Chapter 279

ELEANOR'S POV

So much was happening these days; I had barely little time to even shower, let alone attend to my son and it filled me with guilt every time I got back from another battle and it was obvious he didn't even miss me.

This morning, he'd called my Mum ‘Momma’ and even though I smiled with everyone, I was hurt deep inside me.

We were a force to be reckoned with, taking back different locations all over the world and driving Vlad to the television room every now and then with threats and promises of death and destruction, but deep inside me, I was a sad bitch.

I thought about sitting this one out, but it was our largest mission yet.

We were freeing the entire state of California while sending small troops to another city as a distraction.

Nic and I were a blazing force, even though I'm never truly myself while in the middle of the battle, our soldiers never failed to regale everyone that cared to listen with stories of our performance on the battlefield.

I didn't want to sit back just for sentimental reasons, he had two strong vampire grandmothers taking care of him anyway.

I did my usual final checks on everything before we're to leave and I noticed the poisons were incomplete.

“Kelly?” I called my best friend, the battlefield had refined us in a weird way. While Nic and I shed blood, fire and brimstone, she and I healed the land afterwards, helping the humans regain their minds and body, healing everyone who got injured in the process.

“What's up?” She quipped as I turned towards her.

“These gallons were fifteen right?”

“Yea, that's how many we need.”

“We have twelve.”

“That's odd,” she frowned, “I calculated it last night.”

“Let's go check the kitchens,” she suggested, “someone might have forgotten to carry their quota.”

I knew I'd counted it right on that spot and I could still see the imprint of the missing gallons on the ground but I didn't argue.

Kelly could see into the future, not the past so I didn't bother her with detective duties.

We got to the kitchen and the witches were cleaning up the mess we'd left last night.

“I'm really sorry guys,” I apologized immediately, feeling more guilt, “we were so exhausted after the whole thing.”

“It's not a problem Your Majesty,” Maggie answered, “you're putting yourselves in danger for us every day so it's no big deal to clean up after you. Did you need something?”

“Yeah, we're looking for the other gallons,” I replied.

I didn't want to say what I suspected, until I had proof of stealing happening, I wasn't going to create unease among us.

“Oh I thought you guys were keeping those for later,” Nancy spoke up from the sink area, “I went to the store this morning and found it there.”

“That's odd,” Kelly noted, “we'll just get it so we can head out. The other sect are probably done defeating our enemies.”

They helped us move it back out and I directed them to load it on the little makeshift truck we used to move vampire bodies back from the war zones.

The dungeon in the castle was already full and we were having to use the ones in the other four Stations to keep them hostage.

“Cupcake, are you alright?” I heard Nic's usual question in my head.

At first, it annoyed the fuck out of me but these days, I took every softness the world could offer me. I was losing my mind and I didn't know what to do about it.

“Still think we should speak to Mum,” Hazel grumbled in my head.

“You really think she'll let us out there again afterwards?” Riot asked in annoyance.

We'd had this conversation many times more than I could count. I can't tell my mate either because he's actually more protective than my parents and that's saying a lot considering they'd locked me in a castle all my life.

So every time someone checked on me, it reminded me that I was still here, loved by the same man I fell in love with and cared for by my people, vampire, witch and wolf alike.

“I'm good baby,” I replied to him, “are you ready to free some humans?”

“Yup! Let me get the soldiers moving. I love you so much, okay?”

“I love you too baby,” I smiled, and then signalled a vampire to come push the truck.

“Thank you guys,” I waved to the witches.

“May Hecate bring you back in good spirits,” they prayed, waving back at me.

Kelly and I linked our hands together as we headed towards the training area, where the soldiers were already matching off, heading to the transport network.

The entire First station army were now fully a part of the battle, although we couldn't go with everyone.

Half had to stay back to keep the station safe so it was usually a rotation.

That's how loved Nic was now.

Every win earned him more respect and even my parents began seeing him in a different light.

Treated him like a son they were infinitely proud of.

I joined, standing right beside my mate as we matched forward, another day to set Vlad's plans ablaze.

I had gotten into trouble many times in my life and I'm hindsight, it was always because I didn't pay attention to my gut.

We won the battle, that wasn't a surprise. We'd dealt a heavy blow to Vladimir that for the first time in a while, he'd not come on TV, screaming his lungs out.

As I attended to the wounded humans, I kept feeling that odd tug at my chest but I didn't understand what it was.

“I think we should go home,” Kelly muttered next to me, not too loud because of the humans waiting for us to heal them.

That would be rude.

I stood up after kissing the little girl's cheeks and looked ahead of me, at the amount of people that still needed healing.

These messed up vampires always began sporadically feeding from them the second they hear us coming through portals and the responsibility to heal these people always fell on me and Kelly.

Every other witch was dedicated to sealing the ward.

So I shook my head.

“We can't leave them this way,” I explained, “we'll rest whenever we get home.”

After two hours of healing and ten minutes break to drink more blood, we finally finished.

It took longer because I had to force Kelly to go rest, not just because she wasn't as strong as Hazel but she was fidgeting, but still unable to pinpoint what the problem was.

I didn't want to abandon the injured humans over an uncertain hunch, I couldn't deal with the guilt.

Besides, if it was something serious, I'd thought, she would have seen a vision.

Right?

My mate carried me in his arms as we headed back. We didn't have to take care of the bodies this time, the vampires that were in the America Station took care of it so we could go home.

For some reason, there was no welcoming party.

“That's odd,” Kelly muttered as we landed on the other side of the portal.

“Almost as if something was horribly wrong at home,” I whispered.

“Kathleen?” I called one of our best soldiers and close friend.

She appeared next to us in seconds.

“Please carry Kelly,” I asked of her, “we have to run.”

Despite her weak protests, she was smiling as we breezed through the transport network, hurrying back to our new home.

We got back and everywhere was… silent.

“Mum?” I called, jumping down from Nic’s possessive hold.

“I think they're in the war room,” someone said and I frowned more.

I zipped there quickly, that feeling getting worse.

I pushed the door open with more strength than was needed and I walked in to a gathering of generals and our werewolf family.

“What happened?”

“Your mate's mother ran away with my grandson,” my mother ground out, anger mixing with the tears on her face.

The sword in my hand clattered to the ground.