“Well, if it isn’t Sloane McAllister,” a girl with a crew cut said, marching forward. She gave me a once-over, then sneered. Judging from her lack of a mask, she obviously stood on the side of the argument that the virus was a hoax. “Why does this not surprise me?”
“I didn’t know I had fan girls,” I said, returning her sarcasm with a smirk of my own. “If you want, I can sign autographs later.”
Her eyes flared. “You’ll keep your smartass comments to yourself and follow me.” That last part had an “or else” tone to it.
I glanced at Leo and Arika. Arika was trying really hard not to look scared, which meant she was probably freaking out inside. I felt bad for her, for dragging her to some place that was obviously way south of her comfort zone.
Leo seemed all right, though I worried about him being exposed to the virus. Nobody had bothered giving him a mask, and I was sure they could sense his vampiric signature. I could tell he hated being manhandled, but he had enough sense to not try to fight it. I wondered what became of Rook and Dezyre, but right now, I had other things to worry about.
Not wanting either Leo or Arika to pay for my fresh comments, I zipped it and started to follow Crew Cut out the door.
“Wait.”
We stopped and turned around. Aden was climbing out of bed. “I’m coming too.”
“Absolutely not!” I said, rushing back over to the bed to force him back down. “You need to rest.”
It was as if Crew Cut had just noticed him. I supposed as pale as he was, he did blend in with the sheets a bit. “Aden Knight?” Crew Cut said, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “Well, I’ll be damned. You’re alive. Last I heard, you were close to croaking.”
I clenched my jaw to suppress a growl. I noticed she hadn’t addressed him as “Captain Knight.”
Frost must have stripped him of his ranking.
Aden’s cool gaze never wavered. “I made a miraculous recovery,” he said evenly. I was surprised by the strength in his voice, considering how weak he looked. “Sorry to disappoint you, Lieutenant Davies.”
“That’s Captain Davies,” she snapped.
Aden seemed more amused than affronted. “My apologies, Captain.”
Davies pressed her lips together, looking like she’d sucked on a lemon. She eyed him up and down, a smirk growing on her face. “You know, now that you mention it, you should join us. I’m sure the General will want to know exactly how you recovered from such a fatal illness.”
I spun around, teeth bared. “You’re only asking him to come along because you want to rub it in, what Frost has done to him. And you want to see him suffer. You can clearly see he’s not fit to be moved.”
“Oh, I’m not ‘asking’ him to do anything,” she said, arching a brow. “I’m telling him.”
I had a few choice words I wanted to say to that but kept my mouth shut. I was afraid if I flew off the handle, they’d take it out on Aden. Or Arika or Leo.
My fist shook at my side. Damn. I didn’t like being checkmated.
Davies snapped her fingers, and two guards moved forward to seize Aden.
“For the love of God!” I screeched as they dragged him out of bed. He nearly went down; I saw his jaw flexing as he struggled to stand on shaking knees. “At least give him a wheelchair!”
It was as if I hadn’t spoken. Holding him up by the arms, they literally dragged him across the room toward the door.
Seething, I raced after them, with every intention of knocking them aside to get to him if I had to, when Davies intercepted me.
“General Frost doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
Without saying another word, she marched out the door, grabbing me by the arm as she did and towing me along.
I thought about jerking my arm free but figured that would probably just lead to trouble. With barely contained anger, I let her haul me along, through the halls and out the doors toward the Council Building.
Davies wasted no time in ushering us inside. My pulse started picking up speed as we walked through the onyx hallways toward the main meeting chamber. I kept glancing ahead at Aden. I couldn’t see his face, but from the catch in his step and the labored breaths siphoning in and out of his mouth, I knew he was having a hard time just staying conscious. Dying had to of taken something out of him.
Davies burst through the doors to the chamber without preamble, and I expected to meet an onslaught of noise and arguments. But strangely, all was silent.
