Chapter 61 - Water?

**James pov**

“Water?” Hitch scratched his head and looked at me skeptically. I couldn’t blame him, I was very skeptical myself.

“Yeah…I know how that sounds and I don’t even know if it will work. But I have seen the lake it comes from, I have seen what it can do.”

“When you were a child? You saw a lake when you were a child and listened to an old witch’s stories that it could heal?”

“I wasn’t a...child...and she’s not that old...” I heard how stupid it sounded when he repeated what I told him. I had left Ina in my apartment so she could sleep for a few hours. She had protested, said she didn’t need it, and that we should get started with Hitch’s treatment right away. But I know my friend, he won’t jump into something with high hopes, he will be skeptical and need persuasion, rightfully so. I picked him and Sacha up with a promise of breakfast in the park. Now we sat at the cafe with one coffee each and watched Sasha’s attempt to get through the parkour course. I felt a little guilty, I hadn’t trained with her for a long time and it showed. Time and time again she fell and each time she threw an accusing glance my way.

“Look, let’s say it’s regular sea water, the worst that can happen is you get a bath and get clean, Goddess knows you need it.” I nudged him teasingly and took a sip of my coffee while he thought.

“I don’t want Sasha to be there…”

“She doesn’t have to be, I can bring her back here, I’d like to train with her anyway.” He nodded slowly as he thought.

“What do you know about this witch?”

“Zandra? I have known her since I came to Great Falls, I have told you about her.

“No, not her…the witch who’s sleeping on your couch right now.”

“Ah, Ina…not so much, I’ve never met her before. I know she is young, rebellious…stubborn. But I really think she wants to help, she wants this to work, she needs it.”

“Need it?”

“Yes…she feels she has a debt to pay.”

“A debt? To you? Does she?”

“It doesn’t matter, I could have forgotten about it, but others are involved...regardless, I’m sure she’s genuine about this.” I watched him as he thought silently, and cursed myself as I felt a creeping fear. Had I given him hope? A hopeless hope for something I didn’t believe in myself? I tried to comfort myself that at least it wouldn’t make him worse, and hope had proven to have a positive effect on sick people so there was that.

“So, when do you want us to do this?” He broke the silence and pulled me back from my brooding and guilty conscience.

“This afternoon? At three? I want Ina to be rested and I suspect she needs a couple more hours of sleep.”

“Okay, as I said, it can’t hurt. I will come at three.” After that, we turned our attention to Sasha and had a couple of good laughs when she missed a jump and fell to the ground growling.

I sneaked into the apartment so as not to wake Ina. But I didn’t have to, she met me half-hysterical as soon as she heard I was coming.

“He has recovered! He’s on his feet and she’s still out! It didn’t matter, their connection!” She turned and disappeared before coming back again.

“I spoke to Cathy, she is so distraught, all of Great Falls is in meltdown because Hope and Luna apparently went into a war mood due to anger and grief. Alpha Callum too so he can’t be there for Cathy which means she does what she’s always done, she puts up her walls.” She disappeared again and I heard her open my bar cabinet in the living room and search among my bottles. I understood why she and Cathy found each other, they were two sides of the same coin, different but equally good at babbling excitedly, incoherently, and incomprehensible. I took a deep breath for strength and followed her.

“Whiskey, gin, sherry… sherry? Really? Where’s the real stuff? You are a wolf!” She kept moving bottles around and I pushed past her and took out the one I suspected she was looking for.

“Will this one do?”

“Ah! Perfect!” She took the Wolf Vodka, unscrewed the cork and when I tried to give her a glass, she had already taken a deep sip straight from the bottle.

“Hey, easy! It’s strong stuff.” She scoffed at me and took another sip before answering.

“Believe me puppy, I know my booze.”

“Okay…can you calm down and try to explain what has happened?” I grabbed a second glass and sat on the couch, patting the cushion next to me for her to join me. Which she did. She filled the glass, and took two more sips and I wondered how long it would be before she fell asleep, four deep sips of wolf vodka would make anyone, even a shewolf, lose touch with reality. But to my surprise, I didn’t notice anything about her, she was as sober as when she arrived this morning. Witches…

“The Vampire King, he’s recovered from Hope’s blood in his system,and we had hope, because he and Zandra are somehow linked that she would wake up when he was recovered. But she remains the same.”

“Linked?”

“I don’t know the full story, I don’t think many do…apparently their souls or essences or whatever are linked for some reason so we were hoping she was…sleeping because he was out of action. It turned out we were wrong.”

“Okay…so what happens now? What is the plan?”

“I don’t know…I have no idea right now…” Something told me she was a little too upset about Zandra, she didn’t know her, and had never met her.

“Ina…”

“Yes?”

“Is there anything I need to know?” I could see that she understood what I was saying.

“You don’t have to worry James, I have no secret agenda.”

“Jesse…”

“Huh?

“Not James…Jesse!”

“Okay okay…Jesse! Zara…Zandra’s granddaughter, she is the vampire’s mate.”

“I see, she must be relieved then, so what’s the problem?”

“That it’s complicated, I don’t think they’re real mates...I think she’s mine.”

“Yours? I didn’t know witches had mates.”

“We don’t…not in your way, but we do…our magic fits, we have a bond or a connection of sorts.”

“So you’re upset because he woke up and you think you’re going to lose her?” I didn’t get an answer, she just quietly sipped her vodka, but I suspected I was right, that’s what I’d be worried about if I were in the same situation.

“Look, Ina…I understand if you want to go back…”

“That’s not an option, I’m here on a mission and I plan to carry it out. And you’re wrong…partially anyway…Sure, it would be fucking sad if Zara forgets me now that Ambrogio is back, fucking awful…but that’s not my biggest worry.”

“No?”

“No…Cathy…I’m worried about Cathy because I know she’s worried about Hope, Luna, and Callum…She needs someone, and right now she doesn’t have anyone.” My heart ached at her words, I had wanted nothing more than to be there in Great Falls, with her and comfort her…but she had asked me not to return.

“I wish there was something I could do Ina, believe me, I think about her every day and hope she’s...okay...”

“I know…and I know what she has asked of you.” We sipped our drinks in silence for a while.

“I asked Hitch to come here at three, is that okay?”

“Yes, that’s… good, then I have some time to prepare. Would you like to help me carry the cans from the car?” I nodded and gave her an attempt at a comforting smile. She was okay, wild, initiative and probably used to getting her way, also babbled like Cathy, but I no longer had any doubts that her heart was in the right place. She was a good human...witch, person, whatever.

I carried the cans up to the apartment, but I was not present. I know Ina was wandering around, lighting candles in the bathroom, whispering as she filled the tub with the contents I delivered, but I wasn’t there. My thoughts were far away, to the north, with Cathy. I saw her as the happy girl I met by the creek in the woods, the one who patched me up after my fights at school, the one who warned me about the rockets I wanted to impress with behind old Noah’s house. She who gave Zara more than one chance before she had enough...the girl who wanted to see the good in everyone and take care of those who didn’t fit in. Now she had no one to take care of her…