Unleashing Echoes (Reconstructionist 3)

by Meghan Ciana Doidge

  Outside, Estelle was standing on the edge of the back patio with Kett. Yale was just a pale smudge at the edge of the yard.

  I moved to the patio door, which was still open.

  “Yale?” Declan asked Jasmine behind me.

  She grunted in the affirmative, but her mouth was already full of pizza.

  I took a step out into the cool night air. Kett glanced over his shoulder at me.

  “Your grandsire isn’t going to like her,” Estelle said, not bothering to look back at the house.

  “I know,” Kett said.

  “Tell me that isn’t why you selected her. When the other two are completely adequate.”

  Kett returned his gaze to the yard — keeping his eye on Yale, who was leaning up against the high fence that bordered the property.

  “I don’t want adequate,” Kett murmured.

  “And neither does Ve.” Estelle glanced back at me. “If you were hoping to avoid his attention, then Wisteria Fairchild is the wrong choice. Keeping him slumbering is best for all of us.”

  And with that statement, she disappeared, reappearing beside Yale across the dark yard.

  The ruddy-haired vampire flinched, then snarled at his own reaction.

  Estelle grabbed his arm and they both disappeared.

  All of which she had executed without a hint of magic. Or at least none that I could feel.

  I took another step out onto the deck, pausing a few feet from Kett. “That’s disturbing,” I said. Then I added, “The teleporting.” Clarifying that I wasn’t referring to his conversation with Estelle.

  “And yet you are not afraid.” He continued to stare out at the dark.

  Not fully knowing why, I closed the space between us, wrapping my hand through the crook of his elbow. “Well,” I said softly. “You’re here.”

  He turned to look at me. Surprise, followed by what I thought might actually be gratification, flitted across his face.

  “Yes,” he whispered, brushing a kiss across my forehead almost reverently. “I’m here. By choice.”

  “We’ll be okay, then,” I said, willing myself to believe the words as I voiced them.

  “I never doubted it.”

  “Never?”

  He smirked but remained silent on the subject. Smart vampire.

  I dropped my hand, turning back toward the warmth of the house. Declan was watching us from the kitchen window. Beyond him, Jasmine was pulling plates from a cupboard.

  “They’ll be okay too,” I whispered.

  Again, Kett didn’t answer me.

  I crossed back into the kitchen, leaving the vampire to work through whatever was bothering him. But before I could close the door, he slipped through it behind me.

  I joined Declan and Jasmine, taking a plate from the stack at the corner of the counter. They had spread the pizza boxes across the back counter, hastily setting the small table in the eating area with utensils and glasses of water.

  “Where’s Copper?” I asked. “Did you tell her there was pizza?”

  “I heard,” Copper said from the door to the dining room. Her gaze was on Declan. “I avoid white flour.”

  “The crust is whole wheat,” Declan said, placing what looked like some sort of meat-lover’s pizza on his plate. He tapped the box beside me, drawing my attention. “Smoked salmon for you.”

  I glanced at him, smiling my thanks.

  He didn’t look at me, placing a triangle of melted cheese and various sliced vegetables on his plate.

  Copper unfolded her arms and begrudgingly took the last plate.

  After making our selections, we settled around the four-seater table in the eating area, quietly replenishing calories. Kett remained standing by the back door, mostly looking out into the night but occasionally glancing over at us. I could feel his regard whenever it passed over me. But he seemed content to let us eat.

  Declan pushed his empty plate back, then downed the rest of his water. He set the tumbler down with a thump.

  Beside him, Copper flinched.

  “Tell me.” He glanced at Jasmine, then me.

  “Still eating,” Jasmine said. She was still working on the last half of her slice of Hawaiian.

  I pressed my napkin to my mouth. “Yale kidnapped the kids for Jasper.”

  Anger flushed across Declan’s face, but he didn’t look at all surprised. “But he had to get Dawn for himself.”

  “Apparently.”

  “And how did he get out of the goddamn wheelchair?”

