by Austin, RB
He walked around the table, but didn’t sit. Hands in his pockets, he reached for his star before remembering it was still in his room. It’s fine. He didn’t need it.
“What’s this about, Lucas? What have you heard?” Cade sat at his usual spot at the head of the table.
All eyes were on him. Their expressions—Oh. “I’m sorry to have misled you. There’s nothing wrong. I wanted to tell you I’ve asked Kate to stay here. Permanently. At the HQ.”
Gabe’s eyebrows shot up. Sarid’s expression didn’t change. Cade’s eyes flared. Lucas straightened his shoulders.
“And who gave you the authority to do such a thing?” Cade asked, voice barely controlled.
“I’m a member of this Sept. This is my home. I love her.” He paused. The words had flown out of his mouth with no forethought but they were the truest ones he’d spoken in a while. And something he should’ve told Kate first.
Shocked silence reigned for a brief moment before Cade spoke. “She’s your bahshrett?”
Lucas’s nostrils flared. “Does it matter? Would you kick Emma out if you learned she was not yours?”
Cade frowned.
“You wouldn’t have parted with her and I tell you I won’t part with Kate. She may not be my bahshrett.” He rubbed his chest. “But it doesn’t matter.”
Cade stared at Lucas.
“Does she know this?” Gabe asked, tone gentle.
He frowned. “No, I should’ve told her first. But I’ll tell her. As soon as this meeting’s over. No matter the decision. I’ll stay with her.” He turned back to Cade.
The Sept One leader opened his mouth.
“The reason I ask is because she left,” Gabe said.
“What!” Lucas had no memory of moving around the table, of getting in his ach’s face.
Two hands gripped his shoulders, pulled him back.
“She left Lucas,” Gabe continued. “I saw her moments ago as I came up the drive. She was in one of the spare cars the ebheds keep to run errands.”
Air roared in Lucas’s ears. He ripped himself from Sarid’s grip and tore out of the room.
“Lucas!”
He bypassed the stairs. Leapt over the balcony railing, landing on the floor in a crouch, then straightened and barreled into the kitchen. Martha was speaking to Andrew inside.
“Where is she?” he thundered.
Martha startled, the spoon in her hand, filled with some creamish batter, fell to the floor. She began to bow.
Lucas gripped her shoulders, stopping her. “Where did she go?” he shouted.
The color bled from Martha’s face. Lucas could feel Andrew yanking on his arm. It was like a mosquito in the summer. Lucas shook him off. “Did you send her to the store? Why did you give her permission to leave? Who told you to do this? Why was I not called?” Lucas shook the ebhed with each question.
An arm came around his neck jerking him back. He growled. When had his fangs descended? A set of hands removed his grip from Martha. Someone caught the ebhed before she fell to the ground. Lucas watched, his eyes flaring, as she was escorted from the room. He roared. He needed to speak to her. She was the only one who knew where Kate went. He tried and failed to get out of the chokehold.
“Lucas. Lucas.”
He struggled against his restraints. Kate. He had to find her. Get to her.
“Martha doesn’t know where she is.”
Lucas stilled, his heart pounded in his ears. Ragged breaths tore in and out from between his fangs. He focused his gaze on the one standing in front of him. Whose hands were on his chest. Holding him back.
Gabe.
“Kate told Martha you wanted her to run an errand. The ebhed didn’t question her.”
A growl echoed around the room.
“It’s not her place to question, Lucas,” Gabe said quietly.
Anger ripped through him and in one burst he threw off the one holding him. There was a crash behind him.
“Her room is empty, Lucas,” Gabe said.
His gaze whipped to his ach. He’d been in her room. Touching her things. He growled low. No one touched her things.
“Empty,” Gabe repeated. “She took everything that was hers. This was in the middle of the bed.” He held out his hand.
Lucas stilled. Then reached for his gold watch. The one Kate had taken from him in Philadelphia.
Strength left him and he fell to his knees. His achs started to talk but the words held no meaning, his gaze glued to the last object Kate had touched.
She’d left him a watch, while taking his heart. Something to keep time, to keep track of the moments he was without her.
Agony speared him. Squeezed his heart in a tight fist. Made it difficult to breathe.
Why was she still here? He ripped at his shirt until his chest was bare. Why was he still feeling her if she were gone? How could he absorb any emotion with the darkness inside him?
“Lucas. Stop. What are you doing?” Gabe grabbed his wrists.
He’d clawed deep scratches in the skin above his heart. Blood dripped down his chest and onto the floor. He gazed into his achs’ eyes. They surrounded him. Emotions so expressive on their face. None of it coursed through him. Only Kate’s.
“Why is she still here?” he asked.
Gabe crouched in front of him. His eyebrows drew down. Confusion. Lucas should feel a pinprick in his temple. He didn’t.
“She’s gone, Luc,” Gabe said quietly.
