Chapter 33 The Betrayal

Chapter 33 The Betrayal
Luna POV

Everywhere in the files was the face of Sarah. Sarah. Kieran's mate. Sarah the werewolf which had labored with me in rebuilding Pine Ridge. Sarah, the woman I had confided in. Sarah had been the one who was setting up the conspiracy all along.

"It's not possible," I said. I was looking at the evidence. Names. Dates. Plans. It all with Sarah as the mastermind behind the war.

We have triple checked everything, David said. His appearance was that of a man who had not slept in days. "It's definitely her. Since before you made the barrier, she has been developing this organization. She waited till the time was right.

"Why?" I demanded. "Why would she do this? She has everything. She has Kieran. She occupies a position in society. She has peace."

Not everybody needs peace, said Kieran. He looked devastated. I had never seen him appear so shattered. She has lost her family and all in the wars between the men and the werewolves. She was the only survivor. She informed me that she had forgotten the past. But clearly, she was waiting to be avenged.

"We need to confront her," I said.

"No," Elena said sharply. Provoke her now and she will speed up her plans. Before we can do anything she will hit us.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

Close, in her presence, we get close, Thomas said. We fall into the conspiracy. We get to know when and where she intends to strike. Then we put the stop before it starts.

"How?" I asked.

"You," Thomas said. "You need to get close to her. She trusts you. She may never rely on the council or the investigators. But she trusts Luna Matthews."

"You want me to spy on her," I said. You would like me to act as though I were her friend, when really I am only getting evidence.

"Yes," Elena said. "I know it's difficult. I know it feels wrong. But it's the only way."

I wanted to refuse. I would have preferred to think that there was a superior method. But I knew there wasn't. Suppose Sarah was really going to make a war, then it was by deception only we could do it.

So I went to visit Sarah. I made a pretense of not knowing anything. I pretended that we were still friends. I requested her to assist me in community work. I asked her for advice. I attempted to make her open up her plans.

But Sarah was careful. She didn't reveal anything. She simply smiled and put on a show of normalcy.

And then one night I did something wrong. I enquired of her on the followers. Regarding the non-believers of the peace movement. I enquired tactfully, but it was too tactful. Sarah's eyes narrowed.

"You know," Sarah said quietly. "Somehow, you know."

I couldn't lie. No, not at the moment when she was staring so full at me. Not at the moment when she was putting the question directly.

"Yes," I admitted. "I know about the conspiracy. I know what you're planning."

There was a lengthy silence on Sarah's part. Then she started to laugh. It wasn't a happy laugh. It was the laugh of a man who had been waiting long to laugh.

"Of course you know," Sarah said. "You always know. You're Luna Matthews. The woman who can see through lies. The man who is able to mend the mangled things back together. The woman who ruined my life."

"I ruined your life?" I asked, confused.

You made it possible to have peace, Sarah said bitterly. You made it so that the human and the werewolves were forced to co-exist. We had to forgive each other. But I didn't want forgiveness. I wanted justice. I needed the humans that killed my family to pay. And you took that away from me."

"Sarah," I said carefully. Revenge will not make your family back.

"I know," Sarah said. But it would make me feel good. It would end the pain at least once. And that is worth something, is it not? Is it not worth starting a war?

Sarah lifted her hand before I had a chance to reply. Power flowed from her. The power of a werewolf mixed with something. Something darker. It was something resembling corruption of the Shadow Entities.

The immortals were not the only ones capable of making weapons, Sarah told her. I have been reading about the way they do things. I have been hearing their secrets. I've created something new. Something that is able to dominate the human and werewolf mind at the same time. This whole town will be in my control tomorrow night.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

You see I want you to understand, Sarah said. I would like you to know that your peace was never permanent. I want you to understand that we were always going to rebel against it. I would like to tell you that you did not pass.

Power hit me. It was as though it had been an electric shock of pure rage. I landed backwards and struck the wall.

I looked around and Sarah was gone. She had gone to get her plan into operation. She had left me there to die.

I made an attempt to rise, and my body would not answer. The force with which she struck me was poisonously seeping through me.

But then Elena was there. And Kieran. And Thomas. They must have been waiting out there. They should have been aware of the possibility of something like this.

Elena was laying her hands upon my injuries, and attempting to cure them by her savage magic. Kieran was crying. Not out of melancholy, but of anger. From the betrayal of his mate.

"Where did she go?" Kieran demanded.

To engage her control, I said feeblely. She will take over the entire town. She will have us all fighting one another.

We must stop her, said Thomas. Until she switches on whatever device she has invented.

"How?" I asked. "We don't know where she is. How the device functions we do not know. We don't know anything."

Elena was thinking hard. I could see the wheels revolving in her old brain.

The barrier, Elena said slowly. It is a technology that is being utilized by the immortals to control creatures. However, there is a weakness of that technology. It is working at the same frequency as the barrier itself. With a little fussing on our part we could possibly over-feed her machine, by increasing the obstruction.

"How do we do that?" Kieran asked.

That I want Luna to go back to the barrier," Elena said. By making her fuse into it again, only so far as to give its body a pulse which will ruin the controlling mechanism of Sarah.

I may fall into a trap once more, I said, in case I do that. I may not be capable of returning back.

"I know," Elena said. That is why you have to decide by yourself.

I stared at Ethan who was now at the scene. There he was standing with a face full of fear and hope all at the same time.

"Do it," Ethan said. "Do what you have to do. I believe in you. I think you will be back here with me.

I stood up, despite the pain. "Let's go," I said. "Let's go to the barrier. Let's end this."

But as we started to run towards the woods I experienced it. A new presence. An atmosphere I had never experienced. It was enormous and primeval and it was rising. Something was arousing in the barrier. Something very long slumbering.