The Council sat in their high seats, gazing at us with a mixture of sadness and loathing. Mrs. Knight nearly leapt out of her seat upon spotting Aden. His eyes met hers and he forced a reassuring smile.
His mom looked like she had seen a ghost. Her normally porcelain face looked more drawn out, like she had lost a lot of weight. That was saying something, considering she was already super skinny.
I felt sorry for her. I couldn’t imagine what it’d be like to think my only child was dead.
Frost rose from her seat; I think she only did so to make herself seem more intimidating. She stared down at me with hatred in her eyes. “How dare you show your face again around here, McAllister.”
Her voice chilled the air, but I didn’t budge as Davies led me to the front of the room.
Aden spoke before I could get a word in. “She saved my life,” he said, struggling to make his raspy words carry throughout the room. “Possibly all our lives. Thanks to her, we now have the necessary samples to begin finding a cure for the Red Death. She is a hero and deserves our gratitude.”
Frost’s frigid eyes snapped to him, widening as if she only now realized he was standing there. “Aden Knight,” she said curtly. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
Mrs. Knight’s face flashed with anger, but she kept her mouth shut.
“I am,” Aden said simply. “But here I am, alive and well, because one woman was willing to take on a Goliath and she won.”
“Nero was a mighty emperor,” Frost said, her words shaking with rage. “How dare you compare him to some fabled villain.”
“Because he was a villain!” Aden shouted hoarsely, his words ringing through the hall. “He was worse than Caesar or any other crook from our history!”
“ENOUGH!”
I flinched. Frost had never raised her voice to that level. She’d always relied on quiet wrath.
Her glare was all steely eyes and pinched lips. “You will not say another word about our emperor,” she said coldly. “Or I will have you executed on the spot.”
Another guard stepped behind Aden, armed with a gun, as if to drive the threat home.
He turned his head, probably sizing up the guard from his peripheral vision. I resisted the urge to smirk. That guard, no matter how good he thought he was, was no match against Aden Knight.
“The way I see it,” Frost said after the noise had died down, “all of you are responsible for Nero’s death, if he’s even dead.”
“He is,” I said, reaching into my bra. “And here’s your proof.”
I chucked the ring at Frost’s head; she snatched it out of the air like catching a fly. As her fingers unfurled and she stared at it in her palm, her eyes widened in shock. She could no doubt smell the acid on the blood coating the emblem.
Fisting her hand around the ring, she lowered her head and closed her eyes for a few seconds, fury rising on her face.
A sick chill ran through me. I knew where this was going.
Frost opened her eyes and looked right at me.
“You’re all to be executed at dawn for the murder of our emperor.”
Mrs. Knight flew out of her chair, as did several other council members.
“This is bullshit!”
Every head in the room turned around to gawk at Leo, who had managed to wrestle out of the grasp of the girl holding him. He sauntered forward, his faze as fiery as Frost’s was cold.
“How dare you!” Frost screeched. “Insubordination will not be tolerated.”
“Look, lady,” Leo said,
biting off each word. “I don’t know who the hell you are, and I don’t care. All I know is that your emperor was one sick son of a bitch that deserved everything that came to him.”
I wished I could have disappeared. Frost stood there, mouth agape, staring at Leo as if he had just smacked her. It felt like all the air sucked out of the room, like Frost would go supernova on us any second now.
Surprisingly, she was very calm when she spoke. “Nero was a saint, a savior to us all. We would still be lost in the darkness had it not been for him. What makes you think you knew our emperor better than us?”
Leo’s mouth quirked up in a proud smile.
“Because I’m Sloane McAllister’s protégé.”
Aden’s head snapped around, his cool blue eyes narrowing on Leo.
I grimaced. Uh-oh.
I tried to look away but not quick enough. Aden’s eyes met mine, giving me a look that clearly said, “We’ll talk later.”
I could feel Aden’s conflicted emotions; anger, surprise, and jealousy all rolled into one.
Let him be angry. It didn’t matter what he thought. I wasn’t going to let Leo die.
