A Shade of Vampire 66: An Edge of Malice
Page 24
This could be our key moment to drive a permanent wrench in his operations. To find the weak spot we needed to break him. But with prisoners’ lives on the line, the time we thought we’d bought was suddenly gone.
After checking my watch again, my throat began to close up. A panic attack wasn’t far behind. I gripped my brother’s forearm with all my strength. He knew exactly what was going through my head. Ben was my twin. Even with a fae body, he was attuned to my soul, and I was linked to his.
He pulled me closer, then pressed his lips against my temple.
“We’ll figure it out,” he said.
“We’ve come too far,” Elonora added. Nevis stood next to her, carrying the same kind of unbreakable determination in his eyes. “We’ll take him down.”
“Obviously, we’ll just have to do that sooner, rather than later,” Raphael replied.
“You have us all here, by your side,” Herakles chimed in.
“He’s at his weakest point, now,” Douma said. “His most dangerous, too, like a cornered animal. But we can beat him.”
Could we, though?
How many times had Ta’Zan and his Perfects surprised us? How many times had we thought a battle won, only to be pulled back a few steps? How many more times were we going to convince ourselves that this was it, before someone like Cassiel came in and tore everything down?
It wasn’t in my nature to succumb to despair, but with so many prisoners at his fingertips, Ta’Zan had plenty of innocent people to execute, just to get us out of hiding and into submission. I, for one, was ready to sacrifice anything in order to defeat him, but how many lives was I willing to snuff out in the process?
“Rose. We’ve got this,” Ben said, noticing my lack of reaction.
“I think we should surrender,” Raphael said, grinning like the Cheshire cat.
That left us all speechless. The way he said it sounded bold and encouraging, but the words themselves echoed defeat. If we willingly walked into the colosseum, it had to be for a good reason and with a ridiculously good backup plan.
I knew Raphael well enough to ascertain that he wasn’t talking about a simple surrender. On the contrary, capitulation was literally the last on our list of complicated options. Looking up at Ben, I noticed his astonishment at Raphael’s suggestion turn into a glimmering realization.
And then, the more I thought about it, I, too, began to see a light at the end of this tunnel. We were on to something, for sure.
Derek
I had to get off the comms channel shortly after Ben tried to reassure Rose about what came next. But I felt her pain, deep in the pit of my stomach. There was nothing to counter the loss we’d all experienced. It hurt me and my fellow prisoners the most, as we had witnessed Floren’s coldblooded execution.
We weren’t even allowed to grieve, though.
Ta’Zan walked through the double doors, his hands solemnly resting behind his back. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Rose and the others that Cassiel had left Floren’s body in the dome. A pool of blood coagulated on the diamond floor around him, his glassy eyes staring at the morning sky.
How incredible it was that I could witness the beauty of mornings beneath this diamond dome, yet how cruel that I had to do it in captivity, with a fae’s corpse less than twenty feet from me.
Cassiel joined Ta’Zan in the dome, but stayed back by the doors, with the Perfect guards. Ta’Zan advanced through the hall, while the prisoners pulled back and huddled behind me and the rest of the founders’ crew. Lucas and Xavier stayed closed by my side, with Vivienne, Yuri, Claudia, Corrine, Ibrahim, Kailyn, Aiden, Cameron, and Liana forming a first line of defense—not that they could do much with those shock collars around their necks.
We were all doomed to powerlessness now.
“You’re a murderer,” I said, my voice low, as Ta’Zan nonchalantly passed by Floren’s body and stopped in front of me. “You’re not a maker or a giver of life. You’re a killer.”
Ta’Zan smirked. “The hundreds of thousands of Perfects I’ve breathed life into might disagree.”
I had a feeling that Rose and Ben would want to hear this. It was worth the risk, because Ta’Zan’s expression made my stomach churn. That stone coldness spelled nothing but trouble. I looked at Aiden over my shoulder, discreetly enough to pretend to scratch the back of my head and press my earpiece button on as I brought my arm down. From what I could see, Ta’Zan didn’t notice my move. My pulse quickened, though. If he saw the earpiece beneath my growing hair, my line to Ben and Rose was done for.
