Awakened

by Inger Iversen

  I had saved her then, and now it was time to do it again. I just had to figure out how. Against my better judgment, I picked up my phone and dialed Kale. I didn’t give a damn if he wasn’t happy to hear from me; I wanted Ella back and in my arms smelling like the sun and roses, just like she had before all hell broke loose.

  Chapter 2

  Jace

  Saying that the shit had hit the fan was the understatement of the century. Kale had returned me to the place where he had left Ella, a cold place in the middle of the woods, and all that was left were two Chorý, which he and I quickly disposed of. Ella was gone, all because those Chorý had been decoys, while Laurent himself had actually gone for Ella. That meant Laurent likely knew her powers had grown beyond the other Arcs.

  Ella would soon be able to control her powers and even use them against Laurent himself, but he could be very persuasive. Laurent could also teach her to stop the memories unless they were called upon, so he could gain her trust that way.

  The Council would have my head for letting Ella linger in Cedar so long after she was found. I wondered if Aleixandre, leader of the Council and one of the first Eternals, would allow me to stay on the case or replace me with Tamsin and Servitto. As my surrogate father, Aleixandre had a soft spot for me, but I had taken his favoritism too far. I hadn’t followed any of the guidelines set forth long ago, nor had I requested help from the Council when I realized that Kale had found the Arc.

  Kale yammered on the phone, and I sped toward the airfield to the jet that carried Tamsin and Servitto. They would be shocked to see me, of all people, walking side by side with a Chorý, and it would take all that I could do to stop them from killing him. Killing Kale would lose us Ella permanently, a disaster that wouldn’t end well for the Council.

  In Minsk, when the infection broke out, my father had been one of the first to succumb to the Chorý blood disease, and as I watched as he drank my siblings dry, I swore to end his life and the life of all the diseased. While I had failed to kill my father, I still planned to keep that promise of ending the Chorý race, but right then I needed to focus on Ella. Searching for Ella using the Council’s resources while working with Kale was going to be problematic. I was already going to have to explain why I had given Ella a choice in the matter of leaving Cedar, but I’d felt it necessary. She would be fed so many lies by the Council and myself, I needed to counteract some of the distrust that would soon have followed once she returned with me. Aleixandre had no qualms with holding her against her will; I, on the other hand, wanted her stay with the Council to be one of mutual agreement. We needed her on our side, because she would be a very powerful enemy otherwise.

  “Fine, we will meet, but not now. Your phone records will be pulled, as well as Ella’s, and now you will both be connected to me. We’ll need to change the plan.”

  Kale had to be talking to Alex. We’d told him not to call unless it was an emergency, and I highly doubted that there was one big enough to warrant a call so soon after we’d left him.

  “I understand that they questioned you. Why would they not? You came home and found Ella missing.”

  I shifted in my seat. The fact that Ella had been taken added another choking layer of uneasiness in the car.

  “Just calm yourself. We will find her,” Kale finished and hung up the phone. He shoved the phone in his pocket, nearly crushing it. He seemed to be dancing on the blade of a knife, and understandably so. With Ella missing and the top Council members in Cedar, he needed to be tense if not outright scared.

  “Shit,” Kale whispered quietly. “Pull over here.” He pointed to the side of the road.

  I didn’t comply—because I do not take commands from Chorý— and Kale cast me an irritated glance.

  His hand tightened on the door handle as he spoke. “Either pull the car over, or I will assume that you are offering me a chance at your vein, Vesco.” His eyes shone obsidian, dark and soulless, in the moon’s light. I had no doubt that his bloodlust was clawing its way to the surface. I hadn’t been completely honest with Ella about bloodlust, or “la Luxure” as it was called in France when the disease ravaged Kale’s war-torn country. I couldn’t have told her the truth and kept her trust; she wasn’t ready for it.

  I slowed the car and asked, “Tell me, Chorý: How long have you been struggling with la Luxure?”

