The Mark of Fate: Book 3 of The Marked series
Page 6
I furrowed my eyebrows because dammit if he didn’t make a good point too. “Well then, what am I supposed to do?”
Xan relaxed his pose and weakly smiled at me. “We can try to find Devlin?”
“We? You’re not going to be interrogating her?”
“Nah. It’s not my expertise. Now, the Butcher? He’s exactly what they need to try and get the right information out of her.” Xan motioned with his head toward Matias and the vampire weakly grinned in response. I could tell he was uncomfortable with the sentiment, but didn’t deny it.
Matias hadn’t told me about his past, at least not yet, but I knew he wasn’t proud of it. Even so, it didn’t get in the way of living his life or doing what he needed to do. I admired him in so many ways, but especially because he would take up his Butcher mantle for me if I needed him to. I wondered if he knew I’d do the same for him. I mean, I didn’t have the wicked nickname or the reputation to match, but I’d destroy the world for him if I had to. For both of them.
I walked up to Matias and pulled on the front of his shirt so he bent down ever so slightly and kissed him once on the lips. “I love you,” I told him.
His smile was radiant. “My mate, if you only knew how much I love you right back,” he whispered and kissed me back.
“Ahem.”
Amos and Xan were both looking uncomfortable for different reasons so I kissed Matias once more before gently pushing him away.
“Have fun torturing the sadistic bitch!” I called out and waved as he and my grandfather walked into the house to wherever they were keeping the scientist.
When I turned back around, Xan was eyeing me speculatively.
“What?” I laughed. “What’s with the face?”
“You okay with what just happened?” He seemed worried, so I decided to mess with my serious mate.
“You mean the way I kissed Matias?” I sauntered a step closer to him and smirked.
He blew out a breath through his nose and looked up. “Stop being cute. You know I meant questioning the scientist.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess I have to be. Right?”
It was true. I was angry she still breathed the same air I did and that I wouldn’t be there to make her scream for mercy, but I understood what they had told me. In that case, I was unreliable because of my bias and I probably would scare her to the point of panicking. Thinking back on how I reacted to seeing Ainsley like I did in that place, I was absolutely ruthless. I even turned on my mates when they got in my way. I wasn’t ashamed of what I did to those scientists, but I was for what I did to Xan and Matias. The fact I let my bloodlust takeover… I wasn’t sure I entirely liked that feeling, even though I felt justified in what I did.
“I’m sorry for... you know… what happened back there. Yesterday at the detention facility.”
Xan furrowed his eyebrows and draped his arms over my shoulders. “Baby, you don’t have anything to be sorry about.”
“I could have hurt you…”
“Yeah, you could have, but you didn’t. Emi, what happened back there, I don’t blame you for one second because I know if it were me, I would have done the same exact thing. We’re not human. You and I have dragon sides that ride us hard with strong emotions and then you also have a vampire side that is even more volatile than that. It’s incredibly hard to resist the pull of the bloodlust and it’ll come with time, but if that were me, I know I wouldn’t have wanted to, not with those circumstances. Dragons value family above almost everything else. Ainsley wasn’t your blood, but he was your family.”
I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. He got me. He really got me. My dragon. I snuggled in closer to his chest and savored the feeling of being loved by him.
“See? There you are. I think you’ve finally come back to me.” I slightly pulled away and looked up at him inquisitively. “I told you to do what you had to do to come back to me as my Emi. It took a while, but I see you.”
I smiled and went up on my tippy toes to kiss his lips once more.
“I love you so much,” I told him.
“And I love you. Now, let’s go find your uncle.”
My smile and my mood dropped. Finding a caster who didn’t want to be found was hard enough, but one who just went through what Devlin went through… it wasn’t going to be pleasant.
Chapter Eight
As it turns out, Devlin was the one to find me, not the other way around. Xan and I had searched for him most of the morning, finally deciding to give up and go about our duties for the rest of the day.
Amos was busy interrogating the scientist with Matias and Ingrid, so instead of working with him, I went to the infirmary. I wasn’t a healer by any means, but I still wanted to help. I couldn’t save Ainsley. I had to live with that. But maybe just talking to some of the other patients would help me and maybe them too. I knew it was a long shot, but I decided to give it a try.
When I got to the infirmary door, I put my hands on the surface and hesitated. My palms began to sweat nervously and I closed my eyes, trying to will myself to calm down. I had forgotten I didn’t have my caster side anymore, that it wouldn’t go haywire with the slightest change in emotion and sighed in relief.
“Firecracker.”
My eyes popped open and turned toward Devlin as he approached me from the other end of the hall. It was a dead end but I knew that wouldn’t be a problem for my uncle being a caster and all. If anything, it seemed as if he’d grown in power since that night Xan and I left him and Ainsley at the cabin.
“Where have you been?” I asked and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. He didn’t return it for several seconds, then put his hands on my back stiffly. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” I pulled away and looked at him speculatively.
“I just… couldn’t be here.”