  I sighed, standing to collect the dirty dishes but leaving Jasmine with her plate. “He’d progressed to a cane when I saw him in the bank.”

  “But he was in the chair in the reconstruction we saw in the house.” Declan shifted back, stretching out his long legs.

  I nodded, carrying the dishes to the sink.

  “During the conversation with Yale?” Jasmine asked. “That was obviously staged.”

  “Obviously,” Declan said. Then he muttered something else in his native Creole under his breath.

  I plugged the sink, turning on the hot water and finding lemon-scented liquid soap, a tea towel, and a drying rack in the cupboard underneath. The kitchen was bare except for essential items, and had the feel of having been professionally cleaned recently. It made sense that the real estate agent thought it would be easier to sell the house if it appeared somewhat lived in.

  Declan stood, shoving his chair back so quickly that it toppled over. He picked it up, then started to stomp out into the dining room.

  Copper stood as if to follow him. But then she hesitated as he spun around and all but charged toward me.

  I thrust my hands into the soapy water, calmly washing the dishes I’d collected. Declan filled the space behind me, agitated enough that I could feel his magic radiating off him.

  “You’re going after him,” he said to my back. “And you’re going to drag all of us with you.”

  “That’s not a requirement,” I said quietly. “I’d never want to get you or Jasmine hurt. But I think we have to act quickly. He’s had the children for months.” I looked over at Jasmine, still nibbling her piece of pizza at the table. “Did you find out where he is?” I asked. “Or where he might be keeping the children?”

  “Not yet.” She didn’t meet my gaze.

  “There’s no question now,” I said. “He’s involved.”

  Jasmine nodded silently. Declan continued to pace the kitchen behind me. Copper seemed struck dumb, hovering by the kitchen table. I wasn’t sure Kett was even listening. I rinsed the plate I’d been scrubbing and placed it in the drying rack.

  “We take all the evidence and we hand it over to the Convocation,” Declan said.

  “Of course,” I said. “After we get the children to safety.”

  “He isn’t just going to let you have them, Wisteria,” Declan said. “You think you can just show up on his doorstep, confront him with your evidence, and he’ll crumple?”

  I rinsed a second plate, not responding. Because even I wasn’t that naive. But knowing what was likely to happen didn’t change the events that were about to unfold.

  “You aren’t his goddamn keeper,” Declan snarled.

  “I think I might be,” I whispered. “If not me … us … then who?”

  Declan closed the space behind me, wrapping his hands over the edge of the sink on either side of me. “Just leave it, Wisteria,” he whispered. His breath warmed the back of my neck. “Just hand it over. Just let the authorities do what they’re supposed to do.”

  I rinsed the third plate, placing it carefully on the drying rack.

  Declan pressed his forehead to the back of my head. “Just this once, Wisteria.” His tone was laced with hope-filled pain. “Put us first. Choose us.”

  I spun toward him, suddenly flushed with anger.

  He stepped back from me, already raising his hands as if he knew he’d overstepped.

  “Choose you?” I cried. “When have I done anything else?”

  “
Right now,” he said. “Right now, with Jasper and …” He nodded toward Kett.

  I opened my mouth to launch into the tirade I’d been holding back for months, but Declan got started before I could collect my thoughts.

  “We walk away,” he said. “We three. We turn the evidence over to the Convocation and we build a life … together. We three.”

  A terrible sadness flooded through me, blunting my anger, and I struggled to hold it at bay. The last time things had come to this point with Jasper, I had walked away. Alone. But that wasn’t an option anymore.

  “The contract …” I murmured, twisting my soapy hands together in an attempt to steady myself.

  “Screw the contract,” Declan said. “The vampire can take Jasper.”

  “And when it goes wrong? When Jasper slaughters us all? Kett will have to kill his own child if he can’t control him. You’d wish that on —”

  “Yes,” Declan snarled. “Let the Convocation take care of the coven and let the vampire deal with Jasper. That’s the sane path. That’s the right path.”