  Kale’s eyes widened, and he quickly turned away. Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to be so direct, or maybe he thought that he had hid it well enough that I wouldn’t suspect.

  I would always suspect that he would fall. After watching my father murder his own children, I knew that la Luxure was strong enough that it could break any man’s will. Whether Kale believed so or not was not my concern at the moment.

  He grabbed the door, yanking the handle so hard it groaned under his strength. I had an answer—not to the question asked, but to the one I needed to know. La Luxure had already started to claim him, but a more imperative question remained. “How long do you think you can hold it off without the blood of your master?”

  The concern in my voice surprised even me. The thought of my father had weakened me. As much as that disgusted me, I needed Kale for Ella’s sake. She trusted him. Laurent would tell Ella about her parents—not for the first few weeks that he had her, because he was smart—but that truth would take her away from the Council forever.

  Kale said nothing as he flung open the door, and he disappeared into the night. I guess Tamsin and Servitto won’t have the pleasure of meeting Kale after all.

  ***

  The jet bearing Tamsin and Servitto sat on the small private runway. Two guards stood at the opening and greeted me with a nod as I climbed aboard. The recycled air smelled stale, and the heat that radiated at an abnormally high degree slapped me in the face.

  The jet seated seven passengers: two guards; three high Council members (including me): one for our tech, Zed; and one empty. The empty seat glared at me, baying loudly at my failure to protect Ella.

  I headed to my seat to await the instruction from Aleixandre through Servitto. Tamsin, dressed in her favorite emerald green and cream camo jumper set, sat with her legs crossed and hands folded elegantly over her legs on the cushioned chair. Her pale, ice blue eyes burned through me and traced a hot path over my skin. Tamsin had once been the princess to some royal throne, and she’d never lost the grace and demureness instilled in her. In battle, she was someone else completely—vicious and merciless, with her skills an added bonus, and her attitude a negative overlooked by most. Her smooth, freckled faced was spoiled with lines as she frowned at me, her disapproval palpable.

  As I sat in the chair facing her, her frown deepened. She tossed her silver-blond hair over her too-pale shoulder and looked to Servitto, as if she needed him to grant her permission to chew me out. Servitto, multi-tasking as usual, continued the one-sided conversation on his Bluetooth headset, while Zed, our tech boy-wonder, stared at the door as if Ella would climb aboard at any moment.

  Tamsin raised one eyebrow. “I saved that seat for her.” She pointed at my seat, her voice low and quiet as she crossed one slim leg over the other and leaned back in her chair.

  Zed finally moved his gaze from the door to look at me. “She really isn’t coming, is she?” He closed the laptop and placed it on the empty chair beside me. Distraught, the human member of the Council placed his hands over his face and leaned back, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “No, she’s not coming,” I answered, though I knew it was a rhetorical question. I needed to say the words aloud. I needed to admit that I had screwed up and that I had to pay for it, but I still didn’t want to be taken off of Ella’s case.

  Tamsin reached over and patted Zed on the knee, causing him to blush, and a wide grin spread across his face. Taught as a child that royalty was never to touch those below her, she didn’t offer her touch often. Zed was the only one she cared enough about to console, ever. I trusted her with my life in battle, but only in battle. That was as far
as the trust extended.

  “There, there now,” she cooed at the teen, her voice soft and sweet while her gaze cut me. “Servi and Tam-Tam will fix Jace’s outrageous mistake.” Her saccharine-sweet voice echoed in the cabin, and I couldn’t help but sneer. Tamsin had been of no use to me in the initial search I’d headed for Ella. Servitto and I had done all of the work, and even Zed had surprised me with his computer skills. Tamsin had been too concerned with a certain position opening in the Council and had been all too ready to give up her position on the team to stay behind in Alaska, which made me wonder why she was here now.

  “I see you are still being sent to retrieve. Did the election not go your way?” I asked coolly and leaned back in my chair. I had no right to be so damn cocky, but of all the guardians in the Council, she was the last one that I would allow to berate me.

