Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“No, there is something wrong with Riviana, and I was hoping that you could help me.”
“Huh? What is it? What’s wrong with Queen Riviana? How can I help?” That shift in Crawford’s mood was so drastic that I had to wonder if it gave the man whiplash or something. He went from laughing to serious in the blink of an eye.
“Somehow, in a way that none of us can figure out, her soul has left her body. That was confirmed by the vampires that we have with us.” I was being vague, but I knew that he would understand what I was saying. And that he did, his response told me that.
“So, neither Shawn nor Dietrich were able to see her soul? How is that even possible?” I watched as Crawford put his hand to his head and collapsed against the back of his chair. There was pure shock written on his face.
“No, they couldn’t see her. She is alive. According to Griffin she appears to just be sleeping, but we can’t wake her up. According to Shawn and Dietrich, she has no soul. I am one hundred percent sure that her soul being gone is what is keeping her asleep. The problem is, where is her soul and why is it gone?”
“Yes, that does seem to be the biggest issue here. I have never seen this happen before, but I will search the archives. If I find anything, anything at all, I will call you right away.”
“Thank you, Crawford. I knew that I could count on you. Oh, and Crawford.” I called his name one more time when I remembered something important. “Please don’t tell anyone what is going on with Riviana. If someone asks, make up a story about what is going on, alright. I don’t want word getting out that the Goddess Queen has fallen ill. It would spread panic among the people.”
“Yes, of course Joaquin. I understand. I will keep this secret with my life.” He made a fist with his right hand and put it against his chest as he spoke.
“Thank you, Crawford. Again. I already thanked you, but I needed to do it again.” I gave him the closest thing to a smile that I could manage before I told him goodbye and ended the call.
I knew that Crawford would throw his all into the research, the same way that Gabriel was going to throw himself into finding a way to bring my Little Bunny home. They were both good men and they did their jobs thoroughly.
I also knew that Crawford would enlist Eldrige and his men Henrich and Lionel. Not to mention all the other witches and warlocks that were at his command. He would call them all and he would call the witch doctors, the Djinn, the genies, the gypsies, all of them.. He would see to it that this issue didn’t rest until it was settled.
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Joaquin
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Now that the call with Crawford was done, I pressed a button on my desk that turned the screen for the video conferences into a mirror. This would allow me to call Gloriana, Trevor, or Valerian in the Fae compound. I had it installed when the system was upgraded a few years ago. And after my Little Bunny had taught me how to make the mirror calls. They weren’t difficult to do, but they were hard to get used to, that was for sure.
Still, I needed to do this. I needed to call them and tell them what was going on. And most of all, I needed to see if any of them could help me with this.
I touched a piece of the mirror that had been cut off when it was installed. I had intentionally ordered it to be too big just for this purpose. To make the call, I needed to touch part of the mirror. This piece that I was touching was indeed part of the mirror that I was looking at, but it wasn’t attached anymore so it acted as a sort of remote control.
I pulled the magic, the little that I had in me, to the surface, specifically into my hands. When I touched the mirror I thought about Gloriana and Trevor so that I could make sure that the call went to one of the two of them. If I got Gloriana, good, if I got Trevor then he could go and get Gloriana so that was also good.
The glass of the mirror fogged over as it started to ‘ring’. It didn’t actually sound like ringing, instead it sounded like a tinkling of bells. The bells were playing out a song, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was at the moment. And I didn’t care either. I just wanted to do what I needed to. Music, laughter, anything like that was just a distraction at the moment.
“Joaquin? This is a surprise.” Trevor almost recoiled in his shock when he saw that it was me calling. Usually, both of us were too busy to call outside of our weekly family calls. “Is something wrong? What happened? What is going on?”
I knew that Trevor would be able to read my mood. He had known me since I was younger than Reagan and Rika. Honestly, I think I was about Talia’s age when I met him. He and I have been friends ever since and he knew when something was bothering me.
“Yeah, there is something going on.” I sighed. “Is Gloriana there? This would just be easier if I could talk to the two of you at the same time.” That made Trevor’s face turn pale and his eyes go wide.
“Why do I get the feeling that I am not going to like what it is that you have to tell us? Am I going to have to come there and murder someone? Did someone do something to one of the kids? Is Riviana alright? Is-.” He paused then. I think that he caught the way that I flinched when he asked me if something was wrong with Riviana. “Damn. I didn’t actually think that something had actually happened to her. But, if I am being honest, there is nothing else that would make you look that miserable. I’m going to go get Glory now. I will be right back.”
With that, Trevor ran off to the left side of my screen as fast as he could. I didn’t hear the sound of his steps since he ran as silently as I did, but I heard other background noises. There was the opening of the door and the muffled tones of his voice when he spoke to someone in the other room. I heard the sound of Gloriana’s voice as well, but, like Trevor, her voice was muffled so I couldn’t understand the words. I think that was just a natural thing that the mirror magic did. It helped to hide background conversations so that they weren’t heard by the wrong people. Or maybe you just needed to be close to the mirror for it to actually send your words. Either way, I wasn’t able to hear anything other than the sound of their voices.
It had been right about or just under a minute by the time that Trevor and Gloriana were running into frame so that I could see them. Gloriana looked scared, more scared than Crawford had. I could see that her eyes had gone wide, she was even more pale than usual. There even seemed to be some sort of yellow aura that was pouring off of her.
“Joaquin, what happened to Riviana? What is going on? Trevor didn’t tell me anything at all.”
“I told you, Glory, Joaquin didn’t tell me anything. He wanted to wait to tell us both at the same time.” Trevor sighed as he relayed that message to his wife again. “Go on Joaquin, you can tell us what happened now. We’re both here so we are ready to hear it.”
“First, is there anyone else that is there with you? I don’t want anyone, anyone at all, hearing what I have to say aside from the two of you.”
“W..wow, Joaquin, this must be serious.” Trevor’s eyes darkened even more as he looked at me as seriously as he could.
“No one else is here Joaquin, it’s just the two of us. No one else will hear what you have to say.” Gloriana nodded at me and reassured me that it was all fine. Good, I didn’t want to even think about what would have happened if a servant had been there and spread rumors that something was wrong with Riviana.
“OK.” I took a deep breath to settle myself and looked them in the eyes before I spoke. “Riviana is not able to be woken up. She collapsed two days ago, and no one knows why. She appears to just be sleeping, but that isn’t actually the case at all. When Shawn and Dietrich came to see her with the rest of the guards, they told us that her soul was not in her body. Something has happened to draw her soul, her consciousness, out of her body.”
“What the hell?” Trevor exclaimed loudly.
“Oh my!” Gloriana put her hand over her mouth as she gasped at the words that I had just told her.
“I am calling you now, Gloriana, to ask if you might know of someone that could help us. Or is there some experience you or someone in the Fae compound might have had that would be similar to this situation? We need to find someone to tell us how to help Riviana. We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”
“I..I can’t say that I know of anything. But I promise that I will check into it right away.” She sounded firm and determined to help. I hope that she can find something, and soon.
“I might know someone. I will give them a call as well.” Trevor sounded more contemplative than I had ever heard him.
“Thank you.” I tilted my head to him in respect.
“Now, Joaquin, tell me everything else that has happened. I don’t want to be in the dark about anything.” Gloriana crossed her arms and looked at me firmly.
