know if my decision would have been different if I'd had this piece of information, but I sure as hell would've taken it into consideration. What if I'd just made some terrible mistake
by sending her away? The thought made me sick to my core.
"I didn't think I needed to. I'm sure she'll be fine, Ash, I just want to know where she is so that I can make sure." I ran my hands through my hair roughly, feeling as though I
wanted to pull it out. Now I had no way of knowing if MaryLynnette was fine. Thierry had insisted that we break all contact with the wild powers, just in case the network was
hacked. Nobody wanted to risk the safe house being found.
"Dammit," I muttered under my breath. I had to find a way of getting in contact with either Jez or Delos or Illiana, just to see if Mare was okay. "Ash, what's up? Where's Mare?" Mark asked, his eyes wide with worry. He was a smart kid, he knew something was wrong. I couldn't keep the truth from him for any longer.
Taking a steadying breath, I collected my thoughts, trying to think rationally. I didn't want to panic the kid when there was a possibility nothing was wrong. "MaryLynnette isn't
here," I started, looking up at him. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Then where is she?" He asked, the fear in his voice making my heart twist.
"She's gone, on the way to the safe house with the wild powers," I continued, bracing myself for his reaction. I'd seen Mark as a lot of different things, but this was the first time I'd
seen him truly angry. Or maybe it wasn't anger at all, but panic verging on the point of hysteria. I knew that Mark's entire life sort of orbited around his sister, just like hers orbited
around him, and it was cruel to separate them. I kept having to remind myself it was for the best as the colour drained out of mark's face.
"What?!" He shouted, making me flinch at the volume. I was still wary of the sisters finding out, and Mark's yelling was sure to attract them. I held up my hands in a desperate
attempt to shush him, but for all the use it had I may as well not have bothered.
"You sent her away? She is your soul mate, and you forced her to leave?" He continued, his voice becoming higher pitched by the second. I took a couple of steps towards him
making soothing gestures in the hope he'd be placated. It wasn't lost on me though how he automatically assumed that I'd forced Mare to go, that it hadn't been her choice to go.
But then again, I shouldn't have been surprised. Mark knew MaryLynnette better than anyone; he would know that she'd never leave everything behind.
"Goddess, Ash. What the hell were you thinking? You know she'll never forgive you for this, right? Neither will I, or Jade or Rowan. Hell, even Kestrel won't forgive you. How could
you?!" I don't even think he knew what he was shouting after a while, the words just kept spilling out of his mouth, becoming more and more hysterical.
"Mark, calm down," I said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder in the hope it would make him pause for breath. MaryLynnette had always been overly anxious about Mark's asthma,
and I was afraid of him suffering from an attack at my hands. It didn't quite have the effect I was aiming for, as he roughly shook me off, his face livid. I thought for a second that
he was going to punch me, but instead he decided on an aggressive push to the chest. I rolled my eyes at his futile attempt to shove me, as he'd obviously forgotten he was facing
off a vampire.
"Boys, boys, boys! What on earth is going on here?" Rashel said, walking into the hallway, no doubt lured in by all the yelling. I didn't know whether I wanted to cheer or cry at her
presence, not knowing how she would react to what I'd done. She nearly always had my back on these things, but I couldn't tell she would for sure.
Mark took a step back from me, his body language relaxing ever so slightly, but his face still hard. He definitely wasn't the same boy I'd met in Briar Creek a little over six months
ago. But then again no one ever really was the same after learning about the Night World. "Do you want to tell her, or shall I?" He asked, an eager glint in his eye.
"Tell me what?" Rashel asked sharply, her green eyes like knives as they cut into me. I ran a hand down my face, readying myself to answer, but Mark got in first. "Oh, just how he
packed up my sister and sent her off into the unknown. Nothing big or anything," he said in a mock cheery voice that made me want to cringe. Nothing made me want to disappear more than the anger in Rashel's voice though. Maybe it was because I hadn't entirely been expecting it, but her reply made me want to curl up and die.
"What?" She said simply, exactly how Mark had responded but infinitely different. The calmness in her low voice could almost disguise the fury bubbling like lava beneath the
surface. I gulped in fear, taking a step back from her subconsciously.
"I had to," I defended myself, not understanding why everyone seemed to be overlooking the most important thing. MaryLynnette was safe. That was all that mattered, and it gave me the confidence to keep going. "It was the only way to ensure her safety. You know as well as I do that as long as she was here, she was in danger. This was the only option."
"But she wasn't in danger, was she?" Rashel exploded, throwing her arms up in the air violently, before taking a threatening step towards me. "Because she was here with me and
you and John! We wouldn't have let anything happen to her, you know that. There is no safer place for her than here, where we could all look out for her, and where she'd
Sending her off to some safe house may protect her from any physical threat, but don't you think that being cut off from her entire family like that is going to drive her crazy? Don't
you think she's going to be jumping at every little shadow, wishing that you were there to protect her?" Somewhere during her rant, Rashel's voice had become less angry and more
desperate.