“Yeah, I know.” I eyed the infirmary door and began walking away, hoping he’d walk with me. He didn’t need to be near that door, not near the room where Ainsley died. “When I… found Ainsley in that place, I killed several of the scientists. Apparently, Matias saved one of them. Anyway, they’re interrogating her right now and I don’t know what to do.”
“So you thought you’d go to the infirmary?”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess. They don’t want me in there with her, for good reason. I’m so angry, Dev. Seeing him laying there, strapped to the bed along with all those other supes…”
“I get it.” Dev snapped, interrupting me and I immediately felt bad for bringing it up.
“Sorry.”
He breathed out heavily and winced. “No, I’m sorry. I just don’t want to think about it anymore.”
“Oh, okay.” I furrowed my eyebrows and looked down at the ground.
“How did the potion work?” he asked, changing the subject. We were in the living room at that point and he moved to sit down on one of the oversized couches.
“What potion? You mean the nullifying one?”
“Yes, that one. Did it work?”
I nodded my head. “A little too well actually.”
I studied his face for any indication as to what he was thinking and saw that his expression was inquisitive but dull, as if it were a mask, hiding his true emotions. There wasn’t a hint of sadness in his eyes like there was just moments ago and it worried me that he was trying to hide it like that.
“Oh yeah? What do you mean?” His dull gaze locked with mine as he tried to read me right back.
“It feels as if it was never there to begin with,” I told him as I attempted to play along. “I don’t like it, Dev. It’s like that part of me is completely gone.”
He furrowed his eyebrows in thought and rose from the cushion. “It sounds like it worked a little too well. I think we’ll wait to give you the next dose until we notice the effects are wearing off. That way we know how long it should last and if we need to make any adjustments.” Lost in thought, he began walking toward the stairs.
“Dev?”
With that, he jogged up the stairs, lost in thought and I watched him go. I wanted to go with him to make sure he was alright because he was obviously trying to hide the pain by focusing on me and my messed up casting skills. It wasn’t healthy, but who was I to judge on what was healthy?
I decided to let him be. If he was in his potions lab, he wasn’t out doing something destructive and I knew he’d at least be safe. I’d talk to him at dinner and hopefully gauge where he was at then. I planned on even asking Matias to help me figure out how I could help my uncle because he was better at reading people than anyone else I’d ever met. It was just one of the many, many things my vampire mate was exceptionally good at doing.
* * *
I never made it into the infirmary that day. Oh, I walked by the door several times, but I never gathered the courage to actually turn the knob and go inside. What I saw in the detention center that day and Ainsley’s death shook me up more than I wanted to admit, even though I was sure anyone in my position would have felt the same.
I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my life, but that freaked me out in ways I couldn’t even describe. The broken, worn out bodies, the hopeless stares…
I shook my head to try and clear the images from my head as I walked toward the dining room. It was a little too early for dinner, but I knew that if I didn’t find a place to sit down, I’d keep pacing and I needed to get myself together. What I needed was to talk to someone so I didn’t close myself off again, but what would I say?
I rounded the corner from the living room and saw Irna standing in the dining room door, leaning against it with her back to me. She was staring into the room but made no attempt to move. I carefully approached her and peeked around her shoulder to see Dev sitting at the far end of the table, alone. He was staring at the table’s surface, but I knew that the gleaming wood surface wasn’t what he was really seeing.
“What are you doing?” I quietly asked her.
Her gaze never shifted from my uncle. She looked to be at war with herself, torn between taking him for herself and comforting him through the loss of the man he loved. I felt for her and the situation she was in, really I did. It was heartbreaking to be near the one that fate provided you and having him reject you over and over again, in the nicest way, of course.
But she chose to be near him, chose to stay in the California house instead of moving somewhere else. There are dozens of rebel factions all over the United States and even more around the planet. Sure, she was there first but Devlin wasn’t going to go somewhere I wasn’t, not after what he went through. At least, I hoped he wouldn’t.
Irna’s right foot slid forward as if she were getting ready to walk toward Dev, but I put my hand on her arm, stopping her movement. She looked down at where I grabbed her then back up to me in anger.
“Let go,” she said quietly through clenched teeth.
“What are you doing?” I repeated, but refused to let go. I felt bad for her, but I still didn’t trust her. Not one single bit.
“I’m going to my mate,” she seethed. “Now let me go.”
I yanked on her arm, dragging her into the living room and shoved her onto the closest couch. After righting herself, she began rubbing where my hand grabbed her and stared at me menacingly.
“He’s not your mate, Irna,” I sighed, exasperated. “He denied you, remember?”
She winced at the word and I couldn’t help but drop my offensive stance.
“He still cares about me, I know he does.” Irna looked down at her open hands, as if she were trying to convince herself more than she was trying to convince me.
“I’m sure that he does, but not the way you want him to. I’m sorry, Irna. He’ll never want you the way you want him.”
“He could, you know. Love me. I just need to spend…”
“He won’t. Especially not now and more than likely, not ever. You have to know this.”
She looked up into my pleading eyes as I tried to get her to just listen to me. Being around Devlin and not being with him had to be torture, and not just for her. Devlin did the right thing by not giving in to the mating bond, just to ease the tension between them. He’d never love Irna romantically, and she needed to understand that.
