Chapter 6

Jen felt her body being laid onto a soft surface. Even with the unbelievable gentleness with which the arms placed her, the pain from her injuries still rolled through her body. She gasped at the sting, opening her eyes at the same time. Without thought, she reached out for Decebel. She didn't speak; she simply sought the touch of his mind, needing the comfort of his strength through their bond.

As soon as she felt him, she knew something was wrong. She didn't know what, but his mind seemed jumbled and restless. Before she could speak to him, the face of a woman came into view as she leaned over Jen. Rachel, Jen remembered.

"How are you feeling?" the woman asked her.

Jen swallowed and licked her lips trying to dispel the dryness that had coated the inside of her mouth.

Her voice was hoarse when she responded, "Aside from feeling like a bull has danced the cha-cha on my body and then passed me along to his bully friends for the same mind-blowing experience, well I'm just dandy."

Rachel scrunched her brow at the bruised face of the obviously beautiful girl before her. Her words indicated that she was in definite pain, but the tone of her voice was so upbeat. It confused the healer.

Jen, noticing that Rachel had obviously not caught on to her sarcasm, blew out a shallow breath and took pity on her rescuer, "Sorry, I tend to have a smart mouth in painful, tense and otherwise completely unbelievable circumstances."

"So, you aren't doing well, correct?" Rachel asked for clarification.

"Correct. I am most definitely not doing well."

"I'm going to give you an herbal tea with healing properties to drink. Then, if you are ready, I will try to explain where you are. Would that be alright?"

Jen tried to focus on Rachel's words even as she heard noise around her-cabinets being opened and closed, things being shuffled on the floor and then a cold breeze rushing over her as a door was opened and then closed.

"That's Gavril, my mate," Rachel explained, "He is gathering the things that I will need to help you. You have a long recovery ahead of you." Jen could tell that Rachel was not convinced that she could indeed be healed. This made Jen realize just how close to death she actually was.

Rachel stepped away for a moment and then returned with a cup. Steam rose from the cup revealing the warmth of the liquid. Rachel gently placed an arm under Jen's neck and raised her head enough to be able to safely swallow the tea.

Jen sputtered as the tea hit her tongue.

"I know it's not the best tasting drink, but truly you need to drink it. Please."

Jen didn't know how she knew to trust Rachel, but something in her said she was on Jen's side. Jen held her breath as she forced herself to swallow the bitter liquid until the cup was empty. Once again Rachel gently lay Jen back down. She stepped from Jen's view and Jen could hear running water, cabinets opening and closing again. She heard Gavril whisper something to his mate and then a soft noise that sounded like a kiss. Jen's heart ached at the tenderness in that sound.

Rachel came back over, her arms full of towels. She laid them on the end of the bed. When she disappeared again, she returned with clothes and a blanket.

"Gavril has stepped out to give you privacy. We need to clean your wounds and I need to check your ribs."

Jen nodded. She knew that this was coming but she seriously dreaded moving, even an inch. Rachel helped her sit up. Instead of making her pull the shirt over her head Rachel pulled out a pair of scissors and cut the shirt off.

"Good call healer," Jen smiled.

"I have my tricks," Rachel teased back, "Although I'm afraid the pants won't be so easy."

"Oh well, what's a day spent without writhing in pain simply from removing clothing? I mean seriously who wants to go through life without that experience."

Rachel chuckled, "I bet you bring amusement to your mate."

"You might call it amusement; I think he calls it being a pain in the ass."

Jen winced as she laid back and tried to help Rachel remove her pants. Rachel laid the blanket across her, only baring the part of her that she was cleaning or looking over. She ran the warm wash cloth across Jen's head cleaning a cut on her forehead. She probed Jen's scalp with her fingers and stopped when Jen let out a gasp.

"We are going to have to wash your hair to get all the blood out so that I can make sure this doesn't need stitches." Rachel walked away again and came back with a large bowl of water and some sort of soap.

