He kissed me again, this time with ravenous and possessive force, biting my lower lip and releasing a low growl when his tongue found mine. “Also, if I’m being totally honest, I was afraid that, even if you said yes, I’d end up doing something stupid, like breaking your heart,” Hunter added. “I knew that would’ve gotten the wrath of a whole lot of witches on me. I mean, Arwen, Corrine, Mona… Hell, the entire magical clan would skin me alive.”
“You should be more afraid of me than anyone else,” I said. “Because if you break my heart, Hunter, there will be nothing left of you for my mom or grandmas to punish.”
He smiled, then gently pecked my lips, his arms firmly keeping my upper body molded against his. “I was young and stupid back then, Kale. Years went by, and all I knew was that I would rather have you as a friend than not at all. Neither of us knew what we really mean to each other, but we do now. And I would rather die than make you suffer, Kale.”
I teared up, losing myself in his embrace. “Then let’s get through this and see what else we could do together,” I whispered.
Hunter gave me a devilish smirk, then captured my mouth in another kiss. This one was yet again different. Soft and profound, deep and sweet. And it made my heart sing.
Ridan
An entire day passed as we made our way toward Merinos, jumping from one island to the next. The weather was as extreme as Raphael and Amane had described it. We’d spent a total of six hours in scorching heat, and about twenty in crippling, freezing winters. The air pockets were so abrupt in temperature drops that I was already getting a mild case of the sniffles.
Dmitri chuckled. “I take it dragons aren’t exempt from the common cold.”
We’d set up a small camp beneath a sharp slab of stone. It must’ve come off the mountain at some point and landed in that position—it was perfect for cover, in case Perfects flew overhead. Kallisto, Leah, and Samael handled the fire, around which we all huddled for warmth. Well, all of us except Nevis, Elonora, and Rose. Their bodies made it much easier for them to handle low temperatures. Judging by the look of content on Nevis’s face, the Dhaxanian prince was actually happy.
“How much longer till Merinos?” I asked, stifling a smirk as I found myself right next to Amane in front of the campfire. I found myself increasingly attracted to the Faulty, and it wasn’t just about her looks. I had to admit, the long and silky white hair and her bright orange eyes were a breathtaking combination I hadn’t even known I liked, but it was her brilliant mind that often stopped me in my tracks.
Even with all my might and strength, I felt tiny and useless around her. Granted, most Faulties were as powerful, if not superior to, the people in our group—but few rose to my level. Amane exceeded it, and then some. Most importantly, her wit and knowledge left me speechless. I couldn’t get enough of her, and I sought every minute I could get in her presence.
It was difficult for me to even keep my cool around her. Amane had this way of looking at me with such intensity that I almost felt holes being drilled through my very soul. How could I even find the right words to say to her, when she could disarm me with a single glance? But my greatest challenge had to do with trust. How well could I trust her?
According to Kallisto, not well. She was convinced that Amane was hiding something. Or, at best, was reluctant to give us crucial information that could help us in the long run.
Kailani checked her tablet. “We’re about fifty miles from Merinos,” she said.
“Why don’t we go, then? What are we waiting for?” Elonora replied.
Raphael shook his head. “You all need some rest. What part of that didn’t you understand? The Draenir may not be immediately willing to cooperate. They’ve been hiding on Merinos for over a century now. Whatever happened before Ta’Zan went to sleep left quite a mark on them, if they didn’t leave this clearly hostile environment.”
“You mean the plague that nearly wiped them out,” Rose said.
He shook his head once more. “Something else. Or on top of that,” he said. “They’re afraid of anyone who isn’t a part of that tribe. I went to great lengths to be able to observe these Draenir for a while. They hide from the Perfects. The moment one of us is heard close by, they all scatter underground. They even set up a cloaking system for their camp—large clusters of leaves that are pulled over their tents and structures with the pull of a string. Smart fellas, I’ll give them credit.”
