I threw myself on the bed and held Gavin close. His eyes were open now and he looked at me in fear. “I won’t let them take you this time,” I said.
“You have to. It’s the only way you’ll live.” The sound of the bedroom door being kicked off its hinges filled the room.
“Step away from him,” a hunter screamed.
“No, I won’t.”
“Rachel they’ll kill you,” he said to me. He turned his face toward the hunters. “Don’t kill her; she doesn’t know what she’s saying. Take me. I go willingly. Don’t hurt her, please.” Nobody moved.
“Get her away,” he said turning to face Holly. “Holly please? Do this for me, for god sake.” She hesitated for a moment, and then the hunters moved out of the way letting her through.
Holly lifted me right off the bed and carried me by my waist back to the loveseat to watch them take him away. Then they were gone. Before I had a chance to process what had just happened Angus was standing in the doorway with two more hunters.
“You’ve put me in an awful position,” he said. “You should have brought him straight back to the sanctuary.” He shook his head. “I wish you hadn’t done this, now they’re screaming for your blood too.”
“Angus what do you mean?” Holly’s voice was shaking.
“I have to take you both into custody until the trial. You were hiding him and the other clans want to see you share in his punishment.”
Holly reared up and began screaming. “Angus, this is motherfucking insane! You know it! You know the truth and you’re going to let us all be murdered just to appease the other clans. How can you call yourself a leader if you let that happen?” He said nothing, and with a guilty look simply motioned for the hunters to go forward. Each one took us by the arm and led us out into the night. Back to the sanctuary once more, perhaps for the last time.
Chapter Thirty Three
When we arrived at the sanctuary everyone was there. Gavin’s parents, the St. Peters and Chapel Island vampires, and all the council members, except for Ian. Daniel was nowhere to be found either, and unless someone tracked him down to tell him we no longer needed to look for Gavin he wouldn’t know he could stop. If he actually was looking that is.
We were taken into the same room where Alexander had been turned, only this time Gavin was stripped of his shirt and told to lay down on the table. Holly and I joined the crowd, each of us with a hunter positioned by our side, stake in hand, ready to strike at the first sign of an escape.
“Finally,” Reyna said, “we can get them all at once.” Both groups murmured in agreement with her. The faces of the Soldiers Cove vampires were a mix of confusion and sadness. Gavin’s parents were standing not far from where Gavin lay and I could tell that his mother wanted desperately to touch her son, instead she settled for looking at him and silently saying her goodbyes. His father’s eyes were distraught. I wondered if he was feeling grief for the loss he was about to experience, or regret for having turned him in the first place. Probably a little bit of both.
Eli spoke up. “It should be her on the table first,” he said pointing to me. “If you kill him he won’t be able to stake her. She should be staked by her maker.”
Gavin pulled himself up using all of what little strength he had, and through sunken eyes, looked the other vampire in the face. He spoke with a ferocity in his voice that didn’t seem possible for the state he was in. “I won’t stake her. She’s done nothing wrong. All of this is a manipulation by me. She’s still human enough to be blood influenced and has not been acting on her own volition.”
Eli snorted, “Oh please, that doesn’t explain your sister.”
“My sister is acting on information given to her by Rachel,” he said, implying Holly had been indirectly manipulated.
I wasn’t going to stand and listen to this. I knew he was innocent and couldn’t let him go to his grave being known as a traitor. “He’s lying,” I said.
“Rachel no,” I heard the panic in his voice but pressed on.
“I have not been blood influenced in any way by Gavin. It’s not possible because he’s been in a death sleep for the last six weeks.”
“Liar!” Reyna screamed.
“We have reason to believe that Ian is responsible. Alexander has told us that he witnessed Ian attack Gavin the day this all started.”
Eli looked like he was willing to see reason. “If that’s the case bring this Alexander forward. I would like to hear what he has to say.”
“Alexander doesn’t speak,” Angus said. “He communicates with Rachel telepathically.”
“Telepathically? So we have no way of actually knowing what he’s said. Unless someone else can verify it she could just as easily be making it up,” said Reyna.
There was no arguing with that. Everyone looked around the room but nobody spoke up. None of the other vampires from Soldiers Cove had any telepathic abilities and from the looks of things neither did any of them.
One of the other vampires from St. Peter’s spoke up. “Let’s get on with it. We all know the evidence, there have been so many sightings of him killing or attempting to kill that there’s no need to drag this out. No matter what crazy story they make up to try and save him, we know it’s a lie.” She turned to Angus. “It’s time for them to just let it go, and you are responsible for seeing that it happens.”
“It has to be done,” said Eli. “And I think we can agree that if you do this now that we will forgive Holly and Rachel and not move forward on the cleansing. You can take care of them however you see fit, we just want justice for the loss of our innocents.”
“Deal!” Gavin shouted from the table.