"It's a cleansing soap; I make it. It will help keep infection out," Rachel explained at Jen's questioning look.

Jen laid there with her eyes closed while she let Rachel wash her hair. She didn't move as she continued to endure the ministrations. They discovered that no stitches were necessary. Rachel explained that head wounds tended to bleed badly and look worse than they really were. Jen was out of breath by the time Rachel had helped her slip on a warm sweat shirt and sweat pants.

"I know you are hurting so I'm going to give you more tea. It has some pain controlling properties that should help take the edge off."

"Thank you, Rachel," Jen breathed out as she tried to calm her breathing and quiet her racing heart.

"That's what I'm here for. Truthfully, I have missed using my gift. Gavril swears that I have let him get injured on our outings just so I would have someone to tend." Rachel laughed at her own words and Jen smiled once again at the beautiful sound.

Finishing the tea, she watched as Rachel took a chair next to the bed.

Jen noted that the woman looked to be in her late thirties or early forties. She was voluptuous but by no means overweight. She had dark chocolate hair that fell in natural waves around her elegant face. Her eyes were blue, but not just blue, more like azure and nearly glowed. She had full rose-colored lips and Jen could see she had a small gap in between her front teeth that, instead of detracting from her beauty, added character. There was a peace about her that reminded Jen of Sally. Rachel's eye's met Jen's, drawing Jen back from her scrutiny.

"What do you know of gypsy healers?" Rachel asked simply.

"Not much," Jen admitted, "I just found out one of my best friends is one."

Rachel's eyebrows rose on her forehead and her azures began to definitely glow, "A gypsy healer? Here in Romania?"

Jen nodded, but caught herself when she felt the sharp tingles and answered instead, "Yes."

"Is she wolf as well?"

"No, she's home grown, all American human," Jen said dryly.

Rachel thought about the revelation for a few quiet moments. About what it meant that a gypsy healer had returned to the Romanian wolves after three centuries of absence. She didn't count herself, since she and her mate had effectively slipped from view.

"You said you are a healer?" Jen asked.

"Yes, I am. But I am not only a healer."

"Your eyes glow," Jen's words were soft as she pieced the puzzle together, "Mother of pearl; you're a dormant, aren't you?"

Rachel's mouth took on a slight curve as she smiled at Jen's odd words. "Yes, I am a dormant. I'm the last one born in 5 centuries, both gypsy healer and dormant Canis lupus."

"Why are you living here all alone without a pack?"

"Try to relax. This could take a while," Rachel sat back in her chair and crossed one leg over the other. She gazed off at nothing in particular, gathering her thoughts and trying to decide where she should begin her story.

"Gavril, my mate, was a mighty Alpha three centuries ago to the Western Romanian Pack."

"Western Romanian?" Jen interrupted.

Rachel cocked her head, a very wolf like gesture.

Jen raised her hands in surrender. "Sorry, got it. No interrupting, hold all applause until the end of the show."

Rachel shook her head, "You are very strange."

"You have no idea," Jen muttered under her breath but kept her attention on Rachel, waiting for her to go on.

"For centuries the Romanian packs were divided. Eastern and Western. Both were ruled by powerful Alphas who were surprisingly agreeable most of the time. They had a shaky alliance that turned into a friendship over the years. My great-grandmother was the gypsy healer to the Western pack. The Eastern pack did not have a healer and because of the friendship between the Alphas, the Eastern Alpha would allow my great-grandmother to go and attend their wolves when needed. She wound up having an affair with a werewolf, although now I believe that she was actually his mate. Through that pairing a daughter was conceived and so on and so forth until I was born. At first, I thought that I was just a fourth-generation healer and dormant. At that time, Gavril was the pack historian. He had no reason to know otherwise, so that is how he recorded me. But after the werewolf wars, and my mother's death, it became apparent that I was the only healer left. That was when I was finally told who I really was. She had finally decided that it was time to remind the wolves of their history."

"She who?" Jen asked.

"We will get to her soon enough."