“No.” Lucas dug his nails into the already deep grooves and dragged it down. He wanted to get them out. The emotions were weakening him, making it difficult to move, to think past it. He wanted them gone. “In here,” he slapped a hand over his chest. He could feel the blood sticking to his palm. “Her emotions. They’re still in here. Why won’t they go away? I can’t think.” He dragged his hand down his chest, the pain not even registering above Kate’s.
“You’re feeling Kate’s emotions right now?”
“Yes . . . So strong . . . Won’t stop . . . Only finding a Fall—” he broke off. Shook his head.
“But she’s gone, Lucas. Miles from here already.”
He growled low. Clutched his head when the lump in his throat combated with the wind sucking air from his chest. Sadness. Sorrow.
“You cannot still be feeling her, my ach.” Gabe laid a hand on his shoulder.
Lucas staggered to his feet, slipped on the bloody pool underneath him. He steadied himself on the counter, almost knocking over a bowl of fruit. His gaze fell on the one apple in the bunch, he stilled.
Harsh breaths filled the room. They were his, though it still felt like he couldn’t breathe. He snatched the apple, turned, and whipped it across the room. It splattered against the wall, leaving an apple chunk and juice smear before it thunked to the floor.
“I have to find her.” His achs’ quiet conversation—had they been speaking to him?—fell silent. Lucas stormed from the room, stopping short just outside the kitchen. Martha sat at the dining table her sons and husband circling her. Shame rippled through him.
Michael and Andrew stepped in front of their mother as he approached. Lucas kept his gaze on Martha. On the tiny sliver he could see between their bodies.
“Forgive me.”
“I wouldn’t have let her go, adohn.” Her voice trembled. “If I had known. I wouldn’t have let her go.”
Lucas closed his eyes against the sting of tears. Kate was crying. Somewhere, far away from him and his comfort, she was upset. “It’s not your fault.” He fell to his knees. Martha’s eyes widened. Her sons didn’t move until she pushed them gently out of the way.
“It’s fine,” she told them, rising from her seat, waving away Jeeves’s support. She stood in front of Lucas, cupped his cheeks gently.
“You will find her.” She swiped a tear that escaped down his cheek. “You’ll find her and bring her back.”
He nodded, unable to speak, his throat burning.
Then he lurched to his feet and ran for his keys.
Chapter 58
Seven hours later, Lucas stumbled up the weedy driveway. The sun was setting. The moon meeting it halfway. Both on opposite sides.
Always apart. Never together.
He’d nothing to go by except Kate’s one slip.
Chicago.
Was she on her way there now? How could he find her? Why weren’t all of the ebheds’ cars traceable?
Gabe had called him repeatedly. Lucas answered the first few thinking Kate had returned to the HQ. Maybe she really did have to run errands. But, no. Gabe wanted Lucas to come home. To go out on patrol.
Like he could patrol when Kate was out there feeling this way.
Miserable.
Each inhale was a breath they should be taking together. Her tears had stopped, but the feeling in his chest—a combination of emptiness, burning need, and the knowledge that nothing would ever be right again—was an emotion he didn’t even have a name for.
His phone rang again. He silenced it, shoving it into his back pocket.
The steps leading up to the house were wooden. The second step had a huge hole in the middle and the third was completely dry rotted. The screen door hung off its hinges. Someone had torn off half of the bright condemned sticker from the window. Along with a piece of the trespass sign, complete with warnings of prosecution. Lucas didn’t need to check if he was alone. The nearest house on this back road, miles from town, was acres away. The dark sky, the uncut grass snow hadn’t been able to weigh down, and the cluster of trees prevented any chance of being seen from the occasional drive by.
The house was quiet, but Lucas expected that. One couldn’t talk if one’s mouth was stuffed with rags held in place by duct tape. The door creaked when Lucas opened it. He stepped inside.
The electricity had long since been shut off, as had the gas. He had no need for light or warmth. With a blink, his blue glow lit upon the five chairs set in the otherwise empty room.
Five pairs of eyes stared. Five hearts began to pound. He inhaled sharply. Artic ice rushed through his veins, chasing Kate’s pain away and he relished it. It was why he was here after all. To mute her agony. So he could focus. The last seven hours had been nothing more than the tick of his watch.
His stomach had churned with increasing velocity until he had to pull over and dry heave on the side of the road. With every beat of his heart, a knife twisted deeper in his gut. Each breath as hard to catch as a gnat. Screams, lodged so deep, were unable to surface.
Thoughts in his head were the worst. Their night together, on incessant replay.
The questions, why hadn’t he told her he loved her?
Scenarios where he found her and convinced her to stay. The others, where she was lost to him forever.
He was here to get rid of it all. So he could think. So he could find her. Once things were quiet he’d be able to find her.
Someone whimpered.
The blue in Lucas’s eyes lit on his collection of Fallen, the five soulless monsters he’d tracked from the storm drain tunnel last night. All had their hands tied behind their back with chains. Another chain wrapped twice around their lower rib cage. Two more wrapped their legs to the chair that had been bolted to the floor to prevent tipping. Their clothing had been stripped. Their knives piled in a corner somewhere.