“No!” I screamed back at him, “that’s no deal at all. Gavin you know you’re innocent, you need to fight. Fight for your life, fight for me…please.” I broke free of the hunter and ran to him, pressing my forehead to his.
“I would rather die knowing you’re safe, then live and have them blame and then kill you.” He laid his head back down on the table and stared straight up at the ceiling. “Dad, I’m ready. That mistake you made...now you can undo it.”
I felt the panic racing through my body. I had to act, I had to make them see, but if I couldn’t make them see… I’d make them regret. I took Gavin’s head in my hands and felt his soft skin beneath my fingers. “Don’t do this,” I said addressing everyone. An audible gasp filled the air as the walls rapidly began heating up, filling the room with smoke. Everyone moved away from the sides of the structure, frightened at what was happening.
“I’ll burn you. I’ll burn us all…we’ll all die here. I can do it, you know I can…and I will, I swear to god I will,” I sobbed.
“No you won’t,” Gavin whispered to me. Reaching up he cupped my face in his hands, gently stroking my cheeks with his thumbs as tears began to fall. “No you won’t, you’re not a monster. Only a monster would do that. Make it stop Rachel, you don’t want to hurt them, I know you don’t.”
My hands were buried deep in his knotted hair, holding on to his frail and battered body for dear life. “I can’t.”
“You can, you have to. You have to let me go, Rachel. Look at me.” I did, and his eyes were steady. He had resigned himself to his fate and made peace with it. I hadn’t. “It’s really ok.”
“It’s not! How can you say that?”
“It is,” he said reaching up to pull my lips to his, “You don’t need to save me. I was already saved the night I met you. Now stop. Please Rachel…for me.” Through my haze of grief and shock at what was happening I did what he asked. I’d do anything for him. I’d murder everyone in that room if I had to, but his sad and sincere plea cut me down and I felt my insides twisting at the thought of his loss. Kissing me once more, he then turned his head away and I felt his father’s hands on my shoulders as he gently backed me up and took my place by Gavin’s table.
John took the stake from Angus and held it down by his side, hesitating for a moment as he reached over and touched his so
n’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” he said.
“No, don’t be sorry,” he told his father. “Don’t ever be sorry. Just protect her, that’s all that matters now. Make sure she’s ok. Take care of her and make sure she goes on.” Gavin raised his head up off the table one final time and made eye contact with me. “You have to stay alive Rachel, it’s the only way I can die in peace. I love you.” Then, laying back down he closed his eyes and said, “I’m ready now.”
John gripped the stake tightly and raised it over his head as a silence fell over the room. “No,” I whispered to myself. With the stake poised in the air, time seemed to stand still for a moment. I thought of all that was, and all that would never be. How could I promise to go on when the very reason I had for living would be gone? Gavin was the one person who only ever just loved me without asking for anything in return. Nobody, not even my parents, had expressed the pure love and devotion that he’d shown me. I couldn’t live without him, and I decided in that moment that there would be no need to even try. If they wouldn’t stake me here I’d do it myself, or pick a fight with an older and stronger vampire. Perhaps Duncan would be merciful enough to show me a quick death. He had asked me to come to him in times of trouble and perhaps he’d show me compassion and kill me if I asked. There would be no need to worry about Aries, or Ian, or anyone. When my husband was gone, I was going to find a way to join him as quickly as possible.
Just then the door opened and one of the sanctuary guards came running in. “Hold! Hold!” he was screaming. “Angus, you have to see this,” he said. Angus motioned for John to put the stake down. Gavin pulled himself up, bracing himself on his father’s shoulder to see what was going on as well.
The sound of hoofs echoed through the corridor as the guard held the door open wide. There before us were five satyrs. It was taking all their strength to hold down the prisoner that was in the middle. Once they were in the room Aries stepped to the front.
“Hello little one,” he said greeting me first. “Angus, I have something here that belongs to you, I believe.”
They parted and shoved their prisoner forward. It was Gavin. Aries looked at me with a triumphant smile, and then turned around to see Gavin lying on the table. “Jesus!” he said, “well, fuck me.”
Everyone stood in shocked silence as Angus carefully made his way to the prisoner, keeping a safe distance. Every vampire in the room had released their fangs and were taking a defensive stance, some emitting low throaty growls. That seemed like a good idea considering we didn’t really know who or what this person could be. “Speak for yourself,” he said.
Slowly the other Gavin raised his head coming face to face with Angus. He let loose a slow husky laugh that sounded nothing like Gavin’s at all. “Why should I old man?” he said. “Kill us both and then your problem will be solved.”
Infuriated Angus turned and took the stake from John’s hand. “Nothing is solved here until you speak the truth. Who are you?”
The prisoner simply continued to laugh. Then he doubled over in pain. This was what I had seen before, and it was happening now. His face contorted as he writhed in agony and he began screaming. A strange humming sensation filled the air, and everyone, including Angus, backed away trying to get a grip on what was happening.
