“What the hell is wrong with you, January?” Mitch asked as he gaped at my wounds. “Do you want to die or something?”
“Just drive, or I will fight you, so help me, Mitch Holter.”
“Damn it!” he swore.
When he finally turned the ignition and began to back out of the space, I opened up my metal water bottle of blood and gulped down the fishy nastiness.
I finished the nasty tasting blood and said on an exhale, “I didn’t plan to zip. You were leaving me behind, and I panicked, and it just happened.”
“That shit stinks,” he muttered.
“Trust me, it tastes worse.” My arms burned and itched, and I gasped as my skin regrew into smooth flesh. I ran my tongue over my blunt canines. “And now I’m out of blood.” I capped the bottle and threw it in the back seat. “Which puts you in danger because last time I got injured, I almost lost my shit and bit someone.”
“Don’t you do it all the time with Justin? If you need blood that desperately, just bite me. It’s obviously not going to kill me.” Mitch didn’t sound as if he thought anything of it. Instead, he just sounded impatient.
“Mitch, listen to me. Those demons will dive bomb us, and I heal from attacks. You don’t.”
“No. You need to stay in the car. You can’t fight for shit, and I need you to be safe. You’re not even supposed to fucking be here.” He took the corner toward the gated community Justin lived in, and we raced past the small wooded area before the massive entrance gate.
Mitch only slowed down a minute to nod at the gate guard who immediately let us in. We took the corners at much faster than the posted fifteen miles per hour speed limit. When we pulled up Justin’s driveway, our headlights illuminated a long line of black vans.
“Those are Hawthorn Group soldiers,” I said. “Did they find him?”
There were hundreds of soldiers, combing the place in tactical gear with night vision goggles. The doors were wide open, and the interior light spilled out onto the porch where soldiers were holding back Gina Roberts. Mr. Roberts was trying to talk his irate, and clearly intoxicated wife down, but she didn’t seem aware of him whatsoever. Both of Justin’s parents were in handcuffs. Beside them, Henry the butler was bound in chains, and a man stood over him with a gun pressed to his head.
“Fuck! January, get in.” Mitch leaned across the console. “Justin got away, or they wouldn’t be searching down there.”
He was right. As I jumped back into the car, several of the guards broke off toward us, grabbing for their weapons as they ran. “Halt!”
Mitch stomped on the gas, and the smell of burning rubber filled the air as we flew up the driveway in reverse. Our tires skidded around the corner and careened back onto the main complex road.
“The Hawthorn Group clearly figured out who the demons are after,” Mitch said.
We slowed while the gate opened, and I stole a look back. The neighborhood was dark and deserted save for a few streetlights.
“Maybe they’re not following us?” I said.
“Not taking that fucking chance.”
As we sped into the darkness of the small wooded area before the complex, the night came alive to my dhampir vision. The trees glowed a deep blue and the underbrush indigo. In the forest, I saw flashes of glowing white, standing out starkly against the blues.
“Stop!” I yelled, smacking the dashboard. “Stop, Mitch!”
He slammed on the brakes, and I flew into my seatbelt and fell back. When I opened my car door, the night was heavy with the scent of pine trees and burning rubber. Deep in the forest, the glowing white figures skittered over the underbrush, rushing away like cockroaches fleeing the light.
I cupped my hands around my mouth. “Dad!”
“January?” Mitch’s car door flew open, and he was suddenly at my side. “Let’s go. There’s no one here, and the Hawthorn Group—”
“Dad! I know you’re here!” I yelled again. “Where is he?”
Mitch’s hand came down on my shoulder, and when he spoke, his voice was softer than I’d ever heard before. “We need to go. The soldiers are right behind us.”
The last glowing white figure skittered out of sight, and my heart sank. Once again, Justin and my father had planned something and left me out of it.
“I deserve better than this from you, Dad,” I called into the dark forest. “You’re always going behind my back. I deserve better than this from Justin, too.”
