Chapter Twenty-Eight—Sweeny

The next morning Sweeny woke to a knot formed in her stomach. She felt sick and didn't think Thomas and Susie making a run for it would work. She knew killing Mena would solve all of this, but she feared it would only make things difficult for her.

Would Momma lash out at her daughter? Kill her despite their future? She didn't know, because obviously, she didn't know too much about her own mother.

Lucas sat on the edge of the full-size bed, his head hanging between his shoulders when Sweeny pried her sleepy eyes opened. She heard Thomas and Susie fighting well into the night, but now, she heard Thomas packing things.

"I should help them," Lucas said, standing up.

Sweeny reached over to grab his forearm. "I'm scared, Lucas."

He nodded and rubbed the pad of his thumb against her bottom lip. "Me, too, cher, but I got you, no matter what, okay?"

Sweeny got up and dressed in the outfit Susie left out for her. It resembled the clothing she'd stolen from the store the day before, but she was thankful to have something that didn't make her stand out.

She found Lucas and Thomas outside, standing beside a car that Sweeny recognized because people in 2022, would die to have it. A Pierce-Arrow Model 66. Her mother had been obsessed with it growing up, and now she knew why, because she was alive when it was made.

Thomas' brows were pulled down over his eyes, a dim look etched across his handsome face. Susie sat in the passenger seat of the vehicle, underneath the hard top, arms crossed and pissed.

Sweeny didn't blame her. She'd been sideswiped with a let's move over night, and Sweeny was sure that Thomas didn't tell her the truth. How could he?

Lucas glanced over at Sweeny. Their conversation came to a halt when Sweeny stopped in front of them. Thomas looked down at her from underneath his derby hat, his hands shoved into the pockets of a fancy pinstriped suit.

"Y'all are leaving soon?" she asked.

Thomas gave her a curt nod. Susie's door slammed, and Sweeny watched her march around and stand beside her. "Did Lucas tell you?" she asked. Red tinted her cheeks and Sweeny felt her mood grow darker. "Thomas just said we're leaving, and now we gotta go? This is ridiculous."

"We'll talk about it later—"

"It's later. You said that last night. Are you in trouble? Did you get fired from the office? Daddy didn't mention it."

Sweeny felt odd in the middle of their business, but it was short lived anyway. She sensed their arrival before she saw them. So did Thomas and Lucas. Susie kept talking, trying to argue with Thomas to no avail.

She stopped when Mena and Momma walked up the short driveway. They were dressed in sensible clothes, no nightgowns this time, but the air around them seemed tight.

Sweeny felt the tension from yards away.

Mena stopped at the front of the vehicle and smiled. Sweeny wanted to punch her lights out. "Thomas," she said sweetly. "Going somewhere?"

Susie glanced at Thomas' face with confusion. "Who is this?" she asked him. "Who are you?"

Mena chuckled, swatting at the feather in her wide-brimmed hat. The dark red offset her black hat and matching dress. It looked like it'd been made for a queen to Sweeny, but she knew better.

She slid the tip of her index finger against the hood of their vehicle. "Didn't Thomas tell you, Darling? We've been spending time together. When he says he's working late, he is with me at the Kitten's Den."

Susie's face turned ashen, tears built in the corners of her eyes, threatening her redden cheeks. "That's not true," she whispered.

"Isn't it?" Mena asked. "Why don't you ask Thomas? Tell her Thomas."

Thomas kept his gaze turned down to his loafers. Sweeny's heart plummeted to her stomach. She hated Mena for doing this. Why did she need to steal someone else's mate? She was beautiful and could pull any other person she wanted. Why couldn’t she find another protector? Sweeny was sure that Louisiana was filled with them.

"Tell me she's lying," Susie whispered.

Thomas didn't speak or move. Lucas reached for Sweeny's hand and she realized why when Thomas' heart began to beat wildly. He wanted to shift, and Sweeny didn't blame him.

Mena cocked her head to the side. "I don’t like when men don't do as I say," she said, tapping her chin. "I told you the consequences if you didn't do what I said, didn't I?" She glanced over at Momma, who stared at Sweeny, ignoring Mena's rant.

Sweeny gave her a pleading glance. Please stop this, she wanted to scream.

"Now you'll have to live knowing you caused your mate's death."

"She knows what you are?" Susie asked. "What's going on? Thomas tell me!" she shouted.

Mena stopped him before he had time to shift. With one hand, she entrapped him against his car as she sashayed by him, running her fingertip against his chin.

Susie looked scared beyond belief. "What to do with you? You've caused me enough grief over these last few months. Thomas surrendered himself when I knocked off his pack mates, saying he'd help me do whatever I needed. Now he wants to run away with his little mate. I guess the only thing to do is to kill you once and for all. This way he'll be at my disposal, the muscle of the group, and nothing will hold him back."

Susie spit in Mena's face.

She shouldn't have, because Sweeny felt the anger rise from Mena's skin. Slowly, she wiped the spit from her cheek with a handkerchief from her dress. "Stupid little human," she mumbled. "I think I have a better idea for you."

Thomas tried to get out of his hold but he stood trapped, at Mena's mercy. Lucas squeezed her hand, signaling they needed to help, and Sweeny was ready.

Lucas shifted quickly, his clothes flying into shreds around them. Mena flicked Lucas across the yard easily and turned her attention to Susie.

"You'll live forever," she whispered. "And see me kill your mate over and over again."

Sweeny shifted quickly, lunging forward, she knocked Mena onto her back. Mena's eyes flashed red, her arms braced against Sweeny's shoulders in defense of the fangs Sweeny snapped toward her neck.

Sweeny couldn’t see Lucas but heard him fighting Momma behind them. She prayed he knew better than to kill her. No Momma. No Sweeny. They wrestled for minutes until Mena kicked Sweeny with some invisible force that knocked the wind from her lungs.