“How long did you study them for?” I asked, fired up on the inside as my arm accidentally brushed against Amane’s. This time, however, she didn’t even look at me, but she didn’t move away. We remained close, touching each other. I could hear her heart beating—well, galloping, actually, almost as fast as mine.
“A few hours,” Raphael replied. “It was shortly after I left Ta’Zan. I was thinking of finding myself a spot in these parts, but the temperatures are too extreme. I decided to settle on the outskirts of Ta’Zan’s area, where you found me. The weather was great there.”
“Yeah, well, sorry to ruin that for you,” Nevis replied. He sounded quite irritated. It didn’t take long for me to figure out why. Raphael kept giving Elonora the sweetest looks. The Dhaxanian prince had the hots for our vampire sentry, and we could all see it, no matter how cool he tried to play it. I found this entire dynamic to be quite adorable, but I was also worried.
Frankly, I didn’t trust anyone outside our group—not fully, anyway. I even had doubts about Amane, which made it worse for me whenever I felt my breath slip out of my lungs at the mere sight of her. I was vulnerable. Thankfully, I had the emotional readings of Elonora to keep myself updated regarding Amane’s internal conflicts, of which, apparently, there were plenty.
Elonora could only describe the feelings and didn’t know where they stemmed from. It was my job to ask the right questions and get such answers.
“We’ll rest for the next couple of hours. The sun is already up, though we can’t exactly see it right now,” Rose said, looking up.
The sky was covered in a thick blanket of charcoal-colored clouds, and snow had begun to fall again. This time, however, it was mild, flakes floating around until they quietly settled on the fluffy layer of white already covering most of the island.
“Exactly. Then, we’ll do the remaining fifty-something miles and meet some Draenir,” Raphael replied. “That way, I get to take a nap, you all get to talk or fawn over each other or whatever it is you people do when you’re not fighting for your lives, and everyone’s happy.”
My cheeks flared up. I felt directly targeted by Raphael’s statement. I could say a lot of things about him, but I couldn’t deny his incredible ability to observe. In some ways, he seemed better at reading people than Elonora, a friggin’ sentry. I figured it had to be one of his special skills. All the Perfects had one or two abilities that set them apart from the others.
I would’ve napped, too, but my heart was thumping in my chest, still triggered by the close proximity to Amane. We’d left Douma with Dmitri and the other Faulties. They were talking and eating some of the rations we’d brought with us from the Draenir stronghold. There was something about Amane’s expression—a shadow settled between her brows, which I could no longer ignore.
“What’s bothering you?” I asked her directly.
She let a sigh roll out of her chest, then tightened the fur cloak around her shoulders. I put my arm around her waist and pulled her closer. To my surprise and delight, she didn’t reject me. Then again, it was freezing cold outside. We had to get our heat from wherever we could, and nothing worked better than another warm body.
“I’m just worried,” she murmured.
“About what, exactly?”
“The Draenir. I’m not sure they’ll want to help us. They’ve been hiding out here and keeping their distance for good reason,” she said. “If Ta’Zan finds out that they survived the plague, he’ll send an army of Perfects to either capture or wipe them all out.”
“He’s got a grudge against the Draen
ir, huh?”
She nodded slowly. “You could say that. Before he made us, he sought the Draenir’s acceptance. He doesn’t talk much about his life before he created the Faulties and moved us away from the plague-infested areas, but I could still tell that it bothered him. He experienced rejection, discrimination. The Draenir were scientists, and many dedicated their lives and careers to creating superior life forms. When Mudak Marduk created him, the others weren’t too happy.”
“So, what, they were jealous?” I replied.
A bitter smile tugging at the corner of Amane’s mouth. “You can say that again. They all sought glory, they all wanted to be known as makers of new life. Mudak beat them to it when he made Ta’Zan, the first ultra-intelligent life form. Ta’Zan’s intellect exceeded all the Draenir. They had him tested from the age of three. He easily beat all the Wise. That’s a title the most intelligent and capable of the Draenir were given, by royal appointment.”