Her words sent small jolts of guilt and shock through me, making me question the decision I'd made. After a moments thought though, my stubborn nature kicked in and I refused
to be bullied into believing I hadn't done the right thing. MaryLynnette wasn't alone, as Rashel had made out; she had Jez there to protect her, as well as Illiana and Delos. And
besides, Mare was strong, stronger than anyone else I knew, she'd take care of herself, she wouldn't let little things get to her.
"It was the right thing to do," I said calmly, my eyes darting between Rashel and Mark, both with similar looks of disbelief on their faces. "Really? You really think that?" Mark said,
his tone biting and his jaw set. I was sure that he'd also gritted his teeth. "Yes," I replied, not backing down in any way. Regardless, there was nothing they could do about my
choice now. As much as it pained me to think it, MaryLynnette was gone, beyond reach.
Rashel let out a harsh, bitter laugh, shaking her head and causing her dark hair to swing around her in a curtain. "You are unbelievable," she muttered, low enough that I only heard
because of my vampire hearing. I closed my eyes, hurt that I'd upset my best friend. Well done, Ash, I thought to myself dejectedly. In one night I'd lost both my soul mate and my
friend.
"Please believe me when I say that I never meant to hurt anyone. I just want the girl I love to be safe, that's all. If that makes me a bad person, then so be it," I said, and I
watched as Mark relaxed in sympathy just the tiniest bit. I knew that underneath all the hurt he was feeling, he knew that this was the right thing too. His sister was everything to
him, and like me, he just wanted her to be safe.
Rashel just scoffed, my words having absolutely no affect on her. "Don't try to play the pity card with me, Ash. You know that you only sent her away because you were scared, not
because you thought it was the right thing to do. You were afraid that you wouldn't be strong enough to protect her, so you brushed the responsibility off onto someone else." Her
&nb
sp; words hit me like a punch in the face, making me physically stumble back at the impact. I knew that she didn't really mean what she'd said, she was just trying to hurt me and
she'd probably apologise in the morning like she usually did, but it still hurt. However I also knew that it was pointless trying to argue with her. All I said was a quiet, "That's not
true."
"Then bring her back," Rashel replied just as quietly, almost pleading. I shook my head, knowing that I couldn't even if I wanted to. It was too late; she was gone. I'd made my
decision and I'd have to live with it, as would everybody else. "I can't."
I expected her to start shouting again, but all Rashel did was calmly nod her head as if she'd predicted this to be my answer. Her reaction made me more nervous than if she'd
brandished a knife and had started lunging at me with it. I knew from experience that with Rashel, only when she'd gone quiet did the real danger appear.
"Okay," she mumbled quietly as if talking to herself. I could see the wheels turning behind her emerald eyes as she walked out of the room, ignoring both Mark and me. I stared in
confusion at the place she'd just been standing, suspicious as to what she was planning, because she was definitely planning something.
Those suspicions came to a head when she returned around ten minutes later fully clothed in her fighting gear, with her bokken in a sheath at her hip. She also had Quinn trailing at
her heels asking her what she was doing and where she was going. I was wondering the same thing.
She didn't answer as she rifled through the small draw that contained the keys for all of the cars we stored in the garage. She plucked one out before turning back to the front door
and unlocking it. "Where is she going?" I hissed at Quinn who gave me a wideeyed look before shrugging his shoulders. "You think I know?" I shook my head in disbelief but wasn't
surprised at Rashel's unwillingness to tell him.
"Come one, Rashel," I said, approaching her warily, my eyes at the sword on her hip. "Let's just talk about this before doing anything rash." She continued to ignore me, walking out
the door and over to the garage where the cars were kept. I sighed in frustration, following her out with Mark and Quinn at my shoulders.
Rashel walked over to a car, a small Honda I now saw, and opened it up, loading the bokken into the passenger seat. With the amount of care she treated it with, I was surprised
that she didn't do up its seatbelt. I shot a dismayed look at Quinn as she started the car. "Do something will you? Stop her!"
I was in a club; music swirled around me, and a sea of bodies hurled me around the room. Panic filled me as I realised I'd lost the others in the crowd, leaving me entirely on my
own in a foreign environment. You didn't really get a lot of clubbing in Briar Creek, the closest thing I'd ever been to one was a particularly wild house party held by one of my
fellow seniors, so this was completely new to me.
The shadows around the room shifted, making me uneasy and persuading me to put as much distance between those dark edges as possible. Relief flooded me as I broke my way
off the dance floor, the suffocating mass of writhing bodies behind me. Somehow I found myself at the bar, ordering a drink and returning to my search for the others, who were
still nowhere in sight. Icy cold fear ran down my spine, filling me with a peculiar sort of dread that I'd never experienced before, as my body shivered at the feeling. Something bad
was going to happen. I knew it as surely as I knew that fire was hot, the sea was made of water, and the sky was blue.
A girl seated herself next to me, and although she looked mostly harmless, I suddenly felt the need to spring up from where I sat, and run as fast and as far as I could to get away
from her. Her red painted lips pulled up into a malevolent smile, instantly forcing me to recognise them as the same pair of lips that had flashed through my mind before. Her
sickly sweet voice also matched the tinkling laughter that had rattled through my skull, making me cringe into my seat.