“Harbingers of doom and death. Hybrids with no mind or purpose of their own. Puppets designed to kill in your name,” I retorted. “Do you really think that killing another one of our own will get you results?”
“I think it will, yes. You see, your people on the outside function on the same antiquated ideals as you, Derek,” Ta’Zan shot back. “You want to spare the lives of innocents, and you will do whatever it takes to do it. Even sacrifice yourselves, if you have to.”
I seemed to be in the clear. Ta’Zan definitely didn’t spot the earpiece. I kept my head slightly turned at an angle that would prevent him from even seeing the right side of my head.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, if I were you,” Lucas said. “They’ve come too far to give up now, no matter how many of us you kill.”
Ta’Zan shot him a cold glance, then shifted his focus back to me. Behind him, back by the double doors, Cassiel seemed out of it. He couldn’t look at us anymore, staring only at the floor. I would’ve loved to hear his thoughts.
“It’s not about how many of you I kill. It’s about whom I kill,” Ta’Zan replied. “Derek, if your people don’t surrender by the term I’ve given, the next one to die will be Sofia.”
It took me a minute or so to truly comprehend what he’d just said. My heart twisted itself up in an agonizingly painful spiral. My breath was cut short, and my blood began to boil. This was the worst ultimatum, and not something I’d thought I’d hear.
“You… You wouldn’t dare,” I managed, downright perplexed.
Ta’Zan seemed to enjoy the look on my face. “Why wouldn’t I? Your people have become such a nuisance that I have no choice but to resort to killing their and your beloved Sofia, if that’s what it takes to stop them.”
“You’re not killing my wife, you son of a bitch!” I growled. Xavier and Lucas caught my arms before I burst into a physical fit of rage. My collar was burning, seconds away from shocking me. I had to cool down. I had to stay strong and not give Ta’Zan any kind of satisfaction.
But he was threatening to kill Sofia. Of course I was losing it!
“You still don’t get it, Derek,” Ta’Zan replied. “I am the master. I am the supreme leader. I decide who lives and dies. And, unless your precious people come to me, willingly, I will take Sofia to the top of the colosseum and cut her head off, for everyone to see.”
“You do that, and I promise you, Ta’Zan, I will—” I stopped myself, hearing the hum of my collar, the sound it made prior to releasing an electric pulse. “You will lose this war,” I said, instead, after several deep breaths.
Ta’Zan grinned. “I’ve already won, my friend.”
He then turned around and left, joined outside by an eerily quiet Cassiel and the Perfect guards. They left Floren with us, along with the searing pain in my chest, as I was forced to count the hours until Ta’Zan would kill my wife.
I couldn’t let it happen. I had to… I had to do something.
We all stared at the double doors for a while, none of us possessing the courage needed to say something. What could they say, anyway? Sofia had been an integral part in The Shade’s revamp and the creation of GASP. To see her die was to see the very beginning of us torn to shreds.
We couldn’t have that.
“Did you hear him?” I asked, hoping that Rose and Ben had listened in through my earpiece.
A couple of moments passed before my daughter’s voice came through.
“I heard him, Dad. We all did,” she replied.
“What are we going to do?” I exhaled, barely able to stand.
“Don’t worry, Dad. We’ve got this. I promise,” she said.
I didn’t know if she had a plan, or if she was just saying that to reassure me. None of us had thought Ta’Zan would be vicious enough to resort to such violent methods and crippling threats. I didn’t even know if we had a good way out of this—one that didn’t involve the death of my beloved Sofia.
There was no life without her. But this, here, wasn’t a life either.
Whatever we did next, we had to be smart and careful. Surrender wasn’t an option. My wife’s death wasn’t an option. In the middle of all these non-options, there had to be a way to get back to the surface.
We can’t lose this.
Ready for the next part of the Shadians’ story?
Dear Shaddict,
Thank you for reading An Edge of Malice.
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