“Ha,” Frost laughed dryly. “The terrorist’s protégé. What an award-winning title.”
“She’s not a terrorist,” Leo spat, not backing down. “She’s a hero, but you’re too stupid to see it.”
Frost’s mouth flapped open, as if she were trying to come back with a reprimand but her voice didn’t know how to work. I guess she wasn’t used to having people stand up to her so gallantly.
Leo began pacing the arc of tall chairs, eyeing each one of the council members. “All of you know too well how a wolf can easily deceive a sheep looking for a shepherd.” His voice carried through the room. “As I speak, you’re being deceived right now.”
“Hold your tongue!” Frost shouted.
Leo whirled on her. “No,” he said, his voice strong as iron. “Because someone needs to tell the truth about Nero. Or shall I say, Orion.”
To my surprise, none of the other council members moved to stop him as he launched into the details of Orion’s past, of his childhood favor for cruelty and bloodshed. I’d also had a penchant for fighting, but only in self-defense. Orion seemed to crave suffering like a drug, often starting fights for no reason. Sometimes I even saw him as a bully.
The council members’ reactions were very interesting to watch. Some looked skeptical, others enthralled. It had probably never occurred to them their Chosen One was actually more of a Hitler.
Leo told them everything – at least, all the details he knew – about Orion’s plans. He spouted off about the lab, the club, everything. One of the councilwomen even raised her lip up in disgust as Leo mentioned the part where Orion had fed off a human girl.
Frost sat silently, shooting daggers at Leo with her eyes. As he spoke, her fists curled tighter, making her knuckles pop against her skin.
“So you see,” Leo concluded, “they aren’t the ones you need to be fighting. It was the monster you called Nero.”
There was a moment of stunned silence. Slow, deliberate clapping echoed through the room. Frost was standing up. “Bravo. You have quite the imagination. I don’t think even I could have come up with anything that creative.”
“It’s not something I made up,” Leo snarled. “It’s the hard-core truth.”
“We shall see to these ‘truths’ of yours,” she sneered, lifting her chin to him. “The Council will convene and decide your fates. You’re still treasonous snakes.”
“Let them go.”
Everyone whirled. Mrs. Knight was standing. Though her face was filled with steely resolve, her hands were trembling as she faced off with Frost.
Frost smiled, as if indulging a child’s request to go outside. “Come again? I know I couldn’t have heard you right, Senator Knight.”
Mrs. Knight swallowed hard. “Then maybe you need to have your hearing checked.”
My jaw dropped as Frost stared at her. “Excuse me?” Frost said. “Do you dare question my authority?”
“I don’t know about her,” an elderly man said, rising. “But I sure as hell do. These kids have done nothing wrong.”
Frost’s eyes widened to the brink of popping out of her head. More and more of the councilmen stood, though not all of them. About three remained seated, either looking uncomfortable standing up to Frost or smiling satisfactorily at her.
“But,” Frost sputtered, glancing around incredulously at her peers. “You can’t be serious. We can’t give them a pardon, not after what they’ve –”
“What, Minerva?” a woman in her fifties drawled. “After they hurt your pride by doing the right thing while everyone else sat around doing nothing like a bunch of cowards?”
Everyone who stood stared Frost down while she struggled for a response. Sucking in a tight breath, she smoothed out the imaginary wrinkles in her gold skirt and composed her face. “Very well,” she said tightly, like the words were hard to say. “They are… pardoned of any charges.”
“Hell yeah!” Leo shouted, all grins.
I reached for his arm, yanking him to me. “Stop it before she changes her mind,” I hissed in his ear. I smirked at his wounded puppy dog look. “And good job.”
His face brightened.
“Oh, don’t look so bitter, Minerva,” Mrs. Knight said, smiling coldly. “You were the one who declared that decisions were ruled according to majority favor.”
Frost stared at Aden’s mom for so long that even I got chills. There was something behind that look, something dark and sinister.
Frost turned away. “This session is adjourned. You’re all dismissed.”
