Four-Letter Words by Evans, Gabrielle (top 10 books of all time .txt) 📗

to work?” Torren pulled the heavy door open, waving Thane ahead of him to descend the stairs to the basement infirmary in Snake River’s main house. “Zasha is smart, Thane. He feels something isn’t right, even if he doesn’t understand it.”

“When he’s ready, I’ll claim him, and then he’ll remember. Everything will go back to how it used to be.”

Torren had already been through this with his own Infinity. He knew how the magic of Twin Flames worked. Once a Braddock found the missing part of his torn soul, the memories always came flooding back.

“I hate to tell you this, but that’s not how it works.” Falling into step beside him, Torren shoved his hands into his pockets and chuckled. “Yeah, Zasha will probably get his memories back, but that doesn’t mean things will be like they were the first time. You’re both different people now.”

To a certain extent, that was true. Thane was certainly less reserved than he had been in the fifteenth century, but the world had been a different place back then. “Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

Rather than offering a sarcastic comeback, Torren just nodded, extracting one hand from the pocket of his jeans to point down the basement corridor. “It’s the third door.”

“That’s it? You’re not going to lecture me about how I’m wrong?” Torren had never been able to resist an opportunity to give his opinion, whether he was asked for it or not. It had been that way since they were kids, and Thane was skeptical of this new and improved attitude.

“Nope,” his brother answered with a shrug. “I get it. I was just as stubborn and sure that I knew more than anyone else.” Stopping at the door he’d indicated, Torren turned the knob and gave Thane a little shove across the threshold. “You’ll figure it out on your own, Thane, and I think that’s the way it supposed to be.”

“Who are you and where is my brother?” Torren was never this reasonable. As the oldest of their siblings, he was their self-appointed leader, forever telling them what to do, how to do it, and then screaming like an idiot when they did it wrong.

“It changes you.” That was all Torren said before clapping him on the shoulder and crossing the room to meet with the rest of their brothers.

Thane didn’t know what the hell “it” was, but he got the hint that Torren was finished with the conversation. Shaking his head and clearing his frustrated expression, he approached the hospital bed where everyone was gathered.

Having lived through something similar as Mikko, he thought he knew what to expect. He imagined his brother to be too thin and riddled with wounds, but nothing his imagination conjured could have prepared him for the reality.

Mikko wasn’t just too thin. He was barely more than loose, dry skin draped over bones. His face appeared skeletal and too large for his body. There wasn’t a single strand of hair on Mikko’s head. Thane wasn’t sure if the hair loss had been caused by his condition or because someone had shaved it, but it made the witch look so frail.

His heart ached, but his blood boiled with fury. No matter how he tried to justify it or make sense of the situation, he couldn’t understand how someone could be so vile and sadistic to another human being. No, war wasn’t pretty. This was no act of warfare, though. There was no honor in what had been done to Mikko. With so many tubes and wires connected to his tiny body, he resembled something straight from a sci-fi nightmare.

There was also nothing Thane could do to help, not until Mikko’s body healed. His brother teetered on the brink of death, which was what had likely kept him trapped in Purgatory. If Thane attempted to reunite Mikko’s body and spirit in his current condition, there was a higher than average chance that he’d end up killing the man.

“What’s the plan?” Raith asked, his voice gruff and tinged with emotion.

“We get him healthy and get him back,” Torren answered simply. “In the meantime, we’re going to start getting to the bottom of some things.”

“I’ve told you all I know about the vampires who held me in the mountains.” Thane would help in any way asked of him, but he could only tell what he knew. It wasn’t like the small coven had rolled out the welcome mat and introduced themselves.

“I’m not talking about the vampires. There are enough people investigating these slave trades and the refugees spilling into Haven.” Torren glanced over his shoulder toward the door as though checking to be sure they were still alone. “The witch circles in the west are still causing chaos, and no one has been able to find those missing kids.”

“Do you really think they’re still alive?” Lynk fidgeted nervously, and he sounded a little nauseous when he spoke about the children.

Thane understood something horrible was going on in the western states, but beyond that, he was lost. “Okay, does someone want to get me caught up? What’s going on with these kids?”

“Long story short,” Torren explained, “these witches have been inciting mass hysteria. They’ve convinced all the covens, packs, and whatnot that no one is safe unless they sacrifice their children. So, werewolves are kidnapping vampire kids, and shifters are kidnapping children from opposing packs. It’s a goddamn mess.”

Thane suddenly felt a little sick as well. Before his abduction, he’d spent the past several years in Europe. It seemed everything in the paranormal world had gone to fucking hell during his absence, especially there in the States.

The Braddocks had always had huge targets on their backs. Therein lay the reason they’d all decided to go their separate ways a long time ago. Only one of them was needed to open the Book of the Banished, but it would take all thirteen of them to unbind the book from the faerie it had attached itself to for survival.

Provoking war amongst the races and