“Hi.” I smiled at a woman directly in front of me.
With curly black hair and dark ebony skin, her eyes struck me in the darkness. They were light green, like the pictures I’d seen of the trees in lush climates I would never experience personally.
“Hello, young lady.” She patted the ground next to her. “I’m Nancy, and you must be somebody if you’re here with Deacon.”
I sat down next to her, not exactly sure what Deacon wanted me to be doing. He hadn’t motioned me over to him, and I really didn’t want to intrude. My stomach felt a little bit queasy, and I made myself forget the feeling.
“Which type of lair have you been in and how did you get out of your chains?”
I sighed, feeling the wall against my back like a dagger poking at me. I couldn’t remember the last time I wanted out of a place as much as I did at that moment. “I’m not from a lair actually. I live above ground in a town that is full of tents. And, I guess it sounds weird. I lived in mining lair for a while. A short while.”
Nancy gasped. “You live outside of these places? I’d heard such things were possible, but I didn’t believe it.”
“Yes.” I nodded. “We’re small and always under attack. The vampires attack us for their amusement, but we don’t let them control us.”
“And Deacon lives with you there now?” She sat up a bit. “Have you come to take us all up with you, too?”
That had been the general idea. The situation called for bravado so I smiled when I answered. “Absolutely. We’ll all be getting out of here.”
I hoped.
“Is that true?” To my left an older gentleman sat. His hair had turned salt and pepper, his face lined from years of worry. “You’re not just saying that.”
“Rachel never gives false promises.” Deacon interrupted my conversation from across the room. He nodded to me. “Come here for a second. I want you where I can protect you, and we need to talk.”
I narrowed my eyes at his remark. He wanted to protect me? Seemed to me I did most of the protecting these days. Still, I wasn’t going to argue with him in a room filled with chained humans whom I did not know.
Staying low to the floor, in case we suddenly had a visit from a vampire I couldn’t anticipate, I made my way over to him. “You beckoned?”
He grinned, the dimple in his cheek showing in the dim light. “This is Wendy. Wendy, this is Rachel.”
Wendy smiled, looking tired. If I had to guess I would say she was older than Deacon, but it could have been that she had lived these few years below ground and he had the benefit of fresh air and nutrition. I’d have to ask him later. I didn’t want to be insulting.
“Hi, Wendy. I’m so glad Deacon found his family.” Sure, I felt thrilled for him. He never had to know I pushed down the green jealous monster inside me trying to break through. No matter how far I ran and searched, there would never be a sister or a brother hidden away I could uncover.
“Well, he found me. I don’t know about the others. It’s been so long since I saw anyone. When they dragged Deacon off, I thought that would be the last time I ever saw any of my relatives.”
How much family did Deacon have?
I nodded like I understood because I wished I did.
“You okay?” Deacon looked at me with an eyebrow raised.
“I’m fine.” I patted him on the arm. “What did you want to talk about?”
“An uprising.”
Well, I hadn’t seen that coming. “Pardon?”
“An uprising. We can take back these places. End the vampires. Help the people living below ground to rise up and—”
“Deacon.” I interrupted him, wishing we could have this conversation privately. “We really need to discuss this more before you start spitting out these ideas.”
“Why?” His eyes looked wild, his pupils dilated and he bounced up and down a little bit on his knees. “It makes such perfect sense.”
“We—meaning you and me—are not qualified to do any such thing by ourselves. Do you remember how difficult we found it managing a thirty-person assault force? We don’t know if any of these people are Warriors. Wendy might be. Who knows? Too many unknowns—”
He interrupted me. “Everyone can be taught—”
I shook his arm and he stopped speaking again. “Think about it. The humans above ground can be taught basic things. Minimal. Maybe they can protect themselves until we get there to help them. Not much more than that, not for most of them. And how many Warriors do we have running around to help them? There’s just you and me.”
He nodded, a bit of the crazy leaving his gaze. “You’re right. I’m just a little worked up, I guess. Finding my sister….” He put his arm around his Wendy’s shoulders. “It made me think we could accomplish huge tasks.”
“We are. We’re bringing people up. Destroying lairs. It’s huge.”
He sat back against the wall. “You’re right.”
I had the sensation that Deacon pacified me, and I didn’t like it. How hard had Deacon been struck by the ceiling?
He sighed. “I think we should get to sleep.”
“I’m not going to bed. The vampires could come through the door at any time.”
“They won’t. They won’t be back until tomorrow evening. Unless they send the wolves, and by that time I’ll have everyone out of their chains.”
“Have you suddenly become an escape expert? How are you going to undo chains?”
I pulled at Wendy’s chain to demonstrate it was made of steel. I doubted the vampires—or at least the Icahns who controlled them—would be cheap about how they handled an entire population that constituted their only food supply.
“I’m really good at picking locks.” He shrugged. “Right, Wendy?”
She brightened, a smile crossing her face. “He was the very best. Deacon got us extra food, medicine, all kinds of things because he figured out how to get out of almost anything.”
“Except, apparently, a vampire cage, which is where I rescued him from death a year earlier.”
