The morning sun rose over the horizon, and the forest held a dim glow around the sleeping couple.

Visena woke with a start when she felt a tickle on her calf and carefully redirected the small frog back in the pond's direction, proud she didn't scream blue murder from the surprise wake-up guest.

"Visena? Are you alright?" Gideon jolted awake, scanning around them for danger. When he saw the Fae's wide, confused eyes, he rolled his own. "Pack link remember? If you don't put up a mental shield, I can feel everything you're feeling."

"How do I do that?"

"Imagine a shield or wall or bubble around your mind. If you want to share something, create a small opening and let it through..."

Visena stared at him with a grimace. "And can everyone in the pack feel my feelings? Hear my thoughts?"

"If you let them..."

"Oh god. I'm already regretting this."

"Shut up," Gideon grumbled, flipping Visena on top of him and smothering her with wet kisses.

"Stop it, you damn wolf!" she squealed.

The moment triggered insane deja vu, and she paused as the old memory trickled through her defences.

Two teenagers run through the predawn forest after a morning training session. One glamours themself invisible, while the other tracks them frustratingly fast as a green-eyed wolf. 'Stop it, you damn wolf! Go back home!'

In an instant, Visena suppressed the memory and tried to hide her guilt away.

"Why do you feel guilty?"

Fuck.

"Did you hear those weird noises last night over Malum ways?" Nice redirection. Mother would be proud.

Gideon gave her a look that said, This isn't over. "Yeah, I did."

"We should go check it out. Can you ask-"

"You can mind-link them now, Visena. Do it yourself."

Gideon helped her up and found a clothing bundle nearby. "Okay, I will," she replied haughtily, thinking about who she could link. She envisioned a sphere in her mind with hundreds of threads connecting her consciousness to her wolves. The lines lay dormant and dull as her shielding sphere held steady. She searched for the person she wanted and opened a small space around it, letting golden light trickle down the thread.

Prim? Nothing happened. Prim!

Visena? Oh my gosh, hi! You sound different through mind-link. Are you okay?

Yeah, I just need you to ask Calypso and Mihnea to round up any sun walkers in the area to help me with something.

Will do! I'm guessing the marking went well then...

Goodbye, Prim!

Tinkling laughter trickled down the string as she closed her sphere around her mind again. This doesn't seem too hard.

"You look cute when you mind-link," Gideon said. "Like a dopey puppy."

"Shut up," she replied with a huff. "Let's go."

The bite on her neck had already healed and tingled to the touch. One look at Gideon's had her reeling; the outline of the mark was deep purple and formed a perfect circle on his lat, an intricate maze of black lines webbed inside the indigo border. She hadn't noticed anything like that on Prim or the other marked mates.

"It's weird, right?" Gideon's voice made her jump.

"Stop doing that! But yes. Really weird. Pretty, but weird."

Her mate chuckled and snatched her hand up in his, interlacing their fingers. "Come on."

After a stop at Visena's cottage to freshen up, Mihnea, Calypso and two dozen Vampires met her at the Invictus boundary.

"Did you hear the noises too?" Visena queried innocently.

Mihnea's returning smirk had Gideon growling and the other Vampires laughing along. He obviously couldn't help himself.

"I certainly heard some noise in the woods last night."

Calypso patted him on the forearm and sashayed through the barrier. "Hurry up, children. I don't have all day."

Suppressing a full-body blush, the Fae queen turned to face her guests. "Be prepared," she told the Vampires as they slipped through the barrier. "There will be Earth Fae around. But, wait. What kills you guys?"

Mihnea appeared to get mental whiplash from the Fae's questioning. "Not much, thanks to you. I suppose decapitation, fire and major trauma to our brain or heart will do it."

"So wooden stakes are just pop culture, then?"

"Yes."

"Right... well, I won't worry about them being made of wood then."

A honey blonde Vampire spoke then. "Excuse me, what?" Her amber eyes were a shocking compliment to her tan skin. "Aren't you a fairy too?"

"Yes, but I'm a water fae. So, flesh and blood." She gestured to herself. "Earth Fae are an extension of the earth; wood, leaves and sap."

"Is there like Fire Faeries and air Faeries too, like some avatar shit?"

"I'm assuming you were born recently," Visena said with a smile. She remembered one of her roommates making her binge watch Avatar one drunken weekend. Good show.

"No fire Fae that I'm aware of, and the air Fae are extinct."

"Ratchet."

Mihnea looked appalled by the young Vampire. "Rebekah, perhaps only speaking when spoken to should be your new focus."

"Well, she was speaking to me."

"Rebekah!"

The Vampire grumbled and matched steps with Visena, looking over at her hulking mate. "He yours?"

Mihnea sighed while Visena chuckled again, squeezing Gideon's hand. "Yes. All mine."

"Alright." Rebekah raised her hands placatingly. "Claim thoroughly staked. I promise I won't make a move."

Gideon's disturbed side-eye nearly made Visena wet herself. "Time to focus," he grumbled, pulling his mate along faster.

They quickly crossed the neutral earth and reached Malum borders. The stench of garbage and rotting foliage wafted the moment they stepped foot on the dead alphas earth.

"Ew, what the fuck is that smell?" Rebekah shoved her nose into her collar and grimaced.

Mihnea disappeared and returned within a second, his contemplative expression setting Visena's nerves on fire. His mouth set in a grim line as he looked from Visena to Calypso, to the Vampires. "Dead. All the Earth Fae are dead."