She really wished Momma had taught her something growing up, instead of keeping the witch stuff to herself. Maybe she could end it all if she knew what she was doing.

Mena wasted no time turning to Susie, who made a run up the front steps of their house. She lifted her from the stairs, and flung her back against the sidewalk. Sweeny lunged at her again, but this time she trapped her in the air, pulling the breath from Sweeny's lungs slowly.

She watched helpless as she cast some spell over Susie, who slowly curled into the fetal position and whimpered. Thomas' cry broke Sweeny's heart into two pieces. Lucas wrangled with Momma, but Momma wasn't trying, she stared at Sweeny as the air escaped her lungs.

Mena wanted to kill her.

She felt it.

And she would succeed.

Lucas ripped a hole in Momma's arm, and she hardly noticed, she turned toward Sweeny with one swift movement and sent Lucas flying back into the fence. Bright lights blinded Sweeny as she closed her eyes.

This is death, huh?

The bubble of despair surrounding Sweeny popped, and she fell to the ground, gasping for breath.

Momma saved her life. She saw it in her eyes, but it was too late for Susie. Sweeny sensed Mena's power, and it felt dark—eerily dark—and she knew Mena had changed Susie.

Sweeny ground her molars together and stood. Lucas barreled toward Mena, but she disappeared before he got to her, and appeared on top of the vehicle, above Thomas' entrapped body.

No.

Sweeny screamed for her to stop, and it caused her to drop to her knees and cover her ears. She'd almost forgotten about that scream, but looks like she got something from her grandmother that would come in handy.

Thomas broke free from his hold in the midst of Mena's distraction, and barreled toward Susie. He picked her up into an infant's cradle, holding her like a prized possession and stared into her eyes.

Susie was immortal, but Thomas wasn't dead.

However, neither was Mena.

Sweeny turned and stared at the empty vehicle where Mena had been moments ago. "She's gone," Momma said.

Sweeny turned toward her. "You saved me."

She dusted off dirt from her dress. "You are my daughter, aren't you?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

Momma bit her bottom lip softly and glanced at Lucas, who transitioned back to himself, while Thomas gestured toward an extra suit of clothes he kept on the porch. "Do you … do you enjoy your life with me?"

"Up until Mena's let out of the coffin and you try to make me give up my powers, yeah, I did."

Momma looked down at her feet. "I owe Mena my life, Sweeny. She's saved me so many times." She glanced back up at her. "Don't take it personally. If I don't help her, she'll kill me, and that means I'll never have a chance to make you." She pushed a stray hair behind Sweeny's ear. "And I'd hate for the world to not have you."

Momma grabbed her dress, pulling up the edges so it didn't drag the ground, and walked away. Sweeny watched for mere seconds and then turned her attention to Thomas. He held Susie in his arms, tears running down his face.

"Is she okay?" Lucas asked while pulling a T-shirt over his head.

"She's alive," Thomas said. "But she's going to live forever. She's going to watch me die."

"Rougarous live a long time," Sweeny countered. "It won't be an average life span—"

"She's going to meet me in another life, and outlive me there, too. She'll never be able to rest."

"I'm sorry—"

Lucas stepped in front of Sweeny. "She tried her best. We all did."

Thomas walked Susie into the house without another word to either of them. Lucas gestured he would go after Thomas when the wind began to pick up. A portal vortexed into the yard like a tornado, and Hattie stepped out.

Oh crap.

The look of outrage on her face set Sweeny's heart into stone. "You stupid witch! I knew I shouldn't have trusted you. You didn't kill her, now she's just going to keep coming back."

"We couldn’t kill her," Lucas snapped. "We tried, yeah? Why don't you do it since you're so tough?"

"She has to be killed by someone more powerful than her! Do you think she made it so that I can kill her? Now I'm doomed to live my entire life losing Thomas over and over again—"

"Then why aren’t you with Jaxon?" Sweeny asked. "What is stopping you from being with him?"

A look of pain crossed her face. "I've made it to where he can't smell me—to where he can't find me. I live everyday knowing he's supposed to be with me, but I'm too hurt to go through it again. After Thomas dies … I can't do that again. I can't watch him die again."

Sweeny pressed her eyes shut. "Hattie—I can't kill Mena. I'm not strong enough. It'll take an army to kill her."

Hattie's demeanor changed quickly when the front door opened and Thomas walked out. He stopped on the stairs, eyes transfixed on Hattie as if she's the only girl in the world. "You look different," he said.

Hattie swallowed hard. "Yeah, well, time will do that to you."

Thomas glanced over his shoulder where Susie slept inside the house. When he looked back, tears rested in his eyes. "Tell me," he said, walking down the steps. "Do we have a happy life while I'm alive?"

Hattie's bottom lip trembled. "Yes, but if we can just kill Mena I won't have to live without you—"

He shook his head. "No," he said. "You go find me in 2022, and you love me there. Don't do this to yourself. We can't stop her here. She's too much for us."

Hattie glanced at Sweeny with fire in her eyes. "She could if she tried—"

"No," Thomas said. "She can't. You let her back where she came from. Maybe she can kill her there, but today, here, she tried, but couldn’t. Don't trap them here because of something they didn't do."

Hattie closed her eyes. "I love you."

Thomas reached forward and touched her bottom lip with his thumb. "I love you, too. Now you go before Susie comes out. She'll be confused. You'll be confused," he said with a smile.

Hattie stepped back toward the portal, and gestured for Lucas and Sweeny to follow. Thomas grabbed Sweeny hand before she stepped inside. "Thank you for trying. You saved my life, and gave us one together."

Sweeny felt like a failure, but it felt good to know she gave them one lifetime together.

Now they just needed to travel back and save the one in the present.