Book One: The Girl (The Sanctum)

by Blaylock, Madhuri

  “I was supposed to kill her, that was our mission. She had gone rogue, killing anyone who crossed her path, even a couple of Sanctum sent after her, so of course, the home office sends out the dynamic duo here,” Ryker pointed to himself and Wyatt, “and she attacked us as well, but I couldn’t do it. I saw her eyes and they were so full of pain and I just couldn’t bring myself to kill her.

  “Your boy was all set to off her, but that was his way back then. Whatever Breslin ordered, he did. At least until you,” Ryker smiled, “but I wouldn’t let him kill Darby. She attacked me, she bit me all over, nasty stuff, but I still wouldn’t let Wyatt kill her and finally, I think when he realized she was going to wind up killing me unless he agreed not hurt her, he gave in.

  “For the next couple of months, she and I were inseparable. I think we found each other at some really desperate points in our lives. I was headed down a reckless path with these Sanctum clowns and she pulled me back from that, kind of set me straight and made me stick around a bit longer. She always says I saved her life, but she saved mine as well.”

  As she and Ryker continued chatting, Dev checked Darby’s wounds again, wondering why the tiny vampire was not healing. She checked her watch, noting that about three hours had elapsed since she had begun the transfusions. Darby was full of blood and yet, the state of her wounds was not improving.

  “What?” Ryker asked, noting the concern in Dev’s eyes.

  She considered lying to him, but decided against it.

  “She’s not healing like I expected she would,” Dev explained as she checked Darby’s eyes for any signs of life. “I thought by now some of her wounds, or at least the burns, would look a little better. The only thing really toxic for vamps is werewolf saliva but there is none in her system. All I can think is that she’s been without blood for much longer than I suspected. That coupled with the other aspects of the attack might be too much for her. I just don’t know.”

  “I can’t do this again, Dev,” Ryker pleaded quietly with her, “I just got done spending two weeks wondering whether Wyatt was going to come out of that coma and now Darby. I can’t. Not again. Not with her.”

  Ryker stood up and exited the room. Dev turned back to Wyatt, knowing he was in the back of the room in case she needed his help, but otherwise staying out of her way.

  “You should go after him,” she suggested.

  “Is he all right?” Wyatt asked, touching her back as he passed her on his way out.

  Dev shook her head.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Jools,” Wyatt called to his sister, “come on.”

  Sam and Josiah remained in the room, watching Dev work on Darby, both transfixed by her, feeling as if they were watching Maya all over again. Dev sensed their thoughts and smiled; it was comforting to know she reminded someone of her mom.

  “How is she?” Sam finally asked as she studied a few of Darby’s wounds.

  “Bad,” Dev replied, no longer needing to temper her answer with Ryker gone from the room.

  “How bad?” Sam asked, her worry lines seeming to deepen as they spoke.

  “Honestly,” Dev sat down dejectedly, “I can fix her but it could take years. If she was going to recover quickly, it would have happened much earlier. She endured such extreme trauma and for so long, it’s as if her body just shut down and I couldn’t begin to tell you when it will wake up. She’s a vampire so she can stay in this state way beyond any of your life times.”

  Sam brushed aside Darby’s hair and studied her face.

  “Poor thing. When I find who did this to her, I am going to kill them myself.”

  “What happened to the note that was on her?” Josiah asked.

  Dev reached over to the tray by the bed and picked up the note, hoping she might pick up something from holding it for a minute, but nothing registered. She handed the paper to Josiah.

  “I’m going to head down to the lab and see what I can get from this,” Josiah walked out of the room studying the note, his mind already miles away and focused on a million theories floating around in his head about Darby’s attacker.

  “Jo,” Sam called after her husband, “don’t stay down there forever.”

  They heard him mumble something unintelligible in response as he hurried away down the hall.

  “We’ll never see him again,” Sam noted.

  Dev smiled, amused by the couple.

  Sam turned back to Dev and her ministrations to the unresponsive vampire.

