“My man, you already know what I am about to ask, so just give me a straight answer without all the mumbo jumbo,” Deek said.
I shook my head. There was nothing I could do to keep Mia and Alex out of this.
“Mia and Alex—”
Deek’s sharp hiss cut me off. “Man, I am talking about the Ice Man in there—the killer of Chorý, High Council member Jace. I know you told me that he was involved, but honestly man, I am starting to wonder if Eloise has your panties in a bunch to the point where you can’t even think straight!” Deek whispered fiercely. “I’m out here, away from the love of my life, to not only help you get yours back, but to stop you from making the worst mistake of your wretched eternal life.”
“I know how it looks, but honestly he is part of the reason we found her. I knew of an island that Laurent spoke about years ago, and then he came here—”
“With a way to save Ella,” Deek finished. “Look, man. I’m not saying he didn’t help; I’m saying he has ulterior motives. Plus, what is this info he has that guarantees that Ella won’t leave with the Council? You and that Alex kid in there know her better than any of us. What would it take for her to turn her back on the people she was leaving to be with when she thought that it would protect you all?”
I had no clue what they could have done that would change Ella’s mind, when Alex and I couldn’t, but a few events were starting to make sense. “I don’t know, but it would have to be something that Jace has known all along.”
“How do you figure?” Deek crossed his arms over his chest.
“It explains why he didn’t just take Ella when he found her.”
“I’m still not getting it.”
“Jace told me a while ago that he wanted to gain Ella’s trust. We were at the cemetery, the second day that Ella and I met, and he found us in the woods. He told me that snatching her up would ruin his plans to gain her trust, and he left and didn’t try anything. I thought it was a trap—I even walked her home and stayed outside her home the entire night—but Jace never showed. Why would he care if he didn’t have her trust? It’s not often that a Retriever gives you a choice in the matter of leaving with him when he finds you.”
Deek shook his head. “Hmm… I don’t know, but I don’t trust him.” He worked the keyless entry, opening the trunk. He started to grab one of the two large wooden crates from the trunk but stopped mid-way.
“Is there something else?” I asked, wanting him to spit out his next concern.
“You okay?”
“What?”
“Are you okay?” Deek turned around and sat on the one the end of his SUV.
“I’m good. Luckily I’m Chorý, and I don’t have to worry about freezing my ’nads off. Maybe we could hurry this up? I’d like to get this show on the road sometime tonight.” I wasn’t cold; the snow didn’t bother me. I just wanted all those warm-blooded bodies out of my house and far away from me.
“You know I’m talking about your hunger—la Luxure.” Deek looked at me with a sincerity I hadn’t seen from him in years. “You look okay, if you don’t count the permanent scowl and the dark circles under your eyes. To someone who doesn’t know, you just look like you need a few years of sleep, but… You need your master’s blood.”
“I’m fine for now. Did you set up what I needed you to set up?” I referred to the cage I’d requested he put me in while I rode out or eventually succumbed to la Luxure.
“About that, man, I know you have that basement you built here.”
“So?”
“So?” he repeated incredulously. “You could lock yourself up here instead of—”
“I am not interested in being so close to her once it happens, Deek.” I moved away from the SUV and looked to the sky. “I can feel it.” Deek was watching me. “I can feel the need to feed, and at times, I feel as though the only solution is to give in.”
“That’s the beast inside you. Not you, Kale. You are better than the beast.” He sounded in earnest. His intense gaze sharpened as he watched me. “I have heard stories of Chorý living centuries after overcoming la Luxure. You did it, once.”
“It was different then. Not as strong, not so consuming. I dream of Ella. The beast knows how important she is to me. It will use her to break me.” My fear of harming Ella had grown, and I believed that with Deek, someone who understood me and la Luxure de Sang, Ella would be safe when she was rescued.
“First off, the last thing I want is you worried about Ella when trying to beat this. Second, all you are going to do is worry about Ella if you aren’t close enough to her. You aren’t going to have me flying back and forth, keeping an eye on her. Jace may say that she won’t return with the Council, but I bet that the Council won’t hesitate to act once they know you and I are out of the picture.”
Deek was right, and I had thought about that. I had placed a lot of confidence in Alex and Jace and I was starting to wonder why. A human and a Council member were Ella’s only hope of staying safe. The odds of her actually staying in Cedar if I was out of the picture would diminish greatly.
“There are many problems with the plan that we have created, and only hours to hash them all out,” I admitted.
“Yeah, like what is Ella’s cover story when she arrives back with the people she was staying with, how we can keep the two humans from ever talking about this, how will Jace and his brood react if Ella rejects their help? Man, I know back in the day, I pulled you into a lot of crap, but this—”
“‘Crap’ is not the word you’re looking for,” I said with a smirk. “As I recall, there is the matter of the price on my head, and I would assume with Tony, it’s one of those ‘dead or alive’ things with great emphasis on the ‘dead.’”
“Hah, yeah. Man is pissed and ready to cause some trouble. You shouldn’t have to worry about him, though. The feds have been keeping an eye on him, and as much as he brags about his Chorý status placing him above humans, he isn’t stupid enough to do something that would prove our existence.”
