by Melody Raven
“No. You’re not going to keep me bound just because you want a secret weapon. Bind someone else. Find someone else to be your puppet. I gave you what you wanted.”
“I want the woman. Bring her to me and you’ll get what you want.”
He clenched his jaw. “What do you want with her? Are you going to kill her?”
“She’s a part of this. I can’t see how exactly, but I know it.”
“Don’t talk to me in riddles and non-answers. Are you going to kill her?”
“I can’t yet see how she fits into this puzzle.”
It was her fancy way of saying she didn’t know whether she was going to kill Lina or not. Was it his problem? Lina had lied to him. But she’d also thrown herself in front of those bullets without thinking about it. Granted, she probably didn’t realize how much it would hurt or that they were poisoned. But it didn’t negate her act.
And more than that, he liked her. Back before he knew what she was, he’d been determined to get through those defenses of hers. Determined to use her as his happy distraction.
Considering how great their kiss had been, he’d been damn close to getting her right where he wanted.
“I can’t hand her over. Not until you can guarantee her safety.”
“You do understand that there are bigger things in play here. I can’t prioritize one stranger over my own.”
“Well, she’s not a stranger to me. She’s officially one of my own and therefore one of my priorities.”
“You’d sacrifice your powers for this... creature?”
“I wouldn’t expect my own flesh and blood to make me choose between the two.”
“For now, you do have to choose. I hope in the future it will become easier.”
“It’s easy now. You have all the power here.”
“Yes, I do. Which is why it’s best to do what I say. Hand the girl over to me.”
Aidan let out a sigh and did the only thing he could think of. He hung up on her. If Talia wanted Lina, she’d have to come get her.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what she might do.
Lina tugged the T-shirt down. It was too big for her and rather shapeless, but at least it didn’t have bullet holes like her other shirt.
“I really think you should lay down,” said Mia from where she stood next to her laptop.
“I’ve slept too long. I need to go back to check on my landlady.” And decide where she was going from here. Scragg’s men had been the ones to shoot her. Had they recognized her? Had they understood who she was? She couldn’t leave Mrs. Anders without a word or anyone to look after her. But she also couldn’t stay there any longer. There were too many Vopura around here. Too many close calls. It was only a matter of time before she was discovered. And she had a feeling Aidan wasn’t about to continue her fighting lessons. Not now that he knew who she really was.
“Talk with Talon,” urged Mia. “We know that you’re on our side. We can help you. You won’t have to hunt to survive. We can make sure you’re taken care of.”
“I don’t want to be taken care of,” she snapped. Immediately, she regretted it. Mia had done nothing but help, and she didn’t deserve harsh words. “My family basically sold me when I was a child. They told me the same thing. I would be taken care of. I’d be safe. But I don’t want to be taken care of or sold off. I was taken here against my will, but it might be the best thing that ever happened to me. I can be my own person here. Do what I want to do, when I want to do it. I don’t need to bind myself to some man or family to stay safe. This isn’t my war. I’m not a fighter, and even if I was, I have the freedom to choose where I fight.”
Mia’s mouth tightened. “I agree with everything you’re saying,” she said cautiously. “But this is your war. If you want to live on this planet and enjoy our freedoms, we have to make sure we keep those freedoms. If you can help with that, you have a responsibility to help. Do you think I chose this life? I’m only here because my father drugged me, against my will, with vampire and Vopura blood. I didn’t choose this life, but I recognize that I can help. So can you.”
“Don’t compare us,” snapped Lina harshly. “We’re not the same and I don’t like you trying to imply that we are. You and I couldn’t be more different.”
The door to the room pushed open and Ian poked his head in. “Hey, ladies. Am I interrupting?”
“No,” they both said quickly.
“Good. We’re going to have a round table in the next room. We want both of you there.”
“I don’t want to go,” said Lina assertively. If she spoke like she knew what she was doing, they’d believe her, right?
Ian narrowed his eyes. “Okay... but it’s four in the afternoon. Sun’s high in the sky. You can’t really go anywhere. So why not stop being so stubborn, just listen to what we have to say? Or is that unacceptable to you?”
She pursed her lips as she tried to think of any possible reason to say no to that.
But he took her silence as agreement. “Great. So I’ll see you next door.” Without waiting for her to answer, he left and shut the door behind him.
She shook her head. She knew she’d been played, but he wasn’t wrong. They had helped save her life. And as much as she didn’t want to help any of them, she couldn’t deny that they’d been nothing but nice. She could spare a few minutes.
Without saying another word to Mia, she left the room. It was easy enough to find where this meeting was taking place. The room next to them was a conference room. He’d called it a round table, but it was in fact a large rectangle table. Ian and his partner, Carter, were at the head of the table in front of a large blank board that had markers at the bottom of it. Aidan sat to the right of them and Talon sat to the left.
Mia took the seat next to Talon. Lina decided that she shouldn’t sit right next to Aidan considering how angry he’d been the last time they spoke, but she took the seat one down from him instead. Even if he was mad at her, he was the person she was closest to in the room.