  He grabbed the tea towel I’d set out on the counter, swaddling my hands and drying them gently. “Fuck Jasper,” he whispered. “Fuck the vampire. You love us enough to walk away, Betty-Sue.” He tossed the towel onto the counter, pressing his warm hands to my face. “Please, please.”

  I reached up, wrapping my hands around his wrists.

  He smoothed his thumbs across my eyebrows, kissing my lips lightly. “Please, please, my love. Come away with me.”

  My heart cracked. I lifted my tear-filled gaze to meet his golden-hazel eyes.

  He saw my answer even before I vocalized it. A terrible sadness deadened his eyes, even as tears fell from my own. My heart felt like molten lead in my chest.

  “And leave the children to a fate worse than our own?” I whispered.

  He closed his eyes, pained.

  “You could go,” I whispered. “You and Jasmine …”

  He dropped his hands, taking a step back. “That’s never going to happen, is it? Even if Jasmine would leave —”

  “I won’t.” My cousin spoke up quietly but forcefully from her seat at the kitchen table.

  Declan grimaced. “Well, then.” He started to turn away, then stopped. “You’d prefer to die, Wisteria. You’d prefer to die over being with me, truly loving me and Jasmine?”

  “Yes!” I cried, suddenly unable to modulate my tone through the soul-wrenching pain his question provoked. “If that’s what you want to hear! I’d prefer to die rather than have Jasper control me for one second longer. I’d prefer to die than live in a world corrupted by him. I’d prefer to die if it means you and Jasmine survive. That’s how it’s always been. So why would you think it would be any different in this moment?”

  “And what do you expect us to do? Survive without you?”

  I laughed harshly. “Yes. I expect you to survive. That’s what you do, Declan.”

  He grabbed me then, crushing me against him and slamming his lips over mine in desperation. I accepted the kiss as best I could without submitting, without giving in to him.

  He pressed his forehead against mine, our skulls practically grinding against each other. “And if I’m tired of surviving without you?” he whispered. “What about then?”

  I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how to answer.

  He dropped his hands, stepping away and exiting the kitchen before I could figure out what to say.

  So I let him go. I had no more words. I had only the path forward, leading to the doom that had been waiting for me since I was sixteen. Since even before that.

  I turned back, thrusting my hand into the sink full of soapy water, only to find it empty. I had washed all the dishes.

  Something exploded outside. Something large. I flinched, then glanced over at Jasmine hopelessly. She and Kett were just staring at me. Copper appeared numb, even dumfounded, staring into the space in the middle of kitchen.

  My best friend hissed with annoyance. “I’ll calm him,” she said.

  “I’ll go,” Copper said, shaking off whatever had been anchoring her by the table. “Since Wisteria has made it very clear that she doesn’t care what he wants or needs, I’ll go and continue picking up the pieces that the two of you keep breaking.”

  Jasmine laughed nastily. “You do that, you deluded witch. See if it goes any better for you than it has already.”

  “Wallowing in darkness isn’t heroic, Jasmine,” Copper snarled. “Trapping Declan in your enmeshed garbage is self-indulgent and soul destroying. You might be blood, but you don’t own him. And Wisteria has no ties to him at all, other than whatever your uncle did to the three of you. And magic, like hearts, can be broken.”

  “And you’re the witch to do it, are you?” Jasmine’s tone was dreadful, low and deadly.

  But apparently, once Copper opened her mouth, she just couldn’t stop voicing her opinion. She stuck her chin out. “And what if I am?”

  “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Jasmine said with a sneer.

  Then she deliberately twisted out of her seat, turning her back on the witch and wandering across the room to hand me her dirty plate.

  Copper looked as though she’d been slapped as she glanced in my direction.

  I nodded to her. “Thank you for all your help, but I’d hate to drag you into anything beyond your role with the Convocation.”

  Copper’s jaw dropped. “How dare you —”

  “That’s Wisteria’s nice version of goodbye, Copper,” Declan said from the doorway to the dining room. His voice was a laconic drawl, completely at odds with the wild energy swirling around him. “You don’t want to be around the second time she asks you to leave.”