Deacon nodded. “Except for that. Even I have my limits. So, let’s hope we don’t get shoved in any cages tonight. In the morning, when the vamps aren’t roaming around quite as much as they must be now, I will let us all out and we’ll move on.”
“To get out of here.” I really wanted to clarify this point. We would rescue the humans, take them upward, and get out of this lair. Somehow we’d get back home.
“Well, since you’ve nixed the revolution idea.”
“I haven’t nixed it. I’m simply saying we’re not equipped….”
He hissed his response over what I said. “I get it. I do.”
Sometimes, even when I know things are not as I want them to be, I have to leave a situation. I have no choice. In this instance, I couldn’t leave the room for solitude. I had to close my eyes and go to sleep.
I sat with my head against the wall, listening to the sounds of breathing around me. Most of these people in the room didn’t know each other or if they did, they didn’t know each other well. Deacon had explained all of this to us when we’d been training. The vampires bred the humans for their usefulness. They didn’t mind family units when children were young, but then kids were removed from their parents as they approached puberty. After that, they were lucky if they ever saw their families again.
The more the vamps moved people around, the more they could control them. Denying them time to build relationships stopped them from plotting and taking control of their own futures. I might not like my family but I had my father. My identity felt solid and secure.
But Wendy had been in this room where we happened to stop. Not only that, but Nancy had known about Deacon. Several things sat uncomfortably in my stomach.
I opened my lids. Deacon laughed at Wendy. “How is Brad?”
She shook her head. “Pretty sure they finished him a few months ago.”
“Brad?” I realized I interrupted a personal conversation between Deacon and his
sister, but I was going to get answers one way or another.
Deacon smiled at me and scooted closer. “Can’t sleep?”
“Nope.” I drummed my fingers on my ceiling-stained pants. “Who is Brad?”
“Wendy’s husband for a little while. They didn’t have kids.” He paused and regarded her. “Did you?”
She shook her head and looked away. “That never happened.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s good and bad. You understand.”
He sighed. “I do.”
“Hey.” I looked around the room addressing anyone who could hear me. “Anyone seen any wolves around lately?”
“No,” Wendy responded, looking at the young woman next to her. The girl couldn’t be older than twelve. “And it’s such a relief. The vamps want us dead; the wolves want to torture us.”
“Anyone?” I sat up further on my knees to get everyone’s attention. “Anyone seen a wolf?”
Whispers of no filled the room, and I leaned back against the wall. Goose bumps prickled my skin, going well with the anxiety raging through my veins. No one in this room had seen any wolves.
Why weren’t there any wolves around? I bit down on my fingernail.
“What is the interest in the werewolves, Rachel?”
Wendy’s shrewd eyes regarded me. I’d stumbled upon another way Deacon resembled his sister. They could both stare right through a person with a single glance.
“Rachel’s boyfriend is a wolf. He’s missing.”
A hiss swam through the room and I could hear the whispers that followed Deacons’ announcement. I knew I had nothing to be ashamed about even as I wished he hadn’t done that.
“How could you date one of them?” Wendy leaned forward. “They’re horrible. They rape us and beat us. Tear us apart for perceived wrongs.”
I held up my hand. “I know. I’ve heard about it. From Deacon.” Repeatedly. “But this is complicated. My wolf is not part of all this. He’s basically human. Well, sort of. And he’s kind and gentle.”
“I hate him.” Deacon leaned his head against the wall and squinted like his eyes hurt. I wondered if he had ceiling powder in them.
“You have no reason to hate him.”
“Oh, don’t I?” Even in the near darkness I could see his eyes flare with heat. I shook my head. We couldn’t keep having the same conversation over and over again, at least not in front of strangers.
“Who are you?”
He extended his hand. “Deacon Evans. Nice to meet you.”
I swatted him away. “Don’t be obtuse. You have a sister I know nothing about. Other siblings running around? Every person in this room seems to know you, and yet you’ve told me most of the humans below ground are strangers to one another. Help me out here, buddy. Who. Are. You?”
“When I first came upward, it didn’t make a lot of sense to discuss what my life was down here. No one really cared. Your whole life had just changed. The Icahns had been run out of town, everyone had moved to the surface. No one wanted to hear about my story. If I hadn’t been a Warrior, I’d just have been another mouth to feed.”
“We’ve had a year to talk. A year of you declaring your undying need to have me as yours, a year—”
He interrupted, slamming his fist into the ground. Apparently, he didn’t like me talking about that in front of his sister. “Let’s just say that down here, I was your precious Chad Lyons. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m Micah. Whatever. My family was the one everyone wanted to be. But unlike the Lyons, none of us were handed anything. We all had to prove ourselves over and over again.”
My head whirled. I wanted to slam him hard for his comments about Chad but I had to control myself. It wouldn’t help anything, and I wanted information, not retribution.
“I’m not going to discuss what Chad, Micah, or any of the Lyons have or have not done in life. I want to hear about you. What did you do to deserve things, beside picking locks? You had plenty of opportunity to tell me that you were a bigwig down here. You had reasons for not being forthcoming.” My head throbbed.
