Page 16 of Vampire Visions

I huffed at him. “I saw the auras and true forms. What aren’t you telling me, Sarge? I don’t understand what you're trying to say, and I hate all this beating around the bush. Just tell me, for fuck’s sake, and stop trying to cushion it.”

He rolled his eyes at me, but I didn’t miss the slight twist of his lips. With a deep breath fueling his next words, he kept going. “I can see potential. I mean, it’s more than that, but that’s the easiest explanation. I can see where you’ll hit your limits. That shows me what you need to improve on. I can basically pick apart your powers and, with enough time, see exactly what you can do. Not just you specifically. Everyone. It’s like…” Sarge looked to the ceiling as he thought about the right words. “It’s like the power of perception mixed with intuition. We have a name for it in the Realm of Dragons, but it doesn’t translate in any earth languages.”

I slowly nodded my head while I thought through everything he’d said. None of it made any fucking sense. But yet… it kind of did. The more I cycled through his words, the more I wanted to kick my own ass for not looking closer at the guys. If Sarge could see our potential and where we’d meet our limits, then he could see exactly how powerful we could be, not how powerful we were right now. Wait, was I just going in a circle? I suddenly felt like I was chasing my tail.

I used my index fingers to rub at my eyes. “I really need a drink.” I thought that had been just a simple thought, but Jack and Sarge both chuckled, proving I’d spoken out loud. “I get it, but I also don’t. So, you can see my limits? Like, where my power ends?”

He rocked his head from left to right before nodding it up and down. “Yes and no.”

I looked at him, unimpressed. “Uh-huh. Because that makes perfect sense.”

“No, I can’t see yours. Not theirs either.” He shrugged his shoulders. “You hold back until you're enraged or someone you care about has been harmed. That’s why I kept charging toward everyone outside. I was trying to see if I could piss you off enough to find any hint of an end to your power.” He gave me an apologetic smile. “They aren’t holding back, though. They just don’t know there’s more to what they can do yet. Your druid has been drastically weakened, and you need to do something about that.”

I scoffed at him as I pointed to my chest. “I need to do something about it?”

“Oh, fuck.” Jack whispered. “Here we go.” He rubbed his right hand down his face.

“Yes, YOU.” Sarge took a condescending tone with me. “He’s your mate, is he not? You haven’t done anything to strengthen your bond in a long time, have you? He’s trying. You are not.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” I asked as my voice raised an octave. I glanced behind me at Jack to be sure I wasn’t the only one who heard him, but Jack had his large hand spread across his face with his eyes closed.

“Yes,” Sarge drawled. “His aura is wounded, and so is yours. Neither of you will heal or grow until you” — he pointed at me — “stop holding onto your anger and forgive him for the things you think he did wrong.”

“Right. Because you know so much about the shit that’s gone on between us, huh? How would you feel if your mate vanished for years with no word to you? Would it take you only a few days to get over a broken heart?” I raised my left eyebrow at him as I fought to control my temper. He had no room, no right, to talk to me about York!

“My mate is in the fae realm. She’s why I’m here, posing as a man, instead of curled up in my den as a dragon. I gave up everything I knew so that I could see her for one weekend out of the year. Every year. For the last five years.” Sarge narrowed his eyes at me, daring me to refute what he was saying. “We spent three years together before that. When her father was captured, her mother came to my world and took her from me.”

I could only stare at him. I didn’t know what to say. There was a tickle at the back of my mind, begging me to notice something, to fit the pieces together. I didn’t know what yet, but I was going to figure it out. Later.

When I said nothing, Sarge continued, unfazed by my lack of attitude after his confession. “I need to get her out. So, plan for a tag-along when you take your mates to the Winter Realm. That’s where she is.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I feel a strange connection to the fallen angel, so I’m wondering if we’re meant to share a mate.”

“I’m sorry,” Jack chimed in. “Did you just say fallen angel? There’s no angel here, Sarge.”

“Yes, there is. Your blonde friend upstairs.” Sarge casually pointed at the ceiling. “He’s a fallen angel. When he was banished from his realm, they most likely stripped him of his power and memories.”

“Holy shit,” Jack murmured.

“I’m pretty sure he thinks he’s a human. How could we help him remember? Can we help him?” I knew what it was like to be missing small chunks of memories. I couldn’t even imagine missing years. This new information made me wonder what Levi was really like or if that was his real name. Did he remember anything? He didn’t act like it.

“He’ll remember on his own. Either in battle or when he meets his mate. Or it could be as simple as a taste or smell that triggers him.” Sarge sighed softly. “I have only heard of one fallen who regained his memories, but it seems far-fetched to reach out to Lucifer.”

“He’s my grandfather,” I admitted. Sarge’s eyes bulged as he looked me over. “I’ll call him and see what he says.”

“Okay,” he agreed hesitantly. “You make that sound so simple. Like you're just gonna call Lucifer on the phone for a quick chat, but maybe he’ll hold the answers we seek.”

“No.” I chuckled. “Not on the phone. There’s no cell reception in the Underworld.” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll call him by hellfire when it’s morning for him. Time works a little different there.”

“Yeah, uhm… back to the point of the earlier conversation, please. My ass is going numb from sitting on the floor,” Jack complained.

“Right. You need to mend your relationship with the druid,” Sarge told me again, if not a little nicer this time. “Once you can seal the bonds with all your mates, the seven of you will reach a potential that none have had before you. They will be equally as strong as you are and just as driven to protect. They can’t reach their potential power as fully as you can until that circle is completed. Right now you stand in the center,” he held his hand palm up with all his fingers spread wide and then pulled them together as he continued, “drawing them all in, but you aren’t connected enough.” He raised his hand before I could speak. “I’m not saying you should rush it. I’m just saying, that even with all this shit going on, you need to take some time to get to know them. You can establish a better connection that way, but it won’t be the same as sealing the bonds.”

“I’m genuinely a little freaked out about sealing lifelong bonds with people I barely know. I'm pretty sure I had deep feelings for York before we accidentally sealed ours — I think. I honestly don’t know. There’s something about the ‘already having feelings’ and ‘not knowing’ parts that makes it a little easier to accept.”

“You need them. All of them. The shit that’s happening around the realms is a lot deeper than this drug you’ve been so hell bent on stopping. Sure, it’s a problem, but it’s not the biggest problem. You don’t see the full picture. You’re only looking at a portion of it.” Sarge looked at me, begging me with his eyes to understand him yet again.

“What’s the bigger picture, Sarge? What are we missing?” Jack spoke up from behind me.

“Someone is hunting dragons in my world, picking them off one by one, targeting females first. The summer fae population has been cut in half in the last three years. Mermaids are nearly extinct. Druids are being lured out of their realm and slaughtered. The demons are fighting amongst themselves. You already know about the drug hitting shifters and vampires. Someone is pulling strings from within each community or realm, but it all falls back to a few things that don’t make sense.” He paused to let that overflow of knowledge settle in.