  “For someone who doesn’t like vampires, you certainly are good at hiding it,” Sam observed.

  “I have to do this,” Dev replied.

  “Why?”

  Dev looked up from Darby’s body and met Sam’s stare. She sensed the conversation was about much more than her simple distaste for the undead.

  “Because,” she stated, using an answer her mom always detested.

  Sam laughed lightly.

  “I know Maya taught you better than that.”

  “She always hated that word as an answer.”

  “As do I,” Sam replied.

  “It’s very simple,” Dev explained, “I’ll do anything for Wyatt. So if that means getting over my unease and touching a vampire, then that’s what I’ll do. Because if she passes, then Ryker will suffer, which will make Jools suffer and all of it will lead back to Wyatt. And he’ll internalize it, holding onto everyone else’s pain, ignoring his own which will eat him up inside and he’ll wind up suffering the most and I cannot abide that. I won’t.”

  "And I'm sorry if that distresses you, but trust that I would never hurt him," Dev met Sam's stare with one of her own.

  "It doesn't distress me. Not one bit at all. It's all just a surprise," Sam explained.

  "Well, if you're surprised, how do you think I feel? One day I'm killing Sanctum warriors, the next I'm being saved by one."

  "Touché," Sam replied with a smile before continuing, "you're a good kid, you know? I think your parents would be really proud of the woman you've become."

  "Yeah?"

  "Definitely," Sam replied.

  "Thank you," Dev felt her eyes fill with tears, "that means a lot."

  Wyatt walked back into the room as Dev wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. He glanced from his mom to Dev then back to his mom as he came and stood next to Dev. He wiped a tear from her eye but said nothing, sensing whatever just happened was between the two of them and did not concern him.

  Sam watched them from across the bedside, noting their body language, their silent communication. They were completely in tune with each other, on a level she had never witnessed before. Wyatt appeared as devoted to Dev as she was to him. Sam wondered to herself whether that would be enough.

  “I want to do some research on Darby’s condition,” Sam suddenly announced, “see what else we can do to help her. I’m going to head down to your dad’s lab. Come find me if she changes,” Sam instructed as she left the infirmary.

  They both listened to her footsteps disappear as she headed down the hall and underground. The subsequent silence was the first of the morning and Dev let it wash over her for a moment, closing her eyes and breathing deeply, enjoying the calm.

  "Good morning," Wyatt finally spoke, smiling tiredly down at Dev, absentmindedly playing with a curl that escaped her top knot.

  "Hi,” she opened her eyes and replied.

  “You okay?”

  “I am.”

  “Promise?” Wyatt asked as he studied her eyes, searching them.

  Dev smiled as she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close. She didn’t care about any of Wyatt’s silly restrictions on touching her or kissing her or whatever nonsense he was going to come up with next. She just wanted to be close to him, to hear his heartbeat and feel his arms around her. She kissed his neck and held him tighter, enjoying the way their bodies fit so perfectly together.

  “I swear, I am totally fine,” she replied as she pulled away and set up another blood bag for Darby. />
  “What about Darby? Is she going to be fine?” Wyatt sat down in a chair next to Darby’s bedside and finally asked the question he was afraid to have answered.

  Dev finished fiddling with Darby’s blood bag then started examining her wounds again for any improvement, moving methodically around the table.

  “I don’t know what’s going to happen to her. She’s not responding to the blood, at least not yet. And I have no idea how long it could take for her to start responding. However, she’s also not decaying, which is a good thing. She’s not dead yet, not vampire dead,” Dev shot Wyatt a slight smile as she continued examining Darby.

  He watched Dev as she worked on the vampire, treating her with the greatest of care, probably hating every minute of it. When she neared him, Wyatt grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap.

  “Well, hello,” Dev laughed, surprised by Wyatt’s affectionate gesture.

  “Thank you.”

  “Oh my goodness,” she added incredulously, “you do not have to thank me.”