“The Draenir had a king,” I breathed. “I didn’t know that.”
“A king who oversaw a democratically elected parliament. The Draenir saw it as the perfect form of government, giving most of the power to the people. The laws were such that if, say, the king went nuts, the parliament could invoke a particular rule to remove him and get his heir in his place. The same went for the parliament. If they did something to hurt the people, the king could impose a referendum, and the people could vote for the parliament to be dissolved.”
“Yet, as smart and as advanced as they were, they couldn’t stop the plague that killed them, and they were jealous of a little boy named Ta’Zan. Am I getting that right?” I replied.
She laughed lightly, further relaxing against my body. It took an additional amount of self-control not to wrap both arms around her and ravish her with a flurry of kisses—though it was all I could think of. I mentally slapped myself for my crumbling mental faculties, then shifted my focus back to what she was telling me. It wasn’t often that I could sit Amane down like this and get such valuable information out of her.
“You could say that, yes,” she said. “They didn’t see any of it coming, though. They were blinded by their pride. They thought they were the smartest, and they paid a heavy price for not thinking beyond their own… might, I suppose.”
“But that’s not what you’re worried about, is it? It’s not about us reaching out to a bunch of scared Draenir,” I replied, my gaze fixed on her expression. She looked up at me, and my throat closed up for a moment. Those amber flakes in her golden-orange irises were simply arresting. “There’s something else.”
She blinked a couple of times, then gently straightened her back and removed herself from my hold. As soon as we were separated, I felt the cold clutch of winter creeping between my ribs and freezing me, from the inside out.
“We will have trouble finding allies,” she said, keeping her voice low and stealing glances at Raphael, as if not wanting him to hear her. He was busy talking to Ben and Rose, for the most part, but I’d also seen him measure each of us from head to toe, every other minute, probably analyzing our every move and gesture. That had to be where his observational skills came from. Research. “Other rogue Faulties won’t be caught dead near us while Raphael is around. They fear him too much.”
“You don’t think that, if we all talk to them, they’ll be less reluctant to keep their distance from us because of him?” I asked, then narrowed my eyes at her. “You’re lying to me, Amane. That’s not a big enough concern to keep those beautiful brows of yours so furrowed.”
She was the breathless one this time.
It made me smile. “Come on, Amane, we’ve been fighting to save each other from death or capture for days now. Aren’t we in a different stage of our relationship?” I asked.
“What relationship?” she replied, crossing her arms beneath the fur cover.
The wind blew cold, almost biting into my skin. I had an urge to take her in my arms again and revel in her body heat. It set me off on the inside, rousing the dragon part of me.
“Talk to me, Amane. What keeps you so worried, despite the progress we’ve been making?”
She exhaled sharply, settling her gaze on the crackling fire. “It’s my sister, Amal.”
“What about her?”
“I’m just… I’m worried, Ridan. I think about her every day. I miss her. I feel so incomplete without her.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, a gesture that spoke of unfathomable amounts of frustration for the Faulty. “Most importantly, I’m worried about how she’ll doom us.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Aren’t we looking to get you two reunited when we reach Ta’Zan’s compound? He won’t hurt her because she’s valuable, especially when she’s with you. You shouldn’t be worried about her. Or do you think we’ll get in trouble if we try to get her out? Is that what you mean by ‘doom us?’”
She shook her head. “I’m worried that Amal is so deeply loyal to Ta’Zan that she cannot be saved.”
That was new. Amane had not once mentioned such a dark side to her sister. We’d all assumed that, when together, the Faulty twins were incredibly intelligent, living computers. That they loved each other, and that they both craved freedom, not just Amane, who’d run off and left Amal behind.
“Where is this coming from?” I asked.