"How-"

"Was Elowen and Oren's bodies there?" Visena interrupted Calypso walking in the direction of the scent.

"You should stop her. They're still her kind," Mihnea told Gideon.

The Fae shook her hand loose of her mate and marched onward. Someone briefly touched her shoulder, but she swiped them away and immediately regretted it as the hurt filtered through her mate bond.

Visena rounded a sky-scraping oak and hit a wall of the most potent stench she had ever encountered. She couldn't see the source of the smell anywhere until cold hands cradled the sides of her face and tilted her head back. Her body flew backwards in horror, straight into the arms of Rebekah when she saw them, her mouth dropping open in a silent scream.

Earth fae bodies- hung from every branch in the trees overhead. Each rope had five bodies tied head to foot. Nooses looped around their necks and strung them together like a best friend bracelet from hell.

Their eyes were missing, and an organ shaped hole adorned their chest cavities. Elowen and Oren were dead centre, tied in an orchestrated embrace; their necks bent back at an unnatural angle. At first glance, Visena wouldn't have a clue what had caused their deaths nor strung them up so brutally with such ruthlessness it made her cast-iron stomach churn.

"Bullet holes with cold iron casings. Hunters," Gideon remarked, reclaiming his mate's hand.

Visena turned and buried her face in his chest, glad he harboured no hard feelings after the earlier rebuff. "After everything they've done, I didn't think it would hurt like this." Images of Esmerelda falling into the dirt, dagger buried in her chest to the hilt, assaulted her mind.

"I know," Gideon whispered into her hair.

"Hunter's wouldn't be able to find this place on their own. They don't have the means or brains. They only know how to follow the clues left from our species' crime scenes. The Council has to be responsible," Calypso muttered, plucking a stray bullet from a tree trunk. "These bullets are made with cold iron and engraved with archaic Fae runes. Only the Witch Council had access to these runes in their library. If they are helping the Humans-"

"Then we will have much bigger problems," Mihnea finished through clenched teeth.

Rebekah drew her arms around herself and shivered as the Vampires cut down the corpses.

With each thud on the hard earth, Visena's memories went haywire.

Thud, thud, thud.

She could see Esmerelda right behind her eyelids. Falling to the ground, dead. Empty, soulless eyes. She felt bile rise in her throat.

"We should never have waited this long to confront them," Calypso muttered, agitatedly cracking her knuckles. "Take her home, Gideon. I'll clean this place up with Mihnea and expand the barrier."

"Thank you," he replied quickly, lifting the shaking Fae in his arms. She kept her face buried in his neck while looping her limbs around his trunk. She knew she looked childish, but his steady heart and soothing emotions caressing her through the mind link was her only salvation. Without the metronome of his heart to draw her focus, she thought she would implode.

"Hold on, Vi. We'll be home soon." He kissed her hair and increased his pace along the dirt.

"What happened? Is she okay," Prim called, waddling over with Nairi and Eve as they entered the Packhouse.

The women could feel the anxiety rolling through the pack link. "I just need to lay down," Visena mumbled, looking at her friends. Their mind links sent love and calming energy, instantly easing some of Visena's symptoms. "You can put me down now, Gideon."

"What happened?" Liam ran in, with Cassia babbling in his arms. The budding toddler reached for Nairi. "Mama." The Beta didn't correct her and pressed her nose into her blonde curls instead.

"I'm fine." Visena focused on her mental bubble and blocked off any external emotional spillages. "I just needed some space from..." she let her words die and sat at the dining table.

With a shake of her head, Visena tired again. "We need to go to the Council building and confront the Witches. Not you, Prim, don't even ask." She looked at the mother-to-be opening and closing her mouth like a guppy before smiling slightly and leaning into her mate, who stood at her side. "I think we should go now. Me, Gideon, Mihnea and who else?"

"I'm coming," Eve stated. "Thyra will come too."

"I want to come," Nairi stated, but Liam's grumble had her pausing.

"No," Visena said with a sigh. "Nairi and Liam, you are the only constant in Cassia's life. I need you both here with her and to keep the pack running. We shouldn't be too long."

"I cannot accompany you this time, child," Mihnea said from the doorway, slightly dishevelled. "You may take Thana."

"What about Calypso?"

"She will be too drained after expanding your pack's boundary shield, I'm afraid."

"Will that be enough, though? If the hunters killed all the Earth Fae, then what's to stop them from showing up to protect the Witches and killing all of us? Mihnea, what is happening at the Council building right now?"

The Vampire frowned. "I called Alderman Svend, and they said everything is running as usual."

How the hell could that be? A whole section would be empty. "Do you not check on each other? How could they get away with murdering a whole council?"

"Take Rebekah and Leon with you as well. And, take this," the Vampire said with an outstretched hand. Above it sat a small cellphone.

Visena took it gingerly and questioned him wordlessly.

"It's yours. All necessary contacts have been created from my Index. Call me if you need anything, and do not underestimate them. Nimueh and Cornelius are extremely old and powerful. They would have no qualms in killing you all if it meant their safety." He petted Visena's shoulder, and she smiled, throwing her arms around him. She felt Gideon's disapproval, but he didn't make a sound.

"Thank you, Mihnea. Take care of Calypso while I'm gone."

His devilish smirk had her smiling. "Always, little Fae."

~~~

A/N

Pretty brutal deaths for the earth fae - not that they didn't deserve punishment, but this?

Who could have done such a thing? And Why?

Stakes are getting higher as we start the next showdown... But who is the true enemy?

Dun, dun, dun...

K