“He wants to keep you safe,” my father’s low voice echoed from the darkness. His massive form moved out from behind a thick trunk.
“Shit,” Mitch said, and he jumped straight into me, almost knocking me over.
I grabbed Mitch’s arm, and muttered, “It’s okay. He’s not going to hurt us.” I steadied myself and turned back to my father. “I’ve never been safe. You know that better than anyone. Where’s Justin?”
“He doesn’t want you to be part of this,” my father said as he strode up the embankment and onto the road. All I could see was my father’s glow, but I could hear the regret in his voice.
“To hell with that.” Angry tears flowed down my cheeks, but there was nothing I could do to stop them. “You sent him that letter—what did it say?”
In all of the chaos and terror, I forgot that my father gave Justin that letter. But that was how all of this started. Parker had me deliver that letter from my father, and Justin read it and wouldn’t tell me the message.
Dante looked off toward the forest, and his arms crossed over his wide chest. “The letter said that my vampires were being hunted, tortured, and questioned about Justin by winged demons from the Arctic. They said he was one of them. Out of my feelings for you, I decided not to turn Justin over to the demons, and I brought the vampires into hiding. But there was only ever one way that this would end. Nature always wins. Justin needs to go live with his kind.”
“No…” I shook my head as if I could erase my father’s words. “Stop.”
“I told Justin that when he was ready, I would arrange a peaceful transfer. He gave me that signal this morning through a contact at the school.”
“No. We have a plan.” I could barely get the words out, and I grabbed the vampire king’s arms, knowing how dangerous that was, but at this moment, I couldn’t care. “We’re going to Phoenix… it’s a demon neutral city.”
“I know your plan.” Dante shook his head. “You would have never made it alive. Justin knew that, and you knew that. Even if every werewolf in the Brightside Pack were protecting you all the way to Phoenix, the demons would have overtaken and killed you all.”
I shook my head. “How do you know the plan?”
“Jason Dawn, the Alpha of Brightside, contacted me yesterday about the conditions of the deal you two were making in order to assassinate Sebastian Holter, and I put the pieces together. A lot of werewolves would have died in that mission to bring Justin to Phoenix, January, and you weren’t upfront about the risks Jason was taking with his pack. You need to do better than that. Jason has forgiven you, but you’ve lost the pack’s trust, and he’s choosing not to act on the intelligence you gave him about Sebastian Holter.”
It felt as if an invisible knife was stabbing me in the chest and the blade was twisting. My father was right, and I hated him for it. The fight was over before it had even begun.
“Justin owes us a goodbye,” Mitch said. “I still don’t understand what’s happening here, but what I do know is that Justin owes us a goodbye.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Even though I offered my father the front seat, he took the back. Mitch said nothing as I curled up in the passenger seat. Dante directed us onto a back road that led us up into the mountains. I was both anxious to get there while, at the same time, I never wanted to arrive.
The pines parted as we crested the first hill, and the moon shone bright, looking too large and vibrant to be real. In the gray illumination, I saw hundreds of demons. Their wings flapped, keeping them aloft as they hovered ther
e. Beneath them was a pine-needle dusted parking lot. A single streetlight illuminated a sign that told us this was Tall Pines National Park. Our headlights shone on two figures as they stood in the parking lot, and they both looked over.
Justin’s face shone in the direct illumination. Across from him stood the demon who attacked Parker’s car and swore to crown me in my entrails. Their mottled wings rustled in the wind as they tucked against both men’s backs. Justin and the demon looked strangely the same, like they belonged together, and seeing that made my heart literally ache.
“Stay here,” Dante said while climbing out of Mitch’s backseat.
“Phoenix?” he asked, and from the pain lacing his tone, he knew exactly what my plan had been.
“I screwed up.”
Mitch didn’t take his eyes off the scene in the parking lot. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. Mitch was losing his only family, and there was nothing that either of us could do about it.