  She was there to gain back some title long lost to time, forgotten by everyone but her and a few of us within the Council. She removed her hand from Zed’s knee and placed it coyly into her own. Insults raced through her eyes, anger and the blame that she wanted to place on me. It was deserved, but I wouldn’t allow it, not from her.

  Tamsin leaned closer. “I lived through the wars of your grandfathers and the famines of your great-grandfathers.” The accent she’d all but forgotten over time thickened with her anger. “You will show me the respect that I deserve, boy.” She was a firecracker in disguise, but her dainty elven features did nothing to hide the scowls and frowns. It wasn’t often that she showed her bitter and cruel side, but I was all too happy to help bring it to the surface.

  I leaned forward and said the words that I knew would take her over the edge. “Hold your tongue, Tamsin. This is not Norway; you hold no title above us here. You are nothing more than the lost little girl of a long dead Viking king.”

  Tamsin’s eyes widened as crimson shock spread across her face, brightening her pale cheeks. Zed blubbered something about needing to get off the plane as Tamsin stood in a flash, surprising even me.

  My senses heightened at the threat, and my muscles clenched, ready for action. I was an idiot to have pushed her, but damn if it didn’t lessen the stress about Ella.

  Servitto quickly ended his call and stood just as fast as Tamsin had. He placed an arm in front of her, not touching the pretty little princess. “Stop.”

  The princess of the Lost Kingdom calmed, slightly.

  Servitto waited for us to both calm, then moved back to his seat and sat down, looking first at Tamsin and then to me. “Tell me, Jace. Do you wish to dig this hole deeper, or would you prefer that Tamsin and I help you fill it?” His Spanish-accented voice was deep and sure and held no disappointment or anger, which was more than I could say about Tamsin.

  “Please. Aleixandre’s favorite won’t need any help—or at least he won’t admit it,” Tamsin goaded as she sat back down, primly crossing her legs and straightening her clothes. Tension still raked her body, but she hide it as best she could.

  Zed moved closer to her and asked if she was all right.

  She smiled and inclined her head. “I am fine, Zed.”

  Servitto sat back down and frowned. His long black hair was pulled tight at the nape of his neck, and his tan face glowed in the harsh artificial lighting. He stared at me for a moment.

  I knew that the news coming wasn’t good, but I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than to be taken off of Ella’s case and replaced by Tamsin and Servitto.

  “Aleixandre seems to think that your skills would be best placed somewhere else while Tamsin and I handle things here.” Understanding tinted his voice. Servitto too, had lost his Arc, but under different circumstances. He had also been reassigned and was more affected by Hélène’s death than the rest of us. He felt it was his fault, though we all knew that it wasn’t.

  I understood what I was being told, but that didn’t mean I had to take it. I wanted to be here when Ella was found—hell, I wanted to be the one to find her.

  “And where does he think my skills would be best suited?” Ella didn’t know Tamsin and Servitto. They wouldn’t even try to bond with her; they would find her and take her from one prison to another.

  “Rome.” He paused, his gaze tracing my face as he waited for my reaction.

  I impatiently waved him on. “Well? What is so important in Rome?” I wished that he would spit it all out at once, but that wasn’t his style.

  Deliberate and unhurried, Servitto explained to me the plan that Aleixandre no doubt planned to use to keep me away from Cedar and Ella. “There is a Chorý outbreak, and Aleixandre believes that your hunting and tracking skills are needed there immediately.”

  Servitto paused as Zed headed off the plane, muttering an excuse about needing some fresh air. “Aleix has sent a few other Council members.”

  Only a few had been granted permission to use our leader’s nickname, Tamsin and me included.

  “But he is unconfident that they will be able to stay under the radar long enough to retrieve patient zero.”