What had been Deacon’s objective that I hadn’t understood? Had he even meant anything he said to me? Had his so-called feelings to me been underhanded?
“I did. I was trying to survive.” He waved his hand, pointing around the room. “What difference does this make? I left this all behind. I had no choice. It was follow you or die. I chose, I think rightly, to be with you. This life was no longer an option to me.”
I held this idea of Deacon. In my memory, he’d been alone in a cage staring at me as he’d watched me enter the room, observing for the first time the conditions humans were surviving in vampire lairs. In his eyes had been…what? Disgust. I’d been able to read his thoughts even then. He’d believed I was going to turn my back and walk away as if he didn’t matter.
However, I’d not done that. Abandoned by Andon Kenwood to live or die by own abilities, I’d survived. I’d freed him and the others that day. We’d fought back together. After that moment, he’d always been part of my life.
What had I thought? Maybe I’d believed that Deacon had really had no life before me. Rescuing him had somehow granted him permission to live, even if it was in the shadow of Jason, in my life.
Now, here I was, and everything I thought I knew about Deacon—he’d been a trouble maker underground, he didn’t handle authority well, he pursued me even against all odds—had been thrown on its head.
I chose not to answer Deacon’s question as to why it mattered. It just did. I’d led a secret revolution that had landed me in this situation. I’d thought I could trust everyone. Micah had lost his mind and shattered my illusions. Now, Deacon showed me I never really knew anyone. Why was I surprised? I’d been alone since my mother died. Finding Deacon hadn’t changed anything. It had just served to show me that I would always be as I’d always been—on my own. Forever.
Chapter Thirteen
I must have fallen asleep, but not soundly. It felt more like my mind wandered away from my body while my ears maintained a constant vigil in the room.
In the distance, I could see black and white images dance in front of my eyes. My mother and Chad waltzed around and around in dress-up clothes. A more perfect specimen than me, she never aged in my imagination. Since her life ended in her mid-twenties, she would forever be young, forever be beautiful. Untouched by the years that would have taken a toll on her flawless porcelain skin.
Chad looked as he had the last time I’d seen him. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. The last time had been when he’d been destroyed, transformed into a vampire. Before that, however, when we’d been in the car together and he’d taught me that I could feel plenty of heat with someone other than Jason; he’d been gorgeous. He’d have hated that description. Still, it fit him. Tall and broad shouldered, he’d grown out of the gangly look that had plagued him in his teens. The skin on his face, a dark olive tone, had been covered with the slightest wisps of whiskers that had cut at my own skin when we’d kissed. I’d loved the feeling. It had made him feel like such a guy, had made me feel so feminine next to him.
I’d seen waltzes on television when we’d lived below ground. Once or sometimes twice a week, if they were feeling generous, we got to watch movies. Most of the time they were in color, but sometimes they were in glorious black and white. I preferred those movies. The lack of color gave the film a distance from my real world.
Chad whispered and my mother laughed before she turned to me. “Don’t you want to join the dance?”
Chad let go of my mother’s hand and turned to grin at me. “Come on, Rachel.” He extended his hand. “I know you know how to waltz.”
“I don’t.” I stood up and walked toward them. “I never learned. I was too busy learning how to fight the monsters.”
“So, then it’s time you learn.” He took my hand.
“You’re dancing with my mother.”
Chad’s breath felt warm on my face as he pulled me close. “I’d rather b
e dancing with you.”
“That’s sweet.”
My mother had vanished. I had no idea where she was and, in the way of dreams, I really didn’t care.
“I’m not sweet.” He looked down at me. “But you’re beautiful.”
“No.”
He tapped my chin until I stared at his almost-black eyes again. “Look at yourself.”
I stared down. Wearing a strapless black ball gown that flowed all the way to the floor until it stopped just above my bare feet, I felt dramatic and girly. Why didn’t I have shoes?
This dream felt familiar to me, like I’d had it before. I swallowed. My semi-wakeful musings didn’t want me to concentrate. They wanted me to dance. So I did for a few minutes even though I couldn’t hear any music.
I pressed my head against Chad’s chest. He had no heartbeat but I hadn’t expected him to. I’d stuck a stake through his heart when I’d killed him.
“Anything you want to ask me before you wake up?”
“Then you know you’re just a dream?”
He took a deep breath. “Of course. I’m dead. I’m a manifestation of your subconscious.”
“Now you sound like Keith.”
“Okay, so what do Keith and I represent to you?”
Honor, perfection, strength…. “I don’t want to play that game right now.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want you not to be dead. I want the last nine months back. I want to open my eyes and find myself back in the car with you making out like we weren’t just sent out on a mission.”
We stopped dancing, his hands squeezing on my shoulders tightly. “I want that, too. But wanting things we can’t have is futile. You know that.”
“You asked what I wanted. I told you.”
He smiled, one tear sliding down his dark cheek. “I can’t give you what you want.”
“I feel like everything is about to explode.”
“You’re spending the night in a vampire lair with people who are chained up as you count on Deacon to handle things in the morning. I’d say you’re correct, things have gone terribly wrong.”
The Warrior Page 52