Ian gave a terse smile once everyone was seated. “Okay. This is good. We have humans,” he put his hands on his chest, “vampires,” he pointed at Talon, “humans turned Vopura,” he pointed at Mia, “born Vopura,” he pointed at Lina, “and a witch. This is one of the most inclusive meetings that has been had since the original invasion began, and I think it’s important that we take advantage of this while we’re all here.”
“I don’t know what I can help with,” said Aidan gruffly. “My family isn’t even talking to me.”
“That’s the problem,” said Ian. “We’re all hiding things from each other. Speaking in half-truths and omissions. We can’t expect to defeat the enemy if we don’t know what’s going on. So we need to confront what happened last night.” He picked up a marker and pulled off the cap, writing in big, messy letters “VOPURA” on the board. “Let’s start with the basics. Enemy number one is the Vopura.” He frowned and looked between Lina and Mia. “No offense.”
She didn’t know how she could be offended. He wasn’t wrong. She knew more than most how evil most of their intentions were.
“Last night was one of the most outright attacks since the original invasion.” Carter stood up. “Aidan was confronted by a Vopura and warned that an attack was imminent. That attack happened last night, and it was two-pronged: The Vopura came after Aidan personally and made an attack on his life that was only stopped when Lina got in the way of the bullets. But at that exact same time, something happened to the witches. We’re getting basically no communication from the witches on this, but we’ve heard enough reports. There seemed to be a magic blackout at the same time.” He opened up a marker and wrote the word “BLACKOUT” on the board in big letters.
“Do we know the two are related?” asked Talon.
Carter shrugged. “They might not be. But we can’t assume that. If the Vopura have a way to neutralize the witches, we have to figure they’re planning something big.”
“There’s more,” said Lina.
She didn’t want to get in the middle of this. She didn’t want to get sucked in any further than she already was. But if she knew something that was important, she needed to share it. All eyes turned to her. She took a deep breath, still fighting against her instincts to stay quiet. “The Vopura who threatened Aidan. I know him. He didn’t come over in the original invasion. He’s royalty, and all the more important royals didn’t come over in the first wave. They stayed behind while the first wave cleared the way for them.”
“What are you saying?” asked Carter, his words almost more of a growl.
She swallowed nervously as she told them what no one wanted to hear. “I’m saying he’s new. There are more Vopura coming in through a portal.”
A deep silence fell over the room. No one wanted to call Lina a liar, but no one wanted her to be right, either. Aidan really didn’t know how it could be worse than that. It was hard enough to contain the Vopura who had scattered over the world after the Siege of Seattle. Now there were even more? Even worse, they were organized and attacking his kind.
Ian finally broke the silence. “It can’t be the portal in Seattle. That’s under constant guard by the army. If anyone came through, we’d know.”
“Which means there’s some portal out there that we don’t know about?” said Talon.
Carter looked at Lina and narrowed his eyes. “Tell us everything you know.”
She leaned back in her chair, and Aidan angled himself to face Carter, putting himself between them as much as possible. “I don’t know anything,” she said in a soft, almost scared voice.
“Leave her alone,” he warned.
“I’m not going to leave her alone,” snapped Carter. “She knows more about this guy than any of us do. The guy who tried to kill you last night,” he pointed out. “So I’m not going to let it go just because you don’t want me to hurt her feelings.”
Abruptly, there was a loud scraping noise as Lina pushed her chair back and walked quickly out of the room. She couldn’t run. Not with the sun so high in the sky.
But he also didn’t want her going off on her own. He got up and went after her. He didn’t run, though. He didn’t want to spook her and have her bolt.
He found her in the hallway, standing in the shadows between two beams of muted light. There were curtains on the windows. He knew she’d be able to walk past them with minor discomfort, but even the muted light would hurt after a few minutes.
He stopped a few feet away from her. “I’m sorry.”
She had her arms crossed over her chest and stared daggers at the wall. “Don’t be. You didn’t do anything.”
“I’m not sorry for anything I did. But I know you’re in an uncomfortable position. And I’m sorry about that.”
She shook her head. “I was such a fool. I thought I’d be able to get away. To leave my past life behind and be reborn. But that was never an option for me.”
“It’s not an option for anyone,” said Aidan. “Not that it makes it less shitty.”
“I can’t help you.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know that you’ll think I can help you. But I can’t. I’m not capable of it. I’m not brave enough for it.”
Aidan had to let out a laugh at that, and Lina quickly shot him a glance. “What’s so funny?”
“You jumped in front of bullets for me just a few hours ago and now you’re telling me you’re not brave. It’s just the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard all day. And trust me, I’ve heard a lot of ridiculous shit today.”
The corner of her mouth hooked up. “I thought they were normal bullets. Not crazy anti-vampire bullets.”
“Oh. Normal bullets. That’s much less scary.”
“Scragg is my fiancé. Was my fiancé. Not that he was called anything that poetic. My family sold me to him on Vora. The only reason we’re not bonded yet is because I begged for more time.”
