerable young woman.
But her betrayal had put Christina in grave danger, and for that, he would not forgive easily.
“Move aside, Isi,” he ordered quietly.
It must have been something in his tone that made Alison go entirely still. Her eyes grew enormous in her face when he stepped toward her.
“He…Teslar made me do it, Saint,” she entreated in a whisper. “He talked to me…in my head. I had to do it.”
Saint studied her for a moment, sifting through the young woman’s chaotic emotions with his mind. His lip curled in disdain. Alison’s tears flowed heavier down her face.
“You thought because you could communicate telepathically with Teslar, you were special. Special to Teslar. Special like Christina.”
Alison’s gaze skittered over to Isi. Her entire body sagged.
“You have a right to be ashamed,” Saint accused. “Sacrificing a life just so you could feel like the special girl, the unique one.” He was immune to her bitter tears. He turned up his ascendancy to full throttle, caring little about the discomfort it might cause the young woman. Her spine straightened and she winced. Tears flooded down her cheeks.
“Where did Teslar take her?”
“He…he never told me,” she sobbed.
“Why would he?” Isi asked harshly. “Teslar had no use for you other than as a tool to flush Aidan and Christina out of Whitby’s boundaries. As soon as your purpose had been served, you would have been dinner.”
Ali
son’s face crumpled in misery. “I’m sorry, Isi. I didn’t want them to be hurt. Especially Aidan. But Teslar made me—”