"Shaw, that's preposterous." Bran paced back and forth across the small wood panelled room. "You must be mistaken, maybe it's a hallucination from cracking your head open?"
"I'm not mistaken, and my injuries are proof." Shaw watched his brother calmly. "He through me off the cliff after threatening all of you and Maggie."
Bran stopped, shock all over his face.
"But how?" He moved to the bed and collapsed onto it. "No way anyone could have survived that fall."
"I did."
"Yes, with modern medicine intervention!" Bran exploded off the bed. "He had nothing!"
"He had magic, and lots of it, what I don't understand is how is he still so strong while the rest of us fade."
Shaw glanced at a painting on the wall of his beautiful highlands, contemplating the incident on the cliff.
"It's almost as though he was blocking me when we were together. I couldn't feel my wolf and I couldn't call it forward."
"We need to see the witches, is the clan still together?"
"No, the hunters have almost decimated the witches, there are some left but they mostly stay hidden."
"Can we get word to them?" Shaw stood as he asked. "We are going to need there help, I am going to need there help. I will be honest with you Bran; I have blank spots about the past. It's coming back in visions, as though I am reliving it."
"The episode at the hospital, when your eyes went white?"
"Yes, and here before I woke up in this room with our precocious niece."
Bran chuckled. "Does she remind you of anyone?"
"Aye, her mother at the same age." Shaw paused hand on the doorknob. "What of you Bran? How have things fared for you while I was sleeping."
Shaw watched as a darkness came into his brother's usually warm blue eyes, and he didn't need his ability to read minds to know what had happened, he'd lost Syn.
"How?" Shaw asked his brother.
"Hunters, came in the night and killed her, and our unborn child, and the rest of the Valkyrie, they were the first to be taken."
"What of Valhalla?"
"I don't know, without them, no warriors will be admitted to Valhalla…"
"And it will die." Shaw finished his brother's sentence. "We really need to get to the witches and figure a way out of this mess, this isn't at all how I saw this going 300 years ago."
"Nor I brother.
The two of them left the room together. The hallway beyond was lit with sconces every so many feet, attached to rock walls that glistened with just the barest hint of moisture.
"We are underground?"
"Yes, we moved here after the hunting started."
"How did you dig something of this size underground?" He looked around in awe.
"With machines and dynamite."
"Machines? Dynamite?"
"Machines like the truck you wouldn't get into only bigger and dynamite causes explosions to make things rubble, like rock." Shaw looked at him confused.
"I will find a picture for you."
As the two of them rounded a corner the slope began to rise, and they began to hear sounds. Crashing and banging and a female scream, it didn't sound good. Shaw followed Bran as he began to run and the two of them burst through a door at the end of the hallway.
The room opened like the great hall in his keep complete with rushes on the floor. Cole was in a sword battle with a big man dressed all in black. Fiona was in a crumpled heap on the floor. Freya, his beautiful niece was held captive by none other than Cailean. He had one claw extended and pressed against Freya's neck just enough to draw blood.
"Shaw, Bran so good of you to join us."
"Let her go Cailean, she isn't part of this." Shaw glanced at his niece, he saw the fear in her eyes and the silent tears that streamed down her cheeks.
"I beg to differ; she is after all my niece as well." He smiled and stroked her long hair.
Shaw looked at Bran and he gave a nod. So, Fiona had mated Cole, his lord of war. A quick glance in Cole's direction showed him that Cole had dispatched the man and was kneeling on the floor with his sister.
"Cailean your betrayal knows no bounds," Bran snarled even with the limited magic, Shaw could see the golden glow of his wolf eyes shining through. "It's been you collaborating with the hunters this whole time?"
"Of course, how do you think they got so knowledgeable?" He shot back. "You think those lowly humans could have figured any of that out on there own?"
"How is it that they don't kill you for being one of us?" Shaw asked trying to figure out a way to get his niece away from the monster in front of them.
"Oh, let's just say we have a deal. Them, me and my mentor have a real sweet agreement."
Shaw watched as Cailean's eyes went black.
"I guess I really should thank you Shaw, I never would have met my mentor if you hadn't thrown me from that cliff all those years ago. I was dying you see, and my mentor came to me, all I had to do was say yes, a little blood later and the deal was made."
"You sold your soul?"
"He never had a soul to sell!" Bran growled deep in his belly, Shaw could see bones shifting beneath his skin, the change was close.
"Tsk tsk Bran, can't have your wolf showing up, can we?"
Shaw watched as his brother collapsed to the floor.
"What have you done?"
"Oh, don't worry Shaw, he isn't dead, not yet anyway. Such a pity he wasn't with his Valkyrie whore when the hunters came. No matter, my mentor was still please with the bounty he received that day and the bounty he continues to receive with Valhalla closed for business."
"You're a bastard Cailean."
"From what I understand Shaw, that term fits you more aptly than me. I really would love to stay and chat with you, but my niece and I have a date with the devil, and we can't be late."
Shaw sprang forward only to meet air, Cailean and his niece gone as though they were never there. Bloody hell he could pop in and out just like a vampire. No telling what else he could do.
"Shaw," Cole's voice choked out behind him.
"Fiona, is she…?"
"I don't know what's wrong, she won't wake, there isn't a mark on her, but I can't wake her."
Shaw walked over and knelt beside the two of them. Grasping his sister's hand, he started at how cold it felt. He wasn't sure what was wrong, her chest rose and fell evenly but even her body temperature felt like death. Fiona had insisted it wouldn't work, but he had to try, he had to see if he could reach into her mind.
Shaw closed his eyes and concentrated, willing his mind to find his sisters.
AHHHHHHHHH!
"Oh God no," Shaw stumbled as the screams blasted his mind and fell backwards onto the floor. "He's trapped her in hell, she's burning alive in her own mind!"