A discarded pair of boots lay in the middle of the room. He could feel their stares. Could see the semi-healed cuts and dried blood on their torsos. Their fright weaved through him, trying to paralyze him.
He walked to the one who’d breached the silence. The Fallen started to shake his head. Tried to speak. Its words were muffled.
Lucas smiled, his fangs descending. “Oh, don’t worry. You’re all participating tonight.” He pulled out his star. Its tips still bloody from the last time.
He struck. Once. Twice. A third time. Each sharp tip of the star was embedded into the Fallen’s chest and dragged down in a thick, jagged line. Blood oozed from the cuts.
Each Fallen received the same. Soon the smell of blood wafted in the air.
“Thank you for your gift. This will help immensely. Maybe if it brings Kate back, I’ll reward you.” He knelt in front of the first chair. Leaned forward, placed his hands in the blood that still flowed rapidly, closed his eyes, and began to use his gift to suck out the Fallen’s darkness.
Chapter 59
A phone rang in the distance. Lucas lay on the floor. Hands covered with blood. Clothes stained. He felt nothing.
Nothing from Kate.
Nothing from the Fallen. Though all of them had passed out hours ago.
His head was swimming.
Another ring. He pried open one lid, spied his phone on the floor an arm’s reach away.
Ring.
After two tries to hold the slippery electronic device, he wiped his hands on his pants, picked it up.
Lids closed, he laid back, phone at his ear. “Yeah?”
Ring.
Fuck. He hit the answer button and brought it back to his ear. “What?”
“Lucas? Where are you?”
“Is Kate back yet?”
Gabe was silent on the other end for a second. “Where are you? I’ll pick you up. We got a call.”
Lucas lurched to a seated position. The room spun. He braced a hand on the floor. “Is it Kate? Where is she?”
“It’s not Kate. There’s a Follower tied up in the woods. Cade wants us to track it down. He and Sarid are working on something else right now.”
He frowned.
“Luc, can you hear me? Where are you? I’m coming to get you.” Pause. A door opened. “Andrew, give me a bead on Lucas’s location.”
Lucas rose to his feet, thankful the dizziness had passed. His gaze ran over the Fallen around him. Gabe couldn’t come here. “What’s the address? I’ll meet you.” He headed for his car.
His ach was talking, voice muffled.
“Gabe! Where is it?”
More silence then Gabe spouted the directions.
“I’m less than twenty minutes away.”
“What are you doing all the way out there?”
“I was looking for Kate,” he snapped. “What do you think? I’ll meet you there.” He ended the call, throwing his cell on the passenger seat. He synced the car’s GPS with the coordinates and headed down the driveway.
It took two tries to find the entrance into the woods, not believing the GPS when it told him to turn left into a set of trees. He parked his car on the side of the road, sent Gabe a text of his whereabouts, then silenced the phone. At the rear of the truck, he strapped his spare knife to his ankle and his Berretta to his waist.
He jogged swiftly down the trail, inhaling deep. His Fallen were working inside him. He felt no pain.
Only anger.
At being interrupted.
At the Fallen he was on his way to kill.
Precious minutes were wasting away. His mind was now clear. As soon as he killed this Fallen, he’d find Kate. He was sure of it.
When the cluster of trees began to thin, Lucas slowed and stepped off the path. His phone vibrated.
Found entrance. On foot. WAIT.
Sorry, Gabe. Not gonna happen.
Lucas could handle whatever he saw. One Fallen, five Fallen. No one was a match for him today.
He shut his phone off completely, switching it for his knife and gun. There was no noise coming from the modest cabin, other than the annoying Fallen beacon in his ear.
Blood was in the air. Along with an unrecognizable chem
ical smell.
Normally he’d wrap around the house to search for a back entrance. The place was small, though. Probably didn’t have two doors. Besides he just wanted this over with.
Lucas tore out of the woods, ears tuned for any movement. He swung between the door and window, pressing his back against the wood. His grip tight on the gun and knife, he stepped away from the side of the house, raised his boot and kicked the door open.
Bam.
It slammed against the wall. Lucas stepped inside. Surveyed the room in one sweep.
The Fallen stood over a stretcher in the middle of the room. The floor was covered in plastic from baseboard to baseboard. An IV pole was attached to the head of the bed, a line running from a bag of saline to—was that a dead animal? Two surgical trays were on either side of the bed filled with various sized knives. It could’ve been a makeshift surgical room except for the roaring fire in the fireplace and the video camera on a tripod at the end of the stretcher.
Lucas raised his arm. Berretta aimed at the monster.
The Fallen’s face registered shock then fear. Lucas felt none of it. Only anger that this thing had screwed up his plans. And for what? Because he liked to cut up animals? Why had Gabe sent him to this place?
A small moan, a sound no animal could make, had his head whipping back to the stretcher. Lucas jerked.
It was a Follower.
Not an animal.
He staggered forward.
A nheqeba lay on the table. What he’d thought was a deer was a Follower. Her right leg removed from the hip down. Her left from the knee. Both of her hands were missing. Head shaved. Left ear cut away. Every amputation had been completed with the precision of a surgeon.