When we looked again the prisoner had changed. It was no longer Gavin standing before us, but Ian. He collapsed to the floor moaning heavily, and after a moment, pushed himself to his knees and simply sat, saying nothing.
“Ian,” Angus said. “Why?” There was no response, Ian simply stared at the old vampire with his eyes darkened, and seeming as though he was in contemplation of something. With a sudden intense burst of energy that took the entire room by surprise Ian swung his arms out and belted Angus in the face, knocking him across the room. Then, with an incredible brute strength he leapt up and knocked two of the satyrs to the ground and headed to the door.
All the things he’d done over the time I’d known him came flooding back and I was so angry I couldn’t see straight. Ian had manipulated me into feeling and doing things I thought I never would have done. He wasn’t going to get away and never answer for any of it, I couldn’t let that happen. While the hunter next to me was distracted I crossed the room, grabbed a sword from the wall and charged at Ian bringing the heavy blade down as hard as I could severing both his legs. They quickly turned to dust and Ian was on the floor being subdued by the satyrs once again. Aries reared back with his massive arm and punched him in the face just for good measure.
As the legs began to grow back the humming vibration filled the room again. Ian was changing once more, morphing into another figure right before our very eyes. When the second transformation was finished everyone stood, glaring in surprise. Instead of Ian laying on the floor in front of us, it was Daniel.
A shocked Holly crossed the room and took him by the shoulders. “Daniel?”
Weakened he lay back on the floor allowing her to cradle his head in her arms. “Yes,” he said.
I had never seen Holly get emotional but she was now wiping the tears that were spilling from her eyes. “Why? How?”
“I’m sorry,” he was gasping for breath now, exhausted and sweating. “I just, I just wanted to kill. I told you I didn’t want to spend another lifetime here in this place. I wanted to go to the killing grounds. The urge was too strong,” he said. He closed his eyes and Holly lowered her head on top of his. As he buried his face in her long blonde hair he continued to whisper, “It was too strong.”
“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you. I’m so sorry Daniel.”
Angus stood over them. “Daniel, how did you assume Gavin and Ian’s form?”
“I’ve been able to do it for a while. I just never said anything, I knew you’d never let me live.” Angus nodded, clutching his hand over his chest. Indeed having a vampire who could assume other forms might be crossing the line in terms of special abilities, and we were seeing the results of the abuse of that ability now.
Angus straightened. “Get him up there,” he said to the hunters. The satyrs backed up and stood against the wall as Daniel was carried over to the table. John helped Gavin down and he came and stood next to me. He was weak and it took both me and his father to hold him up. I locked my arms tightly around his waist and rested my head on his shoulder, never wanting to let him go
Daniel was put in his place and Holly stood next to him where John had stood. I hadn’t realized until now that Holly was Daniel’s maker, as well as his wife. They had been together for over four hundred years, but tonight all that would end. After a hundred lifetimes of hardships, births, deaths and love, she was going to be the one left alone, trying to cope in a world without the blood bond she created. Holly bent over and kissed him one last time.
“I love you,” she said, and before he had a chance to respond she raised the stake, plunging it into his heart. Daniel’s face twisted in pain for a final moment, and for a brief instant he gave the appearance of a statue as his form turned into ash. His body then dissolved in a final whoosh as a pile of dust slid off the table and into a container that had been placed on the floor.
As the blood bond between maker and child was severed Holly began screaming. Horrible screams, like nothing I’d heard before, were coming from someplace deep inside. Somewhere primitive and brutal that radiated from down in her very core. Margie and John whisked her into a corner and held her tightly between them.
“I trust you are now satisfied?” Angus said turning his attention to the outside clans.
“We are,” the leader from Chapel Island said. With that they filed out into the hallway and were gone.
“And Aries, thank you for your help. You have the indebted gratitude of this clan,” Angus said.
“I am happy to have been of service,” he said addressing Angus as formally as he could. He made eye contact with me for a brief second. “And a debt is something that one should collect when the time is right.” A shiver crawled up my spine. Then the saty
rs were gone as well.
Just as they were filing out Ian was coming in. A moment ago I hated him, and had been ready to kill him for the things he’d done. He hadn’t done any of those things; however I still felt the same hatred. “What happened?” he said looking around.
“Daniel confessed. Where the hell were you?” He was shocked at my tone.
“Looking for him,” he shot back. “I left him in the pond so that I could come back for him and get him the hell out of here.”
Suddenly Holly flew at Ian with enormous speed, her hands finding his throat. “Why did you attack Gavin?”
“Attack him?”
“Alexander said he saw you attack Gavin and that you then attacked him?”
“I didn’t attack him. I knocked him to the ground and beat on him a little for acting the way he did after I left. I was drunk on deer blood and angry with him for almost getting himself put in the ground after I tried to warn him so many times. We saw Alexander watching us from the woods and so I caught him, I blood influenced him and took him home right after I said goodbye to Gavin.”
The Vampires of Soldiers Cove: One Crow Sorrow Page 21