“I think you over estimate his intelligence.”
“And I think you underestimate it, but that’s neither here nor there. Let’s get this stuff in the house and come up with a plan ‘B,’” Deek stood.
“And ‘C,’ ‘D,’ ‘E,’ ‘F,’ ‘G’…” I added grimly. We had a hand full of issues on our hands, with two humans, a Council member, and two Chorý—a ship destined to sink, but we had no other choice than to hold on for the ride.
We unloaded the trunk and carried them into the house both deep in thought. There was a lot to worry about. I didn’t trust Jace, but we needed him. As much I as I wanted to believe that Deek and I could handle this situation alone, I knew it wasn’t probable.
Chapter 20
Ella
Hours later, we sat in the foyer. I needed time to take in what I’d been shown.
“You see, I am not the bad guy,” Laurent said.
I looked at him, confused. What had he done to prove that? Was he referring to the vision that I’d just had?
“I am not the murderer or the thief, but a man looking for revenge from the same man that placed the order to have your parents murdered.” Laurent’s azure eyes gleamed with insanity, and I knew it would do me well to agree with everything he said. “What about all that was stolen from me?” Laurent asked, his voice was low and dangerous.
He wasn’t looking for a response.
He pulled the picture from his pocket again. “Someone must pay for her death and my pain.” He strode to the window. The moon was low in the sky, and it lit up the room, in a milky glow that illuminated his sharp features.
I wondered how long we had until we were to leave. I had spent so much time pushing the memory of my parents away, but still. Knowing of their deaths and who had orchestrated it, I was still numb. I wasn’t the victim of some great tragedy; I was the reason for it.
“Your Council friends betrayed me. I helped them gain eternal life, and they sent a lynch mob after me, only to
kill my wife. They called her a witch and diseased. I couldn’t get there in time, but my revenge on the townspeople was rewarding. Though not as rewarding as the blood I will take from Aleixandre.”
So he would use me to find and decimate the Council as revenge for the death of his wife, and he thought that showing me the Council’s part in my family’s death would convince me to aid him. I understood his anger, but killing wasn’t something I could do.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
Laurent glanced at me and then to the sky.
I heard the unmistakable sound of glass shattering, a few rooms away. Fear was something I was well acquainted with, and though Laurent was the man that I should have feared more than the sounds from down the hall, when he grabbed me with his bruising grip and started to move, I quickly shuffled along after him.
It must have been the Council coming to save me, and of course I would allow it, but after that, what would I do? How could I avenge my parents’ deaths? Would I still demand that they make me an Immortal? I needed that in order to be with Kale, but how could I get that now?
“If they think for one second that I will be leaving here without you, they are sadly mistaken.” Laurent dragged me out of the room and toward the one I had been staying in.
The sound of booted feet hitting the ground grew louder, even as he and I ran in the opposite direction. My heart sped up in anticipation and fear. There was no guarantee that the Council would be able to get me out of here, and even if they did, I would most likely be exchanging one prison for the next.
I stumbled over the carpet just as a man ran up to us. I hadn’t seen the dark-skinned man before, but Laurent didn’t react as if the man were an enemy. How many more men had Laurent hidden in the shadows of this old place?
“Amir, take her to Darke in her room,” Laurent commanded, pushing me roughly towards the man. He grabbed my already bruised arm and started to usher me towards the hallway leading to the bedroom.
Laurent called his name. “If anyone other than me enters that room, end them.”
Amir removed a long blade from his side and then continued to usher me down the hallway. No guns—actually, I hadn’t seen a single weapon since I’d arrived here. I tried to look past him to the doors that led to the courtyard, but I stumbled.
He twisted my arm. Sharp pain radiated from his bruising grip to my shoulder, effectively pulling my attention back to him.
“Come quietly,” he demanded in a soft but deadly tone. I obeyed.
The shouts from Laurent’s men and the men I assumed were from the Council grew louder even as Amir opened the door and tossed me inside.
“Take her!” he shouted to Darke, who held what looked like a long spear that was so bright and gleaming, it looked as if it had been dipped in liquid silver. The sight of it cleared my mind. Questions surfaced that I should have asked, but not as fast as Darke’s hand, as he pierced Amir’s chest with his blade.
“What the—” I stared wide-eyed as Amir’s body fell to the ground.
Ana appeared from behind the armoire and tugged me close to her. I couldn’t think straight as Darke and Ana spoke in hushed tones about taking me outside and keeping me safe.
What was going on? I couldn’t believe that Ana and Darke would just hand me over to the Council. They didn’t work together, and neither of them trusted the other, so what was happening?
“I know that we have asked a lot of you.” Darke glanced back at the door.
The sounds of fighting were getting louder; we didn’t have much time. What did they want from me? I glanced at Ana’s pale face and then back to Darke.
Darke began again. “I know we’ve asked a lot of you, and I am going to ask for more.”
Ana moved to the door and pushed the heavy armoire in front of it, just as the first bang sounded throughout the room.
“I need you to take Ana with you when you escape from here.” He moved us toward the bathroom. I had checked every square foot of this room and the bathroom, and I hadn’t found a way out, but Darke was moving as if there were a door that we could escape through.