“It was my idea—all of it. Justin wanted you to come, but I convinced him that you would have never been safe with us. I was trying to protect you—”
“How many times do I need to tell you that I don’t need your protection,” he growled.
I glared over at his profile. “How many times have I said that to you, and you keep protecting me—even when it could get you killed? You were the only one of us that had a chance at a good life.”
“If you think that, you don’t get what a good life is.” He opened the door and climbed out, leaving me alone in my misery.
In the glow of the headlights, I saw all three of the men turn at Mitch’s approach. Dante headed back for the car while the winged demon launched into the air. The demons stayed just a little way aloft, ensuring there was no possible escape.
Justin opened his arms for a hug, and Mitch didn’t hesitate. They locked in a tight embrace, and when they broke away, they huddled close.
The car buckled down as my father climbed into the seat behind me.
A cool hand gently touched my shoulder. “I wish you didn’t have to lose Justin.”
A rock lodged in my throat, and I couldn’t respond.
In the distance, Mitch and Justin embraced once more and then Mitch headed back to the car.
“Go on,” my father said. “He doesn’t have much time left.”
My hand shook as I grabbed the door handle, and my fingers felt numb and clumsy as I pulled it open. The cool night rushed in, and I didn’t want to get out of the car. I wanted to freeze this moment, and never let time move forward, but when I stepped out of the car, my body seemed to have a will of its own.
I ran to Justin, and he met me halfway, scooping me up onto him. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and fought to breathe past the boulder in my throat.
“I’m sorry.” He pressed his forehead into mine. “I’m so fucking sorry, January.”
“What if I went with you?” I asked.
“You can’t come where I’m going. It’s not safe for anyone but demons,” he said. “They wouldn’t allow you to go, and your father would fight it too. And, it’s not right, January. Your life is here—it’s always going to be here. My life isn’t anymore. You have to forget me.”
“Are you kidding me?” I squeezed my arms and legs around him.
He cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Maybe not forget—but you need to move on without me. I hate that I’m leaving before the fight with Sebastian is over, but I’m not going to let anyone else die for me—especially not you. Promise me that you will let Mitch protect you from his brother.”
“I promise,” I lied, but I was glad that I said it when I saw the terror lessen in Justin’s golden eyes.
A low, whooshing sound grew louder, and all around us, the demons sunk closer.
Justin closed his eyes. “I have to go.”
“Wait…” I leaned in and pressed my lips to his. Our kiss tasted like tears, but it felt like home. He squeezed me to him, like I was the most precious thing in the world. We broke apart and gasped for air.
“I’m never going to stop hating you for leaving, because I’m never going to stop loving you,” I said as I held him for one more second, and then I released him and slid to the ground.
“We don’t have to stop loving each other.” Justin blew out a long breath, and then he turned away. I squeezed my hands into fists and locked my knees so I wouldn’t run after him.
His wings beat the air, and Justin pushed off the ground and flew up into the crowd of demons. All at once, their gray mottled wings came down in powerful thrusts, and they rose. He glanced back once, but within the space of a minute, Justin was so high in the air, all I could see was a yellow glow in the night sky. They broke through a thick blanket of clouds, and the demons vanished entirely. They were gone.
Justin was gone.
The weight of that realization sent me staggering back a step, and a hand caught me on my back. I spun and found my father standing beside me.
“Watch your step.”
“Is that life advice?” I asked, my voice coming out hoarse.
“Just walking advice. You almost tripped.” His hand dropped.
“Thank you for bringing me here to say goodbye.” Without even really thinking about it, I reached out to hug him, but I froze with my hands in the air. “Sorry, Dante. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay.” Dante held out his arms in a stiff motion, and I got the feeling that my father hadn’t hugged anyone in decades, and he hadn’t wanted to.
“You sure?” I asked, because the massive vampire looked extremely uncomfortable.
When he nodded, I leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his thick waist. It was awkward, but I couldn’t give a fuck. I needed this hug right now.