My shoulders relaxed. Before I could blink, Leo wrapped me up in a tight hug. “Now that you gave me my life back, I’m not letting anyone hurt my girl. I’ve got your back.”
I blinked, surprised, then hugged him back. He had always called me his girl, but I thought it was in a joking, “we’re homies” kind of sense. Now, I wasn’t so sure of the double meaning. “Thanks,” I said lamely. I smiled at him when we separated, and he walked over to check on Arika.
I looked up. Aden sagged in his guards’ arms a few feet away, staring at me with a sad expression on his face.
I opened my mouth to say something but no words came out.
Frost marched across the room, gripping my shoulder while she walked by and pulling my attention from Aden. Her nails dug into my skin as she leaned in.
“Watch your back,” she whispered.
“I never stopped,” I said, catching her eyes.
We stared at each other for a few unwavering seconds, acknowledging some sort of silent challenge, before Frost turned and stomped out of the room.
CHAPTER 28
Orion’s funeral was the grandest spectacle I had ever seen. There was no body, of course, though they did commission an artist to produce a statue in his honor.
A few days later, we were all gathered at the center of the vampire city, right below my brother’s old office building. I stared up at the cold stone face of my brother’s likeness from the back of the crowd. Aden had an arm draped around my shoulders, holding me close while the priest read out the eulogy and interpreters translated it to different parts of the crowd. Those gathered – several hundred vampires – all wore black. We were segregated by nationality or language.
Thanks to a healthy supply of blood, Aden had healed fairly quickly, though he still got a little shaky when standing for prolonged periods of time. Dezyre had fed him some blood to help with the healing process, but Paris said it would still most likely take him a while to recover.
Leo stood nearby; his gaze kept wandering over to me every few seconds. I saw the worry there, could feel his concern for me, but for the most part, I just felt dead inside. Arika was there too, though I think the only reason she came was because she felt uncomfortable being by herself in a place full of vampires. Given Arika was a like a guppy in a shark tank, she was granted a menial form of p
rotection, since they wouldn’t let her go back to the surface for fear she’d rat us out. That protection was all but useless in my opinion, a verbal mandate that meant anyone who fed on her could be thrown in jail. Then again, if faced with the threat of being tortured by Frost, I’d probably be scared shitless of drinking from Arika.
Rook and Dezyre had been caught by the guards after their little pyrotechnic stunt, but they had been released shortly after the Council ruled in our favor. When I’d asked them about Ivan, they said he was safe. I still didn’t know where they’d hidden him, but I was glad they had thought on their feet and stowed him away somewhere, far from the vengeful Frost. I just hoped that by “safe” they didn’t mean “bound and gagged” in some shack.
They stood nearby, leaning on one another. I caught Rook’s eyes once, and he gave me a sympathetic smile.
After the priest finished and we all bowed our heads in prayer, Frost stepped up to the podium and gave her speech. The mic quality could have been better. Then again, being several hundred feet below ground, I guess I couldn’t expect professional grade sound.
I barely heard what she said as she rattled off Orion’s accomplishments, painting him to be this larger-than-life figure. Frost definitely knew what she was doing. Even though I knew she refused to believe the darker side of my twin, telling the crowd what a total nutcase he was would have been foolish. The death of their leader seemed to be the only thing calming the vampires’ anger.
For now.
There was still a quiet uneasiness among them, a nervous, edgy energy that refused to go away. I knew it was only a matter of days before the riots picked up again.
Aden and I lingered behind as the memorial finished up and people began to leave. A period of mourning was declared by Frost and the Council. It was to last for a full week, during which time no one could party, or in general act happy about anything. They were supposed to be strictly confined to their homes.
I stared blankly forward, seeing the distraught, tear-stained faces of the civilians who had adored Orion. I hadn’t realized I was crying until Aden reached over and gently brushed a tear from my cheek. “You okay?” he asked softly.
Dark Horizons (The Red Sector Chronicles) Page 29