Rachel paused momentarily and Jen took advantage of the silence, "Okay back up a sec Charlie Brown, what do you mean they think your great-grandmother had a mate? Wasn't she human?"

Rachel nodded, "She was human," before Jen could interrupt Rachel held up a finger, stopping her, "But more importantly, she was a gypsy healer." She didn't elaborate but just let that sink in.

Jen's mouth fell open. Even though it hurt horrifically, she propped herself up on her side gingerly, "Bloody hell, you can't be saying what I think you are saying. But you are, aren't you? Gypsy healers can mate with Canis lupus."

"Not 'can'," Rachel clarified, "will."

"Will?" Jen's eyebrows rose at the declaration.

"Gypsy healers are always the mate to a Canis lupus."

"Then why aren't their more dormants?"

"It is very difficult for werewolves to procreate, there is a reason for this but we won't get into that right now. It's even rarer with healers and a wolf. A child born of a healer and a wolf only comes every four or five centuries. I was the last known gypsy healer/dormant."

"Okay, so how can there be gypsy healers that aren't dormants then?" Jen challenged.

"How was the mate of the Romanian Canis lupus prince conceived and not full wolf?"

"Touché'," Jen conceded, "So there are gypsies who have chosen to be with humans?"

"When they could not find their mate, or their mate died before they were bonded. Then yes, some chose a life with a human and would wind up bearing children from that union," Rachel explained.

"Okay, I'm with you. Hit me with some more," Jen laid back down, her lips flattening in a tight line as she eased onto her back.

"Since my mother was a healer, I grew up around werewolves, but most of my friends were from a village a couple of miles away from the pack den. My mother kept me, for the most part, away from the males for as long as she could. I believe that she was worried that I would find a mate at too young an age. When I hit puberty, I began to exhibit unusual physical attributes that were getting difficult to conceal from the humans. My eyes, for instance, took on a slight glow. When I would feel strong emotions, they would glow just like a full blood Canis lupus. I had to be careful and learn to control my emotions. Although my mother wanted to keep me from the males, I had to learn the skills of being a healer. As I continued to get older, I started going with her to see her patients. I would see Gavril from time to time and began to feel a pull towards him. When I mentioned it to my mother, she told me that it wasn't time. I didn't really understand what she meant until later.

"One day, I was with one of my friends from the village and she saw my eyes glow-really glow. You have to remember that this was a time when the mere mention of witchcraft would get you hung, or burned. Anything out of the ordinary was looked upon as suspicious. She promised not to tell anyone, but naturally, her fear overcame her loyalty to me. After she told her mother what she had seen, her mother convinced her to bring me to their village. I trusted her; she told me she had something to show me. And because I trusted her, I followed her to my death."

Jen's breath caught as she heard the raw emotion in Rachel's voice. She saw her eyes glowing but also the steely determination written on the healer's face.

"What did they do to you?" Jen asked gently.

"They tried to burn me at the stake," she answered matter of fact like.

"What?" Jen's mouth dropped open and her eyes, wide as saucers, revealed the indignation she felt at Rachel's revelation.

"I say tried because as they were about to light the fire, he came. Like an angry, wild, magnificent storm. He tore through the crowd that had come to watch me burn to death. I thought he would kill every person there. And the ones who chose to stay, he did slaughter."

Jen listened, captivated by Rachel's words as she imagined Gavril coming for her, saving her. Surely Decebel would do the same. While Rachel had been talking, she had continued to seek out Decebel's mind but he was blocking her. She could still feel him, but there were no words or images or emotions. She didn't know what was going on with him, but deep-down Jen knew that something was majorly wrong with her wolf.

"It was in that time of intense emotion," Rachel continued. "And dire need, that I heard his voice in my head. He saved me. And when he took me back to the pack, he claimed me. My mother told me that she had long suspected that the Alpha would be my mate. Gavril was thoroughly confused as to how I could have been in his pack for so long without there being any mating signs. Our bond only solidified after I was nearly killed.