“From the fact that I know her better than I know myself, Ridan. I never told anyone, but… when I left, when I ran away, I asked her to come with me. She didn’t want to. She called me a traitor. She said that Ta’Zan needed us, he needed her to bring about a new, much better world,” Amane explained, her voice trembling. “I left, Ridan. I left because she was lost to me. Ta’Zan had already messed with her mind. He’d already indoctrinated her, like he’d done with his Perfects. Amal was beyond my reach, and I’m worried that I will be blind, if our paths cross again, and that she’ll betray me. She was angry with me when I left. She promised me she’d punish me.”
“You’re worried your sister will betray you,” I breathed, trying to wrap my head around what she’d just said. “You won’t simply get Amal back, if you meet again, huh? You’ll have to remove Ta’Zan from the picture altogether. You’ll have to deprive her of the object of her fanatic worship.”
“Amal is loyal to him, to a fault. I suppose that’s what really makes her a Faulty,” she replied with a sad smile. “I doubt she’s able to even envision a world unlike the one he’s made her believe in, the world he’s trying to create by destroying the others. And I’m afraid that, even with Ta’Zan out of the way, one way or another, I will lose my sister. I don’t know how to cope with that.”
She teared up. My heart became a sheet of paper, brutally torn to pieces at the sight of Amane crying. If there was anything I hated more than having my ass kicked by Araquiel in my dragon form, it was seeing this marvelous creature cry.
I could no longer help myself. As soon as she shuddered and began to sob, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close. I held her tight and said nothing, listening to her whimpers and the sound of the wood crackling as the campfire consumed it. She didn’t reject me. She stayed there, in my embrace, and cried, hiding her face in my chest.
I feared she would hear my heart banging in there, but I stopped caring. All that mattered to me, at that point, was to stop Amane’s suffering. Or at least make everything a little bit better. I was so doomed.
Derek
After we agreed on a “hypothetical” escape plan, we told Monos that the Faulties’ help would be needed. The more of them, the better. That was all I could say to him before my collar got too hot. We were all ready for midnight, though. Amal had promised to sort out the collar issue. From there on, we needed the Faulties to create a diversion outside the diamond dome, giving us the window of opportunity that we needed to escape.
The other prisoners were on board with our plan. They agreed to help us by staging another diversion inside as soon as our small group left the dome. It was enough to keep the Perfects busy and confus
ed, while we wormed our way out of the compound and to freedom.
Sofia and I gathered our escape crew in the middle of the dome. Lucas, Marion, Xavier, Vivienne, Corrine, Ibrahim, Claudia, Yuri, Heath, and Varga were all ready. We knew that, at the stroke of midnight, we’d get a secret visit from Amal. She’d sent word through Monos to let us know.
According to Amal, Ta’Zan had given himself a date by which to decide whether he’d terminate the Faulties or not. That specific date was also going to be when they would all be killed—except Amal and Amane, whom he deemed too important to perish. I didn’t fully understand why Ta’Zan had chosen to make a decision this way, but I figured it had to do with his soft spot. The Faulties were his creation, his children, and he knew his weakness toward them. At the same time, he had to be practical and admit the truth he’d been drilling into the Perfects’ heads: the future belonged to the Perfects, not the Faulties.
He also knew that it was only a matter of time before the Faulties would rebel. Case in point, Monos, Isda, and a few others were already mobilizing to start a riot and help us escape—an unfathomable betrayal, from every point of view.
Perfect guards patrolled the outside of the dome, as usual. We could see them all. Varga’s True Sight helped us establish that there were over five hundred Perfects on our level alone, scattered throughout the coliseum, with hundreds more on the upper floors. He didn’t have crystal clarity within the diamond walls, but he was able to interpret the silhouettes and count them.
“No matter what happens, you’ll take care of our people here,” I said to Cameron, Liana, Aiden, Kailyn, Jax, and Hansa. “I trust you all to make sure we’re all together.”
Again, I couldn’t be too specific in my statements. My collar was already buzzing, given my uncontrollable thoughts of escaping. This was our twelfth hour, the point of no return. We were ready and eager to get out of here, and we finally had a shot at doing just that.
A Shade of Vampire 64: A Camp of Savages Page 22