I scanned the bathroom as he pulled me inside, but then what he was asking dawned on me. “You are helping me escape?”
“Yes, with a condition, Ella. I need you to take Ana away from here, and I need you to keep her safe from the Council.” Darke spoke swiftly as he ripped into the shower wall, uncovering a small open space through the fiberglass and insulation. I stared at the hole as it rapidly turned from a small breach to a gaping hole that I could fit through.
“Hurry, Raúl!” Ana screamed over the crashes and thuds from the other side of the door. Each blow to the door got louder and pushed Ana and the armoire away, allowing the muffled voices on the other side of the door to become more audible.
Darke started to push me through the hole in the wall.
As much as I wanted the freedom he was offering, I stopped and turned to face him. “I don’t understand, Darke.” I pushed his hands away and tried to move back toward him and out of the hole in the wall. Why did I need to run? It was the Council, coming to take me from Laurent.
“Ana will explain.” He shouted for Sophie and shoved me through the hole.
Before I could land on my butt, Ana reached me and yanked me along a small and damp corridor leading to the back of the house and what I assumed was the back yard.
“Where are we going?” I asked Ana, more concerned with my escape than I was with the name changes.
She said nothing. We were out of the open and in the stables. “He will be fine. I know it,” Ana whispered. “Darke has created a way for you to leave Laurent, but the deal is that you must take me and allow me to wait with you in the Council until he comes for me,” she explained.
“You two had this planned all along?” My voice increased in shock.
“Shh…” Ana admonished. It wasn’t quite around us, but I could still hear the shouts and fighting of the men in the house. “And no, I didn’t know all of it. I just knew that Darke had planned something. He told me everything tonight and what to do up to this point, but from here on out, we are on our own. Once I get you to a Council member, you have to convince them to not kill me and to take me with you. Ella, do you think you can do that?” Her eyes were wide and bright, full of not fear but hope.
“The Council can’t be trusted, Ana. If they promise me anything, there is no way I can make them uphold it.” I didn’t trust the Council, and I didn’t think that they would care that Ana and Darke had saved me. They would only acknowledge that Ana and Darke kept me for Laurent.
As Ana’s face fell, I frowned. There were still people that I could trust, and even though Kale and Alex didn’t work for the Council or have the means to protect Ana and me from Laurent the way Aleixandre and his men did, didn’t mean she and I should rule them out. “I know who can help us, Ana.”
A noise took both of our concentration away from the conversation. A man dressed in all black holding what looked like the same sword that had dropped Amir like a sack of potatoes.
There had to be something going on with those damn swords that everyone was wielding here.
Chapter 21
Alex
I felt different. I knew it was silly to allow clothes to make me feel stronger, but the jumpsuit did. As soon as I put on the 24-7 Series Tactical Jumpsuit and combat boots, I felt powerful, as if the leather boots and Teflon-coated jumpsuit were an extension of the power that had been intensifying inside of me. I didn’t have a weapon yet, but the mesh-lined jumpsuit with articulated sleeves, gusseted underarms, and reinforced knees made me feel as if I were invincible or something close to it.
But behind that feeling, another lingered deep inside me. It was more than fear, and not only did the clothes make me feel stronger, they made the reality of the situation unavoidable, as if previous events weren’t enough to make me realize that.
While in the air on the jet, we went over the plan ten different times. Sort of like an
out-of-body experience, I watched myself listen to Kale, Jace, and Deacon as they explained the ins and outs of our “new” new plan. It was supposed to be simple, and I hoped everyone would agree on it, but between Deacon and Jace, we would never have a final course of action. Jace and Kale had said so plenty of times, while Deacon stood aside, with a look on his face that I couldn’t describe as they weighed the possible outcomes.
“No, listen. We enter the compound here.” Deacon sat forward and pointed at a crude drawing of a satellite picture of the compound on Tusk Island in Nova Scotia. “Then we can have Kale, Alex, and me enter through the front here.” He placed his finger on the map. “Then the Council guys can go in through here.” He pointed to another place on the map, and Jace frowned.
“That makes no sense,” said the blonde introduced as Tamsin. She was no taller than Ella, barely reaching my chin, with what I like to call a “big platinum blond ‘fro”. She couldn’t have weighed more than one hundred twenty-five pounds, but she held herself as if she could take on the world alone if she had to.
Kale and Jace had both warned me not to judge that “horror novel”—as they both called her—by its cover. So I listened when she spoke in her softly accented but commanding voice.
“That still leaves the stable and these two spots here as potential blind spots for us.”
“You think that they are holding Ella in the stables with the horses?” Jace asked.
“No, but I do believe that we should consider the fact that even though our satellite feed says that there are fewer than ten men total on that island, we should place at least one person at each of these places.” I agreed with her. Though Deacon’s plan had us in larger, safer groups, his plan still left three spots unmanned.
“You can bet that once our jet lands, Laurent will know, and men will be waiting at their stations. Is there any way we can land here?” Kale pointed to a strip of land called Chote Hill, a small coastal town on the next island over.
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