He patted my back, but after a few seconds, he said, “I need to go, but I’ll be in touch.”
When I slipped back into Mitch’s leather seats, the warmth of the car made me realize that I was freezing cold. My teeth had been clattering together, and I hadn’t even noticed. Mitch didn’t say a word as we headed down the hill, but he turned on an Irish punk song, and the familiar sounds pulsed through the space.
Instead of parking, Mitch pulled to the curb, and hit the button to stop the music. “This is your stop.”
I unbuckled my seatbelt. “You’re not getting out?”
“No.” His hands squeezed around the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “I’ll make sure you survive the hundred yards to the dorm without me holding your hand.”
“Mitch…” I slunk back in my chair, “I’m sorry about Phoenix.”
He glared forward into the night. “How can you be sorry about something that never happened? Just go, January. We can talk about it later…”
“Okay, fine.” I grabbed onto the door handle, but I stopped and turned back. “No. It’s clearly not fine. It doesn’t matter if Phoenix never happened. It was still a mistake, and I really am sorry.”
“January, I’m trying my damnedest to be nice to you right now because I know Justin just broke your heart. But I need to be alone right now, and I need you to get out of the car so I can leave.” After Mitch finished talking, he turned and looked straight into my eyes, and I could see the raw pain reflected in their depths. “Please go inside so I know you’re safe and I can leave.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “If that’s the only thing I can do for you, then I’ll leave you alone.” I opened up the car door and shut it softly behind me. Hyperconscious of the fact that Mitch was watching me walk away, I stood as tall as possible, and headed for the ornate dormitory building. I only made it onto the curb when Mitch was peeling away.
Part of me wanted to grab something and throw it at his bumper, but the rest of me just wanted to curl up in bed so this horrible day could be over.
Behind me, there was a screeching of brakes, and I turned just in time to see Mitch parking in a stall and throwing open his door. In five strides, he caught up to me.
“Wh
at’s your deal?” I waved a hand toward his car. “I thought that you couldn’t stand being around me another second or something.”
Mitch stopped inches away and peered down. The streetlight illuminated his sharp features in a harsh light. He didn’t say anything for a second, and then he blurted out, “You looked straight into my face and lied, January. You fucking hurt me. But if I leave now, my brother might kill you before you get to your room, so I’d rather walk you in. Then I’ll decide if I’m going to break into Justin’s house where I will get wasted and probably arrested, or if I’m going to spend all night feeling like this.” He gestured to the path. “So let’s just go.”
“I’ll go with you to Justin’s house. I’d love to go smash up Gina’s shit, get wasted on her booze, and arrested. It sounds like exactly what I need right now.” The idea of getting roaring and violently drunk had never appealed to me until this moment, but utterly falling apart sounded just damn perfect.
Mitch hesitated, working his jaw back and forth. “No. That’s a bad fucking idea all around.” He nodded back at Gregory Hall. “We still have midterms tomorrow.”
Was he kidding?
“Who cares about midterms?”
“You care. We both do.” He strode toward the dorms, but when I didn’t follow, he turned back. “And, Mr. Yates is looking for an excuse to arrest you. For all we know, he’s on his way now. Come on.”
I hesitated for only one more second before spinning toward the dorms. “There’s something truly wrong with the world if you’re telling me to be responsible, Mitch Holter.”
Bob got out a stack of forms to mark us up for curfew violations, but he settled back when I told him that Mitch and I were practicing for our Mystical Arts final, and I got into a pretty serious collision zipping. The bloody remains of my clothing had the middle-aged officer wincing, and he ushered us in with a request that we were quiet in the hallway.
Bailey met me at my door with her tail wagging.
Looking down at her fuzzy face, it occurred to me that she was never going to see Justin again. Would she even really understand that he was gone? That thought threatened to break me down once more, so I spun around to the hallway where Mitch was opening his door.
Broken Elites (The Vampire Legacy Book 3) Page 26