Things began to pick up momentum, time sped up until it was like a snowball rolling down a mountain, picking up pace by the moment. The different events that unfurled were
almost to quick for my mind to follow, as I drank my drink, feeling my vision blur. The girl then began to draw a selection of items out of her bag, and before I knew it, I'd given
her my wrist, despite the wrongness of what I was doing flowing through my gut. From there on my world seemed to be a minefield of pain, explosions of agony setting off one
after another, leaving me breathless.
I was outside. I couldn't recall how I'd gotten there, but the cold air felt nice against my clammy skin, as my world swam in front of me. A flash of teeth appeared out of nowhere,
gleaming in the darkness. I was on the floor, lying in a pool of my own ruby red blood, and I felt the teeth pierce the skin at my neck, causing me to whimper in pain as my life
leaked out of me.
My eyes started to close, letting the darkness claim me for good.
My eyes flew open as I sat up bolt straight, clutching at my head as a sharp pain cut through my consciousness. I could hear my own breathing loud in my ears, the oxygen flooding my lungs not enough to calm my racing heart. I remember. Those two words played on a reel in my head, going round and round as I processed what I'd just witnessed.
Without a doubt I knew that it had been a memory, not a dream. The memories of the night I'd arrived in Vegas and been attacked, but only now did I know that I hadn't just been
the victim of a vampire, but a witch also. Was it the same witch that had sent me the threat? I had to assume it was. Which meant that I was probably in more danger than I'd first
anticipated.
"Sleeping beauty awakes," a voice from beside me drawled. I looked up to see Jez staring at me, her red hair wild around her face. I jumped back slightly at how close she was,
causing her to let out a mischievous laugh.
Only then did my surroundings catch up with my groggy brain. I was in a car, some sort of range rover by the look of it, but I wasn't really a car person, so I couldn't be sure. The
sky through the windows was dark, littered with twinkling stars that took my breath away. But if I could see the stars as clearly as I could, that meant we could no longer be in the
city. I remembered the ache in my chest that I'd felt every time I looked up at the sky whilst in Vegas, because of the way all of the light pollution drowned out the natural beauty
above us.
"Where am I?" I whispered, my heart jumping painfully in my chest. "You're in a car, genius," Jez replied, leaning back in her seat and propping her feet on the chair in front. Delos,
who was riding shotgun, turned around in his seat to glare at Jez, but she only smiled at him, refusing to budge her feet.
I rolled my eyes in frustration at her answer. "I know that," I snapped, starting to rub small circles into my temples in an attempt to relieve my headache. The last thing I needed
right now was Jez's sass.
"We're on the way to the safe house. None of us know where it is for safety reasons," Illiana piped up from where she sat on my left side. I nodded my head in thanks to her, but
didn't say anything because of the anger that was bubbling up inside of me.
Ash had done it; he'd actually done it. He'd sent me away, despite my reasoning, despite me telling him that I didn't want to leave. I loved him, but right now I couldn't help the fury
that I felt towards him. How dare he completely disregard my wishes on something as big as this?
I felt for the silver cord that linked us together, sending all of my anger and hurt and disappointment reverberating through it. I knew he would receive my message and understand
the extent of the betrayal I felt. A dark part of me hoped that he would feel just the tiniest amount of pain for w
hat he'd done. But that part was extremely small and was
overridden by the fact that I knew he did what he did out of love.
"How long have I been out?" I asked no one in particular. "Just over an hour," Delos replied, facing forward again in his seat. I didn't recognise the driver, but I assumed he was
part of some secret sector of Circle Daybreak.
I wondered if I'd had some sort of reaction to the drug they'd given me, because my head hadn't yet stopped spinning and I had to work hard to keep my eyes focused. Perhaps it
was just a nasty side affect, but something was telling me that my state had nothing to do with whatever concoction they'd injected me with.
"How long until we get there?" I asked, hoping to distract myself from the pounding in my skull. If I concentrated on other things, the pain lessened ever so slightly. "What is this?
Twentyone questions?" Jez replied incredulously.
"Apparently that's classified information," Delos answered, ignoring Jez's remark. I detected a trace of bitterness in his voice that made me guess that he wasn't too pleased at
being left out of the loop. Delos may have agreed to come along, but he clearly wasn't happy about it. But at least he was actually here of his own free will, unlike some of us.
After that we all fell into a wary silence that felt like it would break at the tiniest of sounds. It was as if we were all waiting for something bad to happen, for something to go
wrong. Jez stared out of the window, her eyes alert as she scanned the passing trees. It reminded me of something Rashel would do, and already I felt my first pang of
homesickness.
Delos watched the road ahead, whilst his fingers drummed on the dashboard, matching the rapid beating of my heart. Illiana was reading what looked like a small book about
spells, with small illustrations of plants lining the pages. Her brow was furrowed in concentration as she flicked the page, completely oblivious to anything and everything else in the
world.
I just sat in the middle, my head tilted back to rest on the back of the seat. Gazing at the ceiling, I let the situation wash over me. My mind automatically wandered to those I'd left
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