  “Yes, I do. I’m probably going to spend the rest of my life thanking you for little everyday things like your laugh or that tiny freckle on your neck or your insanely hot body," Wyatt grinned mischievously before turning very serious, "but this is major. So please let me say it and just accept it, okay?"

  "Okay," she replied quietly, slightly embarrassed by his sincerity.

  "What now?" Wyatt asked.

  Dev glanced at Darby's tiny figure, lying on the table, all of her viciousness drained from her.

  "Now we wait."

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Max turned up the collar on his coat and headed straight for Fifth Avenue and The Academy. On the trip over, he had considered calling Wyatt and giving him a head’s up then thought better of it. The element of surprise could only work to his advantage.

  Unlike Luc and his father, Max loved New York City, which explained how he had managed to spend so much time there when he was younger with Wyatt and Ryker in the Academy. It was a known fact the Clayworths had built a superior training facility and Max had used that many a time to his advantage when arguing to spend time with Wyatt. The boys were close, but Max often felt like a third wheel in the relationship and had always been jealous of Ryker. The last couple of years, when training was less important and more often than not the boys were sent out on missions for The Sanctum, they had seen less and less of one another.

  Truth be told, Max could not think of the last time he spent any significant leisure time with Wyatt. Stepping up to the old, magnificent doors of The Academy, that was about to come to an abrupt end. Max touched his palm to the door, stood back and waited. He glanced down at his feet and noticing blood on the pavement, smirked. Luc wasn’t playing around; he really did leave that vampire right on The Academy’s doorstep.

  Josiah looked up from his lab station so suddenly, he knocked his glasses off his head. Sam looked up from her microscope, wondering why he was making so much noise.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Breslin,” he responded hesitantly, “Max. I can feel him.”

  The hairs on Sam’s arms stood on end and she set aside her work.

  “Where is he, Jo?”

  Josiah closed his eyes and focused, shutting out everything except Max.

  “He’s putting his palm to the door...now,” Josiah opened his eyes and placed his glasses back on, “I’ll handle it. You wait here.”

  “Why the hell is Max Breslin here?” she asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Josiah responded as he rushed out of the lab and headed for the main entryway. He could not recall the last time he had seen Max, it had been at least a couple of years. And the last news he had of the boy was Breslin’s update to the Circle of Ten that Dev had tried and failed to kill him. The timing of this visit was suspicious and had Carter Breslin’s fingerprints all over it, but Josiah tried to keep an open mind. It wasn’t Max’s fault his father was a lunatic.

  “Max!” Josiah exclaimed as he opened the door, “what a surprise. Come in, come in.”

  Max walked in and hugged Josiah. No matter how much his parents despised the Clayworths, Max always held a soft spot for both Sam and Josiah. They were the ying to his parents’ yang and although Breslin control of The Sanctum would be much easier without the Clayworths around, sometimes Max felt they were a necessary check to his parents’ megalomaniacal tendencies.

  “Sorry to just turn up like this, but I’m headed to a meeting in Los Angeles and thought it was the perfect opportunity to catch up with Wyatt for a spell.”

  “Yeah, yeah, of course. Come on back and let me get you some coffee or something,” Josiah led the way down to the Clayworth suite, all the while hoping he did not cross paths with Wyatt, Jools or Ryker.

  He took Max's bag from him once they were inside and led the way to the kitchen, all the while devising a plan of sorts. As he messed around with the coffee maker, things started to fall into place.

  "My apologies if everything seems a bit off around here but there was a brutal attack on a Magical this morning and we're still reeling a bit."

  "What happened?" Max asked as he stirred his coffee.

  "That's what we're trying to figure out. I sent Wyatt and Ryker out to canvas the area and see what we can learn. As it stands right now, all we know is someone dropped a near-dead Miss Darby Winthrop on our doorstep."

  "Darby Winthrop, as in vampire Darby Wintrop?" Max asked, his voice full of surprise, "as in the vampire Wyatt saved?"

  Josiah looked strangely at Max before suddenly remembering that yes, in fact, the "official" story was that Wyatt spared Darby's life.