“I can help him…” she then said and I sighed again, sitting down next to her on the couch.
“It’s hard to be around your unbonded mate, isn’t it? Physically?” She nodded her head and continued to stare out into space. “Dev is in more pain than either of us can imagine at the moment. Do you want to cause him that added discomfort of being around you right now?”
She wiped a stray tear from her face and looked at me. “But they weren’t mates. He couldn’t have loved him that much...”
“He did.” My words came out a little harsher than I had planned, but it angered me that she thought just because they weren’t fated mates they didn’t belong together. “I have never met two people who loved each other as much as Dev and Ainsley. They may not have been the mates Fate chose for them, but they belonged together. Don’t ever doubt that.”
She stared at me for another few seconds before robotically rising from her seat and walking toward the stairs. Holding onto the banister, she ascended to the second floor, never looking back.
Collapsing into the couch cushions, I covered my face with my hands. What a mess. I didn’t want to be that harsh but she needed to hear it, right? My mind was all over the place, so I sat there, questioning it all.
Maybe I was wrong. I probably should have let Dev handle it instead of me, but I felt the need to protect him after what he just went through. What he was still going through.
It was so unfair and heartbreaking for them both. When I heard Irna’s bedroom door close, I decided I would stay out of it from that moment forward, but in the meantime, I wanted to help my uncle get through this hard time, and I would do whatever I needed to do.
I got up and walked back toward the dining room without stopping until I stood behind the chair right next to Dev’s. He didn’t look up or even acknowledge my presence, so I pulled out the chair and sat in it. His hands were softly laying on his lap, so I took the one closest to me and held it in mine. After several seconds, Dev realized something was different and his far away gaze shifted as he turned and focused on me.
“Hey, Firecracker,” he said with a tight, but genuine smile. “How long have you been sitting there?”
I gave his hand a little squeeze. “Not long. What about you?”
“Not long,” he repeated. “I was just…”
His words died off as if he didn’t know what to say. I squeezed his hand again and lay my head on his shoulder, letting him know it was okay. I didn’t need to talk, I just wanted to be there. He squeezed my hand in return, letting me know that was what he wanted too.
Chapter Nine
Dinner was a quiet affair, even with the table full of people sitting around it. Everyone seemed to sense the somber mood we were in and talked amongst themselves quietly. Devlin and I said only a few words to one another, but that was okay. I just wanted to be there for him if he needed me. Talking wasn’t necessary.
Xander joined us, but not Matias, Amos, or even Irna. It looked like she actually listened to me. I felt a little guilty for that, but I knew it was the right thing to do, for both of them.
I stood up to take Dev’s and my plates to the kitchen when I finally saw my vampire mate. He stood in the dining room door, glass of blood in hand and motioned for me, Xander, and Devlin to follow with his head. I looked between Xan and my uncle before putting the plates back down on the table, then walked out of the room, followed by the two men.
He led us to Amos’ office, letting us in before closing the door behind us all. Amos was sitting on the couch, his head lolled back, as if exhausted. Slowly, he picked his head up to look at us all as we walked further into the room.
; “Have a seat,” he supplied, and indicated toward the various chairs and the rest of the sofa.
I took one of the armchairs while Dev took the other, and Matias sat on the opposite side of the couch from Amos. Xander put his hand on the back of my chair, but otherwise remained standing as we waited for Amos and Matias to tell us what happened with the scientist.
“Councilman Liu was right,” Amos sighed, deeply, “and so was your hunch, Emelia. They are building a sort of super supernatural through experimentation. Their goal is to make warriors who serve the Council, without question.”
I looked at Matias and he clenched his jaw, but didn’t look away. “You got all of that from the scientist?”
“Dr. Edgebert was very forthcoming when she realized she didn’t have much choice,” Amos continued and briefly glanced at Matias. “She told us that she and the other scientists were given instructions handed down from the Council to take prisoners from all three races and do everything to enhance their abilities, all while making them more compliant. They used magic mixed in with some science to experiment on supes, and they were on the cusp of completing their task when we took her hostage.”
“Super soldiers.” Devlin stared out into space as the words passed through his lips. “Ainsley died so they could pervert the natural order, and make slaves of us all. They broke his body, his spirit...”
“They never broke his spirit,” I said softly to him. Devlin whipped his head in my direction. “They could never break his spirit, no matter what they did to him. That was where they failed.”
“They killed him!” Devlin was now standing, his chest heaving with anger. Xander moved to stand in front of me but I stopped him with my hand. Devlin would never hurt me. Never.
I rose from my chair as well and slowly wrapped my arms around my uncle. He began to relax when he realized I wasn’t going to let go. That was all the encouragement I needed.
“I know and I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry they took him. I’m sorry we couldn’t save him in time, and I’m sorry that his body couldn’t be healed enough in the end. I miss him too, so much.” My voice broke, but I cleared my throat and kept going. “We will avenge him. I promise you, we will make them pay for what they’ve done to him. What they’ve done to all of us.”