  I sat back in the chair, astonished that I was being sent on a Chorý First Blood hunt, which were missions to locate the source of a Chorý blood outbreak. I had been in some before, and even led a few in my time, but never when we had located an Arc. The Arc was always top priority, and lower-ranking Council members were sent on First Blood missions, helping to stop the spread of the Chorý blood infection. Aleixandre often used the missions as a method to weed out the weak and incapable. I had always thought sending human Council members to hunt Chorý was a harsh way to weed the weaker members from the strong, but I had seen wars between humans and Chorý and the devastation they left behind. If we aimed to make a difference to protect the world from the Chorý disease, Council members needed to be prepared for the worst, which was what we would face against Chorý. Vampires themselves were close to extinction, but with the rate at which la Luxure claimed the Chorý, changing them into full vampires that survived solely on human blood, evidently something was trying to stop vampires from dying out.

  In my opinion, both ceasing the spread of Chorý blood and saving Ella were important, but the images of my father’s teeth in my sister’s neck still haunted me. How many others would suffer that very same fate? Watching a loved one die and to be completely unable to lift a finger to help was an incredible burden to carry.

  Anger washed over me at the position I was being put in. I’d known that I would most likely be taken off Ella’s case, but to be sent a thousand three hundred kilometers away was both a slap in the face and a very fitting punishment. I didn’t want to leave the States before I’d found Ella, nor did I want to allow the disease to spread and steal others’ families like it had mine.

  Tamsin smirked cruelly and dipped her head. Arrogance radiated off her. She knew all too well about my past, as she had been one of the Council members sent to kill and dispose of the Chorý that created the outbreak in Minsk.

  After what I had said about her deceased father, her hatred for me was more than justified. It was required.

  She continued to smile. “Choices, choices, my dear brother. What will you choose?”

  ***

  The flight back to Alaska seemed long and drawn-out, like the pilot was taking his sweet time to arrive back home. The eight-hour journey left a weight in the pit of my stomach; though I knew that Ella was all right for now, her absence still troubled me, and with good reason.

  Servitto promised me that the Council Techs were close to figuring out where Ella was, based on the connection she shared with Laurent himself. Aleixandre was one of the original Eternals, he also shared a link with Laurent through each Arc. Over time, the link or bond had grown weaker, but it was still strong enough that, with time, Aleixandre would be able to locate the Arc’s general location, and then the cycle would start again. Locaters would be sent and then a Retriever—in this case, two Retrievers, since the Arc was now with Laurent—would be sent to bring her home. The job that I had failed at.

  How woul
d I explain to Aleixandre that I would rather help with the search for Ella than go on a First Blood Mission? I had put a kink in the chain of trust between us by losing the Arc and disobeying Council rules I’d promised to follow, but maybe he would understand once I explained my actions. Ella was indeed the Arc that would free us from Laurent. How I knew that, I wasn’t sure, but every time I was in her presence, a spark of hope warmed my chest, and that had to mean something. In all my time on this earth, I had never had as much hope for the future as I did now. The pale girl with the heart-shaped face and emerald eyes had given me that hope, right in the middle of my chest—leaving it there to spread and expand and take control of my actions.

  The fast and furious clatter of Zed’s fingers on his keyboard pulled my attention to him. “Guys, it looks like there are a few places that Aleixandre thinks that Laurent could be holding Ella until the heat is off of him a bit.”

  Zed continued to type on his laptop, and I leaned toward him to look on the screen. The connection never worked this fast before.

  Before my brain had a chance to change the thought into a worded question, Tamsin asked, “How is this possible?”

  Maybe since Ella was different, the connection between Aleixandre and her was stronger than it had been between him and the other Arcs.

  Zed didn’t need her to elaborate; he knew what we were all thinking, and I could have bonked him on the head for not explaining further straight away.

  He continued to type for an extra second and then turned to us. “No, it’s not what you are thinking. A few of the techs and I have been working on finding Laurent’s hideouts, when we stumbled upon a website that one of his minions searched. At first we thought it was a trap, but with all the hackers it took to break down the protections for his search, we knew we were on to something big.”