My mother explained that sometimes, with dormants, mating signs will only be revealed after a major cataclysmic event. These traumatic events sometimes bring out the wolf in the dormant so that she can bond with her mate. The more diluted the blood, the more intense the cataclysmic event will need to be."

Jen rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I got front row seats to that show."

Rachel once again looked at Jen in confusion, "What does that mean?"

"You know how I told you that I also have a mate?"

"Yes."

"Well there were no mating signs until I was nearly killed. Nothing. There were only two reasons that we were convinced that we were mates. The first, my blood tests came back as inhuman, and the second, the indescribable pull that we feel towards each other."

Rachel smiled at her, understanding etched in her face. "It took that crisis for your wolf to surface. Hard to believe, I know, but you do have Canis lupus blood, which means that you hold a wolf inside you as well. It's just tucked way down deep. What mating sign appeared?"

"We can hear each other's thoughts." Jen's smile lit up the room as she remembered hearing Decebel's voice in her mind for the first time, "I don't think I've ever wanted anything so much than to hear his voice in my head." A single tear escaped Jen's eye and made a path down her clean, soft cheek. She wanted to hear that voice again. Needed to hear it. But he wouldn't let her in.

Jen wiped the tear away and looked up into Rachel's softly glowing eyes, "So then what happened, after he claimed you?"

"It was kind of rocky at first. Alpha males are extremely possessive and can be pretty intense about their mates. He didn't want to rush things, but everything in him told him to complete the bond and the Blood Rites. After spending some more time with Gavril, it was clear to me that I loved him. That I was made to love him. We were bonded over three centuries ago."

"So, it's pretty safe to say that, um, these fur balls don't have commitment issues?" Jen joked.

Rachel laughed, and the musical sound was a pleasant break from the turmoil boiling inside of Jen. The longer she was unable to connect with Decebel, the more desperate she was beginning to feel. She took a couple of deep breathes, wincing with each as her abused lungs expanded. I can do this, she thought to herself even as she felt darkness pushing inside her mind where Decebel should be. She not only could do this, but she had to. Because not seeing Decebel again after finally having their bond was unacceptable to her.

"You are thinking awfully hard about something." Rachel observed.

"Just hurting," Jen lied, "So what happened that caused you and Gavril to hide?"

Rachel ran her fingers through her hair and once again leaned back in her chair. She let out a deep breath and then continued her tale, "About two years after we bonded there began to be some tension among the surrounding packs-Serbia being the most volatile. The Alpha there was working with a witch."

"I take it that she wasn't the kind of witch that was married to a dork, and was a stay at home mom who wiggled her nose to use her magic?"

Rachel's eyebrow's rose, "Um, no. She was evil, vile, and wicked. It's forbidden for the wolves to work with witches. You see, there is no such thing as a good witch. Their magic comes from darkness and death. When the Serbian Alpha found out that there were two gypsy healers in Romania, he declared war. Any packs not willing to help him, were against him, and therefore attacked. When they came here, Gavril's pack and the Eastern Romanian pack joined together to fight the Serbian Pack and their witch. My mother was killed in that war, as were many other good people. Gavril was injured badly. I found his body on the edge of the river. I could feel the life slipping from him, because it was slipping from me as well.

"I couldn't lift him, so I laid there and held him and waited for death. I would happily go with him, because there is nothing on this earth for me without him." Rachel took another deep breath and sat up straighter, "But fate decided that it wasn't our time. That night, a woman came to us. There was a soft glow around her and she looked like she was gliding on the ground instead of walking. Her movements were graceful and sure.

She told me 'you cannot die at this time healer.' I asked her who she was. 'I am Perizada of the Fae. If you die, the balance of life in the supernatural world will be thrown off. That cannot happen. There must be a healer alive at all times. The next to come is not for centuries. You are the only one who knows what and who she needs to be for the packs. Though others with your blood may be born, they have not been called. You and your wolf must live'.