  Copper thrust her finger in my direction. “They’re toxic, Declan. They’re sucking the life out of you.”

  “No,” he said, though not unkindly. “They are life. The only reason I exist at all.”

  “Can you hear yourself?” she cried. “That’s … that’s —”

  “The truth,” Declan said. “A truth I never intentionally kept from you … once it became relevant.”

  “But, Declan,” Jasmine said, laying on the sarcasm and not bothering to look in Copper’s direction. “She thought she could fix you.”

  Declan smiled, reaching a hand toward Copper. “There never was anything to fix. I am who I am. I am as I’ve been shaped. But also as I choose to be.”

  “And you’ll stand with her? Despite everything, despite her preferring a vampire over you?”

  Jasmine laughed harshly.

  Declan scowled in his sister’s direction. “I believe you’ve misinterpreted the situation, Copper. Which is fine, as you don’t really know what’s going on. And perhaps I should have asked you to leave more firmly when you showed up at the diner in LA.”

  Copper tried to interrupt him, but he raised his hand in her direction, meeting my gaze. “Either Jasmine or I, faced with the same options, would make the same choice Wisteria is making. Even if those choices tear us apart, two will hopefully be left standing.”

  “That was how it was always going to be,” Jasmine whispered.

  Declan nodded. “Perhaps.”

  Copper glanced between the three of us, then shook her head in frustration. “I won’t always be waiting for you, Declan.”

  “Don’t wait at all this time,” he said.

  Her jaw dropped. Then, grabbing her jacket and purse from the back of her chair, she stormed out of the room.

  “Finally,” Kett said, not having moved an inch from the back window throughout the entire exchange. “I’m at a loss as to what it is about you, Declan Benoit, that endears you to women.”

  Declan snorted. “Are you, vampire?”

  “Don’t pretend cat fights don’t intrigue you, Kett,” Jasmine said.

  Kett lifted the corners of his mouth, smiling begrudgingly.

  Jasmine snorted.

  Declan sighed, ran his hand through his hair, and then followed
Copper out of the room.

  Jasmine eyed me. “You’re quiet.”

  I glanced at her, meeting her questioning gaze with another request, rather than the answers she was seeking. “Find Jasper for me.”

  She swallowed, nodding. “Okay.” She crossed into the dining room, reaching for her laptop.

  I turned back to the sink to wash Jasmine’s plate. And to prepare to face my uncle for what I was certain would be the final time for one of us.

  “Will you go with me?” I whispered. I was staring at my reflection in the dark window over the sink, but speaking to Kett.

  “Always.”

  “Does the contract restrict you in any way?”

  “I cannot kill him.” He chuckled darkly. “Not without permission.”

  I nodded, not surprised. “That’s fine. The children are the priority. We’ll worry about the consequences after we get them to safety.”

  “And should the ramifications become apparent before the children are rescued? Or if the children have already been killed? What then?”

  I pulled the plug in the sink, allowing the soapy water to drain. Then I picked up the tea towel, finally looking at Kett as I dried my hands.

  He regarded me impassively.

  I carefully folded the towel, replacing it on the hanger on the back of the cupboard door. “Then I will wreak havoc on the Fairchild coven,” I whispered.

  “You’d seek justice in the blood of all your elders?”

  “Which one of them is innocent? And who better to judge them than their own children?”

  Kett smiled at me, the expression tight across his face.

  “Will you go with me?” I asked, repeating the question now that he knew the full extent of my intentions.

  “Always,” he said again. Then he closed the space between us, brushing his cool fingers along my neck. “And then you will come to me, Wisteria Fairchild.”

  “I will fulfill the terms of the contract.”

  He tilted my chin back, ensnaring me — but with his eyes, not his magic. “Willingly. Not just because words inked on a piece of parchment compel you. Otherwise, I will take Jasper, whether or not I destroy him after he is remade.”

  I tried to nod, but he was holding me in place. I swallowed, frowning at his heavy-handedness, at his sudden demand for my … commitment … affection … love?