  "Ah, yes," Josiah exclaimed, "that very same one."

  "Is she all right?" Max continued.

  "We don't know. It's still hard to tell. Our healers are working on her, but so far her body seems suspended in a catatonic state."

  "Have you reported it yet?" Max asked, suddenly sounding very Breslin-like.

  "Son," Josiah shook his head tiredly, "we're still processing it. She is a dear friend so everyone's in a bit of shock."

  "Of course," Max agreed, "I don't mean to sound so businesslike. My apologies."

  Josiah smiled, remembering many summers spent with Max living under his roof. Back then he always wondered if the boy was trying to escape his parents; now, after reading just a little of the boy’s energy, he was quite sure Max was in cahoots with them.

  "Let me touch base with Wyatt and let him know you're here," Josiah explained as he dialed Wyatt's cell phone.

  Wyatt checked the incoming number and shot Dev a strange look.

  "What?" she asked.

  "It's my dad."

  "So answer it.”

  "Dad," Wyatt answered, "what's so important that you had to call instead of walking down the hall?"

  "Wyatt," Josiah exclaimed, "any progress with the canvassing?"

  "What are you talking about?" Wyatt asked.

  "That's too bad. It might be a matter of searching her home before we start questioning folks. We've also got to get a report out to the home office at some point. You or Ryker should handle that since you’ve done most of the investigating thus far."

  "Dad, what the hell are you going on about?” Wyatt asked, becoming more exasperated with Josiah with each passing second.

  “Maybe wrap up and head back to The Academy soon. I can send someone else to check her townhouse. Max stopped by for a visit.”

  “Breslin?” Wyatt asked, not believing what he was hearing.

  “Okay, so I’ll see you in a bit. Bye now.”

  And Josiah hung up.

  Wyatt blanched. Suddenly it all made sense. He glanced at Dev, grabbed her hand and headed for the back window of the infirmary, pulling her across the room.

  “Wyatt, what are you doing?”

  Instead of answering her, he opened the window and prepared to jump. They were only two stories up, so the drop was easy. He turned to Dev and took her face in his h
ands.

  “Wyatt,” Dev placed her hands on his wrists, “what is going on? You’re starting to freak me out.”

  “Do you trust me?”

  She paused, uncertain what to say.

  “Dev, this isn’t a trick question. Do you trust me?”

  Wyatt looked panicked and Dev tended not to trust anyone making decisions under duress.

  “Of course I trust you. With my life.”

  “Good, because I need you to leave The Academy right now and go to Darby’s. You can get in by climbing to the top floor terrace and going in through the door I broke. It hasn’t been fixed yet so it’s unlocked. Then wait there for me. Do not leave the house.”

  Dev calmly grasped Wyatt’s hands in her own and brought them down to his sides, smiling all the while. She then stepped away from him and returned to examining Darby.

  “Dev, did you hear me?”

  “I did, but I’m not going anywhere.”

  Wyatt ran his hands through his hair.

  “You’re frustrated,” she commented without looking up.

  “What?”

  “When you’re frustrated you do that. You run your fingers through your hair.”

  “And your point is?” he asked.

  “Exactly what I said,” she smiled, “you’re frustrated.”

  Wyatt stood across from her at the bedside.

  “Please.”

  Dev stopped working on Darby and focused on Wyatt.

  “Oh Wyatt, don’t do that. Don’t plead with me. Just respect me and let me in on what is going on so we can make a decision together. One that works for both of us, not one that you’ve devised because you want to protect me.”

  Wyatt gripped the bedside so hard his knuckles turned white. He knew Dev was right; he was trying to protect her. Replace Dev with Ryker and they would be sitting side-by-side, sharing ideas and strategizing together. Instead here he was, trying to hide the truth from her, doing exactly what he swore he would not.

  “I’m sorry,” Wyatt shook his head, “you’re right. I want to protect you. I can’t help it. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “Nothing is going to happen to me. At least nothing I can’t handle.”