I told her that as long as my presence was known, the Serbian Alpha would seek me out. So, she agreed to spread a rumor that we had died. But in realty she hid us away from the other wolves. There is a spell on our home given by the Fae. If you don't seek me out with a pure heart and pure motives, then you cannot see this home. Any person seeking to do us harm will just walk right past it. She also gave me simple Fae magic to cloak myself and Gavril's presence when we are out. So, we have lived here, in silence, in hiding. Waiting. Perizada said that when the next healer came, the last witch could be destroyed. It's very possible that the very same witch that helped the Serbian Alpha three centuries ago is still helping him today."

Jen couldn't believe what she was hearing. Thad had a witch working for him. An honest to goodness witch. A thought donned on her then, "Why does he want a healer so badly?"

"Healers can do several things. They know herbs that can heal. They can look inside a wolf and see what plagues them. They have connections with the Fae, and believe me you do not want to be an enemy of the Fae. But the most important and most guarded reason that an Alpha wants a healer is that she can protect a pregnant Canis lupus."

"What do you mean protect?" Jen asked.

"Gypsy healers don't just use herbs. There is magic in what we are, in who we are. Fate made it nearly impossible for Canis lupus to procreate, but it did give them one advantage-the healer. That's why there has to be a gypsy healer in existence at all times. Without one, the chances of a female carrying a pregnancy to term is much, much, lower. Not saying that it doesn't happen, but a healer guarantees a successful pregnancy."

"Hoooooollllly crap," Jen ground out, "I didn't even pay attention, but there are no children in the Romanian pack. I mean, none, as in zilch, nada, zero, not one iota," Jen stopped when she realized Rachel was looking at her like she had grown a second nose, "Sorry, my vocabulary tends to get out of hand when I'm stressed."

Rachel nodded with raised eyebrows but smiled at Jen.

"So now you know. That's why we are in hiding."

"How did you find me?" Jen's brow furrowed.

"Gavril was out gathering herbs for me. He heard you, and then he smelled your pain. So, he came and got me. We had been watching the area because of the disturbance in the air.

"What kind of disturbance?"

"When you get a group of werewolves together that large, especially with multiple packs involved, the air becomes electric. It's been pulsating for the past few days. I knew something was up. There hasn't been a gathering of that size in quite some time."

"So, what now?" Jen let out a breath and laid an arm across her face, covering her eyes.

"I need to ask you, have you been communicating with your mate?"

"I did briefly when Gavril was carrying me. But now," Jen shook her head, her voice full of frustration, "now he's blocking me."

"Maybe something has happened and he's trying to protect you," Rachel offered.

"No, it feels like something is 'off' inside of him."

"Jen, I have to tell you that while you were in that hole, that witch that I was telling you about attacked the mansion. She set it on fire."

Jen nearly fell off the table trying to sit up, "WHAT!" Rachel went to help her just as Gavril opened the door.

"Something isn't right out there Luna," Gavril's face was tight with worry, "Something foul and evil laces the wind."

"She's searching," Rachel's voice was grim as she looked towards the front door. Her eyes bore into it, almost as if she stared hard enough, she could see straight through it. "We have to be careful. But we need answers Gavril. We need to see her."

Gavril shook his head. "It's too great a risk."

"See who? What risk?" Jen was trying to keep up, but the pain from sitting up so abruptly was beginning to make her dizzy.

"Perizada. She will know what is going on. If what you say is true and your friend really is a gypsy healer, then she is the one Perizada spoke of. She is the one who must help me defeat the witch."

"I can honestly say that out of all the things that I could ever see Sally doing, going toe to toe with the wicked witch of the west was not on the top ten list." Jen laid back down, closing her eyes once more as Rachel and Gavril looked at her with what Jen was sure had to be 'what have we just dragged into hour house' faces. Yeah, well my mom asked herself that every day, healer, so it's not a new look to me. Jen was laughing at her inner monologue until she felt a light caress across her face bringing in a sharp breath. Then she heard his voice as he said her name.

"Jen?"