“No. I don’t want you to worry. I’m not going to ask you to—”
“You’d be an idiot not to. I might not be a fighter, but I know enough to see how this is going to go. You’re going to ask me to spy on Scragg, and I’m not going to be able to say no. It would be... it would be wrong of me to say no. Knowing how much damage they can do. Knowing how little they care about anything other than themselves. But I’m really no different, am I? All I care about is myself. Keeping myself safe and out of the way while everyone else fights and dies.”
“My grandmother wants you.” Lina blinked and looked over at him, her beautiful brow furrowed in confusion. He should be able to separate himself from this. To get it through his thick skull that Lina might just have to be a pawn in this bigger situation. But damn it if he wasn’t as stubborn as his grandmother claimed. “She said that if I bring you to her then she’ll give me my powers back.”
“Okay,” said Lina carefully. “I suppose I can’t outrun a witch, can I? When is she coming for me?”
“She’s not. I told her she couldn’t have you.”
She blinked in surprise. “Why would you do that?”
“Because she can’t have you. I don’t know what she’s going to do with you. And until she can guarantee your safety, I told her you’re off-limits.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because I’m a glutton for punishment. The point is, I’m going without powers to keep you safe, and I’m not about to hand you off to that jackass. You saved me, and I plan on paying you back. Carter and Ian are in it for the humans. My family is protecting their own skin. Mia and Talon are siding with the vampires. You and I have to stick together.”
She wiped a tear away from her cheek. Her tears made her dark eyes shine, and she looked even more ethereal in the ambient lighting. Prettier than a crying girl had any right to look. It was no wonder he was being so stupid around her. He had a feeling a guy could do a lot of stupid things for a girl like that.
“We’re in it together?” she asked softly.
He held out a hand. “I’ll back you up if you back me up.”
Slowly, she reached out and took his hand. Her fingers were still wet from her tears. It was almost like a spell sealing their bond. He gripped her hand tightly. “We’re going to make this work,” he promised.
“And as long as you don’t have your powers, I’ll be your muscle.” She offered a slight smile that just touched her eyes.
“Now let’s go back and listen to what the humans have to say. They need us even more than we need them, after all.” He should let her go, but he found himself unable to. Instead, he held her hand and they walked back into the conference room together. He could see everyone staring at their joined hands skeptically, but he didn’t owe any of them an explanation. He went back to his seat, and Lina took the seat next to him. “Lina, do you want to tell them what you can about Scragg?”
She tightened her lips and he squeezed her hand comfortingly. “He’s powerful. One of the royals. He has a large following and an entire army under his command that he could’ve brought over.”
Carter practically emanated anger, but Ian spoke in a controlled manner. “Army?”
“It’s not army like you’d think of it. Umm....” She seemed to think of the best way to phrase it. “There’s not a huge population on Vora, and children have been so few and far between lately. I don’t know if there was ever a formal count done, but I’m guessing it’s in the millions. Not billions like here. So an army for him might be a thousand men.”
“A thousand Vopura is a serious problem,” said Ian.
“I don’t know if he brought all of them over with him. I know just as little as you do about this other gate.”
“You have to know something. You came through one,” bit out Carter.
“I was dragged through one against my will before being kept chained to a bed and half starved for months while a maniac tried to convince me to be loyal to him.”
Aidan winced as Lina squeezed his hand even tighter, but he’d rather she squeeze him than jump across th
e table and punch Carter in the face like he deserved.
“We appreciate any help you’re able to give us,” said Ian quickly. “And we apologize for being insensitive, but you can’t blame us for being ignorant about facts you haven’t given us.”
Aidan smiled. “I like you. You have a bureaucrat’s blood in you.”
Ian tilted his head forward. “Just trying to keep the peace.”
“The Vopura didn’t cause the blackout on their own. They had to have had help.”
“Witches are causing their own to lose power?” said Mia. “Why?”
“I have no idea,” said Aidan honestly. “And neither does my family. But everyone is trying their damndest to find out. When Scragg confronted me, he had a warlock with him. Wearing a black robe with a particular design on it. I’d like to go to my family’s library and see if I can find what the symbol means. If you can keep tabs on Vopura attacks, maybe we can use that to triangulate where this new portal is.” And that would put the responsibility of locating it on the humans and vampires. Not on Lina.
She had a point that she could be an asset as a Vopura spy. But she was untrained and unskilled. It would be too risky to send her anywhere she couldn’t be protected.
For now, it would be safer to keep her with him.
“You’ll let us know what you find out?” asked Carter skeptically.
“Of course. You’ll be my first priority.”
Carter nodded. “I’ll hold you to that.”
Aidan smiled. “Trust me.”
Lina looked at Aidan and then back out the window of the car. It was so odd to be out and about during the day. Talon had loaned Aidan his fancy vampire car that included tinted windows that kept the UV rays from harming her. She squinted as her eyes took in more light than they ever had before and enjoyed the warmth as it touched her skin. She’d asked Aidan to keep the AC off for just a little bit. She wanted to soak up this feeling.
