Greykin Mountain

| 69 | Banished

⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐

The atmosphere was probably as tense as it had ever been. Jackson glanced around the courtyard, following Damon through it. Dustu and Bly were sewing what looked like satchels capable of being worn by a wolf—Bly was currently adjusting the straps of one and using Leon as a model. Everyone else was gathering up what they could and piling it near the table Bly and Dustu were working from.

          Their time here really was over, wasn't it? And it wasn't because of the cadejo, which Jackson would have thought was the reason. But he felt that Damon made the right choice. There was no way they could take on a pack of seventy wolves, and heading back over the mountain wasn't an option, either. There were too many cadejo over there. And now that they'd learned there were variants, there was no telling how many of them might be back there, too.

          Jackson followed Damon down the cellar steps and into his room, but when he sat on the couch, the Alpha didn't join him.

          "Stay here while I speak to the council about what I told you," Damon said, standing in the doorway.

          "Okay," he replied and watched Damon pull the door shut.

          He made himself comfortable and sighed quietly. But as he shuffled around, he felt the amulet in his pocket digging into his leg. So, he pulled it out and stared down at it. The quiet whispers grew louder the longer he stared at it—the more he wondered what it could be. But he had no way of finding out for sure.

          It was in times like this he found himself sorely missing his phone. The answers to his questions were just a click or two away. But now all he had was his mind...and if he had to take a guess at what this thing was going off its appearance, the whispers, the fact it was locked behind a steel door, Damon's reaction to it, and the fact someone had turned the room it was in upside down after he'd left with it—and not forgetting what Julian had said about Kane being afraid of this place because he was scared of demons and the possibility that this ruin was full of demon wards and curses—then Jackson would guess that the amulet in his hands was of demon origin.

          Could that be why he felt so attracted to it? Was the demon part of him connecting with this amulet? He pulled it a little closer to his face so that he could get a better look.

          And that was when he saw a shimmer of something white inside the crimson crystal.

          Jackson frowned and moved it away from his face...but then pulled it closer again.

          The ashen, red-rimmed eye of a shimmering white beast flashed inside the crystal, and with a horrified gasp, Jackson tossed the amulet to the other side of the couch.

          "What the fuck?" he breathed, gawping at the black amulet as it lay on the cushion. What the hell was that?

          He stared at it for a moment, too anxious to pick it up again. But the amulet whispered to him, urging him to move closer...and Jackson just couldn't help himself.

          With a cautious frown, he slowly picked it back up and gazed at the red crystal. It kept whispering to him, but he didn't see that white shimmer again. What had he just seen, though? What was that eye?

          Jackson dragged his free hand over his face and sighed. He had no idea what he was doing. He was a demon, yet he knew nothing about that part of himself other than what he'd learned from Ridge and Damon. Tokala had said that he could be a powerful asset...if only he knew how to use this other power inside him. But he didn't, and he wasn't even sure where to begin.